Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

Oh, hai!

Still, I'm not a huge fan of Lester -- some of the Red Sox I just can't stomach (I wasn't a fan of Damon either) -- but at least it's not Lackey, home of Bad Body Language Theater...

 

Lester's a Cubbie.

 

Lester signs with Cubs for 6/155

 

Must be their proud, winning history and tradition that really swayed him

 

Busy bees the Bums have been today...


http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/12011685/jimmy-rollins-traded-los-angeles-dodgers-philadelphia-phillies]as[/url] it began with acquisition of Jimmy Rollins.


It hasn't been announced yet as-to-who the Bums will send to Philly for him, but nonetheless I very much approve of this trade*... Rollins didn't have that terrible of a 2014, and thus will be a very nice 1-to-2 year (maybe, depending on how 2015 goes, obviously) stopgap solution at short until Seager is ready to play full-time in the Majors. This occurred before I went on my daily walk, so during that, I thought for a bit how he & Gordon would mesh as SS/2B double-play defensive combo. Well, I get home from the walk...



*That resentment of the 2008-2009 Phillies? On hold.









http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12012125/los-angeles-dodgers-talks-trade-dee-gordon-miami-marlins]to[/url] find out that Gordon (and Dan Haren) were traded to Miami for a bunch of young players.



I was bit bummed out by this news, even if Andrew Heaney** -a pitching prospect, who despite not doing that great with cup of coffee with Miami last year, is still highly thought of- was the big grab here, given the Bums need for a 4th-5th starter. Gordon was one of my favorite Dodgers... it was great to see him develop as good as he did at 2nd, after flaming out at shortstop.



.



Just a few hours before the trade... as I'm talking to my father on the phone about this, he mentions "Poor Gordon... doing a great community relations effort at a school today, representing the franchise well, and then he's traded!"



So, despite being bummed out, there was the silver lining of at least getting a young pitcher in return. Well...



http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/12013586/los-angeles-dodgers-acquire-howie-kendrick-angels]**Bums[/url] trade Heaney to the Angels for Howie Kendrick







Wow indeed, Van Slyke... and of course I LOVE the dig at the Angels there via the DN Twiiter account. This makes me feel a lot better about the Gordon trade... Kendrick is a rather quality 2nd baseman after all, and at only 31, he ought to be a Bum for at least a few seasons, certainly longer than Rollins tenure.




So, with Heaney (and Haren) gone, what about that 4th-5th starter they need?



http://espn.go.com/losangeles/mlb/story/_/id/12013461/los-angeles-dodgers-close-4-year-deal-free-agent-rhp-brandon-mccarthy]Brandon[/url] McCarthy and the Bums close in on a 4-year deal



Not bad, not bad potentially. I hope this deal gets done.







What a day!

 

Baseball front offices have officially lost their minds this winter, it's official.

 

After a rather eventful Wednesday, I woke up today to this news:


http://dodgersdigest.com/2014/12/11/report-dodgers-trade-kemp-fedex-to-padres-for-grandal-wieland-eflin/]Kemp[/url] (and Federowicz) traded to San Diego for Grandal/Wieland/Eflin.



Well, I'm pissed... definitely more annoyed with this than trading Dee(eeeeeeeeeeee) Gordon away, but Grandal is an immediate improvement at catcher, and Joc Pederson will now have to prove if he's really worth all that hype that's been associated with him; time will tell on the two pitchers the Bums got here, of course.









Vaya con Dios, Kemp.

 

How so? If anything it seems like most teams are being pretty practical. Except the Twins. I have no idea what the hell the Twins are doing. But it's interesting to see the Red Sox and Dodgers completely re-make their teams on the fly. The Marlins apparently think they're close enough to compete this year, I know the Mets do, the Reds are apparently re-building. The Tigers and Angels reloaded. Was a fun few days.

Amazing.

 

And the Cubs are evidently saying they want to win now with Lester joining them.

 

I am simulating a tournament using dynastybaseballleague.com, an in depth simulation website that has every baseball team for the past 100 years. You simulate every at bat batter by batter and each player is rated in at least 10 categories so you get very accurate results. I am doing a 64 team tournament featuring the 4 semifinalists(ALCS and NLCS matchups) from each year from 1998 to 2013. 1st round pairings are randomized. Here are my results from the 1st round.

'09 Dodgers vs. '09 Yankees('09 Yankees win 4-1)'11 Brewers vs. '13 Tigers('11 Brewers win 4-3)
'06 Tigers vs. '09 Angels('09 Angels win 4-1)
'10 Ragners vs. '11 Cardinals('10 Rangers win 4-2)
'06 Cardinals vs. '03 Marlins('03 Marlins win 4-3)
'00 Cardinals vs. '13 Dodgers('00 Cardinals win4-2)
'05 Astros vs. '98 Braves('05 Astros win 4-2)
'98 Padres vs. '07 Dbacks('98 Padres win 4-1)
'04 Yankees vs. '08 Dodgers('08 Dodgers win 4-0)
'00 Mariners vs. '12 Cardinals('00 Mariners win 4-3)
'10 Phillies vs. '01 Braves('10 Phillies win 4-2)
'11 Rangers vs. '01 Yankees('11 Rangers win 4-1)
'01 Dbacks vs. '10 Yankees('01 Dbacks win 4-3)
'07 Indians vs. '13 Red Sox('13 Red Sox win 4-1)
'00 Mets vs. '99 Yankees('99 Yankees win 4-0)
'08 Rays vs. '12 Tigers('12 Tigers win 4-0)
'02 Cardinals vs. '12 Giants('12 Giants win 4-2)
'07 Red Sox vs. '02 Twins('07 Red Sox win 4-0)
'99 mets vs. '06 Mets('99 Mets win 4-1)
'12 Yankees vs. '08 Red Sox('12 Yankees win 4-1)
'03 Red Sox vs. '99 Braves('99 Braves win 4-0)
'00 Yankees vs. '98 Phillies('98 Phillies win 4-3)
'09 Phillies vs. '06 A's('09 Phillies win 4-0)
'10 Giants vs. '03 Yankees('10 GIants win 4-2)
'07 Rockies vs. '01 Mariners('01 Mariners win 4-2)
'02 Angels vs. '04 Red Sox('02 Angels win 4-3)
'05 White Sox vs. '02 Giants('02 Giants win 4-2)
'99 Red Sox vs. '98 Indians('99 Red Sox win 4-2)
'11 Tigers vs. '05 Angels('05 Angels win 4-2)
'13 Cardinals vs. '98 Yankees('98 Yankees win 4-0)
'04 Astros vs. '03 Cubs('03 Cubs win 4-0)
'04 Cardinals vs. '05 Cardinals('05 Cardinals win 4-3)

2nd Round
'09 Yankees vs. '11 Brewers
'09 Angels vs. '10 Rangers
'03 Marlins vs. '00 Cardinals
'05 Astros vs. '98 Padres
'08 Dodgers vs. '00 Mariners
'10 Phillies vs. '11 Rangers
'01 Diamondbacks vs. '13 Red Sox
'99 Yankees vs. '12 Tigers
'12 Giants vs. '07 Red Sox
'99 Mets vs. '12 Yankees
'99 Braves vs. '98 Phillies
'09 Phillies vs. '10 Giants
'01 Mariners vs. '02 Angels
'02 Giants vs. '99 Red Sox
'03 Cubs vs. '05 Cardinals

 

Speaking of sims, I remember a while back, I think it was Sporting News, had an article about how they used a sim to see how a team made up of all the top guys the Expos had traded away over the years, would produce over the course of a season. The team won 124 games in the regular season and easily cruised to the World Series title. It was a pretty good read.

 

The Seattle Mariners have also traded away a lot of great talent. Ken Griffey Jr, Shawn Estes, Tino Martinez,Derek Lowe, Jason Veritek, Adam Jones, Omar Visquel, Jeff Nelson, Shin Soo Choo, Rafael Soriano, Bill Swift, Jose Cruz, Jr, Danny Tartabull, Dave Henderson, Freddy Garcia, Randy Winn...

 

Now we know why San Diego has been making the moves it has.

 

Jesus Christ. I know you're not allowed to be a frustrated fan when your team has won the WS three of the last five years, but it's been HARD to see the Giants do absolutely NOTHING to fill any of our glaring holes while two other teams in our division go absolutely nuts. uguuuuugh.

 

It's about time the Padres made some major moves. I could never understand why they have always wanted to field these low budget teams. It's a great city, perfect weather, great people, it's not that bad of a drive up the I-5 to LA, what's not to like?

On another note, I still don't know what the A's are doing. 5 of the 7 all-stars from last year are now gone. At some point, you have have some continuity and commit to building around certain players. To gut the team entirely yet again? I don't get it.

 

Wow, an OF of Upton, Kemp, and Wil Myers (CF)....

 

Petco is still a pitcher's park, so I wouldn't be surprised for them not to hit as many bombs. That being said, the Padres have definitely found offensive upgrades at all three positions, and should hit a lot better this year from those spots.

 

That's all you should have posted.

I concur... they too often act like a small-to-mid market team, when the area they play in proves otherwise. I've been once -in '05-, but PETCO is a beauty of a ballpark.

 

their outfield is gonna be pretty bad defensively tho. it'll be interesting to see if that impacts the positive value of the added offense at all.

 

As much fun as the last few weeks have been, I kind of can't wait until the Padres, Marlins, and White Sox all fail to make the playoffs after all their moves.

Amazing.

 

I actually think .500 is well within range for them with a shot at the playoffs. Their pitching is sketchy (until they trade the rest of their farm for Cole Hamels in next week), but even though Kemp isn't what he was 3 years ago and Upton never became the superstar he was supposed to, they represent massive upgrades. Even accounting for Petco, their offense was miserable last year.

But all three teams are going to be the trendy picks next year and at least two of them will miss the playoffs.

Amazing.

 

They haven't shown to be anything other than number 3 starters at best. Kennedy had one pretty good year in Arizona, but that was it. 42 million for Hughes is a massive overpay and it's basically saying that the Twins can't get anyone else to sign with them.