LouisEly

No, Nunez is insurance for Pedroia who will not be ready to start the season and has missed a lot of time two of the last three years. Nunez's deal is reportedly a one-year deal with an option. Boston needs a DH and Nunez is a career .735 OPS who got hot in a short sample of 38 games with Boston last year. If Hanley Ramirez gets 497 PAs in 2017 he's guaranteed $22M for 2019 and the Red Sox want no part of that. I'm guessing the hangup is that Boston's offer to Martinez is backloaded for when Ramirez is off the books, and Martinez doesn't like that. Santana is a really good fit for Boston as an alternate to Martinez, and Boston has pitching prospects to offer. Brewers then have the option to keep the prospects and go with Suter/Wilkerson as the #5, or flip the pitching prospects for a starter (either now or before the trade deadline). Pretty good match if you ask me.

Because it's February 15th?

They'll have plenty of big guys next year - Heldt (6'10"), Froling (6'11"), John (6'9", 245), Joey Hauser (6'9"), Sam Hauser (6'8"), Ed Morrow (6'7", 235), Ike Eke (6'9"), Brendan Bailey (6'8"), Jamaal Cain (6'7"). Nine of 13 scholarship players will be at least 6'7". They need to add a guard, preferably a grad transfer. I wonder if guards are hesitant to play for a former guard who may expect them to be as good as he was.

The vesting option is if he reaches 340 inngs in the two yrs of this deal. That seems a pretty tough goal for him to reach. That's only 170 innings per year. He pitched 166.2 last year, 184.2 in 2015. Doesn't seem that tough.

It's even wilder that we defend the pocketbooks of billionaires over the millionaires (and tons of guys playing for league minimum) who actually perform on the field for us. There is an age-old wisdom - "You don't make or lose money on anything until you sell it." Many of them are "paper billionaires" - their value is based on stock that they own or perceived value of the franchise, not how much cash they have in the bank. Ask people (especially in Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Florida) what their house was worth in 2006... then ask them what it was worth in 2009. Ask me what my tech stocks were worth in 2000... and then in 2002. These things can change quickly. Many of them (or the teams they own) take on huge loans to finance the construction of the stadiums. They have principle and interest to pay from the profits their teams generate. Yes, the teams are profitable... but stadiums are expensive to build and maintain. That has to be taken into consideration too. The one thing they all have in common is that they all got to where they are by being very shrewd businesspeople. That will never go away.

No, he made the majors, six games in 2013, pitched pretty well in his first three starts but then likely got hurt in his fourth start (10 day break between starts, no regular work) and tried to pitch through it. Went on the DL, reinjured during rehab starts, shut down in early July. Because of those six games he has been getting a minimum of $80K per year salary since. For $80+K/year, I'd play minor league ball until they took my jersey away.

There were rumors of the Red Sox poking around on Braun as a cheaper alternative to JD Martinez. Unlikely to happen, but when the alternative wants more than 5/$125M... Braun at 3/$60M or 4/$71M doesn't look so bad.

I mentioned how poor his production was relative to his teammates.

No, I think the opposite - the point is that, to quote an infamous poster in other threads, "you don't spend your nickels on gumballs when you think you can get a candy bar". You don't sign the lower tier guys if you think you have a decent shot at a Darvish, JD Martinez, Hosmer, etc. For example - just throwing names out there, don't judge the names or $ amounts - why would you sign Jose Bautista for a hope-he-bounces-back 1-year $6M deal when you have an offer out for JD Martinez? Those guys play the same position, so you can't sign Bautista until you know you can't get Martinez. Why would you sign a Mike Napoli or Mark Reynolds on a one-year deal if you have a legitimate offer on Eric Hosmer? Why would you sign a Jaime Garcia on a one-year bounce-back deal when you have offers out on Arrietta or Lynn? You don't, until you those guys make a decision. Also, to quote Doug Melvin, "Free agents know where they want to play." There are like 3 teams in baseball that are seriously considering JD Martinez or Eric Hosmer. This argument makes no sense to me. I guess it will be interesting to see if things move now that Darvish has signed. Bolding the part that you missed. What teams want to be in on Harper, Machado, or the other free agents next offseason? Why give a 2-3 year deal to a player when you want those guys? The point is, why spend money on lower-level free agents when you really want the top-tier guys at that position? The analogy here is the Milwaukee Bucks. This year they are spending a combined $41.3M on Dellavedova, Snell, Teletovic, and Henson. Wouldn't they be better served spending $30M on a star player, two journeymen and a rookie? The Bucks spent their nickels on gumballs when what they need is a candy bar.

Darvish missed almost two full seasons due to injury. He's only started 30 games in a season twice. Chatwood missed almost two full seasons due to injury and has never started more than 27 games or pitched more than 158 innings in a season. These guys are significant injury risks. Lester is 34 and starting to regress. Thinking that the Cubs are going to own the division for the next four years is getting a little ahead of your skis.

No, I think the opposite - the point is that, to quote an infamous poster in other threads, "you don't spend your nickels on gumballs when you think you can get a candy bar". You don't sign the lower tier guys if you think you have a decent shot at a Darvish, JD Martinez, Hosmer, etc. For example - just throwing names out there, don't judge the names or $ amounts - why would you sign Jose Bautista for a hope-he-bounces-back 1-year $6M deal when you have an offer out for JD Martinez? Those guys play the same position, so you can't sign Bautista until you know you can't get Martinez. Why would you sign a Mike Napoli or Mark Reynolds on a one-year deal if you have a legitimate offer on Eric Hosmer? Why would you sign a Jaime Garcia on a one-year bounce-back deal when you have offers out on Arrietta or Lynn? You don't, until you those guys make a decision. Also, to quote Doug Melvin, "Free agents know where they want to play."

Read somewhere that the Dodgers' offer was contingent on moving other salary. Following the bread crumbs... it seems like Darvish really wanted to go to LA, LA had to move salary but couldn't, Darvish kept holding out hoping Dodgers could move salary and either got sick of waiting or Cubs gave him ultimatum. Guessing Brewers offer was somewhere around 5/$100M-$110M.

This is interesting. The challenge with the draft is that those players won't make an impact for 2-3 years (college picks) or 4-5 years (high school). I'm thinking more like the NBA, where you have exemptions that don't count towards the cap. Perhaps something like the top two teams that miss the playoffs get a voucher towards signing free agents the next offseason. MLB will pay up to a certain amount ($10M? $15M? $20M?) towards free agent signings, but it's not cash that the team can pocket - it's use it or lose it. Because it's not a huge amount it encourages teams to sign non-premiere free agents (a.k.a. "gumballs") instead of holding out for premiere free agents (a.k.a. "candy bars"). The NBA has injury exemptions that don't count towards the cap; I think that's a good start too.

Yes, it was speculated in post #20 of this thread.

It would be worth it to put his locker next to Thames in spring training. Then drop his butt like a bad transmission in the last cuts.

Big win at Seton Hall to keep the tourney hopes alive. Top-10 SOS. Sacar Anim has been impressive the last few weeks - the redshirt year has done him wonders. Four games against the bottom three teams in the Big East coming up, but might be the wrong time to play St. John's. My goodness... knocking off Duke and Villanova, but 1-11 in conference?

I know that it is Maker's job to guard all five opposing players on the floor on the defensive end, but my understanding is that +/- is how the team performs when that player is on/off the court. (He was +26 in their last game, when Giannis was +11. [sarcasm]Obviously proves your point[/sarcasm].) I didn't say that. I objected to the notion that the Bucks have drafted "horribly". "Well" and "not horribly" are two different things. And frankly, if you struggle to come up with more than a couple of guys drafted in the 15 spots after they picked each year, they did draft well. Please, other than Joe Alexander (I'll give you that one), come up with more than 2-3 guys among the next 15 picks who are significantly (not marginally - significantly) better players. Please list them.

That stat makes zero sense to me. I'm aware of it, but looking at some of the numbers for some of the players... the numbers are illogical at best. I don't think it correlates well with talent at all. And aren't wins a function of the entire team? If a team has a great player but doesn't win much... won't that player have a low win share? This. Like I said, who among the next 10-12 draft picks is better? Would you have said Aaron Gordon a year ago? Marcus Smart? Elfrid Payton? I don't see anyone better. I think your angst is directed towards the wrong player. I'm more concerned about Tony Snell, who has scored a total of 13 points over the last five games and is being paid 8 figures this and the next three years.

I absolutely think the Red Sox have some interest in him, especially considering the outlandish contract demands of JD Martinez(who they are publicly targeting). I'd be open to dealing for prospects now, signing a FA, and dealing for another pitcher at the deadline depending on our situation. I would not be at all surprised if JD Martinez is holding up a trade of Santana. Was going to post this last night, but the Red Sox have supposedly expressed interest in Santana and they need a DH. If Hanley Ramirez accumulates 497 PAs this year the Red Sox are on the hook for his $22M option for 2019, and I'm sure they don't want that. It is possible that the Red Sox have made the best offer for Santana, but it is contingent on Martinez going elsewhere. With owing Ramirez $22M this year the Red Sox offer to Martinez might be low in 2018 with a big increase in 2019 when Ramirez is off the books. Martinez might not be real big on that. The Red Sox don't have many top 100 prospects, but almost all of their top prospects (B/B- grade) are pitchers with several being LH. Pitching prospects are expensive; the Brewers won't get as much value compared to trading for position players. The Brewers could keep the pitching prospects, or flip them for an upgrade at SP. The Indians might have an offer out to Martinez as well. Encarnacion moves to 1B, with Brantley/Frazier/Chisenhall manning the OF spots. Martinez is expensive, but they don't have to give up pitching or other prospects. It's salary/performance risk versus prospect risk.

I returned from a 10-day trip on Jan 16th to find two roof leaks while I was gone - one coming through/around a HVAC vent, the other through/around a recessed light. (I live on the top floor of a "4-flat" - one building, five floors, four units.) They were not actively leaking when I got home - I found dried splatter on my desk and water under the office supplies holder, and I found dried splatter under the recessed light in the kitchen. They have not leaked since, but we have not had any precipitation since either until the snow Saturday night and it's been too cold to melt since. I notified the other three owners that night and sent pictures, told them that a roof repair expense was coming. No response. The next weekend I had roofers and deck repair contractors over and got estimates the following week - they noticed rust along the side of the roof near the leaks and standing water under the deck. I passed along the info ($8000 to do the north half of the roof, not including what I have to spend to remove the deck) the following weekend. We don't have those funds in the reserve and would need the owners to either do another assessment (did one last year) or pay me directly. The first floor owner responded, and said it sounded like an issue he had with his other condo and was just a frozen drain spout that was backing up. (He rents his unit and doesn't live here.) It was in the 50's while I was gone, and I think any frozen drain spout would have melted - if there is standing water on the deck, then you think any ice would have melted. Neither of the other two owners responded though. It's been a week and a half and still no response from the other two owners. Meanwhile I have a bucket on my desk and in the kitchen just in case. I sent another message to the owners asking the other two to chime in and they have still not responded. We have two other outstanding issues (front gate won't latch shut, drywall at roof of interior stairway is still damaged from the roof leak last year) and the other owners won't spend the money to fix them. As mentioned, we had an assessment last year... and the other owners talked themselves into doing the absolute minimum possible to fix the other roof issue and not increase the reserves. I pitched hard to do a bigger assessment because the building is ten years old and things will start to break, but they refused to do more than the minimum. Not only that, but I'm the only person who does anything around here - replacing burned out lights, sweeping leaves out of the driveway, hiring contractors to fix things... the other owners don't do a damned thing around here. I know there are a few attorneys on the board... what can I do here? I have made them aware of these issues multiple times. If my roof leaks again and causes more damage, what can I do? Do I have any legal recourse forcing them to take action?

What I interpret this to mean is one of two things: 1) that if Vogt's throwing doesn't improve and Bandy's hitting doesn't improve they will be in the market for a capable backup (i.e. "serviceable catcher") B) Pina's cheap in 2018 (still pre-arb until 2019) and under control until 2022, and they might be considering including him in a trade to get the SP that they need. Never underestimate the value of cheap, even for one year.

2015 - Who drafted after Vaughn in the first round that year is significantly better? Hollis-Jefferson and who else? (Do you want Bobby Portis punching out Giannis in practice?) A few are marginally better, but I'd be hard pressed to name more than a couple who are significantly better. 2014 - Parker... who knows if it hadn't been for the injuries. Embiid has played half as many games as Parker even with the injuries. Maybe Aaron Gordon, but he's just breaking out now. He wasn't much his first three years. 2013 - Giannis - enough said. 2012 - Henson - same with Vaughn, who drafted after him has been significantly better? Evan Fournier and who else? Some of them are out of the league. (Again, first round picks only. Many other teams passed on Crowder, Green, and Middleton too as they were 2nd round picks.) 2011 - Passed on Klay Thompson and Leonard but they drafted Fredette for the Kings as part of the trade and ended up with Tobias Harris. Would have hurt more to have sent those guys, but Harris wasn't a bad outcome at all. They've made bad trades, but I don't see horrible drafting.

The link is to an article about his age controversy, but says nothing about what other GMs think of him. In fact, it is complementary: "“What he is” is this: an oak tree that can pick-and-pop and be relied upon to defend someone half his size in a switch. He can also do stuff like this. Who the hell cares how old he is? "

"The popcorn you're eating has been (peed) on, film at 11."

Kevin Garnett has had very flattering things to say about Maker from working with him in the offseason, and Garnett has no vested interest in the success of the Bucks whatsoever. Look what happened to Tobias Harris once he got out of Milwaukee.