An earlier trading deadline would actually hurt balance. No one wants to give up before the All Star break so only the rich teams could buy the meager offerings in June. And now you have a bunch of expiring contracts that teams can't move eating into payroll and getting nothing for them. Rich teams also are much more able to afford depth and so one injury won't kill them as lower revenue teams would and so they need to replace injuries less.
Actually no, everyone basically realized that Vasquez was good and that the White Sox were looking to dump him because they set him up as a scape goat. Vasquez did not come out of nowhere. Very little changes in a year.
Well it went to Cabrera, so my guess its the same guy who listed Verlander as #1 for the Cy Young. EDIT: Actually its been found out. Keizo Konishi who covers the Mariners for Japan voted Cabrera #1.
The fact that the Marlins aren't jumping to get a deal done is just insane. That's two years of arby and two years of free agency for less than $40m. Obviously there are injury concerns but this is jsut ludicrous. I'd ship Gomez out in a second and go with Gerut and a RH platoonmate for a year or move Cain.
The point is the Brewers turned around less due to the change in ownership and more due to revenue sharing. The Seligs were running a shoe string operation borrowing for the first 2 months of the year to make payroll before the TV money came in June (and how stupid is MLB to do it that way?). This isn't to say the Seligs didn't screw things up from the day Bud decided to become commissioner and let the team flounder for 10+ years. But the market size isn't the hinderence it was in the late 90s and early 2000s.
So I've now passed the 70 hour mark on DA:O and have yet to get the Sacred Urn(for those who don't know there are 4 major areas in the middle part of the game and the Urn is the second half of one of them. So I've completed 3.5 of the major areas and then it looks like a sizable end game after that) . So yeah there is content there for those who are willing to look for it.
No they wouldn't. Again we got the Cliff Lee trade as a basis. The Indians got 4 players. One a ready to go pitcher, one a pitcher with a hue arm in A but serious control problems, and two guys who might be backups for 18 months of a cheap ace.
Mark Attanasio gets a huge pass. He's made more money operating the Brewers than the Seligs likely ever did due to revenue sharing. The Brewers have been one of the most profitable teams since he took over.
I think people are really overestimating what Halladay will command. Lee brought back one solid prospect and three guys with some upside but far from top prospects ready to contribute.
Lots of people talk about how Nolasco outperformed his ERA and given the Marlins consistent need to make Loria oodles of money he is likely available. Very few talk about how Pavano outpitched his ERA last season. He has an FIP of 4.00 in the AL. Some comparisons: Nolasco: 3.35 Jackson: 4.28 Wolf 3.96 Davis: 4.84 Washburn 4.58 (after 3 straight years in the 4.7s) Harden 4.35 (due to a likely fluke in HR rate) Pavano would be one of the better buys in the $6-8m a year range