The offseason can truly begin now that teams no longer have exclusive rights to their own free agents. As the clock struck midnight, players gained the right to start negotiating with all teams. MLB and the MLBPA moved the offseason schedule forward this fall. Here are the dates you need to know:
- November 7th – Free agents can negotiate with any team
- November 16th-17th – GM Meetings, Orlando, Florida
- November 23rd – Deadline for teams to offer arbitration to their own free agents
- November 30th – Deadline for players to accept or decline arbitration offers from their former teams
- December 2nd – Deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration eligible players
- December 6th-9th – Winter Meetings, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
- January 18th – Teams and players exchange salary arbitration figures
LETS DO THIS!
Gonna be a great offseason.
You bet.
Anyone want to make a random prediction on who the first signing will be? Anyone remember who it was last year? I’m sure he wasn’t first, but I remember Chone Figgins being one of the first big names.
Omar Vizquez was the first. I saw the first this off-season will be Rod Barajas or Jerry Hairston Jr. Dodgers/Padres respectively.
Let the games begin.
blue jays for the world series
The A’s are going to win the 2011 World Series.
Only if they decide to buy every hitter on the FA market…
Pitching, pitching, defense, speed, and Hideki Matsui, and Chris Carter. How do you think SF won?
Pitching, luck, and the Rangers who beat the yanks never showed up on the field after the third inning of WS game 1… On paper, I still think the Rangers were the better team, but in the playoffs that doesn’t matter. Ultimately the Giants had much strong pitching, timely hitting, and the Rangers tended to play like they had forgotten they were in the postseason.
How? We had better starters, better bullpen, better defense, etc. We both hit the exact same number of home runs in the regular season. And oh yeah, the teams that the Giants faced all happened to forget how to hit, coincidence? I don’t know why it’s so hard to admit that we have damn good pitchers that shutdown good hitters.
Its because “fans” always have a difficult time facing their own team’s shortcomings and decide instead to place the “blame” elsewhere…. anywhere.
Agree with you. Hopefully, people will be able to finally put to rest the argument that Billy Beane is a bad GM because his teams can’t win in the playoffs. Also really like the Braves. God that would be a ratings NIGHTMARE for fox though.
Yeah. Well you and I know that Billy is one of the best there is. If nobody else agrees that’s their problem. But I have a feeling that the A’s will sign Godzilla, the pitchers will pitch and everything will just “go right.”
Billy Beane is one of the best GM’s in the game. Why do you think he got offered tons of money by the Red Sox and Yankees? Yet he took on the A’s job because he loved a challenge. He built a team with great pitching ang great sluggers in the early 2000’s. All of them were lost due to FA or he simply traded them for prospects to rebuild for the future. And now they are(and I hope I can say this safely)one slugger that can carry them away from contention. And they have the trade chips to do it.
Where besides being dubbed a great GM is there evidence of it? Yes, the guy can run a cheap team and make them competitive occasionally in a league with 3 other teams. Sure they currently have one of the best pitching staff in baseball. But they have yet to even become close to capturing the Series.
I think Beane is good and modernized the thinking of GMs… but has yet to show he’s anything more than a pioneer.
I think he has proven more. Winning 91, 102, 103, 96, 91, 88, and 93 games in a span of 6 years is no small feat. Yes, he has fallen off as of late, but sustaining small market success like that is nearly impossible (the Rays will see that soon when people like Price start wanting money). The A’s are one bat away from being a serious title contender, as their rotation and defense is absolutely SICK. If Beane can pull off a big deal for a bat, which I have no doubt he will with a lot of payroll cleared up, the A’s will be back to the cream of the AL crop.
I’m going to reply to the A’s record by mentioning every year they had been in a 4 divisiion league that was considered weak.
I’m pretty sure the Angels have been a good team for at least the latter half of those records, and I think they also were been pretty decent in 2002 if I remember correctly. Anyways, a team doesn’t win 100 games without being elite, even if the division consisted of the bottom half of the NL central. On top of that, those A’s teams were pretty good, just look at the rosters.
hes good but the A’s can never stay healthy thats the problem
LOL what speed? Andres Torres…that’s it. The Giants are slow, we know it. And not just pitching, Skrikeout pitching. That’s the kind that wins championships.
Pirates for 2011 World Series!
wave the jolly roger
Andy LaRoche for WS MVP!
Gentlemen,
start your enginesopen your wallets!Scott Boras, start counting your millions?
Scott Boras apparently told Jayson Werth’s beard that he’s “wicked excited.” According to Jayson Werth’s beard…Is that forshadowing?
More like four o’clock shadowing.
Your bringing the Spanny down. Bringing the Spanny down.
Wicked eh… Did he also suggest to Werth that he could “Pahk his cah in Hahvahd Yahd”?
I think he said something like that.
for real the blue jays they get many and a 3b there good
Care to rephrase that??
nope
That’s probably for the best.
yep it probably is , and all you do is hit in field flies you duster
ZING!
Yes, a ‘meaningful’ contribution to the board.
I hope you were referring to his masterful post and use of your handle to form an insult when saying “meaningful”.
Because my post is pretty the much the pinnacle of MLBTR posting excellence. It personifies baseball and rumors.
Back to baseball: I think he’s saying that if the Blue Jays get a good third baseman, they’re going to be good. I don’t know if I agree with this sentiment, at all, and I can’t figure out where the Blue Jays will get this third baseman, but hey it’s the internet. Bluejayspwn, you say your questionable things, damnit!
And Manny… I think. Maybe he can confirm.
Free agency obviously ,they dont have any good 3b in the farm
I hope you were referring to his masterful post and use of your handle to form an insult when saying “meaningful”Well of COURSE I was! Nobody’s EVER said anything like that before.Well, except for that other time….Oh – and the time before that.And actually there were all those other times in third grade too…Now, where to get a 3B. Hmm…Did you try the internet?
“if the Blue Jays get a good third baseman, they’re going to be good.”
That fits a lot of teams… how are they going to accomplish it, by magic?
The english language aint what it used to be.
ya think?
gramer aint wat it used ta be either… specialy on da web.
What’s the deadline for teams to add players to their 40-man rosters to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft?
THE ANGELS WILL RULE THE OFFSEASON
will anyone get signed already?
Does anyone know if either the GM Meetings or Winter Meetings are open to the public? I live in Orlando and I’d love to go!
It’s at a hotel, so you can just go in and say you have to use the bathroom or whatever and go try to hear some whispers or whatever. It’s not “not open to the public.” So just drive to Buena Vista and rent a room or something like that or rent a room in a neighboring hotel and sneak in through the kitchen maybe. Lots of options Devanand!
LOL I appreciate it my brutha!
You got it man!
Too bad the Yanks offseason can’t start with this unneeded Jeter drama. It’s a load of BS. If I was Cashman, I would give him 3/$45, and leave that offer, and really start their offseason. We all know he won’t sign for another team, and no other team will give him what he wants, so he’ll have to settle for that. So just call his agent, give him that offer, and i’d say “take it or leave it” hang up, sign Mo in like 5 seconds cause that’s all it’s gonna take, and go about other business.
ok here my pitch for the giants to get carl.
lots of speed in a kinda slow lineup, lots of defense. and he wants to bat in the middle of the order? how about third. heres my dream lineup.
CF Torres
2B Shanchez
LF Crawford
C Posey
1B Huff (if we dont get huff just play belt here)
3B Sandoval/Derosa whoever gets the job should hit here
RF Ross
SS Uribe/FA/possible trade
with those three guys in front of Posey i think he would get a ton of at bats with a runner on second. both Posey and Crawford will get a lot of RBI’s. and the lineup is alot stronger when you have Huff batting lower in the lineup instead of third.
Bench
Derosa/Sandoval
Fontenot
Rowand
Schierholtz
Ishikawa
starting P
Lincecome
Bumgardner
Cain
Shanchez
Zito
my thing about the pitching and Zito is were paying about the right amount of money for the quality of pitching were just giving the money to the wrong person. with Zito pitching in the 5 spot instead of the 2 spot in the rotation means the giants play against worse opponents and might score more runs for him.
Bullpen
C Wilson
RHP Romo
RHP Casilla
RHP Ramirez
LHP Lopez
LHP Affeldt
LHP Runzler
i think Runzler would turn into the long relief guy since he was the last one to be a starter in the minors.
this would set the giants up for another run at the NL west and we all know what can happen in the playoffs with that pitching.
You can spell Schierholtz and Ishikawa, but not Sanchez?
…Or the most important pitcher….Lincecum?
no comment. im ashamed
I really like the idea actually, but I think I’d rather see Crawford batting second and Sanchez 3rd.
I don’t think Crawford should be batting 3rd because isn’t that good of a hitter. He had a career year last year and still didn’t put up numbers that would make him a great 3 hitter.
It doesn’t really matter, as long as he’s up there in the lineup.
He’s one of the best hitters in Baseball.
And you have him batting 3rd so how isn’t he a good hitter?
He is definitely not one of the best hitters in baseball. He has OPS’d .850 ONCE in his career, which was last year, and he’s never hit more than 19 HR. He’s not a bad hitter, but certainly not one of the best in baseball. His strengths are his speed and defense. And I don’t have him batting third, so I don’t know what you’re trying to say.
the whole idea is getting guys on in front of posey, i know hes not the typical 3 hole hitter but i feel like in this lineup it works out ok. i think hes a perfect 2 hole hitter but when you compare him and sanchez then hes the smarter choice to git third.
Yes, for the Giants he could fit in there.
i thought about that. but i think sanchez would handle hit and runs, bunting, trying to go the other way when theres a runner on base, better than crawford. id rather just have crawford up there trying to hit the gaps and drive in runs.
He can definetly do that.
I read that Lee is entertaining the Nationals on a different website and wanted to comment on this site but they havent caught up so i would like to take this opportunity to give you the transcripts of the conversation…. Nationals ” well we have counted all our pennies and are pleased to offer you a 7 year deal at a whopping 4 million a year, that comes out to an astounding 28 million dollars!! you will be the talk of Washington and we feel you can really mentor young Stephen Stras– hello? hello Cliff are you there? oh darn we lost connection redial please” BOO BOO BEEP Operator ” I’m sorry the number you are trying to dial has been disconnected or is no longer in service, if you feel you reached this message as an error please check the number and try your call again”.
From 12/11/08 and ESPN:
The Washington Nationals made their best New York Yankees impersonation on Wednesday.
According to MLB.com, the team made an eight-year, $160 million offer to free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira.
Yeah that was good for a third place finish, its like me going to an auction and bidding 5 thousand dollars on a 10 thousand dollar painting, i look like i have 5 thousand to throw but hey look at that i got over bid. seriously that was a New York impression? Boston had him at 170 million and he was about to go to Boston when Borass called Boston and told them THEY were outbid and Theo called Bullshit and well that mystery team was the New York Yankees doing what they do best..spend money, real money.
Now the offseason is rolling!
*Touches Adrian Beltre’s Head*
Everytime V-Mart and Scutaro did that to him, I seriously thought that he was literaly gonna blow a temper tantrum.
Thanks, Ben – you might want to update the sidebar “Important Dates” link (it still has last year’s dates) with this!
Fangraphs has a post regarding this subject but it seems like a fun one to open up on MLBTR. Which free agent has the largest gap between his own perceived value and his actual market value?
That would be a good topic. I’m thinking A-Rod has to be there somewhere.
It’s gonna be interesting to see where the big FA boys like Crawford and Werth go, but I’m even more curious to see who is expecting a big payday but has a big wakeup call coming.
who else is pumped for December 6-9?!