caulfield12

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14521668...american-league AL predictions by team... Among others, Cleveland to win the division, Miguel Sano the AL home run crown (over Trout and Machado) and Buxton/Berrios to fight it out for Rookie of the Year. There was another article predicting Lawrie would be a surprise offensive breakout candidate and hit 20+ homers. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...itters-for-2016 Sano and Soler the top two picks. Lawrie at bottom in honorable mention with Trumbo.

http://jaysjournal.com/2015/12/06/blue-jay...ract-situation/ Marlins interested in Wei Yin Chen.

It Follows is better than The Final Girls, although it has its share of 80's slasher flick satire moments.

If Dexter Fowler is the big announcement or they're trying to time the signing to coincide with some type of marketing/attendance benefit for SoxFest, that would be beyond idiotic...

99 Homes was excellent too, albeit depressing...will have to check out The Final Girls. We both presumably haven't seen zson of Saul, either. Speaking of excellent...I love Terrence Malick as much as anyone, but Knight of Cups was just too out there. 2011 he was on the top of his game but To the Wonder and this one in particular seem like USC Film School productions albeit with completely brilliant cinematography. Also, finally watched Star Wars in Imax and it sneaks into the back end of the top ten for me now...if for no other reason than nostalgia from watching the first three movies from 1977-1983 in the theatre with my father. Childhood memories, like many had with Jurassic Park this past summer. That and the John Williams score and the familiar rolling scroll at the beginning, haha.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 9, 2016 -> 08:46 PM) Abreu had 7 or 8 teams bidding on him. What were the other 4-5 teams that made offers?

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jan 9, 2016 -> 04:43 PM) FWIW, I read this comment from a Blue Jays fan on Reddit: "Can't see the Jays going after an outfielder (or another position player for that matter). They are pretty much set with Saunders, Pompey, Pillar and Bautista this year. For the years after 2016 you got Alford coming up, DJ Davis if he can get it together, and Vlady jr. of course." Still, the Blue Jays are in a similar situation to a lot of teams where they have to maximize their chances of winning with two key members of their offensive core leaving after 2016...after next year, Bautista and Encarnacion are likely gone. http://jaysjournal.com/2015/12/06/blue-jay...ract-situation/ Tulo has that long-term deal, but he seems to be declining. Would have to double-check on Martin and Donaldson. Looks like they have Donaldson through 2018 and Martin's contract will be pretty bad in 2018 and 2019. So they have to ask whether they bring in Davis/Cespedes/Upton or extend either Bautista or Encarnacion in their decline years.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 9, 2016 -> 07:06 PM) You raise an interesting question; What really is the point at which a baseball player should be expected to experience a serious decline in performance? If you go back to the pre-steroid era, there were many position players who were extremely productive into their mid 30's. When you consider that those players did not have advanced fitness routines, as do players today, I seriously doubt that a player should be unable to maintain a high level of performance, simply because he has passed the magic age of 30. Of course, injuries are another issue. If a player is injured, it can end his career, at any age. There is also a factor that helps to offset the negative effects of physical aging, and that is experience. Baseball is a difficult sport to master, and the learning curve does not peak at 30. Guys can learn to be better players, even if they have lost a step in speed. Moreover, with proper strength training, they can be stronger at age 33 to 35, than they were in their 20's. The point is that this is a very complex issue. On a personal note; it is a little amusing for someone at my advanced age of 71, to hear 30 year olds, referred to as "over the hill". Ouch. Well, that's definitely the case with tennis and gymnastics. Think of the NFL, where other than Qb's and kickers/punters, the average career is over in 3-5 seasons. Tiger Woods is done at age 40, but golf is one of the few sports where you can actually peak at 35-45 due to the mental side of the game being equally important. Vijay Singh, for example.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 9, 2016 -> 08:07 PM) Perhaps you have heard of Jose Abreu? Except the competition that time was limited to Colorado and Houston, from everything we know... It's a slightly different situation now since these three can be at 3-4 positions in the line-up rather than just 1b or DH.

A one year deal doesn't make sense for any one remaining FA at $23-27 million...well, Cespedes, maybe...because you wouldn't lose the draft pick with him. And you'd take away flexibility to add another key piece at mid-season barring some unexpected farm system developments in the first half. Upton or Desmond would definitely have to be minimum two years deals, though. That would be hard to commit to not knowing where Tim Anderson will be in July or August development-wise in the case of Desmond. Any one year deal forces you back into the market against more bidders for less offensive talent next offseason...

Boras wants $75-100 million for Chen. From where their rotation is situated, and having already paid Happ and Estrada, that makes little sense...because they would have just signed Chen instead of two guys in the first place but weren't comfortable with that price tag. What does make sense is dumping Dickey to create enough payroll flexibility for a better starting pitcher or hitter.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 9, 2016 -> 04:06 PM) Long term contracts to pitchers are a different consideration, Danks being a case in point. Pitchers are so vulnerable to arm and shoulder injuries, and those injuries are usually career ending, or at least very damaging. Moreover, there is another side to the "double edged sword," which these multi contracts represent. Of course, the team is committed and obligated, but then they also have a good player locked up. There is an optimum number of years, and it certainly isn't advantageous to be committed to a player, beyond his prime. In the case of Cespedes, 4 years takes him through age 33, which seems ideal. Except without steroids, 25-28 or 29 is a player's prime and anyone past age 30 a warning sign.

No teams in the AL Central are even close to approaching $200 million except Detroit. The problem is a razor thin margin for error at $120-130 million compared to let's say $150-175 million even. Mistakes like Dunn, LaRoche and Danks...even Cabrera to a lesser extent, block that financial flexibility the bigger spending teams typically have.

Sure, there's injury and non-performance risk with every player. There's also situations like Swisher, Cabrera and Shark where guys just don't mesh well with teammates or the coaching staff or both. That goes back to KW's famous quote about due diligence. The White Sox typically had limited themselves to 3-4 year contracts under the JR regime, even with their own best guys like Buehrle and Konerko, for this very reason. That said, the free agent market is what it is...overpaying is always going to be a consequence of not having better and cheaper options in your farm system. Nobody forced KW to give Danks that deal...it wasn't even out of desperation, because we had dealt our closer right before that and seemingly looked to be rebuilding or retrenching or retooling or whatever the catch-phrase he preferred to use at that moment in time.

Greg, let me put this another way. Would Jesus build a giant wall to separate himself from either non-believers or sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes (let's just say they represent the "rapists" in Mexico)? Or would he welcome them and work even harder to accommodate/bring them into the fold? Would Jesus be afraid of, intimidated or threatened by the Jewish as well as Roman leaders? Or would he attempt to constructively engage with them rationally, intellectually and morally? Right now, Trump is much closer to Hitler in the 1930's or Joseph McCarthy in the 1950's than the being you get upset that fewer and fewer are turning out to worship every Sunday.

It reminds me of the feeling of reading Ayn Rand books growing up and detesting the capitalists for their dogmatism, but at least admiring the self-sufficiency side of it...this spirit today is more about racism, xenophobia and pandering to the base, and it's 100% destructive in terms of the moral fabric of our country. It's not even pretending to be a philosophical argument. 99.2% of Americans have descendants from other countries. It's shameful that the best of America is now essentially exemplified by Germany, a country with much less diversity but more open-mindedness. I feel like I'm rewatching the Borat scene where he's singing the satirical Kazahkstani national anthem to the "patriotic" and homophobic rodeo crowd in Alabama or South Carolina.

Robertson last year and Dunn in 2011...LaRoche undoubtedly, although both he and Melky were second tier. Albert Belle going back almost two decades now.

What does not really mean exactly? They checked in but were discouraged by the asking price? Sounds like hedging bets to cover if they do sign a bigger name.

No way you get K.Davis for less than Anderson/Fulmer though... The articles are all intimating the return would be higher in July because there's such a glut right now.

You can probably add Michael Taylor to the list, too...

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 8, 2016 -> 10:41 PM) Aren't they notorious for not giving long-term deals That's where Upton on a big one year deal to join that line-up and bash away makes sense. No way he couldn't put up huge numbers there. Less pressure on him. Bautista, Tulo. Encarnacion, Martin and Donaldson already have leadership roles, so expectations wouldn't be unrealistic. Alex Rios and Halladay and Vernon Wells? http://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/201...rew-storen.html "In Revere, the Jays part with a speedy leadoff hitter, who was acquired at last year’s trade deadline from the Philadelphia Phillies for a pair of minor-league pitchers. The club will miss his speed, but with Michael Saunders and Dalton Pompey both in the mix as potential everyday left fielders, Revere became expendable. The deal also requires the Jays to send a player to be named later to the Nationals, while the Nationals will send an undisclosed amount of cash Toronto’s way (probably around the $2 million differential in salaries.) The team’s official release did not mention the latter’s inclusion in the deal." Now you have two teams with super-pens in TOR and NY and Boston has to improve as well in that area.... http://m.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article/161353214 http://m.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article/161...e-jays-rotation If you include Sanchez, who got hammered last year to an 878 tune against lefties, that's seven starters. Probably he combines with Storen, Osuna and Cecil to form that backend core of four super tough relievers. Pressure now shifts to Baltimore to counter.

Saunders was last a full time player in 2013 and he wasnt much over an 700 ops. I don't think many Jays fans perceive him as a regular starter...more of a platoon candidate at best. And, health issues.

Stroman Estrada Dickey Happ Hutchison Jesse Chavez Do they really need seven starters?

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jan 8, 2016 -> 10:13 PM) Just my speculation but I wonder if Toronto is the mystery team? Salary commitments to 10 players = 99.6M Arbitration projections for 8 players= 26.5M Minimum salary for 6 players @500k= 3M+ Toronto's total payroll for 24 players not including Revere sits at about 129M so they have room for one of Cespedes/Upton and I'd venture to guess they could have the money since they were a playoff team and made a few extra bucks. Not signing Price opened up this possibility, fwiw. Imagine that line-up with one more power bat. Blocking Pompey won't stand in the way of a super team if they can make the numbers work. The brewery certainly wants to sustain the financial success and bandwagon that kicked off last July.

But you can add the Jays to the list of all-in teams...in a loaded division since the O's will probably add one of the big names. Pretty much every team in the AL is all-in but the Twins, and you can probably cross TB and Oakland off too but Beane is the one who shocked the world signing Cespedes in the first place.