On this day 15 years ago, Blue Jays skipper John Farrell signed with Mariners as a free agent. Let's take a look at today's links..
- Mychael Urban of CSNBayArea.com applauds Athletics GM Billy Beane for upgrading the club's bullpen this winter.
- Leo Nunez's $3.65MM 2011 salary is the most ever for a Marlins reliever under owner Jeffrey Loria, tweets Juan C. Rodriguez of the Sun Sentinel. The previous watermark was Armando Benitez's 2004 salary of $3.5MM.
- The Rangers are looking to fill their final roster spot, writes MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg also says that the club plans on extending the contract of GM Jon Daniels this winter.
- The Pirates have made a run at Carl Pavano, but the hurler prefers the Twins as they are a contending team where he can be the ace, writes Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated.
- Reds GM Walt Jocketty told Mark Sheldon of MLB.com that he is working to sign arbitration eligible players Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto and Bill Bray before the Tuesday deadline.
- The Cardinals have to get a deal done with Albert Pujols, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com.
Pavano wants to re-sign with Minnesota so he can be the ace? Did they trade Liriano to Pittsburgh and I didn’t hear about it?
Yeah I think Mr. Pavano might have an over-inflated sense of self worth and his potential place on the team…
1. Rangers sign Manny
2. Rangers score 15 runs a game
3. Rangers give up 17 runs a game.
4. Manny acts’ a fool
5. ?????
6. A’s win division
7. Profit!
step 1 collect underpants
step 2….
step 3 profit!
hilarious
eh probably no profit :( haha
really their pitching staff and defense are that bad? i think not
did you see the rangers at all before last season?
did you see the rangers at all before last season?
if the ?????? means the rangers and angels suffer injuries to half their teams, meanwhile the a’s triple their attendance, affording them the opportunity to sign and trade enough to upgrade 6 or 7 positions, then maybe
none of you paid attention to the rangers pre-2010 clearly (i’m just kidding really… i mean not about the past, the rangers literally scored a ton and gave up a ton… their pitching is way better now but its historical rangers fashion really)
Quick cut to Francisco Liriano going “Hey…. what did I do?”
I can’t see the Cardinals seriously contending for the next decade if they give Pujols the deal he wants unless they take their payroll to Mets/Cubs levels. Given their poor farm system, aging roster, and maxed out payroll, there isn’t much room for this team to do much but decline. I guess they have a small window (2-3 years) with their current roster if everything clicks for a season.
albert pujols sells tickets, tickets = money. You don’t need to contend to make money, and baseball = money.
If you are a team in a mid-market like STL, you can’t have a 40-year old Pujols taking up a 3rd of your payroll. Unless he lowers the length of his contract.
i agree, but st louis= baseball. they love pujols. if they ever ditch him, fans will revolt.
they need pujols , but stl cards fans will go on with out him if they are unable to resign the machine . stl fans are almost loyal to a fault . i think the situation would be like the one in green bay with favre.
If Pujols moves on then he’ll be the enemy, not the team. Heroes come and go but if you’re a fan of the team then you’ll always take the teams side. Afterall, the team means more than the players.
That said, if the Cards sign Pujols to $30M a year then half of their team salary will be paying their #3 and #4 hitters. Eventually you have to ask the question, if a $30M legendary star better than $30M worth of other spending.
STL fans aren’t like that. Rolen got a standing ovation when he came back to Busch, so did Edmonds and neither of them left on the friendliest of terms(to say the least).
Cards fans are so great they will cheer for the other team if they make a good play. on the other end of the spectrum phils fans booed , rolen , burrell, santa ………
Sorry, I used the wrong words, I probably should have simply said the team wouldn’t be the enemy.
And I do have to agree. I used to live in MO and my father and I used to go to games in St. Louis. Very classy fans.
why dont the cards have more money is stl that small, i know their brand new stadium is full and the old one across the street that looked alot like the new one was always full , maybe i wasnt clear , the cards fans will definitely be sticking with the team , kinda like greenbay didnt really lose any home fans over farve. sure they missed him but, they got over it quickly
If Pujols moves on then he’ll be the enemy, not the team. Heroes come and go but if you’re a fan of the team then you’ll always take the teams side. Afterall, the team means more than the players.
That said, if the Cards sign Pujols to $30M a year then half of their team salary will be paying their #3 and #4 hitters. Eventually you have to ask the question, if a $30M legendary star better than $30M worth of other spending.
they need pujols , but stl cards fans will go on with out him if they are unable to resign the machine . stl fans are almost loyal to a fault . i think the situation would be like the one in green bay with favre.
If you are a team in a mid-market like STL, you can’t have a 40-year old Pujols taking up a 3rd of your payroll. Unless he lowers the length of his contract.
Can you tell me which MLB teams farm system had the best winning percentage last year? I swore it was the cardinals sytem?!? And, it was!!! Just because they don’t have so-called “top prospects” doesn’t mean the system is poor!! Maybe you should do some homework before spewing trash out of your mouth!!!
Can you tell me which MLB teams farm system had the best winning percentage last year? I swore it was the cardinals sytem?!? And, it was!!! Just because they don’t have so-called “top prospects” doesn’t mean the system is poor, after all it is a TEAM sport!! Maybe you should do some homework before spewing trash out of your mouth!!!
There hasn’t been an epic “Is Fransisco Liriano an ace?” rant in awhile. Usually this argument starts with a cheap shot at the Twins playoff success, but I’ll let Carl Pavano start this one
Heyman thinks Pavano would be the Twins’ ace? The more of him I read, the less of him I think.
my respect for him can only go up.
yeah i read that whole thing Rosenthal wrote, but he eluded to the fact that Pujols is already making 16million and if he were to walk, that money and probably a bit more would still get allocated somewhere else. Though he did make a good read filled with a lot of gloom n doom apocalyptic madness that might break loose, i’m not seeing it.
Woo-hoo! Leo Nunez is going to dominate, flake, burn, bust, toy, and get whipped all at some point this season. He is one of my favorite relief pitcher because he leaves batters completely helpless on some nights and he so thoroughly enjoys it.
Then he goes off and can’t get anyone out for a bit. Then he comes back all crazy and good.
Anyone else get the feeling we will be saying “St. Pujols, MO” where we used to say St. Louis, MO pretty soon?
not really. No one player is above the whole team. At this point, i think its becoming more of an ego thing.
Wow. Urban praises a move by the A’s…when had he ever criticized The A’s until well after the fact. There’s a reason he’s known as Capt Hindsight.
Can anyone prove that Billy Beane is the GM of the A’s?
All points lead to David Forst acting as GM the last several seasons.
I have to disagree with Ken Rosenthal about Albert being a significantly better player than A-Rod. I have no doubt that Pujols is the best hetter in the game (and possibly ever). But A-Rod has much more versitility. At 35, A-Rod can still run the bases extremely well for a power hitter. And he plays third base; a much tougher position than first. And while Albert is a master with the glove at first base, some of us can still remember the disaster that he was at third. I think Albert deserves A-Rod money, but I don’t think he deserves more than that.
you’re wrong, Albert runs the bases great for a guy his size and he even lead the team last year in sb’s!! Arod is not that great at 3rd, get real!! Pujols played well at third, wtf are you talking about?!? Did you know he was a ss when he was drafted? Pujols has NOT been linked to steroids as A-roid has admitted to using!! The reason he was moved from 3rd was to accomodate rolen, then he moved from the OF when he hurt his arm!! You can have your opinion and everyone else can have theirs!! A-Roid stole 4 bases last year, what a threat!!