2018 MLB Spring Training Running Thread

The Pirates are the small-market Mets: Making decisions b/c they're cheap and then trying to spin them as part of the grander plan when they stumble into someone better b/c the market has come to them. If Adrian Gonzalez hits like it's 2012, they'll pretend they knew it was coming all along.

The Dickerson DFA is very weird. He's been traded twice now in his prime for relievers, though I suppose you could argue McGee was a good return since the Rockies re-signed him. Still, makes you wonder if there's a personality issue.

 

Dude, you do not pass on a chance to add an All-Star to your team. Jason Vargas, Corey Dickerson -- gotta grab 'em!

 

Interesting take from mlbtraderumors.com

• Rays GM Erik Neander admitted to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that the decision to designate Corey Dickerson for assignment was “very difficult and something he didn’t deserve in that way.” However, the presence of so many corner options on the market were dragging out the Rays’ efforts to trade him, and the DFA served as a means of putting a clock on the process for interested trade parties, which ultimately accelerated the process. “With the market and how many guys were out there, we felt that the best way to try to accomplish something was to put a timer on it and expedite the process,” said Neander.

 

You know what was a great game to play in a newsroom or a bar? Worst MLB All-Star. I enjoyed everybody's takes in a Roger Pavlik vs. Mark Redman fight.

 

Pirates closer Mike Williams in 2003 is one of the all-timers. He had a 6.44 ERA at the time.

Mike Schmidt got voted in as a starter in 1989. Problem was he had retired in May.

 

Part of the reason the Rockies traded Dickerson was the depth of their outfield. Carlos Gonzalez was coming off a 40-home run season. Blackmon had established himself as a star and they had just signed Gerardo Parra, who has a couple of Gold Gloves and Dickerson is not a great defender, so there were some baseball reasons for the move.

 

Mike Sharperson in 1992 from what became a 99-loss Dodgers team.

But the career journeyman was called an All-Star in the headline of his obit when he died in a crash.

 

Scott Boras says teams are paying too much attention to analytics and not enough to Five-Inning Jake’s “prestige value.”

Inside Baseball | Picking Jake Arrieta’s new team

 

My bigger concerns would be 1) Boras and

2) Jake went from suck with the Orioles, to no longer suck with the Cubs. Moving to a new team - will it be a far overpaid return to suck?

 

Boras used to be smarter than the teams. Now the teams are smarter than Boras.

 

Wonder when Boras' #metoo moment is ...

 

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People are also paying attention to the fact you don't want to bring in a 32-year-old pain in the ass.