Frayed Knot

Minor mistake alert. When looking at Nick Evans I checked for points he may have received in 2010 and in 2009 and, when I didn’t find any, I created a new spot for him on the database. But it turns out he did get a few morsels for his work back in 2008!!! So the bottom line is I initially wound up entering him twice. Now that that’s been corrected, instead of two Nick Evans’s in the upper 400s somewhere there’s one who’s in 431st place (isn’t that exciting?) It also means that there are only 616 guys overall so everyone behind Nick moves up one space including Dwight Bernard who moves from spot 501 to 500 and is saved from being cut for another year. HE, rather than Jaime Cerda, will serve as the lead-off man for the next season.

A quickie Ike/Lucas comparison Ike has not quite twice as many ML ABs -- 652 to 385 ID = .271/.357/.460 ... LD = .273/.347/.468 Minor lg B/O/S stats are also very similar although there it's Duda with 2x the ABs BB/K per 162 gm avg: ID = 79/150 ... LD = 49/99 Ike is 11 months younger. He also fields better although Duda is hardly a drawback at 1B and we've never seen Davis in the OF. He did play there at times in college. Duda's ankle hasn't exploded that we know of. In short, I'm not all that convinced that one choice here is all that superior to the other. Yeah, given the choice I'd bet on Davis, but that also means he'd probably be more attractive as theoretical trade-bait. So, no, I don't look to move him, but I never say never and especially wouldn't do so now when the situation calls for a 'Don't just stand there, Do something!' kind of attitude - and if given the choice between two similar type LH slugging but slow 1Bs, or just one of them plus a a guy about their age who shows similar promise just at another position and with different skill sets (say a Colby Rasmus type) why wouldn't we look at it?

Fman99 wrote: Dale Thayer wath the betsth running back the Bearths ever had. This is why we need a return of 'Post of the Week' (or some similar type recognition method).

Not one of the FA closers, but the Rox deal Huston Street and his $7.5mil price tag to the temporarily closer-less Padres for a PTBNL

Good shot to be a ML player at some point this year? - Yes. Would have been better still had he not missed the last few months of last season but whatyagonnado. Still some question as to whether he's got the goods to be a true CF though.

The implication here (if any of it's true) is that they see Duda as the better alternative for the young-ish, power-supplying, LH 1B and that he'd be better there than clumping around in the OF. IOW, you've got two similar-type guys on your roster so you look into moving one in order to improve elsewhere - maybe for someone who can actually play RF.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I can't remember how to pronounce his name. I'm thinking it's "Rowsh" but I'm not sure. (With the "row" rhyming with "cow" and not with "low") Correctamundo.

metirish wrote: Didn't see it but Sandomir in the Times was tweeting like crazy last night about how SNY were going all out on these moves with wall to wall coverage. It's December, what else are they going to do? The only other story 'round these parts in mid-week is that every team up to and including the Gay Men's Chorus and the cast of 'The View' has reportedly been offered a spot in the Big East.

So with Angel gone who's going to be in charge of missing the cut-off men?

batmagadanleadoff wrote: As far as predicting the impact that the Marlins' new stadium will have on attendance, my baseball friends in the Miami area (ed., small sample size) have always maintained that Miami's rain storms, brief but regular, more than anything else is what's kept fans away from the game. So we'll see if they were right what with Miami's new retractable roof. That's the hope anyway. But this spending spree of theirs has the whiff of trying to go from 0 to 60 in 10 seconds and so they better be right about how big a boost they're going to get. As far as games played by Reyes over the next seven years, wouldn't it make a difference if he lands on the DL for 50 or 60 games next season as opposed to, say, six years out? It's just a simple question: based on what you know of Reyes's career to date how many games do you expect him to be healthy enough to pay over the next six seasons?

"@Jon_Heyman: Pagan will go to giants for andres torres and ramon ramirez, confirmed (via @Joel_Sherman and @YankeesWFAN)" Fuckin' Omar and his Latins ... oh wait! Ramirez is arb eligible and can be a FA at the end of 2012 I suspect Angel to Torres will be somewhat less than a sideways move especially seeing how you're getting several years older - but I suppose we can't ask for two upgrades in one trade.

Looks like I concocted this table just in time. Had no idea all this reliever shit was about to come down. CloserAge2011 TeamStatus for 2012Jonathan Papelbon31Red SoxPhillies - 4 yrs/$50mil + 2016 optionRyan Madsen31PhilliesHas until Wed night to accept/reject arbFrancisco Rodriguez30Mets/BrewersHas until Wed night to accept/reject arbHeath 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/Cards---John Grabow32Cubs---Pat Neshek30Padres---Jon Rauch32Blue JaysMets - 1 yr/$3.5 + 'performance bonus'Kerry Wood34Cubs---

Not to be confused with Francisco Franco ... he's still dead.

Not that his doings will have anything to do with the Mets this winter, but he may wind up with a division foe or with a division foe of his current WS champion team, or maybe even somewhere else so it should be interesting to watch. From the USA Today piece posted in the general purpose FA thread: The Miami Marlins are intent on altering the direction of their franchise, and took the largest step in that direction late Monday night by offering Albert Pujols a 10-year contract, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations. The offer is worth in excess of $200 million, which is more than the nine-year, $195 million deal the Cardinals offered Pujols at the outset of the 2011 season and an increase over their previous nine-year offer. The Cardinals have scheduled a meeting Tuesday afternoon with Pujols' camp, in which they could increase their last offer. They have made it clear they want to keep Pujols. But it's not known how willing they are to budge from the original offer. The Chicago Cubs are also in the Pujols sweepstakes. General manager Theo Epstein declined to confirm the Cubs made an offer, but the two sides have held a meeting. So Albert turns 32 in January and is coming off the worst (by OPS) season of his 11 year career. Now 'worst' with Albert is a relative term OPS/XBH 2008 -- 1114; 81 2009 -- 1101; 93 2010 -- 1011; 82 2011 -- 906; 66 but, still, would you want to give $20mil+ thru age 41 to a guy heading in that direction?

Actually dumped the long hair a year ow two ago - back when Keith was calling him a 'Wookie' (or however you spell that). I was hoping to avoid idiots with neck tattoos but that's just a silly personal preference.

2011 Rankings results There are now 617 ranked players going from, as has been the case since we started, Tom Seaver to Gus Bell From the 2011 roster: Debuts -- Ryota Igarashi at #605 Miguel Batista - #590 Chris Young - #572 Jason Pridie - #549 Ronnie Paulino - #519 Scott Hairston - #498 ... and just barely onto the status level list, so that if we ever actually do get any new members they will be rewarded with the posting level of ‘Scott Hairston’ just three spots after being ‘Jim, the Monsterously Huge Bat Boy’ Nick Evans - #473... he had played prior to this year but earned his first rankings points this season Willie Harris - #455 Pedro Beato - #438 Tim Byrdak - #404 Justin Turner - #287 Chris Capuano - #201 - highest “rookie” Returnees: - Manny Acosta - Up 103 spots from 393rd place to 290th - Bobby Parnell - Up 65 spots from 316 to 251 - Ruben Tejada - Up 186 spots from 430 to 244 - Dillon Gee - Up 230 spots from 446 to 216 - Josh Thole - Up 68 spots from 275 to 207 - Jason Isringhausen - Up 44 spots from 240 to 196 - Lucas Duda - Up 322 spots from 509 to 187 (and from off our parade of names to on) - Ike Davis - Up 21 spots from 177 to 156 - Jason Bay - Up 102 spots from 237 to 135 - Jonathon Niese - Up 80 spots from 214 to 134 - Francisco Rodriguez - Up 19 spots from 139 to 120 - R. A. Dickey - Up 78 spots from 168 to 90 - Daniel Murphy - Up 49 spots from 130 to 81 - Angel Pagan - Up 24 spots from 98 to 74 - Mike Pelfrey - Up 11 spots from 78 to 67 - Carlos Beltran - Up 6 spots from 20 to 14 - Passing Darling, Grote, McGraw, Mookie, Leiter, and (just barely*) Keith - Jose Reyes - Up 5 spots from 17 to 12 - Passing McGraw, Mookie, Leiter, Keith, and Kranepool ... and no one else ever!! - David Wright - Up 2 spots from 7th to 5th - Passing Franco & Piazza Johan Santana obviously received no points for this year but was also un-passed and so remains at slot #50 * and we mean ‘just barely’. The final score (assuming Carlos nver plays here again) was 43,278 to 42,276. So not only would one better/worse placement in any vote in any year have switched the two but even one fewer or more team WIN in the right place would have done the same. New to the Top 100: Dickey & Murphy Out of the Top 100: Doug Flynn & Ken Boswell Izzy’s journey -- Special note needs to be made about Izzy who, after earning points in 1995 & 1996, sat out for 14 years (shirley a record in CPF Rankings history) before logging back in this season. Of course there were no actual CPF rankings during Izzy’s first stint as a Met seeing as how we didn’t concoct this thing until ten years ago when we ranked the ‘01 season and then retroactively did the same for all previous ones. But we can judge via points awarded through his rookie campaign in ‘95, that he would have sat in 167th place at that point and then move up to 161st with his abbreviated season in ‘96. His wandering years in between saw him fall to 240th as the list expanded and he was passed by nearly 100 players. So now, even with his 44 slot jump this season, he’d still have to hang around another few years to back to his high point of 16 years ago, but he’s also ahead of more players as well. End of ‘95 -- 167th place 96 -- 161st 10 -- 240th 11 -- 196th Dropped from the Top-500 Dwight Bernard Phil Linz Allen Watson Wilson Delgado Andy Tomberlin Roy Lee Jackson Jeff Duncan Greg Harris #100 - Bob Apodaca #200 - Ellis Valentine #250 - (midpoint of our Top 500) Dale Murray #300 - Dick Schofield #309 - (midpoint of all players) - Marlon Anderson #400 - Mike Bruhert #500 (first player to greet newbies following their JtMHBB status) - Jamie Cerda

As far as the original poll question, I've tended to be less pessimistic than most on the Reyes injury front so I'm casting a vote for 800+

TransMonk wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I predict he plays more games for another team or team(s) than he will for the Marlins. I won't go this far (at least not over the next 6 years), but I do believe Reyes will be dealt before this contract is up. It'll be interesting to see what'll happen with the Marlins - both on the Reyes front and in general. They've been saddled in a bad stadium in a bad location with an indifferent fan-base in a bad sports city for a number of years now. On the other hand they've also been collecting revenue sharing buck$ by the trainload while not putting any of it into the team and have now been handed a virtually free stadium that will help them at least on the sight-lines, weather & location fronts. But while an attendance increase is almost assured are they really going to jump from drawing in the hundreds (almost literally on some nights) to 30K+ on a regular basis once the novelty factor wears off? Also, FAs tend to work best on clubs that are using them for the final pieces in their puzzle and not for teams coming off last place finishes. All this sudden spending - for Reyes + Bell + who knows where it stops - and particularly the timing of the spending could look really bad in a couple of years.

Final Results RANKPLAYER30J. REYES29R.A. DICKEY28C. BELTRAN27D. MURPHY26D. WRIGHT25L. DUDA24C. CAPUANO23J. BAY22D. GEE21J. NIESE20A. PAGAN19R. TEJADA18J. TURNER17F. RODRIGUEZ16M. PELFREY15J. THOLE14M. ACOSTA13B. PARNELL12J. ISRINGHAUSEN11T. BYRDAK10I. DAVIS9P. BEATO8W. HARRIS7N. EVANS6S. HAIRSTON5R. PAULINO4J. PRIDIE3C. YOUNG2M. BATISTA1R. IGARASHI

If you're looking for a closer to try on best thing to do is pick one out of the closet (NTTAWWT) and see how it fits. These are the ones who have done at least some closing in their lives and are or were FAs this winter. There may be other so feel free to update/correct. CloserAge2011 TeamStatus for 2012Jonathan Papelbon31Red SoxPhillies - 4 yrs/$50mil + 2016 optionRyan Madsen31PhilliesHave until Wed night to accept/reject arbFrancisco Rodriguez30Mets/BrewersHave until Wed night to accept/reject arbHeath Bell34PadresMarlins - 3 yrs/$27milFrancisco Cordero37Reds---Frank Francisco32Blue Jays---Joe 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/Cards---John Grabow32Cubs---Pat Neshek30Padres---Jon Rauch32Blue Jays---Kerry Wood34Cubs---

Vic Sage wrote: What is Pagan's status currently? signed, or arb eligible, or FA? Currently 5+ years of ML service. So is arb eligible now and qualifies for FA at the end of 2012.

Ashie62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I don't know enough about Dirks to opine whether this proposal is a good one or not, but I don't see the idea of trading talking trade with Murphy to be somehow proof of rebuilding. It's not like he's an established star at this point. Well, if you don't know enough... Murphy does have a resume.. But not one which suggests that dealing him is akin to rebuilding.

The problem was for years that the Vet's committee was a small group that could easily influenced (one way or the other) by one or two strong opinions, a set-up which spawned the 'buddy voting' Hunter mentions and even the intentionally stacked crew that created the Rizzuto travesty. To combat that they changed things up to give the living HOFers a voice in a much larger panel, But when that group didn't elect enough people for some tastes (something which shouldn't automatically be taken at face value as a sign of failure) they re-re-vamped the committee and are now essentially back to a small select group like the one they started with.

I don't know enough about Dirks to opine whether this proposal is a good one or not, but I don't see the idea of trading talking trade with Murphy to be somehow proof of rebuilding. It's not like he's an established star at this point.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I don't disagree with what Dickey is saying; I'm just tired of his "pretending to be an intellectual" schtick. He may have a good vocabulary for a ballplayer, but that doesn't mean we have to be impressed with how smart he is. I'd be more impressed with him if he'd speak in plain English without trying to talk like Hank McCoy. But you have to admit that you're impressed with his heightened since of vocabulary.