caulfield12

ESPN is reporting just $20 million to NYM. That would leave 5 years at $100 million, not likely to be a bargain.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46413196 Big news is for American soybean farmers and Qualcomm acquisition being unblocked, as well as attempting to crack down on fentanyl. Still a million things that could go wrong on the thorny issues that China won’t give in on, but Trump can declare a temporary victory and the stock market should jump again.

Georgia has Bama in their heads now about as much as Michigan with Ohio State. CFP also would have had a huge debate for the 4th spot if UGA won there...potentially taking two SEC teams over OU in the B12 and likely OSU as B10 champs. Can’t imagine Clemson losing.

Narvaez was under control through 2022...

McCann from Detroit would be an obvious pick now...not sure what his salary would be, though.

If the Indians can follow up and make the right trade with Kluber/Carrasco/Bauer...they’ll be set for winning the division the next two years, unless something astounding happens. But they won’t have much margin for error in terms of injuries. The pitching depth will be much thinner. At any rate, $54 million between Encarnacion, Kluber and Kipnis is too much for carrying two players who are no longer nearly as productive. That said, they can buy out Kipnis for $2.5 million next year and Encarnacion for $5 million. Theoretically, they should be in very decent shape financially in 2020...logic dictates that they should sell high on Kluber now, especially with Corbin and Keuchel being the best options out there on the FA market.

For many traditional Republicans, he was one of the best of his generation, but raising taxes cost him the 1992 election...along with being completely out of touch (didn’t know what a scanner in the grocery store was used for.) I will never forget the Willie Horton ad (Atwater), the positives, such as his love of baseball, World War Two heroism and 1000 Points of Light volunteering movement as well as unfortunately being swept up in the #metoo movement. Three kids born in that Baby Boom period to the “Greatest Generation” in 1946 went on to become presidents...GW Bush, Bill Clinton, and Trump. Probably the last of the true political dynasties, along with the Kennedys.

Narvaez has quietly been one of the better-hitting catchers the last few years, putting up a career .274 batting average and .366 on-base percentage and showing increasing power each year. Overall, his .809 OPS last season ranked fifth among all big league catchers with at least 300 plate appearances. Narvaez is strictly an offensive catcher. He ranked last out of 117 catchers in pitch framing last year, according to Baseball Prospectus, and he had the third-most errors (seven), fourth-most passed balls (12) and second-most stolen bases allowed (66) of any AL catcher. He is under team control through 2022, giving the Mariners four seasons before he hits free agency. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/white-sox-acquire-alex-colome-from-mariners-for-omar-narvaez/ Forgot that both were Rays’ prospects in 2014-15.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25420692/cleveland-indians-trade-catcher-yan-gomes-washington-nationals https://www.cleveland.com/expo/sports/erry-2018/12/af18a56fd42040/cleveland-indians-trade-catche.html $27 million saved, Perez will be starter with Haase on the rise after Mejia deal last year... Reaction to the trade from Indians fans was overwhelmingly skeptical as the team begins to reconfigure its salary structure with what is expected to be a number of offseason trades. Many fans view sending Gomes to Washington as a move based purely on finances with little return for the Tribe.

Flowers and Junior Guerra (since departing) have contributed roughly the same amount (8) of fWAR as Yolmer, Anderson and Moncada combined. Marcus Semien was good for 3.7 this year, and roughly 9 career-wise. Devenski and Jose Martinez have been worth another 8.4, Eduardo Escobar, 9.5. Etc.

Unless you’re a big fan of Cordell or Medeiros?

Gives Burdi some additional time to get his feet underneath him...Hamilton also won’t be thrown to the wolves prematurely.

Richards only made sense if there was the 2021option...unless we’re whaling off Nantucket. The Padres, fwiw, undoubtedly have the better milb system right now, but they also have a much bigger hill to climb in the Dodgers, Giants, Rockies, etc.

If the Indians were to trade one of Kluber/Carrasco/Bauer, that suddenly opens up a weakness there. (They've already traded their best catching prospect in the Hand deal, and Gomes is on the block because he's one of the few bigger contracts, outside of one member of the starting rotation, that they can feasibly move without doing too much damage to their hopes in 2019.) Are Clevinger and Bieber going to repeat? Of course, they also have Santana lurking. He might actually end up an internal closer candidate, rather than them spending outrageously to fix their bullpen through FA. They have a lot of ? marks, but they do seem to have a plan for the pen. The Sox need to at least threaten the Indians this year...the faster the Twins and White Sox can convince the Indians' owner he can't afford to keep all those pieces together, the better. Another low 70's or high 60's win team won't accomplish that. At the very least, they should be in the upper 70's.

Thinking the Braves and Phillies are passing them by...? That they have to do SOMETHING desperate to reinvigorate their fanbase, especially with the re-rise (or re-invigoration) of the Yankees' juggernaut.

What is Cespedes' health situation? I remember some writers speculating this past summer that he was on a trajectory to end up like Albert Belle...making more news off the field than on it.

A couple of years ago, you would have thought a place like Mexico City would have had a shot, but that's no longer in the cards with the political situation, or even a Caribbean country. Buffalo, Louisville, Charlotte, Nashville and Indy were other names you would hear historically, but as much recently. MLB really seems to be considering the possibility (at least) of going back to MON, but two West Coast teams, that's the most logical play in terms of scheduling and demographics/population growth.

Like getting Cano to leave NY for Seattle?

Except Yolmer SANCHEZ has outproduced his fWAR over the last two seasons. Throw out their outlier seasons in the last three, you have a 4.0 (TA) versus 3.9 total over two “peak” years. Nobody is clamoring to see Yolmer start for another season, well, almost nobody. 2 is more or less “okay” for SS, but he still needs to bump it up to 2.5-3.0 to really be a significant positive contributor.

It’s more the Indians still having at least $50+ million in bad contracts...that’s the only way to create any payroll flexibility whatsoever, to deal a starter or Gomes in a package.

Reassuring that the White Sox are simply snakebitten with every 1st round draft pick besides Chris Sale.

Why would a team absorb all the risk and give us anything resembling his often-stated “potential” value? Dumping Avi and Rodon basically would require the front office being called to the carpet on two more talent misjudgments. If Fathom’s right, between the work ethic, Ptac’s concerns about the repeatability of his delivery and the Boras Factor, it’s yet another blown first round draft pick (especially at 1-3) by the Sox. Someone missed out on two pretty significant red flags. Might as well turn him into Andrew Miller. He’d arguably have more value...except he’s not good at holding runners or limiting walks.

Why would they trade Rodon now, before he’s proven that his velocity is back and that he’s 100% healthy for another 3-4 months? What’s the rush? What do the Sox know that everyone else doesn’t? I would be tremendously suspicious as a rival GM if Hahn actually tried to push him this offseason. Put another way, when’s the last time a team traded a young, still cost-controlled pitcher from the LH side with his stuff? Well, other than Chris Sale...I guess the deals for Archer and Cole, but both those guys were more established than Rodon.

Luis Robert needs to be ready at some point in 2020.

So basically this move makes no sense (at all) unless we're signing a whale. One year of competitive window for a huge chunk of our farm system that hasn't yet defined itself is the definition of sabotaging the rebuild. Not to mention we're already discussing trading a pitcher, Rodon, who's under the exact same amount of control and who still offers significant upside (although not like Thor's).