2015 MLB season.

The Giants again won the World Series. Congratulations. Congrats also to the Royals, for giving them their first competitive WS opponent. Huzzah!

Now it is time to move on. Arizona Fall League is coming soon. After that will be the winter meetings. Fantasy players will be doing their predraft rankings and actual training camp is less than four months away. Let's talk hardball.

1) If anyone is going to or has insight in the AFL, please post. I know a couple of writers and a FO exec that will be involved, but they can be pretty tight lipped.

2) Trade rumors are bread and butter. Post anything sensible.

3) I'm a fantasy guy. Anything helpful is always appreciated.

J

The Red Sox are still interested in Jon Lester, and may have thrown in the towel on Will Middlebrooks. Kung Fu Panda is at the top of their shopping list, as I suppose he must be for anyone looking for a 3B. There's also a traffic jam in the outfield.

If Yoenis Cespedes leaves as a free agent after 2015, the Sox won't get a compensation draft pick, and The Nation rumor-mill had it that Cespedes didn't *ahem* hit it off with the team's hitting coach, Greg Colbrunn. However, Colbrunn recently retired due to health problems, and the Sox hired former Oakland A Chili Davis as their new lumber mill foreman.

Davis on Cespedes, from ESPNBoston.com:

Cespy is a special player. A very special player with a lot of talent. feel like we formed a relationship in Oakland but we weren't quite finished building that relationship. But I think the relationship we formed, it won't be that difficult for me to try to pick up where we were before.

I told him this to his face, he's got greatness written all over him. He does everything -- he can run, he can throw, he can hit, he can hit for power. I think once he settles in Fenway Park and gets comfortable -- it took him a while to get comfortable in Oakland as well -- so once he gets comfortable there there's no telling what he might put up in a season as a player. To me, I think he can be a great player. It's all up to him whether or not he wants to be that. But I think he has the ability to be a great player.

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The Mariners, as usual, are being rumored to be in on every right-handed position player with any kind of power. And a lot of left-handed position players.

They need hitting, is the point.

Keeper question.

16 team H2H, semi-dynasty. This is for 2015, with escalating options through 2018. The third year option is likely too expensive and the second may be.

Which one of:
SS J.P. Crawford Phi
3B Jake Lamb Ari
RP Héctor Rondón ChC
RP Santiago Casilla SF
SP Robert Stephenson Cin
SP Drew Pomeranz Oak

RP is a LOT easier to draft than SP.
*****************************************************
Here is the team if it helps.
1B Paul Goldschmidt Ari (4)
2B Robinson Canó Sea (4)
3B Adrián Béltre Tex (4)
SS Danny Santana Min (W)
OF Andrew McCutchen Pit (4)
OF Kole Calhoun LAA (10)
OF Jayson Werth Was (6)
OF Christian Yelich Mia (14)
MI
CI Miguel Sano Min (11)
UTIL

SP Matt Harvey NYM (13)
SP Zack Wheeler NYM (8)
SP Carlos Carrasco Cle (W)
SP José Fernández Mia (12)
RP
RP
RP
P Noah Syndergaard NYM (12)
P Wade Miley (22)
P

The Farm

OF Byron Buxton Min (19)
OF Clint Frazier Cle (24)
SS Raúl Mondesí KC (25)
SP Lucas Giolito Was (20)
SP Carlos Rodon CWS (21)

Heyward traded to the Cards for Shelby Miller and a minor leaguer.

Sigh.

I swear to God if we're starting Gattis in LF and Justin in RF we better be able to sign Mister Fantastic to play center because we are screwed otherwise.

13 years, 325 million dollars for Giancarlo Stanton. With a no-trade clause and an opt-out after six years.

Holy crap.

EgonSpengler said:

The Red Sox are still interested in Jon Lester, and may have thrown in the towel on Will Middlebrooks. Kung Fu Panda is at the top of their shopping list, as I suppose he must be for anyone looking for a 3B. There's also a traffic jam in the outfield.

If Yoenis Cespedes leaves as a free agent after 2015, the Sox won't get a compensation draft pick, and The Nation rumor-mill had it that Cespedes didn't *ahem* hit it off with the team's hitting coach, Greg Colbrunn. However, Colbrunn recently retired due to health problems, and the Sox hired former Oakland A Chili Davis as their new lumber mill foreman.

Davis on Cespedes, from ESPNBoston.com:

Click to expand...

I'm praying that Sandoval ends up on our roster, and hopefully we'll keep Cespedes as well. As for Lester...to be honest, he never really impressed me, and neither did Lackey. I think we could do a lot better for that money in terms of pitching power.

Light Cleric said:

Heyward traded to the Cards for Shelby Miller and a minor leaguer.

Sigh.

I swear to God if we're starting Gattis in LF and Justin in RF we better be able to sign Mister Fantastic to play center because we are screwed otherwise.

Click to expand...

Trading Heyward for Shelby Miller doesn't make sense if they want to win next year, so they might just be giving up and building for the future. If that's the case, Justin Upton is also likely to get traded, and Gattis might be on the block, too, if they want to hand the Catcher spot to Bethancourt.

choxorn said:

Trading Heyward for Shelby Miller doesn't make sense if they want to win next year, so they might just be giving up and building for the future. If that's the case, Justin Upton is also likely to get traded, and Gattis might be on the block, too, if they want to hand the Catcher spot to Bethancourt.

Click to expand...

Shelby Miller to the Braves? Welp. There goes one of my favorite pitching prospects for the time being.

choxorn said:

Trading Heyward for Shelby Miller doesn't make sense if they want to win next year, so they might just be giving up and building for the future. If that's the case, Justin Upton is also likely to get traded, and Gattis might be on the block, too, if they want to hand the Catcher spot to Bethancourt.

Click to expand...

That's what I don't get, ever since Wren got fired there's been rumblings of a "rebuild" to go along with the new stadium in Cobb County which they're expecting a huge revenue surge from. That seems really dumb. They were a +90 win team a couple of years ago. They mainly needed to get a center-fielder(literally anyone would be a significant upgrade to BJ Upton), trade Gattis an AL team that would probably give something good for a DH with that kind of power and try to re-sign Ervin Santana. Seriously, we started Gattis a couple times in left field last year and it looked like a train wreck waiting to happen. It's all a moot point with Heyward gone now though.

Even if you can't re-sign Santana, you're left with Teheran, Wood, and Minor with Beachy and Medlen coming back from injuries(admittedly there's some uncertainty with both of them).

And if they're really going all-in on a "rebuild", they might as well trade Kimbrel. He's probably the best closer in the game, 25 years old and on a 4-year deal: you could probably fleece some contending, bullpen-weak team big time for him. Otherwise we're just going to be wasting big money on a closer we're apparently not going to have a lot of games to close during the 4-year contract.

Also, they should have fired Fredi if they were going to rebuild. They also should have fired him if they weren't going to rebuild.

From the looks of things, the Red Sox are getting both Hanley Ramirez AND Pablo Sandoval.

Hanley's probably moving to the outfield in that case, so I'd say this greatly increases the chances of Cespedes and Victorino being traded.

Signed both

I still think the Sox fleeced the hell out of the Dodgers in that big trade a couple year sago by dumping all those contracts. Red Sox were in a situation that teams can take years to recover from but then here come the Dodgers. These contracts also seem much more manageable than some of the previous big money ones, too.

Alright, here's a stumper. If you could induct only 3 players into the Hall of Fame in 2015, who would you choose? There are 34 players on the 2015 ballot.

In their first year of eligibility:
Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
John Smoltz
Carlos Delgado
Gary Sheffield
Nomar Garciaparra
Troy Percival
Rich Aurilia
Aaron Boone
Tony Clark
Jermaine Dye
Darin Erstad
Cliff Floyd
Brian Giles
Tom Gordon
Eddie Guardado
Jason Schmidt

Carried over from last year's ballot:
Craig Biggio
Mike Piazza
Jeff Bagwell
Tim Raines
Roger Clemens
Barry Bonds
Lee Smith
Curt Schilling
Edgar Martinez
Alan Trammell
Mike Mussina
Jeff Kent
Fred McGriff
Mark McGwire
Larry Walker
Don Mattingly
Sammy Sosa

I liked all of these guys, a lot of them are certainly worthy of being on their team's all-time roster, but I'm not sure they're quite up to GOAT standards:
Carlos Delgado
Gary Sheffield
Nomar Garciaparra
Troy Percival
Rich Aurilia
Aaron Boone
Tony Clark
Jermaine Dye
Darin Erstad
Cliff Floyd
Brian Giles
Tom Gordon
Eddie Guardado
Jason Schmidt
Lee Smith
Curt Schilling
Edgar Martinez
Alan Trammell
Mike Mussina
Jeff Kent
Fred McGriff
Larry Walker
Don Mattingly

These guys are clearly HoF stuff, but still have PED stank on 'em. I'm not ruling them out, I'm just undecided on what to do with them. I also know this list is going to only grow in coming years (Alex Rodriguez):
Roger Clemens
Barry Bonds
Sammy Sosa
Mark McGwire

These guys, as far as I know, haven't been connected with the PED scandal:
Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
John Smoltz
Craig Biggio
Mike Piazza
Jeff Bagwell
Tim Raines


Right now, I'm leaning towards The Big Unit. I'm a Red Sox fan who saw, among other things, Pedro's insane relief appearance against Cleveland's 1,000-run lineup in the '99 playoffs. So I need to look more closely at his stats and try to be objective. Or maybe not, I dunno.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it more, I'm only really sure about Randy Johnson.

Can't just do three too many people on the ballet this year.

Curt Schilling
Roger Clemens
Barry Bonds
Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
Mike Piazza

At least these six probably more.

KMRblue1027 said:

Can't just do three to many people on the ballet this year.

Click to expand...

I chose 3 to make it difficult, but also because it's a common number of inductees. I read somewhere that 5 players have been inducted in a single year only once, and there's never been more than that. Fewer than 3 is also very common, but 3 is a nice number when you're talking baseball.

I take it from your list that you're not, or not any longer, penalizing guys for PEDs? If so, then yeah, Bonds and Clemens have to be no-brainers.

EgonSpengler said:

I chose 3 to make it difficult, but also because it's a common number of inductees. I read somewhere that 5 players have been inducted in a single year only once, and there's never been more than that. Fewer than 3 is also very common, but 3 is a nice number when you're talking baseball.

I take it from your list that you're not, or not any longer, penalizing guys for PEDs? If so, then yeah, Bonds and Clemens have to be no-brainers.

Click to expand...

Bonds and Clemens deserve to get in even if you throw out the 10(ish) years they allegedly did PEDs. But the fact that we are discounting them but didn't have any problem letting in, say, Mays or Koufax or Aaron or Ford or Perry is just inane.

Just 3?

Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling for me.

If it's just 3 it's gotta be Bonds, Clemens, and Johnson for me. If it opens up to 5 then I'd probably add Piazza and Martinez.