XZero771679666304

I'm riding high on last offseason's "Kyle shut up, Junior Lake's not going to be that terrible, line drive percentage means everything!" success. Who took that position, like one person?

so much of what we actually see on tv will be done next year. the grandstands and clubhouses will be nice to see done, though. plaza too. We won't see things like the clubhouse and player facilities much, but it'll be nice not to have them be a laughingstock, and it'll make us more appealing to free agents.

I don't know know where all you have lived, but most of the time you have go way, way lower than 800K before you get to that point. Like <100K.

800K is plenty big. Hell, 500K is plenty big. There are only nine cities (proper) in the country with a population of a million or more, and you couldn't pay me enough to live in almost half of them. Some of the most desirable (and happening) cities in America are under a million. Once you get into the mid-six figures, you're going to be able to find just about anything to do that you want to. Ohio seriously blows, though.

Man, I'm really amped up to see all these changes actually happen. I think it's going to be great, but the impatient side of me hates that it can't all be done in one offseason. I love seeing these things progress. I'd also like to be a fly on Beth Murphy's (and the other rooftop owners) wall as all these changes come to pass, especially the signs.

What then if it is served between two end pieces from a loaf of bread? That's essentially a bun. Does it cease to be a sandwich then? I like Breslow's answer. The hot dog bun is wide open, like an angle. It doesn't want to close. It's no more a sandwich than a pita pocket, perhaps less. But then is a sub only a sandwich if it is open along both lengths of the bread?

Also, did Jeter refuse to move off of SS when ARod joined the team, or was it something they didn't want to ask him to do out of respect or some such nonsense? I can't recall.

One of the most laughably false and most pervasive myths of the the last 30 years of baseball is this "Derek Jeter is a transcendent fielder" fallacy. It has been totally accepted by the mainstream sports media, and it will follow him all the way to Cooperstown. It's total BS, but it's almost heresy in most baseball circles (the meatball-y ones, at least) to point that out. It doesn't jive with the reverent narrative. He's probably done as well as he could with his very limited range, but he's never even been an average defender at SS, at least not in 12-13 years.

Just once I'd like to stand in the box and see whet one of those looks like from that perspective.

I feel conflicted because I don't like Denver, I prefer Seattle, but I detest Pete Carroll.

Wow

Just as I say that...

I know it doesn't mean a whole lot, but it seems like Manning throws a lot of really ugly balls.

DL with a bad quad, iirc.

The very notion of physically disciplining a one year old baby is breathtakingly stupid, aside from the fact that it's barbaric.

Over how many years? I mean if it's for like 10, essentially getting him through his prime, I don't think that's an awful deal. But if he wants it over like 5-6 then I'd have some reservations. Reservations? If he wants 5-6/100+ he can [expletive] right off. That's crazy talk. Jose Abreu is getting half that AAV.

I think you might be right, but I think he gets acquitted. He's got a high powered attorney, and Texas is pretty much equivalent to Mordor. On the one hand, you are allowed to shoot your children for discipline in Texas. On the other hand, black man. But then on the next hand, rich celebrity with lots of cash and the attorney. Beating the piss out of your children is probably viewed as upholding family values in Texas.

I think you might be right, but I think he gets acquitted. He's got a high powered attorney, and Texas is pretty much equivalent to Mordor.

This is reductive nonsense. Having Bryant through age 29 is better than having him through age 28. If history is any predictor, it's a lot better because Bryant will be a really good baseball player at age 29. In order to *guarantee* they have him at 29, they're sacrificing having him on the MLB team at the tail end of a lost season, and for a couple weeks next year. It's a trivial sacrifice for the expected benefit. I say guarantee because despite pretending otherwise, there are no certainties when it comes to Free Agency. Guys leave big market teams all the time. Just last season Cano left the Yankees for more money/years, while the Yankees were in the process of spending a billion dollars in FA and giving the middle finger to the luxury tax. As a result the Yankees are going to miss the playoffs by about one Robinson Cano because they're playing the husk of Brian Roberts at 2B. Moreover, money is not the only consideration here and why this is such a false choice. I'm pretty certain that I want a team option on Kris Bryant for his age 29 season. I'm far less certain that I'll want to guarantee him significant cash through age 34, 36, or even 40(like Cano). So if I can get the former while not at all jeopardizing the latter for the trivial cost mentioned above, it's a no-brainer. Money is the only consideration. It is ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Even if you take into account the other stuff, the only thing that matters in that regard is money. The only reason you would not considering keeping him until he's 40 is money. Money is the only reason and pretending otherwise is foolish. Money is not the only consideration. It's certainty. There's about a 95% chance that, with Boras as his agent, Bryant is hitting free agency as soon as his 6 years is up. And once a player hits free agency, all bets are off. Exactly.

Where are you getting that? All I see is people saying that because there are no guarantees about being able to keep him after he hits FA (and he almost certainly will), banking that extra year at the expense of a month at the end of a [expletive] season is the smart play. Unless someone has said "lets just get our guaranteed years of control and kick him to the curb" and I missed it.

Fangraphs has an impressive array of split options.

I've heard it mentioned a few times on either MLBN or Baseball Tonight. Has Gomes been terrible since he took his place? Cespedes in Boston: .288/.308/.460, 4 HR, 27 RBI Jonny Gomes in Oakland: .244/.327/.244, 0 HR, 5 RBI Gomes has had only 49 plate appearances in Oakland, while Cespedes has had 146 in Boston. Gentry, Moss, and Fuld have all played LF since Cespedes' departure, with Vogt filling in at 1B if Moss is in the OF. Someone with more time than me can slice and dice the numbers, but I don't believe there has been a huge drop off in offensive production from LF since his departure. Eyeballing it, it looks like the power production has been a little lower, with higher OBP. Well, Cespedes has been worth 1.2 fWAR over the last 30 days. Over that same period, Oakland's LF have produced 0.4 fWAR, and just about all of that because is of Sam Fuld's defense. A quick eyeballing of the numbers says Cespedes' OPS has been about .150 higher than the combined Oakland LFs over that time frame.

That's upsetting, I really like the A's. Oh well, thanks for Addison. Sorry, Billy. Maybe next year. They won't have Lester next year, and they also won't have Cespedes back. This was the "all in" year, and it appears that Beane may have made one move too many. Though they are still holding onto a spot, and there's plenty of time left to turn things around.

They're not all going to be making the minimum for long. And I may be way off here, but based on the comments I've heard, I think they might want to sign two FA pitchers, though not both this offseason. And given that we don't really know how much payroll is going to be available, I think spending it on the areas of most need (i.e. not the offense) first is probably the right thing to do. And I have no reason to say this other than it is my intuition, but I don't think the FO is inclined to go outside of the organization for major offensive pieces, at least until they guys we have are given a shot.

A quick look at his limited OF metrics is not encouraging.