Around MLB '12-'13 (offseason signings, trades, rumors, ect)

[El Duderino]

5 years @$15 million a year for B.J. Upton? No thank you.

Carlos Gomez must be licking his chops at what he could get if he can put together another decent season. Melvin needs to stay away from free agency this year IMO, unless he can get sometime at a bargain down the road.

Atlanta overpaid as usually is the case in free agency, but get ready to start seeing more and more contracts which initially seem to high or way to high. With all of these bigger money cable TV deals individual teams are signing, the new deals which MLB signed with multiple networks, and baseball attendance being as high as it's ever been, the league overall is swimming in revenues. A good chunk of that money will find it's way to player salaries rising.

[ReasonablySober]

5 years @$15 million a year for B.J. Upton? No thank you.

Carlos Gomez must be licking his chops at what he could get if he can put together another decent season. Melvin needs to stay away from free agency this year IMO, unless he can get sometime at a bargain down the road.

Atlanta overpaid as usually is the case in free agency, but get ready to start seeing more and more contracts which initially seem to high or way to high. With all of these bigger money cable TV deals individual teams are signing, the new deals which MLB signed with multiple networks, and baseball attendance being as high as it's ever been, the league overall is swimming in revenues. A good chunk of that money will find it's way to player salaries rising.

It's completely thrown my sense of what to expect out of whack. The Dodgers or Angels could give Hamilton $200 million and not blink an eye if they thought it was a need.

[Kerb Hohl]

5 years @$15 million a year for B.J. Upton? No thank you.

Carlos Gomez must be licking his chops at what he could get if he can put together another decent season. Melvin needs to stay away from free agency this year IMO, unless he can get sometime at a bargain down the road.

Atlanta overpaid as usually is the case in free agency, but get ready to start seeing more and more contracts which initially seem to high or way to high. With all of these bigger money cable TV deals individual teams are signing, the new deals which MLB signed with multiple networks, and baseball attendance being as high as it's ever been, the league overall is swimming in revenues. A good chunk of that money will find it's way to player salaries rising.

It's completely thrown my sense of what to expect out of whack. The Dodgers or Angels could give Hamilton $200 million and not blink an eye if they thought it was a need.

I realize that it will probably make a lot of these teams better...but at some point, let them. They're just going to end up screwing themselves.

Also, that theory doesn't work as well with the Barves. They apparently have a horrid TV deal for the situation they are in because whatever company it was that acquired their deal got some really lucky 25 year cheap deal according to that article that DB posted a few days back.

[Captain Erv]

8/138 extension for David Wright.

[Captain Erv]

Also, the Pirates had to give Russell Martin $8.5 mil a year for the next two years to try and throw out Brewer baserunners. RIP Rod Barajas.

[ReasonablySober]

I'm not even sure the Upton deal is a bad one. Unlike most deals we're going to see in the hot stove season, at least the Barves are getting his prime years.

[Kerb Hohl]

The question is: which Upton will they see? Guy's OBP hasn't been the same since his first 2 years. He dipped below .300 this year (with some improved slugging).

If he gets anywhere near those first two years in offensive ability, then yeah, they are paying $15 million for a 4 win player which I think is legitimate.

[Captain Erv]

Angels acquire Tommy Hanson from Barves.

[Kerb Hohl]

Relievers seem to be garnering way more value these days. That said, Hanson's velocity continues to decline so if that does not recover, he could be somewhat useless for the rest of his team control anyways.

[wichmae]

Relievers seem to be garnering way more value these days. That said, Hanson's velocity continues to decline so if that does not recover, he could be somewhat useless for the rest of his team control anyways.

Same issue for Walden.

[El Duderino]

Relievers seem to be garnering way more value these days. That said, Hanson's velocity continues to decline so if that does not recover, he could be somewhat useless for the rest of his team control anyways.

Obviously the starting rotation is the biggest key to a good pitching staff, but i do think with how managers today use their bullpens, relievers are more important than they used to be.

So while no team can be good without at least a solid starting rotation, it's also hard to be a playoff team without having a quality back end of the bullpen. Starters today just don't go beyond 7 innings that much anymore, so those late innings guys who pitch the 7th/8th/9th innings of close games end up being a key factor in who wins those close games.

Just look at the last two Brewers seasons. In the playoffs season, that back end of the pen was great and thus the Brewers rarely lost games which were tied or they lead in the last few innings. Last year the back end of the pen was garbage and as a result, one winnable game after another was lost.

Cincinnati/Oakland/Baltimore all finished top 5 in bullpen ERA. Washington was 7th. San Fran was only 15th, but their main late inning guys were very reliable.

[mlloyd10]

Rangers going to sign Soria

http://baseball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/33697/20121203/source_soria_rangers_nearing_two_year_deal/

That sucks, I wanted him on the Brewers

[trwi7]

Haren to the Nationals, 1/13. Love it for the Nats.

[crkone]

Man the rich get richer. Nats rotation is ridiculous.

[Kerb Hohl]

That's obviously the type of pitching move I love, but again, the Cubs turned down essentially getting Haren for free and ridding themselves of Marmol in the process and turned it down. Maybe his back/hip/arm issues are still looming.

[Kerb Hohl]

Also, Deadspin had a great article the other day.

Basically, the MLB is begging the Fox to outbid MASN for rights to the Nats (which Deadspin was LOLing at).

When Montreal was rumored to move to Washington, Peter Angelos of Baltimore basically said "that's cutting into my market." So to make him a deal to agree to the move, they gave him a 90% stake in the ownership share of MASN which will eventually decline down to 70%. So basically, the exciting Nats are making him a ton of money, eating into their profits.

[trwi7]

LOL at the Pirates.

NASHVILLE — This afternoon, I heard in the lobby that the Pirates continued to explore a possible trade that would send first baseman Garrett Jones to the Mariners, but apparently made little progress. The latest report I’ve heard is that the Pirates were rebuffed after offering to send Jones to Seattle for right-hander Taijaun Walker, the Mariners’ top pitching prospect.

[Turk Nowitzki]

The Giants just gave 37 year old Marco Scutaro 3 yrs/$20 million.

They've now spent a combined $78 million on Jeremy Affeldt, Angel Pagan, and Marco Scutaro.

Is this real life?

[Kerb Hohl]

Scutaro is a nice infielder, but holy crap that contract is gonna be bad.

[ReasonablySober]

The Upton, Asdrubal, whatever megadeal probably takes the Rangers out of the Hamilton sweepstakes.