Heyman: Yankees inquire about Brandon Phillips; price said to be very steep

And it should be for the MVP of the league uhh team uhh…

The Yankees, looking to set themselves up in case star second baseman Robinson Cano signs elsewhere, have checked in with the Reds regarding Brandon Phillips and also asked about free-agent second baseman Omar Infante.

Phillips is said to be available in the right trade, but word is, the initial price is way too steep. Of course, that’s the way the Yankees look at Cano’s $300 million asking price, as well.

Phillips batted .261 with 103 ...

Mariners choose Lloyd McClendon for next manager

The Seattle Mariners have settled on Detroit Tigers hitting coach Lloyd McClendon for the ballclub’s next manager, the M’s announced Tuesday.
Lloyd McClendon Detroit Tigers

McClendon, 54, was the only candidate among Seattle’s reported interviewees with previous experience as a full-time big-league manager. He managed in Pittsburgh from 2001 to 2005, and then was mostly known across the rest of the major leagues for his base-stealing tirade as the Pirates floundered in mediocrity.

He ...

Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2014: MLBTradeRumors.com

Very good stuff.

As explained in this series of posts, Matt Swartz has developed a very accurate model for MLBTR to project arbitration salaries.  We’ve heard from many MLB teams and agencies that reference the projections in their work.  By my count there are 214 remaining arbitration eligible players.  Click here to download an Excel spreadsheet with our projected salaries, or click below to see everything.  For thoughts on each arbitration player, click the team name to see the associated ...

Axisa: What Went Wrong: Ichiro Suzuki

Phew!...Glad to see they fixed that dastardly I-Fail mistake on Wiki!

It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while a move will work out exactly the way I expected it to work out. The Ichiro Suzuki re-signing was one of those moves. It was a terrible signing at the time (two years!!!) and it looks just as terrible today. Those three great weeks at the end of last season were a total mirage — the Magic of the Pinstripes™ failed Ichiro miserably in 2013. He looked old and washed up ...

ESPN: Jay Z’s gift to Cano investigated

Well…that “Do The Hustle” LP is pretty rare.

The Major League Baseball Players Association is investigating whether Jay Z might have violated the union’s agent regulations for giving Robinson Cano a $33,900 watch during a recent birthday party for the New York Yankees second baseman in Belgium, sources told ESPN.com.

According to media reports and postings on Cano’s Instagram account, Cano received a limited-edition Shawn Carter Classic Fusion watch by Hublot during an Oct. 22 party in ...

Mariano Rivera, Francisco Liriano named Comeback Players of the Year

Nice to see Rivera finally get some recognition.

Pirates left-hander Francisco Liriano posted his best season since 2006, one year after notching a 5.34 ERA, and was named the National League Comeback Player of the Year on Monday, becoming the first player to win the award twice.

In the American League, Mariano Rivera completed the turnaround from a torn ACL in 2012 to save 44 games, a new record for a closer in his final season. The 43-year-old right-hander went 6-2 with a 2.11 ERA, 54 ...

New human knee ligament discovered by Belgian doctors

“research shows that the ligament, which was given the name anterolateral ligament (ALL), is present in 97 per cent of all human knees. Subsequent research shows that pivot shift, the giving way of the knee in patients with an ACL tear, is caused by an injury in the ALL ligament.”

MLB Trade Rumors: 2014 Top 50 Free Agents With Predictions

Summary:

Cano - NYY, Ellsbury - SEA, Choo - DET, McCann - TEX, Tanaka - LAD, E. Santana - NYY, Garza - WAS, Kuroda - NYY, Burnett - PIT, Napoli - BOS, U. Jimenez - TOR, C. Beltran - NYY, Granderson - NYM, S. Drew - NYM, Saltalamacchia - CHW, Kazmir - MIN, N. Cruz - PHI, O. Infante - DET, Nathan - DET (we’re just a bunch of crazy Guys and Dolls!), Nolasco - PHI, Jh. Peralta - STL, B. Colon - CLE, B. Arroyo - NYM, M. Byrd - PIT, Balfour - NYY, Benoit - CHC, Feldman - BAL, K. Morales - SEA, C. ...

Who Will Have the Guts to Trade for Ryan Braun?

The stock of former Brewer golden boy Ryan Braun has hit bottom. And with the Brewers not likely to contend soon, GM Doug Melvin would likely trade the slugger for a discounted rate. But would any team be audacious enough to withstand the public relations problem? They should.

Who are baseball’s winners and losers after qualifying offers came out? - MLB News | FOX Sports on MSN

The qualifying offers are out, and we have our first winners and losers of the offseason.

According to mlbtraderumors.com/ here’s the list: Carlos Beltran, Robinson Cano, Shin-Soo Choo, Nelson Cruz, Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Curtis Granderson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Hiroki Kuroda, Brian McCann, Kendrys Morales, Mike Napoli, and Ervin Santana.

I agree with Rosenthal about the Red Sox being in great position. This is particularly true in regards to signing McCann. They could easily give up their ...

Chicago Side: Old Style Fan Bids Can Adieu

1 can of beer on the ivy-covered wall,  1 can of beer.
Take one down, pass it around…no cans of beer left on the ivy-covered wall…

For the Cubs least, there will be a distraction. The season will mark the 100th Anniversary of Wrigley Field, originally Weeghman Park of the Federal League’s Chicago Whales. The Cubs are going to lose a lot of games, so it’s good to pay attention to the ballpark, which probably isn’t to blame. It’s not clear when the Jumbotron is going to land, given the ...

NYT: Sandomir: The Mets’ Delicate Dance With a Billionaire

When the Mets needed money after their owners were fleeced by Bernard L. Madoff, they turned to Steven A. Cohen, a hedge-fund billionaire. Their first request to him to invest came in 2010. A year later, Cohen emerged again as a possible financial lifeline before the Mets agreed to sell 33 percent of the team for $200 million to David Einhorn, another hedge-fund wizard. But that deal eventually collapsed.

Ultimately, Cohen paid $20 million for one of the 12 minority partnerships that Fred ...

WaPo: In upper-crust Washington, former pals fight bitterly over the profitable Headfirst Baseball

Rich kids: Ghosts of princes in Washington towers.

In a series of bitter lawsuits that have transfixed Washington’s ­private-school crowd, the former teammates are feuding over Headfirst Baseball, the District company they built into a multimillion-dollar enterprise of pricey baseball showcases for high school players that college coaches attend and $425-a-week summer sports camps held at St. Albans in Northwest Washington and Mater Dei School in Bethesda.

Sullivan, whose father is famed ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 11-5-2013

Pittsburgh Gazette Times, November 5, 1913:

The Federal League has come out openly with the declaration that it will disregard the reserve clause and will sign players whose contracts have expired regardless of whether they are on the reserve list of clubs in the National and American leagues.
...
Such a move would promptly result in competitive bidding for players…The team of today would be a different aggregation tomorrow. Contracts would be binding for one, two or three years, or as high as ...

Brown: Righting A Wrong, Marvin Miller Rightfully Belongs In The Baseball Hall of Fame

“This time, it counts.”...adds Maury.

We can quibble whether Miller now would be a throwback. The union’s relationship with Major League Baseball is far different. While they are far from seeing eye-to-eye on every matter, baseball has enjoyed unheralded labor peace. When the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2016, there will have been 21 years without a strike or a lockout. Under Miller, that caustic environment occurred almost every time a labor agreement ended. ...

Baseball America: 2014 Philadelphia Phillies Top 10 Prospects

As the “Play Skrable!” chant fades into the past…

TOP 10 PROSPECTS

1. Maikel Franco, 3b
2. Jesse Biddle, lhp
3. J.P. Crawford, ss
4. Miguel Gonzalez, rhp
5. Roman Quinn, ss
6. Carlos Tocci, of
7. Ethan Martin, rhp
8. Cesar Hernandez, 2b/of
9. Aaron Altherr, of
10. Severino Gonzalez, rhp

The farm system can’t be counted on to provide immediate help for 2014, particularly on the mound, where the system’s futility cost pitching coordinator Gorman Heimueller his job. Phillies full-season ...

Giants prospect sustains graphic wrist injury in Dominican

The future is highly uncertain for outfielder Gustavo Cabrera, the Giants’ prized signee from last year’s international free-agent class, after he sustained a horrific right wrist injury in the Dominican Republic.

Baseball America’s Ben Badler broke the story and saw pictures of the injury, which he described as “gruesome” and “graphic.”

“Cabrera appeared to nearly lose his right hand,” Badler wrote.

MLB: Braun reinstated following 65-game suspension

Braun: Clean & Renew System.

Ryan Braun’s blockbuster suspension ended quietly Oct. 31, when he was formally reinstated from the restricted list and returned to the Brewers’ 40-man roster.

Braun was banned from the Brewers’ final 65 games for violations of the Joint Drug Prevention Program and baseball’s Basic Agreement that were uncovered during Major League Baseball’s investigation into Biogenesis, the shuttered South Florida firm that allegedly supplied banned substances to a number of ...

Seamheads (Gisriel): Adding a P.S. to a 55-Year-Old Love Letter to Baseball

What was a good idea before expansion, before the 162-game schedule, before playoffs, before World Series games ended after midnight and the Series itself had the potential to end in November, is certainly a good idea after those things have come about. Your postseason is way too long, rendering the World Series anticlimactic. (Quick, name all ten teams that made the post-season.) If we can’t shorten the playoffs (or, as you think of them, playoff$), then we can certainly shorten the regular ...

Torre, Tony LaRussa were announced today as among 12 candidates on the Expansion Era ballot for election to the baseball Hall of Fame.

Former Cardinals managers Tony La Russa and Joe Torre, who also starred for the Cardinals, and former All-Star catcher Ted Simmons were announced today as among 12 candidates on the Expansion Era ballot for election to the baseball Hall of Fame.

..........

The other candidates are former managers Bobby Cox and Billy Martin, former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, former players’ association head Marvin Miller and former players Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker, Dan ...

OT: The Soccer Thread, November 2013

Some of the remaining big games this month:

November 4th: Aberdeen vs Partick Thistle!
November 5th: Champions League group games highlighted by Juventus vs Real Madrid. Evil will win.
November 6th: More Champions League. A much better slate of games than Tuesday. Good luck deciding what to watch. At night, the MLS playoffs continue with NY vs Houston and SKC vs New England.
November 7th: The Intertoto Cup, as David Pleat still calls it. Tottenham faces Sheriff at the Lane. MLS playoffs ...

Thoma: Wave of novice managers picked to be dugout puppets

These unholy creations hold the strings to your baseball life!

My theory: This is another step in the long-term erosion of managerial power and authority.

In Mack’s heyday, managers were in charge of everything. Managers made the trades for established players, decided which minor leaguers to acquire, established the lineups and called the shots.

It was too much for most men. Certain aspects of the job were delegated out. General managers first took over the job of finding new talent, then ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 11-4-2013

Pittsburgh Press, November 4, 1913:

From Cleveland comes a rumor that the American league men will discuss a proposition from the American association to place clubs in Cleveland and Pittsburg [sic] for the purpose of killing off the Federals in those cities. It is understood that the American association men are anxious to use Forbes Field in the Smoky City and the Naps’ park in Cleveland, with the consent of Owners Dreyfuss and Somers, respectively. But if such a plan should be permitted, the ...

Walk Like A Sabermetrician: End of Season Statistics 2013

Massivo season wrap-up by Patriot.

Runs Created is actually Paul Johnson’s ERP, more or less. Ideally, I would use a custom linear weights formula for the given league, but ERP is just so darn simple and close to the mark that it’s hard to pass up. I still use the term “RC” partially as a homage to Bill James (seriously, I really like and respect him even if I’ve said negative things about RC and Win Shares), and also because it is just a good term. I like the thought put in your head ...

Kerzel: Williams plans to use both analytics and the eye test as first-time manager in bigs

Okay, start at the left and tell me what letters you see GOBBLEDYGOOP.

In his introductory press conference Friday, Williams sure sounded the part of a 21st-century major league manager, as forward-thinking and embracing of the advanced metrics now frequently used to dissect baseball as he was respectful of the game he loves and true to his deep, traditional roots.

On his philosophy on analytics:

“It’s interesting how all of this is part of the game now. It used to be we’d go out and throw ...

SF Gate: MLB may help A’s play in S.F. if no deal - sources

Bobby Murcer ain’t gonna like this one bit…oh, wait…and wait again.

Major League Baseball would help the Oakland A’s move across the bay and play at rival Giants’ AT&T Park in San Francisco if Coliseum officials don’t come to terms on a new short-term lease for the team, sources tell us.

The A’s two-year home stint at AT&T Park, which would start next season, would probably be the first step toward moving the team out of the Bay Area.

The league’s hardball warning was passed on to Coliseum ...

NY Times: In Rodriguez Arbitration, Two Sides Play Hardball

Ms. Moon said that in the affidavit, Ms. Delgadillo recounted visits by M.L.B. investigators to her Miami home in February. On Valentine’s Day, Mr. Mullin, the investigations unit chief who had interviewed Ms. Delgadillo, sent a bouquet of flowers to her home with a note thanking her for her help. When Ms. Delgadillo called Mr. Mullin to thank him, he offered to take her to dinner during his next visit.

Over the following weeks, Ms. Moon said, Mr. Mullin met with Ms. Delgadillo three times, ...

Rangers unlikely to re-sign Joe Nathan after closer declines option

The Rangers and Joe Nathan are almost certain to part ways after two seasons, general manager Jon Daniels said Friday, after the club exercised its option and Nathan, in turn, declined the player portion and became a free agent.

Japan Times: Eagles blank Giants in Game 7, capture first Japan Series title

The ninth inning of Game 7 belonged to Masahiro Tanaka. The moment belonged to all of Tohoku.

One day after throwing 160 pitches in a complete-game loss, Tanaka recorded the final three outs of the Japan Series, and Tohoku finally got a chance to celebrate as their Eagles held off the defending champion Yomiuri Giants 3-0 in Game 7 on Sunday in Kleenex Stadium.

Tanaka finally lost one this season after winning 26 straight, and he did it in Game Six of the Japan Series in a game where they ...

Bill James Mailbag - 10/31/13 - 11/3/13

Bill, are there any teams that don’t make use of the newaadvanced metrics. Ifn not, which teams were the last holdout?

I think the Royals are the last holdout.

I am wondering if you are aware of a review written by Dorothy Rabinowitz in today’s Wall Street Journal of a TV docudrama called “JFK: The Smoking Gun”. The film is somewhat based on the book “Mortal Error”, which you describe in “Popular Crime” as one of the two best books on the assassination. Check out what ...