From the Reds point of view, if this contract rules out a Cano re-signing, that means that our two main hypothetical trading chips, Phillips and Bailey, fill major Yankee needs. Can we construct a potential Krusty-esque slobberknocker trade?
From the Reds point of view, if this contract rules out a Cano re-signing, that means that our two main hypothetical trading chips, Phillips and Bailey, fill major Yankee needs. Can we construct a potential Krusty-esque slobberknocker trade?
"In baseball, you don't know nothin'"...Yogi Berra
Yes, the Yanks of the 90's went big in Latin America. That seems to have stopped.
This phenomenon isn't limited to NYY. You see teams with nice cores add pieces to get over the top, year-after-year, while the core ages. It happened to Philly recently. The difference is that they Yankees can keep it going a lot longer before they have cry uncle and start over.
That smartest thing for MLB would be to put another team in the metro NY area. Or ideally a team in say Connecticut that would bite into both the Yankees and RedSox.
Look south, once the Orioles were huge market-shifting buyers. After the Expos moved to DC, not so much.
REDREAD (12-04-2013)
I was listening to Mad Dog Radio this morning and some Yankee blowhard called up saying he loved the signing. Said Ellsbury was a 5 star player and was going to drive in 80 and hit 20-25 HR's as a Yankee. Steve Phillips (yea I know) took him to task. Said if he drives in 80+ it will be the second time in his career he does that. Said it wasn't like Ellsbury was constantly hitting deep flies to RF that would fly out of Yankee stadium. Basically said that Ellsbury as an opposite field hitter wouldn't see much of a power bump at all.
Personally I think Ellsbury's name carried more weight than his actual game did. When you sign a player to a big contract you don't want someone to say "If he stays healthy..." For a player who relies on his legs and had an injured past that is an awful lot of money. I would have loved to see Ellsbury patrolling CF for the Reds, but that is too much money for what I think he will provide.
On a related note, Ellsbury is lucky, Brian McCann can teach him the proper baseball etiquette now that they are teammates.
Well that's good. A friend of mine on Twitter last night was NOT happy at all about the signing so I wasn't sure how anyone else had reacted yet. Of course she was also still annoyed that Boston signed AJ Perz. when this news broke so that might have added to her unhappiness about Ellsbury, LOL
"I tried to play golf, but I found out I wasn't very good." -Joey Votto on his offseason hobby search
An MLB.com reporter asked what one thing Votto couldn’t do. “I can’t skate or play hockey,” Votto said. “Well, I can skate ... but I can’t stop.”
What's the Moneyball strategem in this environment? My thinking is that the hitters need to change their approach but are slow to do so. The Braves had two regulars with sub-Mendoza BA's.
Offense is dear because grip-it-and-rip-it is dying on the warning tracks of the world. Organizations may need to change their development regimes.
Ellsbury's contract is the 3rd-largest ever given to an OFer. Only ManRam and Kemp have had larger (both 8/$160). If you go by yearly average, Ellsbury's 7/$153 is No. 1.
If you look at the era that we're suddenly in, it's a lot like pre-1993 MLB, except with more power. The pitching can mow through lineups, but there's a more consistent threat that someone is going to drill one.
OB, technically, should be at a premium, though with OB down leaguewide other abilities - power, speed, defense - play a larger role in winning games. The odd thing teams may overpay for those other abilities and ignore players who excel at OB a bit because they don't check off some of the other boxes. Getting to the point, I suspect there's some more Matt Carpenters out there.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
I did a quick check, from the recent height of scoring, Y2K, to last year.
HR's are down 18%, BB's down 20%, Hits down 7%, Doubles down 8%
Looking at that, a GM could fixate on upping the Homers and Walks (which are linked, of course). But the Homers are Walks are gone. Better to get your base-hit on, with a smidge of speed on the side.
Matt Carpenter is a great example. Or even -- to pick a guy at random -- Joey Votto.
I'll go on record. I think this will go down as a bad contract. Too much money for too many years, for an oft-injured 30 year old with minimal power. I'm ok with McCann's deal for Yanks but no this one.
cincinnati chili (02-08-2018)
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