Some news items to take us into the weekend….
- John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer hears from some player agents that Joey Votto will submit an arbitration number between $8.5-$9.5MM, while the Reds' counter-offer will be around $7MM. Back in August, MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith suggested that Votto would ask for $7MM, but since then Votto has added a playoff appearance and the NL MVP Award to his resume. Of course, arbitration talk could be moot if Votto and the Reds agree to an extension.
- The White Sox don't have room in the rotation to bring back Freddy Garcia, says MLB.com's Scott Merkin as part of a reader mailbag.
- The Royals' agreement with Jeff Francis is "the best deal of the winter in free agency," according to Dave Cameron of Fangraphs.
- ESPN's Jayson Stark examines at the high number of expensive and/or long-term contracts signed this winter.
- Lance Berkman talks to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about his offseason training regiment and how much pressure he's putting on himself to perform for the Cardinals. "If I have a repeat of last year I'm probably out of the game," Berkman says.
- The top ten most favorable trades in Reds history are counted down by the Cincinnati Enquirer's Nick Hurm. Recent deals for Brandon Phillips and Bronson Arroyo are included, but it's hard to top the Cincinnati/Houston trade that installed Joe Morgan into the Big Red Machine.
What defines the ‘best’ offseason move? Quite honestly, any deal that has no impact on the teams immediate or future overall standing is not worth such a title.
And let me stop those who are going to say “Good thing we don’t start playing in January!”. We all know the Royals are not a playoff team.
The Royals don’t have to be a playoff team for the Francis deal to be considered the best of the offseason. Did you even read what Dave wrote?
Clearly you didn’t even bother to read the article.
Psst. Why do I need to read the article. Let me form a completely off center opinion based on a single line that describes the article as a whole instead.
Dear Dave Cameron of Fangraphs,
What exactly are you talking about? Jeff Francis is the best winter free agent deal???? REALLY? Really. Are you referring to the same Jeff Francis? The same Jeff Francis that is recovering from major shoulder surgery that cost him all of 2009?? The same Jeff Francis that went 4-10 in 2010 with a horrendous 5.01 ERA?? Finally, the same Jeff Francis that owns about a .500 career major league record (55-50) and a lifetime ERA of 4.77?? This is the best winter free agent signing??? A statement like yours will only serve as a detriment to your personal credibilty as well as the company to which you are employed.
Think Again,
Statistical Data
Hey wait, isn’t fangraphs a statistical analysis site? Yikes!
Did you even read his post? You know the one that already has a rebuttal for everything you said?
It’s not his fault that you choose to ignore the argument.
I’m talking to Dave Cameron, not you. His stats don’t lie and he’s not the best free agent winter signing. That’s laughable.
… and you have yet to read the article, obviously.
… and you have yet to read the article, obviously.
all those bad stats are still improvements for the royals
keyword in their is fan. So their is a bias to their insanity
Narrow-minded: [nar-oh-mahyn-did] adj.
Brian Malenke, i.e. someone who reads the title and criticizes it without reading the actual argument the author makes to defend his view.
Narrow-mainded?
^^ he was right ^^ Jeff Francis went 6-16 with a 4.82 era – ouch, dave cameron!
freddy the big chief garcia ,can go blank himself , then give the phills back their money and then give us back floyd so we can trade him for something , maybe an english teacher for myself , because my grammer sux …?
Doesn’t seem like a good use of resources.
well its more than we got back, atleast i could have learned what chief actually meant
i dont think i made myself clear, F U FREDDY GARCIA, thanks for displaying your talents in philly maybe you should talk to Pavano about living up to your contract .
Haha. He lived up to his contract with the White Sox
And I disagree with Merkin. I think that Freddy would make perfect since. I think he would much rather stay in Chicago where he has had some success. Start in place of Peavy so it solves alot of problems in one. Solves the problem of what to do with Chris Sale, solves the closer problem (with Sale as the closer), and solves who’s going to fill in for Peavy while he’s gone. 3 questions answered with 1 move
Exactly! 1
I am thinking that the Cardinals will have made the best pick up. Lance Berkman will rebound and show everyone who did not know what a really GREAT player he was and UI think still is. If you think about it Pujols, Berkman and Holliday together in a line up is going to produce some runs. It would not surprise me that if teams pitched around pujols and holliday that berkman wins the MVP.
Berkman as MVP is a long shot, but he’s capable of it, Also with him losing over 20 pounds since the end of last season and is continuing to lose fat by diet and exercise I think The Cardinals are in good shape.
The horrible defense Berkman is going to provide in RF is alone enough to put him out of the MVP race.
Dear Dave Cameron. I appreciate your work, but how can you not pick the Cubs signing Kerry Wood to almost 10MM below market value, or Philadelphia convincing Cliff Lee to leave wads of cash on the table as the best signing of the winter? I mean, it’s Jeff Francis.
Francis is a long shot to experience a whole lot of success, and he has never been much more than average his entire career. For these reasons alone he cannot be the best FA signing of the winter. Considering the money spent, and players used to acquire ace level pitching this off season I would say Webb could potentially be the best move of the offseason. With Francis the ceiling isnt high, and the team isnt going to do anything. If Webb bounces back sky is the limit and the Rangers would benefit greatly for nothing near the commitment given to similarly skilled pitchers this season.