“Natural Hitter My Ass”:  The perfect swing and complicated lfie of Ted Williams

That’s one long biography—800-plus pages.  Although the review is largely complimentary, it makes it clear that there is some deadwood.  Can’t tell how much new information is presented.  Williams seems to attract extended biographies.

George Castle: Broadcasters Would Bring Knowledgeability to Flawed Hall of Fame Voting

I guess John Sterling’s voice doesn’t carry past the moat and into the Castle…

Full disclosure: I’m not a BBWAA member despite covering baseball for more than three decades based in Chicago, and two decades for a sizeable daily newspaper. Even in Cliff Notes form, the politics of why I’m not a member is too thick and involved to discuss here. That’s best left as a book chapter or three. Suffice it to say, I’d still believe the following thought process if I was on the inside looking ...

Mariners willing to offer Robinson Cano a 10-year, $240 million deal

Seattle: The killing just got renewed.

Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes reports that Robinson Cano flew to Seattle to meet with the Mariners today and they’re willing to offer him a 10-year contract worth as much as $240 million.

Previous reports claim the Yankees aren’t willing to go as high as $200 million, so if Rojas’ information is correct the money isn’t even close.

Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik predictably declined to comment about Cano specifically when asked ...

Dave Winfield joins MLBPA staff

First union exec in the Hall Of Fame.

Winfield spent 15 of his 22 big league seasons as a player representative. He also served as a founding member of the advisory board of the Major League Baseball Players Trust, which was founded in 1996.

“As a former union leader, I’m thrilled to be joining the ranks of the most accomplished and respected sports union in the country to help provide a generational link and historical perspective to today’s players,” said Winfield in a statement Thursday.

...Read More...

eddieot Posted: December 05, 2013 at 03:47 PM | 2 comment(s)
  Beats: dave winfield, hof, michael weiner, mlbpa, padres, tony clark, yankees

Deadspin: Who should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame

I’m going to guess that the Deadspin ballot ends up being better than 90% of the writer submitted ballots.

To recap, we have purchased a vote from a veteran member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on behalf of the Deadspin readership, which will vote through the polls below. You’re free to vote for or against as many or as few candidates as you wish; the results will be kept hidden for now so as to prevent Hall of Fame officials from cross-checking our results against the ...

Royals get outfielder Aoki from Brewers for Will Smith

Dayton just don’t understand.

Aoki, 31, is a left-handed hitter who spent the last two years with the Brewers after eight seasons at Yakult in Japan’s Central League. He batted .286 last season with a .356 on-base percentage in 155 games.

Smith, 24, blossomed last season after shifting to the bullpen and emerged in the closing weeks as one of the club’s primary setup relievers for All-Star closer Greg Holland.

Aoki spent most of the last two seasons as the Brewers’ leadoff hitter and ...

Keith Olbermann: The Jacoby Ellsbury Deal? It Stinks.

You don’t assign Olbermann to anti-Yankee cases, You just turn him loose!

Sansevere: Stingy Hall of Fame voters likely to snub Morris

Sansevere HOF ballot? Not in this case!

HOF Ballot - Morris, Maddux, Glavine, F. Thomas, Bonds, Clemens, Mussina, R. Palmeiro, Sosa, Schilling.

Baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot arrived in the mail this week. I have put a check mark next to Jack Morris’ name on my ballot every year. I will do it again this year.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear Morris will make it into the Hall of Fame in his final year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. There is just too much ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-5-2013

Phillies manager Red Dooin, quoted in the Pittsburgh Press, December 5, 1913:

The sacrifice play, in my opinion, should not be worked very often. Here is the way I figure it out:

We get a man on first base with no one out. The next man sacrifices and puts the runner on second. Then the next man has to hit it safe. If he doesn’t you have wasted two of your men and it is up to the last chance of the inning.

By Jove, I think you’ve got it!

Well, sort of. Dooin’s Phils led the league in ...

Abraham: For Jacoby Ellsbury, it was a one-way street out of town

Jacobiy: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Deal* (*But Were Afraid to Ask).

Players prioritize different things. Ellsbury’s priority was getting every dime he could, and good for him. All of us, no matter what we do for a living, want what we’re worth. In this market, he was worth $153 million to the Yankees, an aging third-place team that built a stadium they can’t fill very often.

He was not worth that to the Red Sox, a team with a smaller payroll and a significantly better ...

Baseball America: 2014 San Diego Padres Top 10 Prospects

Wonder if Bill James was jadingly pleased that Elias Borunda went 0-9 his final season at AAA…

TOP 10 PROSPECTS

1. Austin Hedges, c
2. Matt Wisler, rhp
3. Max Fried, lhp
4. Hunter Renfroe, of
5. Casey Kelly, rhp
6. Rymer Liriano, of
7. Jace Peterson, ss
8. Burch Smith, rhp
9. Keyvius Sampson, rhp
10. Joe Ross, rhp

Down on the farm, the Padres have one of the top catching prospects in the game (Austin Hedges), one of the top lefthanders (Max Fried) and one of the most unheralded righties ...

NY Times: How Yanks May Proceed, Cano or No Cano

Major League Baseball has been negotiating a new posting system with its counterparts in Japan, and it sent over its latest proposal Wednesday. Under the proposed system, teams would be allowed to make a maximum bid of $20 million, according to two people who have been briefed on the negotiations. If more than one team bids the maximum, the player will be free to negotiate with all of them.

A team making the highest bid would have exclusive rights to negotiate with the player. [...]

Under ...

Matinale: Sean Casey misinforms again but he’s not alone

Casey leaves the underground and stops inside the golden triple crown stats…

Sean Casey today on MBL Clubhouse Confidential with no challenge from host Brian Kenny assured us that Prince Fielder lost home runs playing in Detroit for two years.  I looked it up.

2012: 18 home, 12 road
2013: 13 home, 12 road

We hear this junk all the time because people don’t bother to check.  For instance that both Brian McCann and Jacoby Ellsbury will hit a lot of home runs because they will be playing their ...

Keri: MLB Trade Value Rankings, Part 1

Expos yourself to the latest long form Keri.

Welcome to the second edition of Grantland’s MLB Trade Value Rankings, where we’ll try to make sense of it all by addressing the question that fuels so many bar-room debates: Would you trade this guy for that guy? Answering that requires engaging in a thought experiment. We must first assume that every team has made every player available via trade. Then, we must take contracts into account. Baseball players tend to peak in their mid-to-late ...

Paul Konerko to return to White Sox

Wonder if he’s going to hit .400 agai…oh, wait.

Konerko signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract, in which he will receive $1.5 million in 2014 and $1 million in 2021.

“I’m looking forward to coming back in a new role where I can help both the organization and my teammates get turned around in the right direction and also do some productive things on the field,” Konerko said in a Sox release.

Konerko, a 37-year-old first baseman/designated hitter, was deciding whether to return to the ...

Verducci: Morris Deserves Spot in Hall of Fame

A lot of people on this site have been asking for a credible Jack Morris Hall of Fame argument.  It won’t convince everyone (especially around here) but Verducci gives it an honest shot. 

2014 ZiPS Projections - Philadelphia Phillies

On the Media: Inside NFL Football, the Downfall of Lenny Dykstra, and More

Former baseball player Lenny “Dude” Dykstra has become a seemingly endless fount of stories for sports reporters who cover scandal. He’s been arrested for grand theft auto and drug possession, declared bankruptcy, and been accused of bouncing a check to a prostitute. Philadelphia sports writer Frank Fitzpatrick has been covering Dykstra since before his fall from grace, and in an interview that originally aired in 2011, he talks to Bob about how sports writers can be complicit in the bad ...

Rosenthal: On ‘second’ thought, Reds unlikely to trade Phillips

For much of the offseason, many in baseball expected the Cincinnati Reds to trade second baseman Brandon Phillips.

A deal, however, appears increasingly unlikely, according to major league sources.

The Reds discussed Phillips with the New York Yankees earlier in the offseason, and later received inquiries from teams on his 10-team no-trade list. None of those discussions was serious, sources said.

A trade still is possible if a team makes a substantial offer, but the Reds are not actively ...

Mike Lupica on D&C: ‘Mystified’ by Yankees’ ‘dumber contract’ with Jacoby Ellsbury

“What the one doesn’t have, the other is missing.”

“Jacoby Ellsbury has been on two World Series-winning teams, I love watching him play baseball, has anybody ever thought of him as being one of the top five players in baseball?” Lupica said, adding: “And now you’re paying him like one of the very best players in baseball, even though he’s three or four years past the best numbers he’s ever put in the books?”

The deal, orchestrated by agent Scott Boras, is similar to what Carl ...

Avalanche coach Patrick Roy ‘not into’ sabermetrics

and you can’t spell stats without Stastny!

“I think as the Internet gets bigger and social media gets bigger, the stats get more magnified,” Avs center Paul Stastny said. “But in hockey, a lot of stats stuff is out of your control. You can do everything right and might still get scored on. I think too much of hockey is still all about character, and that’s something you can’t see on paper. In baseball, you have four hours to sit there and look at stats. I think that’s why it’s so big.”

...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-4-2013

Gyroball.

Pearlman: Ellis Valentine: addiction, life after sports & the beanball that changed his life

White Light/White Heat/White Rat goin’ messin’ up my mind.

JP: May 30th, 1980, you’re playing the St. Louis Cardinals, you’re hit in the head by Roy Thomas and a fractured cheekbone …

EV: By a manager, probably, and I do believe this to this day that I was probably intentionally thrown at because pitchers do do that; people try to sit here and say the ball just got away. Sorry; excuse my language. That’s bullcrap, ok? They don’t just get away. They don’t hit little .220 hitters ...

Yankees close to deal with Kelly Johnson, who could replace Robinson Cano

Yankees: Maximizing the Kelly strategy.

The team is close to a one-year deal for versatile infielder Kelly Johnson, according to the New York Post. The deal will be worth about $2.75 million to $3 million.

Johnson, who turns 32 in February, has played second base for much of his career. But he’s also spent time as a left fielder and third baseman. As they Yankees pressure Robinson Cano to decrease his contract demands, Johnson serves as a reasonable alternative. He could also fill in for ...

Rockies To Sign Justin Morneau

In the tradition of “Dumping Doug Fister So You Can Afford Joe Nathan” comes “Dumping Dexter Fowler So You Can…”

The Rockies have agreed to sign Justin Morneau to a two-year deal worth roughly $13MM, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter).

Morneau hit .259/.323/.411 with 17 homers in 2013, a slash line is a slight improvement over that of a league-average hitter, and his .152 isolated power mark is also slightly above the league average of .146.

...Read More...

The District Attorney Posted: December 03, 2013 at 11:12 PM | 8 comment(s)
  Beats: free agents, justin morneau, pirates, rockies, transactions

Phillies Acquire Brad Lincoln

The world will little note, nor long remember…

The Phillies announced that they acquired right-handed pitcher Brad Lincoln from the Blue Jays in exchange for catcher Erik Kratz and minor league left-hander Rob Rasmussen.

Lincoln, 28, appeared in 22 games for Toronto in 2013 and posted a 3.98 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 6.3 BB/9…

Rasmussen combined to post a 4.11 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in 28 games (24 starts) for the Dodgers Triple-A and Double-A affiliates.

Kratz, 33, hit just ...

Ellsbury getting close to a seven-year deal with the Yankees - CBSSports.com

Hmm.

Marlins To Sign Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Update: Jarrod Saltalamacchia and #Marlins have agreed in principle to three-year, $21 millon contract

Rockies trade Dexter Fowler to Astros for Jordan Lyles, Brandon Barnes

The Astros have acquired center fielder Dexter Fowler and a player to be named later from the Rockies in exchange for right-hander Jordan Lyles and outfielder Brandon Barnes, both teams announced.

Thanks to JJ.

Posnanski: The 100 Greatest Baseball Players Ever

Ritter/Honig in on #1!

1. Every player is eligible. So, pre-1900 players, Negro Leagues players, legendary talents who never made it to the Majors, Japanese players, everybody is eligible.

2. I rank the players entirely on their play on the field (and whatever other subtle and helpful baseball qualities I could glean out of their careers)...

3. I rank the players using my own judgments — it wouldn’t be fun any other way…

Well, as Marty DeBergi says, enough of my yapping. The 100 ...