Baseball offseason, let's get ready for 2014.

[rumpleforeskiin]

Jesse Crain agrees with Astros

HOUSTON -- All-Star free-agent reliever Jesse Crain has agreed to a one-year deal with the Houston Astros.

esse Crain made the AL All-Star team last season with a 0.74 ERA in 37 appearances, including a streak of 29 straight appearances without allowing a run.

Financial terms were not released.

Crain made the All-Star team last season with a 0.74 ERA in 37 appearances for the White Sox. He had a streak of 29 straight appearances without allowing a run from April 17 to June 22. Crain was traded to Tampa Bay on July 29, but didn't appear in a game for the Rays because of a right shoulder strain.

Another one slips away from the somnambulant (someone wanna define that one for iggy, please?) Brian Cashdollar. With Spring Training just six weeks away, one wonders if the pitching-poor Yankees are going to go into the 2014 season without a bullpen.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

41 years ago, we lost a great baseball player & a great person.

While he would not have garnered 3000 hits, the fact is that had Roberto Clemente spent a few more years in the minor leagues, his .834 career ops would have been considerably higher.

Clemente was taken by a very poor Pittsburgh club in the Rule 5 draft from the Montreal Royals, the Brooklyn farm club. The rules state that a player taken in that draft MUST spend the entire following year with the major league club. Five mediocre years later, Clemente, now 25, blossomed into a star in in 1960, leading the Pirates to a World Championship over the New York Yankees. That was a great club: Dick Groat, Bill Mazeroski, Elroy Face, Bob Friend, Harvey Haddix, and Vinegar Bend Mizell.

Two other members of that club were also veterans of Delormier Stadium in Montreal, Don Hoak, who spent 1952-1953 as a Royal, and Gino Cimoli, who spent parts of 5 years in Montreal, before joining the Dodgers.

 

[smuler]

Amen to that.

Even though I was very small at the time, I remember when he came to Shea, we knew it wouldn't be a good couple days in Met-town

All around player..

don't ever run on his arm...

Best Regards

Smuler

 

[EagerBeaver]

I am also old enough to remember Clemente, although I was very young. The 1971 World Series is the 1st one I can remember and Clemente was MVP. I was rooting for Pittsburgh, as we lived there for a short time. Baltimore had a great pitching staff but they could not get Clemente out....Steve Blass was also huge in that World Series. 2 complete games, 2-0, allowed one run.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

I've been saying right along that I thought the Mariners are the most likely landing spot for Masahiro Tanaka, for the simple reason that the signing of Robinson Cano simply doesn't make sense without their making another big signing to put them into contention, which, by the way, they will be with a rotation of Hernandez, Iwakuma, Tanaka, and Walker. The fact that Tanaka was a teammate of Iwakuma in Japan for five years also aides the Mariners in gaining this acquisition.

It now appears to be common belief that the Mariners lead the way. This from BA:

The Mariners have money to spend. They have a new regional television contract that will pay them $2 billion over 17 years. The Mariners showed off their deep pockets earlier this offseason by signing Robinson Cano to a 10-year, $240 million contract, outbidding everyone by a wide margin.

Seattle owes around $47 million to Cano and Felix Hernandez next season, but beyond them, the team doesn’t have much on the books. There’s $6.5 million for Hisashi Iwakuma, $6 million for Corey Hart, then nobody guaranteed and projected to earn more than $3 million through arbitration. With only around $67 million in contracts before arbitration tied up, the Mariners have plenty of space to sign Tanaka.

 

[Special K]

Don't tell the YankeeFanboys this yet Rumps, they still think Brain Fartman is drawing up the 2014 parade route centered around Tanaka.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Don't tell the YankeeFanboys this yet Rumps, they still think Brain Fartman is drawing up the 2014 parade route centered around Tanaka.

My sense is that baseball has been so painful for them that the poor schlubs are probably numb by now anyway.

 

[Joe.t]

Tanaka will be more Darvish than confirmed bust Matsuzaka according to columnist Greg Doyel.


http://www.cbssports.com/general/wr...r-tanaka-will-be-much-more-darvish-than-dicek

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Tanaka will be more Darvish than confirmed bust Matsuzaka according to columnist Greg Doyel.

Probably true of Tanaka, though Matsuzaka, while not what he was expected to be, was quite a bit shy of a bust, considering that he gave the Sox real value in years 1,2 and 4 of his contract. You want an example of bust, try Hideki Irabu or Kei Igawa on for size. You remember Igawa, don't you, the guy the Yankees gave a 5 year contract and who spent the last three of them as the highest paid minor leaguer in history? Ol' Brian Cashdollar at his very best.

 

[EagerBeaver]

ESPN Projects Maddux, Thomas, Glavine, Biggio To Be Voted to Hall of Fame

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...s-elected-espn-2014-baseball-hall-fame-ballot

I personally agree that all 4 of these guys deserve election.

Greg Maddux is the craftiest pitcher I have ever seen. That being said, the Yankees beat him in the 6th game of 1996 World Series, when Joe Girardi laced a pitch by Maddux for a triple up the gap. I have long suspected that Girardi guessed correctly on that pitch, but that is part of sports, and the way the cookie crumbles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCSnK_ctjdk

Frank Thomas, for a big gorilla with a ton of power, was one of the most disciplined hitters I have seen. He never swung at bad pitches and had excellent strike zone judgment. He also was the rare big power hitter who would shorten up his swing with 2 strikes and lace the ball where it was pitched. I recall him doing a ton of damage against the Yankees, even when they were pitching him carefully.

The other 2 guys were not all time greats in my opinion, but amassed very long and productive careers. Glavine kind of sucked in the beginning and at the end of his career, but had many good years in between.

 

[hungry101]

It i s too bad that Jack Morris didn't get in. I always thought he was a Hall of Fame caliber pitcher. Then again Mickey Lolich didn't get in either I believe. I would take Morris of Glavine any day.

It's not a hall of fame until Pete Rose is in anyway.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

It i s too bad that Jack Morris didn't get in.

Jack Morris is not a HOFer by any measure. Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker were both significantly better players than Morris.

 

[smuler]

I personally agree that all 4 of these guys deserve election

I totally agree with you..

Maddux was the best pitcher I ever saw ( after Tom Seaver )


Best Regards

Smuler

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

http://www.springtrainingcountdown.com

 

[EagerBeaver]

Gurnick Denies Maddux Unanimous Selection to HOF

I understand Ken Gurnick is making a statement and I understand the statement, but it will deny Greg Maddux unanimous selection:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10259259/greg-maddux-unanimous-hall-selection

 

[smuler]

Can't find a weak person on the list :

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mu....hall.of.fame.top.vote.getters/content.1.html

If you notice, Seaver would have gotten a higher score if not for the Pete Rose protesters ......


Best Regards

Smuler

 

[Special K]

I understand Ken Gurnick is making a statement and I understand the statement, but it will deny Greg Maddux unanimous selection:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10259259/greg-maddux-unanimous-hall-selection

Unanimous or not he'll be a first round HOF'er.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

I understand Ken Gurnick is making a statement and I understand the statement, but it will deny Greg Maddux unanimous selection.

My SABR brethren have been hammering Gurnick all day on Facebook. What a fucking dope.

 

[lgna69xxx]

Rose should have been there YEARS ago on the first ballot. A top player in MLB history not in the HOF? What a Joke.

It's not a hall of fame until Pete Rose is in anyway.

 

[Merlot]

A top player in MLB history not in the HOF? What a Joke.

OMG,

Of course you with a total lack of integrity would be so dismissive of Rose' gambling on baseball habit. Rose says he never bet on his own team or threw a game so it must be true that a habitual gambler NEVER considered improving his odds directly by betting where he could personally alter them. Why would he deny that if he wasn't telling the absolute truth. Well, maybe because he and everyone is perfectly aware that another player who should be in the Hall of Fame, Shoeless Joe Jackson, has been banned for life for that offense.

There might not be any proof he lied about betting on his own team, but he deserves a long wait for what he admitted to.

:thumb:

Merlot