Official 2009-2010 MLB Offseason Thread

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Is there any possibility that Jeter leaves the Yankees? Not so much because he wants to, but say the Yanks don't want to pay a 36-year old shortstop prime dollars? Does some other team try to steal him away for the marketing buzz it might create? I don't think it'll actually happen, but I'm intrigued by whether it'd make sense in some way or not.

Jeter would probably retire before he went elsewhere.

Plus, the outcry in New York would be beyond unreal. It'd be Favre drama times a million.

Jeter will get another couple years at SS then move to DH to end his career.

[samifan24]

The Indians have called a 1:30 PM press conference this afternoon and are expected to announce that Mark Shapiro is being promoted to Indians President and Chris Antonetti will take over as GM.

Antonetti has always been the GM-in-waiting but I wonder why they'd make this move now.

edit- Paul Hoynes speculates that Antonetti will become GM next season. The announcement will be similar to the one John Hart made when he appointed Shapiro as the next GM after the current season.

[Dr. Sak]

Headline says it all...

Pirates convinced they're on cusp of becoming an elite franchise | Penn State News | Sports - Centre Daily Times

[JPhillips]

His picture doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

Headline says it all...

Pirates convinced they're on cusp of becoming an elite franchise | Penn State News | Sports - Centre Daily Times

Elite franchise is a definite stretch but anybody that doesn't see that the Pirates are finally heading in the right direction isn't paying attention.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

Headline says it all...

Pirates convinced they're on cusp of becoming an elite franchise | Penn State News | Sports - Centre Daily Times

Kept moving my eyes to the right looking for "The Onion".

[Dr. Sak]

Chan Ho Park signs with the Yankees

[Chubby]

I am hoping Strausburg starts in the minrs for Washington as that means I'll get to see a start or two by him as Syracuse is the Nationals AAA farm team.

[Dr. Sak]

We all know what Jayson Werth was up to this offseason....growing this kick ass beard!

[molson]

I'm getting friggin' ready for baseball already. It will be my first year with the DirectTV baseball package. It could get ugly.

[Big Fo]

We've seen BP projections, here's win total over/unders from Bookmaker. I saw them posted on another board, checked the site and a few of them have already changed a game or half a game but I don't feel like correcting such small changes so:

Arizona- 82
Atlanta- 86.5
Baltimore- 72.5
Boston- 94
Chicago C- 83
Chicago W- 82
Cincinnati- 78
Cleveland- 73
Colorado- 83
Detroit- 81
Florida- 81
Houston- 77
Kansas City- 71
LA Angels- 84
LA Dodgers- 84
Milwaukee- 80.5
Minnesota- 82
NY Mets- 81
NY Yankees- 94.5
Oakland- 78
Philadelphia- 92
Pittsburgh- 71
St. Louis- 88
San Diego- 71
San Francisco- 83
Seattle- 83
Tampa Bay- 89.5
Texas- 83
Toronto- 71
Washington- 72

Look at all of these average teams, there's too much parity imo, the salary cap and revenue sharing are killing baseball.

Braves to get a wild card spot by 3-4 games, I'll take that. But I don't think management did enough to improve the offense, the bullpen could still be suspect, and we practically gave away one of the NL's best starters. Maybe Heyward will be on the big league team early and hit like Roy Hobbs.

AL West, AL Central, and NL West all look interesting.

[ISiddiqui]

Quite frankly, making the game more interesting doesn't equal "killing baseball", but YMMV.

[Big Fo]

Oh c'mon it was a dig at the people who complain about too much parity in the NFL. There's no salary cap in baseball yet afaik.

I always look forward to baseball season during that post-NFL playoffs, pre-NBA playoffs lull (well, lull in US sports at least, thankfully European soccer is practically year round). At least this year there was the Winter Olympics to fill some of the void but that's almost over.

[sovereignstar]

Twins over 82 is easy money.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

Twins over 82 is easy money.

Thats actually a bet that would scare the crap out of me. One injury to Mauer or Morneau and the under there would look pretty good.

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Thats actually a bet that would scare the crap out of me. One injury to Mauer or Morneau and the under there would look pretty good.

Eh, you could say that about many of the teams I think. And this is the strongest Twins lineup in years, so while their impact is huge, it's not quite a huge as in previous years. Plus, the Twins have had to deal with injuries (plus slumps in Morneau's case) to both of them in previous seasons.

[Katon]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Look at all of these average teams, there's too much parity imo, the salary cap and revenue sharing are killing baseball.

Well, preseason predictions almost always have tighter win distributions than the actual results - it comes from assuming that every team will have average luck in terms of injuries, players having peak years, and whatnot. The best team in the majors is usually a team which had a very good roster *and* good luck on those fronts, which is a standard that's pretty much impossible to meet when the season's being projected beforehand.

[Bad-example]

Must-See VIDEO: Tim Lincecum Snuggie Photo Shoot | 7th Inning Stache, an MLB blog

Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!

[sovereignstar]

Like I needed any more evidence that Tim Lincecum is awesome.

[Lathum]

I am officially watching baseball! It may be a spring training game between the Yankees and Pirates, but it is guys who get paid to play baseball.

[DaddyTorgo]

lol

[Lathum]

The only problem is the Yankee announcers are broadcasting.

I love it when they make comments like " this infield has the potential to be the greatest in the history of baseball"

Really, can't imagine how spending 95 million on your infield could cause that to happen.

[molson]

The Red Sox used a clubhouse attendant at DH after Ortiz left the game today. He went 0-2, and left 4 men on. The Sox are really going need more production from their administrative and operational staff if they're going to contend this year.

Gotta love spring training.

[Big Fo]

Anyone else miss the World Baseball Classic? It's more fun watching that than browsing box scores from Spring Training games imo. At the least I'd like it switched from every three years to every two. I doubt baseball makes it back into the Summer Olympics any time soon either since Bud Selig doesn't want MLB stars participating.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Anyone else miss the World Baseball Classic? It's more fun watching that than browsing box scores from Spring Training games imo. At the least I'd like it switched from every three years to every two. I doubt baseball makes it back into the Summer Olympics any time soon either since Bud Selig doesn't want MLB stars participating.

No

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Anyone else miss the World Baseball Classic? It's more fun watching that than browsing box scores from Spring Training games imo. At the least I'd like it switched from every three years to every two. I doubt baseball makes it back into the Summer Olympics any time soon either since Bud Selig doesn't want MLB stars participating.

I miss what it could be, if baseball teams and especially American ballplayers took it more seriously. Even with that, though, I don't think it should be more than every four years. If you do it too often, it loses its meaning.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I miss what it could be, if baseball teams and especially American ballplayers took it more seriously. Even with that, though, I don't think it should be more than every four years. If you do it too often, it loses its meaning.

If they wanted to do it seriously you'd need to take a week off in mid-season, maybe replacing the ASG (or while still having a rump ASG). 2 groups of 5 round-robin, top 2 in each advance to a semi-final/final. 6 games in 7 days, and it's only what, 2 days longer than the current ASB?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

If they wanted to do it seriously you'd need to take a week off in mid-season, maybe replacing the ASG (or while still having a rump ASG). 2 groups of 5 round-robin, top 2 in each advance to a semi-final/final. 6 games in 7 days, and it's only what, 2 days longer than the current ASB?

I think a midseason AG would be best with respect to the wear and tear, since at the start of the season, players are trying to work their way into shape, and at the end of the season, well, it's the end of the season (and bad weather). But midseason is a hard sell on teams and players, because of the injury risk at a critical time (for teams) and because of all the games and time it adds to the season (for players).

But I suppose if hockey can do it, it's workable for baseball, too.

[Lathum]

For position players it is no problem, but when you start factoring pitchers into the mix and someone outside the organization managing those pitchers considering the investment made it is to big a risk.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Lathum

For position players it is no problem, but when you start factoring pitchers into the mix and someone outside the organization managing those pitchers considering the investment made it is to big a risk.

Yeah, it'll never happen, but if you're going to bother doing it having the pitchers pitch midseason is a much lower injury risk than jumping in at 100% before ST even starts. But maybe that's just a Boston perspective after we've lost Timlin and Matsuzaka in past years. You could even expand the pitching staffs and make a rule a starter can only go 1 time or use some Little League style pitch counts, which would obviously go against the spirit of baseball, but might be necessary if pitchers keep getting injured.

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

But midseason is a hard sell on teams and players, because of the injury risk at a critical time (for teams) and because of all the games and time it adds to the season (for players).

But I suppose if hockey can do it, it's workable for baseball, too.

Don't do preliminary rounds or do those in ST so you get down to 10 teams and I don't see why you can't bang it out in a week. It's an extra 3 days off from currently - that could easily be made up by starting a couple days earlier or (gasp) adding a couple scheduled day/night doubleheaders on weekends when the weather should be nice (summer in Bos etc, earlier in the spring in Texas etc). Heck, you could even do it in the current 5 if you went with 2 4-team groups and had no off days.

Maybe if we had a JIMGA of baseball attendance he could explain why they make more revenue doing it in March when it's essentially a sideshow/afterthought in the US, but I personally fail to see why it wouldn't generate more interest during the traditional ASB when there would be no competing shows and all sports media was focused on it. Plus US players would be in better game shape, and the US playing 4 times in 4 nights, with a good chance at 2 more in a 7-day period, would be the closest thing to appointment TV baseball can hope for.

[molson]

Any kind of WBC a week long or shorter is really just an exhibition. That's too short a time considering the nature of baseball to be any kind of actual competition. The outcomes are completely random when you're talking that small an amount of games.

A month-long WBC would be quite awesome - but of course that will never happen.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Royals have their first game today. I think we actually have less power on this year's team than last year if that's possible. Hopefully that means less strikeouts.

Listened to an interview yesterday with Luke Hochevar. Guy asked him how he felt about his rough outing in the intersquad game the day before (gave up several runs). Luke went on to tell the guy that he was actually very happy with his outing and that he accomplished what he wanted to do. The coaching staff only allowed him to throw a fastball or a changeup the entire outing. The hitters figured it out and started sitting on pitches knowing that he wasn't going to throw a breaking ball.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Royals have their first game today. I think we actually have less power on this year's team than last year if that's possible. Hopefully that means less strikeouts.

As a fellow fan of a disappointing small-market team, I love the optimism.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Royals have their first game today. I think we actually have less power on this year's team than last year if that's possible. Hopefully that means less strikeouts.

Did you see Poz had his annual "Royals Will Win" column on his blog this year since he no longer writes for the Star:

Joe Posnanski » Blog Archive » Optimism From A Royals Season Ticket Holder

It's not quite as optimistic as in the past, tho (at least the part that speaks to the Royals). It seems a little more halfhearted, as a lot of his stuff on his blog is which is why I really miss his columns.

SI

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

We all know what Jayson Werth was up to this offseason....growing this kick ass beard!

I just saw his beard on the MLB Network. That is a fucking glorious beard.

[RedKingGold]

Roy Halladay looking good in preseason

[SirFozzie]

Ouch. Twins closer Joe Nathan needs Tommy John surgery..

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Ouch. Twins closer Joe Nathan needs Tommy John surgery..

wow, that sucks

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Did you see Poz had his annual "Royals Will Win" column on his blog this year since he no longer writes for the Star:

Joe Posnanski » Blog Archive » Optimism From A Royals Season Ticket Holder

It's not quite as optimistic as in the past, tho (at least the part that speaks to the Royals). It seems a little more halfhearted, as a lot of his stuff on his blog is which is why I really miss his columns.

SI

I guess in the process of taking care of my new baby that I didn't know that he had moved on to Sports Illustrated. Sad to see him go. But I guess that's what happens when you're good at what you do.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Has anyone subscribed to the MLB package on the iPhone that allows you to watch games if you have MLB TV? Was thinking it would be nice to watch Royals games when I'm on the go. Looks like it would be $114 for MLB Premium plus the iPhone app.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Has anyone subscribed to the MLB package on the iPhone that allows you to watch games if you have MLB TV? Was thinking it would be nice to watch Royals games when I'm on the go. Looks like it would be $114 for MLB Premium plus the iPhone app.

I had both last year and yes, by the end of the year, you could watch all out of market games live right on your iPhone. It was as awesome as it sounds but yes, pretty expensive. IMHO MLB should give MLB.tv subscribers the MLB At Bat iPhone app for free as part of a bundle package.

I should clarify that the iPhone app allows all users to watch two randomly selected games per night (sometimes one but usually two) regardless of if you have a MLB.tv subscription or not. If you have MLB.tv you can watch all out of market games but you still get two games a night even if you don't have MLB.tv. The iPhone app also lets you listen to all games for free.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Was MLB At Bat around last year? Worth $14.99?

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

Was MLB At Bat around last year? Worth $14.99?

Yes, it debuted last year. It's a pretty good app but I'd wait til right before Opening Day to pick it up because it's still pretty buggy now from what I hear. It sold for $9.99 last year so the price increase is frustrating. They did add background streaming but I'm not sure that should cost an extra $5 since the NBA app had that from the beginning. If you like listening to games or watching one or two a night, on the go, it's a good deal.

[McSweeny]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

Was MLB At Bat around last year? Worth $14.99?

It was $9.99 last year and I thought it was a steal. I bought this year's version as soon as it came out.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just a couple of questions.....

1. So the iPhone app has streaming audio, but to get the video, you have to buy the MLB TV Premium, correct?

2. You mentioned only watching two out of market games. So that means that I'll get every Royals game available on the iPhone in addition to two other games, correct?

[sterlingice]

Usually, with the MLB packages (except MLB Audio), you can't see *any* in market games since they're subject to blackout. But someone familiar with this particular instance should speak up.

SI

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Just a couple of questions.....

1. So the iPhone app has streaming audio, but to get the video, you have to buy the MLB TV Premium, correct?

2. You mentioned only watching two out of market games. So that means that I'll get every Royals game available on the iPhone in addition to two other games, correct?

1) No. You get video of up to 2 games per night with the iPhone app. An MLB.tv subscription enables access to all out-of-market games. Think of it as unlocking the other games.

2) If you live in Kansas City or the Royals are considered your home market you will only be able to watch Royals games on your iPhone or MLB.tv when you're traveling and out of your home area.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by samifan24

1) No. You get video of up to 2 games per night with the iPhone app. An MLB.tv subscription enables access to all out-of-market games. Think of it as unlocking the other games.

2) If you live in Kansas City or the Royals are considered your home market you will only be able to watch Royals games on your iPhone or MLB.tv when you're traveling and out of your home area.

Ah, bummer. I just wanted the portability option. That's too bad that they still have the market blackouts on the MLB TV package. Perhaps I'll just try out the iPhone app then to see how I like it this season. Thanks very much for the information. Saved me some money.

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

I just saw his beard on the MLB Network. That is a fucking glorious beard.

Last night the Braves broadcast team spend quite a few minutes talking about the beard. Then right after it hit a home run.

[MizzouRah]

I just got back yesterday from Cardinals 2010 Spring Training in Jupiter, Florida - I went with my brother and father and we had a GREAT time!

A few things:

The jerks - Pujols, Molina, Penny, Oquendo and Gibson to name a few

The most friendly - Brendan Ryan #1, then Carpenter, Wainwright, Rasmus, Schumaker and rookie pitcher Lance Lynn

Everyone there were really nice, of course most were from St. Louis.

A few pics!