Jason Hammel?

Jason Hammel. Boom. Done deal. Fax the sheet to the commissioners office.

The minor leaguers will be Matt Murton and that Kawasaki guy.

Just came in here to say I hate spring training.

Is Matt Murton still alive?

Victorino still looking for work, getting a minor league deal with Cubs.....

Indians' Abraham Almonte popped positive for PEDs. 80 game suspension for him.

Rafael Betancourt calls it a career.

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2016/2/2...er-fowler-mess

Wierdest team in baseball!

Minor league deal with the cubs after 5 years in Japan. Can't believe it's been at least that long since he was in the Rich Harden trade. Remember Rich Harden? 100 pitches 4.2 innings. Everytime.

What's Alcantara up to? Padres could use a utility bat. Ross for Soler, Alcantara, and a reliever.

Rickie Weeks on minor deal to Arizona....could be a good veteran presence on the bench for those kids....

Ian Desmond finally finds a home. Goes to the Rangers on a 1 year deal. The plan is for him to play left field.

Kawasaki alone gets you those players.

Ian Desmond to the Rangers?

There was chatter they might stick him in left field.

I know he made some bad money moves. Nationals sent him a $15 mil. qualifying offer and he turned that down.

And I guess they also offered him a $100+ extension back in 2013.

He might've gotten a long term deal had the dumb rule of giving up a draft pick if you sign a free agent hadn't been in place. They need to get rid of that.

The team losing a player getting a pick is fine. The signing team shouldn't be penalized for trying to get better.

I'm really interested in seeing how the qualifying offer will be treated next year if it stays following the next CBA negotiation. Rasmus, Wieters, and Brett Anderson finally jumped at it this year and I'm convinced that Murph would have taken it were he not coming off of one of the best postseason performances of all time. But Fowler and Desmond still got burned.

The cost might go up even higher to around $16.5-17 million or so. You might just see teams starting to balk at even offering it because eventually guys are just gonna accept that they aren't going to get anywhere near that type of AAV on their next deal and they'll just bet on themselves to put up good numbers.

Also...5 more weeks. Fuck me this is going to feel like the longest Spring Training ever, especially since the Mets have almost their entire 25 man roster decided already. I guess 2 bullpen spots are officially up for grabs but 2 of the incumbents from last year already have the inside track.

Blue Jays sign Rafael Soriano to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite.

Os aren't letting Jones pie anyone any more because someone might get hurt.

If someone gets hurt with a pie in the face...they probably would get hurt randomly some other way

Yankees' Aroldis Chapman got suspended for 30 games for violating MLB's domestic violence policy.

Smacking a bitch gets you 30 games.... seems about right....I'm assuming he still gets to participate in Spring Training games?

Os played a 4-4 tie with the braves

I expect Jose Reyes to get much worse then.

Any chance store doesn't have the closer job 100 percent?

No chance. Soriano was brought on in the event he finds some smoke and mirrors as a middle reliever. Storen is their guy until he gives them a reason not to be.

Roberto Osuna may have something to say about that.....kid did a great job last year, if he pitches like he did last year, hard to take the ball away from him....

Storen was quality last year ,and why make a move for a guy to not give him the 9th. But Osuna is supposedly challenging.

The Royals ripped up Salvador Perez' old contract, which was disgustingly favorable for the team. They only owed him $16.75 million total over the next 4 years.

Now he'll still get $2 million this year but the rest of the deal was ripped up and he'll get $52.5 million over 5 years beginning in 2017.

While it looks like the Royals were simply just doing the right thing to reward their World Series MVP, I can only assume they feared that eventually he was going to be pissed off at being so underpaid and it might have led to a NFL-style holdout.

Also risky considering the insane workload they've given Perez, barely any days off behind the plate. He'll be 35 by the time he's 28.

I never felt good or safe when Soriano was in there

Osuna was good and I'm not married to the one guy being appointed closer approach. I just don't think they'd go out and acquire Storen simply to use him as a late inning reliever.

I believe it's Storen's job to lose simply due to his experience and Osuna's lack thereof, but Osuna will definitely be first in line should Storen struggle in Spring Training or to open the season....In my eyes, the leash on Storen should be short, not for anything he has or hasn't done, but simply for what Osuna accomplished last year.... incentivizing/rewarding employees and whatnot....

Chris Davis hit the first of many more homers today..but the Os lost cause the braves had a 7 run 1st off Ubaldo

lol MLB Facebook page posted a gif of Severino striking out a Tiger, conveniently did not post a gif of the grand slam he gave up to a backup catcher the following inning

Yoenis Cespedes spent $7,000 on a grand champion hog..............only to have it butchered.

Obviously he's drawn the ire of PETA.

Osuna/Storen/Cecil. Pretty solid 1-2-3 punch on paper. I have a feeling Sanchez is going to join them in the pen. Dickey-Stroman-Estrada-Happ and Gavin Floyd are my picks to head up the rotation. Hopefully Hutchison is sent to Siberia.

This whole Bautista situation has me feeling like this is going to be a looooooong year for the Jays. I don't think they make the playoffs and in fact, I'm picking them to finish last in the division. Something just doesn't feel right.

Last year was definitely their window. I don't know about last in the division but I don't see another magical run this year

could still see the Jays winning a ton of games with their offense alone but yeah, it might wind up being a 2006 Mets type of deal where that "core" just had a one year window where the stars seemed to be aligning.

we'll see though, every team in the AL East has flaws.

Better save Hutchison for games vs the Orioles, hes 5-3 in 12 games vs the Os with 70ks whuch is the most vs any team.

I think Gerty is hitting the pitching staff lineup on the button. I don't expect them to finish last. I think they're as good as a Yankees team built on old bats and whose pitching staff is a hard sneeze away from being on the dl.

I also like their ability to just cream everyone on offense. I'm thinking they'll finish second or third, pushing for a wildcard.

Maicer Izturis announces his retirement. Meaning that somehow, someway, Bartolo Colon is the last former Montreal Expo to still be active in the big leagues.

Uncas ain't going down without a fight.

Hutchison will get a shot at long relief....If he pitches decent, he won't get DFA'd.....

He's gonna have to beat out Chavez and Sanchez which I highly doubt he will.

First baseball game on the radio ofvthe year...yay

MLB overturns Chase Utley's suspension for breaking Ruben Tejada's leg.

So his actions were deemed bad enough to lead to a rule change yet not bad enough to warrant keeping him out for 2 games? Nice job, Manfred.

Chavez going to be 5th starter..... Sanchez in 7th/8th where he belings with Storen & Osuna, leaves Hutchison longman role.....I see his competiton as Gavin Floyd....

Watched NYM/DET on a stream this afternoon on my off-day from work, Detroit pitching depth seems a bit concerning....

I think Floyd beats out Chavez and Drew gets dfa'd.

Pedro Alvarez to the Orioles on a 1-year deal.

Nothing like another no on base strikeout machine.

C'mon DRay, I came to this thread looking forward to your Brian Kenny-esque rant and that's all you've got? Lay it on me.

Lol. Not much to lay on. He's a one trick pony that can't catch, so you have to pretty much dh him. He probably has some value there but for Baltimore, I don't get the move. They don't have anybody to get on base, and Alvarez is essentially a right handed hitting Mark Trumbo, but at half the cost.

Lol at the Orioles trading for Trumbo at near $10 mil and acquiring the same player for half the cost. I cannot fathom how the front office there keeps a job. They don't draft or develop worth a shit, they don't sign any players that improve the club, they make shorter sighted trades, no organizational plan, etc.

I just don't see what Alvarez brings that they don't already have. It's kind of mind boggling how bad Baltimore's offseason been seeing as they've spent a fuck ton of money.

Word on Os forums is the RF situation sucks and expect Davis to play more RF with Trumbo at 1st and Alvarez as DH.

A stellar defensive lineup. Plenty of runs saved in that situation.

Lol my beer league softball team puts out a better defense than the O's.

Well last year they were the 2nd best team defensively in baseball. LF is looking like Joey Richard who has speed and supposedly good defense so basically the only difference is whoever plays RF..oh and full year from Schoop who only played 86 games at 2b and a full year from Weiters who is good glove catcher.

So yeah the defense is gonna be terrible

If Davis is playing RF and Trumbo is at first then yes that's terrible. Wieters has been hurt the past two years and I doubt you're getting a full year out of him.

At least they have Manny at 3B

Hopefully they don't peak too early

Jays won't fade http://www.tpwwforums.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Davis or Trumbo in right is a lose/lose. Weiters hasn't been average defensively in 3 years, and God knows what the Asian import is going to do. If Alvarez has to play defense it's even worse.

Jered Weaver's fastball was clocking in between 78-80 MPH yesterday. Christ. Even for early spring that is dreadful. R.A. Dickey throws harder knuckleballs than that.

Chris Davis can play RF pretty well better than Trumbo anyway

Uh no he can't. Unless you have some numbers to back that up (you don't), in no way can you concretely say Davis plays outfield well. Like, at all. He's not even a good first baseman over his career.

Going from train wreck to car crash in outfield defense isn't much of an improvement. Of course you will dance around criticising the Orioles so I'm not stunned. But it's a legit problem and they have 3 guys who can't catch who will all be getting regular at bats, two of which have to play the field. It's a bad mix.

Lol Jesus, that's 3mph lower than Buehrle's avg fastball last year

Davis is 6"3 225-230 with no speed. Unless you hit the ball right at him he's not going to get to anything in the outfield.

But maybe if he doesn't peak too early he will make the play.

From july of last year

If Trumbo is terrible then Davis is better even if he's just average

144 innings is less than 20 games. He doesn't grade out "adequately". According to the numbers he was below average in a less than ab20 game sample size. You run him out there for a full year and he's well below average.

Not to mention, your missing the point. The point isn't who's better, it's that they're both awful and the defense is going to stink no matter who they run out there. Hence, their defense is going to be bad.

Jarrod Parker, veteran of 2 Tommy John Surgeries and a surgery to repair a broken elbow last summer, has injured his elbow again 12 pitches into a bullpen session today.

God damn...poor guy

He's probably done.

Haven't even read any stories on the injury. But how much damage can the elbow take?

He apparently has some degenerative spinal condition which is impacting his velocity.... I cannot see how anyone can pitch through that.....

Mets waived Ruben Tejada. Damn. He's gotten more shit than just about any Met since Reyes left (mostly well deserved) but I can't help but feel bad for him that his final moment in a Mets uniform was getting his leg snapped by Utley.

In a case where threatening actually worked, Dillion Gee was gonna use his opt-out clause with the Royals if he wasn't added to the 40 man roster. He was, and moved a guy to the 60-day DL to make room. Heh.

That happens a quite a bit with Major Leaguers who have no choice but to settle for a minor league deal, and guys with 6+ years of experience have automatic out clauses.

Actually this is a pretty nice read from CJ Nitkowski about it:

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-...ue-deal-021315

Adam LaRoche retiring out of nowhere and not taking his $10M+ guaranteed money is a bit strange...

possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever read

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources: LaRoche chose to retire after <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhiteSox?src=hash">#WhiteSox</a> prez Ken Williams told him that he no longer could bring 14-year-old son into clubhouse.</p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/710181381834297344">March 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Haha that is awesome. Wonder what the child did to get banned.

So glad to be a White Sox fan.

Well that fucked them. If he had retired sooner they could've had money to sign Ian Desmond.

Not so much banned. I guess the front office didn't want LaRoche's son hanging around as much as he should be.

apparently he was just around all the time.... I kinda see she White Sox side of it, but still kinda a dick move....

Meh. I doubt it randomly happened. I bet that other players were complaining. I mean, can you really be yourself in front of a 14 year old? Can see it being a bother to the other players/coaches. Hell, how is a coach going to dig into someone with their kid right there?

According to Deadspin, seems like its being implied the club got tired of having to act as babysitters for the kid because LaRoche was way too laid back when it came to taking care of him in the clubhouse.

White Sox didn't have a real problem with the kid being around or running some errands to "earn his keep" but probably didn't want to be on the hook for any legal issues in case anything bad happened because of LaRoche's care-free attitude with him in the clubhouse.

http://deadspin.com/adam-laroche-ret...let-1765311014

14 years old was around the time I could start taking care of myself and starting to be mature.

Unless this kid got issues or something.

Well his dad made millions so perhaps the kid's a bit spoiled?

one would tend to think that.... doubtful he's the "average" 14-year old when Daddy is a millionaire....

Laroche is a big Jesus guy who doesn't believe in vaccinating his kids or normal school. That's why the kid was around all the time. Because he wasn't in school. Laroche thinks, seriously, that you learn more in a baseball clubhouse "We're not big on school." That's what they were dealing with.

Sox players liked him and the kid, but off the record stuff here says multiple players went to the front office about it. Front office hasnt sent his retirement forms yo MLB yet, but they have to be not so secretly thrilled this -0.8 WAR player decided to leave 13 mil on the table.

Hearing more about it.....players went to Kenny Williams and totally went over Robin Ventura ' s head. Chris Sale says Williams should stay out of the clubhouse.

2016 is gonna a great year for this team.

Chris Sale's contract sold to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Well, at least the White Sox are making national headlines one way or another.

I never understood why things "should stay in the clubhouse". Williams is the boss. In real life, if you want shit done, you go to the manager (Williams), not your supervisor (Ventura). Sale should just shut up and pitch.

Don't hate.

Clearly have never played high caliber sports.

Add Rafael Soriano to this week's list of players retiring.

He was to play in Toronto this season, but hasn't reported yet due to visa issues.

Thank God.

Exactly.... Brad Penny is enough of a stretch for me, especially with young guys like Justin De Fratus being released.... I'm all for having a few veteran pictures with experience in case of injury, but there's a point where the bargain bin isn't worth the paperwork....