Q&A with Alex Cobb: ‘I’m not going to be bitter. I’m not going to be upset I’m in the position I am.

Will Alex Cobb’s 2018 season impact this year’s free agent stragglers?

The Bryce, Manny stalemate and the latest on MLB free agency

Jeff Passan with a little insight.

2. Justin Verlander and a brigade of other players to end their public grousing on the health of the free-agent market? Probably not.

One part of their messaging is hitting home: More and more players, in speaking out on the matter, are saying there are more than 100 jobless free agents. This is not true. A liberal accounting of the so-called XX(B) free agents—ones who have six-plus years of service—counts about 50. Of those 50, about half are clearly ...

There’s no crying in free agency: What it’s really like to wait for a deal – The Athletic

A comprehensive look at free agency this year, by Britt Ghiroli.

Jason Kipnis needs good year for himself and the Cleveland Indians in 2019 | cleveland.com

Can he bounce back?

Twins’ future still depends on Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano | Star Tribune

I’m in the ever-shrinking group of people who are still buying on Buxton. Granted, I’ll buy in a little lower this year, but I’m still buying.

In 2017, when the Twins captured an AL wild-card spot, Buxton played 140 games, won a Gold Glove in center field and hit .253 with 16 home runs. Sano was named an All-Star that season, hit .264, played in 114 games and had his second consecutive season with at least 25 home runs.

But in 2018, both had lost, injury-plagued seasons. Sano played in 71 games ...

Walt Davis on Projections

Walt Davis is one of the most insightful posters on the site. Here’s a great post about projections.

Baseball Savant MLB Draft Application | baseballsavant.com

More good stuff at the Baseball Savant.

Red Sox’ Dustin Pedroia says, in hindsight, he shouldn’t have had knee surgery

FORT MYERS, Fla.—As Dustin Pedroia readies for a comeback campaign, the Red Sox second baseman says, in hindsight, he would have handled his knee injury differently.

Pedroia underwent an operation in November 2017 that kept him sidelined for all but three games in the 2018 season. The 35-year-old veteran admitted Friday at JetBlue Park that if he could turn back time, he would decide against the cartilage restoration procedure.

“I wouldn’t have done it,” Pedroia said. “I don’t ...

Tigers beat Fulmer in final arbitration case this year

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Detroit beat pitcher Michael Fulmer in the last salary arbitration case this year, leaving players with a 6-4 final record in decisions.

Fulmer was awarded a raise from $575,200 to $2.8 million by Matt Goldberg, Robert Herzog and Elizabeth Neumeier, who heard the case Wednesday. Fulmer had asked for $3.4 million.

The decision was withheld until Friday, when right-hander Luis Severino and the Yankees had been scheduled for a hearing.

]

Remember when free agency ...

Did The Cubs Miss Their Chance To Be A Dynasty?

In addition to being one of the great sports stories of the 21st century — breaking a 108-year championship drought in extra innings of World Series Game 7 — the 2016 Chicago Cubs were legitimately one of the best baseball teams of all time. With a championship core of young talent that included Kris Bryant (age 24),1 Anthony Rizzo (26), Kyle Hendricks (26), Addison Russell (22), Javier Baez (23), Kyle Schwarber (23), Willson Contreras (24) and Jason Heyward (26), Chicago seemed poised to ...

Farquhar wears protective cap for 1st bullpen session

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Danny Farquhar wore a specially designed protective cap Friday during his first spring training bullpen session with the New York Yankees.

Farquhar collapsed in the Chicago White Sox dugout last April 20 after pitching in the sixth inning against Houston. He was diagnosed with a ruptured aneurysm and brain hemorrhage, had surgery the next day and was hospitalized until May 7. Farquhar was not cleared to pitch again in 2018, became a free agent after the season and signed a ...

Even in bullpen age, several teams still built on starters

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Forget about this bullpen obsession for a moment. Believe it or not, plenty of big league teams are still anchored by well-armed rotations.

In this age of openers and closers, with relievers starting games and starters rarely finishing them, it might seem starting pitchers have been devalued by executives all over baseball.

Dallas Keuchel, the 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner, is a 31-year-old free agent still looking for a job. Same for fellow lefty Gio Gonzalez, ...

For Nolan Arenado, it’s about more than just the money

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mid-morning, the fog that was low and warm lifted. Filtered and grayish since daybreak, the sun’s rays hit him square across the shoulders and neck. The infield, otherwise smooth and glossy, was, a few steps to his left, a few steps back, chopped and pitted and worn.

“Right down that line, dawg,” he shouted.

And so all that stuff that looks made up in the moment, that looks impossible until it isn’t, that can only be a gift of intuition and providence, began with ...

Adam Wainwright Worried About Mid-Season Strike, Players Walking Out

Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright is worried that the cool Hot Stove this offseason could lead to a strike.

Wainwright spoke to InsideSTL.com on Friday and voiced his concerns over what could happen with the growing issues between players and management.

“Unless something changes, there’s going to be a strike. 100%,” he said. “I’m just worried people are going to walk out midseason.”

So, what do we anticipate happening as a result of a mid-season strike, should it come to pass?

  ...Read More...

Nightengale: Trevor Bauer’s radical idea on MLB contracts could benefit everyone

As free agents have struggled to land long-term deals over the past two winters, the 28-year-old believes that signing only one-year contracts would make him affordable to all 30 teams, even with an annual price tag of at least $35 million.

“I’ll go year-to-year my entire career,” said Bauer, who is scheduled to become a free agent after the 2020 season. “Why would you lock yourself in a situation that may not make you happy? I think that’s highly inefficient. Everybody is afraid of ...

Cubs’ Addison Russell: ‘I am accountable for my past actions’

Addison Russell had more than five months to prepare for his first media session since his domestic violence suspension, and it showed.

With his manager, top front office executives and the Cubs’ highest-ranking public relations people watching from the back of the room, the Cubs’ troubled shortstop held a polished 20-minute Q-and-A session heavy on “thank you for that question” responses and obviously well rehearsed talking points.

“I’m accountable for my past actions,” he ...

OT - 2018-19 NBA thread (All-Star Weekend to Twelfth of Never edition)

I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about the NBA, none of whom can be bothered to curate their own thread to avoid detracting from what this site is really about:  Kyler Murray and how the Galactic Empire did nothing wrong.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 2-15-2019

Washington Times, February 15, 1919:

Joe Jackson and “Swede” Risberg for Bobby Veach, Donie Bush and Harry Heilman is the latest heard in “the Loop.”

Bush, according to the story, is dissatisfied with conditions in Detroit, and welcomes a change. Furthermore, the Tigers’ shortstop is a veteran, and Hughey Jennings has taken quite a fancy to Risberg.

Jackson has not communicated with the Chicago club. He has taken sadly to heart the columns of criticism hurled at him all around the country, and ...

Giants add a ‘baseball guy’ to develop new data-driven pitching program – The Athletic

All you SABR nerds aren’t baseball people.

Maybe if the “internal civil war” doesn’t need to exist, we should stop classifying ourselves so much.

“I’m not a mathematician or a SABR nerd,” Daniels told The Athletic this week. “I’ve read all that stuff but at heart I’m a baseball guy that knows data, not the other way around.”

It’s an important distinction.

“There’s an internal civil war that exists and doesn’t need to exist,” Daniels admitted.

Mad Max: On what the Nationals ace believes is ‘poisoning’ the game – The Athletic

How many teams really aren’t trying to win? Serious question. Are the Padres trying to win? How about the Marlins?

I get the frustration by players. I’m not sure harping on this point is a productive path for players, however. Do the players really want fewer fans for the game?

“When there’s teams, when there’s too many teams that are not trying to win that poisons the game, poisons the fan experience and it creates bandwagon fans,” said Scherzer, who heaped praise on the Nationals and ...

Nolan Arenado discusses contract negotiations | Colorado Rockies

“I’m not going to sit here and say there is a deadline,” Arenado said. “As a collective group between me, my agent and the Rockies, I think we’re going to have a quiet deadline. There’s a time and place to focus on ball. They have a job to do, too. They’re trying to help us win games, also. I think they’re more worried on helping us win games than trying to get this contract done at a certain time.

“When serious games start, there’ll probably be a silent deadline. I’m not sure. But at the end ...

O’Donnell: Could this be Theo Epstein’s finale with Cubs?

“Tearing at the seams” sounds like an exaggeration.

Critical core: At age 45, Epstein is approaching the prime of his career. In MLB, he is universally acknowledged as being as good as it gets. So why should be continue to work for anyone else, especially an organization tearing at the seams on multiple imaging fronts above a roster era that could quite likely be arced out?

If he is not somewhere on the trolley toward becoming chairman and managing partner of another MLB team—in a perfect ...

Will the Cubs really finish last in 2019? Say it ain’t so, PECOTA - Chicago Tribune

The PECOTA computer can’t look in anyone’s eyes to see if that “look” is there.

Does it know something we don’t?

“It is entertaining,” Maddon said. “Who knows why or how they arrive at that stuff. It really means nothing.

“You’ve got to go out and play the game. You’ve got to compete. I have zero interest in something like that.”

The Red Sox motto for 2019 spring training: ‘Turn the page’

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy, rolling down the streets of Boston in duck boats, and everything else that comes with a World Series title is all fine and dandy.

But if there’s one way to describe the Red Sox’s approach to the upcoming season, it’s “Belichickian.” The past is the past. They’re “on to 2019.”

At last year’s trade deadline, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman unintentionally provided the Red Sox with a rallying call that helped ...

Tigers pitcher Mize, majors’ No. 1 pick, trying to fit in

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — The Detroit Tigers issued jersey No. 74 to Casey Mize and for the next few days, he will be just one of 31 pitchers in camp, trying to get his arm and body ready for a long baseball season.

But the 21-year-old right-hander was the No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball draft last June, and as Detroit’s No. 1 hope for the future, he was bound to attract more than his share of attention, even while just trying to fit in.

“When you’re a draft pick like that, ...

Why is David Price wearing No. 10? Red Sox hurler keeps switch a mystery

David Price wants the jersey sleuths to do their own detective work.

During his introductory press conference in Fort Myers, Fla., the Boston Red Sox pitcher was asked why he changed his uniform number from 24 to 10 earlier this offseason.

Here was his response:

“I’ma let you guys figure it out. It’s not that tough, I feel like you can get it. Somebody will get it and everybody’s gonna be like ‘oh, ok, wow.’”

Thanks for clearing that up, David.

Are we sure he isn’t just trying to confound ...

Cueto pitched with severe pain in elbow nearly 3 years

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — For nearly three years, Johnny Cueto pitched with a stabbing pain in his right elbow. He won 18 games for San Francisco in 2016 and started the All-Star game that year dealing with the discomfort.

How he did so, Cueto isn’t sure. And the animated right-hander can now envision how great it will be once he’s back on the mound and pain-free following Tommy John reconstructive surgery.

“It was a lot for me to deal with. It was almost three years with pain in the ...

Hunter Pence reflects on his time with the Giants in a heartfelt essay

During his last game at AT&T Park, Hunter Pence exited in a way only he could—on a motorized scooter. It was the appearance of a young soul who wanted to soak up as much of the atmosphere as possible.

At the time, it was presumed that was going to be his last game as a member of the Giants. But nobody knew for sure, including Pence.

With the three-time All-Star recently agreeing to a minor league deal with the Rangers, he reflected on the seven seasons he spent as a member of the Giants in a ...

Carson Fulmer turned to one of baseball’s top data-driven companies to reclaim his career

SEATTLE — The end of the baseball season provides a welcome rest for most players. After a grueling 162-game season, players generally take some time away from the game. It’s their time to decompress, re-evaluate their season, get married, go on vacation or spend time with family.

There was no break for Chicago White Sox pitcher Carson Fulmer this offseason. While his major-league club was still playing games in September, Fulmer went to his offseason home in Seattle, and committed to ...

Manny Machado reportedly met with Padres GM in Miami

The San Diego Padres’ pursuit of Manny Machado continued with a reported face-to-face meeting earlier this week in Miami.

According to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Padres general manager A.J. Preller made the cross-country flight to Miami to meet with Machado and his wife. It’s the second meeting the Padres and Machado have had this offseason, but this one clearly has a more personal feel. Acee termed the meeting “a step that indicates the sides continue to work toward a ...