Frayed Knot

By being compared to those in their third (and final) year of arbitration as opposed to those in their second.

Duda ($7.75 mil) and Wheeler (800K) strike one-year deals and avoid the arbitration process.

Ceetar wrote: second thought: 2 week olds like baseball right? Sure, and March weather in the Hudson Valley is perfect for them!

Puma @ NY Post: Alderson was asked how often Tim Tebow will appear in Grapefruit League games this spring. -- “Too frequently for some and not frequently enough for others,” Alderson said. I like when we get feisty Sandy. He also initially responded "Who?" when asked about Wally Backman's recent comments.

With a gap between the end of the Grapefruit League season and Opening Day, the Mets plan to play an exhibition game at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point on March 31.

[finalpun]So I guess Sandy's answer now to the question, 'Got Wilk?' would have to be, "Yes".[/finalpun] He's 29, he's left-handed, has limited ML time but has seen a bunch of minor league stops plus spent a season in the Korean League. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wilkad01.shtml

The requisite Amed Rosario porn: 1) Amed Rosario, SS, Grade A: Age 21, signed out of Dominican Republic in 2012; hit .324/.374/.459 with 24 doubles, 13 triples, 19 steals, 40 walks, 87 strikeouts in 479 at-bats between High-A and Double-A; superior defender with plus arm strength, range, instincts; bat is developing nicely with increasing gap power and improved feel for the strike zone; excellent bat speed could lead to double-digit home runs as he matures, and he should maintain batting average to go with it; shortstop of the future and ready soon with multi-category fantasy impact ability. ETA 2018. JS hands out very few 'A' grades. That he did here probably translates to a Top-10 player when the overall lists come out in February

Edgy MD wrote: Are 100% of all minor league team logos done by the same firm? Because I don't have much of an eye for industrial art, but it's so obvious from the lines and stylizing. Apparently it's a company called 'Brandiose' who does a bunch of these things, including the recently relocated, to Kinston, NC, DOWN EAST WOOD DUCKS [fimg=400]http://www.baseballamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Wood-Ducks-3.jpg[/fimg] "The Wood Ducks are the fifth minor league team to use Brandiose this season in a rebranding effort" [baseball America] -- joining the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Florida Fire Frogs and New Orleans Baby Cakes. The San Diego-based Brandiose "has worked with more than 50 teams [sLATE - Sept 2015] since its founding in 2000, including the Akron RubberDucks, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, and the Biloxi Shuckers." I didn't even know there was a "Down East" section of North Carolina. My first reaction to seeing 'Down East' was wondering who was moving a minor league team to Maine.

And, once again, I am left off this list.

Mets, Mejia agree to contract! ... one that he'll never receive. It's unclear from the AP article exactly Why Mejia remains on the NYM 'restricted list' roster rather than being flat-out released at some point. This whole thread began with that question in mind and that was 14 months and one positive test ago. But the fact that it IS being treated that way and that players get credited with service time during suspensions, Mejia currently has the status of a 4th year player eligible for arbitration so apparently the formality is necessary. The agreed upon contract, which he won't receive, is for $1.976 million, a figure that represents the maximum 20% cut from the 2016 contract of $2.47 million which he also didn't receive. With two more years to go until he's eligible for free-agency this dance of phantom contracts will presumably go on the next two off-seasons or until he is reinstated. 2018 is the first year where he's eligible to apply for reinstatement.

Teams are definitely getting smarter (or at least think they are) about protecting their own up and coming players rather than chasing the non-elite type of FA. The Orioles have all but publicly admitted that they'd rather have the draft pick that they'd get from someone else signing Trumbo than they would having Trumbo himself back again.

Yeah, I have to rethink a few things. I wanted to get a list together and put it up there but may have rushed things a bit. The part-timers are always the toughest call and we as a group are all over the map with some of them. - Conforto is a high as 9th place and as low and 24th - Gsellman is 12th to 22nd (although that 22 is the PotY results which tend to vary from opinion votes) - Johnson: 14th to 26th - Loney: 13th best on one ballot but also dead last in one and off the board entirely in another - d'Arnaud: anywhere between middle of the pack down to 29th - Rene Rivera is off the board in one case - Lagares is off the board in several cases and middle of the pack in others - Wright is not on a couple lists yet as high as 15th - ditto Verrett - and we have a couple of Ty Kelly, Ruggiano, and Salas votes that are considerably higher than the pack

30 - SYNDERGAARD 29 - CESPEDES 28 - CABRERA 27 - COLON 26 - deGROM 25 - GRANDERSON 24 - WALKER 23 - REED 22 - FAMILIA 21 - MATZ 20 - REYES 19 - FLORES 18 - LONEY 17 - LUGO 16 - GSELLMAN 15 - CONFORTO 14 - JOHNSON 13 - ROBLES 12 - R. RIVERA 11 - d'ARNAUD 10 - BLEVINS 9 - HARVEY 8 - T. J. RIVERA 7 - DUDA 6 - BRUCE 5 - HENDERSON 4 - VERRETT 3 - GOEDDEL 2 - DE AZA 1 - WRIGHT

I was considering seeing this, as I wondered how this story went unknown for so long, but then even some of its own ads made it seem a bit too cutesy. Probably will wait until it hits cable this summer.

Steroids were also much more of a gray area during most of that (pre-2003) period. Nothing uncertain about either the legality of, or the punishment for, gambling within MLB.

They were certainly a much tougher team in the second half of 2016 as compared to the first and has anyone made, then un-made, then re-made their team on the fly faster than Atlanta over the last three seasons? I mean, yeah, this gear shifting from the days of L-T contracts to Andrelton Simmons, Kimbrel, Upton^2, etc. has resulted in three losing seasons in a row including the last two with 90+ losses, but their dive into the depths certainly wasn't as bad what say the Astros went through (324 losses over three seasons) and they seem to be coming out of it quicker with good and mostly prime-aged (Bart & RA aside) major leaguers at the top plus a bunch of good prospects (a SS + a bunch of pitchers) on the verge with another high draft pick coming up.

KC deals speedster (although sneaky-old at age 31 already!) Jarrod Dyson to the Mariners for SP/RP Nathan Karns

I haven't looked at the pitchers yet, but my thinking on positions players thus far is ... CESPEDES - the most dynamic even if not the most consistent CABRERA - when the 2nd best offensive player on the team is also the SS he’s going to be near the top of the list GRANDERSON - once again another slow start followed by a bigger finish, but his atrocious RiSP hitting keeps him out of the top echelon WALKER - a power-hitting, switch-hitting, middle-infielder … he led the team in hyphens REYES - just what the team needed when it needed him FLORES - if only he’d quit getting injured right when regular playing time is staring him in the face LONEY - was the perfect fill-in and, for a while anyway, gave more than we could have expected JOHNSON - a replay of 2015, not a great player but a useful fill-in who seems to get a bunch of timely hits CONFORTO - was on the verge of stardom in April, then faced Bumgarner on May 1st and hasn’t been the same since R. RIVERA - that his defensive edge gave him, the spare part, playing time down the stretch over two touted prospects says something although only partly about himself d’ARNAUD - worst run creator on the team … except of course for all the other catchers TJ RIVERA - not sure he’ll ever be a regular, but he at least worked his way into the conversation DUDA - wound up with too few ABs to make much of a contribution BRUCE - wound up with too few hits to make much of a contribution DE AZA - turned useful in the 2nd half, now if only that 1st half weren’t so god-swful WRIGHT - contributed walks & HRs while he was in there … which is something even if not much REYNOLDS - v - NIMMO - Reynolds wins this battle for 11 XBHs vs 2 and for positional value out of the running: LAGARES, CAMPBELL, PLAWECKI, KELLY, RUGGIANO, CECCHINI

Not sure if that list is supposed to be in any particular order or not; if so it's an odd one that's for sure. As far as what he may have missed - I'm not registered at that site to leave comments, but the (really bad) remake of TAKING OF PELHAM 123 has the hijacked subway train speeding past a clearly visible Shea Stadium ... as it supposedly goes through Brooklyn, although that geographical faux pas was maybe the least of about 1,986 things wrong with that movie. All of which begs the question: What's up with Denzel doing remakes of movies that have no business being remade? ... Pelham, Manchurian Candidate, Magnificent Seven. I mean, who's convincing him that any of these projects are good ideas?

Nymr83 wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: Thanks for remembering! It looks like this poll is going to make it after all! We now know that the final count will be somewhere between 572 and 734. the poll is - arguably - already over and the result known as the original post indicated he need to play the games under the contract he signed with the Marlins - he has since been released and signed as a free agent - not claimed off waivers which would continue the contract. during the course of his new six-year contract, from 2012 through 2017? The only difference between being released-then-resigned vs claimed-on-waivers is who winds up paying what percentage of that contract. The deal is still the deal and he's still getting paid based on it. IOW, it's the time frame here which is the important part rather than the accounting particulars.

Brandon Phillips certainly seems to want no part of the NL East. Sources are confirming that, back in November, Phillips invoked the No-Trade clause in his contract in order to block a deal to the Braves. Last winter he blocked one that would have sent him to the Nationals forcing them instead to settle for Daniel Murphy. 2017 will be the final year of his long-term deal with the Reds. You wonder if they'll start giving the majority of the playing time to Dilson Herrera in an attempt to get him to finally accept a deal come deadline time 2017 - although by that point the team probably won't save more than a few pennies of his contract as they'll likely have to eat most of whatever remains. He's still a decent player even if not quite what he was, but Cincy was a 94-loss team in 2016, don't figure to be a lot better this coming year, and will wind up with his N-T clause costing them most of $27 million (2016 + '17) while they try to rebuild.

Edgy MD wrote: The real prize seems to Lot 55, a collection of "approximately twenty original watercolors by artist Raymond Davidson." (Approximately? You're an auctioneer that can't be bothered with counting 20 or so items in a lot?) It's estimated to go for $400-$600 which certainly seems like a bargain, unless they mean they're expected to go for that much per painting. That's certainly a per painting estimate.

When are people going to learn that horizontal video works a lot better than vertical for like 90% of the stuff they shoot? I mean, we're how many years into the cell-phone era and Still folks don't realize this?!?

Nymr83 wrote: I really don't remember if Bonds did anything similar, but if not its fair to say you voted for Bonds and not Clemens because Clemens dragged people down with him in a d-bag manner. Barry's trainer/lackey [Greg(?) Anderson] went to prison for his refusal to tattle on his buddy - so one could argue that both stars put a big chunk of the burden on their hand-picked little guy so that they could slide. One suspects - and HOPES -- that he was handsomely compensated by Bonds for his silence but of course we'll find Jimmy Hoffa before we'll find a paper trail on that one.

Mr. #28 is missing. Or at least somebody is.