A note for fantasy leaguers: if you weren't lucky enough to be in a league that allows you to play Allen "The Wrench" Craig at 2b, (and if you are, and have Craig at the keystone and are not winning your league, time to re-evaluate)...Matt Carpenter starting at 2b tonight in STL. Cardinal message boards and STL talk radio getting ready to go collectively bonkers.
MLB.com are reporting that Howard may play this weekend. He'd have to be Babe Ruth to come close to justifying his contract, but at least maybe the Phils will get something out of him this season.
Was listening to the Tiger game on the radio as I drove home from work yesterday when Prince hit his big blast in the 8th. I was a happy commuter. Is it just me, or do Fielder and Cabrera look like they're having a whole lot of fun? The Tigers starts seem to be pulling their weight, just need a couple more of the supporting cast to step it up to fulfill that team potential.
Oh DOCTOR! Here come my San Diego Padres...
Winners of 7 of their last 10 and six straight make them the hottest team in baseball at the turn. Good enough to pull them out of the cellar to the point they can look down on the Rockies, the Astros and the Cubbies.
Oh god is this team bad this year...
The Diamondbacks are reportedly shopping Justin Upton. I hope the Mariners are in on those talks as he's only 24, has two relatively inexpensive years remaining on his current deal, and would slide quite nicely into the right field spot as a long-term replacement for Ichiro. I'd even be willing to see Seattle give up one of their top pitching prospects for him.
Uh, dudes. Brian McCann is batting like over a thousand at Citizens Bank Park. Maybe when you see him you just throw the ball at the dugout and hope for the best. Jeez.
So does anyone understand what is going on with the Marlins not having anyone at the All Star game? I get that Stanton can't go because of injury, but why is it that no other Marlin will replace him? When was the last time a team ended up with no actual representative at the game? The whole thing seems very odd and the Marlin's president did an interview where it sounds like he's not too happy about decisions made by LaRussa and MLB in terms of how to deal with Stanton's inability to attend.
Had they held off on Stanton's surgery (and understandable why they didn't) he'd have been in the pre-game introductions. This isn't unprecedented that a team's only representative hasn't been able to play in the game, but because they decided to scope him right away to get him back to the lineup ASAP, I don't think he'll be in KC to be introduced.Originally Posted by Sarkus
And who the hell do you take from the Marlins if not Stanton? The guys the Marlins suggested are part-time players (Dobbs, Ruggiano) or a late inning setup guy (Cishek).
Just glancing at their roster Cishek seems like the obvious choice. My feeling is that if MLB is going to insist on every team being represented and when you throw in the expanded rosters, its pretty hard to find any real reason why they couldn't have substituted someone else.
I wouldn't mind having late inning setup guys added to the roster if the game is suppose to have meaning now. Also if the game is suppose to have meaning they need a way to balance out the fan votes and the requirement of every team getting a rep. Though with the expanded roster there is probably enough room for it. Either way there will always be guys more deserving that never make the team and popular players that get voted in based on past performances.
What happened was this: the Marlins notified MLB that Stanton was hurt and would not be playing in the All Star Game. The understanding of MLB was that Stanton would still be present at the game and introduced. MLB notified the Nats and Bryce Harper that he was selected as a replacement player. This has happened at least a half-dozen or so times in All Star game history, where a team's sole representative was unable to play in the actual game but took part in the ceremonies. The Marlins then decided to go ahead with surgery on Stanton right away, which puts in doubt his attendance at the game itself on Tuesday....but Harper had already been notified and that selection signed off on by all concerned.
I've never been a big proponent of the "All-Star Game counts" approach, but it appears to be here to stay. Given that, I don't see any reason to replace players unable to play, except to maintain a minimum playable roster. There's already more pitchers and outfielders than you need on an All-Star game roster, and having less will only make the manager's job easier when he tries to get as many as possible into the game while not gimping his team. I think they should allow replacement only if you drop below two players at a given position.
Yeah but then X number of players will miss out on their All-Star bonus and I'm sure that'll cause more union issues.
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Just wandered in to Kauffman Stadium. Man, none of these pitchers have anything.
Watched the Derby last night thanks to the magic of the Interwebs. It was on ESPN3 so I could see it even though I'm not giving up my pound of flesh to the cable companies.
Hooray Prince! Good to see a Tiger in the spotlight. I had hoped for Trumbo and Prince in the finals, but Joey Bats was good too.
Best home run: Trumbo blasting one off the roof in left. He just barely missed getting that one out of the stadium entirely. Prince hit several farther, but Trumbo's projected distance was more.
Dumbest moment: The KC crowd booing Cano while he was at the plate. In the intro, sure, that's fine. But give it a rest, people, let the man hit. Not that he hit anything anyway.
Best guest: George Brett. He and Boomer were poking at each other like old college roommates. These sorts of events need more George Brett, I don't care what stadium they're in.
Best random athlete moment: Adam Jones wandering over and eating the ribs that George had brought for the announcers. It's a good thing it was a big plate, or Kruk might have clawed him.
As a Giants fan I have to say that was just about the best All Star game ever.
You've got to be kidding me. I'm a Brett fanboy and not a kneejerk Berman hater, but that was some of the most excruciating television in the recent history of that medium. Just awful stuff: "You gonna be at the thing tomorrow?" punctuated by the sight of John Kruk stuffing his face with barbecued ribs on camera.
To each his own, I guess. I like that sort of non-scripted silliness in these made-for-media things.
The actual game was fun to watch, although the top of the first was pretty excruciating for a Tigers fan. Justin clearly didn't have his good stuff. Sure, he hit 100 a couple of times, but he had no idea where that ball was going. And the curveball was merely decent instead of devastating.
Other than that, some enjoyable baseball. Was good to see the response for Chipper, well deserved. If he actually retires and doesn't pull a Favre, this last season will be one of the classiest exits by a player that we've seen in a while. I enjoyed seeing Harper screw up in the outfield, too, which I suppose makes me a dick but so be it. And it's nice to see Melky getting some recognition, he's worked hard the last couple of years to live up to his potential.
At least Kruk had the decency to use a Gatorade towel as a napkin.
Also congrats to Dayton Moore for trading away the player who would come back and win the MVP for one of the worst pitchers in baseball. Process!
I wasn't able to watch the game but I don't think I would have anyway. Part of it is that the all-star game doesn't mean much to me as it did when I was a kid. But it doesn't help that there were six former Mariners involved. If you want to know how a team can suck for 10 years, all you have to do is realize they traded away, released, or let walk six all-star caliber players. And that doesn't even count Lance Lynn, who they drafted but failed to sign in 2005.
That was the running joke between me and my wife last night. "Him? Yeah, former Mariner. That guy, too. Him? We passed on him in the draft. Him? Yeah...he was a Mariner."
Toss in the eight Mariners that were in 2001 ASG for extra salt-rub power. Now even our one contribution to the ASG, our ace pitcher, doesn't get an inning.
Fuck you Bill Bavasi, Fuck you Howard & Schultz, fuck you living in Southeast Alaska where nobody wants to play.
I'm not a Dayton Moore fan but that trade made sense at the time and I would have done the same thing in his position.
At the time the trade was made Melky had one good season under his belt - 2011. The Royals desperately needed starting pitching and had a young CF ready to play (Cain). Melky was pretty likely to regress to the mean this year (just look at Francouer's 2011 and 2012) and he was traded when his value was at its highest.
It just turns out that Melky's 2011 wasn't a mirage and Sanchez is the worst starter in the majors. Typical Royals luck but that doesn't make it a bad trade.
Last edited by Exodor; 07-11-2012 at 01:13 PM.
The former Mariner all-stars are mostly just an example of how poor the team has been at identifying talent. Now in fairness, some of those guys would not have turned into what they turned into had they stayed. The Seattle Times baseball writer had a piece on this topic and pointed out that RA Dickey didn't perfect his pitch until after he left Seattle because when he signed with the Twins they sent him to Phil Niekro. But then you look at guys like LaHair and the Jones/Bedard trade and realize they just blew it. Especially in the Bavasi era.
Yeah, this one doesn't hurt. I don't think it's possible that anyone could predict that Joe Journeyman knuckleball guy was going to go batshit-low ERA crazy this year. More power to the guy.
GODDAMN ITJones/Bedard trade
But at least we kept Clement and Adam Moore, whew
As a Giants fan I was a bit peeved at the trade. Melky, like you said had one good season. Now there wasn't much value in Sanchez at this point either. But he did have potential. He had some of the best stuff on the staff, and when he was on, he was on, but if he was off he'll walk everybody. Everybody felt he just needed a fresh start somewhere new. I guess not. Too bad it didn't work out for the Royals.
Well, I didn't much care for the trade then. And while no one expected Sanchez to tank this hard and Melky to hit .350, trying to fix a staff that leads the league in walks by bringing in a guy with a higher walk rate than nearly everyone on it sounds about as dumb to me as twice putting Yuni on your team. I didn't object to unloading Melky, but doing it for a pitcher who was coming off an injury year and even in the one good year in his 7-year career, still led the league in walks and hits per nine just seemed like too much risk for a team that needed real help in the pitching department. If anything salvages this trade, it'll be Ryan Verdugo. Glass can sometimes get a good steal when trading a big leaguer for prospects, but doing a major leaguer for major leaguer deal just doesn't seem to be his game.
I first met Chipper's Dad back in college, and a couple of times since, having him be retiring and 40 makes me feel really old....
Well, I just lost a 5 dollar bet that Mark Appel would sign with the Pirates. I guess there is no counting on stupidity. For those of you who keep up with the draft, he was rumored to be the first overall pick of the draft by the Astros. However, he is represented by the biggest agent in MLB, Scott Boras, and their was a sense that it would take a large signing bonus to get him to commit. Last year, the Pirates shelled out $8 million to sign a Boras client.
Complicating the issue is the new CBA agreement drastically changed the draft. To summarize the issue quickly, each spot in the draft has a recommended signing bonus. Before, teams on a budget (ultimately all of them, but some more than others) would skip on drafting the best player available and a let a later team with deeper pockets pick them up. The new rules give very heavy penalties for going over the recommended slot amount, including loss of future draft picks which no team wants to incur.
Now, the first overall pick has a slot value over $7 million, but the Astros asked Appel if he'd take $6 million. He declined, at which point the Astros found someone else willing to sign for $4 million (or maybe $5, whatever) and drafted him. This left Appel in limbo. He is considered one the top talents of the 2012 draft, but with the slot limits their were concerns about signability. The Pirates drafted him 8th, which has a slot amount of $2.9 million. Eventually, by shuffling monies around they were able to offer him $3.8 million without incurring the heavy penalties.
So, what does Appel do? He says no. I get that maybe at such a young age its tough to realize that potential money is very different then real money, and once its gone, its gone. The market had spoken, the team that valued Appel the most, the Astros, felt he was worth $6 million, but no more. Every other team until the Pirates didn't think he was worth the heavy signing bonus, to say nothing of risking the loss of draft picks.
I'm pretty sure the only loser in this situation is Appel himself. He is going back to Stanford for a year, and try the draft again in 2013, which is widely believed to be a much deeper draft. Meanwhile, he'll risk injury and delay his pro career a year on the hope one of the top 5 teams will both draft him and offer him a bigger signing bonus, despite the fact he'll have no career leverage remaining besides playing in an independent league.
The Pirates get to draft 9th overall next season (in the deeper draft) to compensate them for this failed signing, and probably grab a talent on par with what they could have gotten, if not better, had they not gambled on being able to sign Appel. Plus, they reshuffled some of the money meant for Appel and got some of their later draft picks signed.
Scott Boras, who already makes a ton of money representing free agents, gets to hold the line and prove a point, that if teams want to sign his players, they need to get out their checkbooks or no dice. I'm not sure this will help him in the long term, as teams avoid drafting his clients and are limited by the new rules anyways, but sometimes teams get fixated on certain prospects and can't bear to not sign them. Maybe teams will take greater efforts to reshuffle money (by drafting players willing to sing for less than slot) to get his clients in the future.
MLB has successfully curbed signing bonuses, and for the most part players were drafted in rough order of talent, though some of the 8-10 round signings were clearly money saving efforts.
I could go on: Stanford gets its star pitcher another year, Astros get another shot to sign Appel, etc. Suffice it to say, I'm upset I loss $5 because somebody couldn't see what a great situation they were still in and spited the system. I know somebody will say this is evidence that they new CBA rules have broken baseball, but I think they're an improvement over the old way.
Didn't JD Drew re-enter the draft twice because he kept not signing his contract. Eventually signing with the Phillies if I'm not mistaken. It always happens with Boras. He tries to squeeze every penny out possible.
Yeah, this isn't all that uncommon. The Royals currently have two such players.
One is Luke Hochevar, who skipped on the Dodgers when they drafted him in '02, only to be taken the next year by KC, where he has since outed himself as totally not MLB caliber.
The other is Aaron Crow, who was drafted by the Nats in 2008, said 'Nah', and was taken the next year by the Royals. Unlike Hochevar, he has turned out OK and made the All Star team in his rookie year.
So both guys passed on the teams that initially drafted them (who are now both in 1st place) to eventually sign with the Royals - a team virtually guaranteed to go nowhere until Mr. Walmart and his demonspawn cough it up to someone of the human species. If that doesn't serve as a cautionary tale about holding out in the draft, I don't know what does.
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