MLB - NEWS & NOTES

Grumpy Fan Era

 

grumpy?

Harold Baines, Albert Belle, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Davey Johnson, on any HOF ballot ONLY needing 12 votes makes me grumpy. I didn't know players were on the ballot. I thought executives, so that's why i thought Selig got in etc. These players in the Hall ? Wow. Talk about lowering your standards!

 

I don't disagree with your salient point, but OTOH if you look back over the lists of players that were considered by the Veteran's Committe over the years, most of them were those types of guys. And most of the guys the VC voted in you probably wouldn't say were obviously way better than those guys. You'll see far fewer players getting in through the committee under this system going forward, but it's not some great travesty, either, for them to at least discuss the merits of guys who had long decent careers, or ones who were brilliant for a few years and then just kinda hung on for awhile.

 

long decent careers who didn't make the first round of voting on the main ballot shouldn't get in on another ballot either. now they are trying to find guys to put in etc. now if this is the veterans committee way of getting middle of the road type players in vs the real hall of famers, that's on them, but it lessens the hall of fame tremendously to me.

Harold Baines, Albert Belle, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Davey Johnson, Mark McGwire, Lou Piniella and George Steinbrenner were also on the Today's Game Era ballot. Each received fewer than 12 votes and was not elected to the Hall of Fame.

so now they have 4 different committees - Early Baseball (1871-1949), Golden Days (1950-69), Modern Baseball (1970-87), and Today's Game (1988-2016)? i see a bunch of guys who weren't hall of famers getting in now. jeez.

 

It was much easier under the old system to get a borderline guy in...you basically just needed one strong ally on the committee to stand on the table for you and browbeat everyone else into letting you in. They've been tinkering with it for 15 years, but it's unquestionably harder for the guys who've been passed over on the writers' ballot to get in now than it used to be.

From 1953 - 2001 with the prior incarnation of the VC, they put 70 players in.

In the 15 years since, with the various iterations of the multi-pronged committee approach, they've put in 3 (not counting the Negro League guys).

 

Yankees sign Matt Holliday to a one-year, $13 million?deal

Holliday, who turns 37 years old next month, was limited to 110 games in 2016 with the Cardinals due to a fractured left thumb suffered in the second half. He finished the season hitting .246/.322/.461 with 20 home runs and 62 RBI in 426 plate appearances.

 

Dodgers sign Rich Hill to a three-year, $48 million?deal

The Dodgers have signed lefty Rich Hill to a three-year, $48 million contract.The deal was reported to be imminent over the?weekend, but was finalized today following Hill?s physical.

Hill missed a good deal of time in 2016 with blister issues ? and he?ll be 37-years-old on Opening Day ? but when he was healthy he was fantastic, posting the best season in his 12-year career. He had a a 2.12 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 110.1 innings between the Athletics and Dodgers.

Along with a healthy Clayton Kershaw a maturing Julio Urias and Kenta Maeda, the Dodgers rotation looks to be a strength in 2017.

 

Blue Jays sign Steve Pearce to a two-year?deal

Buster Olney of ESPN reports that the Blue Jays have signed Steve Pearce to a two-year deal worth $12.5 million.
Pearce, 33 had some health issues in 2016, but he hit?.288/.374/.492 across 302 plate appearances when he was on the field and he mashes lefties in particular. Pearce is versatile as well, logging time at first base, second base, right field, left field, and DH in 2016 while splitting time between the Rays and Orioles.

 

Giants agree to a deal with Mark?Melancon

UPDATE: Buster Olney reports that a deal is in place pending a physical. The financial terms are not yet known. UPDATE: Joel Sherman of the New York Post hears it?s in the four-year, $62 million range. That will make him, temporarily at least, the highest-paid closer in baseball history.

 

Emphasis on "temporarily at least" lol. Marlins rumored to have offered Jansen 5/80, and you'd think Chapman might approach 100.

 

Hard to believe what Melancon has turned into after watching him shit his drawers on a regular basis for a year in Boston.

 

Joacuin Benoit has signed with the Phillies.

 

Red Sox reportedly trading Travis Shaw and a ml'er to Milwaukee for Tyler Thornburg.

 

yeah u dog. insane money and more to come for relievers. $85+ mil for Jansen.

 

Chris SAle to the Nats is very close to being a done deal. I hated them before - now i really hate them! No word on McCutchen to the Nats now.

 

Wow. The Nationals are becoming the Yankees of old. Gonna buy that championship with money on the vets. Lets see where that gets them.

 

The way the market has shot up for relievers, I'm warming up to Dombrowski's approach of trading for up-and-comers like Thornburg and Carson Smith with multiple years of team control.

 

Though I like the Thornburg deal a lot less if it's true we're giving them Dubon, as well.

 

so far i don't think they ever won a playoff round!

 

Not so fast, Nats. Dealer Dave is at it again...Sale to the Red Sox.