Hot Stove League 2014-15

Let's not waste any time:

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/11786485/joe-maddon-expected-become-chicago-cubs-manager

red sox supposedly hot for recent world series winner 'the panda'

Sandoval is gonna get paid a shitload - either by the Giants or someone else.

yankees.

Toronto claimed Justin Smoak

a spurious claim

Dan Johnson left a pretty big hole when he left.

I'm not really sure why the sox want panda tbqh

...maybe acquire him with free cap space, then trade him and some prospects for LE STANTON??!!

(obligatory Red Sox foolish hope for a Stanton trade)

aussie legend liam hendriks sent back to toronto by the royals -- kinda wonder if that was agreed upon back in july

nats pick up $9m option on spenard dan, decline options on adam laroche and rafael soriano

As free agency nears, Amaro unveils rebuilding plan done 'The Phillies Way'

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20141031_GM_Amaro_unveils__quot_Phillies_Way_quot__handbook.html

at least he's not talking about 'phillies nation'

"way" is 1,000x worse than "nation" imo

amaro and hinkie are clearly in the same room, using the same cocaine

I'm not really sure why the sox want panda tbqh

...maybe acquire him with free cap space, then trade him and some prospects for LE STANTON??!!

(obligatory Red Sox foolish hope for a Stanton trade)

― and also pointsman, octopi don't bark (slothroprhymes), Thursday, October 30, 2014 8:22 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

because they don't have a viable third baseman

i mean it certainly isnt will middLOLbrooks. cecchini looked pretty good during september tho, on both ends

^^^thought that was gonna be a morbs line

sox re-signed uehara for two years

I was thinking about making an A2A joke, not going to lie.

damnit me, classic PHRASING fuckup

So no chance of Panda staying? The Giants have pretty deep pockets.

From the philly.com article about the Amaro way:

Amaro identified Cody Asche, Maikel Franco, Darin Ruf, Ben Revere, and Domonic Brown as players to build around.

2014 domonic brown had negative the WAR 2013 domonic brown accrued

one good month is all you need apparently

defensive awards flyin' already, i can't believe Mr Awards thread hasn't leapt on em

i thought the phillies were already trying to get rid of domonic

hey morbs can you please leave the awards talk out of the hot stove thread thanks

i love darin ruf but lol he accrued 0.3 war in his 12-game debut in 2012, is dead even in 125 games since, and will be 29 next july

hey Revere got a 3.0 WAR season!

2 seasons ago.

with the Twins.

Ranking the free agents

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/10/30/7088233/2014-2015-mlb-free-agent-power-ranking

So no chance of Panda staying? The Giants have pretty deep pockets.

They're already on the hook for $127 million next year with 5 FAs and unlikely to go into luxury tax territory.

gabe kapler just publicly tweeted something meant to be a direct message (and instantly deleted, but not fast enough) -- apparently he's joining the dodgers front office

also the yankees hired eric chavez as a scout

DON KELLY OUTRIGHTED

was hoping kapler would catch on as an analyst somewhere but i guess FO jobs are more coveted

renteria officially canned

yankees will reportedly extend a qualifying offer to david robertson on monday

thus a (quite good!) reliever who posted 1.2 war in 2014 will make at least $15.3m next year

following that logic, russell martin should get $50m

I got a question about WAR towards team win performance. Looking at Pirates according to Baseball Reference they have a total of 30.1 WAR, should this number be considered that the club would end up 30 over .500 (or about 96 wins)?

no, because a team full of pure replacement level players would not be a .500 level team. i forget what the baseline figure is.

no, the basis for replacement level is somewhere around 42-47 wins for fWAR at least, not sure where it is for rWAR but their replacement level is different i think

according to wikipedia:

a team of replacement-level players is expected to have a .320 winning percentage, or 52 wins in a 162 game season.

i know every year FG does their WAR predictions everyone always tries to add up the totals and add it onto a set figure and every year podhorzer or whoever does it yells at them cause that's not how it works

rockies pick up option for latroy hawkins' age-42 season

The Rockies Way

nick markakis and billy butler both got club options declined, FAs

Adam Lind (Jays) for Estrada (Brewers).

http://www.tsn.ca/blue-jays-trade-1b-dh-lind-to-brewers-for-rhp-estrada-1.122276

always disappointed that adam lind isn't jose's son

not sure what to think of the deal.

lind is a good addition for any team that can properly use him in a platoon (164 wRC+ vs righties in 2014, -36 vs lefties, and a 150 wRC+ against righties in 2013). he probably sucks as a fielder though.

Estrada was almost useless tho.

always disappointed that marco estrada isn't erik's son

Paul Molitor, new Twins manager

!

lind gets hurt all the time also

#TruckDay, guys.

nationals sign dan uggla, heath bell to minor league deals

fauxto carmona goin to houston on a ml deal too

zito to a's! (milb deal)

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/02/17/rod-makes-vague-apology-turns-down-news-conference/8xnkSI9byEM5FDp6LoXKLJ/story.html

I believe all non-vague media apologies still need to be made directly to Oprah

AL seems like it is wide open heading into spring training. With the rampant turnover or lack of changes on some winning clubs from 2014, I don't see any real lock favorites. Angels and Detroit should hit, but they both got some serious questions with their pitching. KC might be decent, but they were kinda fluky last year. Baltimore pretty much didn't change much and it seemed they played over their heads last year too. Seattle and Cleveland seem to be more on the upswing than downswing.

With the NL, the Cards, Nationals, Dodgers (on paper) and Giants (by previous results) seem to be favorites to me. Pittsburgh could be good, I think anything else would be at least a mild surprise.

if the dodgers or nats don't win the NL they have to be pretty disappointed this year. cards will be good but their depth is lacking this year - a single bad injury could spell doom. giants, nah. pittsburgh will be good i think. i have nothing to back this up, but i think that if the cubs get off to a good start they'll keep rolling. if they don't, they won't. that's my unsubstantiated opinion and i'm sticking to it.

interesting that pecota has the royals fourth-worst in the majors

they lost Sheilds and Butler, and gained... Volquez, Morales and Rios. makes sense.

i like everything the White Sox did this offseason. no idea why everyone feels they're still a sub-500 team.

projection systems didn't like KC last year either

did have a predictatron thread this year?

How accurate are those season win projections that we read every year? Is there a lot of science and data behind them or are they mostly just writers guessing?

I don't quite see Boston at 87 wins at least as setup now, they seem to be pretty shy on the starting pitching.

giants, nah.

>=( |=\ =|

oh shush leee, warriors bout to give the Bay Area another title, don't be greedy

Boston has so much talent in their lineup and such a crazy deep bench - I think they can get by with 5 #3 starters!
They could pretty much get a Hamels or Zimmerman whenever they want without taking away much from the field.

Warriors won't win; NBA is fixed

Most improved positions of the year: Cards RF, return of Prince, no Jeter

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/most-improved-positions-dodgers-cardinals-yankees-mariners-padres-reds-rangers-021715

giants are gonna start lincecum again...

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

He worked with his father again, apparently he is quite confident.

sounds like a plan until it's not

if they're stubborn about it, a step close to wild-card Mets

Barves apparently have 'strong interest' in Jackie Bradley Jr.

rating farewell-ad sincerity

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/mlb-farewell-ad-sincerity-ranking-joe-maddon-max-scherzer-nick-markakis/

shoulder surgery for jurickson profar, might miss his second straight season

from BP chat:

AC (TX): Is there a deal that is going very under-discussed, that you feel deserves more attention? Maybe a change of scenery that you feel will do wonders?

R.J. Anderson: Someone whose opinion I trust and who works in a well-regarded FO is convinced Brett Lawrie could outplay Josh Donaldson this season. I'm not there yet (and I probably won't get there until after it happens), but that's the deal that popped to mind reading the second part of this question.

As for the first part, I'd say the Yankees' acquisition of Justin Wilson. He's a very talented pitcher who could be a monster near the back of their bullpen. Add him to Betances, Miller, Carpenter, etc. and you have the makings of a nasty group.

bochy's in the hospital getting stents put in his ticker. hope it goes well

What THE FUCK

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/gregg-zaun-says-physical-abuse-from-cal-ripken-jr--kept-him-in-line-071143606.html

not surprising, but ugh anyway

meanwhile, RIP B.J. Upton

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- B.J. Upton has opted to appease those Braves fans who have said they "don't want to see B.J." in the lineup again this year. Now, the veteran outfielder can only hope that he is capable of altering his production as easily as he has the name he will use this season.

Upton's representatives confirmed that he will go by his birth name, Melvin Upton Jr., this upcoming season. The 30-year-old outfielder has long gone by the name B.J., which is short for Bossman (his father Manny's nickname) Jr.

You figure Billy was down for whatever whenever -- even now, probably -- but Cal?

i've never been a stannish defender of cal but i'm p sure every team was doing the violent hazing thing back then

cal probably got the same treatment from zaun's uncle back in the day

also lol cal put out an anti-bullying book jfc

guys this is not hot stove unless there was fire in the hazing

plz keep off-topic complaints in the detrius thread

@JesseSanchezMLB
BREAKING - Source: Cuban INF prospect Yoan Moncada agrees with Red Sox on a deal in $30 million range. Check http://MLB.com

Jesse Spector @jessespector
I get the Red Sox signing Yoan Moncada. Always want talent. I don’t quite get Yoan Moncada signing with the Red Sox. His path isn’t clear.

whoa, ok

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/04/padres-have-completed-trade.html

Craig Kimbrel and Melvin (AKA BJ) Upton to Padres for Cameron Maybin, Carlos Quentin, Matt Wisler, and Jordan Paroubeck

the barves will also get the 41st pick in the draft, apparently

zowie

seems like a decent deal for both sides, maybe? padres get a dominant closer and a BJ, barves get to dump upton's salary, get a few guys who can be traded later, and a couple prospects?

pads felt guilty tearing a family apart

xp - Yeah, beyond the initial emotional "Kimbrel noooooooooo, come back" shock, this seems win-win. I don't know the Padres' depth chart -- will Melvin start or be an expensive bench piece?

iirc the padres still have a few dozen OFs, even after quentin and maybin

Not worth starting the in-season thread for but goddamn, everything John Kruk says during the broadcast is nails on a chalkboard.

someone should start it!

I mean Kemp might break off at both knees like the t-1000 so who the fuck knows. kimbrel seems like the "luxury" move that people were talking about re the astros not needing a closer, but not in such dire terms -- I do feel like we are past peak closer Maybe some recency bias in favor of SF but you still have to make it past them and LAD afaict

"This latest move has improved the odds of the Padres winning the World Series, going from 25/1 to 20/1, according to the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook."

idk man...

Law says Barves win

trade makes sense for both teams (especially barves), but if i were one of the players i'd be annoyed -- they had six months to make this trade and now i've gotta move across the country on opening day?

yeah the timing seems awful for the players