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MLB 2014-2015 Offseason |OT| Playoff Dreaming

S

Syrinx

Member
jbug617 said:
Qualifying Offers so far:

Francisco Lirano
Russell Martin
Hanley Ramirez
Michael Cuddyer
Ervin Santana
James Shields
Nelson Cruz
David Robertson
Click to expand...

So if the Mets want to sign Cuddyer, they'd have to give up their first-round pick?

No thank you.
 
U

User 479360

Banned
The more I think and hear about the Blue Jays' Adam Lind trade, the more I hate it. We got a pitcher in return who was lit up for HRs last year, and we gave the Brewers a good hitting/decent fielding 1B who excels against lefties.

What a fucking gongshow of a trade.

If the Blue Jays' plan was to get rid of him as soon as possible to save a bit of cash (in the grand scheme of things and with today's MLB contracts -- which are absurd -- it is a bit) then they succeeded. However, if they're that tight in the pocketbooks (with billionaire Rogers as its owner) then there's no way they're committed to winning or that they will. They could've gotten better for a player of his ilk.

AA will just continue to scrape the waiver wire for depth players who won't contribute a lot, and will fail again.
 
R

RumblingRosco

Member
Meier said:
Wait. Brian Wilson got $10m for last season? And is getting another $10m? Holy shit.
Click to expand...

What is with California teams and shitty contracts? Giants, Angels, Dodgers GAF, explain yourselves.

Oakland, you get a pass because you're awesome despite your relatively low payroll and crumbling infrastructure.
 
C

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Soka said:
What is with California teams and shitty contracts? Giants, Angels, Dodgers GAF, explain yourselves.

Oakland, you get a pass because you're awesome despite your relatively low payroll and crumbling infrastructure.
Click to expand...

With taxes and the cost of living here you are actually losing money.
 
M

Mr. Enigma

Member
Final list of those who received 1-year, $15.3 million qualifying offers:

-- Melky Cabrera
-- Nelson Cruz
-- Michael Cuddyer
-- Francisco Liriano
-- Russell Martin
-- Victor Martinez
-- Hanley Ramirez
-- David Robertson
-- Pablo Sandoval
-- Ervin Santana
-- Max Scherzer
-- James Shields
 
J

jbug617

Banned
Yanks don't plan to go after any of the big 3 pitchers or Pablo Sandoval
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...val-jon-lester-max-scherzer-article-1.1997950

Put the Panda heads away, Yankees fans; Pablo Sandoval isn’t coming to the Bronx. And you can add Max Scherzer, Jon Lester and James Shields to that list while you’re at it.

According to a source, the Yankees have no plans to pursue either Scherzer or Lester, the top two free agents on the market this winter. Shields, the third-best free-agent starter, is also off the Bombers’ radar, as is Sandoval, the Giants’ postseason hero who was given a $15.3 million qualifying offer by San Francisco before Monday’s deadline.
Click to expand...

Yanks are working on signing Headley and McCarthy.
 
F

Fox318

Member
mh1s72T.jpg
 
S

Syrinx

Member
Fox318 said:
There is no easy fix for the yanks.

They need to get younger and invest in their farm system.
Click to expand...

Good on the Yankees, they really have too many holes that couldn't be fixed in a free agent spending spree.

Enjoy the talk radio meltdowns.
 
F

Fox318

Member
Syrinx said:
Good on the Yankees, they really have too many holes that couldn't be fixed in a free agent spending spree.

Enjoy the talk radio meltdowns.
Click to expand...

Cable deals have changed the landscape.

Any team outside of the Rays can spend money if they want to.
 
F

Fox318

Member
If Tanaka is out this year the yankees should concentrate their payroll on paying advances to get Sabathia, Arod, and the biggest bum Tex out of their deals early if they can.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
FanGraphs - The Yankees Found Another Way To Outspend Every Other Team:

With limited avenues to spend their money, where have the Yankees turned now? Minor league free agents. Starting today, free agents can sign with any club and most fans will focus on the splashy big money major league signings. Sometimes, a former standout major leaguer that’s past him prime will sign a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite and fans may hold out hope this player can regain past form. Below even this radar are the often first time free agents with little to no big league service that are signed to minor league deals with Spring Training invites and little fanfare. This is where the Yankees have been frustrating most of baseball.
Click to expand...

Minor league free agency was a pretty straightforward process until the past few years, when the Yankees starting spending way more money on these players than any other team was comfortable spending. I was told last offseason that 3B Yangervis Solarte was a target for multiple teams in the minor league free agent market. Both executives, analysts and scouts from different types of organizations had pinpointed Solarte as being one of the top tier minor league free agents at this point last year. There wasn’t a huge bidding war for him alone, but multiple teams were calling his agent with offers on the first day of free agency. This also happened with a couple dozen other players deemed to be top tier free agents.

Logic follows that in this sort of situation, Solarte would sign with one of the teams that spends up to $20,000 per month ($100,000 for the a full season in the minors). The Yankees ended up signing him last offseason for $120,000 ($24,000 per month) with a split contract (meaning he’d make more than the MLB minimum if he is in the big leagues: $515,000 in this case instead of the $500,000 minimum), a Spring Training invite, provisions to leave for an Asian professional club during the year if he chooses and a guaranteed $66,000 salary ($13,200 per month) for the season even if he’s cut during Spring Training and he plays the whole season for another organization (or stays at home).

Rival clubs tell me that with other minor league free agents, the Yankees will routinely go up to $30,000 or $35,000 per month, include bonuses in addition to that salary, guarantee salaries (minor league salaries are not normally guaranteed like big league salaries) and offer bigger MLB salaries in split contracts.
Click to expand...

An executive with a medium market club told me last year that his team had a target list of about a dozen minor league free agents to target on day one of minor league free agency and the Yankees signed about half of those players to salaries that his team couldn’t come close to matching. Why don’t other teams spend what amounts to a trivial amount of money to get the minor league free agents that their scouts and analysts are telling them to target? I still haven’t gotten a satisfactory answer after asking a half dozen front office people. As mentioned above, part of it is cost control and having limits in place to make the negotiation process go smoother and more quickly with dozens of players in play for each team at any given time. The rest of it, as I’m told, are various versions of “this is the way things are done.”

One exec said if his team spent an extra $1 million to get all of their targets and none of those players ended up contributing to the big league team, it would open him up to scrutiny for taking money from another department, trying something different and wasting $1 million. On average, most teams will get a couple useful big leaguers if they sign their dozen top targets, but risk aversion decision making, akin to how NFL coaches treat fourth down decisions, seems to be holding back even the most forward-thinking clubs in this area.
Click to expand...

A Yankees source told me they could break even financially with a $500 million payroll expenditure (including luxury tax), so this minor league free agent expenditure is still a trivial amount of money for them, though it would be less trivial for a small market club. Credit is still due to the Yankees for being open-minded enough to do the rational thing and spend their considerable resources in whatever way is available. Not every team does this, normally for bureaucratic reasons; you’d be surprised how difficult it is to move a seven figure sum from one department to another even within baseball operations.

It’s peculiar to me that, for a small amount in the scope of player acquisition budgets, a club could almost surely get an additional big league contributor and very few clubs seem inclined to shift their strategy to do it. In the case of the Yankees 2014 minor league free agent class, Solarte was good for the Yankees, then was half of what acquired Chase Headley for the 2014 stretch run, who himself created almost three wins in less than half a season with the Bombers. The profit from just the one-year Solarte signing/trade transaction is about $10 million, or roughly enough to pay for this minor league free agent strategy for another ten seasons.
Click to expand...
 
F

Fox318

Member
If the Yankees can get a young core of players and develop some lefty power hitters they can be dominate for a decade.
 
R

rando14

Member
Fox318 said:
If Tanaka is out this year the yankees should concentrate their payroll on paying advances to get Sabathia, Arod, and the biggest bum Tex out of their deals early if they can.
Click to expand...

How dare you disrespect Arod this way!!

Comeback Player of the Year 2015!!
 
T

Tempesta di Fuoco

Banned
Pablo declined Qualifying Offer (no surprise). I don't think he's worth $100+ million, so I hope the Dodgers or Yankees take him for a $500 million 30 year deal.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Hulu series “Behind the Mask" to showcase Giants mascot Lou Seal in episiode:

He may not have any specialty Jockey shorts named after him, but the San Francisco Giants mascot Lou Seal is getting his moment in the sun after the team’s World Series win this fall: Hulu has announced that Lou will be featured in an episode of its hella cool series “Behind the Mask” in the show’s second season next year.

Hulu made the announcement today (Nov. 4), saying Lou Seal will be the — starting mascot? Lead-off mascot? — for “Behind the Mask’s” second season premiere in February.

In real life, Lou Seal is Joel Zimei, who is known as the “Cal Ripken of mascots” because he’s never missed a game in 15 years. When not wearing a fake furry seal head, Zimei is married with a three-year-old daughter and another on the way.

“This season, Joel will need to find a balance between his two most important commitments: keeping his attendance streak as ‘Lou Seal,’ and being the best father he can be to his children – a quality his own father sorely lacked,” according to Hulu.

The show is about the men and women who have to balance their professional lives as team mascots with their personal lives. Maybe it sounds silly, but only if you’ve never watched it. Whether it’s a mascot for professional sports or high school, the hit docu-series was a hit in its first season for good reason.

The actual premiere date will be announced.
Click to expand...

8OywGBm.gif
 
BFIB

BFIB

Member
NL MVP and Cy Young finalists coming up here soon. Why even announce it? Just give the awards to Kershaw already.
 
J

JDHarbs

Member
My only guess as to why Cain wasn't even nominated for a Gold Glove was because MLB didn't want 4 Royals to win one.

Absolute travesty.
 
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