G-Snarls

Swooning @ Vlad on the cover Swooooonnnn

The more I think about it, the more I can totally see the Marlins letting Mattingly flap in the wind all season, managing a last place team and firing him after the season just to be replaced with Girardi

One year off Nab an opening to manage a club next off season Maybe one of the up and comers? Phillies, Twins, Braves, etc??? Or Miami...

I agree Jays feel like a 3rd/4th place team as it stands. BOS and NYY clearly better on paper but BOS has a way of blowing it at times. BAL likely 5th and TB likely 3 or 4 with TOR in the other spot But it's a long season and anything can happen.

Joe Giradi joining MLB Network as a studio analyst

MLBPA blaming the owners MLB blaming the agents

True. As short term deal for a filler would make more sense for the Yankees. Then again, if they're going to spend any real money right now it should probably be on SP

Yankees. Though they might be holding out for Machado/Donaldson next year

Oops Maybe I read it wrong 152.2M with Stroman and Osuna estimated arbitration totals?

133.7M assuming Stroman gets 7.2M Still lots of money for a half decent SP now that the OF seems set and the IF pretty much as well

Anyone got an up to date total of payroll as it stands?

Marlins look ugly I agree But the Astros did a deep, cheap, and profound rebuild. They were beyond awful for a few years, to the point where lots of people in the game were complaining about it. However, they were actually PROFITABLE during that ugly period AND then came out of it and just won a World Series. It's going to be hard to convince owners with mediocre teams going nowhere to not do the same thing.

If Hosmer would have just taken his 7 years 147M and JD Martinez his 5 years 125M a month ago then no one would really be complaining right now

f*** yes One of them ends up at 1B Do it Donaldson should realize he's not going to get more than 5 years next off season Team should use that leverage to extend him now

Eric Hosmer has multiple 7 year contract offers but is holding out for 8 according to MLB Network

Lol

F'n Nationals got Strasburg and Harper on back to back #1 picks. Pretty decent draft return for sucking so bad back then... Astros of course managed to suck so bad they got *3* consecutive #1 picks. Appel, Correa, then punted Aiken and got Bregman.

To be fair, lots of #1 pick position players never pan out as well as hoped either Every #1 pick going back a while: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first_overall_Major_League_Baseball_draft_picks Lots of them are all-star, franchise players, and lots never did much of anything. That's just baseball.

Yep For every David Price or Stephen Strasburg there's a Mark Appel or a Luke Hochevar

2013 - $6.35 million signing bonus Hopefully he was smart with it

Mark Appel Stepping Away From Baseball By Steve Adams | February 1, 2018 at 9:53am CDT In a candid, must-read interview with Bleacher Report’s Joon Lee, former No. 1 overall pick Mark Appel reveals that he’s stepping away from professional baseball at the age of 26. Appel didn’t use the word “retirement” and suggested that perhaps, somewhere down the line, he’d give baseball another shot. However, for the time being, he won’t be reporting to Spring Training with the Phillies (who will retain his rights, tweets Matt Gelb of The Athletic). “I’m 26, I have a Stanford degree, I have many interests beyond baseball, which I still love, but I have a lot of things I care about,” Appel tells Lee. “I enjoy challenging my mind. My last four years in baseball have challenged my mind.” Appel, clearly, has dealt with his share of disappointment in professional baseball. The former Stanford ace was twice projected to be the top overall pick in the draft, falling to the Pirates at No. 8 in 2012 and then ultimately being selected No. 1 overall by Houston the following year after returning to Stanford for his senior season. As Joon explores in detail, Appel posted respectable numbers in his debut season but never really hit his stride after the fact, struggling through injuries and oftentimes inexplicable ineffectiveness from 2014-17. Appel bluntly states that he was “maybe the worst pitcher in professional baseball” in 2014 and recalls a story where, after arguably the worst start of his career, frustration boiled over to the point that he destroyed a particle-board panel in the clubhouse by throwing upwards of 80 baseballs through it. (Appel purchased supplies to repair the damages at Home Depot out of his own pocket and handled the project himself the following day.) The right-hander obviously feels some disappointment about never reaching the Majors and says he would “absolutely” have loved to be pitching in the World Series alongside his friends and former Astros teammates. As Lee points out, if Appel never makes the decision to return to pro ball, he’d become just the third No. 1 overall pick ever to retire without logging a single game in the Majors. Appel is aware of that unflattering context but seems to be at peace with the fact. “I had high expectations,” says Appel, who is still rehabbing from his 2017 shoulder troubles. “I didn’t live up to those for a number of reasons. If you want to call me the biggest draft bust, you can call it that. … If I never get to the big leagues, will it be a disappointment? Yes and no. That was a goal and a dream I had at one point, but that’s with stipulations that I’m healthy, I’m happy and doing something I love. If I get to the big leagues, what’s so great about the big leagues if you’re in an isolated place, you’re hurt and you’re emotionally unhappy? How much is that worth to you?” For the time being, Appel says he’s planning on pursuing an internship and attending business school, perhaps at Stanford but also with several other prospective universities in mind. He speaks with a certain level of excitement about the opportunity to spend more time with friends and family, as well as the possibility of traveling. Perhaps most important of all, Appel sounds like a man with an unexpected and impressive level of perspective on the struggles he’s had in professional baseball: “Some people have real struggles. I played baseball. I thought I was going to be great, and I wasn’t.”