Matt Breen

From the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Week_in_Baseball

How about that. Not from the series, but good enough.

Fangraphs has an article about this - and the revenue gaps that are growing. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/dodgers-send-shock-waves-through-local-tv-landscape/ The author does list the Brewers contract as lowest in baseball - $12 million annually. She says it's in place through the 2019 season - which I believe is wrong. It's pretty stunning to see the differences with some teams getting hundreds of millions of dollars. It's going to make opportunities for teams like Milwaukee fewer and further between as salaries rise with the extra revenue available.

Any thoughts on Josh Fields from the Boston org? Right handed reliever. Age 26. Former #1 pick. 2.01 ERA at AA and AAA last year, 78 K in 58 innings. Interesting guy. Had control problems the first couple of years out of college, but did much better last year. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=fields003jos Here's a look at him (and some other #1 picks available in Rule 5) by Baseball Nation: http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/11/21/3675784/rule-5-draft-mike-laporta-josh-fields-eric-arnett-bradley-holt

Any thoughts on Josh Fields from the Boston org? Right handed reliever. Age 26. Former #1 pick. 2.01 ERA at AA and AAA last year, 78 K in 58 innings. Interesting guy. Had control problems the first couple of years out of college, but did much better last year. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=fields003jos Here's a look at him (and some other #1 picks available in Rule 5) by Baseball Nation: http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/11/21/3675784/rule-5-draft-mike-laporta-josh-fields-eric-arnett-bradley-holt

Any players that the Crew might be interested in?

Any players that the Crew might be interested in?

Kudos to rams for thinking differently. Herrera is an interesting guy. Would love to have him. It's an interesting idea, but I have to wonder if Scooter and salary relief gets it done. Scooter's a nice player and all, but he's no sure thing, and he's going to be limited in his skillset. But hey, Dayton Moore signed Francouer to a big contract in the first place, so you never know.

Jonny Gomes gets $10 million over 2 years to go to Boston. http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/8660831/jonny-gomes-boston-red-sox-agree-2-year-10-million-deal-source-says I don't really think this is a big deal, other than the fact Jonny Gomes is getting paid $10 million. I thought that after a very good 2012 he'd get a couple of million. Not five. The guy is a terrible fielder, and he can't hit righties. He has a .692 OPS against them over the past three years. But he does rake against lefties - .904 OPS over the last three years. Yes, Gomes hit well in 2012. But he seems to bad as often as he is good. His fielding is bad. And the team can't DH him much, since Big Papi holds that slot. I guess I still can't see it. He should do well at Fenway. So long as the Red Sox limit him to facing lefties. But the price seems high.

Dave Cameron at Fangraphs put this best: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/royals-celebrate-mediocrity-sign-jeremy-guthrie/ Guthrie is an aging pitcher, who if he slips even a little bit, will be a bad pitcher. He would be an okay guy to have on a one year deal. But a back-loaded three year deal is a killer. Lower budget teams have have to often take risks in order to maximize the dollars. But signing Guthrie for three years at this point of his career is going 'all in' on mediocrity.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/11/royals-sign-jeremy-guthrie.html Not that I want or like Guthrie, but the signing shows that the price of starting pitching is going up if this is any indication. Mediocrity at a high price - and for multiple years! And at the peak ages of 34-36 years old. KC fans should be thrilled. How does Dayton Moore still have a job? I realize Guthrie pitched well once he arrived in KC, but he's never been that good to begin with, and he's getting older. Oh well, better them than us.

I'm betting Parra gets the ax. Maybe we work out a trade for some A ball prospect. But not much else, unless you take on someone else's 'change of scenery guy'.

Fangraphs has him with another 127 PAs in Rookie ball. Why he was in rookie ball after his stint in A- in 2010 where he killed it is strange. And 40 MLB PAs in 2012. endaround, I believe the 127 PAs listed are Arizona Fall League stats. I didn't realize Fangraphs (or anyone) was listing them. He had an awesome season in the AFL last year.

Olt broke his collarbone in 2011. Missed roughly 1/2 the season.

TooLive, you said it well (and more concisely than I did). These are both promising players. Can we just have them both?

I certainly don't see spending big on two starters. But Dougie might bring in a reclamation project at a low salary with incentives. Maybe a guy coming of injury (Dallas Braden for instance). Or someone coming off a poor year, willing to work for cheap. Someone (Doug or Gord) said they would like to get 1 or 2 SPs at the start of the offseason. I think getting a reclamation project would be a smart plan and I kind of got my eye on Scott Feldman to fill that role. If you look beyond his 2012 ERA and his injury riddled 2011 season you can see a potential #3 starter for very cheap. He's young for a FA (30), throws hard (91.7), limits his walks (2.33 BB/9) and a switch to the NL should boost his K ratio (6.99) The bonus is that he has experience pitching out of the pen if he should fail as a starter. Feldman is a great idea. Is he healthy? Will he be ready for next year?

I believe Texas refused to include Olt in a trade for a rental player like Greinke. http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120727&content_id=35667648&vkey=news_tex&c_id=tex At mid-season, Olt was sitting at #11 on BA's list of prospects. He was at #38 for John Sickels. Segura was at #43 and #78. Olt was more highly thought of by most scouts and so forth. Who would I take of the two. Probably Olt. Olt looked bad in his 33 ABs once he got to the majors. But it's 33 ABs. I'm not going crucify the guy for struggling after being bumped up from AA and getting irregular playing time. The simple fact is the guy can mash. He's a 30 HR potential guy. They don't grow on trees. He's been successful on every level. He's got a good glove. He led the league in OPS last year at AA. His strikeouts worry me, but they are not exorbitant. Segura, obviously, fills an organizational hole at SS. That's great. And he held his own in the majors. But I just see the upside on Olt as being higher. I see him more as becoming a good player, while Olt can be a great player. I will say that we can't just look at this as Olt vs Segura. We have to remember we got Hellweg and Pena. Both could be contributors at a major league level some day. Also, at this time, I don't think there's really any wrong answer in Olt vs Segura. The players are very different. Some people value different things, whether it be need or power or whatever. Both guys look like they have good futures.

I certainly don't see spending big on two starters. But Dougie might bring in a reclamation project at a low salary with incentives. Maybe a guy coming of injury (Dallas Braden for instance). Or someone coming off a poor year, willing to work for cheap.

I think the Jays have made themselves contenders for a couple of years. The AL East is weaker. Boston has a lot of holes. The Yankees are getting old. The Rays and Orioles have solid young teams, but each have their warts. The Jays are not perfect by any means. But with a little luck, they can come out on top the next couple of years. After that it gets more difficult, as Boston and NY have so much money to throw at their problems. It's a risky move for Toronto, as they are taking on a lot of salary. But they don't seem to have given up that great of young players. Taking on the salary seems to be the big thing. With Boston and NY waning a bit, they have their chance. I give them credit for taking the plunge.

Texas League had a .715 OPS in 2012. The other AA leagues, the Eastern League and Southern League, had OPS of .723 and .709. So that puts the Texas League right about average for hitters. Perhaps Olt had a hitter friendly park, but to say the Texas League was favorable to hitters isn't really true anymore - at least last year.

Rosenthal says the Brewers are interested in Dempster. Count the Milwaukee Brewers among the teams interested in free-agent right-hander Ryan Dempster, particularly now that the Los Angeles Dodgers are showing greater interest in other pitchers. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/winter-meetings-new-york-mets-tampa-bay-rays-david-price-ra-dickey-110812 Nothing more, just that we're interested in him.

Stanton is probably the best young power hitter in baseball. The guy just turned 23 a week ago. He hit 37 HR in only 123 game. He's a masher. He's got four years left before free agency. It will take 2-3 premium prospects to get him. The team that gets him will have to have that kind of talent available. And because a team is going to seriously deplete their farm system of impact guys, that team who makes the deal should be stocked to be playoff contenders for the next few years. That doesn't leave a lot of teams. Here's the best guesses: Texas: have three excellent prospects: Profor and Olt and Martin Perez. Stanton would fit perfectly in at 1B for them. He'd rake at their ballpark. St. Louis: A lot of options. Oscar Tavaras, Shelby Miller, Koltan Wong and Carlos Martinez are all top 50 type prospects. The key is where do you play him. The Cards could ship back Allen Craig, but I'm not sure the Marlins want a major league player back. The Cards could also trade Craig (or Beltran) to another team to fill other needs). No matter, lots of options. Red Sox: the Sox could really use Stanton. Put him at 1B and watch him hit 50 HR. Start with some combination of Xander Bogaerts, Matt Barnes and Jackie Bradley. It would be tough to give up that much, but Boston would love to have a guy like Stanton. Plus they'd have the money to sign him after four years. Boston has a lot of holes on their team, but they could supplement their roster with some free agent moves. There are some teams with a lot of good talent - Baltimore, Seattle, Arizona for example - who could give up several top 100 guys. But these teams already have a dearth of talent, and it probably doesn't work to give up that many young, controllable players. Some other teams could really use Stanton, but they don't quite have the talent. Dodgers, San Francisco and Atlanta all have some good prospects, but not great ones. They have guys who fall in the 50-100 range, rather than the top 50.

Nolasco is one of those guys I always thought would break through and become more than just mediocre. His peripherals always seemed better than his ERA. But he's never done that, and he's pitched to a 4.50 ERA over the past few years. Fangraphs seems to like Nolasco pretty well, tabbing him as a 2.5-3.0 WAR pitcher that last few years. His FIP numbers are far better than his ERAs - usually around 3.50-3.90. I'm a little concerned about his declining strikeout rate. It's gone down four years in a row. That said, I'd have no problem if we could get him for cheap. I certainly wouldn't give up anyone like Peralta or Thornburg. But if it was a salary dump, I'd be okay with taking a shot on him. Because the thing is, I still think Nolasco could do really well. He's in a contract year, so the motivation should be there. Yes, he makes a lot. But any free agent - Dempster or Jackson or whomever, will make as much (or more) and for more years. I'd roll the dice on the guy and hope and pray the upside emerges. I'm not taking about him being a #1/2 starter, but a guy who could be a solid #3 type. (Yes, we all want a #1/2 guy, but outside of Greinke - and maybe Sanchez - there is no one available in FA. And guys like that simply aren't available in trades, or will cost a bundle.) So, I guess it comes down to what he'd cost. I'd take him and his salary if it wasn't a lot.

Posey had an awesome season - and I think he'll win it. I don't have a problem with him winning. He plays a tougher position. His team made the playoffs. He plays in a park that suppresses power (7 of his 24 HR were in SF). All those factors can influence voters. And the whole drug test thing last year will hurt Braun. As much as we hope it won't, it will. Some voters will penalize him. Honestly, I think all the guys on the list were pretty great this past year. There are no dogs.

Florida fans must be smoking pissed.