And, if anybody is looking for a little fun. MLB Trade Rumors got their Free Agent Prediction contest up and running.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/1...n-contest.html

Here's the thing, though. Prospects are volatile. The Angels would be trading the best player in baseball for some maybes. Its not a worthwhile risk for them.

And really, if the talent in aggregate is as good as Trout on his own, why give it up when you can just add on to it? The team trying to trade to acquire Trout might be just as well off keeping their players and building and buying around them.

When does Trout become an FA?

2020

They'll have signed Harper and Machado by then

They won't sign Machado

Keep dreaming Droford.

The Orioles ain't signing him either. Can't wait till he hits arbitration. He's gonna bleed their wallets dry

I've told you how they'll handle it

Why do you possibly think you have any insight on this other than being a desperate homer

Braves currently have multiple Cy young winners on their staff again. Trying to recreate the old days I guess. Not gonna work.

Now that Josh Thole is a free agent $20 says he goes to the Braves.

(That's what his contract value should be, tbh)

Manny Machado has been open to the Baltimore Sun saying he wants to stay in Baltimore with a long term deal. His agent had talks back this off-season with team officials about the matter BEFORE they made the Chris Davis deal. They made the Davis deal knowing roughly what Manny wants in order to stay an Oriole. They wouldn't have done the Davis deal if they knew it would prevent them from keeping Machado which is 80% of the reason people give as to why they can't resign Machado.

Also in hot stove action I saw thisc pisted

I can't see either if these trades happening but I had a good lol reading them

You've created a blind homer situation where you think Machado will be a nice guy and take a 3 year pay cut while Davis' contract finally erodes, which is a ridiculous idea lol. Wanting to stay in Baltimore and being a nice guy giving them an unrealistic hometown discount are two different things.


You're talking out of your ass. You have no insight or proof to point to your claim that they wouldn't have signed Davis if it hindered them from signing Machado. You're just being your usual blind homer self and saying dumb things with no basis.

They will have the fucking money yo pay him. The payroll will be at least $160 million this year and that's if they don't sign a single free agent (it was $152 million last year) due to all the arbitration raises coming even with losing 32 million in salary in Trumbo/Alvarez/Wieters

Speaking of arbitration, Machado is going to make close to 12 million this year through arbitration anyway..

Off the books after 2017
JJ Hardy 12.5 million in 2017 with a 2 million buyout of a 2018 contract that vests if he gets 600 pa (he won't)
Ubaldo 13.5 million free agent 2018
Gallardo 11 million free agent 2018


Those three alone they could afford to give Manny a $30 million contract in 2018 and be no worse off than they are now..Jesus Christ. If he wants more than 30 million fuck him I guess (haven't seen any projections for him to make more than 25 per over 8 years)

Projected arbitration raises via trade rumors

The bigger question is can the afford to keep Schoop Britton Tillman Gausman. School is guaranteed I would think since he's best friends with Manny and is an everyday 2B but os fans pretty much expect Britton to get traded before his cost skyrockets. They have to keep Gausman and Tillman since the pitching sucks

They ain't signing him bud.

lmfao Droford you are such a wank. Don't get me wrong I'm not a doomsday guy like Damo, but to just blindly say they'll sign him without taking into account he'll want to play the FA market is borderline retarded.

DoomsDamian Rey has a nice ring to it

And c'mon Dale. He's gonna be a nice guy and take a 3 year pay cut. Didn't you see Droford's foolproof idea that's surely going to happen and work?

I don't even like the Yankees and I hope Machado signs there. I also hope he has sex with Droford's next girlfriend.

So hes never going to have sex again?

Sorry, dro. Had to. It was just sitting there.

HELL NO!

He's going to the Red Sox.

Brett Cecil to the Cardinals. 4 years, $30.5 million.

Holy shitballs...all of that for a fucking middle reliever. That's going to completely change the market.

Usually the yearly salary is higher st the end of long term contracts. If they don't get a long term deal done he'll be making 20+ million through arbitration in 2018 anyway so I dont see how this is so impossible for the Orioles to do.

I remember last year when everyone criticized the Orioles for their deal with Oday and its basically the same deal Cecil got. Oday is better when healthy..

Bullpens rule these days.

White Sox are moving into fire sale mode it seems. GM Rick Hahn put the word out that all players with 4 years or less of team control are up for grabs.

Chris Sale, David Robertson, Melky Cabrera, Todd Frazier, Jose Abreu, and James Shields are some of the players who are in this boat.

Should keep Abreu. Everyone else can do assuming we get the right price for Sale. We should never have even picked up Shields last year.

Shields is sunk cost at this point.

As far as them going into sell mode? I'll believe it when I see it. Still think they'll come back with the same team plus Jason Castro and Matt Holiday and say "we're a good team....." like usual.

Holiday will save the White Sox!

And you can take em off our hands...yeees!

Phillies went ham in protecting prospects from the Rule 5 draft, added 11 draft-eligible prospects to their 40 man roster.

Mets added Amed Rosario as expected along with 4 other players. The only real headscratcher was deciding to keep Chris Flexen. Great name and all but he's 22, coming off an injury, and hasn't pitched a game over Single A. Really don't see a team keeping him in the big leagues all season even if rosters expand to 26. And they chose not to add Paul Sewald, who I think is good as gone.

You know thats what Kenny Williams is telling Jerry right now while Rick Hahn cries into a organizational minor league scouting report.

Hahaha. The White Sox need to tear it down. It's not working. Blow that shit up.

Not working? It was 100% broke like 3 years ago. We are past not working and more into completely disabled territory.

So many throw back jerseys too. So many jerseys for Sale to cut to pieces.

What's the final judgment on that?

The Bad guys are the team not letting the Ace decide the most comfortable stuff to wear when pitching? Or Sale for making them useless?

White Sox throwbacks always makes me think about the Black Sox and Shoeless Joe.

Both parties imo were dumb. If Sale does not want to wear the uniform because it effects his pitching then don't schedule the jersey to be worn on the day he pitches.

Sale on the other hand should not have went on a rampage destroying the jerseys. Was immature by him. Still laugh when I imagine him in the locker room with scissors cutting everyone's jerseys up while the coaches/players just look at him acting nuts.

2017 Hall of Fame ballot released"

Still think it's dumb that voters are limited to 10 votes, but if I had a ballot I'd go with:

Bagwell
Bonds
Clemens
Guerrero
Hoffman
Martinez
Raines
Ramirez
Rodriguez
Wagner

I took Schilling off of my ballot from a year ago. I can't in good conscience vote for such a piece of shit.

Beyond that I don't care about punishing steroid guys - I've little doubt that all of them would have been amazing even without PEDs. I'd have voted for guys like Sosa and Sheffield but their vote totals are so low there's little reason to expect they'll come anywhere close. At least a guys like Bonds and Clemens could stay middle of the pack and possibly make a late charge as they approach the end of their eligibility.

Bagwell, Raines, and maybe Hoffman seem like good bets this year based on where their vote totals were at a year ago.

I don't think morals should apply. Schilling is a piece of shit but he's a 2 time World Series Champ, 6 Time All Star, 200 Game Winner, 3 Time Cy Young Runner Up, Co-Series MVP, Breaker of Curses and maker of an ok video game.

I'm not arguing his on-field merits. If he made it in I wouldn't complain. He's just been such an insufferable piece of garbage I'd rather give my vote to other candidates who are deserving. If I had unlimited votes, maybe that would be different.

Looking ahead to 2018, Chipper and Thome are the 2 slam dunks. Omar Vizquel will probably get more votes than he deserves.

Always love seeing the randos that show up on the ballot who might have made an all star game or won a gold glove by default. Maybe a local beat writer votes for them and it's kinda cute. Guys like Casey Blake, Arthur Rhodes, Matt Stairs and Melvin Mora.... Darwin Barney is gonna be on the ballot one of these days.

I think Melvin Mora is my favorite out of this batch.

Damn. Didn't realize how good he was. Put up a 5 WAR in 03 despite only playing in 96 games. Had an OBP of 418/419 in 03 and 04.

I mean he was really good for 5 or 6 years but its still goofy seeing his name on the hall of fame ballot.

If I had to guess, its probably just Bagwell and maybe Iván Rodríguez going in this year.

MLB should copy NFL's system for ballots where the final ballot is a lot smaller and guarantees multiple people making it each year because the votes are not getting spread too thin.

Who's ready for Texas Rangers baseball?!?!?!?!

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources...210055315.html

lol...its like that episode of South Park where Cartman puts Butter's dick in his mouth because he thinks that makes Butters look gay.

I saw Orlando Cabrera play A Ball in 1996 when the Shorebirds were affiliated with the Expos. Jesus Christ

Are you worried he got diddled right before you saw him?

No but it makes me feel old knowing a guy I saw play inn the minors 20 years ago is on a HOF list even if no way in he'll he makes it..

Jayson Werth is the next big player I saw when he was with the Orioles in 1998..

Derrek Lee 4 the Hall....

Dbacks trade MI Jean Segura, OF Mitch Haniger, and LHP Zac Curtis to Seattle for RHP Taijuan Walker and SS Ketel Marte.

I think the Dbacks just sold ridiculously high on Segura even though Haniger is supposed to be a decent prospect. Damn good job by the new guys in the front office.

Greinke, Miller, Walker, Corbin, Ray seems like a good solid rotation.

Great trade selling high on Segura.

Dbacks fans are whining because they think Segura is the team's best hitter. I can't.

Yeah, I thought Segura was more or less "done" Surprised about this unless the M's think Walker sucks. Didn't think Segura had that much trade value to be honest.

Reminds me of the Cashner/Rizzo trade. IE didn't think Cashner was worth THAT much (despite the Pads being overloaded at 1B).

You're breaking my heart, Drebin.

Awwww.

I don't know anything about the M's front office, but they've never seemed to be the most analytically inclined.

Not to keep on with the Dbacks talk, since I know no one else cares, but ESPN had a really interesting article about Robbie Ray and how the 3 different kinds of WAR can view players differently:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...ery-robbie-ray

CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Jerry DiPoto is the M's gm and he's pretty analytical. I'm thinking his logic is to try and get a decent shortstop and that Walker was a high bust risk.

Please god just let the Mets sign Cespedes already...their entire offseason revolves around him

Also that was a really good trade for the D-Backs

I think teams might be leary of Cespedes, which will give the Mets some leverage. If they sign him I think they need to try and move Granderson and Bruce

Bruce would certainly be the one to go, teams have already been contacting the Mets to inquire about him. Grandy would require them eating a big chunk of his 2017 salary.

Marlins sign Edinson Volquez. 2 years, $22 million.

LOL no. MLB money is flush.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/OriolesFanProbz">@OriolesFanProbz</a> Rusty Buntafolio should be a nickname for one of our pitchers when they suck next year lol <a href="https://t.co/fYcSMGLhzk">pic.twitter.com/fYcSMGLhzk</a></p>&mdash; Matthew (@droford) <a href="https://twitter.com/droford/status/803469004195164160">November 29, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This was from the new episode last night. Delmarva is the Delmarva Shorebirds who are the Orioles A ball team that plays 5 minutes from me. I think this is awesome lol

Here's one you don't see every day.

Brewers sign 30-year old 1B Eric Thames to a 3 years, $15 million deal with a club option for a 4th year.

Thames hasn't played in the big leagues since 2012. They're gambling on his recent 3 year stint in Korea where he hit at a .348 clip with 124 HR and 379 RBI.

CESPEDES IS BACK!

4 YEARS $110 MILLION!

FUCK YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

Yaaaaaay Vito. Good deal for both I think.

Fuck it, I might go to Port St. Lucie this year

I don't care about the deal one bit but I am super happy for Vito.

Now to trade Bruce and get some bullpen help. Possibly in the same trade.

If Billy Beane isn't liking what he's being offered for Sean Doolittle, maybe he'd consider trading him for Bruce and taking his chances flipping Bruce instead.

I think they can find a market for Bruce. Especially if they have a low asking price. As I've said before, I think they should try to flip Granderson as well unless they plan on starting him in c.f..

Nonetheless they're in a better spot today then yesterday.

Rich Hill sweepstakes has 4 teams in the mix (Yankees, Dodgers, Rangers, and Astros) with another 2 teams somewhat interested (Red Sox, Orioles).


Rick Porcello and Anthony Rendon took this year's awards for AL/NL Comeback Player of the Year.

I really don't want Rich Hill.

Think Yankees are gonna bide their time and see how the CBA talks go.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBIES WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNS

C: d'Arnaud
1B: Duda
2B: Walker
SS: AssMan
3B: Wright (Reyes when Wright gets hurt)
LF: YOENIS GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING CESPEDES!!!!!
CF: Granderson (Lagares vs. LHP)
RF: Conforto

Barring injury I'm fairly certain those would be the starting 8 come April 3rd. Bruce is a goner.

CUBBIIES WIN IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know how I feel about defense. Not sure I'd rely on Granderson holding up or producing much with that glove in center. But I can see that lineup as a worst case scenario for them should they not be able to move him, which I do think is an option.

Nonetheless, Cespedes signing is huge for them. They're now clearly a playoff caliber team with him there. They need to address 3rd base and the bullpen but as it stands they're in a good spot.

Worth the gamble for them in my eyes..... He's not going to produce at the same clip as he did in Korea, but if he could put up solid numbers they could trade him for some decent prospects or keep him and have themselves a 1B for years to come....

Also rumours in Toronto area are swirling that Encarnacion will make a decision by the end of the week and he will likely return to Torotno or head to Houston, with Toronto "showing him the most love"....

Like the idea of Eddie E and Morales as two mashers. Morales will hit well at Rogers Centre

Granderson played CF pretty much the entire second half last year and looked really solid. Sandy's shown a willingness to plug a square peg into a round hole when needed, and this might be one of those situations.

In addition to his bat a clubhouse leadership, it can't be discounted that Grandy's played at least 150 games in all three years he's been with the Mets. On a team notorious for having so many injuries, he's been the one guy they can count on to stay out there. So that's why I think they will trade Bruce but keep Grandy as opposed to dealing both.

Jays are linked with Bruce as well, which as a Jays fan, I want no part of.... I'd rather keep Saunders than Bruce....

both of them can stay far away

I get what you're saying. I just personally feel that if they go with him in center it's outta necessity. I'm not sure what he's gonna look like 150x out there at this point in his career.

Honestly, if I'm the Mets, I'm gunning for Dexter Fowler. Fuck it all and go all in. They have a young staff that will give them a shot to compete the next handful of years. Might as well go balls deep.

I'd love Fowler on this team, but I'd be stunned if the Mets handed out another huge contract this winter. I think they're going to just shore up their bullpen, and maybe make an attempt at bringing back Kelly Johnson for a 3rd go-around without having to trade Tim Tebow to the Braves to get him next year.

Ideally I'd like to see the Mets grab a righty reliever and a lefty reliever. I expect Bruce will help fill one of those needs via trade.

I'm also thinking that they'll have a triple threat match for the #5 starter spot between Wheeler, Lugo, and Gsellman. The winner goes into the rotation, the loser goes to AAA to stay stretched out, and the one who doesn't get pinned goes to the bullpen.

want want want Dexter Fowler. Jays need a proper leadoff hitter.

Orioles got Logan Verrett from the Mets for Cash

I think that needs its own thread.

Who is Verrett?

Feel like Vito would have mentioned his name at some point but never has.

He was decent for the Mets in 2015 but sucked in 2016.

No great loss, they traded him because they needed to free a spot on the 40 man roster for Cespedes.