Abomination

Ubaldo is the best option regardless of the cash. We can trade Happ etc to free some up if necessary. Ideally we'd sign Ubaldo AND Capuano, and trade Happ lol.

Quick, contact the Mariners and pawn off Happ ++ for a 2nd baseman!

The agents for at least 4 FA shortstops next year just got a belated Christmas present lol.

I still have to think the Phillies will need to dump some salary, along with likely a starter. Kendrick is probably the most obvious choice (no I don't want him).

Whoever it is, I'm betting it won't be the fish (or if it is, it'll be heavily backloaded). I think they're quite enjoying their low payroll and massive profit.

I thought I had read that the Phillies were past their budget already? I wonder if they'll look to trade someone now, since they actually might have a pitching surplus.

Closest post I could find so far to fit this, and it was too good to waste http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2014/02/11

I wonder if you could actually make a case that who is the SS and who is the 2nd baseman should be dependent on who is at bat? If you have a left handed pull hitter or a right handed opposite field hitter (Jeter), you might actually be better off swapping the 2nd baseman and shortstop. (or the alternative being the Lawrie shift if no one is on base)

It's all part of their master plan: 1) Corner the market on 1st baseman and play them all out of position. 2) ??? 3) Profit!

I'm not really sure. Quite a few other teams with the same report date though. Maybe some teams traditionally have more games lost to bad weather during the spring or something (pure guess).

I have to think that he'll want a longer term deal to sign with us due to the damage our park and division could have on his stats for a contract at the end of this one (since a lot of teams would use that against him whether they believed it or not)

Looks like Pestano didn't enjoy his arbitration hearing very much: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/02/al-central-notes-indians-jimenez-masterson-royals.html

Yeah, but the structure makes it sound like he can earn the full amount whether he's starting or relieving, which goes back to the question of why it's structured like it is.

No, I'm saying that there's absolutely no way to determine that it was without a HUGE body of evidence. Common sense suggests it's highly unlikely though. I'm concerned with the part relating to the arm, because that is what the program is targeting - and the part with the biggest implications for a pitcher. I'm not looking to do that at all, but rather trying to reasonably narrow the focus. Cecil and Delabar are legit questions that need to be explored further to see if there is causality. Janssen had the lowered velocity prior to starting the program, and said several times during the season that he could feel the difference with how his arm felt after using the program for a while. He was excited to see the results of what a full offseason on it would produce. My original response was just wondering what point you were trying to make, since the subjects were disconnected and no explanation was given for the presentation. Regardless, this is way off the original point which was that the club must be very confident in the program to roll it out organization wide with very little available information about the effects. Whether one or two of those guys are or aren't included doesn't change that.

Yeah, I agree. I wonder if his medicals were funky?

Interesting on Maholm's contract: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/02/dodgers-sign-paul-maholm.html

I think that play was hyped up more in part due to another player (Garciaparra I think?) not willing to do that. I don't remember whether it was the same game / series or not but they pulled up rather than try to make an easier play, and Jeter went head first into the crowd and successfully made a much harder one. If I remember right it was a dogfight in the standing between the Sox and the Yankees, and the games were extremely important. I think that adds to the rating of the play in people's minds (whether right or wrong).

The strained oblique argument being attributable to the weighted ball program is paper thin, and basically unsupportable. Janssen started a modified version of the program in April of last year (thought it was later), not the offseason. Regardless, it had nothing to do with the lower velocity early as he had that coming out of the spring (probably the reason he gave the program a try). Cecil and Delabar were both heavily used just prior to the injuries if I recall correctly. I know there was one point where it was said that they were completely gassed. It's not all about bulk sums. Certainly there were other guys in the league abused worse, but that's not the point. Regardless, neither injury was anything concerning. Perhaps without the program the injury doesn't happen, or perhaps it's much worse. No way to tell on that. Those two are the only points that I consider to have any merit at all.

If McGowan can step into the rotation early, it would be an excellent scenario. I don't think anyone expects him to be able to throw 150 innings after being off so long, so get 2 or 3 months with him in the rotation, then move him to the pen and let Stroman take over. Things never seem to go that well for us though lol.

Not quite sure the point you're trying to make here overall, since a strained oblique has nothing to do with the program and I believe Janssen didn't start using the program until mid season (after which point it seemed to help him). I don't recall if Frasor was on it or not. Cecil and Delabar were the two interesting cases, but neither injury should be a concern and they were pretty heavily used due to our putrid starting pitching.

The Jays are taking a pretty big risk with the program, in that most of our prospects are pitchers and the program doesn't have a lot of data available as to the longer term effects. They must be extremely confident in it. I agree that guys like McGowan are the ultimate test. I wonder in a few years if we may see position players also use it?

They may be, but when you look at high paying jobs in some other sectors (some CEO's for example where it can be more important who you know as opposed to your actual ability) it makes things seem a little less objectionable. At least you can say that professional athletes ARE the best at what they do.

This is an interesting quote from their article with Redmond talking about the effects of the weighted ball program (saw it linked from the above article)

Drop them all and go into the season short handed to prove how good you are.

You need to stop feeding them so they leave the nest to find their own message board.