Frayed Knot

metsmarathon wrote: owings would be a perfect fit for this team. IIRC he can hit.

The specifics might not have been known even if the general sentiment was. What you have to remember was that owners at the time - particularly the old guard like Grant - saw themselves in the same way that a patron of the arts did, using their position as part of society's upper crust to do the athlete a favor by paying him a decent living to be playing a kids' game while at the same time providing public service entertainment for the masses. They, of course, were in it for the money but few of them would publicly say so. So when the 'hired help' got all uppity and began to question that arrangement to the point where they were actually demanding the right to get paid via the same rules of supply-and-demand as anyone else it was unthinkable to the ruling lords and, in their minds, not all that far removed from communism. After all, wasn't the fact that they were starting to invade the ruling class's inner sanctum by joining country clubs proof that they were already over-paid? Problem was, many fans and media types had been so long conditioned to that type of attitude that many wouldn't have cared even if they had known because they were likely to agree with it.

Not official yet, but Aramis Ramirez is heading to Milwaukee for 3 years. Prince who? Ryan who?

Couple of things here: - Braun is appealing the finding - which I assume is a right under terms of the agreement - so nothing's going to happen until that process is through. This is the kind of thing that's supposed to remain under wraps while being appealed although obviously it was leaked. - Statement from Braun's camp: "There are highly unusual circumstances surrounding this case which will support Ryan's complete innocence and demonstrate there was absolutely no intentional violation of the program. While Ryan has impeccable character and no previous history, unfortunately, because of the process we have to maintain confidentiality and are not able to discuss it any further, but we are confident he will ultimately be exonerated." Be interesting to see what they define as "highly unusual" although other reports (Ken Rosenthal) are citing sources describing Braun's results as being �never seen in the history of (baseball�s) drug-prevention program. ... everyone was just scratching their head.� which the Braun camp may see as signs of irregularities in the process. Also various reports say that while the positive was for a 'banned substance' it's not for a performance enhancing one. If true that still shouldn't change the punishment IMO although it might help his rep. - While there is no case that we know of that's been over-turned since this testing program began, it's certainly possible that players whose appeals were NOT leaked subsequently were exonerated and therefore the first positive never saw the light of day. - From the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel's Tom Haudricourt: "Just spoke to someone familiar with the details of Braun's test and was assured he will be found innocent. If so, horrible this leaked out." Sounds odd to me that some in on the details but without a dog in the fight would speak to a newspaper man but it's always possible. - Braun requested a second test which reportedly came up clean although it's not clear what the time gap between that second sample and the first one is as that's something that clearly can affect the results.

Beato, having survived his Rule 5 season, can now safely be stored in Buffalo behind the 'Break Glass in Case of Emergency' window. In fact I could see them putting him down there as a starter to see if/how that works.

Ask Lawrence Taylor how tests can be beaten unless actual whizzing is observed, he used to do it all the time (even though the NFL eliminated steroids from the league decades ago).

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Gene Clines? Cliff Cook? Bottom 50 guys both. Cook may even be gone by this time next year. A quickie look at the players assigned (ignoring the coaches, mgrs, years, etc) shows a slight skewing towards the back of the list at the expense of the front but close enough to just be passed off as just random chance. But there are still 15 Top-100 guys out there and 32 from the top 200 (vs 20 bottom 100 and 39 from the bottom 200)

Just the top 500 as far as players go -- Rauuul & Gutterman both reside in the 400s

Ashie62 wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Whither goes the MVP award? Matt Kemp..howya doin!!!! Nothing changes IMO. The BBWA - who are the ones in charge of the award, not MLB - has shown no inclination to change things when past winners have later turned up dirty and I'd be shocked if they did anything in this case. Braun is, of course, protesting his innocence but, absent any wild discoveries of bad tests or other such irregularities, he simply sits out the first 50 games of next season and everything goes on as normal. This testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio, which is where Braun's test failed the standard, is the same thing that tripped up cyclist Floyd Landis a bunch of years back. And, like Landis, the excess testosterone in question has reportedly been shown to be not his - ie, synthetic - and therefore an indicator that it was not only over the limit but also that way specifically because it was added to his body. Tough to argue your way out of that one. think the award goes to Suzette Charles. OK I'm lost on this one.

CloserAge2011 TeamStatus for 2012Jonathan Papelbon31Red SoxPhillies - 4 yrs/$50mil + 2016 optionRyan Madson31PhilliesRejected arbitration -- FAFrancisco Rodriguez30Mets/BrewersAccepted arbitrationHeath Bell34PadresMarlins - 3 yrs/$27milFrancisco Cordero37Reds---Frank Francisco32Blue JaysMets - 2 yrs/$12milJoe Nathan37TwinsRangers - 2 yrs/$14.5mil + 2014 optionBrad Lidge35Phillies---Matt Capps28TwinsRe-upped w/Twins - 1 yr/$4.75mil + 2013 optionDavid Aardsma28AAA (Mariners)---Mike Gonzalez33Balt/Texas---Jonathan Broxton27DodgersRoyals - 1 yr/$4milOctavio Dotel37Jays/CardsTigers - 1 yr/$3.5mil + 2013 optionJohn Grabow32Cubs---Pat Neshek30Padres---Jon Rauch32Blue JaysMets - 1 yr/$3.5 + 'performance bonus'Kerry Wood34Cubs---

smg58 wrote: You have to think the Brewers will attempt to void his contract now, too. I doubt that.

Ken Gurnick - MLB.com Link Daniel Murphy of the Mets is the player the Dodgers tried to trade for at the Winter Meetings, according to a baseball source, and they might make another run at him. ...Interest in Murphy is in keeping with Dodgers strategy this winter to obtain affordable, versatile position players that will provide manager Don Mattingly with flexible lineup options in lieu of a set lineup of everyday players. One thought is that the Pagan trade to the Giants nixed one in the works for Muffy with Tony Gwynn Jr. playing the role of defensive OF specialist later filled by Torres

HahnSolo wrote: It's the 03 Marlin, not the 03 Cub. And you know what the cool part about these two is? If you go Alex Gonzalez (the Venezuelan-born '03 Marlin and still active one) at BB-Ref his most similar player is ... Alex S. Gonzalez (the now retired '03 Cub from Miami) Going to Alex S. Gonzalez you find Alex Gonzalez as only his third most similar player for his career although both were each other's most similar every year for at least a five year stretch from age 26 thru 30

TransMonk wrote: [Alex Gonzalez gives the Brewers] More Ks, but more defense [than Betancourt] And considerably more power. He's hardly the ideal guy you want but that was the Brews' weakest position last year and he'll do as a stop-gap to someone else. In fact, AG is frequently a one-year stop-gap to someone else: Florida - Boston - Cincy - back to Boston - Toronto - Atlanta - and now Milwaukee all since 2005. Four times a FA plus two trades during that span.

The difference between the Fonzie non-deal and the Reyes non-deal was that the Reyes decision was clearly dictated by a shrinking payroll mandate where the Fonzie one was more like a gut decision based on two years of declining production and rising injuries. Now whether they were willing to go as high/long as the Marlins did were the restrictions not there we'll never know. Here only 7 of the 32 peeps who answered my quickie poll said they thought the final price too high (with 7 others on the fence) so it's hard to argue that it was, on its face, a bad deal going in. I, personally, had little problem with letting Fonzie walk at the time.

I remember some GotW telecast or some such deal where Wilson was going on about maintaining his 'Straight Edge' lifestyle. IIRC it was some kind of drug-free regimen that sounded a bit fishy to me ... or at least a bit douchey.

And sometimes the crop just isn't that inspiring as a total of just nine players were taken in the ML phase this year. I suspect that number is below the usual. Hell, I remember one year when the Pirates alone lost four or five.

Wilson's also a SoCal native

Still if this one and/or the Pujols deals don't work out they certainly won't be the first of Arte Moreno-era LAA deals that have gone bad on him: Gary Mathews and Toriiii Hunter, plus (to a lesser degree) Vlad and (acquired via trade) Vernon Wells They still have one more year of Hunter, three more of Wells. The rest of their bad contracts seem to either be gone (Kazmir) or actually worth the money (Jered Weaver, Dan Haren) Nice staff for 2012 anyway: Weaver, Haren, Wilson, Santana

I bet Astros fans are happy to get Albert out of their division ... oh wait!!

metirish wrote: Talk in St. Louis is Berkman moving to first and Beltran now an option for RF. That's makes a lot of sense on both ends. Berkman really shouldn't be in the OF anymore. He did suddenly look lighter and spryer last season but there's only so far you can push that. Angels kind of went stealthy on this like they did on Vlad all those years ago. The rumors of them getting involved just started to surface last night and then this morning ... BAM!!!

Officially it's the Rule [u:hnru1g4g]5[/u:hnru1g4g] draft btw and not Rule V Anyway, BA has this as the draft order with the (I assume current) size of each team's 40-man roster 1. Astros (38) 2. Twins (38) 3. Mariners (37) 4. Orioles (40) 5. Royals (40) 6. Cubs (34) 7. Padres (40) 8. Pirates (40) 9. Marlins (40) 10. Rockies (37) 11. Athletics (39) 12. Mets (38) 13. White Sox (36) 14. Reds (40) 15. Indians (40) 16. Nationals (37) 17. Blue Jays (40) 18. Dodgers (40) 19. Angels (38) 20. Giants (40) 21. Braves (36) 22. Cardinals (36) 23. Red Sox (38) 24. Rays (39) 25. Diamondbacks (35) 26. Tigers (40) 27. Brewers (35) 28. Rangers (37) 29. Yankees (39) 30. Phillies (39)

They especially seem to be playing fast and loose with [u:3buguiel]the length[/u:3buguiel] of these deals. - word had it that no one (not just the Mets) wanted to go over four guaranteed for Reyes ... until the Marlins gave him six - wanting to lock up the 32 y/o Pujols for a full decade even as the Cardinals say that the reports of their 10/220 offer aren't close to accurate in money or in years - Buerhle (33 by Opening Day) reportedly had numerous suitors at 3 years and made it be known that the first to go to 4 would be declared the winner ... and BAM there are the Marlins

I guess Ozzie can't be too bad a manager to work for if Buehrle* is following him across the country. * btw, that's the proper spelling (yes, I had to look it up). I think the Mets didn't go after him strictly out of concern for Grimm's automatic complier PotG spreadsheet. There just would have been too many combinations thrown in there that the damn thing might have exploded.

MFS62 wrote: I hope they keep Davis. Now that they're bringing in the fences, Davis and Duda can become the most outstanding pair of Ds we've seen on a baseball field since Morgana. I think to match Morganna their names would have to be more like Javis and Juda. Those things left 'D' in the dust decades ago.