Hot Stove League Baseball Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Marvin]

In the latest Sports Illustrated it is written "... Bernie Williams will miss at least 3 weeks recovering from an emergency appendectomy. Grady Little wanted to leave it in."

 

[Seth Paxton]

Yeah, they are rich for a reason, because they don't invest in crappy decisions to lose tons of money

That's possible, but the term "slum lord" also exists for a reason. People also get rich by cutting corners to the extreme. As long as you are in the black you can get rich.

That doesn't inherently mean that you have to run things cheaply to make money. And that doesn't mean that it is necessarily a good thing for the Twins to spend more either. But let's not pretend that some teams don't intentionally play in a "smaller" market than necessary.

 

[Chris]

That doesn't inherently mean that you have to run things cheaply to make money. And that doesn't mean that it is necessarily a good thing for the Twins to spend more either. But let's not pretend that some teams don't intentionally play in a "smaller" market than necessary.

Oh, I would agree, some teams play the "small market" card really hard and spend nothing.. see: Brewers. And, unfortunately, the MLB owned Expos However, I feel that Minnesota, KC, and a few others spend about what their market can support, and when they can spend (reasonably) both teams have made some efforts in the last few years to do so.

Neither of their payroll is the bottom of the barrel. They both have fair to good minor leagues. But neither team, despite the wealth of their owners, can justify a $120M+ payroll, no matter what they do; they might win a WS, but they would certainly lose money in the extreme with little chance of recoup. That's bad business

Oakland spends effectively and gets a good team. To make it, you have to do something like that.. whereas some teams can afford to buy all the established talent, smaller teams are much better off spending frugally and working to develop solid minor leaguers.

 

[Patrick Sun]

John Henry Williams dies.

 

[Joseph S]

It would be nice if Ted could have a proper burial now.

 

[Vincent Matis]

Sheffield could miss up to 3 months:
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/ne...news&fext=.jsp

 

[Joseph S]

A pizza deliveryman who says he was roughed up last week by New York Mets Karim Garcia and Shane Spencer filed a police report in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and investigators said they would question the outfielders.

More 'roid rage from NYLCO affiliate of BALCO. First the bullpen attendant and now the pizza delivery guy.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Random thoughts:

Hopefully they cut off John Henry Williams' head too. Serve him right.

It was nice while it lasted, with the Brewers undefeated in spring training, till they met the Cubbies. I looked at the box scores and the Brewers didn't seem to actually be playing well (like, hitting the ball or getting people out), so I'm chalking it up to pure fluke.

Not a big surprise about the Cubs selling out the season; aren't those sales mostly to ticket brokers, rather than actual people?

Speaking of 'roid rage, does that explain Don Zimmer? Maybe this is more widespread than we thought...

 

[Patrick_S]

Not a big surprise about the Cubs selling out the season; aren't those sales mostly to ticket brokers, rather than actual people?

No

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Really? A friend of mine that lived in Wrigleyville told me that all the good seats are immediately bought up by the brokers. Do the Cubs prevent large purchases or something?

 

[Chris]

Of course, that three months became 3 days, which created a great "buy" situation in some of my fantasy leagues, where I picked up Sheff in an even trade for Juan Gone

McCain goes after the MLB in the senate, and Sen. Joseph Biden follows up introducing a bill requiring better testing & banning andro

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=1755319

 

[Marvin]

McCain goes after the MLB in the senate, and Sen. Joseph Biden follows up introducing a bill requiring better testing & banning andro

I would have preferred that they'd instead gone after the evil axis of interleague play, the designated hitter and artificial turf.

Maybe Bud Selig should issue a resolution concerning the federal deficit?

 

[Seth Paxton]

smaller teams are much better off spending frugally and working to develop solid minor leaguers

So are big market teams. Just ask the Dodgers and Orioles, and even the Yanks who did much better spending like the A's (ie, smartly) than once they turned into hired-gun central.

It's not that long ago that the Royals themselves did the hired gun thing and bought David Cone. Didn't work out so well however. The one smart money advantage the Yanks have is to KEEP their talent and maintain a very healthy farm system. If they would just do that they could keep the payroll far closer to $100m like it was just a few years ago when they were able to put up 115+ wins.

IMO, no matter how much teams spend you see more success in good investiments than you do in just outright expenditures. The Yanks main advantage is that they throw so much money out there that some of it sticks. But just consider the Karsay signings or the Weaver trade or even the Rondell White signing. Ugh, the Mondesi trade, etc.

They have shown very little discretion the last 4 years, a trend that really bugs me as a Yankee fan. I really could love the 96 and 98 teams, it's tougher for me to get into these teams from both a hired gun view and a "I wouldn't have picked him up" view.

I was always against Clemens and I'm glad he's gone. Still don't like them signing Mussina or Giambi (just keep Nick Johnson) though I respected both of their games before they were Yanks and would have preferred to see them stay with their teams instead. And then this silly ARod thing when there were plenty of reasonable alternatives to put at 3B which would give the team a much lower payroll and produce as many wins.

I mean seriously, remember how the Lakers were going to win 70+ games with their 2 big signings. You can see it coming a mile away for this Yanks team, though the talent level right now looks crazy high.


Seeing teams play together and stay together is what makes it possible for me to also enjoy watching the A's and Twins play and win, as well as the Cubs and the Astros whom I've been a fan of since I was a kid (and the A's since Billy Martin went to them, Keogh, McCatty and young Ricky).

The only A's teams I wasn't a big fan of was the, ironically, big money A's of Canseco, Stewart, Henderson, Henderson, McGwire, and Eck.

It's only been about a decade since it was Toronto and Oakland with the big name studs hired in to maintain dominance. That's one reason why I don't think the Yankee resentment is all that valid. At this point its still part of the cycle. Sooner or later the Yanks will let George down and heads will roll, payroll will get cut, and changes will be made. He expects wins for his money and he won't pay if he's not getting them.


At least he finally made the smart move in keeping Torre around for a few more years. More than money you can make a very strong case that it is Torre who turned this team into WS winners rather than just big money also-rans (ie, see the entire 80's).

 

[Phil L]

At least he finally made the smart move in keeping Torre around for a few more years. More than money you can make a very strong case that it is Torre who turned this team into WS winners rather than just big money also-rans (ie, see the entire 80's).

I'd rather have a guy who doesn't do things like run Enrique Wilson for Giambi in the 7th, give Todd Ziele ABs over Nick Johnson and Robin Ventura, and knows how to use a bullpen.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Phil,
If you don't like Torre as the Yankees manager then who do want managing them?






Crawdaddy

 

[Mark Zimmer]

The one smart money advantage the Yanks have is to KEEP their talent and maintain a very healthy farm system.

Huh? Who's the last homegrown Yankee to come to the majors? Has there been anyone since Jeter? Nick Johnson doesn't count since they immediately traded him away. The Yankees have been obliterating their farm system to obtain hired guns for years--the only legitimate prospect they had left was Brandon Claussen and they swapped him for a couple months rental of Aaron Boone.

 

[Marvin]

Who's the last homegrown Yankee to come to the majors? Has there been anyone since Jeter? Nick Johnson doesn't count since they immediately traded him away.

They didn't immediately trade Johnson. But if you don't count players that have been traded (Soriano, Juan Rivera), then I guess the last one of any importance would be "Posada".

 

[Phil L]

If you don't like Torre as the Yankees manager then who do want managing them?

I don't have anyone specific in mind. There has to be a bench coach or minor league manager somewhere who won't feel compelled to give his friend Todd 400 at bats.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Maybe so, but I bet that bench coach or minor league manager does something else to bother you. In all my years of watching baseball, I haven't seen a manager yet that didn't have some fans griping about the moves he makes during the season. I guess it comes with the job. By the way, Zeille had less than 200 at bats before the Yankees released him and many of those bats came when Nick Johnson was on the DL.

 

[Phil L]

Maybe so, but I bet that bench coach or minor league manager does something else to bother you. In all my years of watching baseball, I haven't seen a manager yet that didn't have some fans griping about the moves he makes during the season. I guess it comes with the job. By the way, Zeille had less than 200 at bats before the Yankees released him and many of those bats came when Nick Johnson was on the DL.

You're right. Something would probably bother me. It's just that Torre's mistakes really bug me, especially batting Enrique Wilson 2nd.

Yep. Todd Zeile had 186 ABs. It just felt like 400.