Hot Stove League 2017

Big numbers and three to four year deal for Desmond, who sucked in 2015 but bounced back ok in 2016. But his power stats will explode in the thin atmosphere, and he still has some speed on the basepaths.

Wonder if the Rockies will listen to offers for Blackmon or even Gonzalez now?

Wade Davis to the Cubbies to replace Chapman. Not good news for the rest of the NL. Davis did have some arm problems on and off last year, but when he is on he is lights out. Okay, perhaps not Chapmanesque lights out, but still damned good.

It comes as no surprise that Chapman signed with the Yankees. He clearly loved being in New York and pitching for them. Big *** contract, although for less than the $100M over five years he said he wanted. Still the highest ever paid for a reliever, and five years is a long time for someone who throws like he does (but he does have good mechanics). He got a no trade for the first three years, and a limited trade the last two years (no West Coast teams).

The big winner here is Brian Cashman. Year in and year out he does a great job, and I say this as a Red Sox fan. By shipping Chapman to the Cubs at the end of a mediocre Yankee season, Cashman snagged Gleyber Torres, one of the best hitting prospects in all of baseball. And signing Chapman back did not cost the Yankees a draft pick, since he was traded last season and therefore was not extended a qualifying offer.

The Holliday signing was also a good move. Good clubhouse veteran to replace some who left (Beltran, Texeira, McCann), line drive hitter who will do well with big alleys, and slots in at DH so that younger prospects have room to move up.

Just dropping in to say I love seeing the term "hot stove league." Right up there with "shade tree mechanic."

Nice dialogue on WFAN yesterday b/w Francesa and Ron Darling, reminiscing about several talents from 60s and 70s, like Richie Allen, Bobby Bonds, Tony Oliva, Rico Carty, Vada Pinson, Cesar Cedeno, Jim Wynn...plus super praiseworthy banter about the greatness of Frank Robinson. Good stuff for a baseball fan of...ahem...my age.

Even more fun than waiting for the Indians to formally announce the somewhat surprise signing of Edwin Encarnacion is checking out the milestones that might be reached in the coming year. Beltre is making the case for first ballot enshrinement, although it won't happen because about half the voters are morons (even with the recent purges). Pujols is like Ernie Banks and Hank Aaron--consistently solid year in and year out for a very long time, and a pleasure to watch. Nice to be reminded that Colon is more than just an entertaining workhorse. And Kershaw is truly one for the ages--likely to be remembered along with Koufax and Spahn and Gibson and Mathewson as one of the classiest and greatest ever.

From the MLB.Com website:

• Perhaps the most anticipated pursuit of 2017 is m.mlb.com/player/134181/adrian-beltre">Adrian Beltre's quest to become the 31st member of the 3,000-hit club. Beltre needs only 58 more hits to join Wade Boggs and George Brett as the only Club 3,000 members who played more than half their games at third base.

The great m.mlb.com/player/405395/albert-pujols">Albert Pujols is also within range, needing another 175 base knocks to join potentially Beltre and the other 30 legends. Pujols hasn't collected at least 175 hits in a season since 2010 -- his second-to-last year with the Cardinals -- though he did tally 172 just three seasons ago for the Angels.

• Beltre is also close to a couple of smaller milestones that would help him become truly elite. With just nine more doubles and five more home runs -- in addition to those 58 hits -- Beltre would join Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Carl Yastrzemski as the only players in history with at least 3,000 hits, 600 doubles and 450 homers.

• Pujols is only nine homers shy of 600 in his career -- a total only equaled by Barry Bonds, Aaron, Babe Ruth, m.mlb.com/player/121347/alex-rodriguez">Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Jim Thome and Sammy Sosa. Pujols' career .309 average (if he can maintain it by the time he hits No. 600) would rank second to Ruth in that group, and his .573 slugging percentage and .965 OPS would rank third behind Ruth and Bonds.

• As if m.mlb.com/player/545361/mike-trout">Mike Trout needed any further motivation, he could put himself in rare company with a powerful first five months of the 2017 season. Trout currently stands 32 homers shy of 200 in his brief career; if he hits those 32 before his birthday on Aug. 7, he would become only the eighth player to reach 200 before age 26. Hall of Famer Mel Ott was the youngest player in history to reach 200 home runs, doing so at 25 years and 144 days old in 1934.

• Ageless wonder m.mlb.com/player/112526/bartolo-colon">Bartolo Colon may not be chasing the home run record, but he is only 135 strikeouts shy of becoming the 33rd member of the 2,500-strikeout club for pitchers. With only 888 career walks, Colon has a good chance to become only the ninth pitcher to finish with 2,500 punchouts and fewer than 1,000 walks.
No one in the 2,500-strikeout club will have shared the wealth like Colon, however. The Braves will be the ninth team Colon has pitched for in his career, which would break Gaylord Perry's clubhouse record of eight squads among 2,500-strikeout pitchers.

• It's a good bet that Tigers closer m.mlb.com/player/408061/francisco-rodriguez">Francisco Rodriguez will join Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman and Lee Smith in 2017 as the only pitchers with 450 career saves. Rodriguez, who's currently sitting on 430 saves, has struck out 1,119 batters in his storied career, giving him an excellent chance to pass the career totals of Hoffman (1,133) and Rivera (1,173) in the coming season.

• Finally, in a perhaps unreasonable request: If m.mlb.com/player/477132/clayton-kershaw">Clayton Kershaw can put together yet another sub-2.00 ERA season with at least 100 innings pitched in 2017, he would become only the 13th pitcher in history -- and the first in the live-ball era -- to compile four such seasons in his career. Kershaw has already accomplished sub-2.00 ERA/100 inning campaigns in 2013, '14 and '16.

I had no idea that Colon had 2,465 at-bats, let alone that he had struck out that many times.

DaveSchmidt said:

I had no idea that Colon had 2,465 at-bats, let alone that he had struck out that many times.

Well, he has been in the Big Leagues since 1927 or so.

Excellent point. (And before that, he was a semipro Colon.)

Cashman recently said that he plans to stand pat with the team he has right now and does not see any major trades or signings this winter.

In the past when Cashman has said something like this, it was followed by a major deal.

On the other hand, I am not sure that there is much he can do right now. His trading chips are either fairly old and expensive (Gardner and Headley), or young and relatively cheap and pretty talented. None of the remaining free agents look like sure locks to make a huge difference for the Yankees, and they come with very high and somewhat questionable price tags for a team that has been carefully stocking up on younger and cheaper talent.

His pitching staff is perhaps the one place he might make a dent, with Sabathia, Pineda, and Tanaka all in final years or opt out years, but that means they are probably more valuable as trade pieces to a contending team late in the season as short-term rentals--assuming the Yankees themselves are not in the hunt (and they well could be given some of their young talent).

Was he a semi-colon? Or was that already the joke and I missed it?

DaveSchmidt said:

Excellent point. (And before that, he was a semipro Colon.)

jeffl said:

Or was that already the joke and I missed it?

It was such a reach, even for me, that I think I tore my labrum.

it's becoming harder to make trades in the offseason. It makes sense for a team like the White Sox for instance, who made teams aware that Quintana might be available in a trade, to wait until midseason. If their team is competitive at midseason, they probably don't make the trade at all. If they're not competitive, they'll probably get a bigger haul in return in July when a contender or two has lost a starter to injury. So if the Yanks or anyone else wants Quintana now, they're going to have to come up with a pretty great package of players.

mfpark said:

Cashman recently said that he plans to stand pat with the team he has right now and does not see any major trades or signings this winter.


In the past when Cashman has said something like this, it was followed by a major deal.

On the other hand, I am not sure that there is much he can do right now. His trading chips are either fairly old and expensive (Gardner and Headley), or young and relatively cheap and pretty talented. None of the remaining free agents look like sure locks to make a huge difference for the Yankees, and they come with very high and somewhat questionable price tags for a team that has been carefully stocking up on younger and cheaper talent.

His pitching staff is perhaps the one place he might make a dent, with Sabathia, Pineda, and Tanaka all in final years or opt out years, but that means they are probably more valuable as trade pieces to a contending team late in the season as short-term rentals--assuming the Yankees themselves are not in the hunt (and they well could be given some of their young talent).

Great News! Trumbo re-signed with the Orioles!

Why is this great? It means that neither of the teams I follow, the Red Sox and the Mets, went for yet another big bopper with a slowing bat and hands of stone.

Yankees signed Chris Carter.

Big power, but horrible at putting the ball in play. Lousy hands but likely playing a lot of first base with Holliday as DH.

Napoli signed by Rangers, as expected.

mfpark said:

Yankees signed Chris Carter.

Big power, but horrible at putting the ball in play. Lousy hands but likely playing a lot of first base with Holliday as DH.

All he does is catch touchdowns.