Other Baseball

MLB Trade Rumors just released a piece saying several high end free agents may try to sign big deals for themselves before the CBA expires. It does take a lot away from Jeff Passan's column on the GM meetings this week, but given the CBA expires before the Winter Meetings take place. It's really hard for me to believe that more than three of the top 20 free agents would sign long term deals. I'd be really interested to see if one of the top shortstops on the market signs a deal before then. It will certainly set a market price for other shortstop, depending on who it is. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/11/corey-seager-marcus-semien-rumors-sign-before-cba-lockout…

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/ Another FA is gone, there seems to be a race as far as signing them. Who'll be next?

Ok, somebody tell me what factor I'm missing. I had missed this story from Dayn Perry about the state of the CBA negotiations when it came out. I found this part interesting: "A lockout means the owners shut down the industry as a means to hasten and add urgency to CBA negotiations. When a labor stoppage happens on the player side, it's a strike, but that's not likely to happen. That's because the owners will almost certainly lock out the players if no agreement is in place soon after the outgoing one expires. The owners could allow the offseason to proceed under the usual circumstances while negotiations continued, but that's probably not going to happen." Why …

Jeff Passan is reporting that the Rays and Wander Franco have reached an agreement on a 12 year contract extension.

I am going to work on a run article creating the best stadium in baseball using parts of other stadiums (I.e the green monster, Wrigley ivy, the metrodome milk jug). I’d like to make it a bit of a crowdsourcing article though. From any ballpark you’ve been to, what are some of your favorite features?

Two MLB teams lost 110 games last season, and four teams lost over 100 games. So, can changes to the MLB Draft help to stop tanking? No one is denying the Twins had a terrible 2021 campaign, but there was even less positivity surrounding teams from Baltimore, Arizona, Texas, and Pittsburgh. All four of those teams lost over 100 games, with none of them being competitive. All four will get top draft picks in each round of the 2022 MLB Draft, so is there a way to disincentivize this type of behavior from clubs? NBA Method Other professional leagues have tried to curtail tanking by implementing methods such as the lottery used in the NBA. With this method, the b…

7 years $140 million. So much for being dead set on testing free agency, eh?

according to MLBTR Syndergaard has agreed to a 1 year $21 million contract wit h the Angels pending physical. Price of good pitching just went up with these 2 signins

Always the best pitching Target I felt the Twins would have been able to aim for is off the table. The nice, short contract Pohlad dreams of with the talent level needed to lead a post season roster and at a big discount due to missed time. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/11/justin-verlander-to-re-sign-with-astros.html I think it's safe to stick a fork in the Twins fixing the rotation through free agency this year. The top names still available will all get contracts too long for Pohlad to except.

Below is my free agency tracker. Signed players are in yellow and will be removed after they have been signed for awhile. I will leave AL Central signings on though so people can see who they sign and how they compare to the Twins. Recent Signings: Daniel Hudson, Corey Seager, Kirby Yates) Still a lot of SP and RP options out there, but with FA's we had a better chance of signing now off the board like Eduardo Rodriguez, Anthony Desclafani, Aaron Loup my hopes aren't high. I'm fully prepared for a bunch of bargain bin signings similar to Happ, Shoemaker, etc and the team trying to sell us why they are good additions, as well as hype up our prospects to get people exc…

Lefty Rodriquez to the Tigers for 5/80, so $16M per year AV. Tigers are going to be good this year, especially if they land Correa, too.

The place for discussion about this year’s playoffs.

It's got a nice ring to it , no pun intended. Congrats Eddie!

MLB.TV now includes live streams for every Dominican Winter League game. No additional subscription is necessary, any active MLB.TV subscription from 2021 will work. When the games are live, the streams are available in the "Featured" section of the website or app (same place they had their "Big Inning" show on weeknights this season): https://www.mlb.com/tv Complete league schedule here: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/lidom/2021-schedule Twins fans might be interested in watching Toros del Este, with Gilberto Celestino on the roster -- looks like he started for them yesterday.

AP had a story today says work stoppage, strike almost inevitable in December for MLB. What are the points of disagreement? Have read plenty of articles saying things are being discussed, but never include any specifics. Anyone have some insights?

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/cleveland-indians-decide-on-new-team-name.html I'm curious as to what the logo will look like but I'm glad they've finally changed the name.

This activity always interested me. And this? This makes it moreso:

Can we please just go ahead and put this farce of pitchers hitting to bed and admit that we're pretty much playing with a DH already? If I compiled this correctly, in 15 NL playoff games so far, managers have only let their pitchers walk to the plate 42 times (notice that I didn't say "hit," for reasons that will become clear). That's essentially 2.5 plate appearances per game. Not per team per game, but per game. So essentially, half the starting pitchers bat once and half of them bat twice. (There was that fluke when Graterol stayed in to hit flail before being pulled, since Roberts didn't want to waste another pinch hitter in a 6-2 game, and since Roberts certain…

MLB in talks to launch nationwide streaming service for home games without cable TV

We don't know the details yet........

The Red Sox, after a 5-4 loss in Game 1, blast Luis Garcia and Jake Odorizzi in the first two innings of Game 2 for 8 runs on 6 hits! JD Martinez and Rafael Devers putting their names in the history books! This would be a huge win for the Red Sox if they hold onto this lead.

With the Dodgers win last night we are down to 4 teams ... none of whom I really want to cheer on to win. Of the four, the Braves are lowest on my list, even with my beloved Eddie in the lineup. In fact, I don't think the other teams come close. The Braves for me are in Yankees territory of likability. Yep, that bad. For oh so many reasons. So, then it's the Dodgers for the NL. Ho hum. Okay, whatever. Would rather be cheering on the Brewers, or even the Giants, but here we are. The Dodgers are most definitely the lesser of the evils. Then it's between the Red Sox and the Astros. Is that really my choice? Either team against the Dodgers will replay a recent WS match u…

Do better, baseball. Jim Kaat Remarks

First, this is not an either or, the answer could be neither. Over the last few years there has been a lot of talk of how badly the minor league players have been treated. I read a good article on ESPN last night that brought up some interesting things. One thing is that there is no uniform way for minor league players to be treated, other than pay. The pay is not much, even though it went up lately. There are still stories of players living in cars, or packing motel rooms, or players spending more on rent then they make to play so needing families to help pay their rent. In my opinion, players should have to basically just survive to play in the minor l…

What is a free agent worth? $8M AAV per WAR. That's what they all tell me. It never felt right because it never seems to work out that way, ESPECIALLY for the top end of the FA market. It is based on this article ( https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-cost-of-a-win-in-free-agency-in-2020/ ) as well as an older article that he reference a couple times There are two problems here. 1) He is relying on future WAR projections, attempting to quantify the Qualifying Offer silliness (not his silliness... the system's silliness), as well as some other assumptions. All of these things might seem logical on their own but once you roll them all together things get messy and…

Well, the AL Wild Card race is pretty much the only race left in the MLB regular season, but it is shaping up to be pretty interesting! Standings as of Thursday, September 30: TEAM W L PCT WCBG COIN FLIP ODDS REMAINING SCHEDULE Yankees 90 68 .570 +1.0 86.3% 1 at TOR; 3 vs TB Red Sox 89 69 .563 -- 61.5% 1 at BAL; 3 at WSH Mariners 89 70 .560 …

WInner of the Williemac award for the Giants! 18 HRs, six game winning hits. LaMonte really contributed to the success of the team and their 106 wins. "Wade has delivered six game-tying or go-ahead hits in the ninth inning for the Giants this season, at least one against every opponent in the National League West." His slash line this year is 257/330/489/819. Other ex-Twins include Berrios 5 - 4, 3.58 Akil Baddoo 258/327/437/765 J A Happ 5 - 2, 4.00 for the Cardinals Robbie Grossman 236/355/413/768 I am sure the rest of you can fill in many more names and stats. Please do. But LaMonte is really the story I enjoy the most - what a great jo…

If there was ever must-watch regular season baseball, it doesn't get much more intriguing than tonight's matchup in Toronto. You know the crowd is going to be nuts with two of the top pitchers in the AL facing off.

3 National League Playoff Spots have been locked up, and another one is as good as locked up. The final spot that is still a question is the champion of the NL East. Who will it be? Will it be the Braves or the Phillies? Please vote and share your opinion below: