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Elrhino

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Everything posted by Elrhino

  1. Elrhino
    Whoever is responsible for pitching Conway on an apparently awful field conditions for a friggin extended spring training game should be unemployed.
  2. Elrhino
    I just wish we have better early indications that the organization was effectively changing hitters plate approach for the better. Alcantara has been particularly disheartening for me in that regard.
  3. Elrhino
    http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/mlb/390916/zack-greinke-fractures-collarbone-in-brawl Assembling a mercenary team angers the baseball gods. Carlos Quientin should probably try to avoid Dodger parking lots.
  4. Elrhino
    I think we're in the dog days of the first week of April.
  5. Elrhino
    It's hard to believe that Andrus is just 24. The biggest problem I have is they gave Andrus opt out clauses after 2018, so the upside for the Rangers is really fairly limited. They don't have him locked up throughout his prime. The good news is you've got him cost controlled (albeit at a premium cost) for the next 5 seasons. The downside is either he's going to under perform the contract, or you're going to be bidding for him again in 5 years when he's still in his prime and most of the teams in the league are awash in television money.
  6. Elrhino
    I expect lots of glowing reports this spring coming from the organization regarding Garza. They'll also offer financing for people with bad credit and first time buyers. Call today, he won't last long folks!!
  7. Elrhino
    2012 Schierholtz 126 wRC+ against righties, 2012 Hairston 135 wRC+ against lefties. That's a nice RF platoon for a combined ~$5 million
  8. Elrhino
    Not unreasonable to believe that $16 million for a #3 starting pitcher will be fair market value by 2016 with the huge amounts of revenue being brought into the league. Two years ago no one foresaw the Dodgers becoming the "West Coast Yankees". You think they're the only team that is going to sign a sweetheart local TV deal given the thirst broadcasters have for the content hours of MLB? We get it, you think it's okay to put complete and utter garbage on the field because you think the this "process" is going to pay off. Well, it better payoff, and Im talking about the cold hard bottomline of wins and losses and not self congratulatory patting on the backs of how much "smarter" than franchises who are a lot better at winning baseball games than we are. I'm not watching multiple years of Ian Stewart and Nate Schierholtz so we can hold a "We sniffed .500 this year!!!" pizza party in 2015.
  9. Elrhino
    I'm just saying that there is a certain level where I expect this franchise to be in 2015, and with each collective failed attempt to add talent to the franchise the potential avenues of how to get there get smaller and the hill remains just as steep as the day before. I'm not "angry" per se, just very troubled. I think it would be unwise to have faith that a "keeping the powder dry" philosophy is going to payoff into some magical off season in the next few years. More teams are signing local cable TV deals leading to a large injection of revenue into baseball. Revenue in baseball was 7.5 billion for 2012 (for sake of comparison it was 1.4 billion in 1995). In 2014 the new national TV package revenue kicks in and all teams will have a new influx of cash in their pocket to spend. Competitive demand for available talent is going to be more fierce than ever in upcoming years. The clock is ticking.
  10. Elrhino
    Looking ahead at next year's FA market, there is no reason to believe the Cubs won't be utterly putrid in 2014 as well. Theo is setting the bar pretty high for himself. 2015 better be pretty damn special payoff for knowingly and actively putting complete and utter garbage on the field and pocketing huge profit margins for 3-4 seasons.
  11. Elrhino
    We're much closer to the Angels than we are the Royals, but we are running our franchise much more like the Royals. The Angels didn't get Hamilton because they had won a World Series a few years ago. They got Hamilton because they put the best offer on the table and offerend him an extra year that no one else was previously. The same way Cubs put the best offer on the table for Sanchez and offered him a 5th year no one else was previously. The difference is the Cubs let Anabal use their offer as leverage, and the Angels refused to be used.
  12. Elrhino
    Yeah, Dallas aint exactly hurting for nouveau riche cokehead douchers and bleached blondes with boobjobs either.
  13. Elrhino
    Or, you make damn sure you don't get off the phone without a signed deal. You do enough to get guys to not try and get someone else to match This is precisely what the Angels appeared to have done on the Hamilton deal. The Rangers had a long standing agreement with Hamilton's agent that they would get a chance to match any offer. They even had a meeting scheduled with Hamilton's agents this afternoon. The Angels apparently approached Hamilton's agent and told them what they were willing to pay, including a 5th year, and wanted a straight up yes or no answer. If they found out they were shopping the offer around or trying to get another team into a bidding war they were rescinding the offer.
  14. Elrhino
    Per Twitter, perhaps 5/$75
  15. Elrhino
    Pretty dismal offseason for the Rangers. They've missed out on Grienke, missed out on trading for Shields, Upton is off the table, lost Hamilton to their division rival, lost Napoli/Young production from the lineup and have added absolutely zilch to their talent base that missed the playoffs last year. Bring on ridiculously overpaying for Nick Swisher in a desperation move.
  16. Elrhino
    Youk signs a 1/$12 deal with the Yanks, I'm sure the FU to Red Sox is a nice side fringe benefit. He reportedly turned down 2/$18 from the Indians.
  17. Elrhino
    Maybe the doctors put in a robotic cyborg wrist this time.
  18. Elrhino
    And they're watering the grass of Dodger Stadium with Gatorade.
  19. Elrhino
    If I'm Texas, no way I pay that much for Garza this offseason. Also, the Rangers aren't any position to trade young, cheap, right hand power bats. Michael Young is toast. Hamilton and Napoli are free agents who could leave a power void in the lineup next year. Cruz and Beltre are going to be 32 and 33 next year, respectively, and both are constant injury concerns. For all the strengths of their farm system, they don't have a ton of big bats coming down the pike. Whether or not they can fully utilize his glove at 3rd fulltime, Olt is a huge part of their future as a potential right handed middle of the lineup bat that will give them a lot of lineup flexibility.
  20. Elrhino
    Before I 'love to hate' the Dodgers they might have to do something like ... put together a team that can pull ahead of the Giants. It's certainly going to take more than acquiring a bunch of crap contracts for players who's names far exceed their production. If I ever "hated" the Yankees it's only because they sweep in and overpay for the players in their 2nd contracts that were brought and developed by smaller markets who can't compete. Not that they ate those bad 2nd contracts later when teams were looking to get rid of them when performance didn't match pay. Hanley Ramirez is being paid $15 million and has produced 0.7 WAR for the Dodgers so far. If that's what an unfair financial competitive advantage looks like, I'm not that frightened.
  21. Elrhino
    They're going to need attractive trading chips to swing all these hypothetical trades. They've depleted their farm system of arms in a pretty short order since new ownership took over.
  22. Elrhino
    Over editing, something ended up left out. I don't need to be an expert at analyzing players to know that a move to the Dodger Stadium from Fenway isn't going to do a hitter any favors. The only possible benefit would be getting a few extra games at Coors and Chase which is canceled out by more games at both PetCo and AT&T, but none of that is as important as going from playing half the time at one of the top 5 hitters parks to one of the 5-10 most pitcher friendly. You do realize that Adrian Gonzalez played and raked for many many years in Petco Park, correct? This is true. On the other hand he's shown some pretty steady signs of declining power in the last 3 years, which may lead one to believe he's not the same guy he was when he was playing in PetCo. ISO 2009 - .274 2010 - .213 2011 - .210 2012 - .171 HR/FB ratio 2009 - 22.2% 2010 - 16.4% 2011 - 16.4% 2012 - 10.4% He's supposedly had some "shoulder fatigue" the last few seasons. Age 30 seems like a little early to start seeing physical decline in power, but maybe it should also be kept in mind that he was not really regarded as a plus power guy when he was coming up. Maybe his body type and frame doesn't have the resiliency to compensate or easily adapt to aging or nagging injury.
  23. Elrhino
    Gonzalez contract isn't bad yet, but if he doesn't significantly rebound next year it could get that way in a hurry. $21 million per season for the next 7 years is a lot of production to live up to. Certainly more than 2.4 WAR. That said, I expect the change of scenery to do wonders for him and he'll go right back to his dominant self next year. Im sure the Red Sox fans aren't ecstatic about giving up Gonzales, but if it's what it takes to move 2/$30 million of Beckett and 6/$120 million of Crawford (and get back a good young potential TOR pitcher like Webster) you can live with it.
  24. Elrhino
    The Sox are a 7 games under .500 roster with no payroll flexibility to improve in the future. They're shedding about $280 million in future payroll obligations. Whatever faint glimmer of hope they have looking forward, at least they're is hope. That's more than they currently have.
  25. Elrhino
    We're the 1927 Murderers' Row of suck, but the Astros are the 1906 Cubs of suck.
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