Astros trade OF Dexter Fowler to the Cubs for 3B Luis Valbuena and P Dan Straily. Astros then sign OF Colby Rasmus, 1yr/$8mil, to fill Fowler's spot in the OF. Assuming it'll be Springer-Rasmus-Marisnick in the OF for Houston when the season starts. However, they do have a few guys who could rotate at the corner outfield spots if they want to keep Marisnick in the minors for a couple of months. They have Evan Gattis, who is awful defensively; LJ Hoes, a career 5th-at-best OF; Robbie Grossman, their 4th OF; Chris Carter, their DH. I assume that they're going to bench Jon Singleton in short order because dude couldn't hit his weight last season (.168, come on dude) and they need run production. So that'd mean: C - Jason Castro/Hank Conger (assuming they flip Carlos Corporan to another team; they've fielded calls on him all winter) 1B - Chris Carter 2B - Jose Altuve SS - Jed Lowrie 3B - Luis Valbuena LF - George Springer CF - Colby Rasmus RF - Jake Marisnick DH - Evan Gattis Bench - Robbie Grossman, Jon Singleton, Jon Villar, Matt Dominguez, Marwin Gonzalez Rotation - Keuchel-Feldman-McHugh-Oberholtzer-Vogelsong Bullpen - Pat Neshek, Luke Gregerson, Tony Sipp, Chad Qualls, Samuel Deduno, Dan Straily? Minors - Domingo Santana, Max Stassi, Alex Presley
also, this is fucked up, right? Anyone? http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/20/major-league-baseball-puts-fred-wilpon-in-charge-of-its-finance-committee-no-really-im-not-joking/ The Wilpons have no business being near large sums of money anytime soon. Rob Manfred is a shill, that much is already clear and this news just serves to enhance that notion. I hope I never pine for the Bud Selig Era, but Manfred's actions and recent past actions are already concerning me. Also, Yovani Gallardo to the Rangers for Luis Sardinas and a couple other minor-league prospects. Word is the Rangers will try to lock Gallardo up to a long-term deal before he hits FA after this season. He's not a superstar, but a lockdown 3/4 starter will get at least $75-85mil on the open market over 5-6yrs.
nats are looking scary good after signing scherzer. favorites to win it all now thats gotta be one of the best pitching rotations ive seen in a long time. hopefully they can hang onto jordan zimmerman and strasburg, but if one had to go i'd definitely prefer it be stras
I wonder when is the last time a team with #1 odds to win the world series before the season actually did it though. I don't feel like googling the ws odds of every season but I wouldn't be surprised if it went back several years. the best team on paper rarely wins it. my early pick to come out of the NL... the Pirates. also... that deal scherzer got is ridiculous. glad the tigers didn't sign him.
point is who's gonna rival that rotation.. dodgers coulda had one of the best of all time had they signed scherzer
giants and red sox, the last two ws champs both had pretty average rotations. the tigers have pretty much had the best rotation in baseball the last 4 years and couldn't get it done for various reasons each year. in general the team with the best balance of starting pitching, defense, power, speed and bullpen is going to go far. the royals last year actually had a pretty weak rotation but an elite bullpen, great defense, speed on the bases and decent hitters. the giants had like, 2.5 really good starters.
Whoops, thanks for the correction. Well, the Nationals splurged and made him the 2nd most richest pitcher. Wonder how much Bumgarner will make once his contract is up or he wins another ring?!
yeah that surprised me, because that nats were pretty much the last team who needed to sign an ace. bumgarner's gonna get that $$$ when his time comes. He'll only be 27 when his current contract is up and he's already proven he's really good. assuming he keeps up what he's done the past few seasons, and there's no reason to believe he won't.
^Top 3 shortstop all time. Ted Lilly charged with felony insurance fraud for trying to snake $4600 from Progressive Insurance. Ted Lilly made over eighty million dollars in his career.
Madbum seems like the kind of guy that might take a discount to stay in SF, it will be interesting to see what he asks for.
hahahahahahahahahaha http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/30/joe-kelly-said-hes-going-to-win-the-2015-al-cy-young-award/
Super pumped for this season. I feel like there is a crazy amount of young talent in the league right now. The Sox have quite a few shiny new pieces, would be epic to go worst to first to worst to first.
they probably will, mostly because the rest of the AL east isn't impressive at all. james shields expected to sign by the end of the week. I'm thinking he ends up in dodger blue.
The O's will be pretty good. Machado coming back is huge, I hate that little dick but he has the potential to be a perennial all star. The Jays have a fucking mean lineup, maybe this is the year they actually hold it together. The yanks are going to win 80 games but will be a tough game all season long. I'm not to confident until I can actually see this on the field.
The O's lost the MLB home run leader. They'll still probably be pretty good, and I wouldn't be surprised if they make the playoffs, but I think boston beats them for the division. toronto is good on paper but idk. I feel like we've been predicting they'll finally break out for the last 2-4 years. yankees haven't done much to get any better, and tampa bay will be cellar dwellers. also... this never gets old lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWQbN0jFo_k
Napoli had a fucking knarly sleep apnea surgery. They broke his top and bottom jaws and moved them forward to create more space to breath. He hasn't been able to get a full nights sleep for years, I'm expecting a good year. Not 2011 good, but I wouldn't be shocked to see 30 bombs. How long until pitchers and catchers?
and of you guys gonna watch the cuba vs venezuela game tonight? I can't find it on tv. I'm pretty sure it's on a channel I don't get. Might try to stream it.