2017-2018 Hot Stove

this is one of the guys miami picked up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaSwX9pJsI0

September 12, 2017	Minnesota Twins designated SS Engelb Vielma for assignment.
September 14, 2017	San Francisco Giants claimed SS Engelb Vielma off waivers from Minnesota Twins.
November 20, 2017	Philadelphia Phillies claimed SS Engelb Vielma off waivers from San Francisco Giants.
December 11, 2017	Pittsburgh Pirates claimed SS Engelb Vielma off waivers from Philadelphia Phillies.
January 18, 2018	San Francisco Giants claimed SS Engelb Vielma off waivers from Pittsburgh Pirates.
January 26, 2018        Baltimore Orioles acquire SS Engelb Vielma from San Francisco Giants in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

Engelb has passed his sellb ydate

My guess is Santana goes, but I think the team will probably keep him rather than sell low on him. The extra OFs gives the team some cover to ration Braun and Cain's playing time.

Where they really need an upgrade is 2B. Villar was atrocious last year, defensively and offensively.

Wouldn't they be selling high on Santana? He was terrific last year.

Yeah he was great, and they don't believe his success was a fluke. But I think some teams are going to try to put in low ball offers on him because of the narrative the Brewers have too many outfielders and have to move some of them. They were already struggling to get fair offers on him at winter meetings, and that was before their outfield became even more crowded.

iirc the giants were interested in santana (and still need an outfielder, even with mccutchen). not sure they have anything the brewers would want apart from joe panik tho

Francisco Rodriguez signs minor league deal with #Phillies that will pay him https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/957426296799223808.5 million if he makes the big leagues per @JonHeyman

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 28, 2018

ICYMI

The Major League Baseball Players Association is investigating whether to file grievances against the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates for circumventing rules in the collective-bargaining agreement that call for teams to put revenue-sharing dollars back into baseball operations, sources familiar with the situation told Yahoo Sports.

https://sports.yahoo.com/mlbpa-looking-pirates-marlins-spending-habits-174042989.html

There is still Bunches of players still not signed. Got to wonder when the bow is going to break and sign players.

There is about enough available free agents out there to make a decent club.

Royals have traded LHP Ryan Buchter and DH/1B Brandon Moss to Oakland for right-hander Jesse Hahn and Minor League right-hander Heath Fillmyer.

deck chairs shuffled

Opens a spot for Hosmer.

Buchter was really solid on the Padres. A's bullpen isn't too bad.

jesse hahn is kinda decent

buchter is the only useful player involved; maybe it's worth taking on an $8m commitment to brandon moss to get him but it seems odd

despite watching brandon moss for an entire year, for some reason i can not imagine his face being anything else but exactly like mark mcgwire's. i'll look him up for a second and remember, but right now it's the weirdest thing

Matt Albers to Brewers btw

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/22255478/matt-albers-agrees-2-year-5-million-deal-milwaukee-brewers

eno out (presumably to an as-yet-unnamed team)

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/thanks-for-reading

Fangraphs hemorrhaging staff

yeah, they really are. not just any staff but some of their best writers

O'S HIRE SZYMBORSKIS CATS AS ASSISTANTS TO THE GM

"I will still see you around, but not on these pages." Sounds like maybe Sarris will just be writing elsewhere?

Mookie Betts won his arbitration case against the Red Sox on Wednesday, meaning the star outfielder will make $10.5 million in 2018.

The Red Sox had offered Betts $7.5 million.

nice

Welcoming @Angels star @Andrelton Simmons to @wembleystadium this evening! 👋#COYS pic.twitter.com/RAjstPx2bW

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 31, 2018

andrelton to spurs

Chicago Cubs Co-Owner Todd Ricketts Named New RNC Finance Chairman

next GOP memo controversy will center on Kyle Schwarber

A most welcome development: MLB announces that all major-league ballparks will have protective netting extending to at least the far ends of both dugouts by Opening Day.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 1, 2018

last ballgame i went to with my kids we were on third base line. i brought my glove with me, which my kids thought was cool, but they didn't know it was so that i could stop the ball hitting their face if necessary. every LH batter and my ears pricked up like fuckin Scooby doo

from the head of the CAA agency

A rising tide... @MLB_PLAYERS pic.twitter.com/jwkoiiI0yt

— Brodie Van Wagenen (@bvanwagenen) February 2, 2018

perhaps the 1200 alpha males at the pinnacle of their profession should just physically beat the shit out of the 30 owners

Should happen across all professions tbh

^^

"Two men enter boardroom, only one leaves."

BULLPEN CARTS

https://www.sbnation.com/2018/2/2/16964690/mlb-bullpen-cart-return-2018

Good job Miami

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article198019154.html

we have the billionaires we deserve.

happy marlins 25th anniversary

Well gee he lost 140 million of his own money on the sale, what more does the greedy Miami public want?

Bartolo Colon: minor-league deal with Texas

...and now the rest of the dominoes will fall

lol

are you talking about pizza shops in the Dallas-Ft Worth region?

LOL

nice

Scott:

I’m getting pretty annoyed at the lack of free agent signings. Should I be blaming the owners/front offices for being greedy, or the players for negotiating a bad CBA? Also, the NBA guarantees the players a certain % of revenue (I think close to a 50-50 split). The players should really bargain hard for something similar.

Jeff Sullivan:
There’s blame to go all around, and don’t let the agents out of your sights. Agents haven’t kept up, by and large, with the changing game

They’re just not very good at negotiating realistically with teams, how they’re presently operating

I’d blame front offices the least — every single one of them wants the team to get better. Owners have far more to do with it

It’s not the Dodgers’ front office’s fault they’re trying to stay under the threshold. That’s on ownership

One angle that hasn't been mentioned that in think could be lurking in the background is the local TV rights money maybe shrinking with all the cable cutting.

i thought those numbers had been getting bigger recently?

Jeff Sullivan, again:

This isn’t collusion. This is teams being smart enough to react to the circumstances. It’s a huge, huge deal that certain big spenders are trying to stay under the tax. Now, whether they actually need to do that — that could be argued. But that’s the operating philosophy, and it’s having an effect. And then you have potential big spenders at the other end, with bad present rosters. What’s their incentive to, say, sign Jake Arrieta? What would he do for the Tigers?

Free agency has always been a bad investment, efficiency-wise. Money needs to find a way to get to players before they get to FA age. It’s more urgent now than ever.

And, of course, beneath all of this, money really needs to find a way to get to the minor leagues. Don’t overlook that those are the players in the most financial peril.

darwin barney also has a minor league deal with the rangers

i don't know enough about all this to shout collusion, and it probably isn't actual collusion, but even if there are logical reasons why no one's getting signed, it's a little suspicious that every single team arrived at those reasons at the exact same time