Other Baseball

I thought I'd get this going now (and pin it), even though we still have a few weeks to go. Please use this thread to track MLB NON-TWINS transactions. If you want to have a more in-depth discussion on a particular transaction, or major news, please start a separate thread. If you just want to make a few comments here there on the myriad of non-Twins MLB transactions, do so here. And as always, since this is the 'other baseball' forum, try to keep the Twins talk to the Twins talk forum. Difficult to do on a Twins site, and there will be no admonishment if it strays to that (wish the Twins had done this or glad they didn't do that), but try to keep focus on the 'other.' …

I just ran across a working paper from an economist named Carrie Meyer at George Mason University entitled "Effects of Major League Baseball on Economic Development in the Dominican Republic." The abstract follows: "This paper examines the growing economic impact of MLB on the Dominican economy. After introducing the Dominican baseball experience, it examines the rapid growth of salaries paid to Dominican-born major league players and provides perspective on how the growth in those salaries relates to growth in Dominican GDP. Because relatively few players account for most of the earnings by Dominican MLB players, the spending and investment patterns of these particular…

We're T-minus 4 days away from Opening Day! Which means it's time to put our money where our mouth is! The list of Over/Under win totals was set by Odds Shark ... Please copy and paste the list below, and give your predictions! We'll check out the results at the end of the season. The winner of this illustrious contest gets one FREE bowling evening courtesy of Chief! Or a care package of Christmas cookies from Carole! Let's get this started! AL EAST: NYY - 94.5 BOS - 91.5 TOR - 81 TBR - 77.5 BAL - 73 AL CENTRAL: CLE - 94.5 MIN - 82.5 KC - 71.5 DET - 68.5 CWS - 68 AL WEST: HOU - 96.5 LAA - 84.5 SEA - 81.5 TEX - 77.5 OAK - 74.5 NL EAST: WAS - 92.5 NYM - 81…

I've got nine participants, so I just need one more--would anyone like to join an experimental, non-traditional, head-to-head 8-category weekly fantasy league on ESPN.com? I wanted to try a fantasy league that emphasized the three true outcomes--forget the stuff that doesn't matter (RBIs, batting average, ERA, pitcher wins, and stolen bases)! Also, forget about average or rate stats. This league focuses on walks, home runs, and strikeouts, for both pitchers and batters. The categories we'll use are these "three true outcomes", and then round it out with hits for batters and innings pitched (AKA outs) for pitchers. I suspect the counting stats and the minimum will overwh…

So, Aaron Judge apparently told Manny Machado that he'd "look good in Pinstripes". And this apparently is a no-no according to MLB, claiming it's "tampering". Is it just me, or is that about one of the stupidest things MLB has said/done recently. Do they not think that players are constantly telling each other, "Hey, you should come play for us!" I mean, how often do you hear during the offseason that so-and-so is recruiting so-and-so to their team? Why is it suddenly a big no-no for Judge to say he'd like to play with Machado? And MLB wonders why they're losing their audience...

Title of the topic should read 'Altuve gets a huge contract.'. Distracted typing is bad typing, especially when you're a bad typist to begin with :-) ANYWAY: Altuve's years of great play got hugely rewarded today when he received a 5/151 contract from the Astros. Very happy for him and kudos to the Astros for stepping up and getting that done.

A somewhat lengthly piece by Thomas Boswell regarding the Nationals contract issues, and in essence all of baseballs. He admits that whether this winter was a permanent change in contract negotiations and amounts is sort of a wait and see, I would bet that it is forever changed. Hopefully a new labor agreement would address some of these issues. But that negotiation could get ugly. It seems the owners currently hold most of the cards. What I don't think that will change for the time being will be the "pecking order" of the teams in terms of shelling out contract money. This is all relative. A low ball team will not compete with the Yankees/Dodgers just because old era…

Now that Who's Who in Baseball is no longer being published, are there any guides out there that have just the basic career statistics for all the major leaguers without all the fantasy mumbo jumbo? I've ordered the Bill James 2018 Handbook hoping it will have what I want.

https://sports.yahoo.com/ron-gardenhire-opens-1983-baseball-205049737.html Fun little thing.

Jon Heyman of Fanrag Sports interviewed Kenley Jansen about this weird off-season. He really dove in on tanking in baseball, and believes there's only 6 teams in the NL that are actually trying to compete this season. Eric Hosmer also discussed how the integrity of the game is being compromised when good players remain unsigned 2-3 weeks into spring training. More at the link here. https://www.fanragsports.com/dodgers/heyman-jansen-worried-about-mlb-effort-imbalance/

This just in, Jose De Leon is going to have Tommy John surgery. That was always a big concern and why a 1-for-1 swap for Brian Dozier was wisely never completed.

https://newarena.com/mlb/ranked-every-mlb-teams-ace-from-worst-to-best/?amxt=pib&utm_campaign=fb_jg_mlb_PitchersRanked&utm_source=fb_ae&utm_medium=fb-pib&utm_term=mlb_nl&utm_content=1 Interesting, it's breaks down, according to them, each teams Ace and where they rank amongst each other.

For those who have followed Twins Daily for some time might know that I like to dig into the hows and whys of the game in addition to the data side. Not having the opportunity to write full breakdowns here as often anymore, I wanted to create this thread to use as a place to post items discussing the game -- swings, approaches, game theories, data utilization, front office trends, etc -- things that do not necessarily involve the Twins specifically but might influence how you might view the game overall. I hope to post something to the thread on a regular basis. In the comment sections I have seen plenty of great insight and questions regarding the game so I hope we ca…

I think some of you may recall Seth Romero from the draft last year. Elite talent (top 10 in last years draft) but total head case. Kicked off Houston's baseball team. Still taken late in the 1st round last year. Already causing trouble in pro ball @https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/970819389846011905

This was my view this afternoon on this beautiful mid-seventies day here in sunny CA: Was it a great game? No. Was it two college powerhouses going at it? No. Was it outdoor baseball on a gorgeous afternoon? You bet. (left top of the seventh, with CSUB down 12-1. Wasn't looking good for the home team.)

https://deadspin.com/lawsuit-baseball-agency-made-under-the-table-payments-1822949821

Various news sources report that the Cleveland franchise of MLB is removing the American Indian caricature logo from caps and uniforms after the 2018 season. I don't know why it's not being done immediately, and I think it's time for the team name to be changed as well, but I guess some progress is better than none.

I lifted this link from another blogger whom I read with regularity. It's a lengthly piece on the concept of the electronic strike zone. I have never been a fan of the idea, mostly for reasons of tradition. But everyone has their own take on the concept. It's a pretty indepth discussion, maybe it will cause some to revisit their own perception of the whole issue. Regardless, to paraphrase what a very wise man said recently, "who would have thought balls and strikes could be so complicated"? https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/37347/robo-strike-zone-not-simple-think/

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In my opinion there isn't a single reason for the slow FA market this year, I believe there are multiple reasons that make sense in my head at least. Ted had an excellent article attempting to tackle the issue but I started thinking about a quote that Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto recently made. "You could argue you’re going to compete with more clubs to get the first pick in the draft than you would to win the World Series." So I tried to place all 30 teams into 5 badly named buckets based upon their probability of pursuing the top end of the market. Bucket 4 would be the teams that will set the market... and those teams are typically not market setters and that h…

https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/02/01/mark-appel-phillies-pitcher-career-break Rough. He'll be trying to go to business school. Originally, he was drafted 8th overall and the Pirates could only give him a bonus of something like 1.5m or so. He held out and went #1 the next year and got something closer to 6m, IIRC. At the time, a lot of people said his agent, Scott Boras, was hurting him and he should take the Pirates money and cash in on free agency earlier. Looks like Boras was right and was looking out for his clients' best interests. Appel will be only the third #1 overall pick to not make the majors. Best of luck to him.

In good news for Buxton, Sano and company, Mookie Betts got over 10m in his first arb round. The Red Sox had offered 7.5. Betts has already had three huge seasons, which helps, but our young players are definitely going to benefit from the arb increases that are happening and, of course, next years insane free agency group. According to fangraphs, arbitration panels are "famously old school" so stats like WAR aren't relied upon. Instead, home runs and RBIs might push the needle. That could be good for Sano. And it might make us signing Darvish even less likely.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/01/kevin-towers-passes-away-cancer.html#comments He was in the game for a long time but was only 56 years old. Cancer sucks.

http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/85136/why-does-everybody-love-vlad-guerrero-so-much I really hope Vlad gets in-what a story and what a player. Here's a brief bit on him from ESPN. I have a former college coach who played with him briefly in the Expos organization. He told me a few stories, but this one stands out the most. Even as an 18 year old, Vlad had an absolute cannon. They were practicing one particular morning, and the outfielders were throwing home. There was moisture on the ground, and his throw skipped a bit on the catcher. Long story short, it hit him in a bad spot and cracked his cup.

Wow, would have never expected this. Maybe he was getting desperate... https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/01/central-notes-brewers-indians-salazar-pirates.html

Then I partially watched game five between the Yankees and Indians. Close to four hours for a nine inning game. And the strikeouts. 31 K's. Thirty. One. I love baseball, and I turned the game off. Baseball needs to do something about length of games. Something, or things, that are meaningful, and ruthlessly enforced. And for petes sake, figure out a way to get more balls in play. K, K, K, K, K, Walk, HR, K, K, K isn't very fun to watch.

Four players in return. None of the top three Astros prospects. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/01/astros-to-acquire-gerrit-cole-2.html Astros likely out of the running for Darvish.

http://www.catchitkansas.com/content/news/Pelfrey-joins-Newman-baseball-staff-468385753.html

Mostly from Heyman's twitter. Profar for Harvey swap being discussedYankees trying to trade for Gerritt Cole but Pirates say they aren't trading himCarlos Santana turned down 3/36 from Cleveland to test marketSeattle will improve pitching, looking at DarvishIf Yankees get Cole, I might scream.

Any hot takes?http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/kothfiig8u20hhbxavevjg.png I'm starting to worry that baseball is pricing itself out of many families and new fans. Just from my own anecdotal experience, kids care far less about baseball than I remember caring about it.