MLB - NEWS & NOTES

Japanese two-way sensation Ohtani to sign with Angels

Japanese two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani will join forces with the greatest player on the planet - Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani on Friday agreed to sign with the Angels, ending a weeklong bidding for his services that included seven finalists, including four of the five teams based in California.
In the end, it was the Angels who will for the next six seasons will enjoy the talents of Ohtani, 23, who was widely regarded as the hottest free agent in this year’s market even before officially being posted by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, which finally happened Dec. 1.

Often referred to as the Babe Ruth of Japan, Ohtani combines a 100-mph fastball and refined breaking ball as a right-handed pitcher with big power potential as a left-handed hitter. He was hampered by ankle and thigh injuries last season but was named the MVP of Japan’s Pacific League in 2016 after going 10-4 with a 1.86 ERA while batting .322 with 22 homers and a 1.004 OPS.

Ohtani’s bargain-basement price also made him appealing to all major league teams, even with the $20 million posting fee attached to him. Because of restrictions on the signing of international free agents, clubs could only offer Ohtani whatever they had left from their assigned bonus money, with the Texas Rangers holding the largest amount at about $3.54 million.

He took a discount to sign with the Angels, who wheeled and dealed to free up more international signing money and can offer him a package worth $2.21 million.
Said Nez Balelo, Ohtani's agent at Creative Artists Agency: “I want to thank the clubs and everyone else for respecting our intent to make this very important process as private as possible. We were resolved to having a fair, methodical process. Teams clearly put in a lot of work, and we are grateful for that.

 

respecting our intent ? ha. he basically said no to 80% of the teams right off the bat. where's their respect ?

 

He couldn't sign with more than 1 team, lol... and he didn't go for the most money, that's kinda cool.

 

he always wanted to go to disneyland

 

you know how many rides he gets? have fun kid

 

Marlins agree to trade Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees

Starlin Castro and prospects would head to Miami. If Stanton approves the deal.

 

Report: Tigers sign Mike Fiers to one-year, $6 million contract

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports that the Tigers and free agent pitcher Mike Fiers have agreed on a one-year, $6 million contract. He notes that the Orioles had offered Fiers two years.

Fiers, 32, just won a championship with the Astros but was non-tendered last week. He had a disappointing regular season, posting a 5.22 ERA with a 146/62 K/BB ratio in 153 1/3 innings. He did not appear in the postseason.

Fiers will join the back end of a rotation that includes Jordan Zimmermann, Michael Fulmer, Matt Boyd, and Daniel Norris.

 

The Marlins are expected to send Stanton and $30 million to the Yankees in exchange for veteran Starlin Castro and two minor leaguers.

 

Fuck you Jeter

 

Stanton only wanted to go to 1 of 4 teams that made the LCS and then he goes to the Yankees for peanuts. Time to not care about baseball for another 20 years.

 

Jack Morris and Alan Trammell rightfully get elected into the MLB Hall of Fame thanks to the Modern Era Committee.

 

Good for them but 7 votes for Marvin Miller is a fucking joke.

 

the words of fraud and collusion filled Twitter. Then people tried to say St. Louis and SF had deals with Stanton he declined. Yeah, SF is in rebuild mode and St. Louis is getting older. I'm sure Jeter was in his ear. This deal stinks to high heavens. not even their best prospects and people said when you take on $293 mil, that takes the place of a top prospect. why? he's the reigning MVP. if you wanna take on the money, that's on you, but he's worth more. total joke this trade was allowed. and who is the overseer of baseball operations ? Joe Torre? Hmm.

 

BoSox pitcher, Steven Wright, has been arrested on a DV charge in Tennessee.

 

He only hit her like 60% as hard as a regular guy would...

 

Yankees trade Chase Headley, Bryan Mitchell to the Padres for Jabari Blash...

This move appears to be mostly about cutting salary for the Yankees. They'll save $13 million due to this deal.

 

Jon Heyman reports that the Phillies are considering free agent starter Jake Arrieta.

That may seem kind of weird on the surface given that the Phillies, as Heyman notes, are considered to be at least a year from contention. Thing is, though, we really never know for sure when a team will definitely be in contention, do we? We’ve seen a handful of teams’ rebuilding efforts bear competitive fruit ahead of schedule in recent years, including the current World Series champion Houston Astros. They made the dang playoffs a year after losing 92 games, when everyone thought their true competitive window was several years away. Arrieta’s Cubs were much the same way, improving by 24 wins in 2015 to make the playoffs, in large part because of . . . acquiring Jake Arrieta.

Whether Arrieta, who is coming off of a 14-10, 3.53 ERA season, would be interested in the Phillies is unknown, but if I’m a Phillies fan, I’m happy that my club is being aggressive and is at least considering it.

 

Will the phils have tons of money. they only have 1 contract past 3 yrs and it's dirt cheap. they need pitching badly. they need a proven Ace because Aaron Nola is really a #3 man, so they need someone like Arrieta to take the load off of Nola and at the same time to mentor the young staff. this move makes perfect sense. the Phils need more than 1 pitcher, so yes, go get him. They may not be contending in 2018, but that off-season, they will be buyers for sure as they have more money to spend. No need to wait a year to get a quality SP now.

 

I heard jacoby ellsbury is next to go to save some cash!

 

The Phillies are reportedly close to signing free agent pitcher Tommy Hunter.
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Phillies have had ongoing discussions with Addison Reed