MLB 2018 - Hope for a 7-game WS so they'll play on Halloween

Not so much an accident as killed during a robbery. The Dominican sounds like a hell of a place to live.

It happened in Venezuela.

I read the comments in the post above mine and they list several countries. One thinking it was one place and another “correcting” him.

So I revise my statement then…“Venezuela sounds like a hell of a place to live.”

Pretty sad, seeing the accidental deaths list

A few deals trickling out here and there. Andrew McCutchen gets 3/50 from the Phillies, which seems like a lot, but OK.

Blue Jays are eating $38m to get Troy Tulowitzki to go away.

I mean it doesn’t seem like all that much when you consider the player he has been and that, despite a down year, he was still a 2.4 WAR player.

3 years seems like a good term for a player who can bring solid offense, but may be a risk of decline. I mean his worst year was 2016, and he bounced back the last two. Maybe he can regain form, maybe not.

I like the upside, and the down side is manageable.

Yeah, looking closer, $16.5m AAV isn’t too bad…even in decline, he should still have value.

The Royals, in a move that surprised nobody, signed Billy Hamilton to a one year, $5.25M deal. It’s only one year, and he really wouldn’t be blocking anyone, so it’s not a back-breaker.

KC really started cranking out the stolen bases the last half of the season, with Whit Merrifield ending up leading the league (Fun Fact: Merrifield now has twice as many stolen base titles as Willie Wilson), and Adalberto Mondesi chipping in 32 in less than half a season. So if that’s the new plan, Hamilton would fit into it. Shame he can’t get on base. Or they could wait for a surge, then flip him, similar to Jon Jay this past season.

A pretty meh move overall, except that Yost will really have to resist putting Hamilton in the leadoff spot.

Hamilton is the most Yostian replacement for Esky.

Agree. Also, I hate talk of ‘leadership’ but in this case, a very young Rhys Hoskins got stuck as a supposed clubhouse leader and I think McCutch takes up some if not all of that mantle. I love the deal. If they’ve got ‘stupid’ money to throw around, why not on one of the most upstanding guys in the game.

Plus, Citizens Bank Park might be kind to his bat…

I tend to think the whole “leadership” thing is overblown, but at the same time as I’ve moved into my…maturity…it’s become terrifying to me that “the locker room” is actually a bunch of guys 25-30 making really good to insane money, utterly consumed by their work, traveling for 100+ days a year.

Some “leadership” in terms of someone they can look up to who shows up to work every Tuesday after a flight to LA that landed at 2am when everyone has been busting ass for three months and still this dude is showing up at the park at 9am even though he already got p-a-i-d…yeah, I can see that being a thing.

I predict Hamilton is going to lead off at least 140 games next year.

It’s only a one year deal and they weren’t going to compete next year anyway but still, this feels like a move the old Royals would make.

At least I can torment my kid with a bunch of lame Hamilton jokes. If only they could pry Burr away from the White Sox.

Someone should ask the millennials about the challenges of all their managers being Xers and Baby Boomers.

Well looks like Trader Jerry got bored and made another trade today. Carlos Santana to the Indians, Edwin Encarnacion to the Mariners. Mariners save about 20 mil in this deal.

CLE gets: Carlos Santana, Jake Bauers, $6m (from SEA)
SEA gets: Edwin Encarnacion, $5m (from TB), Competitive Balance pick (#77, from CLE)
TB gets: Yandy Diaz, Cole Sulser

The cash helps explain the “why” for Cleveland. Yandy has a great eye and elite exit velocity… unfortunately, directly into the ground. If he can get the launch angle up he’ll be a dangerous hitter.

They also got a second-round comp pick.

It’s actually a pretty good move. They dump salary and get an extra pick.

Oh I’m totally onboard with this trade. It saves the Mariners like $20 mil and they are just going to flip Encarnacion for some prospects anyway. No way he is on the 40 man at the start of the year.

Also, trader Jerry finalized this deal while in the hospital. Nothing can stop him from making a trade that involves the Tampa Bay Rays, not even bad health.

I still can’t exactly figure out what Cleveland’s doing. They keep making noise about unloading one of their starting pitchers in Kluber or Bauer to cut a little payroll…but they’re not really cutting payroll with other opportunities they’ve had.

I would be so livid if I were a Cleveland fan.