Matt Breen

It was Burnes and Hiura. BA bases prospect status on 50 IP - ignoring the 45 days of service time that most people observe (including us at BF.net).

I don't think the 10 day DL has any effect on relievers. That's more for giving your SP a break without tying up a roster spot. But lengthening the amount of time a player has to be optioned would really have an impact. I doubt the players union would approve this as all this minor league shuttling gives more service time and MLB pay to players who wouldn't be on the roster at all. I think they mentioned the 10 day DL since it allows you to place a guy on it for such a short time with a “fake” injury. If the player will now need to miss 4-5 more games, it might stop teams from “misusing” the short DL stint. Yeah, the 10-day thing allowed a team to put a starter on the IR and miss only one start. The team would just put him on the IR the day after a start, and call him up right in time for his turn in the rotation - having just missed one start. Dodgers did this a ton. It's a great strategy for a team who has a guy that they want to give a rest to on occasion during the year. You get an extra off day during a week and you just skip the guy in the rotation. That guy is put on the DL with 'fatigue' or 'soreness' and just gets to relax for 10 days before hoping right back in the rotation.

Pollack was a hard one to peg with regards to a contract. Good player, but lots of injuries. Only played in 112 and 113 games in 2016/17. Missed almost all of 2105. Hard to back up the truck to a guy who is 31 and has had that many injuries. Sounds like lots of escalators and incentives and opt outs - no doubt rewarding Pollack if he can stay healthy.

Heyman says $55M+

It says he had four multi-year offers from the Mets, White Sox, Twins and Angels. No specifics (years or dollars) were given.

Not a bad group. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25826814/mariano-rivera-edgar-martinez-roy-halladay-mike-mussina-elected-baseball-hall-fame

The Braves have resigned Markakis to a one-year, $6MM. The deal is $4MM salary plus a $2MM buyout on a 2020 club option that’s valued at $6MM. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/01/braves-to-re-sign-nick-markakis.html

I've read some hints of this going back to last summer. Scouts/analysts have been noting that there was more power in Hiura's bat than people realized. I think his showing at the AFL only confirmed their beliefs.

From a cultural and sporting perspective, Miller Park was a great name. Local company. Lots of history. Easy to say/remember. And it's beer - which weaves itself into Wisconsin sporting events pretty seamlessly. It's fun, it's relevant and it's kind of cool. AmFam is a fine company with Wisconsin roots. But it's insurance. There's no fun in insurance. It's just another blah name - like Firserv or AT&T or Verizon or whatever. People might respect - and even like the business - but few consumers will have warm fuzzy feelings that company either. Miller Park was a great name. I will be sad to see it go.

That's a good deal for Texas. I'm wondering how much the Brewers were concerned about Cabrera's defensive decline that they essentially passed on him.

Rosenthal said specifically that the Crew were trying to clear payroll in order to make a signing - probably Wade Miley. Rosenthal says Thames and Albers were two guys the club was looking to move. https://www.brewcrewball.com/2019/1/15/18183878/report-brewers-look-to-trim-payroll-for-another-addition-wade-miley-reunion-possible The article from is from the Atlantic - so I don't have the specifics as it is behind a paywall.

The first two items are pretty much what I have read. The Mets offer was said to be in the range of $55-60M. No one knows really what the exact amount except the Mets and Grandal's team. Also, several sources have stated that no formal offer was made. More of a framework was discussed - but no firm offer was presented.

Thanks for sharing. Interesting stuff.

Ahh, I gotcha. Personally, I don't see that. But that's just me. I just see three GMs trying to make something work, but maybe not. It wouldn't be the first time another GM tried to scam something from another GM. Like Billy Beane in "Moneyball" trying to work the Red Sox and another team so he can basically get Kevin Youkilis for free.

No one foresaw the season that Murray had. He went from a part-time transfer to winning the Heisman. His season was one of the greatest ever put together - at least statistically. 1000+ yards rushing, 12 TDs. 4000+ yards passing, 42 TDs. That's staggering. Personally, I hope he plays football. He may become a great baseball player, but he's still only one guy. He doesn't get extra at bats or whatever. As a quarterback, he has input and effect on every single offensive play. To me, it's a no brainer - assuming that Murray likes football as much as baseball.

Former MLB reliever John Wetteland has been arrested on sexual abuse of a child charges. Wetteland was the MVP of the 1996 World Series for the Yankees. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25769522/former-mlb-pitcher-john-wetteland-arrested-child-sexual-abuse-charge

Roegner threw only 15 innings at AA last year. And 6 at AAA. He could easily start at AA. Same deal with Webb. 20 IP at AA. Good chance he starts there this year.

I don't get the arrogance remark. It's just GMs working a deal. They are simply being creative - good for them. Reds want Kluber, but they don't have the player(s) that Indians need. SD has player(s) Cleveland likes, and Cincy has a player(s) the Padres like. It's as simple as that. Just enterprising GMs working a third team into the mix because the pieces in the puzzle just don't match up. Seems pretty simple to me.

UZR is a terrible metric. DRS has him at -3 in 2016 over 585 innings (65 full games basically) so extrapolate that to 140 games and he's actually a -7. And that was by far and away his best defensive metric season at 2b. He also has a 980 fielding % at 2b. Compare that to Cabrera at 993 %. There's no way Dietrich's range is *that* much better than Cabrera to offset the difference. Cabrera is the better fielder/thrower. So I'm banking on Cabrera's poor metrics being due to his lack of range, which can be mitigated at 2b with how much the Brewers shift (that's how Shaw ended up there - because he can field and throw he just doesn't have the range and Cabrera would likely have better range than Shaw given he also played SS). And him filling in at SS occasionally won't have a negative impact either as Dubon will be up relatively soon too. Dietrich is the best bat out there if you're only looking for a lefty to face RHP. I personally prefer Cabrera as he's a switch hitter with very similar splits against both sides. So while he won't hit RHP like Dietrich can he'll be more consistent and matchups won't need to be played. Both these guys posted very similar OPS+ numbers the past several years too. My point was that the narrative that Dietrich was some horrible, horrible fielder might not hold merit. I am not personally advocating we add the guy - just pointing out it might not be that bad of a move if other things don't work out. As a note, Cabrera had a -17 DRS last year in 92 games at 2B. He was almost as bad at SS (-5 DRS in 31 games). But DRS or any metric is just one part of the equation. That's for the team to figure out. They see the film, run all the numbers, work out the guys. Cabrera's ability to play SS and 3B is nice - even if he isn't that great at any position. And his switch hitting is a really nice plus. You also have to be more comfortable with his bat - which has been pretty steady these last few years.

Darren Dietrich's defensive numbers at 2B are not that bad. Are they good? No. But they are terrible. In 2016, the year he played his most games at 2B (75), he actually had a positive defensive rating according to Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. He had -3 Defensive Runs Saved. You could live with that kind of defense. You don't want the guy in the OF. He's terrible there. Between OF, 3B and 2B, Dietrich's best position appears to be 2B. However, that's not saying a lot. He's never going to be good - but with some quality positioning, perhaps he'd be palatable if he could hit for an .800+ OPS. However, he's probably a a left handed bat in a platoon, which is not ideal. I haven't seen the Dietrich much - and he's barely played 2B the last two years - so I'm just going by what I read. If the club thinks they could work with him, he might be an interesting option. As noted by others, he really hits better outside of Marlins park. .816 OPS outside of Miami vs a .696 OPS in Miami.

Okay, I get where you are coming from. I throw in my two cents. I think teams are smarter about using their resources better than in the past. They aren't spending just to spend. They are willing shed contracts and avoid long term signings as they rebuild (or tank - whatever you want to call it). We have a new breed of executive/team that establishes a plan to success, and sticks to it. This means finding value on the market. No one wants to be paying Albert Pujols $30M a year to go around the bases with a walker. There are so many examples of teams getting killed by bloated contracts to aging players. Smarter front offices. More teams tanking. It helps set up a trend. Not as many teams will spend. Not as many teams are willing to go with longer contracts. It's part of what you would expect with those things happening. It also means the QO isn't a given to be rejected - and it also means we'll see more and more poor miscalculations by players and their agents on their true market value. All that said, are there other things going on that are contributing to the trends? Has the luxury threshold become more of a de facto salary cap - limiting growth of player salaries? Are owners percentage of profits growing? Are owners operating working together (colluding?) to help keep down salaries and years of contracts? I think the players concerns are that the trends they are seeing are because teams are reaping greater profits - and not sharing them with the players as they have in the past. I don't know what is true. I see different numbers thrown out by people. Sorry for the rambling. Probably didn't really answer your question. I just let the words take me this way. This might have been better for the baseball future financial thread.

The QO is actually designed to net teams compensation (a the form of draft pick between rounds 1 and 2) for losing a good player in free agency. It simply takes the mean salary of the Top 125 players in the game and sets the number - right around $18M this year. It really has nothing to do with determining a player's 'value' (although the QO can suppress a player's next contract since a signing team knows they are losing a somewhat valuable draft pick to sign such a player).

Keuchel has reportedly asked for five years on a deal. No one is biting at this time. The general thought is that he's waiting for Machado and Harper to sign - and then hope a team that misses out on those two will turn their money to him. So, it's just a matter of time.

Left-hander Derek Holland has resigned with the Giants. Holland gets 1-year and $6.5M plus a team option with a 500k buyout. The deal takes one of the lower/mid-tier left handed starters off the market, leaving Wade Miley, Gio Gonzalez and Drew Pomeranz as the most likely FA targets for the Brewers - who lack a left handed arm in the rotation. The 32-year old Holland had a nice season last year, throwing 170+ innings with an ERA of 3.57. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/01/giants-re-sign-derek-holland.html

Manny Pina is a really nice fit for Milwaukee. He's cheap and he's pretty good. Is he great? No. He is entering his age 32 season. His bat is average - at best. His base running is not good and his conditioning could be better. He's good with the glove, controlling opposing runners, and handling the staff. All in all, that's a solid player, but not one that is likely to fetch top notch players/prospects in a trade. In the end, we have a nice asset at a nice price. He's probably best starting 60 games - not 100+. But that's still really valuable. 60 games of Pina - rather than Kratz - is a huge plus. As a competitive team, I wouldn't mess with the Grandal/Pina team unless someone is truly willing to overpay for Manny - which I highly doubt will happen.