Baseball Returneths - The MLB Thread: Spring Training Edition

[speedracer]

Korea is bringing in Byung-Hyun Kim with Japan's leadoff man on second in the seventh inning of a scoreless game.

If I weren't Korean, I would find this positively hilarious.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

if the players for the american team actually gave a shit, maybe i would, too.

i dunno... i just can't get into baseball with pitch count limits, a mercy rule and potential ties.

it negates the entire beauty of the game... it's timelessness.

 

[Numb1075]

look out - Arizona D Backs are tearing it up in the Cactus league - 13-5.

 

[phanan]

The Red Sox traded Bronson "I Wanna Be A Rock Star" Arroyo to the Reds for Wily Mo Pena today. At least now he'll definitely be a starter.

 

[speedracer]

The Red Sox traded Bronson "I Wanna Be A Rock Star" Arroyo to the Reds for Wily Mo Pena today. At least now he'll definitely be a starter.

If the Sox had the idea that they might trade him this season, would it have killed them to shell out an extra $3 million over 3 years for him instead of making a no-trade handshake agreement?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

doesn't this create a bit of a logjam in the outfield for the red sox? is trot nixon still there or did he sign elsewhere and i missed something?

and what exactly does this do for cincinatti?

to me this looks like the red sox gave up a pitcher from their already thin starting rotation in order to get a 4th outfielder, all be it one with lots of potential, for a lineup that doesn't need any more run production and already has a guy at DH.

and cincinatti got a mediocre 3rd or 4th starter for a guy who could hit 30 homers in that band box little ballpark of theres.

i'm trying to figure out where this all makes sense...

 

[Hewson]

Sox starters:
Schiling
Beckett
Wells
Clement
Wakefield
Papelbon
The now departed Arroyo

The Sox had 7 men in line for the rotation after David Wells rescinded his trade demand. The writing was on the wall that Clement or Arroyo was on their way out of town.
Plus it frees up a spot for Roger Clemens.

 

[speedracer]

Trot's getting old, has a history of injuries, has been getting really bad against lefties and is only signed through this season. They might be shipping him out or platooning him with Wily Mo.

Boston has a deep starting rotation; it's just not very good. Nobody is really a sure thing besides Josh Beckett. Schilling may or may not recover from the 2004 season. Wakefield is Wakefield. Clement was awful the second half of last season. Wells is gradually going senile. Everybody is hoping Jon Papelbon can turn into the 5th starter (good strikeout/walk numbers last year in spot duty, but a high BA).

 

[Hewson]

If the Sox had the idea that they might trade him this season, would it have killed them to shell out an extra $3 million over 3 years for him instead of making a no-trade handshake agreement?

The deal made Arroyo very tradeable, cause he was signed to a team friendly contract, I feel a bit bad for him with the "no trade handshake" because immediately after he signed the deal sportswriters and talk radio shows were saying that the deal basically made him trade bait, and it appears he may have been duped a bit.

 

[speedracer]

But on the plus side, Arroyo will be only a few hours' drive away from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

On the minus side, Tim McCarver won't be plugging a Brandon Arroyo vs. Pedro Martinez matchup when the Mets visit Fenway.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i wouldn't exactly call beckett a sure thing... he's had a history of injury problems, as well... and the world series against the yankees aside, he's yet to put together a full season where he's lived to his "tremendous upside potential."

i dunno... this only makes sense to me if the red sox plan on shipping an outfielder out the door. pena should be an every day player.

and no, i'm not just trying to make a case for them to trade manny to the mets... i gave up on that a long time ago.

 

[Hewson]

And there you have it, Manny traded to the Mets for Heilman and David Wright:

www.mlb.com/mannybyebye

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

and David Wright:

don't even think about it

 

[Hewson]

Done deal my friend:

www.redsox.com/welcomeDavidWright

 

[Numb1075]

JEEZUS - my heart skipped a beat there. You can not have David.

 

[phanan]

 

[Numb1075]

I'll be happy to take Manny off your hands, but Wright, Reyes, and (maybe Pedro) are not part of the package.

 

[Bluer White]

Pena: 45 HR in last 689 plate appearances (2004-2005)
Manny Ramirez: 45 HR in last 634 plate appearances (2005)
David Ortiz: 47 HR in last 703 plate appearances (2005)


I'll take the risk of Pena's plate discipline improving - he's 24 and flat out rakes.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Done deal my friend:

www.redsox.com/welcomeDavidWright

a friend of mine actually used to intern at MLB.com and he had access to their beta test page... i.e. the page that they change the news on before it goes live. he once changed the cardinals page to read that they had traded Pujols and gave me the link so that i could scare the crap out of a coworker/die hard cardinals fan.

now he's a friggin gym teacher in brooklyn. talk about a downgrade.

 

[phanan]

It's too bad you can't do the same thing to scare the shit out of Chizip now...

Eh, but then you'd be scaring yourself, because you and he are the same person...



Nevermind...

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i take back everything i said about the arroyo-pena trade not making any sense for either team.

my reasons?

steve phillips said the exact same thing on espnradio this morning... and i never want to be associated with anything that steve phillips said.

 

[speedracer]

Did you know that Jose Vidro has a higher career OPS than Alfonso Soriano?

Neither did I, but it's true.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i want no part of alfonso soriano.

i mean if the mets go get him for next to nothing? fine... i'll deal. but i find him to be highly over-rated. he strikes out too much, has always hit in hitter friendly ballparks, is terrible in the clutch, will never be a guy to move a guy over, and he's an average fielder on his best day.

let washington deactivate him... they were the idiots who traded for him when he'd already told hte yankees and rangers he'd never play the outfield in the first place.

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

Yay, we won.

I will now go back to cricket.

 

[Numb1075]

that would be a shaky right side of the infield w/ Soriano and Delgado

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

let's not forget that david wright has been known to let one fly from time to time... he's very jeter-esque in that regards - he makes a whole bunch of spectacular plays so you tend to forget that he's really not that good a fielder.

 

[Numb1075]

very true. he makes the highlight reals and the blooper reals

 

[cjboog]

I just spent a week down in Arizona watching the Mariners and here's the results of the games I saw:

Mariners: 0-4
Opponents: 4-0

Oh well, two years ago they were great in the Spring and sucked in the regular season. All I have to say is the same thing I say every year even though it never happends: THE MARINERS ARE GOING ALL THE WAY THIS YEAR!! WOOHOOO!!

 

[Hewson]

THE MARINERS ARE GOING ALL THE WAY THIS YEAR!! WOOHOOO!!

They'll have to get past the Tigers and Gen R first.
Female doggies!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Headache, I've gone on line and can't find any info on SNY. Have you found anything? I'm looking to ditch dishnetwork, but I don't know who has signed a deal w/ SNY yet.

cablevision just came to a deal with SNY yesterday... so it's gonna be on cablevision, time warner and comacst... DirecTV is likely to add it shortly, dish network is up in the air and unlikely, considering they chose not to air the YES network as well.