Frayed Knot

smg58 wrote: Career .881 OPS against lefties. If you're looking for a platoon partner for Thole, you could do much worse. Also a good rep as a defensive player - so while he's not a name that's going to make your eyes pop out, his skills (assuming they're still around) complement what Thole brings to the table.

Going ... going ...

Ashie62 wrote: Where did this 6 million dollar addition to Mets payroll cap come from.? Are the Mets broke? Huh?

A few Van Slyke observations: - I never found him particularly hate-worthy. Kinda liked watching him play actually. - Had a friend who knew him casually growing up (near Utica). Said he wasn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier and was a hot-dog to boot when he played American Legion ball against him -- not that either of those comments are all that surprising when describing a teenager who would eventually go on to play pro sports. My buddy tried to get his attention during warmups of a game at Shea once but AVS wasn't being too cooperative and I'm not sure he recognized him. - Admitted to being a dyslexic which when either undiagnosed or belatedly diagnosed when he was a kid. Perhaps that explains part of the above. - Drew some negative publicity a while back when he talked about how he'd never take a FA contract to San Francisco on account of the "lifestyle" that was not only tolerated but promoted in that city. Needless to say that didn't go over great with some gay & civil rights groups. - Bonds hated his guts (so he's got that going for him) and blamed the black/white thing for why Slick was so popular while he himself was not. Yeah Barry, that was it.

This has all the makings of an "owner's move" - one done for the added publicity, hoped-for ticket bump, etc. - as opposed to strictly a GM selection, particularly seeing as how much ownership and Boras have worked together recently: both Strasburg & Harper were Boras guys. Recently departed team Prez Stan Kasten was supposedly frustrated in attempts to get the owners to spend, now they may have gone overboard as an attempt to show that he was wrong.

In the past, several players admitted to NOT voting for Miller with the rather lame explanation that they didn't think it was their place to pass judgement on non-playing personnel (owners, execs, etc.) Now that was prior to them changing the structure of the vets committee to what it is now where only a handful of players vote (instead of every enshrined HoFer) along with those others listed above, but it still wouldn't surprise me if one or more players left that spot blank.

First we have to fix this statement -- "The desire to be the greatest," Riley said, "[crossout]can never be[/crossout] IS CONSTANTLY AND CONSISTENTLY turned down by Father Time."... "I won't speak on whether [Jeter's 2010 season] was worse, the same or better," Riley said, I will Riley continues: "It's a long season, and your body gets beaten up, and we have to find a way to keep Derek fresh over 162 games. It's a work in progress." I think it was Joel Sherman who pointed out in today's column that we consistently heard the same stuff about Mattingly during his slide; he's got a new batting stance this year, a new workout routine, yyybbb - none of which prevented him from being retired by age 34

Profiles of the guys the Padres are getting None are likely to help much, if at all, this season.

Deal back on again only without an extension. "According to multiple reports, the Red Sox offered Gonzalez a six-year contract, but he was looking for eight years. The two sides have, according to reports, tabled discussion for a contract extension for now." So essentially the Sox are trading the same players for Gonzalez -- only without the guarantee of having him beyond next year. Of course once he's Boston property he/they can reach an agreement at any time. The only thing I can think of as far as affecting the lux tax would be if they don't do anything until after the season starts maybe that then gets treated as a new & separate deal that doesn't start until 2012 rather than a continuation of his current one where the 2011 salary would get lumped in and averaged with the future years (thus bringing up the 2011 total). Seems odd that MLB would allow things to be structured that way but maybe they do. The whole purpose of using the per/yr averages for long term deals was so that teams wouldn't be able to use creative accounting to stay under the limits.

Nymr83 wrote: Did Dunn sign somewhere yet? (I'm less focussed on baseball this offseason than I ever have been befoere, part of why I haven't been around here much lately) if not I'd have to see what he eventually gets before I decide how dumb i think the Nationals are. he is 2 years younger than Werth though, so i have a feeling his deal comes out looking better. ChiSox - 4 years.

Valadius wrote: It makes me wonder why they didn't lock up Adam Dunn. As said above, Dunn wanted to stay but by the time they got around to making anything other than a token offer it was FA time and so he opted to shop around as it's almost certainly his last big pay day (ditto Werth). Besides, I don't think they wanted Dunn for long term. They got great value out of him for the 2 years just ended but they're probably thinking that when a guy is essentially a DH by age 30 what's he going to be later on?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I just read the following on NBCSports.com: It�s possible that the two sides do in fact have an agreement, but the Red Sox will wait until April to announce it in order to stay out of the luxury tax for 2011. I can't imagine that's true. That would mean that Gonzalez spends spring training with the Padres while all along he's been secretly traded to Boston? I assume by "agreement" that means the Sox and a contract agreement with Gonzalez beyond 2011. But I can't see where keeping it secret has any effect on the luxury tax. The lux tax is based on avg per/yr money for the whole deal and all contracts need to be filed with the league. And I can't believe an agent would let the player play with only a secret handshake agreement for mega-money down the road but no signed contract.

metirish wrote: This is a done deal, press conference tomorrow. No details right now. I'm confused. Which deal is a done deal?

metirish wrote: The Nats right now remind me of the Mets circa. '04/05" needing to overpay for the splash. Rizzo says they are not done and will be very aggressive going forward, hopefully that means offering Lee $160 million and jacking the price up for the yankees. The Nats are under some pressure from the local media and what fandom exists to spend money in an attempt to at least get out of 'also-ran' status and establish an identity that still eludes them six years into their Washington stay and a brand new stadium. For a while last spring things were looking good. They got off to a decent start, Strasburg was on the way and another #1 overall was in hand. Add to that that the Redskins sucked, the Wizards sucked worse (and both had off-field and front office issues) and even the top-rated Capitals fished out early in the playoffs giving the Nats April to July all to themselves before the town (and especially the media) inevitably turned its attention back to the 'Skins in late July for training camp. And then the hot streak stopped, Strasburg got hurt and any attendance momentum was lost with him. Now Strasburg is invisible until 2012, Harper probably a year after that, and, while Dunn may have stayed had they offered him in mid-season what they belatedly tried in October, they didn't and he didn't leaving them with Ryan Zimmerman and some young semi-promising infielder types. This Werth deal at least buys them an 'E' for effort even as it looks like it'll bite them in the ass before it's over.

I guess this is what the "pear-shpaed" comment was about (sometimes I wish M.I. came with sub-titles): The Red Sox and slugger Adrian Gonzalez could not agree on a contract extension by the Sunday afternoon deadline instituted by Major League Baseball, putting on hold for now a blockbuster deal that would have sent highly rated prospects Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo and Reymond Fuentes to the Padres. So it's off for now but can be revisited in another form later on ... but if it's the contract that's the problem I don't see how the Sox & the Pads changing the deck chairs is going to matter any.

metirish wrote: 7 years at $126 million....I guess you need to overpay if you are the Nats.......Crawford must be throwing a party seeing that deal. 32 y/o in May

metirish wrote: This deal might be going pear shaped tweets are saying. Berkman is already pear-shaped.

I'm going with Gregg Jefferies - going under the assumption that it was his 2nd season that was really his official 'Rookie' year.

In other 1B news, Lance Berkman signs on with the Cardinals who, of course, have no need for a 1Bman. It appears Lance is ticketed for RF instead. Lance has played a lot of OF over the years but he's REALLY slow these days (even for him) and hasn't played even semi-regularly since 2004 or at all in over two years so this could be a very iffy move for StL.

G-Fafif wrote: It's coming: Bader�s call to baseball last spring initiated months of talks that have led to an agreement allowing the MLB Network to televise the game in the off-season, and wrap interviews and other programming around it, with Bob Costas as the host. Wednesday, December 15 @ 8PM

#1 - understandable and reasonable #2 - Ditto. Some Met fans are going to want him gone RIGHT NOW so as to satisfy some kind of cleansing urge, but if he can't pitch and gets dumped in March it's no different for the team than if he gets dumped tomorrow. And if he can pitch ... #3 - Good. #4 - Somebody will almost certainly give PF a 2-year deal at least. If no one does well then maybe he comes crawling back, otherwise it makes Reyes the longest tenured NYM #5 - Still not sure where the 40-man urgency comes from but I wasn't expecting much from him anyway. Can't trust any of them Carters.

Chad McDonald runs our farm E-I-E-I-O

MLB.com -- Starting pitcher Casey Kelly, the 2008 first-round pick that Boston had long been reluctant to deal, headlines the package that would go to San Diego. First baseman Anthony Rizzo, who overcame cancer a couple of years ago, is the second prospect. And Reymond Fuentes, the outfielder who was taken with the 28th overall pick in the 2009 Draft, [and Carlos Beltran's cousin] is also in the trade. FOXsports.com's Ken Rosenthal added that a player to be named will also be provided by Boston, making it a four-for-one deal. MLB.com columnist and MLB Network analyst Peter Gammons reported on Twitter that the player to be named will not be a prime prospect.

Seeing as how "demands" from Jeter's agent were never official but only rumors & estimates, I'm sure the Jeter camp will now deny that they were ever asking for anything like 5 or 6 years at $20+/per and therefore this in no way represents a settlement or capitulation on their part. Bottom line is that there was simply no interest by any other team to even match what the Yanx were offering much less top it so there was little reason for them to go wild with additional years/dollars. It was probably the Tulowitski deal that prompted the team to even go up as much as they did as this now affords him the face-saving claim that he's still the highest paid SS in MLB on a per year basis. Be interesting to see what Chinese arithmetic of an option kick-in they've come up with.

The contract Takahashi signed for is apparently around $8mil over 2 years -- which is above where most if not all peeps here answered as their limit for what they'd offer in response to Duan's 'What would YOU pay him?' question from page 1 of this thread.