2009 MLB season discussion*

[Bregor]

So, the decision has been made: A-Rod is going to have surgery. Are they really going to be having Cody Ransom replace him at third for the first 2-3 months of the season?

Also, if A-Rod is available in the second round of my fantasy draft, is he worth drafting? What do you guys think?

I wouldn't even think about him until the fourth round now. If you look at how deep the early draft is, you're still going to get guys who put up very good numbers over six months, such as Matt Kemp, Kevin Youkilis, Aramis Ramirez, Brian McCann, etc. Those type of guys, versus a huge talent coming off a surgery which could affect his swing and take him a couple weeks to a month or more to re-adjust to the league, it's worth the risk but it could blow up on you.

[fren.]

So, the decision has been made: A-Rod is going to have surgery. Are they really going to be having Cody Ransom replace him at third for the first 2-3 months of the season?

Also, if A-Rod is available in the second round of my fantasy draft, is he worth drafting? What do you guys think?

He's going to have surgery tomorrow, which puts him on schedule to return around mid-April/early-May. It's a lot better than having him play through it, he's gonna go under the knife again during the offseason.

I don't who the 3B is, but the pitching and the offense (Tex/Matsui/Posada/Jeter/Swisher/Cano/Damon) are more than capable of holding down the fort. This fucking sucks dick though.

Edit:

UPDATE, 3:13 p.m.: Just spoke to Brian Cashman, Mr. Pessimism said he expects A-Rod back in mid-May. Cashman always goes worst-case scenario.
Cashman said that as the Yankees researched this, they found a number of athletes (including baseball players) who had similar surgery and came back to play at a high level.

[Akiyama]

Well, to be fair.. the offense will still struggle to start, because if my memory serves me correctly, Tex has horrible numbers (by his standards) in April/early May. At least that was the case in his one "full" (I say "full" because he was traded before the year was up) season with the Braves, and that was the case when he was with the Rangers. Not sure you can really rely on Matsui, Posada, Jeter, Swisher, Cano, or Damon to truly carry the team. They are all getting up there in age, except Cano and Swisher, who are 26 and 28 respectively.

[fren.]

Well, to be fair.. the offense will still struggle to start, because if my memory serves me correctly, Tex has horrible numbers (by his standards) in April/early May. At least that was the case in his one "full" (I say "full" because he was traded before the year was up) season with the Braves, and that was the case when he was with the Rangers. Not sure you can really rely on Matsui, Posada, Jeter, Swisher, Cano, or Damon to truly carry the team. They are all getting up there in age, except Cano and Swisher, who are 26 and 28 respectively.

Those guys still haven't showed any signs of declining, yet. If Cano sucks, Jeter/Matsui/Posada are injured like last year..then yea, they're fucked. But even then, they still didn't have a guy like Tex and were trotting out Sidney Ponson and Darrel Rasner and all that garbage.

The WBC has been entertaining. Felipe Alou benched Hanley in favor of Tatis (who's batting third)

..and Venezuela brought out Victor Zambrano in an elimination game.

[Ensam]

Matty has veins filled with ice.

The difference between A-Rod and the likely candidates is probably about ~2 wins a month, statistically.

If we assume a 96 win season before, we're now talking about a 92-94 win season. I mean, coming back early May is an optimistic time table. Gonna be harder to make the playoffs, all that needs to be said.

Woo Ianetta

[Akiyama]

Yeah. GO USA. Youuuuuk.

[Viq]

Lester reportedly signed a 5-year, $30mil deal with an option for 2014. Between this deal, Youk, and Pedroia, the Sox must be putting some kind of mind control device in their Gatorade.

[BadKarma]

Lester reportedly signed a 5-year, $30mil deal with an option for 2014. Between this deal, Youk, and Pedroia, the Sox must be putting some kind of mind control device in their Gatorade.

im happier than a pig in shit.

[jmc]

Lester reportedly signed a 5-year, $30mil deal with an option for 2014. Between this deal, Youk, and Pedroia, the Sox must be putting some kind of mind control device in their Gatorade.

Good for him.

Bounces back from cancer, and 3 years later has a awesome sports contract.

Can't wait to watch him pitch this year.

[Cephius]

I'd love to know how the Sox get away with signing these stars to relatively lowball contracts. Do they like playing in a toilet bowl that much (cheap shot: check) or are they just happy to stay with a contender and don't want to test the open market?

[Viq]

The Sox have been trying to get Papelbon to sign a deal like this for a couple of years, but he just wants single year deals until he can hit free agency. He's essentially the last hold out of their main young stars, though. I guess I'm not super surprised at the Lester deal, mostly because he carries himself with a bit of a different perspective on life (cancer will do that to you, I guess.) Youk is the most surprising, though. He's a Players' Union rep, and those guys are usually under pretty heavy pressure from the Union to try and raise the average price of a contract.

[Ensam]

it's because of arbitration. These really aren't jaw-dropping deals. They happen all around baseball. CLE is the one that really introduced it.

The first three years of a players time in the majors, the club can pay him anything they want (they have a minimum).

Then a player's 4-6 years, they get paid arbitration, which is still extremely below market value for good players (in arbitration, generally above average players get paid less than they would on the market, average players get about the same, and below average players actually get paid more normally). Not only that, but a team can wait to call you up until may/june (i.e. Ryan Braun last year) and they get 7 years of control.

Since it's year to year, that means if a player gets injured, he's fucked out of money. Tommorow if Pedroia gets his arm sliced off by his seat belt in a car accident, he can't Rick Allen it. He'd gome home making roughly 700k in the majors. However, it doesn't what happens now, he's going home with atleast 40mil. It's all about security.

I mean, let's actually look at Youk's contract

09: He's going to make 6 mil. Would have made about 7m (second year of arbitration)
10: Going to make 9.2 mil. Would have made about 10.5 (third year of arbitration)

Now is the key part, free agent years, and is the main reason teams do it. You get a couple of free agent years at reduced cost, so you have control of them at a lesser price for longer.

11: 12m
12: 12m
13: 13m (club option)

Youk would probably make about 15-17m per on the FA market. So he cost himself about 10-16 mil, but he's guarenteed to make 40 mil. So if he gets injured tomorrow, stops hitting tomorow, whatever, he's going to make 40 more mil no matter what.

40 mil right now, or a possible 50-55mil down the road?

edit:

here's a good article on why the Lester deal isn't really even that good compared to other contracts, plus also gives you a better insight of why players do it (has quotes from him)

http://www.weei.com/Red-Sox-Jon-Lest...m-Deal/3984153

[Viq]

Netherlands > Dominican Republic

[Mugekuge]

Netherlands > Dominican Republic

lolmlb hahaha, amazing that could happen.

[fren.]

Holy fuck at this Chapman guy for Cuba.

96-100 with a sweeping slider.

[pohibaba]

USA got mercy-ruled today by Puerto Rico; that's pretty disappointing. PR looked good on the field, but Team America looked horrible in every aspect. Peavy especially looked terrible from the start, but they couldn't pull him because he needed game time.

[Viq]

At least the US gets Netherlands next. I'm excited for Japan vs. Cuba in a finals rematch tomorrow.

[Ensam]

I can't watch US games because I hate too many US players and I find myself subconsciously rooting against the US qqqqqqqqqqqq

[Ferien]

At least the US gets Netherlands next. I'm excited for Japan vs. Cuba in a finals rematch tomorrow.

The Netherlands beat the DR dude...twice...

[Headspace]

Yeah, but we have steroids.