2011-2012 MLB Off-Season Thread

[Fritz]

Because he's black.

[DColts]

:-O

[DColts]

Always knew Henry was a douche.

[Metes]

Oh well, at least you still have the Pats

[DColts]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eMS_zrTliI[/ame]

[Party]

Gammons reporting Astros moving to AL for 2013.

[Branch]

John Henry now comes out and says he was against signing Carl Crawford.

This bullshit backstabbing after the fact is really making me hate these guys. Like, thanks for the championships, will always be grateful for those, but it's time for you guys to get the fuck out. This is classless.

[Beef]

I hope John Henry finished that statement with "just sayin'"

[Party]

He has stated he was against the Beckett trade. I thinks it's a whole lot of nothing.

[Branch]

That doesn't surprise me, the Beckett trade was carried out while Epstein was on away from the team, it's not unreasonable to think that Henry wouldn't like what happened there. This, though, is a very different situation.

[MiamiHomer]

He has stated he was against the Beckett trade. I thinks it's a whole lot of nothing.

Him coming out with stuff like this just makes it awkward. I mean, it's rather weird that the guy that is paying your salary is coming out openly speaking about how they really didn't want to sign you. I really like how he says it after Crawford's first season where he played below his standards.

[Party]

Agreed, it is weird.

[Metes]

They're all dumb talking heads. That should be pretty transparent. If Crawford puts up an .850 OPS with 50 steals, Henry is all "Oh we knew he was a great signing from the start"

[HUGG]

Buster_ESPN Buster Olney
Rival GM: "Cubs should just keep saying no (on compensation for Theo). What are the Red Sox going to do -- bring Theo back? No way."

this is a good point


I guess they could relieve him of his duties and pay him to do nothing all year.

[DColts]

This is laughably terrible:

With troubles in biggest markets, baseball's center of stability is in Detroit

It is the perennial boast of commissioner Bud Selig that Major League Baseball gets better and better, more and more popular, always profitable, always attractive — the American sport with solid stability.

Major League Baseball is Bud's kingdom, and the franchises that he and his television network associates claim are the most vital jewels of the kingdom are located on the opposite coasts of our nation.

Specifically, they are the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. They are the ballclubs in the top propaganda outlets, the teams with the most value. They also are the teams most appealing to the ESPN and Fox networks, the teams with the greatest tradition.

Bud, of course, is entitled to his opinions. He is paid $18.4 million per year, according to a variety of business journals. Thus, Bud has every right to express his beliefs.

Even when some of them are flimsy or false.

For example, if Major League Baseball is stable, Bud's three most vital jewels are not. They used to be, but they were not in 2011.

The Yankees, baseball's anchor franchise, are mired in a period of super expenses beset with dysfunctional thinking.

The Red Sox, the Yankees' natural rivals (read enemies), are in a state of serious turmoil.

And the Dodgers? They are bankrupt. And Bud has been prodding — thus far without success — owner Frank McCourt to peddle the historic franchise.

But Bud is the fortunate commissioner, despite everything on his resume — cancelled World Series, unfinished All-Star Game, second-place teams winning championships. Major League Baseball is just plain lucky.

It does have a prestigious franchise with solid stability and rich tradition.

The Detroit Tigers have become the jewel franchise of Major League Baseball.
Smooth operators

This about the operation of the ballclub.

The Tigers are stable and have a tradition that extends back for more than 100 years.

They have flaws as a ballclub, for sure. But they are not stuck with an Alex Rodriguez as the Yankees are, and they have avoided the chaos that has destroyed the Red Sox. They have not dropped into the dismal inertia of the Dodgers under the proprietorship of the reviled McCourt.

Mike Ilitch is one bright dude.

In August, before the Tigers' surge, he re-upped Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland, terminating their lame-duck statuses. Ilitch refreshed their contractual deals in defiance of brewing fan and media criticism.

In October, Dombrowski's trades proved to be workings of genius. And Leyland managed the pinstripes off of the Yankees' Joe Girardi in the first round of the pennant playoffs.

By then, the over-generous Red Sox had squandered every bit of a nine-game lead in the American League's wild-card scramble in a horrific September. The Red Sox were regarded as the most talented team in the American League in April after the expensive deals for Adrian Gonzalez, via trade, and Carl Crawford, through free agency.

The demise of the Red Sox resulted in the demise of Terry Francona. It was Francona who in 2004 and 2007 managed the franchise to its only World Series victories since 1918.

Gratitude extends for only so long.

Francona was shoved out after this past season by the Red Sox' troika of owners — with the usual proclamation that it was a mutual decision. But a scapegoat was required.

Then, Theo Epstein, the general manager who had built the Red Sox into double champions, was given clearance to get himself hired by the Chicago Cubs. That happened the other day accompanied by a variety of reports about compensation to be donated by the Cubs to the Red Sox.

The upshot of all this was a lengthy expose by the Boston Globe about the 2011 pratfall of the Red Sox.

According to the Globe, pitchers Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Jon Lester were beering up in the Boston clubhouse, gobbling fried chicken and playing video games during games when they were not pitching. Their true, proper place was in the dugout supporting their team. And according to the Globe, Francona had been troubled by marital problems and angst about his son and son-in-law serving as Marine Corps officers in Afghanistan, as well as some medical problems.

All this in the Globe, citing anonymous sources.
What's your dysfunction?

Meanwhile, out west, there are daily episodes of the soap-opera that has afflicted the Dodgers. The team has been pretty much abandoned by its fan base. The once-dominant franchise has plunged into mediocrity. The Los Angeles Times blasts McCourt and his estranged wife Jamie with frequent critical assaults.

After a generation when Tommy Lasorda bled Dodgers blue, the wallowing L.A. franchise has gone from manager to manager. Grady Little, who was given the bum's rush from the Red Sox, to Joe Torre, who was given the bum's rush from the Yankees — now to Don Mattingly.

As for the Yankees, they did win a quarter-pennant in the American League East this season.

Of all of Selig's jewels, the Yankees have been the most lustrous. Girardi wears the numeral 28 on the back on his uniform for a reason. The Yankees have won the World Series 27 times — but only once since the year 2000. Girardi keeps awaiting the next one.

Four years ago the Yankees committed $275 million for 10 years to Rodriguez. They still owe Rodriguez an estimated $148 million for six more years.

When last seen, Rodriguez was whiffing in dervish fashion in the decisive Game 5 of the division series, won by Ilitch's Tigers. A strikeout with the bases loaded in the seventh and a flailing swing and a miss in the ninth — beaten by two other former free agents, Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde. The relief pitchers signed by Dombrowski.

CC Sabathia, supposed ace of a threadbare pitching staff, is contractually permitted to disavow the remainder of his seven-year contract for $161 million with the Yankees. He is eligible to become a free agent in a few weeks and then renegotiate with the Yankees or sign with any other franchise.

And when last seen, Sabathia was being pounced upon by the Tigers.

The Yankees' instability is further illustrated by the club's neglect so far to re-sign general manager Brian Cashman. He operated in 2011 in the uncomfortable status of a lame duck, although he is likely to return.

Meanwhile, the Tigers have displayed their continued stability for 2012 and 2013 and beyond.

They have Justin Verlander locked up through 2014, three years remaining on his five-year, $80 million deal. Doug Fister, a bargain this season at $437,000 and due a huge raise, would not be eligible to jump the Tigers under free agency until 2016.

All four of the clubs in playoff finals of the 2011 pennant races are based in Middle America - Detroit, Texas, Milwaukee, St. Louis.

This is the era of "Moneyball," which is currently a popular film in movie theaters. I read the book; I have not yet seen the film.

Perhaps I am awaiting the sequel — "Goofball."

http://www.detnews.com/article/20111...than-you-think