Frayed Knot

Jimmy Rollins not yet ready to give up the dream signs a minor league deal with SFG The just-turned 38 y/o JR didn't play after being released by the White Sox in June.

Romo lost his closer's job to Santiago Casilla a couple years back despite maintaining better peripheral numbers over the last two seasons and was actually pressed back into the closer role for a time in 2016 (finished 13 games, saved 4) while SF was having all kinds of trouble in the back end of games last season. Turns 34 during ST, he has the feel of a former closer who may thrive in a 7th inning type of role. Still going to want some kind of lefty out there at some point.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Some people show up that you might not expect, too. Bartolo? Bernie Sanders? Flo the insurance lady?

Or let me rephrase that, do you have 44 minutes and 17 seconds to see and hear the calls of every NYM HR this year? What a silly question ... of course you do. http://www.amazinavenue.com/2016/12/3/13831352/all-218-mets-home-runs-from-2016

And now Brad Ziegler to the Marlins at an unconfirmed 2 x $8

I thought during his career that the praise of Vlad's OF defense was often vastly over-blown. It seemed to me that so many were impressed by the strength of his arm that they simply ignored how often he either air-mailed his throws way off the intended mark or that he was seemingly so eager to set-up his next throw to unleash that he occasionally forgot the part about having to actually field the ball first.

Well, I suppose the Rox could say that if Brett Cecil is getting nearly $8 x 4 then $6+ x 3 is merely the next level down. Meanwhile on the Righty side, Junichi Tazawa goes to the Marlins on a two-year deal at $6 per.

Determining that it's a non-crime doesn't necessarily make it a non-event. Essentially this decision by the judicial system means that the MLB investigation part of it is just beginning, or I'm sure that it's already begun only now it takes precedence and moves to the forefront. Now maybe they also decide that this doesn't require any action but they don't automatically decide that based on the fact that the courts didn't.

LOOGY (or LOOGY-plus) OPTIONS: J.P. Howell Brian Matusz Blevins Boone Logan Mike Dunn Javier Lopez Tim Collins Cross Dunn off the list, he goes to the Rockies for 3 years/$19 mil

I heard a suggestion about how what they should change is the logo, just replace the indian stuff with a potato and they can stay the Redskins forever without insulting anyone. But as long as their owner continues to insist that he honoring folks with this name and as long as the league gives him cover for it then nothing's going to change anytime soon. On the Cleveland thing, I have no problem phasing out Wahoo, I just wish their were something more interesting than a block C taking its place. Non two-name cities are at a design disadvantage in that area as one can do more things with an NY, LA, TB, SF, StL, etc. than with just a single letter.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Am I missing anyone else interesting? Brad Ziegler is now 37 but is a FA, is coming off a decent year (split between ARZ & BOS) and had that 'Gen-U-Wine Closer Material' stamp on his head only recently (52 saves in 2015-16) Probably wants a two-year deal somewhere but that doesn't mean he'll get one.

Maybe the idea that once team payroll went from $92 million to $140 or so during a two year span after he spent virtually every article swearing how ownership was either unwilling or unable (or both) to ever raise it above subsistence levels means he was plum out of things to write about? I don't know that that's the case, it's just a thought.

That linked article says Conforto is "toying with the idea" of playing for Italy, not that he's already committed to doing so. But whatever, even if he were to play in the WBC, that would merely be action (and probably just 3 actual games in the case of Italy) in place of regular ST games which he'd be in anyway. Winter League is a whole mini-season of extra games going on at a time when he wouldn't be playing at all.

NY Post: The team announced Monday night an examination of their center fielder at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan revealed a sprained right shoulder. Lagares, the club said, will be ready for the start of spring training. And, not for nothing, but that Conforto article is a piece o' shit, starting with, although certainly not limited to, the fact that the author immediately leaps to the contents of a single reader comment around which to base the remainder of the article.

Looks like closer Kensley Jansen (a five year contract) and 3B Justin Turner (4 years) are both headed back to the Dodgers. The Marlins had been hot on the closer trail but have now missed out on all of the top ones [Jansen, Chapman, Melancon]. Brad Ziegler among the names with closing experience still out there.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Hell, at least someone like Travis Wood can get out lefties AND start in a pinch. Not to mention pinch-hit (9 HRs in 280 career ABs) or play you an occasional corner OF (Maddon used him in LF three times in 2016 for a total of 5 innings).

... he's definitely a big boy and also, "baby's got back". To quote Kevin Mitchell, during a telecast in SD earlier this year when he joined Gary & Ron in the booth for an inning or two, while discussing Yeonis Cespedes: 'I always say about hitters, ya gotta have the gluteus' Smith never was one of those 'body beautiful' guys even as a teenager [billBean]'We're not selling jeans here!'[/billybean] If he's totally blown up since then it certainly wouldn't be a good sign although I'd be leery of basing that off published weights alone.

Espinosa was likely to be dealt away whether he showed up to the caravan or not, if not before the Adam Eaton trade which moves Trea Turner to the infield then certainly after it. But, yeah, publicly pouting while coming off a year where you hit .209 and K'd in 1/3 of your ABs is rarely a good move. But his limitations aside, he filled a variety of roles on that team for seven straight seasons - getting 500+ ABs in three of them and over 300 in two others -- while bringing defense, power, versatility and a decent walk rate which at least partially offset the low BA, making his removal not quite an addition by subtraction thing although I'm sure that's how it'll be sold among some Nats fans. Not sure who now becomes their main backup for an infield where Murphy & Zimmerman are over 30 and Zim & Rendon both seem to be frequent flyers on the DL express.

Edgy MD wrote: Travis d'Arnaud has appeared in the majors in four straight seasons, so I have no reason to believe he has options. Years on the ML roster alone don't automatically tick off option years. If d'Arnaud hasn't been optioned in some or all of those years than there can still be options left despite the amount of ML service time he's accrued.

As mentioned in the 'Off-Season' thread, LHR Brett Cecil recently signed a 4 year $30.5 mil deal with StL so it's a pretty nice era in which to be a slinging southpaw. Now Cecil is nearly three years younger than Blevins but their recent stats are mostly comparable or even favoring Blevins in some spots. Looking just at 2012-2016 (which, for Blevins, includes his mostly empty 2015 season): Cecil = 264 appearances (includes 9 starts), 3.55 ERA, 1.25 WHiP, 266 IP, 10.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 Blevins = 274 appearances (no starts), 3.25 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 229 IP, 8.9 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 Yeah you'd prefer to hold a deal to two years rather than three, but the per year estimates are probably in the neighborhood and a durable guy other than in 2015 (60+ games five different times) who'll just be turning 35 at the tail end of a two-year deal (or 36 in Sept of a three-year) isn't an unreasonable chance ... unless they're a bit gun-shy after coming up snake-eyes by going 2 x $6 on Bastardo

Mets Willets Point wrote: Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is much more popular at Fenway Park than Bobby Valentine. You mean to say that no one in Fenway is singing songs with interjected lines like "So Good, So Good, So Good" with Bobby in mind?

Valadius wrote: Should this come to pass, he would have to be confirmed by the Senate. There would be a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I'm wondering how he's going to be able to answer complex foreign policy questions ... Like whether the salad fork should go on the outside or the inside? btw, Bobby V and current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe -- both USC men!!, although Bobby is four years older so they probably weren't at the same frat parties.

Nymr83 wrote: why is Jeter a shoe-in? if you accept the evidence that he was a liability on defense his career rate stats on offense aren't very impressive - he's just a compiler who stuck around long past his shelf-life Nobody simply compiles the 6th most hits in MLB history, or nearly 900 XBHs, or hits a career .310 with 12 full seasons of over .300 And even if one were to argue that he was over-praised by writers or that he was a sub-par defensive player (true for parts of his career IMO but not all of it), he was still playing the most important defensive position while ringing up ten top-10 MVP years, five Gold Gloves, four Silver Sluggers, etc. And aside from his almost entirely missed age 39 season followed by his swan-song year at age 40, there were essentially 17 consecutive seasons where he was at worst an above-average player and more often a good to great one. The idea that his was NOT a HoF career is as big an over-reaction as are the ones acting as if his career stands out above all others. I've said before that any writer who didn't vote for Rickey Henderson is simply too stupid to vote. Some of those non-votes aren't as stupid as they appear on the surface. At least one of the Griffey 'No' votes, for instance, was explained as the voter knowing that he'd get in regardless and so wanted to use that vote elsewhere for a borderline case coming up on one of his last chances. I wouldn't do that if I had a vote (partly because I rarely advocate for anywhere close to ten candidates) but I can at least understand the logic. The other problem is the 'No First Timers Ever!!' logic but that at least appears to be dying on the vine. Much of it sprung from DiMaggio not getting in in either of his first two tries but that was under different circumstances. Mainly there was no five-year rule back then and, because he retired at the relatively young age of 36, some writers weren't all that sure that he was going to stay retired so they held back votes just to wait and see. It wasn't like there was a perceived view that he wasn't worthy, they simply didn't see any rush. Unfortunately the upshot of all that was that his two-year wait was then misinterpreted by the following generation of voters causing many of them to adopt the stance that if Joe D. didn't go first ballot then no one else would either and it wound up leading to this unofficial 'two-tiered' HoF where there the 1st ballots types are mentally placed in a semi-separate class from the others.

Looking backwards at US Ambassadors to Japan: Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, 2013–present — doesn't speak Japanese. Ahh yes, as I recall that was her fall-back position after her previous campaign for getting appointed to the U.S. Senate (actually running for the job was going to be far too much trouble) didn't go as well as she hoped.

Looking like Dexter Fowler to the Cards on a five year deal. Not that it was a direct exchange or anything, but StL certainly seems like they're coming out on the better end of the Heyward/Fowler "swap" of NL Central outfielders.