2012 MLB Winter Meetings and Offseason

[draynay]

I always thought he was a dick, but its still a bummer that Carpenter is going down with injury

Brandon Webb retired due to his injuries, which is too bad

---------- Post added 2013-02-07 at 12:49 PM ----------

well shoot, the Mariners decided they didn't want to be everybody else's farm team, and they've set the bar for the eventual Kershaw contract at $25mil annually, we might see him get something like 6 years $160mil or a longer $200+ mil contract

[Skarsguard]

M's also gave King Felix a crazy ass contract 7 year 175$ million dollar paycheck.

I have said on this forum a couple times that he is the best pitcher in baseball or top 3 at least and he deserves the pay but man it's gotta suck that your going to be playing for the M's your whole career.

[koodledrum]

It's got potential to be a trade em contract, they knew he was nearing free agency & stuck a lot of years on so that for the next few years if he remains consistent they can name their price in any trade talks unlike if they only gave him say 2-3 years - only thing I'd say is that before the end of that contract it would not surprise me one little bit to see a Tommy John surgery. If he remains consistent then it could work, but I'm not sure I'd have given him 7 years not when he's averaged 230+ innings the last 4 years.

Surprised no one's picked up on Curt Schilling's news that he was "encouraged" by the Red Sox to take PED's in 2008, if that's true then the last bit of respectability & likeability Boston had went straight out the window.

[kidsafe]

What the eff??

[koodledrum]

Didn't you see Lincecum's new hairdo earlier in the offseason, got it cut before Christmas, atleast that's when I saw it first, I guess he figures change it up to see if his fortunes improve this season after last year! Son of a bitch is stealing my style though, my hair cut, my glasses, he's a Glaswegian accent away from being the taller version of me...

[kidsafe]

Didn't you see Lincecum's new hairdo earlier in the offseason, got it cut before Christmas, atleast that's when I saw it first, I guess he figures change it up to see if his fortunes improve this season after last year! Son of a bitch is stealing my style though, my hair cut, my glasses, he's a Glaswegian accent away from being the taller version of me...

You look like Rachel Maddow? I almost mistook Kontos for Tim Tebow in the background.

[koodledrum]

I have no idea who Rachel Maddow is - my hair cut is the bi-product of nature stiffing me with what's known as a cow's lick, where my hair naturally has that god awful shape and when I say I've thrown everything at it through the years I mean it, nothing kills it and god knows that includes all professionally administered treatments & some medical work as well! Only way you know it's not Tebow in the background is because he's not praying or saving little old ladies from burning buildings or similar acts which are too nice to be human, you know that kid's gonna wind up with a major skeleton in the closet before he's done, no way one guy can be so....."clean".

Apparently Metallica are gonna be having a night at AT&T this May, singing the national anthem, throwing out the first pitch & the Giants will be wearing a special cap on the occasion - you think they can get someone to drill Lars in the face with a fastball?

[kidsafe]

I know what cowlicks are, I have two of them on the back of my head. Nothing works to keep it down, not even pomade. The only way to deal with it is to have either very short/buzzed hair or pretty long hair plus gel, nothing in between...

[draynay]

i've got cowlick issues but my hair is curly so its either short and everything is ok, or long enough that its all a mess anyway

[Skarsguard]

I saw Lincecum was trending on twitter last night so I found out why and did a /facepalm. Man he looks like he came out of that movie pleasentville.

[mrbadxampl]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/giambi-...8214--mlb.html

Cleveland keeps up the oddball signings, this time Jason Giambi to a minor league deal, invite to spring training to compete for the DH spot. I'm sure he can still hit at least a little (upgrade over Hafner at least) but at his age (42) I wonder about baserunning. nobody wants a guy that turns doubles into singles just because he can't make it to second without breaking a hip...

[koodledrum]

I think with Giambi he really should just accept he's an old man, unlike Jim Thome there's no upside to him, he's just the guy who's sticking around because you know there's nothing for him outside baseball, the pathetic part is that he was done when he left the Yankees! When you say turning doubles into singles, I can honestly see scenarios whereby like Josh Beckett last season he gets thrown out at first on singles to right field!

[Elbren]

Apparently, Jeb Bush offered to buy the Marlins and Loria turned it down.

Former Florida governor and possible 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush made a "large offer" to purchase the Miami Marlins only to be rejected by current owner Jeffrey Loria.

Bush and a group of investors made the offer during this offseason, according to the Miami Herald.

The 72-year-old Loria has no intentions of selling the team at this time because he "loves" owning the team, the Herald said.

Bush would not be the first member of the family to own a baseball team. His brother, former President George Bush, was part owner of the Texas Rangers from 1989 to 1998 before being elected president.

Jeb Bush was Florida's governor from 1999 to 2007. He now is involved with an education advocacy group and remains active on the political scene.

People are stupid if they think he'd ever sell that team. Not without MLB essentially pushing him out, like they did McCourt. In the time it took you to read this, Loria cashed two more revenue-sharing and luxury-tax checks.

In other Marlins news ....

The "line" for single-game tickets for Marlins games, 30 minutes before they go on sale.



A "busy" concession stand at the Marlins fan fest.



Both pics are from this link.

[koodledrum]

The Marlins really are just the arse end of baseball right now, what's incredible is that anyone has agreed to come to camp with them, let alone the fact they've rustled up over 70 invitees to Spring Training, I might be unemployed & never played baseball in my life but even I'd turn that invite down!

---------- Post added 2013-02-11 at 12:24 AM ----------

Apparently the Mariners stalling on Felix Hernandez's extension due to concern over his elbow - now why doesn't that surprise me!

[conscript]

People are stupid if they think he'd ever sell that team. Not without MLB essentially pushing him out, like they did McCourt. In the time it took you to read this, Loria cashed two more revenue-sharing and luxury-tax checks.

Ya Loria isn't going anywhere until he damn well wants to go somewhere. Selig isn't going to force him out. Selig won't even bother to step in to stop the Marlins tearing themselves apart with trades the year after making this big commitment to the city of Miami that they were going to spend to compete thanks to the stadium. Loria knows exactly where he and Selig buried every single body when they stole the Expos from Montreal. Until there is a new comissioner there is no way Loria is going to be forced out or told to do anything but exactly what he wants to do which is cash checks at the expense of the other MLB teams and the city of Miami.

Well, there is one other body who could do fucking something about this. The SEC. They were investigating the entire Miami ballpark deal after someone leaked documents showing the Marlins flat out lied to the taxpayers about their financial situation, claiming they were poor when in fact they were one of the richest teams in baseball. Not sure whatever happened to that, but we all know nothing would come of it anyways. The rich and powerful are above the laws of the common man. They can plunder taxpayers, investors, or private citizens for billions of dollars and never face a serious threat of retribution.

[mrbadxampl]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/indians...0361--mlb.html

and less than 24 hours go by, and the Indians sign Daisuke Matsuzaka (pending a physical)

so weird, as a Tribe fan, to see so many offseason moves, especially in the Dolan era... now, I'm not saying any of them have been GOOD moves (I'll wait til I see the team in action) but they're usually so quiet in free agency and major trades that you would almost forget about them completely...

[Elbren]

Looks like the Indians strike again.

They signed Bourn for 4 years, $48 Mil. with a 5th year, $12 Mil. option which vests if he gets 550 AB's in year 4. (you'd think they would have made that harder to attain)

[mrbadxampl]

ha! ya beat me to the punch! I can hardly believe the floodgates opening like this, with all the free agents coming in; I hardly recognize the team anymore! granted, some of the free agents are crap-shoots (Reynolds, Matsuzaka come to mind) but the amount of new faces in sprig training is gonna be astounding considering Dolan still owns the team...

now, on a more serious note... http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-bi...6108--mlb.html

apparently Jose Canseco wants to be an Indian now. or the Pope. or maybe a cheeseburger, the article is basically about how he's all over the place wacky (nothing new there) and tweeting oddball stuff like there's no tomorrow. if anything could bring this bizarre offseason to a close...

[kidsafe]

Looks like the Indians strike again.

They signed Bourn for 4 years, $48 Mil. with a 5th year, $12 Mil. option which vests if he gets 550 AB's in year 4. (you'd think they would have made that harder to attain)

In seven years, he's only gotten 550 AB twice, so it's pretty safe to assume he will be a broken down speedster by age 34. Besides, the option has to be somewhat attainable otherwise it's worthless... Not bad considering Boras initially wanted 60M over 4 years for his guy.

[koodledrum]

Apparently Bourn is a little miffed that he was signed so late - said it many times, if I was a GM I wouldn't deal with Boras period, but I guess he was overestimating what teams would be willing to pay for Bourn, problem with that option is it's also dependent on the club, i.e. if he has 3 dire years he's no chance of being given a shot at 550 AB's.

Felix's contract extension verified, I still see him having Tommy John before he hits free agency again though and have to believe watching things like the Mariners giving out 7 year $175m a year contracts is somewhat crazy - although could be more the fact the Yankees, the biggest team in baseball are scrimping to save pennies which puts it into focus.

the Indians might actually be onto something, lets be honest Swisher's no superstar outfielder, but he is a capable player who can hit for a bit of pop, Bourn is speedy although breaking down is still capable of getting on base & Matsuzaka might be coming off surgery & has been ineffective in the past, but how much of that is down to the fact Boston's no ordinary baseball town? Lets be honest, if the gamble with Dice-k pays off the Indians are gonna look like geniuses, if it doesn't, they'll lose a few dollars & Dice-k will be back off to own the crap out of the Nippon league, no harm no foul.

And finally, potential for another season of woe up at Fenway Pahk as Clay Buchholz strains a hammy in PFP - ominous start to things for the Red Sox when your pitchers are getting mildly banged up in practice!