2006-07 MLB Offseason Thread

[vivalaultra 0]

I guess the Cubs are proving that they're committed to not finishing behind the Pirates again...

 

If Hendry doesn't use some of his Monopoly money to sign some starting pitchers, the Cubs are still gonna lose every game 15-13.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I guess the Cubs are proving that they're committed to not finishing behind the Pirates again...

 

If Hendry doesn't use some of his Monopoly money to sign some starting pitchers, the Cubs are still gonna lose every game 15-13.

They've already got Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Wade Miller. What more do you want?

[Guest NYankees]

Jesus Christ! Mike and the Mad Dog were right early this week when they heart that Soriano would get over 120 million. People might hate the Yankees for having an absurt Payroll but they never gave out absurd single player deals. I hate when teams overspend and they were only bidding against themselves.

 

Derek Jeter getting 10 yrs/$189 million is not absurd or anything.

 

The Yankees didn't set the MARKET RATE with that contract. They only gave Jeter that much after Texas gave AROD 10 years, 250 million. If you want to look at teams setting the Market Rate with bad contracts, look at the Mets giving a scrub #4,5 pitcher like Kris Benson 7/8 million dollars per year. Every crappy pitcher after him got the same fucking deal. This was during the 2004/2005 offseason. My point in the original statement was that the Yankees dont set the Market Rate with bad contracts.

[Mik 0]

I'm sure that Soriano signing will give you guys great comfort next season when they finish about 15-20 games behind a team paying their entire salary for $8M more then he's making by himself.

[vivalaultra 0]

I guess the Cubs are proving that they're committed to not finishing behind the Pirates again...

 

If Hendry doesn't use some of his Monopoly money to sign some starting pitchers, the Cubs are still gonna lose every game 15-13.

They've already got Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Wade Miller. What more do you want?

 

I tried making that joke a few days ago and I got called a "fucking tool"...

[Precious Roy 0]

Soriano will be 31 at the start of spring training next year. A 5 year deal isn't going to kill you if he starts to decline in the last year or two.

 

Personally, he's proven to be a durable player and I think he's going to be good well into his mid 30's, maybe sees a decline in his stolen bases but an upswing in his avg/obp, but it is a bit of a roll of the dice.

 

I just hope he stays in the NL. If Anaheim were to get him they would be very dangerous. My prediction....Chicago Cubs

 

 

I've read that the deal may be 6 years with 2 option years (I would assume mutual or team options) and a no trade through the first 5? If that's true I applaud the Cubbies on this. 8 years guaranteed would be insane.

 

At least in the short-term it gives them an intimidating power trio with Soriano, Lee and Ramirez. I wouldn't want Soriano leading off or playing center though. Ideally for the Cubs they can aquire someone who can fill both those roles. Dave Roberts is the only free agent who really fits the bill, but there would certainly be some trade options. Aren't Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli on the market?

[Annabelle 0]

the cubs have no one to trade for baldelli & crawford.

[Mik 0]

The Marlins are going hard after Baldelli and they have the surplus of pitching to probably make it happen. His contract is not too bad...and he's only set to make $760,000 next year because he missed his incentives last year.

[Fuzzy Dunlop 0]

Okay, guys, let's put this into perspective.

 

Yes, we absolutely DID overpay for Soriano. By a lot. But we all know that if it wasn't us, SOMEbody was going to give him that monster A-Rod-like deal. What this suggets to me is that finally the Cubs are spending that money, and as they said at the start of the offseason they're planning to raise payroll from 85mil to about 120mil, so at the moment they should have like 18 left over, after ARam and Sori. (Sori? We gotta get this guy a nickname.)

 

And I know you guys and honestly myself included wanted the Cubs to go out and get some premier ace pitcher like Schmidt or Zito. Zito's a flyball pitcher, what you don't want at Wrigley, and Schmidt has already stated he'd like to stay on the west coast. This leaves guys like Padilla, Lilly, Meche, or a trade for the Cubs. I've read rumors that the Cubs may try to put some kind of trade together for Westbrook, and I'd be fine with that.

 

Let's not forget it isn't just our pitching that sucked ass last year, our offense was pretty fucking bad too, and we finally got that fixed. Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Barrett, Jones, this should be one hell of a lineup, and with some pitching we could be contenders again this year or next.

 

I know you guys are probably gonna make jokes about me being one of the sterotypical Cubs Apologists, or I'm drinking the Wrigley Kool-Aid or whatever, but I've said what I wanted to say.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Couple of points about the Soriano deal:

 

1- It's one thing to overpay for a player by offering $17 million a year. It's quite different to do it over 8 years. Eight years is an insane amount of time for any baseball contract, especially a 31-year-old who just had a career year

 

2- Soriano has never played centerfield and Wrigley's outfied is tough because of the wind and the wall. Just because he played a good LF last year and has the athleticism you look for in a CFer does not mean he can effectively make the switch.

 

3- Big contracts should be reserved for elite players. Soriano is not an elite player. He has good speed, but he's not a good baserunner. He bats leadoff, but he is ineffective at getting on base. He has power, but its miscast having him bat at the top of the order. You could have gotten a superior player in JD Drew (although he has injury risk) for 5/$60.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Ryan Howard wins the National League MVP.

[hyperchord24 0]

Re: Soriano deal:

 

A lot of people have been saying that there would be a lot of clubs this offseason with a lot of money to spend, but not a lot of quality free agents. So I'm not surprised. Clubs should be, however, overpaying for PITCHING, not bats. Because as everyone should know, pitching matters in the postseason, not how many runs you score

[Precious Roy 0]

Howard won the MVP. Pujols 2nd place, Berkman 3rd.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Nomar resigns with the Dodgers, 2 years / $18.5 mil.

[Brett Favre 0]

Just announced. Pujols got robbed.

[vivalaultra 0]

Two more points about Soriano, is he like...OFFICIALLY 31 or did he get caught up in the Agegate thing? And 8 years? Egads...better hope his legs hold up.

 

And, is he insistent on batting leadoff? If he is, that's going to decrease his value a bit, depending on how well the bottom of the order hits...and where's he gonna play? Is he playing in left and blocking Matt Murton? Hell, I'd stick him at 2nd base and sign Dave Roberts or somebody to play 2nd.

 

I'm glad Berkman got 3rd in the MVP voting.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

And, is he insistent on batting leadoff? If he is, that's going to decrease his value a bit, depending on how well the bottom of the order hits...and where's he gonna play? Is he playing in left and blocking Matt Murton? Hell, I'd stick him at 2nd base and sign Dave Roberts or somebody to play 2nd.

 

According to the Cubs, he is playing centerfield and batting leadoff. Sort of negates his value that way, but hey it's the Cubs we're talking about here.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Howard won the MVP. Pujols 2nd place, Berkman 3rd.

 

Holy shit. Pujols got robbed.

 

EDIT: Pujols had a higher BA, OBP, SLG, OPS+, EQA, VORP and WARP1. He played better defense and his team made the playoffs. I don't really see how you could vote for Howard. More homeruns?

[CanadianChris 0]

Howard won the MVP. Pujols 2nd place, Berkman 3rd.

 

Holy shit. Pujols got robbed.

 

EDIT: Pujols had a higher BA, OBP, SLG, OPS+, EQA, VORP and WARP1. He played better defense and his team made the playoffs. I don't really see how you could vote for Howard. More homeruns?

And more RBI.

 

Rob Neyer said in an article this morning that Screamin' A. Smith wrote that anyone who voted for Pujols "obviously didn't pay attention this season." And then Neyer proceeded to show why anyone like SAS obviously didn't pay attention this season.

 

Only one more to go for Pujols before he ties Bonds in the "MVPs stolen away from" category.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

The Cubs are reportedly interested in Cliff Floyd. While I applaud them for finally spending, someone needs to inform they need to quit acting like the impressionable kid with their birthday money.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I spend too much time reading Baseball Prospectus, SOSH, Fire Joe Morgan and baseball-reference because I didn't even consider Howard more than a novelty candidate because of the gaudy home run and RBI numbers. I thought Pujols was the runaway choice, but then again I always forget that the BBWA are about ten years behind the curve on this sort of stuff.

[naiwf 0]

HR and RBI vs OPS+, WARP, VORP etc.

 

Which stats do you think 90% of the writers and baseball fans are more aware of? There was almost no way Howard wasn't gonna end up winning after the whole "will he set the "clean" single season HR record" BS.

 

That Cubs fan who justified the Soriano deal as a step in the right direction is pretty much how I see the typical Cubs fan. $136 million for Fonzie at 31 is overbidding on A-Rod by $63 million level stupid.

[CanadianChris 0]

HR and RBI vs OPS+, WARP, VORP etc.

 

Which stats do you think 90% of the writers and baseball fans are more aware of? There was almost no way Howard wasn't gonna end up winning after the whole "will he set the "clean" single season HR record" BS.

Everyone should be well aware by now that the stats most important to writers are mostly the ones that don't tell you anything about how good a baseball player really is.

[Guest Felonies!]

Okay, guys, let's put this into perspective.

 

Yes, we absolutely DID overpay for Soriano. By a lot. But we all know that if it wasn't us, SOMEbody was going to give him that monster A-Rod-like deal. What this suggets to me is that finally the Cubs are spending that money, and as they said at the start of the offseason they're planning to raise payroll from 85mil to about 120mil, so at the moment they should have like 18 left over, after ARam and Sori. (Sori? We gotta get this guy a nickname.)

The Cubs spent over $90 million last year. Who cares how much they spend? What does that prove? I have never doubted the Cubs' ability to spend money, but I have doubted their ability to spend it well, and this just proves that: these stupid deals are more public relations and marketing moves than baseball operations moves. Just like signing Lou Piniella, this is just for show, signing the biggest names rather than the best talent. People see Hendry waste $17 million a year on a 30-year-old with a shitty attitude and one, just one, amazing year and go "whoa-oa-oh, the Cubs are playing to win now!", even though it will hardly do much to improve this team. There is no way on Earth that he's ever going to justify this stupid, stupid contract. The Cubs needed pitching, but failed to address that, unless we're counting on Neal Cotts to start, which actually, I think we are. This was a ridiculously dumb allocation of resources for all intents and purposes other than selling the team.

 

Let's not forget it isn't just our pitching that sucked ass last year, our offense was pretty fucking bad too, and we finally got that fixed. Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Barrett, Jones, this should be one hell of a lineup, and with some pitching we could be contenders again this year or next.

Jones is a platoon hitter, don't kid yourself. Mark DeRosa has been an average hitter his entire career, save one year: Soriano on a smaller scale. What happens when these guys inevitably regress to the mean? Maybe Jock and Soriano can sit in the outfield together and pout.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

That, or, sabermetrics are a bunch of made up stats by a small group of nerds that most people have never heard of who think they are better than everyone because they have these superior formulas. Get over it and get a life, statheads, please.

[geniusMoment 0]

That, or, sabermetrics are a bunch of made up stats by a small group of nerds that most people have never heard of who think they are better than everyone because they have these superior formulas. Get over it and get a life, statheads, please.

Commense meltdown in 5-4-3-2-1

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

That, or, sabermetrics are a bunch of made up stats by a small group of nerds that most people have never heard of who think they are better than everyone because they have these superior formulas. Get over it and get a life, statheads, please.

 

Wow, you also make a good point, Jack Bauer. Only nerds think that the best player should win the award. I change my vote to Howard.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

That, or, sabermetrics are a bunch of made up stats by a small group of nerds that most people have never heard of who think they are better than everyone because they have these superior formulas. Get over it and get a life, statheads, please.

I think that if you got away from the statistics and really made an honest appraisal of both players, you'd pick Pujols. The issue isn't that Pujols is an better player when you jump through statistical hoops. It's that voters got impressed with shiny things like home runs and RBIs and ignored pure hitting skill, baserunning and defense. Howard had nine more home runs than Pujols in a hitters' park. That's Howard's advantage. Ryan Howard struck out 131 more times than Albert Pujols.

 

It's far from the worst award ever. Howard is #2 in the National League. It's just infuriating when writers bitch about players who don't "play the game right," and then ignore things that win ballgames.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

My vote would have been for Pujols, by the way. You guys need to calm down when voters don't take things into account like VORP or whatever other crazy stats you can come up with. Do you think somebody like Buster Olney knows what that is?

[tominator89 0]

Congrats to Howard!