2012 MLB Winter Meetings and Offseason

[Amsden]

I want him to stay here! It seems most of our money this off season is going for pitchers, which I understand because pitching wins championships. But Josh is just so exciting to watch

[conscript]

I want him to stay here! It seems most of our money this off season is going for pitchers, which I understand because pitching wins championships. But Josh is just so exciting to watch

Well, hope he stays for only three years which is the Rangers limit apparently.

Dodgers drop $25 million for the negotiating rights to Ryu from South Korea. Good luck with that Dodgers. That almost never pays off.

[Radoria]

Wow...I disagree with a LOT of what the OP said.

1. The Yankees will be better than the Rays because they have roughly 3x their payroll last I checked. I know the Rays are a solid team (mostly because of their pitching) but you can't fight it out with a team that buys their team to this extent EVERY single year for almost a century.

2. You know the Orioles made the playoffs last year right? Why do you think they're gonna suck so bad this year? I know they did bad the last couple years before that but they had 93 wins last year...so why do you think they'd be lucky to get more than 65 this year?

3. You have the Twins finishing 2nd in their division? You're aware that they finished with the worst record in the American League last year...right?

4. You have the Indians in third in the AL East? Did you not watch the 2nd half of last year? I watched probably 130 of their games last year, we fell apart like it was our job. Worse yet, we trade away any real talent we ever have and NEVER sign talented free agents.
And you say we're a decent all around team? We have some of the worst offensive stats in the game right now. We went through FOUR left fielders and they were all horrible. Carlos Santana sucked, Hafner was injured for more than half the season, Sizemore was injured for the WHOLE season, Kipnis was somewhat disappointing. The only thing we have on our team that's good is our bullpen and Asdrubal Cabrerra. The ONLY way we finish 3rd in our division is if we play good enough to beat the Royals and Twins. We will NOT finish ahead of the White Sox. I agree Detroit will take the division.

5. Texas is more than likely going to lose Hamilton which will be nothing short of devastating to them. However after picking up Darvish and Dempster their starting pitching is going to be fantastic. My pick for the AL West is Anaheim. You got the unquestioned Rookie of the Year with Mike Trout who also easily would have won MVP if Miguel Cabrerra didn't hit for the triple crown. You also have Pujols and Tromball, as well as Jared Weaver for a great starting pitcher. Their bullpen fucking SUCKS though and it's the main reason they didn't get into the playoffs last year.

6. I know no one saw it coming but...you're aware that Oakland rallied a LOT to take the division away from Texas last year right? Yoenis Cespides, as well as their pitching performed amazing last year. I know they're rebuilding like you said, but things were really starting to come together for them last year, I think they have a decent chance at doing something this year, although probably not the playoffs again.

Hmm....oddly enough I really like your National League picks despite hating your American League picks so I"ll leave that alone. I'd flip a few things around in the NL East but that's about it.

[conscript]

Wow...I disagree with a LOT of what the OP said.

The OP is nearly a year old :P

[Radoria]

The OP is nearly a year old :P

Haha...you mean I typed all that out just to look like an asshole? That's pretty rough...although it sure explains a lot. I've never seen a thread on the homepage of MMO champ that was this out of date.

[kidsafe]

Well, hope he stays for only three years which is the Rangers limit apparently.

Dodgers drop $25 million for the negotiating rights to Ryu from South Korea. Good luck with that Dodgers. That almost never pays off.

This all but guarantees that the Dodgers 2013 payroll will be the largest in baseball history.

[draynay]

perhaps the thread name changing is confusing to new people who come along, but this is the 50th page

it looks like the Dodgers want to grab Torii Hunter as a 4th OF just to head off the Giants

I hope its just posturing, I've been mocking the Angels for years overpaying for outfielders they don't need, and the Dodgers don't have the best history with free agent OF - Luis Gonzalez, Juan Pierre, JD Cocksucking Drew, oh yea and that Andruw Jones guy

I'd rather stick with Andre at RF and count on Luis Cruz to hold the fort in LF if Crawford is rubbish/injured

this potential signing just reminds me too much of the Luis Gonzalez signing where all he did was take playing time away from Ethier while pissing and moaning that he didn't get to play enough - Hunter will want to play, and at 37 I don't have a lot of faith in him to stay healthy, but it would be a good pickup if he was content to be the 4th OF

[conscript]

Haha...you mean I typed all that out just to look like an asshole? That's pretty rough...although it sure explains a lot. I've never seen a thread on the homepage of MMO champ that was this out of date.

Ya all of our sports megathreads are massive. The NHL one started like two plus years ago lol.

[Elbren]

Wow...I disagree with a LOT of what the OP said.
[...]

2. You know the Orioles made the playoffs last year right? Why do you think they're gonna suck so bad this year? I know they did bad the last couple years before that but they had 93 wins last year...so why do you think they'd be lucky to get more than 65 this year?

[...]

Lifetime O's fan here.

As Conscript has already point out, the OP, is quite old. But even if it was a new post, it wouldn't be that far off from the truth. A lot went into the Orioles making the playoffs.

- went through an absolutely absurd number of roster moves during the season. Think we had over 100 in May alone. Because of this, we had over 50 players eligible for our playoff roster. We could have technically fielded two 25man teams.
- team went undefeated in extra inning games during the season. Thought I saw where we broke a 122 year old record because of this.
- our scrapped together bullpen turned into the 3rd best bullpen in the league.
- We went thru nine starters during the season. Nine. And that's without counting 4 starts from Steve Johnson and 2 starts each from Randy Wolf and Dana Eveland. Wei-Yin Chen was the only starter with 30+ starts; Hammel and Hunter were the only starters with 20 starts. The only starters guaranteed for next years rotation are probably Chen and Gonzalez.
- team has literally no speed on the base paths. Only 2 players with double digit SB's and one of them is Nate McLouth who was only with the team for 2 months at the end of the season.
- team has ok/decent power, but it's basically a lineup full of #6 hitters. Only 2 guys had over 50 BB's and no one had 100 RBI's (closest was Davis w/ 85). As a team, they were in the bottom 3rd of the league in both batting average and OBP while being 6th in the league in strikeout's.
- If Boston doesn't completely implode on itself, the O's probably don't make the playoffs.
- If Tampa, who won 90 games, doesn't lose Evan Longoria for over half the season, the O's don't definitely make the playoffs.

Going into this past season, pretty much everyone was predicting the O's to be at the bottom of the AL East with 70 or fewer wins. Many even thought they were destined for 100 losses. Without some major changes to this team, they could very easily be back at 70 - 75 wins. Tampa is sure to pull off some trades to shore up their ML club and add to their already ridiculous minor league system. Boston, even with all of their problems, is almost assured to make some major changes this offseason. Lets not forget, this isn't a team that rebuilds; they reload. Same with New York.


As for them losing for "only" the past couple seasons, they've actually lost 14 straight years going into last season. They're right up there with the Royals and Pirates of the world. One of the biggest reasons for that is the owner, Peter Angelos. A guy that has been notorious over the past 15 years for meddling and shooting down trades. This is the same owner who looked at Roy Oswalt's contract (when he signed his 5 year deal with Houston) and felt the need to make a public statement, calling it ludicrous and insane to pay a pitcher almost $15 Mil. a year when they only pitch once every 5 days. He also has a habit of picking favorites when it comes to players. One of the reasons Cal Ripken and Brady Anderson worked out deals personally with Angelos and Roberto Alomar and Rafael Palmeiro's agents had to work with the front office. Personally, I also think it's one of the reasons that the team hasn't cut Brian Roberts since basically being non-existent since signing his 4 year deal and why Nick Markakis is considered "untouchable" despite the fact that he doesn't hit 20+ HR, doesn't put up 20 SB, doesn't drive in 100 RBI's and won't score 100 runs.

I love the O's, but I'm not foolish enough to believe that this year was anything more than one of those magical seasons where everything fell into place. If we want to get back to the playoffs next year, significant changes need to be made.

[belfpala]

The last post made me curious, so I checked. My Twins used 12 starters this year. Ouch.

[koodledrum]

For all the injuries we had we only used 8 starting pitchers this year!

[kidsafe]

perhaps the thread name changing is confusing to new people who come along, but this is the 50th page

it looks like the Dodgers want to grab Torii Hunter as a 4th OF just to head off the Giants...

At some point the new Dodgers ownership needs to realize their roster/payroll is hitting massive diminishing returns, especially by picking up aging veterans with limited defensive range anymore.

[Amsden]

Wow...I disagree with a LOT of what the OP said.

5. Texas is more than likely going to lose Hamilton which will be nothing short of devastating to them. However after picking up Darvish and Dempster their starting pitching is going to be fantastic. My pick for the AL West is Anaheim. You got the unquestioned Rookie of the Year with Mike Trout who also easily would have won MVP if Miguel Cabrerra didn't hit for the triple crown. You also have Pujols and Tromball, as well as Jared Weaver for a great starting pitcher. Their bullpen fucking SUCKS though and it's the main reason they didn't get into the playoffs last year.

.

Well the OP you disagree was made last year lol. As for Texas we will retake the AL west this year I guarantee it, we have more hitters than Hamilton and the goal is to sure up the pitching this year. A big bat leaving is not death (ask the cards) and we have some big prospects waiting for their chance, Profar is ready and Olt is close and they have some massive bats as well.

[VanillaO]

If this deal goes through, the Jays just trade raped the shit out of the Marlins.

[Skippy88]

If this deal goes through, the Jays just trade raped the shit out of the Marlins.

/nods head in shock

Assuming this goes through I love Reyes and I love Buehrle. The best part though is they basically only gave up Escobar so it gives the Jays more tools to make some more trades.

Not quite the Holy Shit moment of Disney buying Lucasfilms but it's up there.

[belfpala]

If this deal goes through, the Jays just trade raped the shit out of the Marlins.

The Jays are pretty damn good at that.

[draynay]

taking on a lot of money, I wonder if they'd keep them all or if this sets up more trades to come

I also wonder how pleased the involved players will be, especially the veteran FAs that just moved to Miami. No offense but going from Miami to Toronto may not have much appeal to them.

[Elbren]

If this deal goes through, the Jays just trade raped the shit out of the Marlins.

It's not really 'rape' if the owner doesn't care.

He tricked the city of Miami into building him a stadium and now they're stuck with the bill. He used the promise/lure of bringing in superstars to compete and didn't even wait a full season before he essentially said, "Oh, too bad. It didn't work. Guess we gotta start over." People were astounded by how much money they spent last offseason, but now who is laughing?

- he's sitting in a brand new stadium that didn't cost him a dime
- he's shed all of the crazy contracts that he handed out last offseason
- team payroll for next year is about $16 Mil. Might be $20 - 25 Mil. after arbitration-eligible players and low budget FA's.

Now he can relax and go back to pocketing revenue-sharing money from the bigger teams like the Yankee's, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc. ... all under the guise of, "We tried, but it didn't work out. Looks like we have to rebuild."

[koodledrum]

Thing you also got to remember about this trade - that's all well and good, you got the players, you got the contenders payroll, hell in Miami's case they had the new stadium, the manager, the whole game except the one thing that matters, they didn't win ballgames. The Jays still need to win ballgames, that's what wins championships, not big contracts, big name players and all that shit otherwise the Yankees would be sitting with 80+ WS trophies in their case and essentially have a bye to the WS - yes Toronto managed to pull off a blockbuster, but where are they? AMERICAN....LEAGUE....EAST - to get anywhere they need to compete with two of the biggest names in baseball, one of the toughest son of a bitch managers in baseball & one of those mad scientist types who constantly builds strong ballclubs seemingly out of toilet roll tubes & ductape!

There's only two wildcard places & barring an almighty miracle you're looking good for one of those three potential postseason spots going to either New York or Boston, I'm going out on a limb here but you'd also be very unwise to discount Baltimore next season, they clung to the Yankees this year like their lives depended on it and another year of experience only serves to make them better. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but to me this looks like the Jays just acquired a shitload of payroll in a ballpark which doesn't draw in a division which couldn't be any tougher if they aged it & tanned it - all with no manager as well, well I suppose Ozzie Guillen is unemployed now, maybe he fancies the great white north!

As for the Marlins, yeah, they're the Miami Titanic, that shit looked good, was heralded as being something great, hit an iceberg and sank like a stone - although in this case they didn't hit an iceberg, they hit the single most camp thing ever to step foot inside a ballpark, mind you, looking at that "statue" this could be the players agents phoning up "get my guys the hell out of here!"

[Masqerader]

rumors are speculating jays may move Arencibia to Rangers next.