Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ramos should attract interest from clubs either in need of a catcher (Braves) or replacing a retiring catcher in several seasons (Cardinals).
Quote:
Originally Posted by 7express
I could see him joining the Cardinals or even the Giants. Neither team will need a number 1 catcher for this year which is good because Ramos will be out until about late April/early May with the knee injury. But he would be a good fit with the Cards replacing Yadi who I think only has about 2 or 3 more years left, and his "good" years have probably already passed him by. Not sure how many years the Giants still have control of Belt, but I would have to think the long-term goal for Sabaen, Bochy & Bobby Evans is to get Posey from out behind the plate into a mostly full time role at first base within the next 3 or 4 years. That's why Ramos could be a fit there as well. No way in hell a team that needs a catcher on opening day will sign him.....the reason being he won't even be playing on opening day, so what's the point??
You don't sign a 29 year old catcher coming off his career year for multi-million of dollars to be a backup and a future replacement for another aging catcher making multi-millions of dollars, especially with Ramos blowing out his knee in the last week of the season. No way he goes to St. Louis.
The Giants would have to be totally confident that Ramos will be ready to catch 5 games a week by June to try such a shift in dynamics; plus they'd have to add players who offer positional diversity to accommodate this philosophy. Quite frankly, their lineup needs more of a boost than Ramos offers.
Ramos could fit in better with Detroit or Houston. He could be used as a DH (even if it's in a platoon) and pinch-hit early in '17 until he's ready to wear the gear competitively again. The Tigers claim they want to change their dynamic. Moving V-Mart might be a part of their plan; get something for him while they still can, open up DH for Miggy. With or without V-Mart, Ramos is still a fit, if the Tigers decide they're willing to spend what they would have paid Maybin to Ramos instead of simply cutting budget.
For Houston, Jason Castro is a free agent with other opportunities. The Astros should move on. Ramos is a better risk to take. Also, Cleveland could be interested in doing with Ramos and Gomes in '17 what they wanted to do with Lucroy and Gomes (rotate between C/DH/1B). Lucroy turned Cleveland down because of the scenario, but it might work better with Ramos if they fail to retain Napoli. They still have Santana in the DH/1B mix as well. I'd rather they find a legit RF option and trade Chisenhall.
The Giants would have to be totally confident that Ramos will be ready to catch 5 games a week by June to try such a shift in dynamics; plus they'd have to add players who offer positional diversity to accommodate this philosophy. Quite frankly, their lineup needs more of a boost than Ramos offers.
Agree with the above. The Giants are strong at catcher and firstbase, they are weak in the outfield and the bullpen. Signing Wilson would be disrupting the strengths while leaving the weaknesses unaddressed.
Further, the Giants should not be in any rush to move Posey to first in order to lengthen his career. Posey just won the gold glove at catcher, so his value at that position is very high. Give him the same offensive stats as a firstbaseman and his value declines.
Posey is under contract through 2021 which will be his age 34 season. His value after that is unlikely to be very high, by then he probably will be playing first full time. The Giants should be concerned with getting all the value that they can from Posey over the next five years, and not concerned with prolonging his career after the contract expires.
The Braves are looking for them to eat innings and make the team more competitive this year. I can see the Braves being a surprise contender for a Wild Card spot.
Plus, the FA pitching market is extremely thin. Being able to get 2 proven starters who allow the young hurlers to remain in the minors and not start their MLB clocks is excellent.
Plus, who wouldn't want to come to the new stadium to see Colon try and run the bases?
What are the Braves thinking by signing a pair of 40 plus year olds to fill out their rotation? Does this mean that they think that they will be competitive next season? If not, it is hard to understand why they would want to overpay for a couple of pitchers who will not be around when the Braves are next poised to contend. Why not give those spots to young guys to see what they can do and give them some experience?
Braves fans may know more about the reasoning behind this.
Awards will be announced this week.
Today: Rookies
Tuesday: Managers
Wednesday: Cy Youngs
Thursday: Most Valuable Players
I will give my thoughts on this; quite frankly, it is a smart move on the Braves' part. John Coppolella (the Braves' GM) realized that the rotation was simply too young and inexperienced last year, with Julio Teheran at age 25 being the old man of the group. Like a lot of young pitchers do, there was some struggles along the way for the starters and also some injuries. As a result, the Braves basically played musical chairs with their roster just to have someone available to start each game. The injuries and the ineffectiveness of some of the starters forced the Braves to rush some pitchers to Atlanta too soon just to fill a roster spot and give the team some innings. I believe they used 16 different starters during the 2016 season, which is a ton.
The idea with Colon and Dickey is to use them as placeholders to stabilize the Braves' rotation until some of the younger guys are really ready to step in. The Braves feel that they have quite a few pitchers that are 1 to 2 years away from really being ready to step into the rotation. Colon and Dickey allow them to keep those pitchers in the minors and allow them to develop during the 2017 season, as Colon and Dickey can be reasonably trusted to provide starts and innings to the team.
John Coppolella accurately judged this free agent market as being very weak on starting pitching and likely looked at average starters like Ivan Nova, Jason Hammel, Jeremy Hellickson as being pitchers that will command multiple years and a lot more dollars than they are really worth. The Braves don't want to be the team that gives a pitcher like Nova 4 years at $50 to $60 million total. No smart team wants to do that but some desperate team will probably do it. That is potentially the cost of getting starters in this market. The Braves decided that contracts like that for average pitchers simply wasn't worth it and struck early with 1 year deals for Colon and Dickey to fill that need in their 2017 rotation. Did they slightly overpay for Colon? Sure but wouldn't you rather overpay a bit on a 1 year deal than overpay a Nova or Hammel on a 3 or 4 year deal?
The Braves recognize that Colon and Dickey aren't going to make them a playoff team and that really isn't the expectation. The expectation is to be respectable in the 1st year at SunTrust Park and to allow the younger prospects to develop so that they can be ready to move up to Atlanta in 2018 and 2019. They accomplished both goals without giving out any ridiculous contract(s) that they would quickly come to regret. If you understand what Coppolella and the organization is attempting to do long-term, then these signings make perfect sense.
^ Thanks to those who have offered an explanation for the Braves signing the geriatric pitchers.
The qualifying offer minimum has been raised from 14.4 million to 17.2 million. It has now gotten high enough to attract signers. Neil Walker of the Mets accepted it and will be a New Yorker in 2017. Jeremy Hellickson of the Phillies has accepted that club's offer as well.
Declining the offers have been: outfielders Jose Bautista (Toronto), Ian Desmond (Texas), Dexter Fowler (Chicago Cubs) and Mark Trumbo (Baltimore), designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion (Toronto), closer Kenley Jansen (Los Angeles Dodgers) and third baseman Justin Turner (Dodgers).
For those who do not know, the qualifying offer was instituted to determine whether or not a club which loses a free agent, is entitled to a compensation draft pick. If you make the offer and the guy goes elsewhere, you qualify for a pick in a special round conducted between the first and second rounds of the draft. The danger of course is that you may not want the player back but he accepts the offer and you get him at 17 million instead of the draft pick.
It is a rule which hurts the small market clubs the most. Billy Beane had turned the old system into an art form, acquiring players, especially relievers, who the A's would showcase for a season, and then get a compensation pick when they departed for richer waters. The new rule has ended that because the A's cannot afford to take a chance on someone accepting the offer when it was made just to get the draft pick. One guy making 17 million on the A's would wreck the rest of the team's payroll.
The QO system is one reason that I think the Braves went after Colon and Dickey, other than not wanting to overpay for a Nova or Hellickson or Hammel on a multi-year deal. The Braves didn't want to lose a draft pick, as John Coppolella highly values draft picks. The Braves' 1st round pick (#5 overall) is protected but they would still lose their 2nd round pick (a high 2nd round pick) if they had tried to sign a pitcher tied to a QO. I think Coppolella correctly believed that a guy like Hellickson just didn't move the needle enough to make it worth giving up both money ($ in a big contract) and a high 2nd round draft pick in order to sign him.
The QO probably worked against Hellickson to a large degree, as it probably limited some of the teams that were willing to sign him, as teams probably didn't want to give up a pick for him. I am sure that the Phillies gave him a QO assuming that he would get a nice contract in this market, move on and that they would land a 1st or 2nd round pick (depending on who signed him) when he did. But, yes, the fact that the QO is over $17 million now will entice some guys to take the deal and hit the market again next winter.
Do you think baseball should move to something along the lines of the NFL's franchise tag process?
Do you think baseball should move to something along the lines of the NFL's franchise tag process?
Regardless of what any fan may think, it will get sustained or modified from its present form in the upcoming Basic Player Agreement negotiations this winter. The owners will first hash it out among themselves, and then cope with whatever changes the MLBPA requests. You outlined different possibilities for Hellickson and the Phillies in your post and they illustrate that is is difficult to know exactly who the rule is helping the most. I suspect that the MLBPA will look at Walker and Hellickson and decide that the QO system makes for a nice insurance policy when a player wants to delay going for a long term contract.
If the goal is striving for greater competitive parity among the clubs, then it would be best to go back to the way it was done before without qualifying offers. I don't think that this is one of the collective owner goals, so probably the QO system will remain in place.
Verlander had the most first place votes, but Porcello made up for it with a big margin in the second place votes. Zach Britton finished fourth and earned five first-place votes.
Since 2008, the Cy Young voting had been showing signs of the voters taking modern metrics into account more often, but this year, without anyone in the NL or AL clearly outshining all others, they fell back on the old 20 wins formula.
Trout has now played for five full seasons, has led the AL in WAR in all five of those seasons, has won two MVP awards and finished second the other three times.
26 years old....next August.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
