Commissioner Bud Selig worries about the Mets, but grants them more leeway than the Dodgers because their owners have built up goodwill over the course of three decades, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, on the other hand, has been far from a model owner since buying the team, which led to MLB’s recent takeover of financial operations. Here’s the latest on the Dodgers, plus other notes from around the league:
- McCourt took out a $25MM loan in September as well as a recent $30MM loan from FOX, according to Heyman.
- Though McCourt signed paperwork guaranteeing that he wouldn’t sue MLB, he’s considering legal action. He didn't rule the possibility out earlier this evening.
- One competing GM says he's surprised by the Indians' hot start. He expected the Tribe to be horrible after seeing them this spring, but they are now 15-8, in first place.
- A Red Sox person says Carl Crawford’s slow start (.163/.209/.233 line so far) doesn’t necessarily have to do with playing for a new team or with a new $142MM contract. His .188 BABIP probably has a lot to do with it.
- The Braves are concerned about their offense, according to Heyman.
A Red Sox person says Carl Crawford’s slow start (.163/.209/.233 line so far) doesn’t necessarily have to do with playing for a new team or with a new $142MM contract. His .188 BABIP probably has a lot to do with it.
HAHAHAHAHA…. what?!?
How delusional can one be.
“The Braves are concerned about their offense, according to Heyman.”
“One competing GM says he’s surprised by the Indians’ hot start”
in related news
“The sky is blue and grass is still green”
Crazy talk
I was shocked to see that the Indians are dead last in attendance so far. With the great start I expected to see better numbers. The weather here has been crappy this month and maybe that’s the reason but Indians fans have generally supported the team when they managed to field a good product. No one expects them to be a 90 win team but you can’t argue that they haven’t been fun to watch.
It’s going to take more then a month or 2 for the fans to start coming back.
The average temp in Cleveland over the course of those games has been 40 (at best) and raining, sometimes snowing. Yes, the product hasn’t been good the last few years but I wouldn’t go see the ’27 Yanks in that kind of weather.
It really is the weather. I go when I can, but I’ve got one friend who said he is “literally a fair weather fan” and I know he’s not the only one. I love the stadium, but I do have to admit that when the bathroom is the only place to stay warm or stay away from the wind it doesn’t exactly promise a pleasant couple of hours.
If Hafner and Sizemore can stay healthy, the Indians will compete in the AL Central.
The Braves have scored 5+ runs in four of their last five games. Seeing as how the referenced article is from Monday, I think some of the concerns have been alleviated.
Say whatever you want about him and how good he is etc, Carl Crawford will never live up to his contract and will be a Vernon Wells like deal, all Red Sox fans can hope for is the Angels eventually wanting to take that contract off your hands and give you good players on top.
Agreed. It’s the Vernon Wells deal (including the overrated-ness) minus a hometown discount.
In seven full seasons since he turned 22, Crawford has put up a WAR of 2.3 seven times, and a WAR above 3.0 five times. In nine full seasons since he became a regular, Wells has put up a WAR above 2.3 four times, and above 3.0 three times. Crawford has 413 stolen bases, Wells has 90.
But yeah, as long as you don’t let things like “facts” get in the way, they’re the exact same player.
Whatever helps you sleep at night.
You can’t compare a contract of a player under team control, in which you don’t have to outbit anyone..
To a contract of someone who was a free agent.
2 Completely different scenarios
I see this argument a lot, and I don’t necessarily get it. You can absolutely compare the contracts, it’s all money. You may need to use context in comparison, but that’s true in every situation. It’s one thing when you’re talking about a team buying out the arbitration years, but a completely different thing when you’re talking about a player giving up years of free agency as Wells, Ryan Braun and Ryan Howard did. Wells has a bad contract. It looked bad at the time and ended up being bad in hindsight. It would have been just as bad if he’d been on an open market.
It’s all about risk/reward. Wells was coming off the best season of his career, and the Blue Jays offered him a big contract. Mostly likely, it was bigger than he’d have gotten after a sub-par 2007 season. While it works out for some players, like Crawford and CC Sabathia, that they have excellent seasons going into free agency, some players don’t want to take that risk. So they consult with their agent, who presumably knows the market, and discuss whether the offer is a whole lot less than they would make coming off of a good season, how much a bad season would hurt earning power in free agency.
The Twins didn’t have to outbid anyone for Joe Mauer, but they had to make him an offer high enough to make it worth his while to not take that risk. Same thing with Derek Jeter when he signed his extension back in 2000. Same thing with Ryan Howard.
Worthwhile enough to not take a risk and go in to free agency is a heck of a lot different than highest bidder wins..
Its completely different situations in terms of negotiations. If you have a player like Wells or Braun, you know you have the ONLY offer, so you offer what you see fit..
Where as the Red Sox know about their offer only, a good agent should be able to play various teams verse eachother. Red Sox have no clue what other teams are bidding on, so there is a higher tendency in Free Agency to overspend to get the better player and acknowledge that was a neccessarily overspend in order to bring the player in.
If Crawford was a Red Sox player do you honestly think he would have gotten that contract? No chance
But consider, if Wells had waited a year and gone to free agency, he might not have gotten the same contract. On the other hand, if Derek Jeter had negotiated an extension after his very good 2009 season, he’d probably be signed through 2015 at obnoxious money.
It’s true, there are some players who become free agents at the right time, and because of a lack of available depth at the position, their agent is able to drive up the price. And because of that, free agents tend to make more money than players under contract. But this gets overstated some, because generally the *really bad* contracts are free agent signings, that are coming from teams overpaying because of scarcity – Pavano, Soriano, Hampton, for example.
Anyhow, the original post was saying that you can’t compare Crawford’s contract with Wells’. My point was that, while it is ok to use context in comparing them, dismissing the comparison out of hand because of the situation in which they signed is different is too narrow of a view. Overpaying someone because you’re stuck in a prisoners dilemma, not knowing what other teams are going to offer, is no better or worse than overpaying someone because you’re trying to mitigate your risk. Different, yes, but not worse.
you got it, hoss. and that hanley ramirez kid, his career is clearly over
I am talking about living up to his contract, Hanley Ramirez is signed to a very good deal in which he will most definitely live up to, as Carl Crawford will not, hence why I compared him to Vernon Wells in comparison and not Hanley…
you are pretending you can project the next 7 years with any reliability at all. i can do it too
Yes I am.
The Braves have three offensive holes in their lineup right now:
Uggla, A-Gon and Prado. A-Gon makes up for it with his glove, Uggla is a slow starter and should recover. Prado is the one I’m actually worried about- as his OBP is way too low for a leadoff hitter. Prado was good last year, so I’m hoping it’s a slow start.
I don’t consider McLouth a hole right now- as his numbers aren’t that bad for a CFer (his arm isn’t CF quality anymore though)
I’d actually consider switching Heyward and Prado in the batting order and see if that works.
That said, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Braves got some midseason help, they have the chips to trade for it.
I am not worried about Uggla and Prado. I think they’ll come around. But McLouth is striking out roughly 40% of the time. He is also not hitting for power. A .313/.306 line simply doesn’t cut it unless you’re a plus defensive catcher or shortstop. McLouth obviously is not.
Isn’t he still above replacement level? Wren does want to make a trade, so let’s hope something happens. I can see Heyward playing Center if we can get a good RFer.
Let’s reign your stats in a tad. Nate is striking out roughly 24% of the time.
still a rough 40%. 56% would be a rough 40% too.
Where the heck are you getting 40%? Check your numbers he has struck out 22 times in 90 ABs. That is 24.4%. As of right now he is at about 1/3 of his hits being XBH. That is about normal for him. His SLUG% is same as last year(right now at .322) BUT his OBP is 22 points higher, and his avg is up 54 points. As of right now I will take this Nate with limited power over the Nate last year.
Nate has also hit the ball pretty hard in most of the game I have seen. As of right now his BABIP is an eye popping .324(for a guy who has a career high of .299) with a LD% of 25%. So not only id he getting fortunate he is hitting the ball hard. His FB% is quite low though 28% so if/when that goes up you will probably see more XBH.
I agree with Jeff on the McLouth issue. The team made the playoffs with far less out of the CF spot last year. McLouth is doing enough for me to be content, for now. It could be a lot worse. Prado should pick it up a little. Uggla has a track record indicating he should pick it up soon as well. When Uggla starts rolling, that offense will be a whole new beast. They are near the top of the league in HR as it is. Just need to get some consistency, things will be fine.
Exactly… 24, 40, 56% what’s the difference anyway?
BABIP?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batting_average_on_balls_in_…
Relevant in Crawford’s case? Maybe yes? Maybe no!
Watching Crawford, I think he is somewhat out of shape, unable to put the bat where his brain wants it put … even though with his wide open stance, he has to be seeing the ball well, as it nears the plate.. The only other consideration might be a need for glasses. I, for one, haven’t seen him make solid contact, really driving a ball, not yet anyway…
You can tell from your TV that he needs glasses? Someone is over thinking things. And Crawford isn’t out of shape. Crawford is one of the hardest workers before the season, this was true when he was with TBay too.
“Watching Crawford, I think he is somewhat out of shape”
hilarious
espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/7431/vid…
D’oh