2010-11 MLB Offseason Catch-All

[chw42]

Yankees sign Ronnie Belliard, Eric Chavez to minor league deals.

 

Yankees are doing nothing but picking up scrap heap players this off-season, outside of Soriano and Feliciano.

[Balta1701]

Yankees are doing nothing but picking up scrap heap players this off-season, outside of Soriano and Feliciano.

Reminds me of the Red Sox last year.

[chw42]

Reminds me of the Red Sox last year.

 

Red Sox got Beltre, Cameron, and Scutaro though.

[witesoxfan]

Red Sox got Beltre, Cameron, and Scutaro though.

 

And spent $80+ million on Lackey too. They made a few moves last year.

[GoodAsGould]

Kyle Drabek is probably my favorite pitching prospect, and he's ready now. If he can do what he's capable of doing, along with Romero, that's going to be a nasty 1-2 punch.

 

The Jays are really looking great after the Wells deal. I still can't believe that. And watch them get a nice piece or two out of Frankie Francisco around the deadline.

 

Isnt Dustin McGowan due back this season as well? With him and Morrow in the rotation they actually have some nice SP assuming health and guys pitch to their talent level.

[Balta1701]

And spent $80+ million on Lackey too. They made a few moves last year.

Hopefully you get the comparison though...both teams had some big needs and some small needs...they went after some undervalued/aged players to try to fill their small needs, but in the process wound up not filling their bigger needs.

[witesoxfan]

Hopefully you get the comparison though...both teams had some big needs and some small needs...they went after some undervalued/aged players to try to fill their small needs, but in the process wound up not filling their bigger needs.

 

I kind of think they filled most of their needs pretty well. You can't really predict losing half of your starting lineup to injury.

[Balta1701]

I kind of think they filled most of their needs pretty well. You can't really predict losing half of your starting lineup to injury.

You can when it includes guys like JD Drew, Josh Beckett, Mike Cameron.

[witesoxfan]

You can when it includes guys like JD Drew, Josh Beckett, Mike Cameron.

 

Drew only missed about 20 games and Beckett missed about 12 starts (but that was probably for the better considering how poorly he pitched last year). Cameron did miss a good chunk of the season though.

 

The bigger losses were Ellsbury (about 140 games), Pedroia (about 80 games), and Youkilis (about 50 games). Those were far more significant, and using simple WAR, probably cost the Red Sox a total of about 4-7 WAR.

[Balta1701]

Drew only missed about 20 games and Beckett missed about 12 starts (but that was probably for the better considering how poorly he pitched last year). Cameron did miss a good chunk of the season though.

 

The bigger losses were Ellsbury (about 140 games), Pedroia (about 80 games), and Youkilis (about 50 games). Those were far more significant, and using simple WAR, probably cost the Red Sox a total of about 4-7 WAR.

When you have guys who have already been proven to be injury prone, you can't complain if they happen to go down at the same time other guys go down. Yeah, Drew stayed healthy for a season, but that's a rare occurrence. Beckett didn't stay healthy, Cameron didn't stay healthy. If they'd instead had stronger rotations and a more-likely-to-stay healthy CF, then they might well have been able to fight through some of their bigger losses.

[witesoxfan]

When you have guys who have already been proven to be injury prone, you can't complain if they happen to go down at the same time other guys go down. Yeah, Drew stayed healthy for a season, but that's a rare occurrence. Beckett didn't stay healthy, Cameron didn't stay healthy. If they'd instead had stronger rotations and a more-likely-to-stay healthy CF, then they might well have been able to fight through some of their bigger losses.

 

JD Drew has played in 137 games or more in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and Mike Cameron had played in 120+ games in the previous 4 seasons as well as 141 or more in 3 of the past 4. You can say that they are injury prone, but Drew stayed healthy (again) and Cameron missed a hell of a lot more time than he had in the previous 4 years. In fact, the last time Cameron missed a significant amount of time, it was when his head ran into Carlos Beltran's head. I wouldn't say that has anything to do with his body but instead a freak accident. I don't think Cameron is injury prone, he just so happened to be injured last year.

 

And they did have a CF who was more likely to be healthy in Jacoby Ellsbury, and he missed the most time of all.

 

You can't expect a team to miss as much time as the Red Sox did to injury last year, even if you have some injury prone players. You expect some injuries - you don't expect to lose half of your starting lineup for a period of time.

[ScottyDo]

JD Drew has played in 137 games or more in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and Mike Cameron had played in 120+ games in the previous 4 seasons as well as 141 or more in 3 of the past 4. You can say that they are injury prone, but Drew stayed healthy (again) and Cameron missed a hell of a lot more time than he had in the previous 4 years. In fact, the last time Cameron missed a significant amount of time, it was when his head ran into Carlos Beltran's head. I wouldn't say that has anything to do with his body but instead a freak accident. I don't think Cameron is injury prone, he just so happened to be injured last year.

 

And they did have a CF who was more likely to be healthy in Jacoby Ellsbury, and he missed the most time of all.

 

You can't expect a team to miss as much time as the Red Sox did to injury last year, even if you have some injury prone players. You expect some injuries - you don't expect to lose half of your starting lineup for a period of time.

Well, they are 35 and 38 year old outfielders, respectively, so you gotta be entirely prepared for them to miss half the season. The rest of the guys, not so much.

[Quin]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/02/rays...assignment.html

 

Ray's designate Leslie Anderson.

 

Could be a good pick up, even though he plays positions we have filled.

[TheChrisSamsa]

Nationals sign Alex Cintron to a minor league deal, proving that even though they threw money at Jayson Werth, they are still the Nationals.

 

Jon Heyman twitter

[Balta1701]

Nationals sign Alex Cintron to a minor league deal, proving that even though they threw money at Jayson Werth, they are still the Nationals.

 

Jon Heyman twitter

Do they have a SS prospect at AAA that he's somehow blocking? He's a career .300+ hitter at AAA and he can possibly help their AAA team win a few games if they don't have a SS. What's wrong with that?

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Do they have a SS prospect at AAA that he's somehow blocking? He's a career .300+ hitter at AAA and he can possibly help their AAA team win a few games if they don't have a SS. What's wrong with that?

 

Can minor league teams sign their own players, or do all the signings go under the Nationals, and they get assigned to minor league teams? Just wondering who pays for the minor league contracts, and if a player getting signed by the MLB team, but assigned to the minors mean the money is coming from the MLB team and not the AAA team.

 

Slightly off-topic, I know.

[justBLAZE]

Rangers signed Josh Hamilton to a $24M - 2 year extension. per Heyman

[Balta1701]

Rangers signed Josh Hamilton to a $24M - 2 year extension. per Heyman

Does this just buy out his arb years?

[SoxFan562004]

Rangers signed Josh Hamilton to a $24M - 2 year extension. per Heyman

interesting thing about his tweet was he mentioned that the Rangers would not have mentioned his past issues in arb. I'm a little surprised by that. Look, good for Hamilton that he's strung together and constantly works on his sobriety, but we're talking multi-million dollars here, and he had at least one known relapse with alcohol in the past year or so. If they ever try to hammer out a long term deal with him, it simply has to be addressed, the Rangers would need some sort of clause protecting them from a serious relapse. This guy was about as low as you can get and if you saw the Real Sports piece on him he has a ton of safeguards in place to keep him sober, there's a realistic chance he could slip back. Again, I'm not saying I hope he does and I think it's great he has a good support group and keeps working at it, but some people need to start looking at some of these situations with sports figures realistically and not just pretend everything is OK because guys are performing well on the field and have a short successful recovery period.

[Milkman delivers]

interesting thing about his tweet was he mentioned that the Rangers would not have mentioned his past issues in arb. I'm a little surprised by that. Look, good for Hamilton that he's strung together and constantly works on his sobriety, but we're talking multi-million dollars here, and he had at least one known relapse with alcohol in the past year or so. If they ever try to hammer out a long term deal with him, it simply has to be addressed, the Rangers would need some sort of clause protecting them from a serious relapse. This guy was about as low as you can get and if you saw the Real Sports piece on him he has a ton of safeguards in place to keep him sober, there's a realistic chance he could slip back. Again, I'm not saying I hope he does and I think it's great he has a good support group and keeps working at it, but some people need to start looking at some of these situations with sports figures realistically and not just pretend everything is OK because guys are performing well on the field and have a short successful recovery period.

 

I'm sure the Rangers don't want to look like bad guys if it leaks that they did bring up his drug abuse. Didn't you know that overcoming a drug problem (surviving cancer (then drugging up like no other)) automatically makes you a saint and nobody can ever question anything you ever do again for the rest of your life, lest they then be crucified by the media and American public?

[justBLAZE]

#rangers smart to avoid arb w. hamilton considering 1) his mantle-like yr, and 2) his past isssues (which they would not have raised) - Heyman

[SoxFan562004]

On MLBN Mitch Williams actually brought up how teams should be leery of long term with Hamilton. Another commentator, didn't catch his name, said in a few years maybe a long term deal would make sense because he's had a good track record, and everyone on the set completely ignored that he's had at least one relapse

[witesoxfan]

Well ignoring the possibility of a relapse, drugs ravage your body, and it seems to me that he's been banged up a bit every single year, including last year during his MVP run. For that reason alone, he isn't a great bet long-term. Add in the possibility of a relapse, and it's scary to invest in him long-term.

 

[iamshack]

Well ignoring the possibility of a relapse, drugs ravage your body, and it seems to me that he's been banged up a bit every single year, including last year during his MVP run. For that reason alone, he isn't a great bet long-term. Add in the possibility of a relapse, and it's scary to invest in him long-term.

I'm sure they could structure the contract so that it could be voided should it be proven that he was taking some form of illegal drugs.

 

As for the issue of whether his past drug use has damaged his body such that it will cause an earlier decline in performance than an otherwise healthy player, you'd have to trust your medical staff on that one.

[Balta1701]

I'm sure they could structure the contract so that it could be voided should it be proven that he was taking some form of illegal drugs.

 

As for the issue of whether his past drug use has damaged his body such that it will cause an earlier decline in performance than an otherwise healthy player, you'd have to trust your medical staff on that one.

Even though the latter is true...there's even more to it...he also went a couple years without doing normal MLB-level workouts, and then restarted them. I'm sure you know as well as I do that the time away from workouts can't be fully made up.