MLB Offseason Thread

[Imran Siddiqui]

Any conspiracies that Boston may have told the doc to fail Drew after they realized what they did?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Any conspiracies that Boston may have told the doc to fail Drew after they realized what they did?

Naaah, Theo gets hard just thinkng about Drew. A similar thing happened with Beckett's signing, although that was kept pretty hushed up - some of the people who view Beckett's reports were pretty concerned and felt the deal should have been voided, but any re-exam or discussion about the deal was squelched then and there.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It appears Marcus Giles is going the San Diego:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2701521

SAN DIEGO -- Free agent second baseman Marcus Giles and the San Diego Padres were closing in on a deal that would allow him to play with his older brother, Brian, on their hometown team.

It'd be a great pickup for the Pads to replace Josh Barfield, who the Pads dealt for God knows what reason in early November. Marcus should return to the player he used to be... provided the Pads don't try to make him bat leadoff.

[Arrian]

It seems the Yanks have signed, or are about to sign, their Japanese pitcher, Kei Igawa. The number I've seen is ~$20 million over 5 years (the actual contract - obviously the $26 million posting fee exists too).

The total is roughly half the cost of Matsuzaka (depending on various incentives in each deal, and how you tally things up). The projections seem to indicate that this guy isn't close to the level of Matsuzaka. It will be interesting to see what the gap actually is.

On the plus side: Lefty, good overal stats in the Japanese leages (strikeouts, ERA)

Negative: reportedly throws a straight fastball in the 88-90 mph range. Those tend to get *hammered* in MLB, especially in the AL. Hell, straight 95 mph fastballs get hammered.

His offspeed pitches are apparently good but not great. I've seen him projected as a back-end of rotation starter or a reliever. For whatever the projections are worth, of course. Meh.

-Arrian

[Stuie]

Here's hoping the Phils get their money's werth.

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061219&content_id=1764099&vkey=news_phi&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi

Ugh. At least he was (relatively speaking - that's 7+ years salary for me) cheap.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The article doesn't give his salary. I'm assuming it is under a million. If so, that's not bad for a backup OF. He is good defensively in all three OF positions and an average bat.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Btw, FYI, baseball-reference.com (which was already one of my fav sites) has gotten even better. They now have the the Play Index, which basically is BR going through all the box scores (via Retrosheet) to give people the ability to search through the last 50 years of gamelogs and boxscores and be able to find more specific stats.

You can look through Player Events, such as which team has David Wright hit the most HRs against (Atlanta with 12) or who has Roger Clemens struck out the most in his career (Chili Davis with 30). Or you can search player splits throughout history (like George Brett's numbers batting 3rd in the lineup compared to batting 4th [he was better batting 4th], or how Brett did with a runner on 1st and 2nd, or his stats in each ballpark he played in) Really cool stuff .

Though some of the more in depth stuff (such as more than just the leaders of the Player Event index) is only accessible if you pay (though more than plenty is free).

[Lord Avalon]

Did you guys hear that Tigers' Zumaya suffered from guitar wrist from too much Guitar Hero?

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061214/SPORTS02/612140388/1050/SPORTS02

[Arrian]

Baseball reference is a great site

Yes, I'd heard about Zumaya. As far as I'm concerned, it fails to rise to the level of Carl's Glass Ass.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

It actually sounds to me like more of an excuse. The team trying to put a good spin on it and not blame his mechanics.

[Arrian]

It probably simply exacerbated a problem he was already having - likely related to throwing a baseball 102 mph (and/or the specific way he does it, aka "mechanics").

-Arrian

[Stuie]

Phillies sign Rod Barajas. Ooh! Phear us!

I was hoping Coste would see a good deal of playing time next year, but it looks like he's going to be used more as a pinch-hitter/late inning type guy. Then again, if Carlos Ruiz doesn't pan-out as a regular catcher... I suppose things could change.

Still, I find it odd that Barajas took what amounts to a back-up role to the rookie catcher - he stated last season that he wanted to be the "number one" guy. That's not gonna happen on the Phillies.

Obligatory link:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=philliesbarajas&prov=st&type=lgns

[Imran Siddiqui]

Reports coming out of the Bay Area say Barry Zito is signing with the Giants (he won't even have to find a new house ) for a seven year, $126 million deal.

[-Jrabbit]

As long as he's not in one of the Central Divisions or on the Yankees, it's all good.

Does anyone have the skinny on this Denks guy the Chisox got for McCarthy? Most Chicagoans are now doubting Kenny Williams' commitment to winning in 2007.

[snoopy369]

Wait, we traded away McCarthy? WTF? Not that I'm that high on him, but we traded away Garcia "to give McCarthy a spot in the rotation" ... wtf?