But they’re only 2 games out of last place. 
For the Nats, Detwiler has been taken out of the rotation and made a reliever, I think it’s a good move. I hope he can adjust to the new role, if so he could be pretty good at it.
Have people ever told you “Dude, you are a glass half-empty kind of guy”?
I think they are only ahead of the Diamondbacks by 2 games. They only gained 1/2 game for each win on everyone else. So they are 1 game ahead of most teams.
Well, every other team has to win two games to pull even of my Bums, and that’s how I’m gonna keep looking at it, dadgumit!
As I understand it, Boston is about to announce that Grady Sizemore is their new center fielder and that Jackie Bradley will be spending another year in Pawtucket.
I loved Sizemore when he was with Cleveland (and healthy), but of course that was a long time ago. I must admit I’m having a little trouble wrapping my head around this decision. I’m sure there have been teams that have signed 32-year-old CFs with brutal injury histories and been pleased with the results, but I can’t think of one off the top of my head–and put that way, at least, it doesn’t sound promising.
Anyway, it sounds like something the Yankees would do. Or the Phillies, or the Mariners. Maybe Baltimore. I’m surprised to see the Red Sox doing it, especially because it means sending a promising young prospect back to the minors–and as we know, the Red Sox management highly values and loves to brag about the organization’s young players. Does this mean they don’t think Bradley is ready (he’s turning 24 in a couple of weeks, so he doesn’t have a lot more time to get ready), or don’t think he is as good as some of his prospect rankings would indicate, or are they finding him difficult to work with in some way and are trying to send him a message? Anybody know?
It’s also curious to me because this is not in any way a young team. With Bradley in Rhode Island, Bogaerts and Middlebrooks project to be the only regulars under 30 this season. And the top four starting pitchers, plus Uehara, will all be 30 or older by the end of the season as well (Buchholz hits 30 in August)…
At any rate, I’m sure it could all work out for the team–I just find it a little perplexing.
So the Astros are starting George Springer in the minors to try to turn back his arbitration clock a bit. I hate that kind of decision but given that it probably involves saving at least ten million dollars and/or a year of Springer when the team is hopefully in contention versus a couple months of him in a year when they’re aspiring to not be embarassing, hard to blame them.
It makes sense. but the thing I wonder about is whether teams are trying to get too cute with this sort of thing.
As more and more teams try it, it is likely that the deadline will shift further back. It is the kind of thing that works when a few people are doing it, but not when everyone is.
Whether it’s the Astros with Soringer, the Mets with Syndegaard, or the somebody elses with somebody else, the day is coming when a team is going to be very very bummed when they not only miss a couple of months of having a good player on their roster but don’t end up stopping his arbitration clock a couple of years down the road.
Rumor is Cabrera signed with the Tigers at 10 more years fot 292-300M. Not a surprise really, but I hope he stays healthy.
I find this extension to be absurd. Cabrera is still 2 years away from Free Agency, so the Tigers could have waited and see how he recovered from injury this year.
The fact that Cabrera will now get close to $30 mil a year from now until his year 40, is astoundingly stupid. We can assume that Cabrera is just a couple years away from being primarily a DH (he offers little in defensive value, as it is). $30 mil for a DH? David Ortiz should fire his agent.
I agree it is bizarrely timed. Of all the times to give Cabrera a giant pile of money this is literally the worst time in his entire career. It’s an absolutely baffling move.
Miguel Cabrera is an absolutely ridiculously brilliant hitter; he was a much better hitter than David Ortiz ever was, really, and that’s saying a lot, but Jesus, did the Tigers not see how hobbled he was last year?
Good for Cabrera, though.
Its not forever. If Sizemore does have to take some time off, which is the obvious thing to fear, Pawtucket is only an hour’s drive away. Bradley is all that and more defensively, he just hasn’t hit MLB or even AAA pitching yet. But he’s only 23, with only 1 partial season in AAA, so he’s still on schedule. AAA is where he needs to be right now, IMHO.
By all accounts, he’s a fine teammate, and says all the right things in public. He just hasn’t learned how to hit yet. And yes, he may be one of those hot prospects who just can’t take that last step. (By the by, Ryan Kalish has made the big club with the Cubs - Boston may regret giving up on him).
They’re still younger than the team that won the Series again just last year. Nobody’s about to fall off the cliff. Check again in a couple more years, though.
Are they younger? Bogaerts is about ten years younger than Drew, but Pierzynski is about that much older than Saltalamacchia, and everyone else has presumably gotten a year older since last spring 
Thanks for the info on Bradley. I still find it surprising. Though you may well be right that they don’t expect Sizemore to last all year.
The Red Sox have one of the 3 or 4 oldest rosters in baseball this year. They plan to get younger at catcher with two farm system prospects – the Pierzynski one-year signing was only a bridge to 2015. They have a slew of well-regarded pitching prospects (although none of them excelled in Spring Training), as well as high-rated infield prospects. What they lack is farm-system depth in the outfield. By starting off the season with Sizemore in center they are able to use J Bradley Jr. as system depth, and I’m sure he’ll see plenty of service time with the Red Sox this year. If they had gone with Bradley to start the season, Sizemore could not have been sent down and become a FA, and they’d be left with nothing but low-ceiling replacements in AAA.
I wasn’t comparing Cabrera to Ortiz in the present day… just what Cabrera might be in a few years. Not to say that putting up Ortiz’ numbers in your mid-late 30s (as DH) isn’t damn good; it’ s just not worth paying $30 mil a year. Ortiz had the 4th best OPS in the American League last year; is that too low a goal for Cabrera when he’s 37 years old?
And Ortiz is a very serviceable 1st baseman. The only reason the Sox made him a full-time DH is to prolong his career, something that the Tigers will have to do with Cabrera in the very near future.
It may be sooner - Butler can play in the majors right now (but probably can’t hit), and Vasquez is probably a September callup at the latest. Swihart is a year or two away.
I thought Sizemore actually had options left. He broke in with Cleveland pretty early. Even without options, a AAA stint to get more rust off could still be officially a DL rehab assignment, and that has to be what he was expecting anyway.
With two catchers in their late 30s, injuries are possible. I’d say, right now, if either Ross or AJP suffers a mild injury, then Lavarnway is the first to be called up. If one of the two (Ross/AJP) is out for a month or more, then Butler becomes the likely callup. Vasquez is more likely a late-season call-up.
Options don’t apply to a veteran player with at least 5 years of mlb service-time. Sizemore would have to agree to a DL rehab assignment, but, since he’s shown no sign of injury, he’d be free to walk, and considering his performance this spring, he’d be in line for a much better deal than the one he took from the Sox last January. Perhaps the Sox could “convince” him to take a rehab assignment by guaranteeing most/all of the incentives in his deal, since most of those incentives were based on days-on-active roster and mlb plate appearances.
He’s been moved to first base, and at this point in his career he looks like a trade package throw-in.
If you don’t count the last two years, and much of the previous two 
, that’s true, but it’s very often a wink-wink thing.
I have no doubt there’s an understanding in place.
The Red Sox centerfield decision is official. Sizemore stays, J Bradley Jr goes to AAA.
In camp, Sizemore showed that he was able to regain his swing, run well, if not as speedy in the old days, and stay healthy, at least for 6 weeks in camp. There’s nothing left to prove except can he stay healthy all year, and there’s no sense proving that in AAA.
J Bradley Jr has only had 4 months of AAA experience, so there’s everything to gain by having him play every day, and if he gets hot then he’s brought up. Both of the Sox two LH hitting OFers, Nava and Carp, do have options left. If they’re not producing like last year, then they get sent down and JBJr comes up. Same if injury hits Sizemore or Victorino (it was just determined that Victorino will NOT start the season on the DL.)
Good luck to Sizemore, and congrats to Sox GM Cherington for winning the gamble… knock on wood.
Mike Trout has accepted a contract extension from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The new contract takes effect next year, with a length of 6 years, and a total dollar value of $144.5 million. It covers his 3 years of arbitration and the first 3 years of what would have been his Free Agency. Trout will now have to wait until the fall of 2020 to explore FA, at which time he will be 28 years old.
The deal seems to be equitable. Trout was sure to set records in arbitration awards over the next 3 years, with estimates having him getting around an average of $20 mil per year. This contract seems to be giving him $18 mil per year for those arb years, and then $30 mil per year for each of his 3 FA years. No doubt, if he stays healthy, his market value would be close to $40 mil/year in his FA. My estimate is that Trout is giving around a 15-20% discount in exchange for security against injury/disaster.
The Angels had wanted the deal to be for 10 years, instead of 6, but either Trout declined or they could not come to terms.