BaconOnAStick

The guy is not hard up for money, I don't think he'd want to.

Tanaka is 25. I still agree with your premise though, big money to pitchers is scary. Ramirez hasn't been injury prone at all, I mean there's a decent chance as the years go by that his defense gets worse and maybe his body deteriorates everyday SS won't be as manageable (or valuable). But to say he won't be healthy playing SS ever day as if it's a given... not yet. I really, really like the idea of a DH who can play the field more than 1B. I don't think I like the idea $100m worth but there are cheaper, perhaps interna,l options there than Hanley.

Jason Heyward will save the Sox more runs than Brandon McCarthy, Brett Anderson or Justin Masterson and a bounce back offensive year could easily happen. I go back and forth on what his price will be in a trade. Atlanta is not as interested in resigning him as I'd expect, there may be a bit of a buyers market for a guy one year away from FA. Would Gillaspie/Anderson/Danish/Hawkins do it? Maybe. The more I think about it the more I think it would, and it might even more than Atlanta would accept already.

I thought Mitchell was a lock.

If Semien isn't with the bug league club I'm gonna be pissed.

A player like Adam Dunn does not have his performance effected in any way by the manager. I doubt being around Bob Melvin for 12 hours prompted that HR.

I'd much rather these record 20 HR in September go in pursuance of a World Series with Oakland.

Happy for him.

Well they all won't be that bad.

Call up Sanburn, open auditions for roles in the 2015 bullpen before we acquire one outright in the offseason. I'm half joking.

Might as well tick Paulie off that list too.

Dunn never let his struggles on the field change the kind of teammate he was. I hope Oakland wins it all.

Then it's very problematic as a statistic. The baseline right now for a premier player is 5 WAR. Anything within 20% of that in either direction and you cannot say for certain the statistic is proving anything between the two players? If a dude is slugging 20% more than the other guy, or getting on base 20% more I can definitively say "hey, this dudes better at getting on base than the other dude" and there's no argument.

Isn't it different for different players? Like Jason Heyward, his game his like 30% batting 50% fielding and 20% baserunning. Whereas Abreu is like 95% batting and 4% fielding 1% baserunning (perhaps hyperbolic, perhaps not). When by far the biggest compenent of Abreu's game is so far beyond what anyone else is doing at the plate it needs to count more. Abreu is here to hit the s*** out of baseballs, and he's doing just that, why penalize him for his position and they way he fields it? I guess this is the problem I have with WAR once it gets to the upper reaches of MLB talent. It's a fine, insightful, stat for almost every player in baseball, but once you get to the absolute cream of the crop it loses its damn mind. Really, look at Trout's offensive numbers this year and tell me he's the best position player in the game. s***, look at how he's performed defensively too. He's still great, still the best CF in the game... but he's not the best overall player. What in the hell are Kyle Seager and Anthony Rendon doing all the way up there? Jhonny Peralta is better than Adam Jones and Michael Brantley? What? It just seems arbitrary; like the top 20 players in baseball are shuffled up and spat out in random order. I can't figure out where WAR gets the idea to put these guys.

Battle of the bullpens.

Nathan warms... chum the waters.

Tank blossoms in the absence of De Aza.

That is off an Orioles fan site I snuck onto, so take it FWIW.

I will never ask for anything again, God... please no.

Hence those mental errors are the Oreos problem now. It would've been silly though to not hang on to him for $4m, he's worth that kinda money.

It is. I won $10.

There is zero doubt. It will be unanimous (or at least should).

$10 says Abreu gets the old unintentional intentional walk.

Eh, I could see Ale' getting offered Arb. He actually turned it around the past couple months.

The odds of either making MLB contributions are slim, but yea... it's something. De Aza had actually played his way to some value over the past couple months.