Frayed Knot

I'm fine with the fact that this [the home-field All Star winner] is going away, but it was also about 97th on my list of priorities. Everyone knew that this was never anything other than an attempt to artificially boost the "importance" of the ASG for marketing reasons, something I always treated it as silly rather than criminal. Selig always contended that the reason they couldn't go to a best-record method was that the WS carried with it such a large media and logistical contingent that it was necessary to know well before the end of the regular season where the Series might be played and on which days in order to reserve enough hotel and exhibition space. iow, do you 'pre-reserve' space, in say Houston, for Tues-Wed-Thurs during the final week of October or tell them that you could need the previous and following weekends instead. Maybe they're now getting faster service through 'PRICELINE.com' or something.

You can take micro-analysis like this too far in some cases, but the fact that Mussina put up his numbers pitching against the mostly power-stacked lineups in hitter-friendly parks of the AL East during the offense-happy 1990s/2000s works in his favor too.

CBA Done! - Five Year Deal. And they even left over three hours to spare.

TransMonk wrote: I'm hoping this means they are optimistic about the health of Harvey, Matz, Wheeler, et al. I don't think it means anything more than the fact that somebody off the 40-man had to go and it would be tough to find someone with a less defined role heading into 2017. Would have been nice if he could have been flipped for an actual warm body but there was a time crunch on this one so it probably came down to either greenbacks or a flat out release.

Mets, btw, officially acknowledge the deal today (guess the physical went OK) presser at 5 PM.

Adam Rubin adds to the Bruce/Granderson speculation: Don’t be surprised if the [OF'er] traded is Granderson, not Bruce. And don’t be surprised if that trade happens next week. The Mets will listen to offers on both outfielders through next week’s winter meetings and may very well move one of them by the time the gathering in National Harbor, Maryland, breaks up on Dec. 9.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Verrett traded for cash, clearing space on 40... for what??? For Cespedes. I believe they were already at the 40-man limit, no? http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYM/2016-roster.shtml

TransMonk wrote: Yes, I read somewhere that part of the agreement was a spoken promise that Ces will not play CF. I would love to know where his hangup against playing RF stems from. The concept of his arm in LF and Grandy's in RF is straight out of how they position players in Bizarro World.

Then there's that other CF platoon possibility: Jose Bernabe Reyes

ANARCHY, ANARCHY!! [fimg=550]http://metrograph.com/uploads/films/tumblr_mo599ax6Fe1qa9p3xo9_1280-1466712445-726x388.png[/fimg]

Jon Jay to the Cubs on a one year deal - a sign that Dexter Fowler is not likely to return.

Taking the 'same player' label a bit too literally perhaps? ... especially considering that they're both LH-hitting mostly corner OFs with power, low-BAs, and high K-rates. 2013 - 2016 stats: BA: CG - .240, JB = .240 OBA: CG = .339 OBA; JB = .305 -- So, yeah, Grandy walks significantly more although maybe that's partly due to his leadoff role w/NYM XBHs/IsoP: CG = 193 / .193 IsoP; JB = 245 / .210 -- Bruce had about 300 more ABs (due to Grandy missing a chunk of 2013) but his power rate is higher too Grandy runs better, Bruce throws MUCH better, and I'd call the gloves a wash unless they're planning on using Grandy in CF I'm not going to argue against those who prefer Granderson, I just don't the gap is that huge and I think we may be a bit jaded by JB's bad first impression as if that's all he's ever been/ever will be. Tack onto the equation about whether the 36 y/o or the 30 y/o is more likely to see a decline and it melts away even more. I'm just saying that they're so much like the same player that it makes sense not to keep both. I don't care which they deal, but it makes sense to dangle both to see who bites. And, like I said, if Granderson truly is the better player than he'd likely get the better player back in a trade too.

Well the idea is that while you don't HAVE to trade either one, the fact that the two are somewhat redundant means either/or could be trade bait in an attempt to fill a hole elsewhere. And if we're all convinced that Granderson is going to be the better player next year well then that also makes him the more valuable chip. The Puma chimes in from the Post : The Mets continue to listen to offers for Bruce, whose $13 million option for 2017 was picked up largely as an insurance policy against Cespedes’ departure. But the Mets also haven’t ruled out the possibility of keeping Bruce and trading Curtis Granderson to create outfield space.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The contract is reportedly backloaded: ESPN wrote: Cespedes will receive a full no-trade clause and will make $22.5 million in 2017, $29 million in 2018 and 2019 and $29.5 million in 2020, sources told ESPN's Adam Rubin and Jerry Crasnick. While Wright's is front-loaded [20M; 20M; 15M; 12M] so the two will more or less balance themselves out over the next four seasons. 2017 Wright + Cespedes = 42.5 M 2018 = 49 M 2019 = 44.5 M 2020 = 41.5 M

Ceetar wrote: Well Granderson has 43.9 career fWAR to Bruce's 17.5. Granderson's career wRC+ is 118, Bruce's is 107. Granderson is also six years older with 2,000 more ML PAs in his rearview.

Will be, behind Miguel Cabrera, the second highest-paid position player in baseball (based on AAV of contract). Is he the second best position player in all of baseball? ... No, but that's the way things work. Timing is everything and deservin' ain't got nothin' to do with it.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: This is one of those situations where I'm already convinced the guy we don't trade will either suck, get badly hurt, or both next year. Then we better trade the other one.

Both Bruce & Grandy are on one-year contracts at this point and are kinda/sorta the same player, giving Sandy the luxury of going to the winter meetings next week and fielding offers for either one of them. And if the meetings get delayed on account of the CBA negotiations breaking down then he could just put an ad in CraigsList: Have two (2) 30+ corner OFs who can play some CF in a pinch -- LH stick -- good power/low-BA -- not GG material but not terrible fielders either Interesting trades considered. Will accept best offer for either/or. Call 617-I AM-Mets and ask for Sandy or leave message with John R. (but if 'Jeff' answers, hang up)

Centerfield wrote: Deal is done. 4 years $110 million. Pending physical. WHOA!!! I wasn't expecting anything at least until the winter meetings got going and wasn't expecting them to get going unless and until the CBA deets got hammered out!! So this was certainly a nice surprise for an otherwise dull Tuesday afternoon.

If they go through January without a deal (and have everything in a holding pattern until then) then their problems are a lot more serious than anyone is letting on. Unlike the years that produced strikes and lockouts, there doesn't seem to be that one BIG issue where the two parties are on fundamentally opposite sides. This year seems to be more a case where there are a series of issues [FA compensation, roster size, Int'l Draft, Lux Tax limits] where working arrangements already exist and where compromises can be reached on those that need changing but a lot of details to work through before they get there. Supposedly the owners are a bit miffed that the player side didn't seem all that interested in getting down to it until very recently and that's why they're up against the deadline. Maybe that's just spin or maybe it's that the player side leader, Tony Clark, is new to this and doesn't have the labor background typically found in a union head.

Yeah, it would certainly take some of the shine off his rep if this turns into even a partial fail during his first time at the helm.

The only bad thing to come from them straying past the deadline, at least in the short run, is that it delays a lot of player movement as teams want to know what the rules are going to be before they know how to proceed. Winter meetings are supposed to be next week. The downside to not seeing an agreement by Wednesday night is that it means there is a significant enough rift on one or more issues to make them go past the deadline and once that sword is no longer over their heads it becomes easier to see one day turning into a week which can turn into a month ...

Based on the idea that I have no clue as to where any of these guys are going to wind up, I figured that using a random number generator to assign each guy (except for Cespedes of course) his future team might not be any worse than me actually taking the time to guesstimate each. So based on many minutes of work, here are my off-season predictions: Joe Bautista -- BAL Gregor Blanco -- COL Gordon Beckham -- TBR Carlos Beltran -- SEA Jerry Blevins -- PHI Yoenis Cespedes -- NYM Coco Crisp -- DET Alejandro De Aza -- NYY Ian Desmond -- KCR Edwin Encarnacion -- STL Nate Eovaldi -- CIN (although he's going to miss most if not all of the season with TJS so the correct answer here is probably 'nowhere') Doug Fister -- CHC Dexter Fowler -- TBR Jeff Francoeur -- MIN Dillon Gee -- SFG Carlos Gomez -- METS!! Big Jim Henderson -- KCR Greg Holland -- WAS Tommy Hunter -- PIT Kenley Jansen -- COL Kelly Johnson -- OAK Colby Lewis -- MIN James Loney -- LAA Brandon Moss -- NYY Jonathon Niese -- MIL Ivan Nova -- HOU Angel Pagan -- TOR Jonathan Papelbon -- MIA Steve Pearce -- MIA Jake Peavey -- CIN Fernando Rodriguez -- PHI Sergio Romo -- CHW Justin Ruggiano -- PIT Fernando Salas -- BOS Joe Smith -- DET Drew Storen -- BOS Ruben Tejada -- DET Josh Thole -- TBR Justin Turner -- STL Matt Weiters -- CIN Edinson Volquez -- I predict MIAMI!! OK so several of these just plain ain't happenin' (Fowler to the Rays, Jansen to the Rox) and this particular iteration of this method is telling us that several playoff teams (LAD, CLE, TEX) aren't going to sign anyone all winter. But there are also a handful which make some sense and I'm interested to see if this entry can at least avoid finishing last once this whole thing is over.

Otani (apparently sometimes spelled Ohtani) wins the award for Japan's Pacific League best pitcher AND for best DH ... and neither vote was close! http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/11/25/209625378/shohei-ohtani-named-best-pitcher-and-best-dh-in-npb-pacific-league Plus I've heard that he's big and handsome.

Ashie62 wrote: Zakk Wylde? That's the one. Piazza even pulled some strings to get him to played the anthem prior to a game one time. I was there for that one and let's just say it's not going down alongside Jimi's rendition. The Cobb County Braves, who continue (along with Houston) to be the most active team early in this off-season, have added super-utility man Sean Rodriguez to a reported two-year deal. Along with his ethnically mixed name, the 31 y/o Rodriguez has displayed Zobrist-like versatility over the last few years with Tampa & Pittsburgh by playing seven different positions plus DH, and is someone I wouldn't have minded the Mets looking into.