The Official MLB Thread

[MistaNova]

This is one of the first series in a while I just felt like I had no interest. I wanted the Cards to win but I really don't like them at all either.

Same. Although I've gotta admit that the games in St. Louis were pretty "unique" to say the least.

Anyway with that out of the way now the good stuff can begin. The off-season filled with questions, finding answers for those questions, free-agent signings, blockbuster trades etc...

And speaking of free-agent signings, future Blue Jay Robinson Cano anyone?

[Remedy360]

This is one of the first series in a while I just felt like I had no interest. I wanted the Cards to win but I really don't like them at all either.

Same. Although I've gotta admit that the games in St. Louis were pretty "unique" to say the least.

Anyway with that out of the way now the good stuff can begin. The off-season filled with questions, finding answers for those questions, free-agent signings, blockbuster trades etc...

And speaking of free-agent signings, future Blue Jay Robinson Cano anyone?

Plenty of fun questions in Mariner-land too. Who will coach this floundering franchise that three managers have left in the last decade (not counted those fired). How much will we have to overpay to get the likes of Sin Soo Choo or Jacoby Ellsburry. I was pretty optimistic going into this last season but it turned out to be a huge step sideways. We still have some promising young talent but I'm getting fed up.

[MistaNova]

11/11 round-up

*Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Mauer's catching days are over

*Cardinals and Rockies have negotiated a possible trade involving Troy Tulowitzki

*Every soon-to-be free agent who got qualifying offers from their teams (13) declined them

*Braves will be moving to a new stadium in 2016

[MistaNova]

Brian Wilson will not be coming to the Yankees because he doesn't want to shave his beard.

Seattle is interested in trading for Matt Kemp.

[Sccit]

Brian Wilson will not be coming to the Yankees because he doesn't want to shave his beard.

Seattle is interested in trading for Matt Kemp.

lol yankees on some hitler shit tho

[MistaNova]

lol yankees on some hitler shit tho

Yep lol. Hence why folks call them the "Evil Empire."

Hot Stove updates:
*Phillies resign Carlos Ruiz to a 3 year $26 million deal

*Giants close to signing Tim Hudson to a 2 year $23 million deal

Regarding the Chooch deal I think it's a good one for the Phillies. Obviously you could make a million jokes about how old they're getting but that's not to say the Ruiz deal is terrible. It's certainly not any worse than the Ryan Howard deal. Ugh.

Regarding the Hudson deal, appearently the Giants wanted a number 4 guy behind Cain, Lincecum and Bumgarner. And a relatively quick signing where negotiations wouldn't take eons to complete. Dan Haren and Bronson Arroyo were also rumored to be other pitchers the Giants' targeted.

[Remedy360]

Brian Wilson will not be coming to the Yankees because he doesn't want to shave his beard.

Seattle is interested in trading for Matt Kemp.

Trying to be the anti-Red Sox I suppose. As far as Kemp goes, I love him as a player but dude has been way too injury prone. I don't see them giving him out without a Taijuan walker package and I don't know that I'm in favor of that. It'd be exciting if it went down either way but there's a lot of risk associated with it. The life of a Mariner fan.

[MistaNova]

Hot Stove updates:

*The Royals sign Jason Vargas to a 4 year $32 million contract
-Royals rotation improves a little, the team itself still looks mediocre
-The Angels pitching situation got a whole lot worse since they just lost their best pitcher not named Weaver

*The Mets sign Chris Young to a 1 year $7.25 million contract
-As of right now Chris Young will be the second highest paid player for the Mets in 2014 (behind David Wright)
-The Mets' 3 decade long search for stability from their OF continues

[Remedy360]

How much do you see Cano getting paid, and where do you say he ends up?

[MistaNova]

Dammit Remedy, I was hoping you had reported the Bloomquist signing so I wouldn't have to.

I see Cano getting a 7 year deal that's no where near the $30 milli per year he wants, but loaded with incentives. It's going to be an overpay anyway so I stopped caring about what he might get.
And unfortunately I see him returning to the Yankees. Not too many teams "can afford Cano's services" (which is to say their owners are cheapskates) and even the ones that do would prefer to keep their draft pick rather than give it to the Yankees.

Now onto more important hot-stove news:

*11:59 PM (EST) is the deadline for teams to tender (rehire) players or let them go out into free agency
*Oakland Athletics sign Scott Kazmir to a 2 year $22 million deal
*Toronto Blue Jays sign Dioner Navarro to a 2 year $8 million deal
*New York Yankees have traded Chris Stewart to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a player to be named later
*Seattle Mariners sign Willie Bloomquist to a 2 year deal in the $5-6 million range

Why are these important?

*A lot of good names could become available if their teams choose to not tender them.

*The Kazmir signing indicates the A's will not resign free agent pitcher Bartolo Colon.

*The Navarro signing indicates that the Blue Jays are willing to (and probably will) trade JP Arencibia (who had a historically bad season, like one of the worst offensive seasons in baseball history in 2013) as they need to keep Josh Thole around to catch knuckle-baller RA Dickey.

*Since the Yankees had signed McCann (a signing I've come around to) they suddenly found themselves with 5 catchers. They've traded away Stewart and the Yankees may trade either (but not both) Cervelli or Romine in the near future and whichever one they keep will be McCann's backup. The last option the Yankees have is NOT Sanchez since he's still a few years away from making his MLB debut, let alone being the backup catcher, but rather J.R. Murphy. Murphy will likely spend some time in AAA and see limited action in the big leagues unless McCann or Cervelli (or both) get injured or until rosters can expand in September.

*The Bloomquist signing is not important.

[Remedy360]

Dammit Remedy, I was hoping you had reported the Bloomquist signing so I wouldn't have to.

LOL, start time to start printing world series tickets! In all seriousness Bloomquist is a nice bench player but I didn't really feel it was newsworthy on here.

[MistaNova]

LOL, start time to start printing world series tickets! In all seriousness Bloomquist is a nice bench player but I didn't really feel it was newsworthy on here.

BTW, do you see your Mariners making a push for Cano? And yes I ask that even though I'm aware of the presence of Ackley and Franklin but still...
Not trying to troll you or anything but I can't honestly can't tell if the Mariners are still rebuilding or if they're following their neighbor in San Diego's footsteps and staying mediocre. And I say that because the M's were going all in on Josh Hamilton last year (or at least they were rumored to be going after Hamilton) and failed and if Ackley (and to an extent Montero and Smoak, even though they were brought in from other teams) is/are any indication I can't tell if their rebuild is working.

[Remedy360]

LOL, start time to start printing world series tickets! In all seriousness Bloomquist is a nice bench player but I didn't really feel it was newsworthy on here.

BTW, do you see your Mariners making a push for Cano? And yes I ask that even though I'm aware of the presence of Ackley and Franklin but still...
Not trying to troll you or anything but I can't honestly can't tell if the Mariners are still rebuilding or if they're following their neighbor in San Diego's footsteps and staying mediocre. And I say that because the M's were going all in on Josh Hamilton last year (or at least they were rumored to be going after Hamilton) and failed and if Ackley (and to an extent Montero and Smoak, even though they were brought in from other teams) is/are any indication I can't tell if their rebuild is working.

I wouldn't be surprised. Our only major contract is Felix and outside of that we have Iwakuma making around 5 mill and then a bunch of youngsters on rookie contracts. The M's also just bought Root Sports so there will be a lot of TV money coming in from that, so we theoretically have more spending money than we've ever had. I honestly wouldn't mind overpaying for a guy like Cano, cause bringing in a guy like that at least shows a commitment to winning and could show other potential FA's that we're serious. We haven't had much to cheer for lately and having a superstar come in would at least increase fan interest as well. As far as the rebuilding goes, those three have been disappointments. I think there's still some hope left for Ackley who had a good second half last year. I want to be wrong about Smoak, but he's been around long enough that I think we kinda know what he is. Montero, well I don't even want to talk about him. We still have Miller/Franklin in the infield who are pretty highly regarded along with Mike Zunino behind the dish. We also have a bunch of good young pitching that we could flip for bats if need be and our farm systems still ranked among the best in baseball. So to answer your question I think the plan is to still build around young guys, but the fact that we've taken shots at guys like Fielder/Hamilton does show that they want to supplement them with legit talent. Just a matter of what we're willing to offer/whose willing to come. We're not gonna be able to bring in any names without overpaying until we turn around in the win department.

[MistaNova]

Lol, ironically in the past 24 hours reports of Mariners being heavily interested in Cano have surfaced. Now they're "real players."

Please take him and give us your draft pick.

[Remedy360]

Lol, ironically in the past 24 hours reports of Mariners being heavily interested in Cano have surfaced. Now they're "real players."

Please take him and give us your draft pick.

We were supposedly serious about Prince and Hamilton as well, so only time will tell.