jerichoholicninja

Agents seem to think that teams aren't making fair offers and are crying foul, collusion, whatever. I hope those same agents would also tell their clients to reject any offer that is above what they feel they are worth. Fair is only fair if it's fair for both sides.

In terms of OPS+ Thames would have been their 7th best hitter last year, narrowly beating out their current 1B Gurriel by 1 point. Take out Thames's monstrous first month and he's probably not an upgrade over any of their non-catcher hitters.

He was assigned to a minor league team, Trenton I think. At this point of the year it means nothing.

DH is the only real glaring need for Houston. Santana is too much for just McHugh and I doubt Thames or Aguilar would do much for them.

Will watch curling, bobsledding, and some of the various types of speed skating stuff otherwise no interest in the rest of it. The Winter Olympics has basically become Winter X Games II.

100% this. Fans who already wanted to go to Cubs games were going to go, presale or not. There are a ton of Cubs fans in Wisconsin, they will also be able to get presale tickets. People who don't want to go to these games will just buy these tickets and then put them on craigslist or stubhub or whatever and they'll go to the highest bidders, likely Cubs fans. The Brewers twitter account seems completely obsessed with the Cubs lately which is embarrassing. With this and the changes they made to the special days at Miller Park it makes me think someone new took over their marketing department.

Wilson was the one who pushed for this and it is because he wanted to be a Yankee his entire life. This really isn’t much of a PR stunt pushed by the Yankees. Yes and no. This is the basically same as having Billy Crystal participate in Spring Training except they actually had to trade for Wilson.

I imagine a lot of guys won't sign until early March. Players have their own program for getting ready and spring training is pretty pointless so missing time isn't a big deal. But I really hope the guys who don't think they're getting offered enough don't sign at all. Stand your ground and sit out the season if you truly feel you're getting low balled.

Oh because theyre so strapped for cash now? What a ******** argument. Its not a damn cap. Players get offered what management feels they're worth. The general consensus is that this year's free agents aren't worth that much. Next year, when guys are getting $200M+ deals, that's what management will feel they are worth too.

This is exactly why I never understand why people freak out when the market drops. What percent of people rely on the day to day fluctuations of the market? .5%, maybe? I guess the media needs to whip people into a frenzy about something for ratings and clicks.

The more the players and agents keep screaming collusion the worse their side looks. It's all about the 2018 free agents (Harper, Machado, Kershaw, etc.). Therefore Boston, New York, LA, and Chicago aren't out there driving up costs this year so they can have money next year for those guys.

The coins in my coffee can were not effected by the stock market. That's been a pretty stable investment so far for me.

I'm sure many pitchers feel this way, but there are also some pitchers who enjoy batting. And there are even more pitchers who enjoy money and will play for who ever offers them the most regardless of which league they are in.

That would not be reviewed even today, since it wasn't called a fumble on the field right? I don't know, it's confusing keeping up with the instant replay rules. There's no going back now, but too bad all sports can't eliminate all instant replay. It's so unfair. Yes it would have. First, if replay was available you're much more likely to have a referee let the play go all the way through and rule it a turnover knowing that all turnovers are reviewed and you can change it on replay. Second, even if it wasn't called a fumble on the field it can still be reviewed and given to the Packers as long as it was determined to be a fumble and a clear, immediate recovery by the Packers, which it was. One of the ref guys the networks have on during games said as much. The refs are told if you're not 100% sure of the call, make the call that can be or will be reviewed.

Frazier is exactly the low BA, low OBP, high SLUG, little to no DEF player that shouldn't be getting big bucks. He and Mark Reynolds match up pretty well offensively and defensively, although Mark is 2 years older, and Mark isn't even a lock to get a MLB deal.

I went and checked and I sold mine the week after the giveaway for $13 ($20 if you include shipping) and the top selling price on Ebay is about that but everything else is lower.

Baltimore has no clue what they're doing. They won't rebuild until there's nothing left to rebuild with.

His K's plummeted last year and his BABIP was the lowest of his career. Maybe there's something there but the numbers look like last year was a fluke.

I think sometimes what we have a hard time with is that multiple players can be great at the same time. Those two, while they have different styles of play, are interchangeable. I think a guy like Brees would be too. If you stuck any of those three on New England over the last decade, you would have pretty close to the same results. I actually strongly contend that both Brees and Rodgers are more talented than Brady and New England would have been more successful with those 2 guys. It's not even questionable with Rodgers. He has the best arm in football and can make every throw, and makes good judgement decisions. Brady makes a living throwing primarily 5 yard passes to quick receivers that are good for YAC. He's definitely a great QB, he executes the game plan extremely well. But a large part of the reason he's had so much playoff success relates to coach/scheme/defense. So saying he's the GOAT over his playoff success is like saying Trent Dilfer was better than Dan Marino. One thing I noticed in this particular superbowl was the lack of offensive holding calls. I saw considerable holding by both teams...but especially on New England. Some were blatant that I couldn't believe didn't get called. You wonder why both QB's could stand back there with basically unlimited time most plays? Seemed like a generally penalty free game but I was really only paying half attention most of the game. However, if you ask my friends the Patriots held, interfered, and shanked an Eagle on every play but it was never called. They were complaining that Gronk didn't get called for OPI on the hail mary which I don't know how he could when he had 5 Eagles holding him. Not sure how the refs missed Hogan getting tackled halfway down the field on that play which should have been illegal contact.

Here's a totally stupid idea I'll throw out there: how about all teams can use a DH but only for a certain number of games, let's just say 120. This adds a little strategy. I'm sure Bumgarner hits every time he starts, that leaves 10-15 games that the Giants have to strategically decide where they will let their pitcher hit.

I would not have been surprised one bit if they overturned it. Catches are determined by a coin flip on replay. Which is the exact point Collinsworth made during the first TD review and then went on to mock the NFL because of it.

Fair point. though it would never happen, I could see an argument that good defensive catchers are just as valuable as your starting pitchers, certainly your bottom rotation starters. 2nd DH for them?? Weak hitting middle infielders are replaceable, so I can't see it. You see the opposite argument too. Guys like David Ortiz and Edgar Martinez who couldn't play defense and only have careers because of the DH.

Couldn't care less about strategy but saying, "well pitchers aren't good at hitting so they don't have to bat" is no different than saying "a lot of catchers and middle infielders aren't good hitters so they shouldn't have to bat either."

I agree players should be paid more earlier but do you really think that they are then going to ask for less when they become free agents? Because they won't. The incredibly flawed free agent class this year is throwing a hissy fit because 2nd tier players aren't getting paid like superstars. Wait till next year when teams are throwing brinks trucks full of cash at future hall of famers and then we'll see where the complaining is coming from.

Excuse me, where did you get the idea that Bauer was a close to being a non-tender candidate? He is currently waiting for his arbitration hearing and both submitted figures are significantly under the MLBTR projection of $7.7MM (Bauer's side = $6.25MM, Tribe at $5.3MM).. And next season, that figure will go up to $8M-$10M. With another middling season, that puts him square in the non-tender category. Maybe I shouldn't use fancy words like "precipice." Can a mod ban this twit please?