MLB Offseason 2012

[Timby]

Tom Hendricks wrote:

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

Never underestimate the villainy of one Jeffrey H. Loria, who is well-used to the pastime of taking a runny shit all over the city in which his team is based.

Nolasco / Stanton to Baltimore rumors are starting to heat up, too.

[tomalak301]

Congrats to Bob Melvin for winning AL Coach of the Year. Very well deserved, even though Sholwalter would have been well deserved too. This is a year where I wish they just gave the award to both of them, since they were almost mirror images of each other.

Next up, Cy Young, and then Thursday I hope that MVP comes to San Francisco. Can't wait till that announcement.

[Starbreaker]

This is a great article from SI.com. Really a head scratcher of a deal

The Blue Jays and Marlins reportedly executed a staggering 12-player trade Tuesday night that will send five starting players from the 2012 Marlins -- shortstop Jose Reyes, pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, catcher John Buck and multi-position speedster Emilio Bonifacio -- to Toronto in exchange for shortstop Yunel Escobar, starting pitcher Henderson Alvarez, backup catcher Jeff Mathis and four prospects.
The deal finds the Blue Jays assuming $167.75 million worth of contracts, led by those of Reyes ($96 million over the next five years plus a 2018 option) and Buehrle ($52 million over the next three years) who were just signed by the Marlins last offseason. Subtract the $4 million being sent to Toronto in the trade and Escobar's $5 million salary for 2013, and that's a net $158.75 million increase in Toronto's financial commitments.
All of that to acquire five starting players from a team that won just 69 games in 2012, which begs the question: If a team that won just 73 games acquires one-fifth of the roster of a team that won just 69, did it really get any better?
...

Link

[Timby]

Starbreaker wrote:

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Link

Oh, God, an "add up the WARs to see if it makes sense" article.

This is a trade that makes a lot of sense for the Jays, and I have to give a ton of credit to AA, whom I bag on quite a bit -- it's kind of refreshing to see him make a trade that isn't "get another AAAA reliever." The timing makes perfect sense, as the AL East has never been more winnable in our lifetimes than it will be in 2013. The Yankees are getting old and are almost assuredly losing Swisher and Soriano, the Red Sox pulled a Marshall University, the O's won on magic that will disappear (seriously, that team is going to regress so much, they scraped into the playoffs on smoke and mirrors), and the Rays are always hamstrung by the budget issues that come from drawing like 300 fans a game. The timing is right for the Jays to go all-in, considering this is the best chance they'll have to get Joey Bats into the playoffs.

Really, this all becomes easier to understand when you realize that the only reason Loria owns a baseball team is to fund his art purchasing, primarily through pocketing revenue sharing dollars (and every MLB team will receive an additional $25 million per year, with no restrictions on how / if it's spent, beginning in 2014 as a result of the new television deal). He's essentially Max Bialystock.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Cy Young Award winners:

AL - David Price
NL - R.A. Dickey

[Tom Hendricks]

I'm happy for RA Dikey, one of a few bright spot on the Mets this year.

[Timby]

Who the fuck cast a first-place ballot for Fernando fucking Rodney?

[Tom Hendricks]

When I saw that, I too was like WTF.

[SmoothieX]

Good for Dickey, it's a nice story. And yeah, after the post All Star Break nosedive, R.A. Dickey pitching night was about the only reason to tune in.

This team frustrates the hell out of me. There are nights when you think, hey, these homegrown kids aren't bad, if they add a bat here and an arm there, they could contend. Then there are nights when you come to the sobering revelation that they will never win a title or even a division with Ike Davis, Daniel Murphy, Lucas Duda, et al.

Then you get the utter slapdickery of ownership. They're still hamstrung by the Madoff stuff, and they're getting into this delightful habit of paying players to go away. (Bay, Castillo, Perez, and oh yeah isn't Bobby Bonilla on the payroll until June of 2634)

Fuck my life. My baseball team should have everything working in its favor as a large market team with a cable sports network in a sport that's inequitably set up. Yet they still manage to suck 100 feet of dude whistle. My football team has lost 3 games by a combined 4 points and their defense couldn't stop the Cupcake State University, much less a decent NFL team. Hell, they couldn't stop a bad NFL team last week. Just do me a favor and get blown out in the first playoff game like you did against Baltimore a few years ago when it was 14-0 before I even got home with the pizza instead of getting my hopes up before another last minute Super Bowl nutpunch.

OK, I think I'm good.

[Timby]

USA Today is reporting that the Marlins / Blue Jays trade/fire sale/shit on the city of Miami is going under review by the commissioner's office. Selig is reportedly pissed.

[Alidar Jarok]

Miguel Cabrera voted MVP with 22 out of 28 first place votes. I think Mike Trout objectively had the better season, but I'm fine with this because Cabrera made the playoffs and made history. I do think they are rewarding hitting over base running and defense (not that Trout was a slouch at bat), but because of the particular accomplishments he got, I'm fine with Cabrera.

[RevDMV]

MVPosey

[Timby]

Alidar Jarok wrote:

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Miguel Cabrera voted MVP with 22 out of 28 first place votes. I think Mike Trout objectively had the better season, but I'm fine with this because Cabrera made the playoffs and made history.

The Angels had more wins than the Tigers, for what it's worth. In any event, Cabrera shouldn't win the MVP award just because he had the fortune to play on a team that fell ass-backwards into the playoffs because the Sox completely shit the bed. Trout had a season for the ages -- his best comparison is Mickey Mantle, for heaven's sake.

There's also the little thing about the Triple Crown being kind of meaningless, because it just means that Cabrera was lucky enough to come up to bat when the goobers in front of him had gotten on base. Aggregate RBI totals aren't a metric of a player's talent in the slightest.

To be fair, I'd be less upset if it were, like, 15 - 13 in favor of Cabrera. The landslide is just ridiculous and speaks to how moronic a good portion of the BBWAA is.

RevDMV wrote:

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MVPosey

Motherfucker gonna get paid soon.

[Skywalker]

Most of the BBWAA who didn't vote for Trout probably went into it thinking "he needs to prove himself first." It's idiotic how often these people take past performance into account when the awards are supposed to be for one season alone.

[Timby]

Skywalker wrote:

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Most of the BBWAA who didn't vote for Trout probably went into it thinking "he needs to prove himself first." It's idiotic how often these people take past performance into account when the awards are supposed to be for one season alone.

Most of the BBWAA is still pissed off that people like Bill James and Nate Silver introduced the focus on statistics that actually matter, meaning they couldn't just look at the standard hits/home runs/RBI line as a metric of quality anymore. They're still tied to their old-school thinking -- and even the ones who have embraced advanced statistical analysis are fucking lazy and just operate under the system of "add up the WARs."

That RBI is considered a valuable and meaningful metric to assess a player's performance in 2012 is fucking absurd.