Lester to the Cubs. Can’t blame him for wanting to try to get the Cubbies over the top. Of course, since my team (Dodgers) is also NL, I have to hope he ultimately fails.
So far, I can’t tell if LA brass is being cagey, or more financially limited than they would want to admit. Our biggest need is still a shortstop…pretty slim pickings out there.
Jesus, $30 million a year for Lester. I guess it was inevitable someone would break that barrier, but I would not have picked Jon Lester as the likely candidate. Heck of a pitcher but he’s not exactly Sandy Koufax.
It’s the Cubs.
Having paid that much, they will now get six years of the 2012 version of Jon Lester.
Sandy Koufax isn’t even exactly (the myth of) Sandy Koufax ;). I’d take Pedro Martinez over Koufax any day (and twice on the Sabbath ;)).
And that barrier has already been broken. Remember Clayton Kershaw signed a 7 year, $215mil deal back in January.
Yeah, I forgot the Kershaw deal.
It is of course rather striking a thing to give basically the same deal to Jon Lester as Clayton Kershaw just got.
Where is the $30 million figure coming from? The average annual value of the contract is $25.83 million, slightly higher than Verlander’s $25.7 million.
n/m
It does appear to be $25.8, even with all the bonuses, whatnot.
Geez, my math skills are suffering today.
Nothing confirmed, but the Dodger apparently are close to picking up Jimmy Rollins from the Phillies. It also appears that Dee Gordon is going to Miami for lefty Andrew Heaney and a handful of others.
So far, not impressed with these decisions at all.
What I read today was that Gordon ain’t going nowhere. A moderately paid all Star, whose departure creates as many problems as it solves. Say it ain’t so.
Fuck it, now I’m seeing the same reports. Looks like a bad trade to me.
Gordon is apparently being packaged with Haren and Miguel Rojas. Also being reported is that the Dodgers are close to signing Brandon McCarthy.
I’m puzzled - We are trading away infielders despite being short-handed. Meanwhile, we have a surplus of seven outfielders, most of whom who don’t appear to be going anywhere. The most likely to go seems to be either Ethier or Kemp, two guys I would not consider trading.
Infield-wise, Gonzalez, Barney, Rollins and Uribe certainly have a wealth of collective experience. Youthful, however, they are not.
It’s going to be a very different team next year, that’s for sure.
Scratch Barney at second. Looks like they just picked up Howie Kendrick from the Angels.
Man, things are moving fast.
Now we have Kemp going to San Diego for…shit, I don’t know what, what’s this? Another cather who hits less than a buck fifty and some thrown-ins? We pick up one promising pitcher, then turn around and move him into Kendricks? I am totally not seeing it. I wouldn’t have moved either Kemp or Gordon. If I had, I would have kept the live-armed kid lefty to see how Clayton could help shape him…
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Kendricks is good and all, but this makes no sense.
Ok so I am reading a bit more in my dismayed frenzy, and there is a suggestion that all of this chaos is part of a long-game to end up with…Hamels. If we end up with Hamels, Rollins, Kendrick at the cost of Kemp and Gordon, I guess I could live with that, but Jesus I really didn’t want to outfielder moved to the Kemp. And I think Gordon is going to be better still than he is.
OK, I’ll try to stop and take a breath now. Thanks, support group!
You are overrating Gordon. He had half of a good season and it was fueled by an unsustainable BABIP. He just isn’t that good. Kendrick is a tremendous upgrade. The fact that you got some interesting prospects out of the exchange is just a bonus. Rollins is still a solid enough ss in a market lacking many options. McCarthy is a nice Haren replacement and has an entertaining twitter account. Plus, you got someone to take on most of Kemp’s salary and give you a decent haul for it. I think there is very little not to like as a Dodger fan. Friedman with money to work with is scary. But you don’t like the team direction… wait 20 minutes for it to change again.
I was all set to reassure you and then Hawkeyeop wrote basically everything I was going to. The most interesting thing by far is how Friedman is leveraging his financial resources here, as MLB tries more and more to limit the ways in which those resources can be flexed. He got a much better prospect package from the Marlins than Gordon and Haren are probably worth by sending cash to pay for the entirety of both their salaries in '14. Grandal is a pretty big catching upgrade over what they had, and he’s under control through 2019 - if you have to trade Kemp to clean up the outfield issues, that’s a pretty nice return, and they got it by sending $30m along in the deal. Really interesting day, and from an outsider’s perspective I really like the results.
The Red Sox are reportedly trading Rubby de la Rosa (electric stuff, some control issues, probably a reliever) and Allen Webster (electric stuff, major control issues, probably a reliever) to the D’backs for Wade Miley. Separately, they’re reportedly trading Cespedes, along with possibly another one of the 4A pitching trove they’re sitting on, to Detroit for Porcello. Not a bad reaction to losing out on Lester, and I still expect them to find one more starter (Shields? Hamels? Mystery Trade X?).
We’ll see about Gordon. thing is, Kendricks is only a one-season rental as well.
As far as the San Diego trade, we get Grandal, a .245 hitter with some pop, coming off of knee surgery and a suspension for PEDS, who is, what, going to replace AJ Ellis? We get Weiland, whose combined ERA the past 2 yrs, pitching at PETCO, is about 6.00. We get some AA kid, who knows about him. For Kemp.
I’m gonna need some more convincing about that one.
Rollins makes sense to me, for what that’s worth.
I’m with you on this. And is Grandal a replacement or a backup? The last thing I want is them pissing Kershaw off by taking away his favorite catcher and best friend. Maybe Ellis will be reduced to catching every fifth day.
They are saying the Tigers gave up Porcello for Cespedes.
Gotta think about how I feel on that one for a minute, and depends if there are other pieces involved, or straight-up.