Laika

LOL no. It was fine. Probably above average. He wasn't some wizard farm builder though.

A lot of that "restocking" was just maturation from the previous rebuild phase. Examples: Daniel Norris was a 2011 pick that matured in 2014 Franklin Barreto was signed in 2012, in the old international prospect process, before international bonus slots, for $2M. Osuna signed before 2011 Castro signed in 2012 Pompey was a 2010 pick Labourt was signed before 2011 Tinoco signed before 2012 Cordero signed before 2012 Sean Nolin was a 2010 pick Alex Anthopoulos didn't do the Marlins and Dickey trades and then "restock" the farm system before spending a bunch of it this year. That's a myth. It's not possible to rebuild a farm system in a year or two without doing an MLB level tear down. In fact, to build the 2015 playoff team he very much dipped into the same prospect capital that he dipped into to get Dickey and the Marlins guys. He went to the same well in 2015. A legitimate farm system has 50+ notable prospects. In any given MLB draft + international signing period, a team is probably lucky (or has done well) to get 10 notable prospects. It takes half a decade or a string of very good drafts to rebuild a s***** system. There's a very real chance that Anthopoulos was mis-managing the team's farm system and young talent, and it just hadn't caught up to the organization yet. (Rogers, I need an advance on that next paycheque).

Yup. AA dug himself a little hole with the Marlins and Dickey trades, and his solution was just to keep digging until he hit playoff pay dirt. If extended and given autonomy he could very well have Amaro'd this organization, for all we know.

Yes; probably not. http://ojs.sagepub.com/content/3/4/2325967115581594.full The timing of the arm and body is important, but it's not as simple as looking for the inverted W. What "early trunk rotation" means, essentially, is that the shoulders are turning before the arm is 'cocked'. Imagine the whole body firing to deliver a pitch, but the arm is a bit late, so it drags behind. This increases stress on the arm (and also, probably, velocity). There are physical things you can look for up and down the body to get a sense of timing. Look for where the arm is at foot plant. Look for where the arm is when the front shoulder is in the process of turning. Look at whether or not the hips turn before the shoulders. Look at how stiff the plant leg is through the pitching motion. Look at the path of the arm after releasing the ball. All of these things can influence injury risk - but the inverted W probably doesn't on it's own. Note that the study linked may not be perfect. At a glance, there might be sample size concerns.

Quintana absolutely

yessssssss just running a simple regression for lunch

jesus christ, lighten up signed, - the wet blanket

If his arm has any chance of being healthy at some point in 2016, then he'll be a Blue Jay this winter. Might as well get your Cliff Lee jersey now.

He's 37 and he doesn't have a World Series ring. Last chance at WS > wife and kids

What we have here is correlation vs causation. Velocity has a positive relationship with elbow torque. Elbow torque is the direct cause of elbow injury. So velocity is correlated with TJS, and any study will find that pitchers who throw harder will be more likely to have TJS. Because Carrasco throws harder it is more likely that his elbow is under more torque during his pitching motion, but we don't know for sure. Plagiarism: The Holy Grail of mechanical pitching instruction is to get your pitchers throwing harder without increasing their injury risk. Is it even possible, though? Should teams want durable pitchers, or dominant pitchers? At what level of velocity does the injury risk start to mitigate the increased performance? What are the effects of weighted ball programs, long-toss, etc.? I wish I worked as a baseball biomechanics analyst.

He rehabbed it last year. It's a torn flexor tendon, not the UCL. There haven't been any updates on his rehab since like June. Obviously if he's not healthy enough to pitch then he'll retire.

TJS rate has gone up as average velocity has gone up in baseball. But it depends on the specific pitcher, like you said, and arm exertion. Many players will adopt mechanics at an early age that increase stress on their arm and therefore increase velocity. David Price throws an easy and clean 96 --> low risk. Shaun Marcum throws a mechanically strenuous 89 --> high risk. Mark Prior threw 97 with the inverted W and terrible timing --> high risk Bark Muehrle throws 85 with impeccable timing --> lowest imaginable risk! But the general correlation does probably exist, yeah.

How many days did Thole even have on the active roster this year? I don't see the personal catcher thing as a big deal anymore. They even have the opportunity to sign a capable backup that can do a little bit more than call a game and eat cheese strings. The direct comparison is Colon vs Dickey, since Colon is a free agent. That's the choice. EVEN IF they both would sign here, I'd prefer Dickey because the knuckleball is almost ageless and Colon is a terrible bet to stay healthy, despite his past couple of years. But in actuality the choice is get Dickey's guaranteed innings or attempt to woo Colon to Toronto. So it's not even a choice. There is no choice. The chance that Bartolo would sign here for one year is probably miniscule. It's retain Dickey, or give Mike Leake 40 million dollars, or go hunting through the bargain bin and hope that Trevor Cahill etc. can recapture the magic.

Philadelphia declined Cliff's option. How much would it take to sign Cliff Lee? What is the state of his health right now? Seems like a match made in heaven. He's got a wide open rotation that will probably have a spot for him all season long, the team will have the funds to offer him an incentive laden contract, and the team has World Series aspirations so if he's healthy or if he gets healthy, it would be a huge addition much like Price and Stroman were this year. Also, Shapiro and LaCava connections! Shapiro trade Colon for Cliff way back in the day. Shapiro was GM the entire time Cliff was an Indian. LaCava was with Cleveland back when they traded for Lee and had "significant input" on his acquisition. please please please I cannot think of another fit that's even close to this good, for Lee (unless retirement is in the cards).

peak BTS in here

Average innings have value, lol. If they didn't pick up the option then they'd just have to buy innings in FA anyway. You can't get 200+ virtually guaranteed innings in free agency for that amount of money. Not a chance.

Mods are wayyyy too merge happy. It's North's fault.

They'll probably trade him. What a weird deadline for the NBA to have, a week into the season. Why not have this deadline a month or so ago? Or after the year?

$1million for every air ball on his playoff resume?

Yes, Beeston was basically the quintessential "windbag" at this point.

Well at this point it's not really clear if LaCava really brings anything to the GM role. I mean we don't have very much to go on but I will say that his choice of attire today was pretty questionable.

Well I'd assume that the spineless slug Dave Cameron wrote that article

He'd still be under arbitration control for another year or two after 2016, so no need for the options. Yes I would absolutely sign him. Huge injury risk with terrible mechanics - but he is a solid SP and his skills would play up on the slow turf. It would be a crime against their fanbase if the Marlins cut him instead of forking out $4M... so they probably will cut him.

Wait, didn't you tell me that you haven't had sex for 14 years?

Which people? We were all sitting here patiently waiting for the JPA + Sean Nolin announcement. MAYBE if the Mets were lucky, JPA + Sanchez.