Frayed Knot

Tough to exclude Barry yet make a case for including Manny.

The new front office in Arizona makes their first major move, dealing off SS Jean Segura plus two minor league names to the Mariners for RHP Taijuan Walker and IF Ketel Marte (not sure if he's named after the vodka or vice versa). The Snakes just acquired Segura from the Brewers a year ago and got a great season out of him [20 HRs, led NL in hits, 13th in MVP] but he's eligible for FA after 2018 so this smells like a youth movement thing for them. The just-turned 24 y/o Walker was a top of the charts prospect a couple years back although in two full seasons has yet to keep his ERA under 4.00 Marte, 23, was more or less the M's full-time SS this past season. Seattle also gets CF prospect Mitch Haniger, former 1st round draft pick of Milwaukee who got some playing time with Arizona in 2016, and reliever Zac Curtis who adds to the variety of ways ML moms and dads have found to spell Zack/Zach. Plus there's that guitarist Zakk that Piazza used to like.

Since the late '90s the CBA negotiations have mainly been about tooling around on the edges of the agreement, tweaking different parts here and there while not really disagreeing on the structure of what they already had in place. The thing(s) that could make this case different would be if the owners have gotten it into their heads that an international draft is something they can't live without, or if the desire to restructure the conditions of revenue sharing signals a growing rift between owners. In the first case I doubt the owners will allow things to go down over the Int'l draft and I'm not even sure if the ones who do want it are united on how one would be implemented. I think it's a place they'd like to get to but that this round might be closer to a trial balloon for them to gauge the union's resistance to it. Harder to get a read on the rev-sharing issue. I know some of the big teams are tired of the huge 'subsidies' they're forking over to the smaller ones each year but I don't think it's anywhere near the abyss that existed back in the late-'80s/early-'90s when differences between the large market owners and the small was at least as big a cause of the strikes and lockouts as were the owner vs player battles.

There are enough differences between the conditions in two countries and sports to where the idea of replacing our system with theirs is certainly not as simple as some like to portray. But it is worthwhile to remember that MLB doesn't have to be constructed as is for the remainder of time simply because that's the way it's always been; the introduction of FA-gency, for instance, was going to bring about the ruination of competitive balance if not of the entire sport according to many at the time.

Well of course there are hundreds of baseball teams now in this country, it's just that most of them are prevented from ever being [u:1b101hhx]major league[/u:1b101hhx] teams on account of the closed shop system as it exists. I don't believe that anyone is advocating for a set-up with a hundred or more ML teams, just one where there's the possibility of a team earning its way in.

One additional side benefit of the elimination of all drafts across the sports scene in this country would be the reduction of the amount of Chris Berman inflicted upon the American public.

Centerfield wrote: The draft is meant to create a competitive balance. The draft was created, first and foremost, to control costs.

Catcher Jason Castro, former 1st round pick of the Astros, inks a three-year deal with the Twins.

Mex17 wrote: So what I have heard (paraphrasing) is that Bautista is the "Plan B" if the market for Cespedes goes to five years, right? It is speculation that Bautista is A Plan B if the Cespedes market goes to five years and the Mets bow out - which is by itself speculation.

Edgy MD wrote: Creepy and sick and somehow, a second Rougned Odor in existence. And he's apparently a sex criminal. Odd, on account of the first one being such a good role model.

I remember the movie TWINS -- and may even have seen it once upon a time -- but there's no way I would have made a connection between that Thor/Bart cover and the nearly three decades old movie poster without prompting from the studio audience.

Edgy MD wrote: Three-man booths rule. Two-man booths drool. I much prefer two man booths to three. GKR works, first of all because it's really only a 3-man act for maybe 1/3 of the time, but mainly because voices 2 & 3 have known each other for so long and have no inclination to compete for air time and act like they're getting paid by the word. And while I don't want to pretend that those should be the only voices allowed on the air for the rest of time, I'd also hate to see them fill up the booth just to fill it up. That's what the networks do (and even they are backing away from that trend) and it's what the Yanx do where their TV booth consists of Michael Kay plus two out of a rotating cast of what seems to be a few dozen over the last decade or so.

I have this vision of Fran where, although his contract was not renewed all those years ago, he just kept on randomly announcing Mets games anyway to whomever has the misfortune of being within earshot of him. Not only that but he's probably still on the same run-on sentence as when we last heard him.

With all the Cespedes anxiety around, it had pretty much flown under the radar that Gary Cohen's deal ran out with the end of 2016. Well Gary has now officially re-upped with a new "multi-year contract" to stay with SNY. So thus begins the twelfth season of G, K & R. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/gary-cohen-staying-sny-mets-play-by-play-voice-article-1.2883416

Especially when you figure that Allen is nearly 60 years old at this point. Not sure why the Marlins would even consider him.

The Puma is the Post saying essentially what was being talked about on the previous page, that someone is almost certain to offer Cespedes a fifth year and that it's unclear if the Mets are willing to meet that. As it stands, the Mets are likely committed to signing the 31-year-old if a four-year contract in the $100 million-$110 million neighborhood can be hammered out, according to an industry source, but there is less clarity on the matter when an additional year — which could push the value of a deal beyond $130 million — is considered. "Out of the teams that are interested, somebody will offer five years,” an industry source said. “And the Nationals wouldn’t surprise me.”

Yeah, a player who meets the basic requirements essentially has to give them a reason to be NOT included in order to not make the list. This may be the last best shot for Tim Raines as all the new ones are either not overwhelmingly worthy or are 'tainted' to one degree or another and most of the returnees are as arguable as him. Probably a good year to be Jeff Bagwell too.

BASEBALL AMERICA puts Mets IF Phillip Evans on their list of most likely 'Rule 5' picks Phillip Evans, 2b/ss/3b, Mets: Evans won the Eastern League batting title in 2016, hitting .335 for Binghamton. It was a surprising development as he was a career .236/.304/.310 hitter coming into the 2016 season. But Evans has a short, compact stroke with some pop, so his batting title didn’t look as flukish as one might believe. He’s also hitting .333/.418/.521 in the Puerto Rican winter league giving scouts another good look. Evans was a full-time shortstop early in his career. He’s slid to second and third base more regularly as he moved up the ladder (and in deference to Amed Rosario) but he did play shortstop frequently this season and while he’s not good enough defensively to be an everyday shortstop, he is capable enough to contribute as a utility infielder.

In case you might want to get a sense of where the price for LH relievers is these days, the Cardinals have signed Brett Cecil to a 4-year / $30.5 mil deal. Cecil, a life-long Blue Jay up until now, was a former 1st round pick (38th overall in 2007) by Toronto out of the Univ of Maryland. He started for a couple of seasons before becoming a full-time reliever by 2013. Was very steady out of the pen -- 2013-2016 combined = 243 Games; 2.90 ERA; 1.17 WHiP; 11.5 K/9; 3.1 BB/9; 7.4 H/9 with one ASG appearance -- although is coming off his worst season of the four: 1-7; 3.93; 1.28 and with only 36 IP Will turn 31 in mid-season 2017 Jerry Blevins, three+ years older and without quite the track record, doesn't figure to get a deal of that size, but he now has his target.

Houston was slightly below average in scoring runs last year, but they got shit years out of Colby Rasmus, Carlos Gomez, Jason Castro and others. Every full time player except for Altuve struck out 100+ times and even some guys with less than 300 ABs were K'ing 85 times or more. You figure that with MCann plus full seasons out of Marasnick, Gourriel, Bregman et al they'll be a lot better although you still figure it to be a feast or famine type of offense. And we get to face them this year too. On the other side of Texas, the Rangers signed RHP Andrew Cashner to a one year deal. A 1st round pick (19th overall) by the Cubs in 2008, this will now be his 4th organization overall and third in two years (also SD & Miami) since being dealt by Chicago to SD in exchange for ... Anthony Rizzo.

PLAYERTEAM1sr2nd3rdTot PointsKris BryantCubs2910415Daniel MurphyNationals11110245Corey SeagerDdogers01110240Anthony RizzoCubs034202Nolan ArenadoRockies036199 Freddie Freeman (129) Joey Votto (100) Yoenis Cespedes (45) Justin Turner (44) Max Scherzer (39) Paul Goldschmidt (18) … T-17th Jeurys Familia (6) T-19th Noah Syndergaard (5) PLAYERTEAM1sr2nd3rdTot PointsMike TroutAngels1981356Mookie BettsRed Sox9174311Jose AltuveAstros0215227Josh DonaldsonBlue Jays029200Manny MachadoOrioles000150 David Ortiz (147) one 1st place vote Adrian Beltre (135) one 1st place vote Robinson Cano (79) Francisco Lindor (56) Miguel Cabrera (56)

Brian McCann to the Astros. Pitchers Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman going to the Yankees. The latter has touched 102-103. JJ Cooper at BA: both have great arms and Guzman has touched 102-103 - but they also were the 5th and 8th best Ps in Astros system in our upcoming 30. NYY kicking in $5.5MM each of the next 2 seasons. So net the Astros are on the hook for $11.5MM in each of 2017 and 2018. McCann also has a vesting option of $15MM for 2019 (1,000 PAs from 2017-18, 90 games caught in 2018 and does not end 2018 on the DL). The papers were talking about the Yanx holding out for "top level" prospects in return for McCann such as they got in the mid-season Miller & Chapman deals but it looks like they dealt more for hopeful promise here than for sure-fire talent. The Astros also have Evan Gattis (that's a lotta beef behind the plate on one team!!) to catch part-time plus the 'stros are in the DH league these days. On a side note this essentially confirms the end of the road for former Houston 1st round draft pick Jason Castro and that he'll now be a no-strings attached FA. I've mostly lost track of him over the last few years but he never seems to have hit the way they hoped ... don't know much about his defense. Just wondering out loud if he's a candidate to supplement (not take over) the catching corps in Queens. Astros reportedly have also signed FA Josh Reddick

Baseball America looks back

Tomorrow is roster protection day. 40-man decisions need to be finalized by then.

Syndergaard tweets: It's OK Kate...I only got 4 votes.....total. Nobody likes me Actually 7 votes Noah, don't sell yourself short.