John_Havok

Lavelle Neal - President of the BBWAA said on PTS that Le Batard did not receive money for his Deadspin vote, his punishment was just for allowing someone else to determine his vote - says Le Batard never voiced his opinions internally to the BBWAA about how he felt about the process - wished he would have to try and convince people that the BBWAA should be moving in a certain direction about the voting process - feels conflicted about how to deal with PED players, but writers should be able to use whatever criteria they want to judge a player, expects more dialogue within the BBWAA about it - said he himself wanted to vote for more than 10 players this year - there is a committee in place to study the 10 player limit and he expects/would not be surprised it will be adjusted in the future - admitted there needs to be more dialogue within the BBWAA between members, especially around voting time. Bobcat had suggested that they try to get as many BBWAA members in one room to have real discussion about that year's eligible players, so there could be more information shared from writer to writer - was disappointed in the types of ballots that would vote for Jack Morris and nobody else. Did say that the HOF ballot is not to be used as a form of protest but there would be no action taken against that writer.

For hitters: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/hitters-no-longer-peak-only-decline/

Dammit connorp, you've come a very long way since you first started posting at the old forum. Kudos for being open-minded and willing to explore new ways of looking at baseball.

It's already starting with the dodgers and cubs both putting it out there that they won't be outbid.

Maybe AA would, maybe he wouldn't, but he could if he so chose, that's the point, and if he did, the Jays would likely be further ahead in the win column by using Hutch, trading Happ and then dealing for a 2b upgrade or trying to sign a guy like Drew. I agree with another poster who brought up the point that 5 million shouldn't be stopping the Jays from upgrading 2b on it's own, but I think it's fairly safe to say that AA is actually prepared to go with Goins

I see what you're saying, but I don't think there's a GM in baseball that would buy that kind of rumour coming from The Jays when AA hasn't signed any free agent pitcher to a major league deal in the past 6 off seasons, and has a policy of not going over 5 years, even though AA himself has tried to project recently that he's willing to go over that for the right player. Point being, I don't think anyone would believe it coming from AA, knowing his track record

Wait, are you just saying that AA should publicly say he's willing to offer 15 years and 375 million, but not actually offer it to the player, just in the hopes that some other GM would actually believe it's real and think they have to pay more?

I agree Happ's contract is not bad, but Hutchison in Happ's spot + 4.5 million to help upgrade 2b or another position would be a better scenario IMO.

If any GM offers a contract like this to a pitcher, they should fired on the spot. And if any GM who had stated they wouldn't be outbid saw someone else offer this contract they should pick up the phone and laugh in his face for being the biggest idiot GM in baseball history.

For me, it's not so much hate for Happ, but I hate what he represents; AA falling in love with a player who he couldn't get in trade the first time he tried, continuing to have a hard-on for him a few years later even though it was obvious that he wasn't the quality SP AA thought could be, but not altering his opinion of the player and give up assets for him in trade when he could have signed a similar or better pitcher in free agency for similar dollars without giving up the assets.

In general, Chop off head, drain blood, pluck feathers, remove innards, spice, roast, eat, poop.

Well to start, you wouldn't skin a turkey...

Yes they are. I'm pretty confident that it appears in the mlbpa rules

So close to "Ban the Retard" ..it could get some mileage

Ding ding! Such easy prey....

Heh, imagine if a pitcher with a mid 90's fastball actually developed a reliable knuckler... That would be crazy to try to hit against

They're rolling out now, fangraphs is posting them for each team as they come out. The Reds came out today and Arizona / Atlanta / Baltimore / Boston / Cleveland / Detroit / Los Angeles NL / Miami / Minnesota / New York AL / Philadelphia / San Diego / Seattle / St. Louis / Tampa Bay are already out.

40 really isn't a big enough sample size, and the fact that there's a 10 player limit is a big part of the problem, so even if it was duplicated here, it would basically just prove that it's still a broken process in dire need of being fixed.

2nd half was good but the first half, they were settling for way too many jump shots.

Adam Lind sighting at the Raps game tonight, has a terrible beard and looked really chunky

No dice for Shaw Direct customers yet - My response from Shaw: "We do have some space open on our 3rd satellite in order to add on new channels. We have been getting a lot of requests about the MLB channel lately, so hopefully we will be adding this channel in the future."

Great effort even in the loss tonight, they were right there in the final 30 seconds against Miami.

Of course not, my quote didn't specifically say only trading those two, just using 1 or both as part of the deal. They'd obviously have to give up something with value as well.

Contracts work a lot different in the NBA, making salaries work and whether contracts are expiring or not often supercedes talent being equal.

I get trading Lowry, but that wouldn't be improving the team for a playoff run. I think that's where the Raps are going this year since tank Nation is obviously dead.