MLB Offseason 2012

[Timby]

Danny99 wrote:

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The Jays sign Maicer Izturis to a three year deal with an option for a fourth.

I'll admit to knowing little about it, but the consensus is that he is a stop gap measure to give Hechavarria a little bit more time to develop or Escobar is on his way out the door (which I fully support).

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the contract. It doesn't make any sense to drop three years on a 32-year-old, declining, random utility guy early in free agency (with the possibility of actually starting him).

AA confuses me. He's made some good moves, but every so often he pulls something out of fucking nowhere (like his never-ending quest to acquire all the relievers, ever) that I just sit here and go .

[Ar-Pharazon]

The Cubs reportedly win the rights to negotiate with Korean pitcher Ryu Hyun-Jin.

Story

I realize it's a new regime in Chicago, but the Cubs haven't had good luck with Korean players.

Hee Sop Choi & Jae Kuk Ryu (Korea's version of Randy Johnson if I recall), spring to mind.

[Timby]

Still waiting to see how the dust clears on this. Heyman has been saying Cubs, but other MLB reporters have been saying Dodgers.

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ What do you make of the Cubs' issues with Korean players? They were usually highly touted, but then went nowhere (except out of town).

To my knowledge, they never really took off anywhere else either.

Poor scouting? They had Derek Lee's father as an agent for Asian players, at least in the past.

[Green Shirt]

SmoothieX wrote:

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If I was scoring at home, I wouldn't be posting here at 2:30 in the morning.

I do it all the time. Go upstairs for a couple of minutes, then back to the keyboard.

[Starbreaker]

Braves let David Ross go to the Red Sox in free agency. We're so !@#^ing cheap.

[Timby]

Ar-Pharazon wrote:

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^ What do you make of the Cubs' issues with Korean players? They were usually highly touted, but then went nowhere (except out of town).

To my knowledge, they never really took off anywhere else either.

Poor scouting? They had Derek Lee's father as an agent for Asian players, at least in the past.

Multitude of factors, not the least of which is adapting to American pitching and batting. Korea's baseball system isn't nearly as competitive and filled with elite talent as, say, Cuba's or Puerto Rico's or Japan's, and there's a huge talent gap between Japan and the USA, too. Baseball hasn't reached the point in Korea where it's a game that kids grow up playing in rudimentary form, generally.

I don't think it's necessarily been bad scouting (everyone in the world wanted Hee Seop Choi, for example); when you look at the Cubs' general inability to develop prospects (internationally or not), it's not evaluation but rather poor talent development.

Jim Hendry wasn't a terrible judge of raw talent (though it definitely fell by the wayside as his job status became more threatened and ownership started telling him to win now), but a lot of the coaches and training staff throughout the organizations were lifers who had been there as far back as the mid-'90s. A sane organization wouldn't have rushed Corey Patterson to the majors, but rather would have kept him at AAA until he learned how to take a fucking walk. Choi's bat speed never caught up to even AAAA-level pitching. Sean Marshall was a schizophrenic motherfucker. No one seemed to realize that Carlos Marmol was a headcase until Epstein and Hoyer came in. Felix Pie only just now started reaching being league-average at, well, anything. And the list goes on, all the way back to Brooks motherfucking Kieschnick.

[Starbreaker]

Braves just nixed a proposal by the Rangers to trade Mike Olt for Andrelton Simmons so they could then turn around and trade Simmons to the DBacks for Justin Upton.

Edit: Josh Johnson is going to the Jays.

[Starbreaker]

@KenRosenthal

Inclusion of Reyes unconfirmed. What we know: Buerhle and Josh Johnson to #BlueJays. Escobar, Hechavarria to #Marlins. And more both ways.

@JCRMarlinsbeat

Can confirm...JJ, Bonifacio, Buck, Reyes and Buehrle all headed to Toronto

[Timby]

"WE'RE THE MARLINS AND WE'RE GOING ALL-IN NOW THAT WE HAVE OUR NEW STADIUM" *hosts immediate fire sale*

[Starbreaker]

Their payroll stands at 16 million right now.

[Skywalker]

Jeffrey Loria is a scumbag con artist.

[Timby]

Skywalker wrote:

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Jeffrey Loria is a scumbag con artist.

Yyyyep. Don't forget that in addition to scamming Miami-Dade County out of more than 80 percent of the construction cost of Marlins Park (the city and county forked out more than $500 million of the $630 million price tag, and the 40-year bonds issued to cover the costs will cost them more than $2 billion when all is said and done), the City of Miami actually pays the taxes on the parking lots and also forks out an annual maintenance fee to the Marlins. And yet somehow everyone took Loria at his word that he'd invest in the team even though he had been pocketing the team's profits for years.

He's a goddamned criminal (don't forget the shell game he, Selig and John Henry pulled to get Henry owning the Red Sox, Loria owning the Marlins and the Expos getting nuked from existence).

Oh, I forgot: Ken Rosenthal is saying that Nolasco may be the next one out of town, and Stanton has taken to Twitter and telling the world he is pissed. He'll be stuck there for a while, though; I can't imagine Loria wanting to trade Stanton until he reaches his big arbitration paydays.

[Danny99]

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/13...marlins-report

I'd like to thank the Miami Marlins for making us a contender almost immediately, taking the stupid Yunel Escobar (maybe where he can piss off the Miami Latino community by writing stupid things in Spanish in eye black) taking Henderson Alvarez, who is a bordering on being a flop pretty quickly.

I think this immediately helps a lot of the concerns, especially pitching, where we now have four starting pitchers in Romero, Morrow, Buerhle, and Johnson.

Well done Jays.

[Tom Hendricks]

I thought that the Marlins needed to win a World Series before they had this kind of fire sale.