Anybody but Pujos for NL MVP would have been a travesty.

hxxp://hotstove.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/11/reds_lose_affeldt_to_giants.html

Giants sign Jeremy Affeldt to a 2 year deal worth a reported $8 million.

Manny finishing 3rd in the voting actually sounds about right to me. He didn't deserve to win the award outright based on just two months, but he had such a dramatic impact on his new team that he did deserve to at least be part of the conversation.

No way. Manny was amazing, but finished 13th in the league in VORP amongst hitters (again, a hell of an achievement in 1/3 of the season)- I think its fine to place him in your top 10, but the idea that he should be in the top 3 is ridiculous.

Its amazing - so far the association of nitwits known as the BBWAA hasn't fucked up an award - I have faith that they will give Morneau the MVP and continue on with their standard precedent however. :D

Well, he did finish 4th if that's any consolation... and I'd say Brad Lidge getting 2 first-place votes (but no Cy Young votes?) is the bigger joke. Or maybe Jose Valverde and Stephen Drew getting any votes.

In potential trade news, the Red Sox are discussing dealing Julio Lugo to anyone that will take him Detroit for.... Dontrelle Willis? (Or maybe Nate Robertson.) The classic "devil you don't know" case I suppose. Although I did love this quote from another board:D

I was thinking of something while going through m son's TSN issue. I have heard about Brad Lidge's amazing season and how he came back from devastation that took years to overcome. WTF? I had to look it up to make sure. He lost Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS, yet he had 3 saves in that series and his team ended up winning Game 6 and the ML Pennant. So he lost a game in closing situation - big deal, that happens to every closer out there. It was not like it cost his team a 1) playoff spot, 2) pennant or 3) world series. So why have they been making a big deal about what happened 3 years, when it wasn't that big of a deal to begin with?

Lidge was essentially unable to close games for the Astros after that. There was a repeated cycle of Lidge being ineffective as a closer and being demoted to the setup role where he would flourish and once again be given the closer's job. Rinse & repeat.

I think the rumor goes that Lidge lost confidence in his curveball after the Pujols bomb and just threw fastballs. Hitters were able to get his timing down and shelled him several times. Phil Garner then messed Lidge up more by demoting/promoting him from the closer role.

After getting traded to the Phillies, Lidge done got his knee injured early in spring training. Lidge then developed that devestating slider, primarily to take pressure off of his knee while rehabbing and in his first early season performances.

Once that leg healed up, he was still able to get high speed on that fastball. However, developing that slider is what made him so effective this year.

Nah, he's always had the wicked slider (he struck out 157 batters in 95 IP in 2004 largely because of it), but he did have trouble locating it in 2006. His Hit, BB and HR rates all increased significantly in 06.

There are two trains of thought locally regarding Lidge - one that it was a mental thing after the Pujols bomb in the 05 playoffs, but I think that the more logical conclusion was that he had some minor injuries over the past couple of seasons that limited his effectiveness.

That's the part I don't get - why would Pujols blast effect him that much? It didn't cost them anything, except playing one extra game? Was he really young at the time?

He also lost two games in the World Series.

I dunno, stuff like that can fuck a guy up real bad.

Is the wiki entry on Donnie Moore actually true? I didn't realize he shot himself after attempting to murder his wife. I thought it was just due to depression in some part due to the Hendu homer.

Yes, it's true. Moore had a lot of problems. It's also quite true, though, to say that his precipitous fall started with the swing of Dave Henderson's bat. It's a tragic story. :(

Cubs re-sign Dempster to a 4 year/$52 mllion dollar deal. Reasonable price. I'm happy.

One writer voted K-Rod for MVP.

BBWAA: 2008 AL Most Valuable Player

Put a warning on the link! NSFE

Scrappy hitter 4 MVP!

He's got heart.

Wow. What a stunningly bad pick. And I thought Morneau's award was a crappy pick.

Not the best year for AL sluggers really. They should have kept the award and saved it for a later year when two guys put up monster numbers.

Yeah, but if they wanted to give it to a Red Sox, Youk was far superior of a choice. Personally, I'd think it wasn't a great pick if it was Youkilis, but I'd be ok with it.

Siddiqui - Two questions

1. Are you surprised? I had figured this was locked up since the end of the regular season.

2. If this pick is so egregious, who was egregiously passed over?

Pedroia isn't a terrible pick. He was 3rd in the AL in VORP and 1st among position players in WARP. I can live with it since I was worried K-Rod would somehow end up walking away with the award.

If they truly wanted to give the award to the Most Valuable player, though, it would have been Mauer or Cliff Lee. The Twins didn't make the postseason, though, which means Mauer's season carried zero value. Cliff Lee was a pitcher on a .500 team, which means he wasn't even a real baseball player.

I'm absolutely shocked. I think Pedroia really isn't as deserving as Quentin, A-Rod, or Mauer.

You must not have read a lot of articles about it, then. From what I was reading, most thought it was Pedroia's to lose.

Quentin was done the moment he lost his season to a self-inflicted injury. A-Rod's going to have a tough time winning when his stats took a huge step back and his team missed the playoffs. Mauer is more debatable, but certainly not leaps and bounds ahead of Pedroia.

I do not think that Pedroia was the best player in the AL this year, but the writers have decided that that's not necessarily what the award is about.

Objectively, I would have gone Mauer, Youkilis, Pedroia, 15 guys, Morneau. Subjectively I love it. Especially for having defended him against quotes like

There's a reason why Keith Law hasn't been picked up by any Major League team since he was let go by Toronto.

I love it when people on message boards think they're scouts.

I think any of the top 3 would have been a good choice. Youkalis "feels" the most valuable to, but Mauer and Pedroia should get bonus points for the positions they play.

Fantasy Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey - news, projections, cheatsheets, depth charts, draft guide - Rotoworld.com

Coco Crisp traded to the Royals for Ramon Ramirez. Any KC folk have a scouting report?

We picked Ramirez up off the scrap heap after an injury the previous season. He ended up being a very good pitcher for the Royals. 2.64 ERA with a 31/70 BB/SO in 71 innings. Hate to see him go, but the Royals have a lot of depth in the bullpen.

So who goes next, Teahan or Dejesus?

I think it's definitely Teahan. He's roughly the same player as Crisp (Teahan has a few more homers, Crisp has better defense). Teahan's definitely expendable at this point. I think they'll be asking a pretty high price for DeJesus.

FYI......rumor around KC is that a trade involving Teahan and Felix Pie is being discussed between the Cubs and Royals.

I heard on the radio that the Yankees are going to offer a big contract to Burnett, and that the Jays are going after Milton Bradley.

That's the question. I think someone on RoyalsReview had this one pegged perfect. Just like the Jacobs deal, it looks good viewed in a vacuum- take a reliever, the most inconsistent position, and trade for a position player with some useful attributes. However, again, like Jacobs- Crisp has as many flaws as he has strengths so maybe it's just a wash.

But what has become quite evident is that this is a prelude to a larger move which is a shame because I think Teahen has value as a super-sub at all 4 corner positions and DeJesus is my favorite Royal, and one of the few "professional" hitters on the team who actually knows how to take a walk, work the count, and hit for a little pop.

For the Red Sox fans out there- Ramirez was a great reliever for us last year and will be a good addition to the pen. He's a little homer prone but otherwise, pitches well. Look out for injuries as the reason we got him for a song was because he had arm issues. But, he's young, under club control for quite a while, and someone you can trust in the back of the bullpen.

As a side note, I'm sure the fans will grill these trades next year when the bullpen isn't great like it was last year. However, that's more a product of it being an inherently volatile position to begin with.

SI

Seems like that has to be off the table now.

I'd still like this as part of a "master plan" to trade DDJ, one other major piece or Teahen, and a prospect or two for someone big and it's been lined up for a while now. If it's suddenly Feb 1 and these guys are still on the team and Moore has to sell them for pennies on the dollar, then this failed.

SI

i don't really think you can call Ramirez homer prone when he only allowed two homeruns in 71 innings last year

He did have 7 in his previous 80 innings, tho. I guess that's still not too bad of a ratio

SI

What kind of package would KC be looking for by giving up DeJesus that would actually benefit them?

I can only think that Moore is looking to package him with others to get a bigger piece. We seem to be stockpiling replacement to somewhat useful players so we can kick out a couple for something bigger. So, no, all the talk of 3 B and C-level prospects don't get it done for DDJ. I think it's going to be DDJ+ for something not DDJ broken down for parts. Otherwise, why go through all this to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic?

SI

For your sake, I sure hope that's the plan. Trading him for younger guys would be tough to watch.

Ehhh... it might make less sense because Crisp is only under club control for 2? years and won't be below-market after this one, but he's a much better player than Mike Jacobs. Above-average defensive CF'er with a .780 OPS last year when he was "struggling". Royals CF's were in the .640 range.

The numbers I've seen on Ramirez say 6 hr's in 51 IP at Coors and 3 in 155 elsewhere. Obviously, he's an injury-prone reliever, so this could end up looking foolish a couple months into the season (hello Gagne), but he seems like the best available reliever for the price.

I also really dislike the idea of moving Masterson to the rotation after this - his stuff doesn't play up as well in the rotation and he'd be league-average there, but he has the type of arm (easy delivery, power sinker) that can go 2-3 innings when needed and pitch back to back days to be an uber-reliever. Of course, it depends now on if Bowden/Buchholz/Masterson are traded for a catcher.

Huh? What should have been the Royals main CF last year was DeJesus and he was at .818. However, I admit they had this fascination with trying to get Gathright and his .583 into the lineup every day and thusly bumping DeJesus to left where he's not nearly as valuable.

SI

Chase Utley will be out 3 to 5 months (from now) with hip surgery.

Yeah, just saw that. Supposedly, he had hip issues since early in the second half of the season which caused his numbers to drop off. I'm no scout, but watching his at bats at the post season, his swing did seem a little tighter than usual when compared to at-bats in April/May.

It's a significant blow, but I think it's an extended spring training this year due to the World Baseball Classic. So, hopefully, he'll have a lot of time to rehab before spring training and should only miss a month or so of the regular season.

Pedro Feliz also had back surgery today. He's expected to be out 8-12 weeks.

Lastly, the Phillies sent outfielder Greg Golson to the Texas Rangers for John Mayberry. I know that Golson was roughly a 3-star prospect (out of 5) who had really good speed. The only thing I can find for the reasoning is that Mayberry has more power.

Any Rangers fans or other people who know about Mayberry have anything to add?

Mayberry is a talented corner OF who fails at hitting breaking stuff. Definitely needs more time in the minors even though he's getting old for a prospect. Mayberry was on the Rangers 40-man roster while I'm guessing Golson was not. Rangers (and everyone else) are sorting out their roster in preparation for the Rule 5 draft.

I think Golson was on the 40-man roster, actually. I know he was called up last year and went 0-for-6.

Also, the Phils added a few guys to their 40-man roster, including their best pitching prospect Carlos Carrasco. Although he's got a lot to prove in spring training, the Phillies rotation will be fantastic next year if we re-sign Moyer and Carrasco is ready to go as the #4 or #5.

As far as replacing Utley during the early part of the season, I'd think that Bruntlett/Jason Donald will platoon the position until Chase is ready to come back.

I mean, I completely agree Dejesus is a competent CF'er and he should have been playing there last year, which is why I had to check B-R and make sure Gammons didn't mess that number up. But if they weren't willing to put Dejesus in CF this year, and already said they'd go with him in LF and a prospect in CF next year, why would I count him as the primary CF? And it's pretty undeniable Coco is a better hitter than the Joey Gathright etc. pupu-platter the Royals used/were planning on using.

Giants are gonna throw an offer to Sabathia....rumor has it as 6 years for 120 mil

I assume this is in the hope that CC gets up to 350 lbs once he gets his money and eats Barry Zito.

Dola ..

Does anyone actually forsee Sabathia not getting even fatter then he already is once he gets paid?

Dude is a great pitcher, but he isn't exactly a workout warrior, which scares me when he is about to get around 130 + mil.

Is there a betting site (inTrade?) that offers up odds on being selected to the baseball HOF?

White Sox sign another Cuban stud for $10 million...

Dayán Viciedo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Love it! Only 19, but I wouldn't be suprised to see him starting at 3B come spring. Put up monster numbers at 16yrs old, shocked that the Yankees/Sox didn't out-bid the Sox here...

Dumb question: if he is under contract for only 5 years- why sign that deal if he's only 19 and under club control until his age 24 year? Didn't you just sign up to be his farm team and maybe get two years, absolute best case scenario, of good MLB service?

SI

No, they signed him for much longer than that. At the very least, it is the five years, and then his final arbitration year in his sixth year, and that's if he makes the big club this coming season and stays there for his whole contract.

At least if I understand it right. He is like any Dominican or Venezuelan free agent kid right now, but because he has a much more expanded resume as a Cuban national player, he can command a much bigger contract on the open market. But that doesn't mean he's exempt from CBA rules stating you can't become a free agent until you have six years of MLB service time. If the scenario you put out happens, he does three years in the minors (at a high price, he's still paid his contract), then he finishes that contract with two years in the bigs, and the White Sox still control his rights for four more years, or as long as they continue to offer him arbitration.

My only reservation on whether that's the case is to wonder what the situation is with older Japanese players. Take Dice-K for instance. When his deal runs out, do the Sox still have a couple years of "control" over him?

I don't know how it affects Dice-K, BTW, but I do know that we have moved past the original terms of the Angels' deal with Kendry Morales, but he is still under club control (and I am really rooting for him to make the team and have a regular spot this year).

I think "if he's only 19" is the operative phrase.

Point well taken

SI

Egdar Renteria to Giants: 18M for 2 years.

Costs them a draft pick, but not too much of a risk.

And it gets them younger!

Giving up a draft pick and committing $18 million to a declining SS who hit .270/.317/.382 last season may not be a risk, but its completely indefensible. Of course, this is brought to you by the same GM that thought Vizquel had another year left in him...

Why the fuck wouldn't the Giants wait and see if Detroit at least offered arbitration before signing the deal? That's incredibly stupid.

At least since they sucked it's only a 2nd round pick (someone please correct if that's wrong).

You can't risk letting a key piece of your potential championship team sign someplace else.

Ok, I am not thrilled by the move, but it is only 2 years and the contract isn't a huge burden. Last time he returned to the NL his numbers improved. Not too crazy to think he can rebound again, at least to some degree.

Why didnt the Giants go harder after Furcal?

Rotoworld changed their tune:

Rafael Furcal's agent, Paul Kinzer, said he is still talking to the Giants and doesn't believe the team has a deal with Edgar Renteria.
"Unless the Giants did it in the last 10 minutes, which I don't think they did, they weren't close," Kinzer told the San Francisco Chronicle. The Giants have denied that a Renteria deal is done.

Thank God Jocketty didn't strike first.

Didn't see this mentioned. Cubs and Royals are reportedly close to working out a trade. Teahan would go to the Cubs and 2B Fontenot and SP/RP Marshall would go to the Royals.

Teahen deal could be in works | royals.com: News

No thank you. We have enough low-power outfielders, thank you. And I like Fontenot.

I think Teahan would benefit greatly from a move to the cozier ballpark. He's know in KC for always hitting the ball 5 feet short of the fences in Kauffman Stadium. He'd probably see a pretty good boost in HR production in Wrigley.

Japanese players have it put into their contract that they are exempt from going through arbitration and thus are not bound by the service time requirements everybody else is.

So when Daisuke's contract is up, he is a free agent.

Yeah, that's been debunked pretty much everywhere as it doesn't make much sense for the Cubs. Maybe Fontenot or Marshall, but definitely not both and it really still doesn't make a ton of sense for the Cubs.

SI

Thought this was interesting. Adjustable ticket prices based upon demand. I wonder if it is something that could catch on. Any other clubs doing something like this? Hard to see someone deciding to go to the game because tickets might be 2 bucks cheaper.

ESPN - San Francisco Giants' ticket prices to change by the day

The Mets have been doing something similar for a few years. There's platinum games (Yankees, Braves, Phillies, etc), gold, and silver (the random, uninteresting interleague teams, Brewers of old, etc), and they're all priced differently. I'm sure other teams have also done something like this.

It doesn't seem like what the Giants are doing special in this case would matter much.

Hell, even the Tampa Rays have this sort of arrangement (Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs [when they have them] games cost more)

Angels do this, too, for Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers games at least. They may do it for some AL West opponents, too, and if the Cubs are on the schedule.

The Braves have slightly improved their sorry rotation by trading for the mediocre Javier Vazquez.

This seems like the unique part of the plan. Different prices based on opponent or day of the week is one thing, but prices fluctuating on game day is something I never heard of before.

Yes it's unique but it's also pointless. Who is going to decide that now they will go see a Giants - Rockies game in the Upper Deck in September because a ticket only costs $15.50 instead of $16.25?

I'm willing to wager that the extra sales that come straight from this won't even cover the expense incurred to change the prices on a day to day basis from a resources standpoint.

Nice, the Sawx sign MVP Dustin Pedroia to a 6 year, $40.5 Million deal. It works for both sides, Pedroia gives up two free agent years, and instead gets paid better over his one remaining minimum salary year, and his three arbitration years. Win-Win for all sides.

And gave up way too much to do so, specifically Flowers.

First an attempt to re-sign Mike Hampton, now this. I'm starting to think Frank Wren is not the right man for the job.

WOOF WOOF!!! LONG LIVE THE LIL DAWG!!!!

Agreed, JV only has value as #4/#5, as his confidence/mental issues make him all but worthless come playoff time. But he will give you 150 strong innings from April to July. When the games get "big", quite frankly, Vazquez shits in his pants.

Yeah I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to the Braves minor leaguers but I do recall reading in a few places that Flowers was the only potentially good catcher in the whole minor league system.

I was about to say "well maybe Boone Logan helps make the deal look better" but I just looked up his career statistics.

Which I'm guessing is what the Braves are looking for, as they wait/hope/pray for Hudson to return.

That part of the deal I don't have a problem with, but IMO they gave up way too much for what appears to be at best a stop gap measure.

It Seems to good to be true for the Sox to lock him up until age 31 at pretty much what the Pirates pay Jack Wilson. And great security for Pedroia. I wonder why we don't more deals like this.

The players union doesn't like these sorts of deals since it typically buys out a couple of prime years so they put a lot of pressure on young players to not accept them

SI

Fixed. ;)

Yeah I don't like the deal either, but it's because Vazquez is league average and probably inevitably overpaid, not that Flowers is some super prospect. He's Salty II IMHO and it's not like McCann's going anywhere.

Deal is now official, and since Detroit didn't end up offering arbitration, no draft pick was lost. Also inked Bobby Howry to a 1 year/2.75m deal. Really like the Howry deal, don't mind the Renteria one. A 2 year contract isn't much of a commitment, and it's not like he's blocking anyone. Burriss can compete for 2nd with Fransden and Velez. I expect some bounce back from Renteria this year as well.

It will be interesting to see if they really do go hard after Sabathia.

Rentaria now locked up in SF mean that Furcal signs in OAK shortly??

Put a big hitting corner outfielder on the Giants and you have to start taking them seriously in that weak division. I like the Affeldt and Howry signings and Renteria as a placeholder for 2 years without crazy dollars is ok by me.

It's time but it still makes me sad
ESPN - Greg Maddux to announce retirement Monday

Greg Maddux is all done.

The four-time Cy Young winner will announce his retirement Monday at the baseball winter meetings in Las Vegas.

Maddux turns 43 in April. He is eighth on the career wins list with 355, and went 8-13 last season with the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers.

The announcement about his retirement came Friday from the office of his agent, Scott Boras.

My all-time favorite player and the best pitcher of his generation. Fuck Clemens, Johnson, and Martinez.

I know we tend to put guys on pedestals when they retire, but that's just wrong. And Maddux was one of my favorites growing up in Chicago.

And that isn't even bringing in the fact that he had his own strike zone to help him along.

I did that with Maddux long before today. Simply the greatest pitcher within my memory (I missed actually seeing Koufax), and quite possibly the best ever.

You're probably right, Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz were the only three pitchers in MLB history to ever get a borderline strike call.

My hat is off to Greg Maddux.

I wonder if he'll get into coaching like his brother?

QFT

Maddux was definitely great, but I think Clemens and Martinez are definitely better (albeit for different reasons, Clemens for longevity at a very high level [higher ERA+ and winning % than Maddux while pitching a similar number of games], Martinez for the greatest peak pitching seasons in MLB history [97-03 has never and it is hard to imagine it will ever be touched in terms of brilliance])

Maddux had the best career of anyone this generation. Clemens and Martinez were better pitchers.

My guess would be no, just doesn't seem like it would suit him. I could see him doing the spring training visit like ala Koufax at some point though.