Hot Stove Thread 2014-15

Gold Gloves announced:

AL P: Dallas Keuchel
AL C: Salvador Perez
AL 1B: Eric Hosmer
AL 2B: Dustin Pedroia
AL 3B: Kyle Seager
AL SS: J.J. Hardy
AL LF: Alex Gordon
AL CF: Adam Jones
AL RF: Nick Markakis

NL P: Zack Greinke
NL C: Yadier Molina
NL 1B: Adrian Gonzalez
NL 2B: D.J. LaMahieu
NL 3B: Nolan Arenado
NL SS: Andrelton Simmons
NL LF: Christian Yelich
NL CF: Juan Legares
NL RF: Jason Heyward

 

To show how big a joke the Gold Glove is, the Royals' best defensive player wasn't even a finalist. Also, Jeter.

 

Do you mean Cain? I wonder if his even playing-time split between RF & CF was a factor in that.

 

Yeah, Cain. I'm confident he's the best outfielder in the American League. There's no doubt the fact he splits between RF and CF works against him.

 

Trout's not a GG?

 

I don't watch enough AL baseball to get a read on that, but this is Jones' fourth Gold Glove, so it seems he at least has the reputation as a great fielder.

 

At least sabermetrically -- which was a big part of putting the finalist lists together -- Trout has been average or worse for the last couple of years.

 

I do like the fact that they've begun awarding the outfield Gold Gloves by position, instead of just 3 OFs like it's a fantasy baseball team. More often than not, you'd have at least 2 CFs in there.

 

I'd complain about using made up statistics that even the statheads admit don't properly measure what they are designed to measure, but Gold Gloves were already a joke, so no damage done.

 

Alfonso Soriano says he's retiring:

espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/11823539/alfonso-soriano-says-retiring-baseball-lost-love-passion-play

Never thought a guy with his (lack of) plate discipline would hang around as long as he did, but he had a great career: 412 homers and a career slugging percentage of exactly .500 (actually .49987, but what's one decimal point among friends?)

 

I love Soriano. The guy was fun to watch in pinstripes. When the Yankees traded him for A-Rod, I hated to see him go. I understood it was a move the Yankees had to make, acquiring the best player of his generation, but there was something about Soriano that was so much more fun to watch.

My favorite part of watching him play was the way he coiled up before swinging that heavy bat.

 

This may be "dog bites man" at this point, but A-Rod admitted to the DEA he bought and used steroids from Biogenesis:

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/article3578762.html

So more for MLB's "witch hunt."