Eye Black

I am not sure if this is the exact article you are referring to, but Dave Cameron (Fangraphs) presented the argument that fixing the strike zone would have a much greater impact on offensive production in this article, The Problem With Rob Manfred's Problem With Shifts. He makes the point you mention, evidence suggests the increase of strikeouts and decrease of walks is the greatest impact on offense, and shifts have had only a marginal effect. He also paints a unique scenario where you would have players getting a running start toward the area they want to shift to if they are told they can't be in the shift prior to the pitch delivery. For those who find the first article interesting, Cameron also followed up today with an article that provided a closer look at the current run scoring averages as compared to historical averages, Does MLB Need More Offense in the Modern Game.

I agree that James Shields isn't an ace, and isn't the type of pitcher I would want the Brewers to spend $80-plus million and forfeit a first round draft pick for. As he enters his age 33 season, my biggest concern with Shields isn't only his age, but also the wear on his arm over the past several seasons. Over the past four regular seasons Shields has pitched a total of 932 innings. That doesn't even include the 25 playoff innings he pitched last season. I realize he has proven to be incredibly durable for many years, but I am not sure I would be willing to bet on four more years of Shields remaining injury free with that kind of workload.

At quick glance, K-Rod and Rafael Soriano are the primary relief pitcher free agents that Boras represents. He represents a slew of other guys that may never throw another pitch in MLB, headlined by Tommy Hanson.

Eliminating defensive shifts seems like an awful idea. Who exactly is it going to appease? If anything it becomes more controversial by potentially having teams push the limits and forcing umpires to move fielders. There is no possible argument that could get me on board with this concept.

Jon Heyman posted his updated summary of the James Shields Mystery Market. Click on that link for a more in-depth summary of each team, but here is his list...

It's hard not to immediately like a Brewer who is actually a (home) brewer.

Rob Neyer in this Just a Bit Outside article does a nice job of briefly summing up some of the concerns with Papelbon moving forward. If this move is executed I hope the Phillies pick up a significant portion of the contract, otherwise it is almost certain to become a poor move for the Brewers.

Although I assume the Phillies would be picking up part of the money owed to Papelbon, it is somewhat astonishing to me that the Brewers could possibly have two declining relievers in the bullpen that are owed a combined $22 million next season between them in Broxton ($9 million) and Papelbon ($13 million). Not to mention if Papelbon finishes 48 games this season he would be owed an addition $13 million in 2016 due to his vesting option.

Robin Yount image borrowed from the Jumbotron Art of Peter Chen found on the pages of Iconic Ballplayers. The site includes many great renderings of former ballplayers. Images of other former Brewers include Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper, and Rollie Fingers. Originally stumbled upon the Jumbotron Art from the pages of another fun baseball website, Eephus League.

According to J.J. Cooper in the soon to be released 2015 Baseball America Prospect Handbook Sardinas is ranked 7th, Knebel 17th, and Diplan 22nd on the Rangers Top 30 list. In last year's BA Prospect Handbook Sardinas was 6th and Diplan 10th in the Rangers Top 30 list, and Knebel was 6th in the Tigers Top 30 list.

According to Joel Sherman tweet a deal has been reached "in principle".

One more brief write-up from John Sickels who last month ranked Sardinas at 13th in the Rangers system among his Rangers Top 20 Prospects for 2015 article:

To piggyback off SRB's comments, Fangraphs wasn't as high on him as Baseball Prospectus. From the previously linked Fangraphs article on the Rangers system, Sardinas was ranked 12th in the system by Kiley McDaniel with this brief write-up:

Fangraphs (Kiley McDaniels) recently had write-ups on these two in their Rangers Top Ten List. They were ranked the 7th and 9th best players in the Texas system and link has video of each player as well as write-ups and videos of the rest of the top ten. 7. Luke Jackson, RHP Current Level/Age: AAA/23.0, 6’2/205, R/R Drafted: 45th overall (sandwich round) in 2010 out of FL high school by TEX for $1.54 million bonus Fastball: 60/65, Curveball: 50/55, Slider: 45/50, Changeup: 45/50+, Command: 40/45+ Scouting Report: Jackson is easy to like, as he can run it up to 98 mph, stays healthy and has made steady progress with his delivery and command to where most scouts think he has at least a 50% chance to be a starter in the big leagues. Unfortunately, Jackson hasn’t developed that plus secondary pitch, this causes him to throw his fastball a lot, and there’s still enough command issues that a late setup role still looks like it could be where he ends up. Jackson’s delivery has improved this season and he has some of the starter traits you look for, but he still likely needs to spend all of 2015 in the minors. One scout compared him to Tanner Scheppers as a likely reliever that shows just enough that you want to start him, but loves to throw his fastball as hard as he can and relief makes the most sense. Summation: Next year Jackson should get a last development opportunity to see if he deserves a big league rotation spot in 2016 or he should shift that 98 mph heater to the bullpen. Scouts have noted that Jackson has needed a longer adjustment period than his prospect peers at each new minor league level, so he may make more adjustments in 2015. FV/Role/Risk: 50, #4 Starter or Setup, Medium (3 on a 1-5 scale) Projected Path: 2014: AAA, 2015: AAA/MLB, 2016: MLB 9. Nick Williams, LF Current Level/Age: AA/21.0, 6’3/195, L/L Drafted: 93rd overall (2nd round) in 2012 out of TX high school by TEX for $500,000 bonus Hit: 20/50+, Game Power: 20/50, Raw Power: 60/60, Speed: 55/55, Field: 40/45+, Throw: 45/45 Scouting Report: Williams had a lot of hype and Jason Heyward comps thrown at him as early as his sophomore year of high school, but he had a tough senior year. Williams has been a pleasant surprise since signing, cleaning up his swing and making tons of contact while being young for every level. Williams was promoted to AA this week, just before his 21st birthday (after hitting .292/.343/.493 in High-A), and he has lively tools, but scouts aren’t too bullish about his upside. Williams has really good bat control and can square up almost anything (.296 BA in over 1000 PA), but he has such an undisciplined approach that he’s striking out nearly 30% of the time with walks rates below 5%. When you’re more talented that everyone else and pitchers are still making mistake pitches, you can get by with this approach, but past exampled show us it’s hard to change a bad approach this late in development. Scouts have questioned Williams’ aptitude to make changes since back to high school and have routinely crushed him for lackadaisical defensive play and slow jumps out of the batter’s box. Williams’ plate discipline isn’t the only thing holding back his power from showing up in games, as his swing is geared for line drives up the middle. When you combine his fringy defense, lack of focus, left field profile, unsustainable strikeout rates and contact-oriented approach, you suddenly have an athletic, left-handed hitting 20-year-old with great bat control and plus raw power that’s performing well and scouts aren’t that enthused. Summation: All that said Williams still projects as a league average bat that could be at least average defensively and on the bases if he chooses to be, with the upside to become more. 50 FV makes sense here and there’s a good reason for the Rangers to promote him aggressively: to break his bad habits, he has to be challenged. Upside: .270/.330/.440 (20 HR), average baserunning & defense FV/Risk: 50, High (4 on a 1-5 scale) Projected Path: 2014: AA, 2015: AA/AAA, 2016: AAA/MLB, 2017: MLB

Really interested to see if they get Major League talent or prospects here. I would guess the latter.

Can cross some more teams off the potential winning bidder list... Twins Athletics Angels Braves Rays Rangers Sounds like the Phillies are the favorites among the remaining list of potential mystery teams which would seem to be a good fit in the wake of losing Jimmy Rollins.

I enjoy this slow process of teams one-by-one being eliminated from contention as the "mystery team". Padres Mets Orioles Yankees Blue Jays Dodgers Giants ...only 23 potential suitors to go!

One small (as in very small) sign that this may not be the Brewers is that the winning bidders finished the bid with "2015" in their posting bid of $5,002,015. Teams that have gotten cute with the last few dollars on previous posting bids include the Yankees and Rangers (and 2006 Red Sox). The Brewers went with a more straight forward approach in their $2,500,000 winning bid for Aoki, although I never got the sense they expected to win the Aoki bidding.

The winning bid for Kang was just over $5 million. The bid was quickly accepted as it was reportedly double what Kang's team expected. Below is a portion of the article and here is the Full Article.

Recent rumors suggest it is possibly a three team deal with the Mariners. Could involve Wil Myers ending up in Seattle and Taijuan Walker headed elsewhere. EDIT: Apparently the whole 3-team deal rumors are not true per most recent reports. Looks like it is just the Padres-Rays working on the deal right now.

The Seattle Mariners are reportedly on the verge of this (per MLB Trade Rumors)... Any guesses on who this could be?... Gomez?... Krush?... Braun? As much as I think Seattle is ripe for a huge overpay right now, I don't think there is any chance the Brewers would do it.

Seems like the obvious concern is that Aoki's offensive ability is so speed dependent. His last season with the Brewers he was second in MLB with 40 infield hits (of his 140 total hits), and had an additional 16 times he reached base on infield errors. I would be somewhat concerned that if (when) he loses a step he would face a significant decline in offensive value.

One thing that would make me a little nervous about spending big money on a player making the transition between professional leagues (KBO to MLB) is that Eric Thames went from a sub-.800 OPS and 10 HRs at AAA in 2013 to a 1.111 OPS and 37 HRs in the KBO during the 2014 season (also incidentally his age 27 season). It is only one example, but another guy on Kang's team hit 52 HRs this season. Not quite sure how his 40 HRs power would translate to MLB, especially since his previous high was 25 HRs in a season.

This is just speculation on my part since I have no idea what their pay structure is, but it may actually be a preemptive measure more than just cutting the current cost. There are currently at least five lawsuits against NFL teams for under-compensating their team affiliated cheerleaders. The Raiders lawsuit was settled for $1.25 million earlier this fall. The diamond dancers program may not offer enough value to justify the pay increases that would be necessary to keep them compliant with compensation requirements.

Melky Cabrera signs a 3-year deal with the White Sox with varying reports on the money which is somewhere between $42-$43.5 million. Per MLB.com article: