Official MLB Offseason Thread

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 9:12 am

If the Royals sign Ian Kennedy, this is a very good offseason. Eliminates a free agent option from right field, but the rotation has quantity once again and, assuming they're serious about starting Colon at second base, a lineup that's better than the one pre-trade deadline in 2015.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 9:35 am

He's stupid.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 9:49 am

mister d wrote:He's stupid.

If he pitches to his 4.5 FIP of last year, then yes. I think that was an aberration and Kauffman + outfield defense will help that number (as well as his ERA).

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 9:57 am

Brontoburglar wrote:
mister d wrote:He's stupid.
If he pitches to his 4.5 FIP of last year, then yes. I think that was an aberration and Kauffman + outfield defense will help that number (as well as his ERA).

Just realized I said fielding would help fielding independent pitching. Oh no.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:18 am

He just feels like one of those guys who is fine in the NL and a wreck against the longer lineups in the AL.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 3:23 pm

I can see Lane Adams being a decent 4th-5th OF for the Yankees if necessary.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 4:50 pm

He's not in the majors; Hicks fills the righty backup OF spot. Either AAA depth or its one of those claim-and-waive moves. Or they're making a big trade.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 5:32 pm

mister d wrote:He's not in the majors.

Hence the "if necessary."

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 9:22 am

5-$70MM?

USE THAT TWO-YEAR OPT OUT, IAN

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 9:58 am

I mean ... I guess it's good there's an option?

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 9:58 pm

mister d wrote:I mean ... I guess it's good there's an option?

That was my immediate thought. Stay healthy and go get paid in two years by someone else please.

The comforting thing can be that Moore hasn't missed badly on a FA pitcher in his tenure. But you can also argue that he's not going to be perfect and there's bound to be a bust.

I like the Cain contract. But it's also pretty clear that he's not going to be with the team after 2017.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:32 pm

What could he have been asking for on a 6 year deal to make the team not want in?

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:07 pm

mister d wrote:What could he have been asking for on a 6 year deal to make the team not want in?

I'd love to know that answer. Maybe it's Cain's health? Had a lot of nagging injuries this year and played 176 games in his first two years combined in KC.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:34 pm

Quit talking baseball and watch the football game!

Post by **brian** » Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:45 am

At least Cabrera's deal doesn't look so bad now. Thanks, Baltimore!

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Jan 18, 2016 9:55 pm

J. Upton to the Tigers for just over $22MM per over 6 years is a deal I really like. Especially given their window and the fact they'd already dumped a picked signing Zimmermann.

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 1:32 pm

mister d wrote:J. Upton to the Tigers for just over $22MM per over 6 years is a deal I really like. Especially given their window and the fact they'd already dumped a picked signing Zimmermann.

Upton also got an option after two years, so he's probably looking to rent.

howard · Post by **howard** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 6:21 pm

two from twitter

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 9:38 am

I've only had this thought for about 2 minutes now, so there might be a hole I'm not thinking of, but right now, I like it a lot. What if, to get the team a bit more protection, opt-out clauses started containing retainer buybacks or whatever you'd call it. Like Upton has an opt-out after 2 years, the Tigers have a $20MM retainer option to reinstate the rest of the deal. How much fun would that be from the outside waiting to see which guys are retained and which ones make awful opt-out decisions thinking its free money and all that? Eh?

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:13 pm

Cespedes leaves a reported $40MM+ on the table to stay in NY. His opt-out has to have a no arbitration clause or else it's just an insane team friendly deal. Is anyway.

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:46 pm

3yrs/$75mil, no-trade, sounds player friendly as well. Sounds like he likes being on the Mets.

ETA: Jonas? should've called it Yoenis.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 7:42 am

It's the presumed use of the opt-out I don't get. He'll be in the same situation as this offseason but probably not coming off the same numbers, a year older and now with draft pick comp attached.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 9:57 am

mister d wrote:Cespedes leaves a reported $40MM+ on the table to stay in NY. His opt-out has to have a no arbitration clause or else it's just an insane team friendly deal. Is anyway.

The Nationals' deal apparently had a ton of deferred money, similar to the Scherzer deal.

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 12:24 pm

Olbermann pointed on the twitter to this Fangraphs article

Yoenis Cespedes and the Mets Big Bet Against Fielding
tl/dr version: Mets are gonna suck at fielding, but you can win despite that.

Post by **brian** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 1:10 pm

Tigers tried that. Didn't work.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 2:22 pm

If any team can take that risk right now it's the Mets. If they keep Lagares, he can basically be a personal CF for Bartolo.

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 9:03 am

Royals are one of the worst AL teams to win World Series since 2000

They show their work, too. Good stuff!

h/t

ETA:
The original "article" has been deleted.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 9:13 am

rass wrote:Royals are one of the worst AL teams to win World Series since 2000

They show their work, too. Good stuff!

h/t

this probably goes in another thread, but Fox is making some digital changes. so interested to see if this is the new "direction" or a one-off "let's see how many clicks we can get for something that took 10 minutes and has a clickbait headline."

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 10:12 am

I feel like I should be happy with Fister.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 10:52 am

Assuming the medicals didn't show cooked spaghetti, absolutely.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 12:00 pm

Nice scheduling, Royals. Can't link now, but they've scheduled Epilepsy Awareness night on a night they plan to have fireworks.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 12:07 pm

govmentchedda wrote:Nice scheduling, Royals. Can't link now, but they've scheduled Epilepsy Awareness night on a night they plan to have fireworks.

Well, if you're wanting to make people aware of it...

Post by **brian** » Sat Jan 30, 2016 11:29 pm

Even if true goes in the category of "Ugliest dude to fuck Kate Upton."

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 10:08 am

Is this about the rumor of why Dombrowski really got fired?

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:22 pm

Let the rest of us in on this cryptic stuff.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:29 am

Things are a bit touchy on my reds board - this isn't a thread I started, and I don't know that the guy is right - but he's not necessarily wrong either - and some mod locked his thread.

The guy wrote:

The Reds tried and had an agreed deal to trade jay bruce to the Mets for Wheeler. Walt gets cold feet, pulls out, Bruces stock contines to fall, and now they are stuck with him for the time being.

Reds try and trade chapman to redsox, they back out due to to Florida incident.

Reds have a trade set on and agreed with Dodgers to send them Chapman, and the centerpiece return was Peraza. Dodgers also uncover the Florida incident and back out.

Reds trade Todd Frazier and are so enamored with Peraza, they bring the Dodgers in a 3 teamer so they can get the 2b back from LA. Frazier to Chi. The package chi sends to LA is widely viewed as a better package than LA sent us.

Reds agree to trade Phillips twice. Phillips vetos both trades, a clear indication the Reds did not discuss with phillips prior, to get his take/ask on the prospective deal. Stuck with phillips and still owe him around 28 million over the next 2 years.

The Reds, dealing from a position of weakness and fear, deal chapman to NY for a haul of mediocrity. Scared charges would be filed. Two weeks later, announced that no charges will be filed vs chapman.

Now today, the Reds have no place for Peraza to play, but he is MLB ready. So they are either going to have to move him to a new position, or keep him buried in the minors until 2017.

Doesnt seem like they ran very good processes with these moves. But what do I know.

rass · Post by **rass** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:32 am

Is the board run by the club? Otherwise, what?

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:39 am

rass wrote:Is the board run by the club? Otherwise, what?

Yeah - that's part of why I posted it here - to see if I was missing something. The guy has only 16 posts and all have been negative, so maybe a mod thought he was trolling. But, as a thread topic starter, that sure didn't look like it was out of bounds to me at all.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:42 am

I want the Reds to lose 120 games this year just so I can watch denialists on that board keep trying to spin things as positive.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 10:21 am

I'm guessing it was locked for "speaking as fact" when its presumed no one in the world could possibly ever have inside information.

(Also, I don't think Phillips is indicative of them not discussing beforehand, its them thinking public knowledge of the deal would be enough leverage to get him to agree.)