<font color=goldenrod>I could easily see some curmudgeon voting McCutchen or somebody #1 simply because his team made the playoffs.

Harper will still win decisively though, and rightly so.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Also I personally would have gone with Greinke over Arrieta, although that's not a knock on Arrieta as he (and Kershaw) both had compelling arguments and would have been deserving.

Greinke was basically dominant the whole season. Arrieta was good until August then he just went into otherworldly territory. If you were to flip his Apr/May results with his Aug/Sept ones and give him the same stats to end the year and he almost certainly doesn't win the award. Definitely benefited from the timing of his hot streak.

But still good for him, hell of an award season for the Cubbies.</font>

I miss Scott Feldman.

Writers cannot take playoffs into account when voting for regular season awards. Maybe Coach if the team wins it all but still probably not.

20 > 18. Dallas
2.48 < 2.45 Price but not by much.
216 < 225 Price also but not by much.
Golden Glove-Dallas.

Wins are the biggest thing and 20 game winner is a huge Cy Young selling point.

That was such an awfully-formatted post.

Lol wins. About as useless as TEH RIBBIES

And that's not a jab at std, just the voting process in general and why I have little faith in the process in which the bbwa votes on awards.

They gave it to Felix one year when he went like, 13-12 didn't they?

Which was the one time in recent memory they didn't just go with the wins leader, or at least look only at wins.

<font color=goldenrod>I can't believe Mark Melancon got a vote. Nothing against him but giving any reliever even a 5th place vote in a league as packed with amazing SPs as the NL was this year is complete lunacy.</font>

But....but the SAVES, Vito.

THE SAVES

I agree with you, though, it's odd. And I'm a Melancon fan.

I'm going to find you and pee on all of your analytics

YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME

I love you gorgeous Dale. I think the year Greinke won it, his record was not stellar. But the numbers he actually controlled were absolutely stellar. They really had to no choice but to acknowledge both Felix and Greinke were fantastic and that their win loss record was superfluous.

Mwah!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUNgO1WWcAE22VT.jpg:large

<font color=goldenrod>lol Trevor Rosenthal got a 6th place vote. What the fuck?</font>

That scoring system seems so fucked. You'd think it would just be to vote for one guy and call it a day. Not sure why they have to "score" it.

<font color=goldenrod>Damn...Cubs snuck in and swiped Jack Leathersich from the Mets. He's a reliever who throws high heat with his left arm and had like a 15 K/9 ratio in the minors. Problem is he also had a 5 BB/9 so he was still very much a work in progress.

Main reason the Mets dropped him is because they needed to free up spots on the 40 man roster. He had TJS in late July and so they didn't feel another team would keep an unproven guy like him on the 40 all offseason and then also have to pay him a big league salary to spend most if not all of 2016 on the 60-day DL.

Cubs must really like him. Moreover though I'm sad to lose him cause his name is awesome.</font>

The rule 5 was cooler before they moved the cutoff back an extra year. Highly unlikely you'll see teams pluck guys like Dan Uggla or Johan Santana since teams now have an extra year to protect guys and add them to the 40 man.

Goldshmidt should've won simply because his name fucked up their table

Josh Donaldson beat out Mike Trout to take the AL MVP award. In terms of 1st place votes, Donaldson got 23 and Trout the rest.

What I most respect about Mike Trout is that he's named after a fish.

not his WAR?

tbh his WAR is RAW

<font color=goldenrod>I really think it's impossible to overstate Mike Trout's greatness at this point.

Just the fact that you can make a legitimate case for a 24 year old guy to have 4 MVP awards in the bank already is absurd.</font>

He is the best player in the game at the moment. Though, if Harper is moved to centerfield I think it's a tie. They're both supremely gifted athletes.

Yeah Trout is best player in the league, and that's coming from a huge Miggy homer (real glad Miggy got the MVP in 2013 anyway, suck it)

More.like miggy homo

Tigers get Cameron Maybin from the Braves for Ian Krol and Gabe Speier.


Blue Jays continue to tweak their rotation and grab Jesse Chavez from Oakland for Liam Hendriks.

Would be funny if Tigers opted to try and get Miller instead of K-Rod. Maybin and Miller on the team with Cabrera as well, good times

<font color=goldenrod>One of the NY baseball writers tried to say the Mets should swap Zack Wheeler to the Yankees for Brett Gardner. That made for a nice laugh.

Even if the terms were more even, you'd never see a blockbuster trade happen between those two teams. Neither team would want to risk trading a guy across town who can end up becoming an actual difference maker. That's why the Mets and Yankees have only ever swapped spare parts on the rare occasions that they've traded.</font>

Silly reason not to make a move. If it makes your team better, you should be open to trading with anyone.

That said, that's a terrible trade idea.

Cubs and White Sox have made numerous high profile deals in years past.

hmmmm....Starlin Castro for Brett Gardner....

Do it, Theo.

Great deal for the Cubbies. Castro is supremely overrated.

How about Baez for Ross, Frankie?

I'm not a baez guy so I would be all about dealing him. He almost torpedoed his stock this year and he's one month full of ks away from that level again. I would do it, but I think the Cubs want to sign pitching and use their inventory on a trade in mid season after seeing what they have.

<font color=goldenrod>It's just the way NY is, seemingly. Everything in NY gets blown out of proportion so there's always the worry of a deal blowing up in your face and the guy you give up goes on to do great things in your backyard.

To my knowledge, the highest profile deal the NY teams have made together was Robin Ventura for David Justice. And both guys were washed up by then.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Anyway I've seen Wheeler's name pop up in trades a lot the past week, and while he's clearly the pitcher the Mets could move with the least impact on the 2016 season (won't be back until June or July likely)...they just aren't going to get the kind of difference-making bat that you'd want to get back for a cost controlled pitcher with ace potential. Best to just stand pat unless somebody totally blows you away.</font>

They should call the Cubs and see what they'd need to package with Wheeler to get Baez and Soler. Think that'd be a solid starting point for both teams if Soler is indeed on the market.

<font color=goldenrod>Mets and Cubs have been linked together for the last few years, but they've always said they have never been close on any deals. Soler would be interesting.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>In other news, Dave Roberts is the new manager of the Dodgers.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Sounds like there will be very little, if any, activity on the Hot Stove through the Thanksgiving weekend. Ben Zobrist and Darren O'Day appear to be holding things up and aren't planning on signing until after the holiday.

Zobrist reportedly had 20 teams contact his agent and he now has 10 offers in hand. O'Day had 15 teams contact him and he has 8 offers. With so many teams interested in the same two free agents, they pretty much need to choose where to sign before everybody moves in other directions and activity can start happening in the rest of the league.</font>

Jays still in the discussion for Price which comes to the surprise of pretty much everyone.

They should back up a Brinks truck in his front yard.

I still think he ends up elsewhere

Ill be shocked if he stays in Toronto. Someone is going to throw a ton of money at him or he goes to the Cubs and Joe Maddon at a slight discount because its an ideal situation for him. I'm assuming he loved playing for Maddon.

Contract between YES Network and Comcast has apparently expired.

So unless something gets worked out between now and the start of next season, we're all screwed.

Who's screwed? What does it all mean?

(not meant to sound.. idk "dumb".. honestly don't understand the implications of this)

Is the YES Network exclusive to Comcast where you live?

Over here NESN is carried by all the big cable providers plus the dish ones. YES is carried by some of the big ones and dish ones.

I'd take Gardner in a heartbeat, even though Jays don't really need an OF.... I feel as though that guy doesn't get as much credit as he deserves....

All Yankees fans (also Nets fans) who got Comcast as their cable tv provider are screwed now and can't catch Yankee games. I think we can still catch them on My TV 9. But that's like 1 or 2 every other week or so.

So the only way to watch YES now is on DirectTV. :mad:

It is. We got Charter & Frontier in the area. But they don't get it. DirectTV is the only option now.

Does MLB.tv get blacked out in your area?

I mean, I know that doesn't really solve the issue of the games not being available on basic cable, but MLB.tv is awesome anyway and everyone should have it :yes:

Got MLB Channel through cable. They'll have 2 random games on each night I can choose from.

MLB.tv is an option. I'm kinda hoping Comcast & the Yankees get this shit sorted out.

The Jays have deeper pockets than you think though. They don't nec. choose to spend, but don't fool yourself about the wealth of Rogers, they are as rich as anyone else.

I can't watch the Phillies because blackouts, but I love being able to keep up with everyone else :y:

This is very true.... they just need to realize the more they spend on baseball players to make a competitive team, the more money they will make in the long-run.....

I hate that shit so much.

I really hope/expect within 5 years that there will be no more regional blackouts as people realize how fucking pointless cable companies are.

Really hoping more things like HBO Now come out to convince more and more people to cut the cord. Although it could have the adverse effect on sporting since that is literally the only reason people would choose to keep cable.

I don't know. The one good aspect of being a displaced fan, I get no Tigers blackouts. /woo

Wait WTF

Comcast is the only service I can get at my house. I probably caught +/- 150 Yankee games this year

this is not good

poopfromweiner dude is not happy. this is not good

idk about all this MLB.tv s....I guess I could get that and "stream" it on my television...but I like to "flip channels" a lot

Wouldn't Yankee/Met games be blacked out for you via MLB.tv?

idk

There's ways around everything right......

I think they would be. I mean, you could always just get a VPN

Yes but, it's much too complicated for you


For anyone else, it's doable

<font color=goldenrod>I'd be fairly shocked if Comcast and YES didn't come to an agreement before the start of the 2016 season.</font>

lol Avila signed with the White Sox... pretty rough that your pops doesn't even wanna resign you, ouch

Cubs pick up Rex Brothers

Hell ya! Is he any good?

He had 13 RBIS last year.......

He's a solid backup. Hasn't been better than replacement level since 2011 or 2012 I think. He's a nice add as a backup with a solid bat.

Heck ya. White Sox going all the way!

I'd be surprised if he isn't retired in 3 years because of all the concussions he's had tbh

Stick him at DH for 75% of games and he might rebound offensively....It was hard for him to get DH playing time behind Martinez, Fielder and Cabrera for so many years....

If a team is considering putting Avila at DH then holy hell are they in trouble

He doesn't hit enough at dh to be of any value. Maybe he bounces back a tick or so but it's doubtful not catching the majority of the time is going to suddenly improve his bat by great measure.

I think the White Sox would let Henry Blanco start 150 games if he wanted to. Tyler Flowers is so garbage.

Jays sign J.A Happ 3 years 36 million.

Yup.

good signing. Really hope Stromayng can be the ace he seems like he can be.

They pretty much have 2, 3,4 and 5. Happ and Dickey at 4 and 5 of course. Chavez should work from the bullpen.

That's a horrible staff. Happ benefitted from favorable match ups last year and his advanced stats weren't good. Stupid waste of money,

Owenbrown looking for his dad in this thread

Dunno, we'll have to wait and see. Wonder if this is "the plan".

I personally like Estrada. Happ is a wildcard, so is dickey and chavez. so is Stroman LOL. I dunno, I just think happ is dece as like a back end guy. But who knows.

Not a fan of the signing. Below average run prevention for his career. Gertner hit the advance stats not liking him. With the pitching market as deep as it is, $12 million seems like a lot for a guy who's barely decent.

What's even more weird is he's been I Toronto before and was meh at best. Can't see what they think will be different the second time around at ages 33-35.

Well if it doesn't work... I guess Rogers is cool with an immediate drop in attendance, because that will happen at the drop of a hat.

If these moves don't work, it's the old father knows best mentality failing the organization one more time.

I'm not an advanced stats guy, so I'll give Happ the benefit of the doubt for having a decent season last year.

We'll see. Toronto is maybe the most interesting team this offseason. They unloaded some legit talent to go for it all and came incredibly and justifiably close. They need to replace Price, and maybe add one more starter and I think they're still very close with the Yankees and Bosox in fluxand Baltimore kind of sitting on their hands.

Apparently mlb is investigating a bar fight Yasiel Puig was involved in. Dodgers outfielder Andy van Slyke has been on record saying Kershaw doesn't want Puig on the team. There's now rumours starting to rumble about moving him.

Wonder how desperate the Dodgers would be. They'd be idiots to move him, honestly. He's an excellent player when healthy and a young core of him, Seager and Peterson just sounds deadly.

Mike Hessman retires at age 37.

A few of us know about him. But this is sorta relevant because he's the all-time home run leader in the minor leagues with 433.

ha that was a fun story earlier this season

<font color=goldenrod>Tigers sign Jordan Zimmermann</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Zimmermann's deal is 5 years, $110 million per <s>TPWW poster</s> Heyman.</font>

Hell yes

V impressed with the moves Avila has made so far

lol fuck, tigers get zimmerman for a pretty decent deal, and the jays pull in Happ and Chavez.

I don't mind bringing back Happ at all as a backend of the roation guy, but jeez Shapiro talked about wanting to be aggressive about winning and they go bring back 2 guys who didn't work out. Very odd moves so far.

Twitter shitting all over Jays signing Happ, but I love it.... a solid back-end guy to eat innings.... essentially a younger, cheaper Mark Buerhle

I will always remember this Bill Simmons column complaining about the Red Sox signing someone who was an "innings eater" and Simmons said that if they say that about someone, they suck.

Well Happ has pretty much sucked outside of one second half worth of innings. I don't see what they saw in his previous 940 some odd innings pre Pittsburgh that makes them think he's suddenly figured out out at age 32.