caulfield12

Sure...but why even bother acquiring them in the first place? I remember a time when we found guys like Damaso Marte because of roster crunches in other organizations. Except we should have the least amount of that as the least talented overall organization in baseball at the moment. Honeywell another example. The bullpen without Santos looks to be one of the very worst in the majors if you don't have a healthy Crochet ever again.

Francisco Mejia was supposed to be one of the best catchers in the game...and that never panned out either. Even the Rays get some clearly wrong.

Corbin Burnes seems to be the key now...he's the most comparable piece to Dylan Cease out there now, not Bieber. More expensive than Glasnow but certainly less than Cease. Also the big projected salary differentials to consider between the two.

Royce Lewis Correa and Buxton were all considered elite…Jhoan Duran has the potential to be an elite closer. Miguel Sano was considered the best player in the Dominican at age 16 and the Twins won the bidding war. The Giants otoh have never signed a true superstar, just Barry Bonds and internal free agents until JungHo Kim…who most consider to be more of a complementary player and not a true star, either.

Not even close…as a non subscriber, I couldn’t access the whole thing anyway.

The sport is going to grow by 15% worldwide due to these two signings. Whether a 50s/60s style Dodgers dynasty in the NL is a good thing for the sport is another question altogether. Numerous non-baseball fans around the world are talking about the sport, partucularly the two contracts and these two talented players... How could that be bad? Most teams will set attendance records when the Dodgers are in town as well.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/why-japanese-righthander-yoshinobu-yamamoto-is-coveted-by-mlb-teams/ Seems professional athletes always take a lot more abuse than singers comedians movie and tv stars, models, etc., on this issue of exorbitant or "unseemly high" salaries. Because playing a game requires less practice or dedication? ... don't think so.

Yahoo Sports. Pretty much everything else besides his height is a positive. FanGraphs describes Yamamoto as "reminiscent of peak Zack Greinke" and grades his future value as a 65 on the 20-80 scale, which is a higher grade than that of the current top prospect in the minors, Baltimore Orioles phenom Jackson Holliday. Baseball America went even higher, with a 70 grade for Yamamoto, saying he "projects to be a No. 2 starter (lol) and has a chance to contend for Cy Young Awards." Yamamoto boasts a deep arsenal of pitches, with four of them graded by BA as above-average. It starts with a mid-90s fastball, followed by a wipeout splitter and a looping curveball. Rounding out the group are a slider and a cutter to keep hitters guessing, and all of the pitches are elevated by consistent command. https://sports.yahoo.com/yoshinobu-yamamoto-reportedly-agrees-to-join-dodgers-on-record-12-year-325-million-deal-041846597.html Of course he needs to switch from pitching once a week to once every 5-6 days...but with 15-20% fewer pitches in the US.

That was me…although there were many apparently NY media suckered by the same belief or assumption to be fair, especially the blogosphere. Will definitely make things much easier for the Japanese media...won't have to split their coverage.

1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto: 12 years, $325 million, $50.6 million posting fee 2. Masahiro Tanaka, New York Yankees: seven years, $155 million, $20 million posting fee 3. Masataka Yoshida, Boston Red Sox: five years, $90 million, $15.4 million posting fee 4. Seiya Suzuki, Chicago Cubs: five years, $85 million, $14.6 million posting fee 5. Yu Darvish, Texas Rangers: six years, $60 million, $51 million posting free 6. Yusei Kikuchi, Seattle Mariners: four years, $56 million, $10.3 million posting fee 7. Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston Red Sox: six years, $52 million, $51.1 million posting fee In case you were curious, Ichiro Suzuki's first MLB contract was a three-year, $14 million deal with a $13.1 million posting fee. Ohtani moved to the U.S. right after MLB rule changes meant he couldn't sign a big-money deal due to his young age. https://sports.yahoo.com/yoshinobu-yamamoto-reportedly-agrees-to-join-dodgers-on-record-12-year-325-million-deal-041846597.html#:~:text=Yamamoto's deal sets record for Japanese players 1,%2460 million%2C %2451 million posting free More items

https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/39147239/yoshinobu-yamamoto-dodgers-contract-grade-free-agency The bottom line is there is no such thing as a mega-contract without risk, certainly not for a pitcher. But the Dodgers are just the kind of franchise who can afford to take on this kind of risk. The union of Yamamoto, Ohtani, the Dodgers, and the Los Angeles and Japanese fan bases has the potential to be an all-timer. When you think of the Dodgers, you think blue -- but their future is going to be generating a whole lot of green. They also have the perfect infrastructure in place to satisfy Yamamoto's apparent penchant for constant self improvement. One example: Despite all the success he enjoyed during the first six seasons of his career, last season Yamamoto got rid of the leg kick he'd long used during his delivery, in part to make him more apt to control the running game. That's a pretty fundamental adjustment for someone who had performed so well for so long -- and he went out and had his best season. Now he will get immersed in the Dodgers' system of pitch optimization. It really does feel like a marriage made in baseball heaven. Well, at least for the portion of it that roots for the Dodgers. The Dodgers are constructing a monster of a roster, though they still need to build out additional rotation depth, especially in lieu of last year's injury epidemic to that position group. And this being baseball and a 14-team postseason tournament being what it is, they are still guaranteed nothing in terms of a World Series trophy. But in landing the top two free agents on the board, they have established themselves as a strong favorite to win it all -- not just next season, but for the foreseeable future. Superstar players are hard to come by. In Ohtani and Yamamoto, the Dodgers added two players who are of that ilk (or at least potentially in Yamamoto's case) -- and also made sure that none of the other big spenders in the sport acquired them. All of the biggest teams in baseball were in on Yamamoto, which as much as anything validates this investment. Thus, Dodgers Inc. grows ever stronger -- a dynasty more than a decade old that shows no signs of crumbling any time soon, if ever. Grade: A

Well, along with the Yankees, Mets, Giants, Phillies, Rangers, Red Sox, Blue Jays....there's somewhere around 8 teams now in baseball that would actually consider offering that type of contract. Angels and Padres you can cross of that list. Pretty sure Braves' execs would consider it to be close to insane. “This may be close to an $800 million to $1 billion gain for the Dodgers over a decade,” the agent said, noting that if the team were to simply take the $680 million in deferrals on Ohtani and invest it — say, with an asset management firm like Guggenheim Partners, which is run by Dodgers owner Mark Walter — then the money could more than double in a decade’s time. “They may be able to make $1 billion extra,” the agent reiterated. MY NOTE: It would double in roughly 7 years at a 10% growth rate per year. https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2023-12-19/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-billion-dollar-revenue

If it's not this season, 2025/26 pretty much have to be "all in" seasons for the Orioles. Because those young players are eventually going to get expensive in arbitration...even if they do move the likes of Santander Hays Mullins, etc.

Haven't heard anything about the Blue Jays and Cease being connected, right?

Had to look that up, as couldn't conceive of Dodgers ever being all that excited about the 2023/Sox version of Urena. At one point he looked pretty decent with the Marlins.

Fedde or Bust.

Every time hearing the Phillies, it's challenging not to imagine what could have happened for the Sox with Wheeler and Harper and without the likes of Grandal, Keuchel and Lynn soaking up payroll, although Lance was still very solid his first season.

Didn't they already announce at least two...? Blue Jays Red Sox ?

It was kind of a stealth signing in a way ... only a couple of teams in on him. In some ways, the Robert deal seemed more momentous. The Sox actually beat the Cardinals at something for once, after always missing out on targets.

The closest was Adam Dunn, David Robertson and Liam Hendriks...other than Albert Belle, obviously. Unless you want to count Jose Abreu and Luis Robert, Jr.???

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/yankees-2023-transaction-tracker-bombers-192742728.html

Blue Jays, Cubs, Mets, Giants...all in need of a pretty big move now, especially the first three. Somehow Bellinger's going to end up closer to $250-275 million, which also seems insane based on his peripherals (softer contact) and overall health and statistical record since his MVP year. Seems like he could be one of those guys who trends more like Heyward or Benintendi in the second half of his career. All that said, Yamamoto really feels like he has been a Yankee the entire time.

Also might be with Colas likely on the way out and Grandal history...with Moncada going in that direction, Vera scuffling with injuries, that they are reassessing the ROI on the Cuban Connection. At least for the type of money being bandied about for these starting pitchers. Obviously they brought in Cousin...but that was the very bottom of the market. What direction Getz can go in to make his own personal imprint is unknown...other than speed defense athleticism. If that's the case they should sign Kiermaier for the OF on the cheap.

Ummm...because it's the first answer that popped up, but dated back from a couple years ago and was meant to identify players back to 2015. And doubled or tripled the number of contributing non 1st round QBs. SSHM probably has the time to do more comprehensive research lol. As Reddit user Luck1492 pointed out Wednesday, nearly every team has spent a first-round pick on a quarterback since the turn of the 21st century. In fact, only three haven’t: the Seahawks, Cowboys and Saints. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2022/04/28/three-nfl-teams-not-drafted-quarterbacks-first-round-21st-century

If only we could GoFundMe Getzie out of the front office...or Grifol, or both would be ideal. Feel like he's going to end up being the fall guy for the ownership group's failures and simply following marching orders, like Bloom in Boston for not getting enough back for Mookie Betts or Bogaerts, then being stuck in a situation where the only extension left was with the one-dimensional Devers.