Better get this collector’s item while you can.
And Carlos Correa is now heading back to Twins as he couldn’t finalize a revised deal with the Mets.
Of course this is still “pending a physical”, so there’s a good change that this won’t be the last team to announce that they’ve signed Correa this offseason…
The Blue Jays sign Brandon Belt for a year at $9 million. Belt is really old and hit .213 last year, so the Blue Jays were interested.
If they wanted “really old” and tailing off, they should have signed Yuli Gurriel.
Belt did have a remarkable year in 2021, hitting 29 home runs in only 97 games. The thing is, though, it was a huge fluke; in no other season has he ever hit 20 home runs.
Belt has always SEEMED like a guy who should hit 40 homers a year. He’s a very large man, and the kind of lefthanded hitter who draws lots of walks and is looking for that one pitch to annihilate. He tore through the minors; in his first professional year he soared from A ball to AAA and was maybe the best hitter in any minor league that year. But it just never happened; he was just the guy who hit 17 homers and got on base enough that he wasn’t hurting you.
I’m understating his career value there, but at this point I’m not sure he brings much to the table. One of his strengths has always been defense but he is literally backing up a Gold Glove first baseman now, so I will be surprised if he starts 25 games there.
Yeah, I think he’s a lottery pick for the Jays. He’ll see decent playing time in the first third of the season, and they’ll look to flip him if he shows he’s still got it.
Comerica Park is getting a bit more homer friendly for next year. (Also more player collision friendly it seems)
I bet Cabrera is wondering what 10 feet shorter in center during his prime would have done to his HR total and average 
Lowering the wall should have much effect on batting averages, but it will convert doubles into home runs.
Sorry, by shorter I was referring to the bringing the walls in closer.
I wasn’t at that many games really, but it seems like I saw 4 or 5 Cabrera hits caught on the center field warning track 4 or 5 times in the 30 or so games I made it to.
With all the statistics kept these days I imagine someone could tell you exactly how many more home runs any hitter would have with the new dimensions.
The Twins have officially signed Correa.
Dodgers get Miguel Rojas from the Mariners for a top prospect.
Marlins, not Mariners.
That’s what I get for typing while trying to talk to another teacher.
It says as much about the Marlins franchise as I could say that I realized I knew nothing - absolutely nothing - about who Miguel Rojas was when I was silenus’s post. I had to look him up, and the guy has been in the majors for nine years and has played almost a thousand games. Last season was the fifth in a row he’s played enough to qualify for the batting title, so he’s not some obscure scrub.
I was looking up something else and became amused by this little pastime. I pulled the JAWS leaders for players at every position and asked myself; who is the LOWEST ranked player on this list who’s in the Hall of Fame? (I excluded players who mostly played in the Negro Leagues, as their seasons were too short to be fairly compared, players who were inducted at least significantly in part for achievements as managers, or entirely 19th century players.)
The All-Not-That-Shining-A-Star Team:
C: Rick Ferrell (45th among catchers)
1B: George Kelly (95th among first basemen)
2B: Bill Mazeroski (50th)
SS: Rabbit Maranville (38th)
3B: Fred Lindstrom (83rd)
LF: Chick Hafey (59th)
CF: Lloyd Waner (101st)
RF: Harold Baines (76th)
Starting Rotation:
Jesse Haines (312nd)
Rube Marquard (251st)
Catfish Hunter (183rd)
Lefty Gomez (172nd)
The lowest ranking relief pitcher is Bruce Sutter, but at 23rd.
I know it looks like they did a worse job with pitchers, but not really; remember, a team has 4 or 5 starting pitchers, but only one first baseman. Haines at 312th among pitchers has about the same ratings as Lloyd Waner, maybe a bit better.
I suppose most of those names won’t surprise you except maybe Catfish Hunter; that one makes sense to me. Hunter was obviously a really good pitcher, but he was 224-166, not a stellar record, and his record was actually helped by the teams he played for; he was on a lot of champions. Almost every season of his career he played for one of the best fielding teams in the world, so more of his good numbers should be attributed to his fielders than would be the case for most guys.
Not surprisingly at all, the Dodgers found no one interested in trading for Trevor Bauer after they designated him for assignment last week, and thus, they released him today. They’re on the hook for his 2023 salary ($22.5 million); if another team picks him up, the Dodgers will save the MLB minimum salary ($720K) from that total.
is this an actual problem or just a bored sports writer just making a column ?
I’m not really seeing a problem here. If the game is that big of a blow-out it is in everybody’s interests to get it over without somebody getting hurt. Let the last bench guy pitch a few innings, big deal. Absent a mercy rule (which has no place in a sport for adults) it seems like the best solution to the situation.
I’m not sure how much of an actual problem it is; traditionally, it happens only in games that are out of control, and a lost cause anyway (though that’s apparently changing a bit). The writer says, “The problem is that the dynamics of the game change completely and it ceases to be competitive” – most games in which a shortstop winds up pitching ceased being competitive several innings earlier.
It’s also been trending upwards for years, alongside teams changing pitchers more frequently (and, thus, calling on their actual relief pitchers more often), but that writer completely misses the fact that the number of position players pitching in games skyrocketed in 2022 because, midway through the season, MLB placed a cap on how many pitchers (13) a team can carry on their active roster.