MLB 2015 Season

Ritley

Karazhan Raider
15,726
34,262
That shit is just dumb. Teams having like 30-40 million dollar payrolls is pretty ridiculus these days with how much revenue sharing there is. I mean I guess winning 60 games is as good as winning 70 so why pay more?!?
And then they can threaten to leave the city and get them to pay for a new stadium too!
 

Blitz

<Bronze Donator>
5,695
6,215
Blue Jays just acquired Troy fucking Tulowitzki, per Rosenthal. Extremely shocking.
 

Profundis

Silver Knight of the Realm
795
3
Like they needed more offense. They need a fucking pitching staff.

Heard on the way home that the Giants are hot to trot for Aroldis Chapman.
 

Pyratec

Golden Knight of the Realm
321
156
Like they needed more offense. They need a fucking pitching staff.

Heard on the way home that the Giants are hot to trot for Aroldis Chapman.
Tulo is a great player, I'm happy to have him and not sorry to see the backside of Reyes. Also managed to hang onto our two top rated pitching prospects according to Baseball America. Hoffman has already had Tommy John surgery and he throws 100 so he will probably burn out at 26 like Verlander did. Picking up a relief pitcher is nice too. I would have preferred we get a top 3 of the rotation starter than another bat, but Cueto, Price, and Hamels would have been all 3 month rentals, and Tulo is signed through 2021 so he'll be around for a while.

Overall I think I like the move, but I was quite surprised, this really came out of nowhere.
 

Blitz

<Bronze Donator>
5,695
6,215
Fucking KC, now or never.

Heard Yanks could potentially be really in on Price with the idea that he wouldn't cost absolutely top prospects due to rental status. Little bias there on my part, as I assume everyone else would be really interested as well. Joel Sherman was talking about potentially flipping Nova & Lindgren, and other bullpen prospects for Price/Samardzija. Not in love with the idea of moving Nova for a rental, but having a Price to head a playoff rotation would be better than not. Wonder if the Yanks look at going after Prado again now.

DFW is kinda abuzz about the prospect of Hamels coming here and pairing along side Darvish, its definitely seems like its been a few years since the fan base has been this excited. Hope for the sake of Rangers fans it does happen & JD pulls the trigger.
 

Pharazon

Silver Knight of the Realm
413
46
Last 10 WS winners:

San Francisco
Boston
San Francisco
St Louis
San Francisco
New York
Philadelphia
Boston
St Louis
Chicago(White Sox)

Baseball parity is great as long as you are a major market team with a HUGE payroll (Boston, New York, Chicago, Philly) or a traditional powerhouse going back 130 years (San Fran, St Louis, and it's not like San Fran or StL are exactly small market, they just usually don't have ridiculous bloated payrolls)
How the F were the Giants a traditional powerhouse? Just because they made the playoffs a number of times in the 2000's?? 0 WS wins in SF until 2010. That's like calling the Cubs a traditional powerhouse because they've made the playoffs a number of times. 50+ year drought vs. 100+ year drought. When they get that long what's the difference? It's all the same to the modern day fan, they'd never seen a winner (granted, the Giants came closer in 02 than the Cubs have been in a long time.)

The Giants have been winning in a way that any small market team could have been doing themselves. It's been a core of home-grown talent with changing B or C level vets making key contributions in different years. There was nothing stopping the Royals from picking Posey over Eric Hosmer (or a few other teams from picking Posey.) If they'd done that, the Giants still have 0 WS, no doubts. If Posey played in NY he'd be getting hailed by ESPN and the East Coast media as Derek Jeter's heir apparent.

The great thing about baseball is that title runs can center around young, relatively cheap players. The Giants team highlights this, but lets also look back just a little further and remember the Marlins in 97 and 03 as well. I don't know how you can discuss baseball parity without mentioning those teams.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
24,704
32,098
I saw him interviewed about Biggio going in and damn he looked old, old man glasses and all.
 

Profundis

Silver Knight of the Realm
795
3
Papelbon to the Nationals looks like a done deal.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that if the trade is completed, part of the agreement is that Papelbon will close for the Nationals, and he will be signed for the 2016 season. Presumably, that means that the Nationals will guarantee his 2016 option up front.

The Nationals will send a Double-A pitcher to the Phillies in exchange for Papelbon. It?s unclear if any other pieces are involved or if the Phillies are including any cash in the deal.
 

Blitz

<Bronze Donator>
5,695
6,215
Baseball Hall of Fame to eliminate voters inactive for more than 10 years

The Hall says in a statement "BBWAA members previously holding Hall of Fame voting privileges who are no longer active in the game and are more than 10 years removed from active status will have the opportunity for annual reinstatement, based on their coverage of the game in the preceding year."

Before the change, about 650 people were eligible to vote.
Hopefully this includes removing anyone over the age of 110. BBWAA is older than dirt. Don't you dare talk about their immortals, err old legends, cause no one is ever as good as those players and they never did wrong.
 

Profundis

Silver Knight of the Realm
795
3
Hopefully. I guess we won't really know until the next ballot comes out, and the only surefire 1st ballot on that list is Ken Griffey Jr., maybe Trevor Hoffman, even though I doubt any closer will go in first ballot until Mariano Rivera.

Next 3 biggest holdouts are:
Mike Piazza (69.9%)
Jeff Bagwell (55.7%)
Tim Raines (55.0%)
 

Profundis

Silver Knight of the Realm
795
3
Yeah, I don't get that either. And this will be his 9th year on the ballot. He might have to wait for the Veteran Committee, which is crazy.
 

Sterling

El Presidente
12,994
7,898
Yeah, I don't get that either. And this will be his 9th year on the ballot. He might have to wait for the Veteran Committee, which is crazy.
Yeah it isn't his fault Rickey Henderson was also around most of his career. Comparing anyone to Henderson is a joke.
 

Blitz

<Bronze Donator>
5,695
6,215
Yanks & Rangers on pace for 60 runs tonight.

JD should probably put in that call to the Phillies now.
 

Generol_sl

shitlord
182
0
Yeah, I don't get that either. And this will be his 9th year on the ballot. He might have to wait for the Veteran Committee, which is crazy.
I really am not seeing him as a HoF player. His statistics don't really stand out to me in any category:

The only things that I find Hall worthy is his career stolen base percentage (84.7%) and his 808 steals but other than that there isn't anything really overly impressive about his career. Six seasons of batting over .300 and an OBP of .385 in 23 seasons isn't exactly a serious consideration in my view.

Of those three the only one I personally think should get in is Piazza as his statistics were excellent and even more impressive is that production as a catcher. I always figured the goober writers would keep him out because they "thought" he was on the juice but there has never been any facts to substantiate that which makes it ridiculous to keep him out (if that is their excuse).

I am happy that the voting is being looked at because some of these people have no business voting and vote based on popularity more than anything. Bonds, a guy who hated the media and never gave them the time of day most likely pissed off a lot of media members who would no doubt try to get revenge on him by keeping him out of the hall.
 

Sterling

El Presidente
12,994
7,898
Raines was probably the second best leadoff guy for a long period of time. Again, comparing him to Henderson is a joke, because comparing basically anyone to Henderson is a joke. Nobody who's reached base as much as he has (Rose aside) is not in the HoF. He never did get to 3k hits, but that's largely due to how much he walked. Henderson and Raines essentially changed the leadoff position.