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http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospe...dd-cuban-lefty/

 

Diamondbacks Add Cuban Lefty

 

Posted Dec. 28, 2011 1:43 pm by Ben Badler

Filed under: International, News

 

Cuban lefthander Alexander Carreras, who turns 22 on Sunday, has signed with the Diamondbacks for $400,000.

 

At his best, Carreras has shown a solid delivery and athleticism, touched 93 mph and mixed in a hard cutter/slider, which some scouts believe is his best pitch. His velocity has been inconsistent, though, and some scouts said they saw him sitting around 86-89 mph. The 6-foot lefty also mixes in a breaking ball and a changeup.

 

Carreras had been training in the Dominican Republic with Edgar Mercedes over the last year and pitching in winter ball for Aguilas in the Dominican League, where in four starts he had a 4.20 ERA with 12 strikeouts and 10 walks in 15 innings.

 

According to Baseball America's records, Carreras played in Cuba for the Industriales in his final season (2009-2010) in Serie Nacional, where he had a 5.01 ERA in 70 innings with 46 strikeouts and 36 walks. During his rookie season in 2008-2009, Carreras played for the Guerreros de Metropolitanos and posted a 3.94 ERA in 48 innings with 33 strikeouts and 27 walks.

 

Given his Cuban track record, Carreras is expected to begin his career in the minor leagues, possibly Double-A Mobile or high Class A Visalia.

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http://eye-on-baseball.blogs.cbssports.com...714192/34071137

 

After some more negotiating this winter, indications are that there's still a sizable gap in long-term contract talks between the San Francisco Giants and their ace pitcher Tim Lincecum.

 

Neither side would speak directly about the specifics of the negotiations that have been kept remarkably quiet this winter, but it is thought the sides are still at least a couple years and tens of millions of dollars apart. The Giants had made locking up Lincecum and his rotation mate Matt Cain their top priorities this winter, priorities 1 and 1A if you will.

 

The Giants are believed to have raised an offer they made this summer that was said to have been for four years and presumably about $80 million sometime in the past few weeks, but Lincecum, a two-time Cy Young winner and the 2010 World Series hero, is thought to be seeking an eight-year deal. Neither side has suggested exactly where the Giants stand now, but people familiar with the talks suggest the sides are also weighing one- and two-year options now, a clear signal that they aren't yet close to agreeing on a contract of substantial length.

 

Both sides have suggested all along that they are amenable to working out a deal of one or two years if they can't agree now on a long-term arrangement. However, the Giants' ultimate goal has been to do a deal that would cover some of Lincecum's free agent years. Lincecum is eligible for free agency after the 2013 season. A case could be made that there is even more urgency to the talks involving Cain; while he is clearly the No. 2 man in the rotation, he is eligible for free agency after the 2012 season.

 

While a longterm deal for Lincecum would almost surely run the Giants well more than $100 million, the arbitration process isn't going to be cheap, either. He made $14 million in 2011 (including a $1 million bonus) and could approach a record $18-20 million via an arbitration settlement, with the possibility of $25 million or more in '13 looming. A case could be made that Lincecum has been baseball's best pitcher over the past four years. He certainly has been its most decorated, with three strikeout titles to go with all the other hardware.

 

Lincecum, a Seattle native, has thrived since te Giants made him one of the best No. 10 overall picks ever a few years back. San Francisco has embraced his quirky delivery and nature. Likewise, all indications are that he loves the city and wants to stay a long while. The rival Dodgers gave star outfielder Matt Kemp a $160-million, eight-year extension this winter.

 

Lincecum, 27, is 69-41 with a 2.98 ERA, but that doesn't tell the story of the brilliance he has displayed. He was only 13-14 in 2011 when a incredible lack of offensive support undermined his efforts.

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This ought to make some happy...

 

http://mlbbuzz.yardbarker.com/blog/mlbbuzz...5?new_post=true

 

« Back to blog

ESPN's Law: On the move again?

0 minutes ago by KenRosenthal

 

Keith Law is a unique figure in baseball, a person who has shifted between front-office and media positions.

 

He soon may be on the move again.

 

Law, a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com, interviewed last week for a number of front-office roles with the Houston Astros, including the job of scouting director, according to major-league sources.

 

Law met with both new club president George Postolos and general manager Jeff Luhnow, but the team has yet to offer him a position, sources say.

 

In his current job, Law oversees ESPN’s scouting-related content. Prior to joining ESPN in 2006, he spent 4½ years as a special assistant with the Toronto Blue Jays. Prior to that, he was a free-lance writer for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN.

 

-Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morossi

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QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 06:37 PM)
Accck. I wanted Jones back. He was an incredible steal when we had him.

Things the White Sox continue to not need in the least:

 

1. Outfielders

2. Right hand hitting Outfielders

3. Right hand hitting outfielders who might belong as backups.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 06:47 PM)
Things the White Sox continue to not need in the least:

 

1. Outfielders

2. Right hand hitting Outfielders

3. Right hand hitting outfielders who might belong as backups.

4. Right hand hitting outfielders who only hit left handed pitching, thus need to be platooned.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 06:47 PM)
Things the White Sox continue to not need in the least:

 

1. Outfielders

2. Right hand hitting Outfielders

3. Right hand hitting outfielders who might belong as backups.

 

Yeah, that $1.4M for an OF who provides good defense at all 3 OF spots, and crushes LHP (the same LHP that Adam Dunn went 6-for-94 against last year) would probably cripple this team. Last time we signed that guy, his 1.7 WAR and $7M value as a backup really blew up in our faces.

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QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:32 PM)
Yeah, that $1.4M for an OF who provides good defense at all 3 OF spots, and crushes LHP (the same LHP that Adam Dunn went 6-for-94 against last year) would probably cripple this team. Last time we signed that guy, his 1.7 WAR and $7M value as a backup really blew up in our faces.

Brent Lillibridge would like you to notice the similarity between his numbers last year and Andruw Jones's.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:34 PM)
Brent Lillibridge would like you to notice the similarity between his numbers last year and Andruw Jones's.

 

I had actually forgot about The Bridge even being on this team, I was more focused on my disinterest in De Aza and my lack of trust in his ability to maintain that 2011 season throughout a full season.

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Andruw Jones is not a CF in any sense of the word. Let's not pretend like his fat ass can still play the position, please. He's a very good bench play -- perfect fit for an NL contender looking for pop off the bench -- but he's barely an outfielder at this point in his career. DH, PH and the occasional start in the OF is fine but anything beyond that is a stretch.

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QUOTE (Kalapse @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:46 PM)
Andruw Jones is not a CF in any sense of the word. Let's not pretend like his fat ass can still play the position, please. He's a very good bench play -- perfect fit for an NL contender looking for pop off the bench -- but he's barely an outfielder at this point in his career. DH, PH and the occasional start in the OF is fine but anything beyond that is a stretch.

 

Fangraph's disagrees.

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QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 06:52 PM)
Fangraph's disagrees.

Oh please, it seems everyone is exploiting that site and UZR these days and it's f***ing annoying. When Lichtman developed the statistic he sure as s*** didn't mean for it to be used on sample sizes as small as Jones': ~ 1200 INN in the outfield over the past three seasons. UZR is meant to judge starting position players over a 3000+ INN sample typically over a 3 year span. Any less or spread over too many seasons and you start to develop anomalies and inaccuracies that aren't weeded out by sample size.

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QUOTE (Kalapse @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 06:46 PM)
Andruw Jones is not a CF in any sense of the word. Let's not pretend like his fat ass can still play the position, please. He's a very good bench play -- perfect fit for an NL contender looking for pop off the bench -- but he's barely an outfielder at this point in his career. DH, PH and the occasional start in the OF is fine but anything beyond that is a stretch.

 

I remember when Ozzie started Jones in center instead of Rios one game (Rios started in right) because they had a vote inside the clubhouse as to who the best OF on the team is. Jones won (probably because he had gold gloves) and Ozzie stupidly went with it. Thank god he's no longer the manager.

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QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:05 PM)
I remember when Ozzie started Jones in center instead of Rios one game (Rios started in right) because they had a vote inside the clubhouse as to who the best OF on the team is. Jones won (probably because he had gold gloves) and Ozzie stupidly went with it. Thank god he's no longer the manager.

Amen to that. Speaking of quantitative analysis: did you see that Tom Tango is starting up online classes? A grand for early bird's and $1495 after that, I can't imagine find too many takers at that price (perhaps I'm just naive or cheap) but it's intriguing none the less.

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QUOTE (Kalapse @ Dec 30, 2011 -> 07:11 PM)
Amen to that. Speaking of quantitative analysis: did you see that Tom Tango is starting up online classes? A grand for early bird's and $1495 after that, I can't imagine find too many takers at that price (perhaps I'm just naive or cheap) but it's intriguing none the less.

 

That's kind of ridiculous...

 

I imagine he's catering to the hardcore sabermetricians who want to do actual statistical research and not just evaluate players for the hell of it.

 

I would love to have a sabermetrics related stats class at the college level though. That'd be a class worth taking (I'm paying the tuition for 18 credit hours anyways).

 

EDIT: After looking at http://tangotiger.net/teaching.html, it looks like there will be a decent amount of CS in it (data mining is a 400 level CS topic at UIUC). Looks like this is the kind of class that can prep you for a job on same ML club. A lot of the clubs want you to be able to gather all their data for them.

Edited by chw42
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