Here's a list of my thoughts now that free agency has started.
After rumors that the closer market would be bare, there are many quality arms available. With many teams balking at the price of Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Fuentes, the demand for Trevor Hoffman and Kerry Wood will be high.
Speaking of Wood, I am still disappointed with the way that ended. I really believe that the failure of Zell and Tribune Co. to sell the team is hindering what the team and GM Jim Hendry can do. He basically told Wood that we could not afford a deal he deserves and instead traded top pitching prospect Jose Ceda to the Marlins for Kevin Gregg (who tied with the most blown saves last season). This was a terrible deal, not only because Wood is not the closer, but because this mean Carlos Marmol will be closing out games instead of setting up. Gregg can be effective, but the Cubs vastly overpaid for him. Jose Ceda is a top relief prospect, and more importantly he is under team control for the next 6 years. A 1-2 punch of Marmol and Ceda would have been dominant, this trade just baffles me. (/rant)
Other thoughts-
Will the Padres and Kevin Towers PLEASE FINALLY TRADE JAKE PEAVY. The rumors have been going on for the past two weeks with the Cubs and Braves seemingly minutes away from a deal, yet nothing ever materializes. Seems like no one has/is willing to give what the Padres want (a young shortstop, CF, and an elite pitching prospect). For those of that do not know much about Peavy, he is a former Cy Young winner and a real ace of a staff, although he has had some minor injuries over the last two years. Funny note about why the Padres are trying to shed payroll, their owner is going through a nasty divorce and is trying to get as much money as possible, it also doesn't help when the team completely fell on its face last year.
The Yankees are gonna outspend everyone. They'll get CC Sabathia after offering a historic contract and will probably get one more big time starting pitcher, especially since their owners think they are entitled to the WS championship. Plus, the CC contract will inflate all the other SP's demands (see Ryan Dempster asking for 5 years $75M).
The Matt Holliday trade was kinda surprising seeing that the A's were not competive last year, but Billy Beane is the best GM in baseball because of his ability to get a small market team to be contenders, plus he makes some pretty sweet trades. The A's gave up a really good CF prospect named Carlos Gonzalez (A's top prospect acc. to Baseball America), SP Greg Smith, and closer Huston Street. Gonzalez and Smith were acquired from the D'Backs in the Dan Haren deal from last year. The Rockies get a good looking out-fielder that they can move to LF once Dexter Fowler is ready. They get a decent/good SP in Smith and can use Street to fill the gap left by Fuentes.
If anybody has questions/thoughts I can help you out.
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Albert Pujols deserves the MVP after posting tremendous numbers with his elbow hanging on by a thread. Also his OPS was like over 1.100, simply outstanding. He's clearly the best player in both leagues (take that A.Rod).
k i don't know too much bout baseball, so simple questions first hehe...do either the sox or cubs have a shot at Post-season...WS?
after college, do people go straight into majors? i know a high-schooler who was taken in by the Astros, does that mean minors most likely?
Albert Pujols. MVP. Definitely. So consistent. So good.
The Cubs had the best record in the the National League this year, Joey. They choked (again) with the Dodgers in the Divisional Playoffs. They have a very strong team (more in pitching) and they've won the National League Central Division title back-to-back now. However, they didn't re-sign Kerry Wood, their closer for this last season, and Ryan Dempster, one of their best starting pitchers, decided to take his free agency into the open market so the Cubs may not get him back. We'll see what happens as the off-season develops.
The White Sox are also competitive - they have a pretty good team (they did win the World Series three years ago). But I don't really care about them. Cubs are so much better.
Major League Baseball teams usually draft players straight out of graduation (high school, college, or amateur), if the players commit to the draft. They go into the minors, of which there are several levels (A, AA, AAA), where they may play for a couple of years (or the majority of their career if they're not good enough - which, in reality, is true for the vast majority of minor league players). Then they're called up to the big leagues depending on their performance. Or perhaps the major league team needs to fill a hole due to an injury. Major League Baseball has a very extensive minor league system which means there are far more trading pieces a general manager can use. Prospects are very important.
Sometimes players are drafted straight out of high school if the scouting report is really that good. Kerry Wood was a high school phenom. In only his fifth major league start, he struck out 20 baters and gave up one walk. To put that in perspective, the mininum number of batters a pitcher has to face in a game is 27 (3 outs per inning, 9 innings per game). He struck out 20 out of 28 faced!!!
In regards to this off-season:
No one is going to get Jake Peavy this off-season unless they give up a very valuable pitching prospect. This is Jake Peavy we're talking about here. Former Cy Young winner, with an ERA below 3.00 despite the 10-11 win-loss record last season (and that was because the Padres sucked so badly). With the economy slumping so bad, every general manager is going to be reluctant to sign top-tier free-agent pitchers (starters and closers) with a lot of money (except the Yankees), let alone acquire through a trade a top-flight pitcher whom they will have to sign anyway. We'll see what happens.
ooic, thanks tim! that helped, just curious, where are the minor league games usually played? The major league fields? Colleges? High schools?
lol. they have their own fields joey.
Joey, you would be surprised with the number of kids taken out of high school. Hell, Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. were 18 years old when they were drafted first overall (what have you done in your life).
Also, Cubs re-signed Dempster at 4years $52M. Good deal for the Cubs, although I doubt Dempster can repeat his '08 performance.
Hi ThankTank,
I just posted at article I wrote for my town's newsletter, and I was wondering if you could perhaps tell me what you think about it.
Thanks! :D
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