John_Havok

Why not? I'm not saying you're wrong btw, just wondering why two elite defensive players, with virtually the same WAR would be treated differently by the Hall voters. Jones was way better with the bat, and just slightly less good defensively. The clearly better offense doesn't make up for the marginally inferior defense? What about Rolen? Even better offensively than Jones, but a clear tick below on D. Still managed 70 WAR over 17 seasons. Still no?

Ozzie Smith is in the Hall of Fame for his defense. 67 WAR in 18 seasons. Combo of negative offense and elite defense. Andruw Jones put up 67 WAR in 17 seasons, though largely in the first 11. Combo of both good offense and elite defense. Does that change your opinion in any way?

Andruw Jones for the Hall of Fame: Hard to deny those 11 seasons from 1997-2007 as being as close to godly as you can get for a CF - 10 time no doubt gold glove defense with 30+ HR per year. Also the poster child for falling of a cliff due to injury in 2008. Easily a HOF peak IMO, but not the typical longevity. yay or nay?

1. Guaranteed 2. Nope 3. Probably 4. Guaranteed 5. Can't see a salary floor, but I can see an increase in the luxury tax threshold to 230ish million or so. The salary floor will be thing that I think the players will give up on in order to get minimum salary increases and some sort of better deal for younger players, arbitration, years of control etc.

Me neither. I know there was a bid deal for Bonds to go to Atlanta in 1992 that ultimately didn't happen, but that was only written about years later by the Braves GM in his book.

You could, but that would be using the same flawed argument, so would still be equally invalid. The better kind of question would be.... 10 years ago, would you have given Nelson Cruz a 10 year full market value deal thinking he would still be productive as a 40 year old or would you not... because you'd likely think his productions would decline due to a normal aging curve like most other players? I think I know the answer. The two situations of course are not the same since Vlad is 23, not 30. But using normal aging curves, it's a reasonable expectation that Vlad's production will start to decline around 33. It's not overly prudent to base your contract offer around hoping that he will be the exception rather than the rule.

I tried watching the game on Amazon Prime, knowing the two QBs seem to be pretty good... but then like 5 commercial breaks happened in the first 3 minutes of the game and I couldn't get into it.

Yeah, that's kinda where I'm at. Admittedly though, part of the hesitation on my part is due to what Vlad looked like in years 1 and 2, out of shape and unmotivated. Year 3 he flipped the script. Am I 100% certain that year 3 is going to be repeated for the next 14 years through age 37? Hell no. For the next 10? Moreso, but still not entirely convinced. plus he plays 1b. If he was a 3B of even average defense, I'd be more amenable to putting out long term and dollars. 1B/DH isn't a great investment on a possible 30 million dollar AAV. he has arbitration through 2025. Lets assume he hits somewhere between years 1+2 and 3. So not quite MVP caliber but easily All Star level. 10 million this year, turns to 15 in 2023, 20 2024 and likely topping 25 million in 2025. Even without an extension, you're already looking at 4 years and 70 million to keep Vlad for the next 4 years. adding 6 years at 30 million AAV is 180 million. ... hence 10 years, 250 million. make it 35 million AAV and youre at 10 years 280 million. Beyond 10 years for Vlad is pretty silly given his defensive position. therefore a 10/250-280 seems entirely reasonable and no need to push past 300

I think the 29.5 age was chosen as the arbitrary age because the average age of rookies is right around 23, so... 6 years of service time would mean free agency right around 29-30. The problem with their proposal is there was no other threshold, such as service time that players could hit to get to free agency sooner if they were called up before 23, and no way to address service time manipulation that they would still be able to do if they called up guys at 20 to ensure they still have them on the team when they're 29.5. Gotta have both in there, unless we think it's totally cool for a team to be 100% in charge of a player for up to 12 seasons with no way for them to shop around.

Wouldn’t need to give him 300 million though. 10/250 is probably enough to get it done. No need to overpay for his arb years and I wouldn’t even want to come close to Tatis Jrs extension

It’s about how they calculate years of service and option seasons. Clarification is at https://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2021/12/14/11163918/will-2022-be-julian-merryweathers-first-season-of-service-with-the-blue-jays

You mean Vlad?

Maybe. could have just needed longer to truly recover from his injuries. No better place for him to do it from his perspective than in Japan. He's still young enough to make a go of it back in the states if he hits well. Average salary over in Japan is pretty low compared to MLB, but it's more than a minor league paycheck.

It's probably the better move for him. 1 good year in Japan and he might be able to parlay it into guaranteed money back here. The best he was going to get from any team here is a minor league deal with ST invite.

McGriffs biggest problem is that his career started the exact same year as Bonds, Palmeiro and McGwire. Griff has a great career, but never had the same peaks as those guys did. That’s why he gets underrated for the Hall

Hard to say. He’s only 2 seasons from free agency and with another 2 seasons like his last 2….he’s looking at a pretty big payday. There’s only 2 scenarios where it makes sense to extend Teoscar, and that’s if both Vlad and Bo are already extended to team friendly extensions, or he himself signs one that’s quite team friendly. I can’t see the latter happening since his arbitration paydays are gonna take him towards 15ish million by then… assuming he keeps hitting like he has been. He might be the odd man out that they have to deal in return for younger guys that are cheaper in order to have the space to extend both Vlad and Bo. From a talent and defensive POV it’s a no brainer that you’d want to prioritize Vlad and Bo. With those 2 in the fold, you’ve got your core of Vlad, Bo, Berrios, Gausman and Springer in place through at least 2026. Even without extensions for those 2, that core is here until 2025.

I hope they don't take the high road either, I hope they verbally bitchslap every single self-righteous douchebag "writer" that didn't vote for them, and I hope they roast any and all current Hall of Famer players that boycott their induction (because you know there will be). Then I hope they take a syringe out and inject themselves with steroids on stage, drop the mic and flip the double bird to the world.

Bonds and Clemens both at 76.5% of HOF voting so far. Super early of course as there's still tons of ballots out there, but... Is this the year?

It's pretty simple actually. The injured player cannot physically return to play, but still is under contract for however many years. He stays on the 40 man roster in the offseason, and goes straight to the 60 day DL as soon as it opens, which opens up the roster spot for the club. The fact that he remains on the 40 in the offseason sucks a bit, since that's a spot they cant use to protect someone from the Rule 5 draft. When his contract is over, he retires. Technically he could have chosen to retire earlier and give up all that cash, but ... why give up all those millions when you don't have to?

It's hard to really see what changed, other than ever single one of his pitches got hit harder than previous years. There's some usage changes for sure, but spin rates were in line with previous year. Whiff rates on the cutter and change were way off though.

Albert Pujols.

Everyone knows you need bigtime major league manager experience to handle being a manager in New York. It's like, harder and s***. /sarcasm Pete would probably make a great manager.

This was just the minor league portion of the Rule V draft in case anyone was wondering. The major league portion cannot happen without a CBA, and that's where Spraker is eligible to be taken.

So much of the MIF conversation depends on Moreno and whether or not they feel he has a shot at sticking at 3b to start the year IMO. Assuming no service time related changes in the CBA... maybe they keep him down for a couple weeks to gain the extra year and worry about Super 2 later. That, of course, assumes he is truly ready for 3b. We don't know that at all. IF that's true and he is ready, that solves the MIF problem and Biggio will be the primary 2b with Espinal the jack of all trades backup. At this point I have very little confidence that Pearson/Stripling will be an adequate 5th man rotation option. Pearson's innings will be so limited even if he is effective, and Stripling just hasn't shown enough that he belongs in the rotation IMO. Yes, if Pearson throws to his talents, He and Strip could be a viable piggyback option for a while, but there's no way that could last all season. I'd be more comfortable signing Kikuchi as the 5, letting Pearson work his s*** out in AAA and be the first man up if needed. If he doesn't work his s*** out as a starter, then I think it's about time to cut bait and send him to the pen full time and see if he can be truly effective there throwing 100mph+ for 1 inning at a time.

Yeah but the trunks look like more muscular in the thighs, not starting with the wide hips like Vlad Sr and Jr