Frayed Knot

A Boy Named Seo wrote: It seems a kinda odd place to burn $280M. Even if they have huge doubts about Tatis now (which, duh) they still have Kim at short who is elite defensively and hits some. Between Kim, Tatis, Machado, and now Bogaerts, the Pads have effectively been signing a new SS per year with three of the four at sky-high rates. It appears that this moves Kim to 2B, Tatis officially to CF (where he dabbled briefly last year) with former SS Machado continuing to man 3B and Bogaerts as the new incumbent SS. Bets already being taken (sanctioned by MLB) on which SS they've got their eye on for next off-season.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Glad they kept Nimmo, but 8 years, sheesh. At least it's not Eleven!

He's been very good for a long while now. At this point in his career he's probably more like 'kinda good', but kinda good can be pretty darn valuable if happens often enough. Is it weird that kinda good nets you $10 mil per year these days? Sure, but whatthehell!

Edgy MD wrote: San Diego clearly showed up to to the winter meetings in a Brinks van. And left the meetings without it.

The Tatis deal would also look better if he ever gets on the field before it runs out. Two extended absences -- an injury and a suspension, both self-inflicted -- have kept him on the sidelines essentially since the ink on the mega-deal was still wet. Plus he's not even going to be their SS going forward. You figured that was going to happen at some point during the deal but not at age (24?) with 90% of the contract still to go.

Already 30 y/o !!!

That's $10.98 more than I'd pay, but your milage may vary.

9 years for a power hitter beats 11 for a speedy SS (Hi Philly) me thinks.

I suppose the Willie, Mickey, Duke award beats getting the Moe, Larry, Curly ... but either sounds good to me.

Phils seemed to be high on rookie Bryson Stott -- 2019 1st round (14th overall) draft pick out of UNLV -- who played SS much of the 2nd half for them this past season. But I guess not high enough and Stott is likely to never be as good as Turner. But 11 years for a guy turning 30 in mid-season 2023, so turning 41 during final contract year ... has no one there heard of Albert Pujols? Gives them a helluva lineup for now though and maybe they'll transition Stott to 2B as Jean Segura is a FA

Kate Upton (& Justin Verlander)!!! Fixed it for you.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: He's gonna have a great 1st year with texas And quite possibly a great first coupla years. Probably not five, but more than one would be my guess.

Judging by the reaction every time his name was invoked at today's Queens Baseball Convention, Jacob deGrom does not have much of an answer for Janet Jackson's query, "What have you done for me lately?" Appearing in just 11 of the NYM's last 241 regular season games will tend to have that kind of effect on folks.

[Typical Fan]Trade PlayerX for a buncha prospects while we've got the chance!!!![/fan] Five years later: [Fan]I didn't mean THOSE prospects!!![/fan]

It's the age old question: blue jersey vs blue hair.

- Strawberry was the one guy in this group that I said FU to upon leaving. IIRC the Mets offered to make him the 2nd highest paid player in MLB at that point (behind only the already sour smelling contract of Jose Canseco) but Straw acted as if he was being insulted (he did that a lot) and pouted his way to LA only to have two teams give up on him before that four-year contract ended. That the 'Worst Team Money Can Buy' writers lamented his departure and used it (over and over again) as the cause of the team's downfall didn't make it so. They were just lamenting his ability to fill their notebooks in the same way gossip sheets today would mourn the loss of the Kardashians. The bigger problem was that, instead of trying to fill Straw's hole "in the aggregate" -- as Billy Beane (allegedly) said concerning the loss of Giambi -- Phillips/Wilpon sought to replace Strawberry in terms of pr by hoping that 'stealing' away a club nemesis would lessen the sting. - Fonzie signed a four year deal with the Mets and was great for the first two then increasingly lousy after that. As much as I loved him as a player, not re-signing him was the right move AND it looked that way at the time to those who wanted to see it. - Reyes hurt more. IIRC it was an odd contract he signed w/Miami (very backloaded ... plus they flat out lied to him about their intentions) and obviously closest to the D.R. so maybe it was inevitable. But it also didn't appear that the club made much of an effort. - Olerud gets away from the construct of 'home-grown' players but that's OK. I think this was the most short-sighted one as GM Phillips, while he didn't quite site RBIs as a be-all standard for a #3 hitter, did use vague phrases about JO's 'lack of aggressiveness' and dearth of 'run producing' which pretty much painted him as clueless to the value of OBA and to the general analytic revolution that was swirling all around him at the time. - Wheeler was shortsighted too although one suspects those excuses were merely covering for 'we didn't want to spend the money' as the 'Pons tried to recover from Madoff and were coming to grips with the realization that they were going to have to sell the team.

So Hey Man! says that the Mets were offering 3 x $40 but that they never offered/were given the chance to match or top the 5 x $37 that JdG wound up with from Texas. There's also reportedly a 6th year option (and those usually come with a buyout) so it's probably more like 5 x $38-40 (depending on the size of the buyout) or 6 x $37 (a good thing for the Rangers if it happens). Hate to see him go but that's a big pill to swallow given age and recent (lack of) availability. And, as I've said here often about these deals, there always needs to be a cost at which you're willing to walk away. Reasonable folks can disagree over where that point is, but believing that there isn't one is a bad path to take. I can definitely make the argument that bowing out was the smart move. Or I can take the stance that, given his relative lack of IPs at his age and that, despite the injuries, there's no one chronic condition acting as a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, that maybe the last two seasons were the outliers and the mostly healthy seasons before that represent the norm. As Hey Man! also adds: 'Even the mistakes are bigger in Texas' [see: Rod, A.]

So I went to bed early on Friday night. Did i miss something?

Edgy MD wrote: He and older brother Jim — who survives him at 87 — retain the record for most wins by a pair of siblings, at 529, 18 more than Cy Young combined with any of his non-cooperative brothers and sisters. For the longest time the answer to that piece of trivia was Christy and Henry Mathewson. Few would guess correctly because few even knew of Henry and his 0-1 record in three ML appearances. Hank & Tommie A. still hold the sibling HR mark I believe: 755 + 13

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Nobody commented on how fat Asdrubal became so I eill. He was never exactly Mr. Svelte.

Reconstructive elbow surgery for Bryce Harper. Likely out until the ASB in '23 and slated as the full-time DH when he does come back with a possible return to RF towards the end of the year. A partially torn UCL, along with a broken thumb due to a HBP, kept him sidelined and/or DH'ing for much of '22

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I don't know if it's destined for Stockholm, but MISERY is a terrific cover. But why isn't James Caan in it?

The comeback Verlander made at his age coming off TJ surgery directly to a CY award and a WS was simply remarkable. I've always enjoyed watching him pitch and it really sucks that the Mets didn't get him the first time around when they had the draft pick Right After Him (taking Philip Humber) when he came out of Old Dominion University. Having said all that, I can't justify a multi-year deal for a 40 y/o -- even This 40 y/o -- and especially not when you've already got an expensive 38 y/o on the staff and (hopefully) a super expensive 34 y/o on top of that. I agree that he's likely a JdG fall-back option but even then I'd balk at anything above two years.

Landing Kate would represent the payoff for all our hard work in W.W. over the years.

Been meaning to start this one for the last week or two -- tracking stuff such as Rizzo re-upping w/the Yanx, etc*. -- but just getting to it now with the news overnight that the Dodgers have non-tendered 2019 MVP Cody Bellinger making him a FA. After he OPS'd his way to a 1035 OPS (167 OPS+) season in 2019 where he was also simultaneously LAD's best defensive CF and their best 1B (and maybe their best base-runner not named Betts), in exactly 900 PA across the 2021/2022 seasons the still just 27 y/o Bellinger put up a slash line of: .193/.256/.355 // 611 (64 OPS+) w/244 Ks in 819 ABs. That's not a downward slide it's a cratering, one that really started the very next year as he fell from that 1035 OPS in '19 to 789 in '20 which points to the idea that he maybe never really recovered from the shoulder injury he sustained during an over-the-top celebration in the '19 playoff series vs Washington. * although, as always, if you think something deserves its own thread then give it its own thread