Frayed Knot

That quoted passage sort of implies that bringing back Reyes is akin to depending on him or building around him. But there's nothing in his contract or in the way he was used last season which even gives him a steady position going forward much less where it blows a hole in the roster if and when he comes up lame or loses production. There's simply no downside in bringing him back unless you want to cite the pr hump which they've pretty much already crossed.

Dodgers are making a series out of this. The Cubs are making a non-series out of this. They're not just losing, they're barely showing. They've been shutout on 5 hits (4 singles & a double) over the last 17 innings. oe: 17-1/3

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Here's something to think about: If the Mets were to QO Walker, then why? The 'Why' has been discussed for two pages now. What do you think the Mets would prefer to get from that QO? A draft pick, or one year's worth of Walker? I think they'd prefer he turn the QO down. If he does it still wouldn't preclude them from negotiating with Walker on a different deal, they'd just have to do so in the face of open competition. But they'd also keep the possibility of going with a cheaper option at 2B on the table while using the $17 mil for someone/somewhere else AND have an extra draft pick next June.

Francona got a bunch of props for how he handled his pitching thus far but I think he might have over-managed a bit in this one.

TBS was essentially the first national cable station; I think there are toaster ovens that carry it.

I'm not advocating for McCann -- just throwing it out there really -- in fact if I got the word that the Mets were interested I'd pretty strongly UNadvocate him. The biggest problem may be that he, probably more than any other hitter in baseball, has been hurt by the era of defensive shifts. The tumble his OPS has taken in recent years -- 850 during his peak ATL seasons vs 731 as an MFY -- is almost totally BA-related. So while his walk rate and Isolated Power numbers have stayed more or less constant throughout his career, the .290-ish BAs he was putting up with the Braves from 2006-2011 have plummeted to the .230's in the Bronx. His doubles totals have gone into hiding as well (35-40 per/year has become ~15) as it's tough to hit two-baggers when you only hit to RF, and RF is small, and there are four fielders out there, and if you're not the slowest guy in the league you're at least in the class picture. I suppose one could argue that without the short YSIII RF porch that he'd have incentive to get less pull-happy, but that's a helluva gamble to take for that kind of money for a guy who's nearly as big and slow as Ramos plus is a full four years older.

I don't think there's anything suggesting that Neil Walker's late season injury will cause him to miss any of 2017 and certainly not half of it. It's a far different situation with Ramos who is guaranteed to miss a sizable chunk of the season at best at which point he'll be a 255 pound catcher with a reconstructed knee. Plus, if/when Ramos does come back will his team be getting the 850 OPS of 2016 or the approx 710 that he averaged prior to last season or even the 616 that he put up in 2015? Betting on Walker -- whose 2016 season was good but not that much over his career norms -- is a far less iffy proposition. Back to the catching scene: Brian McCann is probably available from the Yanx for the right price.

Let's just say that last night was a big, disgusting, bloody mess. But this is the Baseball Forum so enough about the Jets game.

Blue Jays = 5th in AL in runs scored -- but they've now scored three runs in three games vs Cleveland.

Terry Francona going to his closer with one out in the 7th and a two run lead.

MFS62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Blisters don't bleed like THAT!! He sliced his pinkie finger open last week (fixing his drone naturally) and had ten stitches in it. They moved his start back from game 2 to game 3 hoping that the two extra days rest would help with the healing. And since rules prevent pitchers from having any type of substance -- including bandages, glues, tape, etc. -- on their hands, Bauer had to make a go with it with just the silk holding the wound together. Quite obviously that idea didn't work. Didn't see it. Just periodically checking the in-game reports on the PC at work. I'll put it this way, by the time he was pulled from the game there was blood on his hand, the ball, his shirt, his pants, and the rubber.

As mentioned at the top of this thread, the QO for this winter is $17.2 million. The QO is re-set each year by taking the average of the top 125 salaries in the game

Reminiscent of Bobby Ojeda and his hedge trimmers back in '88

Blisters don't bleed like THAT!! He sliced his pinkie finger open last week (fixing his drone naturally) and had ten stitches in it. They moved his start back from game 2 to game 3 hoping that the two extra days rest would help with the healing. And since rules prevent pitchers from having any type of substance -- including bandages, glues, tape, etc. -- on their hands, Bauer had to make a go with it with just the silk holding the wound together. Quite obviously that idea didn't work.

QO Facks: - offers need to be made by five days after the end of the World Series at which point the player has seven days to accept or reject - this will be the fifth year of the QO system for determining FA compensation - 20 QOs were extended last winter, the most of any year so far - prior to last year no player had accepted the QO but then three did just that last November: Colby Rasmus - Astros; Matt Weiters - Baltimore; Brett Anderson - Dodgers. Also Marco Estrada of Toronto agreed to a two-year deal during the seven day window prior to accepting or rejecting. The 16 remaining players wound up as FAs And I also found this little nugget: If a player takes qualifying offer he cannot be traded (without his consent) until June 15 of the following season, and that even if a player grants such consent, only $50K in cash can be exchanged as part of the trade. So if they opt to extend the offer to Walker then they better be prepared for at least the possibility that he accepts it.

I thought that Familia's 'consecutive save streak' and ultimately his team record for saves in a season combined to exaggerate in many minds how good a season JF was having - and GKR were as guilty as anyone at contributing to that image. But by baserunners/inning (.27 better for Reed) and ERA (more than 1/2 R/G) Reed was clearly better and was more efficient in his outings. Reed even had more Ks. Oddly the only place where Familia had the edge was in HRs (1 allowed vs 4 for Reed) until the HR that killed the season.

Mostly with closers in the post-season (or ANYONE and post-season records although it's always more pronounced with closers) it's a matter of sample size. Familia's stats look a bit better than they should because they don't show the inherited runners he allowed to score, but neither do Chapman's and he's allowed a bunch of them so far in this year's playoffs. On the Dodger side, Kensley Jansen was about as dominant as it's possible to be last night: two 3-pitch Ks, two 4-pitch Ks, a pop-out and a line-out. Two innings, six straight outs, all on just 18 pitches. On the other hand, six days earlier he was yanked after retiring only one batter while giving up four runs in the 9th inning of a one-run game vs Washington. A few days after that he had to be relieved by Kershaw after issuing back-to-back 9th inning walks in a do-or-die game (albeit in his 3rd inning of work). Bottom line is that you have to take the good with the bad with these guys. It's easy to say that I'd rather have closer 'X' than our guy but then you have to take his shit outings too.

Or just go with Gandhi

That they might consider Walker in their plans for 2017 based on how Wright's progress/lack of is supposedly going is certainly a possibility, but I think the decision of to QO or not to QO stands on its own. Just as with Murphy last year, you offer so as to secure a future draft pick even if resigning him isn't 'Plan A'. The only way you don't would be if it's decided that not only is Walker completely out of all 2017 plans but it also completely screws up everything should he unexpectedly accept. That Walker might accept the QO remains a possibility. Prior to a year or two ago no player ever accepted a QO, but I believe a couple did last year and then there were the cases of Ian Desmond, Dexter Fowler, and Howie Kendrick all of whom rejected QOs only to find themselves going most of the winter without offers before agreeing to one-year contracts very late and for less than what they rejected because the market dried up when it turned out that teams were more hostile than expected towards FAs with draft picks attached to them. * Kendrick - got a one year, $10 mil deal which he didn't sign until early February and was forced to play a lot of OF as opposed to his usual 2B in order to get semi-regular ABs * Desmond - Rangers, one year, $7 mil deal which he didn't sign until Feb 29th. He also was forced to switch to the outfield, a move which turned out well for him although it'll probably prevent him from selling himself as a SS when he hits the market again this year * Fowler - and odd winter for him as he supposedly had a three-year offer w/Baltimore before suddenly showing up at Cubs spring training in late February on a one-year $9 mil deal

It's officially a series now.

Some icing for your cake sir?

Well THAT pretty much settles things for tonight.

So far you have to say that the Indians are getting more out of their mid-season MFY reliever pickup than are the Cubs. That's now the second lead Chapman has given up in just five games now - even if most of the runs he has allowed have been runners he's inherited.

Nymr83 wrote: if you don't make the offer, you get NOTHING, not "equal value", in a trade, since there wouldn't be a trade. so the question to ask (assuming the Mets don't want him and would try to trade him if he accepts) is not about equal value - its about whether you would trade the dollars you are eating in the trade for the players you are getting back. If, for example, you think you'd need to eat 5 million to trade him to the Dodgers for Alex Wood the proper question is "would I trade 5 million for Alex Wood"? - because you never planned on keeping Walker anyway. Sure. I was just trying to dissuade anyone from getting the idea that if Walker unexpectedly accepts the QO that he could just then be easily flipped for an equivalent player. More likely the return on dealing him would be a lower level player or a high salary that the other team doesn't want. But, yeah, certainly better than no return at all.

Hmmmm, (Cubs catcher) Ross seemed a bit pissed at Adrian Gonzalez following that play at the plate. Not sure why because I didn't see AG do anything wrong, but Ross seemed to be glaring and showing the ball back in the direction of the Dodger dugout for about 10 seconds after the play was over.