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MLB Hotstove 08
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I believe Furcal only has one year left on his contract? Rodriguez could play third in 2008 and have the option of moving to short if Furcal isn't re-signed.
But the other rumors are that Torre's presence in L.A. isn't going to be an enticement to Rodriguez.
NEW YORK -- Jorge Posada prefers to stay with the New York Yankees and believes he is "really close" to reaching a new deal with the team.
"My first priority is the Yankees," the five-time All-Star catcher told reporters Sunday at halftime of the New York Knicks' game against the Miami Heat. "I would like to stay with the Yankees. My heart is with the Yankees, so hopefully we can get something done."
The Yankees' exclusive negotiating rights with Posada end on Tuesday, when free agents can talk money with all teams.
"We're working with the Yankees," Posada said. "Right now it's up in the air, but the chances are good."
Posada, coming off a season in which he hit a career-best .338 with 20 homers, 90 RBIs and 91 runs scored, has reportedly been offered a three-year deal for around $40 million by the Yankees. He is believed to be seeking a fourth year.
Posada also voiceed his support for new Yankees manager Joe Girardi, a teammate in the Bronx from 1996-99.
"I love Joe," he said. "He's been like a big brother to me since '96, so I'm really hopefully looking forward to working with him."
"My first priority is the Yankees," the five-time All-Star catcher told reporters Sunday at halftime of the New York Knicks' game against the Miami Heat. "I would like to stay with the Yankees. My heart is with the Yankees, so hopefully we can get something done."
The Yankees' exclusive negotiating rights with Posada end on Tuesday, when free agents can talk money with all teams.
"We're working with the Yankees," Posada said. "Right now it's up in the air, but the chances are good."
Posada, coming off a season in which he hit a career-best .338 with 20 homers, 90 RBIs and 91 runs scored, has reportedly been offered a three-year deal for around $40 million by the Yankees. He is believed to be seeking a fourth year.
Posada also voiceed his support for new Yankees manager Joe Girardi, a teammate in the Bronx from 1996-99.
"I love Joe," he said. "He's been like a big brother to me since '96, so I'm really hopefully looking forward to working with him."
I think so. This could limit his appeal in a trade but could raise it for a club looking for a stop-gap.
It's hard to give the rumors much credence. All of the intangibles add up to a lot less than the dollars in the contract.
But Braun's offensive numbers were just too impressive for a rookie: high BA, lots of power, >.600 SLG is hard to ignore. I think that trumps the bad defense and total lack of walks.
Tulowitzki played good defense and put up good offensive numbers for a shortstop, inflated by Planet Coors, of course...
I'll take .291, 24 HR, 99 RBI, 104 R, along with a .987 fielding percentage @ SS over
.324, 34 HR, 97 RBI, 91 R, along with an .895 fielding percentage.
Basically Ryan Braun was a very good hitter and one of the worst (if not the worst) fielding 3B in the NL.
Tulowitzki is right up there in offense with some greats like Rollins, Hanley Ramirez, and Jose Reyes at SS offensively and far and away the best fielding SS in the NL.
He topped the NL in total chances, put outs, assists, double plays, fielding percentage, range factor, and was second in zone rating. while making the 5th fewest errors.
Braun was dead last in zone rating (The percentage of balls fielded by a player in his typical defensive "zone," as measured by STATS, Inc.) and dead last in range factor.
So not only did he make a lot of errors on the balls he got to, there were tons of balls he never even fielded that other 3B would have.
Ryan Braun had 586 (834 vs. 248) fewer total chances in the field. That is huge. The difference between Braun and Tulowitzki in total chances is greater than the total number of chances by the 3B who led the league in total chances -- Ryan Zimmerman with 511.
And in those 248 chances, Braun committed 15 more errors!
Maybe this is why the Brewers allowed 68 unearned runs, while the Rockies only allowed 52.
Considering that the Brewers missed the playoffs by a measly 2 games, I bet they'd love to have a few unearned runs back, particularly when the actual runs created (the statistical measure) are 101.1 for Tulowitzki and 97.9 for Braun.
Completely idiotic decision.
NEW YORK -- Jorge Posada has a new contract in hand and is set to stay in Yankees pinstripes, according to a published report.
The New York Daily News reported Monday on its Web site that Posada will accept a four-year, $52 million contract from the club, an increased offer delivered to the catcher's camp just hours before he could have discussed financial terms with other clubs.
The deal matches the dollar amount and length of contracts signed by outfielders Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui two years ago, and it will become official pending a physical and the completion of final contract language.
Posada, 36, held an impromptu news conference with reporters at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, saying he and the Yankees were "really close" on a new contract as he spoke during halftime of a New York Knicks-Miami Heat game.
After batting a career-high .338 with 20 home runs and 90 RBIs in 144 games for the Yankees this past season, Posada would have been a coveted figure on the free agent market.
The New York Daily News reported Monday on its Web site that Posada will accept a four-year, $52 million contract from the club, an increased offer delivered to the catcher's camp just hours before he could have discussed financial terms with other clubs.
The deal matches the dollar amount and length of contracts signed by outfielders Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui two years ago, and it will become official pending a physical and the completion of final contract language.
Posada, 36, held an impromptu news conference with reporters at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, saying he and the Yankees were "really close" on a new contract as he spoke during halftime of a New York Knicks-Miami Heat game.
After batting a career-high .338 with 20 home runs and 90 RBIs in 144 games for the Yankees this past season, Posada would have been a coveted figure on the free agent market.
I love how people say that signing Arod for 10 years is a bad move, but here the yanks go and lock up a catcher til he's 40 at $13 million per year and no one bats an eyelash.
Anyone care to look up the historical trend in terms of productivity from 35+ year old catchers?
Hint: it's not good.
Depends on what you mean by "quality". Most teams would settle for a decent-fielding catcher who can hit .250. Catchers who can hit .300 are rare, even if they don't do it every season.
His point is that catchers tend to have a very steep drop in production in their 30s. Rodriguez is more likely to be good enough to earn a starting job eight or ten years from now than Posada is to finish four. But these are the kinds of contracts you hand out when you're desperate to retain offense.
Or Bench, or Campanella, or just about every other catcher. Off the top of my head, the only catchers with long careers that I can think of whose hitting didn't make them liabilities in their 30s are Gary Carter and Carlton Fisk.
What still burns me about losing Piazza is that he was still hitting well until that last year of his Mets contract. If the Fox people hadn't been so insistent on making a statement, they could have signed him to a similar deal and we could have watched Piazza slug them out of the Ravine for a half dozen more years.
That actually bothers me more than trading Pedro Martinez because losing Pedro didn't seem like a mistake at the time, whereas I knew that trading Piazza was. What we got out of that trade was a few years of Sheffield making similar money and putting up similar numbers while acting like an a$$. Then Fox turned around and gave an even more ridiculous amount of money to Kevin Brown.
It still irks me to this day.
It still irks me to this day.
Even more than the JP deal?
You forget, Brown actually had some really good seasons with the Dodgers. And, they dumped him on the Yankees at just the right time.
Even more than the JP deal?
I'd like to point out that you brought it up, not me.
That's true. What I meant was that by hardballing Piazza on a contract extension, Fox was apparently trying to let everyone know that they wouldn't cave in to big contracts to star players. Then they turned around and did exactly that with the most exorbitant contract up to that time. It was just the start of a series of stupid moves by Fox.
He most definitely did. From about 1996 to 2001 he was quite dominating with the Marlins, Padres, and Dodgers, led the league in ERA a couple times. The folly of the contract the Dodgers signed him to was really the seven years. When he was healthy he pitched quite well (maybe not $15 million per year well but who can measure such things?), but when he had several trips to the DL that made the contract seem more irritating.
IJ is right, the Dodgers traded him at exactly the right time. When I heard we got Weaver in return I was thrilled because we could tell that Brown didn't have much left in the tank at all. Then Brazoban turned out to be quite useful too.
And Kevin Brown was such a head case. He was dealing with so many personal demons it's a wonder he could pitch at all.
CLEVELAND -- The Cy Young questions sprang up midseason, as C.C. Sabathia consistently put together dominant performances for an Indians team in contention for a division title.
As those questions arose from reporters after each win, Sabathia shrugged them off. It was the team's success, not the individual glory, that he sought.
But individual glory caught up with the Indians' ace left-hander on Tuesday.
In voting conducted by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Sabathia beat Boston's Josh Beckett for his first American League Cy Young Award. He is only the second pitcher in Indians history to win the award -- the first being Gaylord Perry, who won it in 1972.
The 27-year-old Sabathia was rewarded for a regular season that saw him go 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA in 34 starts. The win total, ERA mark and number of starts were all career bests for Sabathia, as were his strikeout total of 209 and his innings total of 241, which led the Majors.
Sabathia, who twice faced Beckett head-to-head in the AL Championship Series and lost each time, bested Beckett in the Cy Young voting in large part because of that innings mark.
Though Beckett certainly had award-worthy credentials with a 20-7 record and 3.27 ERA in 30 starts for the AL East champion Red Sox, he was 40 1/3 innings shy of Sabathia's tally.
Furthermore, Sabathia didn't have the run support that Beckett had. While the Red Sox put together an average of 6.4 runs in Beckett's starts, the Indians afforded Sabathia an average of 5.1.
Had Sabathia's run support been stronger, he no doubt would have become the first Indians pitcher since Perry to win 20 games in a single season. Alas, Sabathia had nine starts in which he received a loss or no-decision while pitching five or more innings and giving up two earned runs or less.
