Laika

No, don't.

I guess it's just the conviction from Phillips and the language that he chose to express it, but again, he's being prodded a bit here in all likelihood.

I'm sick of these types of articles. Brandon Phillips doesn't flag down reporters to badmouth OBP - he gets asked directly about it. Joey Votto doesn't call Bob Nightengale to say that RBI are dumb - people ask him about it on the daily. If Votto tried to hit more homers his production would go down because he does what works for his skill-set. If Brandon Phillips tried to take more walks the same would probably happen to him because of his skill-set. If you don't have a great batting eye but you have really good bat-to-ball skills, why not swing away all the time? These articles are shallow and lazy.

So, back to square 1 - Brad Ziegler. Other than him, it would probably have to be some RP that the Diamondbacks simply do not believe in.

I'm not sure why you think this, but service time definitely accrues for September call ups. They just don't have to be added to the 25 man roster.

September is a better evaluation time than Spring Training, if you're already looking ahead and considering giving a rookie a role out of the gate next year. Dalton Pompey might have won the CF last year. He looked like he belonged in the big leagues, took Felix into the 2nd deck at Rogers Centre, etc.

I think it's pretty rare for a new player to spend three uninterrupted seasons on the major league roster. Most players, even elite prospects, get sent back down or need extended rehab at some point (the service clock stops running when they are removed from the DL). Trying to optimize your control over a pitching prospect is probably a fruitless endeavour because their service clock will likely get halted at some point anyway when their arm/shoulder/elbow gets f***ed (even though the clock runs while they are on the DL). Starting Pompey's clock for 27 days while benching Rasmus, however.... could be seen as a bad decision. Really the only players that I would intensely worry about if I was a GM would be the elite hitting prospects like Bryant, and even then I think teams worry about it a bit too much. It's almost immaterial unless your player project as strongly as Bryant (because you're talking about missing out on a lot of WAR / $ value in the 7th year) or you're as broke ass as Tampa or Oakland (where every penny matters). So I wouldn't take any real issues with how Toronto handled Sanchez or Norris.

So because Dan Norris was up in September and accrued 29 service time days, I believe they'd have to keep him down for something like 40 days this season in order to get that extra year of control. Of course you can manipulate this stuff after the beginning of someone's career too. The demotion (or being held down) doesn't have to occur in April. I think the Blue Jays ended up saving a bunch of service time with Hutch because at the end of 2013 they kept him in the minors even after being activated from the 60-day DL (off the DL on August 10th but stayed down all year). This is why Hutch avoided Super Two status despite getting called up in May for the first time.

Yes, you can only accrue 172 days of service time in a season but there are something like 182 actual days in a season. If you keep a player down for ~11 days or something like that then you basically prevent them from becoming a free agent after 6 years (because their service time will be something like 5.171 and players only become a free agent the offseason after eclipsing 6.000). Also, players in the top 22% for service time of the 2.XXX service time group at the end of a season get "Super Two" status and go through arbitration four times instead of 3. This past offseason the Super Two cutoff was around 2.133, any player with more than that got to go into arb1. Hutch at 2.128 just fell short of Super Two status. So, here are the basic models for player control: Normal - call up on opening day. Get player for 3 years at minimum (plus often an initial September call up to cut their teeth) and 3 years in arbitration. Prudently milking a year of control - call up player ~11 days after opening day. Get player for something like 2.171 years, technically not 3 seasons, but functionally it is 3 seasons at league minimum + 4 arbitration years (because they will be Super Two). Dollars over winning - call up player some time in July so they are just under the super 2 cutoff. You get ~3.128 technical years from the player at league minimum + the 3 standard arbitration years.

http://www.wakingthered.com/2015/3/23/8279061/toronto-argos-bmo-field-lease-2016-damien-cox-report Looks like from the 2016 baseball season onward the Blue Jays will be free of the Argos infestation and able to put in real grass / retrofit the stadium for baseball however they see fit. Still, don't count on anything happening before 2018, as I think has been reported / mentioned regarding feasibility for getting grass installed.

For the Blue Jays? No. I think the "sadly" there is more from the Argo fans' perspective, I guess? Jays fans will love this. TFC fans will cry (artificial turf!?). Argos fans (do they exist?) will probably prefer BMO I'm guessing.

I don't think he was guaranteed a job from the start but with a 9:1 K:BB ratio he's second on the team in total K's right now and he'd have to look really bad in his last couple of appearances to lose the spot.

Damien Cox ‏@DamoSpin Sounds like MLSE set to do a lease deal for Argos at BMO. Sadly, not for this season.

http://www.strangemilitary.com/images/content/187741.gif

Hendriks is phase 3 of the plan to increase the Blue Jays brand in Australia and establish a pipeline that pumps young cricket stars into professional baseball. Phase 1 - Jack Murphy Phase 2 - Treat them to athletic specimen Anthony Alford for a winter Phase 3 - big league Hendriks Blue Jays went all out for Balfour last offseason and they thought the Commonwealth allure would work in their favour but he chose Tampa Bay because he's scared of both snow and geese

Habs need to rest Carey up for the playoffs. Maybe just play him against Florida this week. Thoughts?

Are you sitting him on purpose? I get that he's garbage and he'll probably be a -1 but still, so many hits! And maybe if you're lucky, one shot on net!

Should trade for Ryan Howard. Phillies willing to eat $50M of his contract. Even last year with diminished skills he was 6th in RBI for 1B. He was a better run producer than batting champion Justin Morneau. More HR and RBI than Freddie Freeman who everybody seems to want to trade our best prospects for for some reason (never hit 25 HR, one 100 RBI season, no thanks).

I don't understand why you would spend a high pick on Bryant in a league that eliminates teams after week #1, lol. I mean you probably won't be the worst but still, not advisable.

I dunno!

You won the only regular season match between you two though - is that not the #1 playoff tiebreaker? Or is it seed?

So me vs. z3r0s, and vanland vs. JFaS?

Yeah it's certainly possible, if Hyun Jin's nagging shoulder turns into some serious labrum s*** and Anibal can get 'r done for another couple of years.

Hyun-Jin Ryu is starting the year on the DL and the list of potential fill ins reads like a Northof49 wish list:

Oh, apparently he's down to 88mph this spring. Yikes.