MLB NEWS/RUMORS Thread

Sorry to hear. What happened? Price went up too much?

 

Sadly the man has ALS.
It was a lot for him to manage.
81 home games is a lot to make sure your investment is covered.

We never paid more than face value for our tickets, which were first row Loge level, aisle seats. There's no way we could have afforded, in good conscience, to go to a World Series game if we had to buy the tickets on the secondary market. I can't imagine finding a better deal than we've had the past 12 years.

I'm bummed out. End of an era.

Those mini plans from the Dodgers are whack

 

For 9 years, I had worked worked out an advertising trade with the O'Malley's and then Fox for 4 seats and 2 parking passes in the loge over first base, in the first row of the shade. Strategically perfect by the bathroom and the concession stands. Jamie McCourt herself stepped in and cancelled my arrangement on the phone. I wanted to call her a cunt in the worst way before the call ended.

The advertising was for recruiting and, more importantly, to publish their EEO hiring statement, just like we did for The Yankees. So Not only was Jamie McCourt a lying, scumbag cheater, she was a racist too!

 

According to cots contracts the AAV is $7.081M

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11B6yBQ39buEl3t7yKKIkcQGh1nL6FXaBDdfKgU_dyUo/pubhtml#

 

Damn. Intense!

 

Did she give anything resembling a reason or was it purely punitive?

One time an associate of one of my parents gave us seats directly behind the owner’s area (where Koufax and Lasorda constantly sit). It must have been 2005 because I remember hoping Kent would hit his 30th HR. Frank and Jamie showed up in like the 5th inning, Jamie wearing a garish orange ensemble that matched her leather face and Frank was just oozing sleeze. I don’t think i’ve Ever been that physically repulsed by human beings. I’d rather spend a night drinking 40 Ozers with the most broken down homeless guys on Wilshire than spend a second with them. Frank’s entire face seemed to be a row of yellow-brown teeth and the bloodshot snake’s eyes. They spent about a half inning scanning the surroundings for something (probably industry heavy hitters to schmooze) and then thankfully left. I assume they had a seance to attend. Despicable people.

 

Yeah I saw that later but he's making 7 million this year, 9.7, 12.5 the next 2 years and that's not including the last 2 years. How is that 7 average?

 

kind of a dick move
unless he just wanted out and theres no way to allow anyone outside of family to take over

 

Basically it was along the lines of

I don't care at all about what they did before us but Im not interested in anything you want us to say.

 

On MLB radio today, Duquette and Ferrin(I think it was them) said that what they are hearing is that the trade market has basically gone cold now. Teams are getting ready to go into camp with what they have, so that prep work is starting to take place. The FO people they are talking with are saying that they think it may still be another week before the bigger FA chips fall and then it is going to be a rush before camp. I'd be shocked if a couple of signings don't happen this week, but I guess this off season has been anything but normal.
A couple of other notes from me:
- The Yu Darvish thing to me is not him posturing to get a bigger contract, I think he is honestly waiting for the Dodgers to find a way to free up money. Chris Camello(guy who broke Jansen and Turner, plus actually had the Alexander rumor before anybody else) said that his source says the Dodgers currently have thrown a number of around 4 year $70M in his direction, which means that another trade has probably been kicked around for them to offer that. Darvish is looking for something in the 5+ yr $100-150 range, which yeah that is kind of a huge window and gap.

- Matt Kemp, I'm starting to think that he will be starting the year with the club and will be the everyday starter in LF for a couple of reasons.

• His bat at the start of last season was actually potent. It was only after an injury (of course it was) where things went drastically downhill. If he can return to that pre-injury form(when have we heard that before?), his bat would be a dangerous #5 or #6 in the order.
• He is rumored to be back into the shape he was earlier into last season and is said to be adamant about not packing on the pounds as the season goes on(like he did last year). Who knows, maybe he is reading the rumors too and hearing that he may get dumped onto some crappy team with plenty of payroll room and doesn't want to be a part of something like that.
• He seems to be trying to start off round two on the right foot. Being at optional offseason training with a few vets and going to games with Kenley. That tells me that there is potentially some understanding that he will be starting the season with the club.
• It makes no sense to A. DFA Him B. Trade him for $1-2M of relief C. Platoon Him or D. Have him be a bench bat. If you can't find a trade that nets at least $4M+ a year, it seems better to hold onto him. If he is on the roster, you need to play him at least at the start of the season. Sitting on the bench won't get you anything, but play him everyday and maybe he shows something and you can then move him. The team is not going to crash and burn with him in LF putting up a .750+OPS, even with his shoddy D. Toles, Verdugo and Pederson could all probably be fine to start the year AAA if a good deal does not come along for Kemp.
• This is a REALLY far fetched idea, but.... see how Kemp does at 1B during camp. If the bat is still there and the legs aren't, then see what he can do at 1B during ST. The same rule applies, if he can play passable 1B and the bat does well, then maybe a team will kick the tires on taking on a larger amount of Kemp's contract. It is not likely, but it is also the type of thing this FO would consider. Some contenders are relying on ? at 1B and if someone underperforms or gets hurt, he may show to be a viable cheap alternative.

Still a few weeks to go, but it would be kind of cool to see Kemp come back with a vengeance and not go out with a whimper.

- I honestly have felt that there was going to be one or two more biggish deals by the club this offseason. Not necessarily ones where they netted some big time player, but after the Kemp deal I figured at least a couple of Forsythe, Ryu, Grandal or yeah Kemp would have been out the door by now. The first 3 all have very palpable contracts where if moved, they open the door to be replaced by something more beneficial for the team. Now that we are this close to camp, it is hard to see them doing too much more shaking up, but the Grandal thing is one of those where I will be watching nervously as that has the potential to be a situation that blows up in the clubhouse.

 

When the deal was signed, it was 7 years $49.5M, that's roughly $7.081M (options aren't included in calculating the AAV).

The first 3 years, he made just over $5M (15-17) total.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/yelicch01.shtml

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/12538293/christian-yelich-miami-marlins-signs-7-year-contract

 

If Kemp is actually going to be on this team, which I still very much doubt, I’d trade Forsythe, move Taylor to 2B full time and platoon Kiké, Toles, Kemp, and Joc among LF/CF

 

Same. I can see Kemp in green and gold. Similar to the Twins playing hardball for Dozier, LAD with their Tampa connection basically had a fallback plan/deal in place the whole time and was in no hurry. That 2B market was horrible and this FA market has been just as horrible. I think if they don't find any better trade options for Kemp as they get closer to ST, that they could press the red button and shoot Kemp out of a cannon to Oakland with the Zaidi/Beane connection..get a little extra room for Darvish and make that happen. Joc needs Major League ABs to regain value..makes no sense to trade Kemp years ago to make room for Joc, and then bring Kemp back and take ABs away from Joc. He turned it around in the post season..you sort of want to build off that.

 

Worse comes to worse we can keep Kemp, right? If he's truly in shape and willing to work MAYBE he is a hit during ST and THEN trade him? Crazy unhinged talk I know.

 

Kemp is a worse OF than like, 8 other guys on this team absolutely shouldn’t keep him