KeithStone53151

I like limiting the September callups to 28 players, but I'm not sure how much I like expanding overall rosters to 26. Seems like a complete waste, especially with the 13 pitcher minimum and in the AL with the DH. What's the point in the AL having 13 position players? It might create a few more jobs for veterans, especially those with good platoon splits that could be a late game PH. Also might create a couple jobs for speed guys...as having a speed only guy is a bit more realistic with the expanded roster. I can't see how anyone sees this as generally good for the game, the only purpose to expanding to 26 is creating 30 more roster spots at the MLB level...more money for players and the MLBPA.

I don't see him being much better than what we have. I agree on the tank mostly being empty. I guess maybe he finds a few extra ticks in the bullpen in short stints? Gio just doesn't interest me. And I honestly don't see how we can be in on Keuchel with our payroll. We are already around $125M I believe, and that doesn't factor in potential incentives for a number of guys. That's stretched pretty thin, then factor in any potential deadline moves. I can't see us getting Keuchel. If bidding came down to a point where he'd fit in our budget, the Braves or Yankees would nab him for more than that.

I never really dug into the numbers like you did. It doesn't seem overly bad last year. I'm honestly a lot more surprised by a team being like "well you have to throw your slider more". Recommending is so much different than telling or forcing a player to do something.

I find this incredibly interesting if true. I'm not sure any organization can "force" a pitcher to do anything. He's established enough that he should go with his own game plan based on his strengths, not necessarily what the Yankees want. I'll add that's generally awful management by the yankees to apply a one size fits all approach to pitching. You want to have every player on your club playing to their strenghs, not a specific blueprint that every player has to follow. https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/1103014929425158144

I feel like Kimbrel is more valuable than Keuchel personally. Maybe it's just the asking prices being so insane that's causing such a problem for them(and if so, I'm glad and think they deserve it). I don't want to say it's too late for them to put up a reasonable asking price, but it kinda is too late. Atlanta isn't going to all of a sudden be like "well Folty has a sore shoulder, ok Keuchel we'll pay you 6/150".

I'm starting to think Kimbrel and Keuchel may sign 1 year prove-it deals, probably with a mutual option that definitely won't get exercised to make it seem like more.

You can pay like $100 a person to do it. The problem is they only allow 8 people per game. So that is a max 648 people and I am sure they won't book that all to SSH. The ticket upgrades suck in my opinion. You can just do that through the ballpark app. I have done it numerous times and it costs $35 a ticket to go from anywhere to one of the first 3 rows in the diamond box. I have even gotten first row in the first section of the outfield box for like $25 a ticket. There are always tickets they are holding for 20 gamers or other reasons in those premium section that just become upgrade eligible before the game. Agree. There are too many restrictions on the ticket upgrades and they only go up one level. Just use Ballpark and don't waste the reward item. I did want to mention again though, did anyone renew early? I did, in September, at the behest of getting an "early renewal gift," which I still haven't gotten. I think it was food vouchers or something, but I never got anything. I always renew right away as well, I'm pretty sure I end up getting $100 in F&B vouchers for paying right away. There was one year that I debated whether or not to renew(and made that clear to my rep), and was offered on field BP and ticket vouchers by waiting until February to renew...so not sure which is better.

I believe you had to pay extra for the physical tickets. Maybe $35-50. I'm pretty sure I went with the ballpark app. I see. I must have missed that. May have to contact my ticket rep to see if I can still get them. It's not that I'm an old guy afraid of tech. I work on a computer all day, do all my banking and bill paying electronically, etc. However, I do have a fear (as illogical as it may be), that I'll get to the park and my phone will not function properly and/or I will not be able to access the ball park app for some reason. In addition, my wife has a work phone and is unable to install "unapproved" apps on her phone. So, I can't transfer tickets to her and I would have to show both tickets on my phone as we are going through. Not sure why I prefer not to do that, but rather not deal with that. I think it's more of me having a phobia of holding up the line behind me (same reason I hate the TSA check - doing pre-screen is the best money I ever spent). I thought I saw during the postseason that they have some sort of workaround for phone malfunctions or a dead phone battery(out of 10,000 people, at least 1 case of this is inevitable) it just takes time. It's definitely nice for resale via craigslist if you are trying to avoid stubhubs increasing ridiculous fees, people trust a paper ticket and paper cash over ballpark app and paypal. Good luck with your rep, hopefully they can still get you paper copies.

I believe you had to pay extra for the physical tickets. Maybe $35-50. I'm pretty sure I went with the ballpark app.

Just work with your rep, it's easy enough. You pick the games you want to upgrade, send in your tickets, they send you fresh tickets. With them pushing the ballpark app, there may be a way to do it yourself or maybe they simply update your tickets on the app. The games you can update are fairly specific. Mostly M-TH, I think some fridays and possibly one or two weekends games but they are very select. One other thing I found annoying is they only upgrade my loge infield tickets to loge diamondbox tickets, so basically I go from row 7 or 8 to row 3 or 4. It's better than no upgrade, but hardly worth a selection in my opinion. I got much better rewards than I usually get. I got Bernies slide and the movie night. Bernies slide was my top choice as my gf has been wanting to do it for years. I'm not sure where movie night ranked on my list, I'll probably see if I can let a friend of mine take his kids as they'd enjoy it more than me.

this is incorrect. when a player is granted a fourth option, it is good only for that season, regardless of how it is used. thus, junior guerra enters 2019 spring training with no minor league options remaining. Fortunately, Guerra seems like a surefire bet to make the bullpen at this point.

I got the same, I didn't read closely anything about SSH rewards aside from a SSH bobble. I believe it's Knebel if I remember right.

This makes a lot of sense for me too. One thing worth noting is their farm system is insane, and most of the insanity is pitching related. Signing Keuchel likely blocks guys at some point, but I suppose that's a good problem to have. Also you have to figure Keuchel will play up in a big stadium and with a good defensive infield. Tatis and Machado at SS/3b with Hosmer at 1b...that's a great start to an elite IF defense.

I look at it the exact same way personally. Baseball reference has him at 11.5 in 2019, 27.5 through 2028, and 23.5 the last 3 years. Not sure where they got those numbers.

By 2029, that will probably get you less than a replacement level player. You're joking, but that thought went through my head too. What surprised me wasn't that he took the offer, it's that he didn't do "better". I was expecting 10 years and about $310M with an opt out - just a little higher than MM and saving face over having turned down the Nationals' offer. Of course, the other difference between the two offers may have been that he trusted the Phillies to be a consistent contender, and didn't trust the Nationals to do the same - so you can debate the years and money, but maybe they were close enough that the chance to contend regularly became a factor. All I've seen from Boras and Harper is that he wanted the biggest possible deal and that he wanted stability, 0 chance of changing teams unless he waived his no trade clause. I don't think the contender stuff is part of it. As for the $30 million at the end, yeah I was joking. Min salary will probably be over $1 million at that point, but less than $2 million. I will say I highly doubt Machado is worth $30 million after his deal is up, I'm actually expecting him to be sitting on the couch for the last year of his deal...I think he'll be out of baseball. Harper I think is a good enough hitter that he can be 1b or DH for someone those last 3 years and potentially could have gotten over $30 million for those 3 years. I can understand him just wanting to take the biggest possible money and simply be done with it though. The guy never ever has to worry about a contract negotiation again if he wants, which seriously must be nice. Ask Mike Moustakas how much fun it is worrying about his contract. Harper will have made $378 million by the time his contract expires, and that's not counting other marketing opportunities.

I thought the Phillies were going to try and get both Harper and Moustakas, which would have added some good balance along with a much better 3b option than Franco. Either way, this lineup is set up to compete.

Why would you take 10/300mil over this? You want to hit FA at 36 years old and trying to get another $30mil then? I would take 13/330 as well. He could have signed 10/300 but even with inflation and skyrocket salaries I certainly wouldn't bet that Harper will be good enough at age 36-38 to get $10 million a year. By 2029, that will probably get you less than a replacement level player.

I am seeing no opt out, because he didn't want one. That's weird. Also a no trade clause. So Harper will almost certainly be a Philly for the rest of his career.

I am really buying into the narrative that he doesn't want to be on the east coast and the Phillies will have to substantially outbid the Dodgers or Giants to get him to go there. In fact, I think the Dodgers are his preferred choice but are just a little bit below what the Giants are in terms of years and dollars and that is the only thing that is preventing Harper signing at this point. My previous post says Harper eventually will be in Dodger blue for 8 years $304 million, but I am guessing the current offers are roughly: -Giants is 10 years $325 million -Dodgers is 8 years $275 million The Dodgers will eventually meet Harper roughly half way and beat Machado's deal. I get that impression as well, I just wonder how much they'd have to outbid. Would he take $320 million instead of $350 million over the same number of years? Also California has the highest income tax in the country by a significant margin while Pennsylvania is one of the lowest that isn't zero. As much as the Brewers are benefiting from this to some degree right now, I find it wildly hypocritical that athletes so often choose to take less money for other reasons...and then complain they aren't getting paid enough. 2 years ago, is there any chance the Brewers get Moose or Grandal to take less money to play here? Absolutely zero chance, though they'd probably take less money than we were offering to play on a coast or play on a more competitive team.

Hmm, maybe I missed the notification in prior years then. I swear my rep told me it's a new promotion this year. Maybe I needed to get a certain level of seniority to get it. That's interesting though, and disappointing as I would have definitely used it previous years.

I don't think the Brewers get Keuchel. I also think Philly are the heavy favorites. I just can't see them getting outbid, and most guys sign with Boras looking for top dollar...not the best fit. It's all guesswork though, if I had means to do it...I would happily put money on a prop bet with the Phillies getting Harper.

I don't think we should get too carried away by the pitchers. A lot of these guys are specifically working on FB command, I don't think we need to be concerned until maybe mid-March.

Absolutely crushed. Had to be about 450+. This was awesome, gotta love that raw power. That might be up in the dew deck in Miller Park. Keep it rolling Corey!

A lot that makes sense. I can just see Boras thought process, thinking he can get the Phillies to pay $25+ million per year for Keuchel if they lose out on Harper since they clearly had money earmarked for Harper. I imagine the Phillies would probably try to jump in and get Keuchel if they missed on Harper, but I can't imagine Keuchel getting anywhere close to that insane reported asking price of 6/150-180.

This isn't all that helpful for you, but apparently a new perk of being a 20 pack holder includes a free mlb.tv subscription. I thought I'd mention for any 20 pack holders that haven't seen or noticed this perk yet. As for fox sports go, I haven't tried a game yet this year but I would assume it should work normally. Probably just a weird day as you said. If they are in Wisconsin, they shoudl get FS Wisconsin and you should too on fox sports go.