***OFFICIAL 2017 MLB HOT STOVE THREAD***

[ftpjesus]

he seems destined to be a Met, but we'll see.

there's another sorry ass franchise...know the mets will never be the yanks, but their spend and competitiveness relative to the Yankees if fucking embarrassing...ill be amazingly stunned if they opened up the checkbook for harper...

Harper maybe going to NYC but it won’t be the Mets. Truthfully Harper likely lands with the Yankees or Dodgers most likely as they have the deep pockets and the stupidity to write that 1/2B contract everybody expects for Harper. What I find ironic is nobody has learned yet that deep pockets don’t always win you World Series. KC and Houston by all accounts are small market budget minded teams. Meanwhile yanks dodgers and a few others spend ridiculously and still haven’t won it all in awhile.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

BTW can we just abolish regular season baseball in florida? jesus Christ what a fucking abortion those two teams are...

Dan Lebatard literally pulled a Stone Cold Steve Austin verbally when he had Manfred on his show earlier this week. Manfred about lost it and trying to CYA which was proven to all be bullshit that in fact MLB KNEW what Jeter and companies plans were to firesale the Marlins AGAIN.

Love that lebatard did that...that whole situation dating back to loria has been an absolute fucking disgrace...

Tampa gets a pass on all of it because Miami is beyond fucking awful...heard yesterday they didn't draw over 1.3M last year? If that's right that is laughable...that is not even close to drawing a lousy 20K a game...ill give them credit for being more successful for their teardowns but again you can't average over 20,000 fucking fans a game?? I mean how much would their attendance be down if they didn't play the sauwks, yanks and mets?

[mulva]

Honestly I wouldnt be surprised if 1 of them does. Probably a 1 year deal to then re-enter the market next year when money will be thrown around.

Its hard to find a lot of places for them. Cain probably has the most options (Giants still make the most sense). Hosmer is quickly running out of suitors....Indians just signed Alonso today to replace Santana. I keep reading that the Padres are into Hosmer but that makes little sense, I wonder if that is just Scott Boras bullshit. Then again, the Padres arent exactly known as being a competently run franchise......

isn't the 2018 offseason the offseason of harper/machado? that money is gonna dry up quick if that's the case and these guys are banking on getting that payday then...

I get if youre a client of boras he's never gonna let you take a deal that doesn't boost his ego, but fuck if a team offered me 5/75 and I thought I was gonna get 20 a year I think I could live with it just to have that whole thing locked up...

no way hosmer is signing a 1 yr deal. there's nothing else to prove.

[gut]

isn't the 2018 offseason the offseason of harper/machado? that money is gonna dry up quick if that's the case and these guys are banking on getting that payday then...

I get if youre a client of boras he's never gonna let you take a deal that doesn't boost his ego, but fuck if a team offered me 5/75 and I thought I was gonna get 20 a year I think I could live with it just to have that whole thing locked up...

no way hosmer is signing a 1 yr deal. there's nothing else to prove.

I doubt that will actually happen for Hosmer, but it might be a good move. Sign for 1/18 with a player option for 20mil for a 2nd year back with the royals, then take your chances once x amount of teams have reset their luxury tax. He's only 28 now, so it could work.

I just don't see the market for him now to get anywhere close to what he (Boras) wants.

[mulva]

no way hosmer is signing a 1 yr deal. there's nothing else to prove.

I doubt that will actually happen for Hosmer, but it might be a good move. Sign for 1/18 with a player option for 20mil for a 2nd year back with the royals, then take your chances once x amount of teams have reset their luxury tax. He's only 28 now, so it could work.

I just don't see the market for him now to get anywhere close to what he (Boras) wants.

i would be shocked if he gets less than alex gordon's 4/72 deal. if that's the best number he's at there will be plenty of teams entering the market for him.

SD will have to throw him a boat load to play for them, and there will have to be little to know other offers for him to accept it. players go to SD to die and put up pedestrian numbers. can't rule out 10-15hrs and a 280 avg with him switching leagues and playing in this expansive ball park.

you don't go to SD unless you're well taken care of and overpaid

[gut]

I doubt that will actually happen for Hosmer, but it might be a good move. Sign for 1/18 with a player option for 20mil for a 2nd year back with the royals, then take your chances once x amount of teams have reset their luxury tax. He's only 28 now, so it could work.

I just don't see the market for him now to get anywhere close to what he (Boras) wants.

i would be shocked if he gets less than alex gordon's 4/72 deal. if that's the best number he's at there will be plenty of teams entering the market for him.

SD will have to throw him a boat load to play for them, and there will have to be little to know other offers for him to accept it. players go to SD to die and put up pedestrian numbers. can't rule out 10-15hrs and a 280 avg with him switching leagues and playing in this expansive ball park.

you don't go to SD unless you're well taken care of and overpaid

4/72 might be the o/u now, and i'm not sure which side i'd take. Theyre still floating the 6/120 around, and getting crickets. 1B has become the running back of baseball, investing big money in one is generally -ev. You had 2 contenders with absent 1B situations, Red Sox took Moreland back at 2/13 I think, Indians took Alonso at 2/18 with a 3rd yr option. Hosmer is better than both of them, but not double the years AND double the AAV salary better.

So where does he fit? Padres again make no logical sense, but neither does much of what AJ Preller does. Eliminating all the rebuilding teams with no reason to sign him, you're left with:

yankees, boston, toronto, baltimore, cleveland, the entire AL west, washington, philly, atlanta, cubs, brewers, arizona, dodgers, giants: all NO NEED, barring a coinciding trade.

So the only realistic possibilities:

Royals: they might be awkwardly entering a rebuild and have minimal interest, who knows.
Padres: again, doesnt make sense but who knows
cardinals: they can move Carpenter all over, but no way they sign him for big money
rockies: Desmond/McMahon platoon at first isnt really great, but hitting in general is not their weakness right now.
twins: pretty much almost a hard NO, but last year of Mauers deal upcoming, and the current DH's are nothing to write home about.
mets: one of their top prospects set to take over the position, team doesnt seem to want to spend money right now

Thats about it. Mind you there are still cheaper options with upside available in Lucas Duda and Logan Morrison.

The best bet for Boras right now is hoping that the idiots in the Royals and the idiots running the Padres get into a bidding war against each other. Otherwise, Hosmer might not sign until spring.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

marlins in talks to trade yellich and realamuto...

Christ they might be worse than the astros if they move these guys by april...they would be left with bour, detrich, prado (I think they still have all those guys) as the core of their team...

[Dan Druff]

marlins in talks to trade yellich and realamuto...

Christ they might be worse than the astros if they move these guys by april...they would be left with bour, detrich, prado (I think they still have all those guys) as the core of their team...

You must mean some other team. Most teams will be worse than the Astros.

Yelich said he is unhappy with the Stanton trade, and indicated he wanted out.

Prado sucks and is always getting hurt. I'm not sold at all on Dietrich. So yeah, that lineup will be Bour and the 7 dwarves, and even Bour is suspect because no one was particularly high on him until he had a strong 2017. But at least he has a lot of raw power.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

marlins in talks to trade yellich and realamuto...

Christ they might be worse than the astros if they move these guys by april...they would be left with bour, detrich, prado (I think they still have all those guys) as the core of their team...

You must mean some other team. Most teams will be worse than the Astros.

Yelich said he is unhappy with the Stanton trade, and indicated he wanted out.

Prado sucks and is always getting hurt. I'm not sold at all on Dietrich. So yeah, that lineup will be Bour and the 7 dwarves, and even Bour is suspect because no one was particularly high on him until he had a strong 2017. But at least he has a lot of raw power.

Meant the teardown Astros...think they lost like 117 games or something...

Dietrich isn't so great...think he hit like 220/230 last year...and gonna assume bour is gonna struggle like hell now that he's not in the middle of Stanton-yellich-ozuna...

Jesus just writing those names down is sick...that team coulda been very sneaky good...fucking cheap ass Sherman and stupid ass MLB for agreeing to give a team to a guy that's gonna gut it...

[gut]

Rockies add Shaw, Mcgee, and Wade Davis for a combined 3/106. For every other team I would think this is horrible, but for the Rockies it is great. They've finally figured out that starting pitchers that are not used to pitching at altitude generally suck ass in CO, unless they are extreme ground ball pitchers. Analytics has benefited this team perhaps more than any other team due to the unique altitude situation.

Their new plan is great: Ignore the FA market for starters (added bonus of saving money on the most expensive position), draft and develop ground ball inducing SP's, spend big on the bullpen/bats. They have 1 of their rookie league teams, their low A team, and their AAA team all at altitude as well, so these kids get used to pitching in the thin air. Once they make the show, hope that those SP's can give you 5 innings of decent pitching then turn it over to the bullpen. This started working last year, and they should be even better this year. It helps that their recent high draft picks for hitters have all developed well. The next one, Brendan Rodgers, looks like the best hitting prospect in all of baseball right now, and is a SS.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

Rockies add Shaw, Mcgee, and Wade Davis for a combined 3/106. For every other team I would think this is horrible, but for the Rockies it is great. They've finally figured out that starting pitchers that are not used to pitching at altitude generally suck ass in CO, unless they are extreme ground ball pitchers. Analytics has benefited this team perhaps more than any other team due to the unique altitude situation.

Their new plan is great: Ignore the FA market for starters (added bonus of saving money on the most expensive position), draft and develop ground ball inducing SP's, spend big on the bullpen/bats. They have 1 of their rookie league teams, their low A team, and their AAA team all at altitude as well, so these kids get used to pitching in the thin air. Once they make the show, hope that those SP's can give you 5 innings of decent pitching then turn it over to the bullpen. This started working last year, and they should be even better this year. It helps that their recent high draft picks for hitters have all developed well. The next one, Brendan Rodgers, looks like the best hitting prospect in all of baseball right now, and is a SS.

gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out...

[gut]

Rockies add Shaw, Mcgee, and Wade Davis for a combined 3/106. For every other team I would think this is horrible, but for the Rockies it is great. They've finally figured out that starting pitchers that are not used to pitching at altitude generally suck ass in CO, unless they are extreme ground ball pitchers. Analytics has benefited this team perhaps more than any other team due to the unique altitude situation.

Their new plan is great: Ignore the FA market for starters (added bonus of saving money on the most expensive position), draft and develop ground ball inducing SP's, spend big on the bullpen/bats. They have 1 of their rookie league teams, their low A team, and their AAA team all at altitude as well, so these kids get used to pitching in the thin air. Once they make the show, hope that those SP's can give you 5 innings of decent pitching then turn it over to the bullpen. This started working last year, and they should be even better this year. It helps that their recent high draft picks for hitters have all developed well. The next one, Brendan Rodgers, looks like the best hitting prospect in all of baseball right now, and is a SS.

gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out...

I also should have mentioned that of their 6 top starters right now, ALL 6 are on rookie, pre-arb deals currently. They are literally paying ~$3.3m COMBINED this year for 6 SP's.....1 or even 2 of those relievers signed could bomb/get hurt and their pitching value-per-dollar-spent will still be above the league average. Chad Bettis is still around I guess, and entering his first year of Arb. he had an injury-plagued year tho last season, and was generally an average starter before that....so hard to see him getting much more than like $2m at most. So even assuming that, look at how crazy the rockies staff looks right now:

Starters combined $: ~$5,300,000
Bullpen combined $: ~$50,000,000

Besides the 3 recent signings, they have Mike Dunn making 7 mil this year, and Adam Ottavino making the same as well.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out...

I also should have mentioned that of their 6 top starters right now, ALL 6 are on rookie, pre-arb deals currently. They are literally paying ~$3.3m COMBINED this year for 6 SP's.....1 or even 2 of those relievers signed could bomb/get hurt and their pitching value-per-dollar-spent will still be above the league average.

don't want to call gray a stud, but he's pretty damn good...sentanaza was decent enough last year and the guy that came back from cancer (bettis?) wasn't too bad either...the thing that will be interesting will be if they make the playoffs...do they use the relievers a decent amount during the regular season so their workloads are up like 15-20% from usual and they are gassed come postseason...

[gut]

I also should have mentioned that of their 6 top starters right now, ALL 6 are on rookie, pre-arb deals currently. They are literally paying ~$3.3m COMBINED this year for 6 SP's.....1 or even 2 of those relievers signed could bomb/get hurt and their pitching value-per-dollar-spent will still be above the league average.

don't want to call gray a stud, but he's pretty damn good...sentanaza was decent enough last year and the guy that came back from cancer (bettis?) wasn't too bad either...the thing that will be interesting will be if they make the playoffs...do they use the relievers a decent amount during the regular season so their workloads are up like 15-20% from usual and they are gassed come postseason...

haha, I was editing my post while you posted this, as I had forgot about Bettis. Also forgot what was wrong with him, and just typed "injury-plagued season" in my edit....I suppose cancer that spreads does qualify as "injury plagued"......

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

don't want to call gray a stud, but he's pretty damn good...sentanaza was decent enough last year and the guy that came back from cancer (bettis?) wasn't too bad either...the thing that will be interesting will be if they make the playoffs...do they use the relievers a decent amount during the regular season so their workloads are up like 15-20% from usual and they are gassed come postseason...

haha, I was editing my post while you posted this, as I had forgot about Bettis. Also forgot what was wrong with him, and just typed "injury-plagued season" in my edit....I suppose cancer that spreads does qualify as "injury plagued"......

yeah worst kinda injury...never want to "injure" your fucking ball(s)...

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

and yeah that is fucking insane the rockies paying their starters a combined 5 while paying the bullpen 50...I really do wonder if that's where we are going to be headed in the future...not a 10:1 ratio, but where we have bullpens making more than the starting rotation...

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2...ns-profit-2018

According to the Miami Herald, decreased payroll coupled with increased revenue from ticket sales, corporate sponsorships and a revamped local TV deal, as well as a one-time payout of $50 million that each MLB franchise will receive this season, will carry the moribund franchise to profitability. The one-time payment is the result of MLB's $1.58 billion sale of its controlling stake in digital media company BAMtech to Disney.

holy shit this is fucking comedy gold...wonder if jeter moonlighted as an executive for caesars at some point because this is exactly what those dipshits would do...EVERYTHING IS GREAT, WE HAVE SOARING PROFITABILITY!!! most of that increased profitability will be due to one time charges, BUT IT STILL COUNTS!!!

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

wow padres offering 7/140 for hosmer and the royals are supposedly offering more...

[gut]

The best bet for Boras right now is hoping that the idiots in the Royals and the idiots running the Padres get into a bidding war against each other. Otherwise, Hosmer might not sign until spring.

Never doubt either the talent of Boras or the fact that about 1/3 of all teams at any given time have no clue wtf they are doing is apparently the lesson here.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

The best bet for Boras right now is hoping that the idiots in the Royals and the idiots running the Padres get into a bidding war against each other. Otherwise, Hosmer might not sign until spring.

Never doubt either the talent of Boras or the fact that about 1/3 of all teams at any given time have no clue wtf they are doing is apparently the lesson here.

I swear to Christ that boras and ryan Fitzpatrick have a stack of pics of GMs fucking goats or trannys or something...there's legit no rational explanation for boras dragging what he does outta teams and how the fuck that Fitzpatrick still gets starts in the NFL...