2015/16 Offseason: More active than Shakira's hips

[Quake Griffin]

he's pretty old to be carrying that kinda weight though right?


Not what I came back here for.
Kenley Jansen…free agent at the end of this year.
Any concern that we haven't extended him? Apparently he was upset about Aroldis.
Not many relief arms stay good for this long. Mariano is the extreme exception…but him, Aroldis and Kimbrel are as well. Most guys flame out after a while. They're expendable.

Extend him?
Let him walk/ Get a pick for him?
Is the relationship already broken?
will be 29 at the end of the year….will probably get a 4 year deal…I guess the question is the AAV...

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/695294547178491904[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/695315622691889152[/tweet]

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/695260444064284674[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/695286796532342786[/tweet]

[Neddy]

he's pretty old to be carrying that kinda weight though right?

Not what I came back here for.
Kenley Jansen…free agent at the end of this year.
Any concern that we haven't extended him? Apparently he was upset about Aroldis.
Not many relief arms stay good for this long. Mariano is the extreme exception…but him, Aroldis and Kimbrel are as well. Most guys flame out after a while. They're expendable.

Extend him?
Let him walk/ Get a pick for him?
Is the relationship already broken?
will be 29 at the end of the year….will probably get a 4 year deal…I guess the question is the AAV...

even at Lee's age, he is a right handed Gonzo. he is a superb gap hitter with power, a ton of doubles and RBIs with a couple of douzen HRs a season while always hitting around .300. he's got good OBP too and no he actually lost a to of weight recently. he was always hovering around 300 LBS in Korea, got down a little in Japan due to their coaches demanding weight loss, and from everything I have read, he lost a ton to impress American scouts and yet was told he was too fat. but the guy can hit.

as for Jensen, only time we may suffer from his contract, if the going rate for a top closer is overblown, would be 2017 season. after that I don't think it matters what we pay him or if he underperforms as our payroll would probably decline drastically, Im sure this is the reason behind all these deferred contracts too. but he is also someone guaranteed to be signed if QO was given, so if we have a plan to convert say, Alex Wood or Montas as the future closer and they show plenty of signs to do the job, hey why not. Im still on the side of signing him tho.

[Quake Griffin]

Hey when does the QO penalty come off of FAs?
I feel like Ranma just mentioned it.


Again…I'm bored. Let me cook though…LMAO.
Ian Desmond looks like he's gonna get there and when the draft compensation comes off of him….he'd be nice depth at a decent number for Blue.

[Ranma]

I'm not aware of an expiration date for draft pick compensation tied to free agents who declined the qualifying offer. However, I read somewhere at the start of the off-season that if such free agents sign after the upcoming draft, the signing team loses its pick in the following draft. I don't think that has ever been tested, but I was previously wrong about not losing two first-round picks for signing multiple free agents.

The reporter who is credited for the report on the White Sox and Dodgers' trade discussions noted in the video below that the hang-up in the talks is that the Dodgers are looking for high-level young talent if we are including significant money in the deal to offset Ethier's contract. Rosenthal in another video said his sources, likely from Chicago's side, are saying the White Sox's interest in Ethier has been "overstated".

The White Sox definitely look interested in Ethier but are trying to downplay how much they want to make a deal. There are other options for them, but Ethier seems like their best proposition. However, everyone is aware that the Dodgers are inclined to move an outfielder, especially with Ethier's 10-and-5 rights about to kick in. Zaidi, in yet another video, stated that Ethier is an important part of the team right now, which is a transparent attempt to tell other teams that the Dodgers are not in a rush to make a deal at the moment. Well, how about when we get closer to Spring Training?

There has also been some talk on the MLB Network of how Ethier would be a good fit in Yankee Stadium. Maybe a swap of Ethier for Andrew Miller can be worked out. In any case, I'd try to engage the Yankees in talks to provide some urgency in the negotiations with the White Sox.

[Quake Griffin]

Nice with the link. I'm so bored waiting for baseball to start and I don't have MLBtv out here like when I'm in LA.

Gotta LOL at Smoltz saying he doesnt understand what the Dodgers are doing.
Not really a fan of the passive aggressive attempt at jabbing our front office. They're not perfect but they deserve a little more respect than those subtle remarks….and it's very clear what the Dodgers are doing.

You just watched Dave Stewart send out an SP and a solid prospect for Jean Segura to save $4 million (LMAO!) and the Dodgers get the "I'm confused by the Dodgers and their direction" flow?

[Ranma]

There were implications that the Dodgers and White Sox were also discussing Puig, but I dismissed them because I was under the impression that they would prefer Ethier due to their right-handed heavy lineup. However, the article cited below quotes a source presumably within the Dodgers' organization as saying that the White Sox called about Puig with the Dodgers steering talks toward Ethier and Crawford instead.

I guess the "overstated" interest in Ethier is true, after all. I still hope the Dodgers hold out for the "high-level young talent" they are asking for with Spencer Adams still my preferred target. Anyway, Puig is not available and Ethier is still Chicago's best available option IMO. Get the Yankees on the phone as well and take the best deal offered between those two AL clubs.

Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times (2/4/16)

Friedman declined to say whether he was in trade discussions with the Chicago White Sox. However, there is little traction in talks between the teams, according to a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly. The White Sox approached the Dodgers about Yasiel Puig — apparently in the hope that fellow Cuban Jose Abreu might bring out the best in Puig — and the Dodgers instead tried to interest the White Sox in Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford.

A New Season Means a New Role for Howie Kendrick

[Quake Griffin]

Howie Kendrick, whose two-year, $20MM contract with the Dodgers became official today, will see time not only at second base but also at third base in 2016, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters, including Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times, on today’s conference call. “He expressed a willingness to play different spots,” said Friedman of Kendrick. “That’s when things kind of accelerated.” Friedman said there could be as many as 1400 at-bats to go around between Kendrick, Chase Utley and Enrique Hernandez, with each expected to play multiple positions. As Shaikin notes, Kendrick’s willingness to play third base is of particular importance given Justin Turner’s offseason knee surgery and the fact that Turner has never played more than 126 games in a season before.

just looking at MLB Trade Rumors

400 some odd at bats for all three.
that's a hell of a lot tbh. I figured the number might be lower.

[Quake Griffin]

Was just reading the Howie Kendrick article on bleacher report ON MY PHONE (i'll have to find it to link it later). Now it's become more than just Rosenthal talking about it to me. He said nobody was calling and seems really annoyed that he did not get to enjoy his shot at free agency.
I trust him to be a professional because that's the only thing I've ever known Howie to be.

But I suspect watching a 34 year old Zobrist get 4 for $56 mill has to irk the hell out of him.

I'm always going to back the Dodgers first but it really does suck that he he missed out on tons of money because a few guys in some suits gave him an offer he rejected.

[Quake Griffin]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2016/02/04/dodgers-howie-kendrick-mlb-free-agent-system-s-hurting-everybody/79816870/
One I was reading was on bleacher report but I guess it's the same substance.


Didn't know his deal has deferred payments in it as well.
Pay him and Kazmir during the 2017 and 2018 years when a lot of the salary has come off the books? That's the motto?

[Ranma]

I do think the system for compensating teams for losing free agents need to be changed, but I don't expect anything drastic to happen since baseball takes pride in operating differently from other sports in order to allow the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, and Dodgers to be among its premier teams perennially.

Having said that, I have little sympathy for free agents who lose out on market conditions when they were offered a safety net like the qualifying offer to begin with. They pay certified agents who are supposed to read the market for them. Teams lose out every year because free agents go to the highest bidder, but when things don't work out for them, then they cry foul? Come on. His camp misread the market. Tough luck. It sucks that it happened to Howie and I expect him to continue being a professional, but we would have preferred he signed somewhere else too. Heck, we lost Greinke because another team made an ill-advised offer for short-term gain at the expense of long-term health. The Dodgers moved on and focused on depth moves. Maybe Kendrick and his agent should have had contingencies lined up just like the Dodgers did. He rolled the dice and came up snake eyes.

I suspect deferment of money in the Kazmir and Kendrick deals just save us in payroll taxes, which couldn't hurt. Unlike the Maeda contract, I don't think they were deal-breakers for the K & K offers. For Kazmir, the deferment was probably a concession for him to have the opt-out after 2016 in his 3-year deal. Kendrick probably just wanted to get a deal done as soon as possible given the lack of serious interest this late in the off-season.

[Neddy]

seeing how some of the guys from the far east are leaving big money on the table just to follow their dreams of playing in the bigs, I don't have much sympathy for our guys who cry wolf after turning down QOs that would have paid them 15.8 million guaranteed for one year of their service. Lee of the Mariners walked away from becoming the highest paid foreign player in the history of all of Japan to be a spring invitee for the ballclub of Seattle. Park of the Twins also walked away from (slightly) more money on the table to become a DH for the St. Paul/Minneapolis club. our own Maeda could have taken much better guaranteed money from other clubs in Japan if he was to wait for his free agency and sign with big money clubs such as the Yomiuri Giants or HanShin Tigers, but he chose a comparrible deal from the cash poor Hiroshima(the only independent ball club of NPB without a corporate ownership) to LA for the guaranteed portion then incentives that are unlikely to meet for the max at any part of the duration of his contract, a type of a deal that the Japanese media has called a "slave contract".

and besides, as Ranma have mentioned, if a well paid agent says he was floored with the lack of interest from teams with draft pick attached to his client when that agent advised his client to turn down the QO, he outta get fired.

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/697866627304583168[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

that is so important to our team.

We need that roster spot that he is clogging up filled up.
eat his salary if you have to.

[Quake Griffin]

http://www.am570lasports.com/media/play/26720700


Young Joc on the radio.

[Quake Griffin]

So Frankie Montas is out 2-4 months because he had a rib removed.


smfh.

anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
that's ST, opening day and the 1st month of the season almost.

[Neddy]

So Frankie Montas is out 2-4 months because he had a rib removed.


smfh.

anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
that's ST, opening day and the 1st month of the season almost.

sounds like a thoracic outlet syndrome. this is gonna be a much more career threatening type of an injury to come back from than Ryu's shoulder scope. hope he can come back strong, and I wonder if this makes him more likely to be a bullpen arm when he does make it back.

[Quake Griffin]

Everything I read says he had a stress reaction there? Does that have anything to do with thoracic outlet syndrome? When Beckett had that, he had to sit out the rest of the year.


Anybody have anymore news on this?
This is really annoying.

[Neddy]

Everything I read says he had a stress reaction there? Does that have anything to do with thoracic outlet syndrome? When Beckett had that, he had to sit out the rest of the year.


Anybody have anymore news on this?
This is really annoying.

tomorrow is gonna be busy with family stuff so I took my wife out for our valentines date all day, bars, book store, movies, Japanese restaurant for dinner... and didn't have time to look into this matter other than reading a single article on bleacher report and from what I read, they had to remove his top upper right rib... there is only one medical procedure that I know of which involves such drastic measure, and it's thoracic outlet syndrome. it is possible that the article I came across was not credible, as it is bleacher report after all, also it is possible there are other procedures in baseball that involves removing the same rib for different reasons that are much benign. but if neither is not the truth and the first article I read was right, then our young strike out artist we got from the southsiders must have dealt with numbness on his fingertips long before he was traded and the Sox pulled a fastone on us which now makes it clear why the Reds passed on the WhiteSucks package and preferred ours. maybe our front office also knew about the injury and yet the prognosis was favorable, or maybe even knowing the risk the benefits outweighted the potential loss here but as long as they removed his top upper right rib, and as far as I know Montas is a rightie, then it is due to a compressed nerve.

anywho, I'm going to Arizona this year again, to watch our beloved Dodgers in action in early March. from 10th through 13th. if you guys are gonna come out, let me know early to make some arrangements. my wife and I are gonna be attending the game against Angels and the Cubs. can't wait for baseball to start!!!!