For two of baseball’s 30 teams, the 2012 season opens in a matter of hours. Here are the latest links from around MLB…
- The Royals acquired Humberto Quintero last week, but they continue looking for catching depth, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweets.
- ESPN.com’s Buster Olney asked a number of baseball people why the trade market has been slow this spring and came up with a variety of possible answers. "I think teams value their young players more, and they value the older guys less," one GM told Olney. "The lower middle class [of players] has taken a hit this winter."
- The Brewers have stayed in contact with agent Dan Horwits, the representative for closer John Axford, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. I previewed a possible extension for Axford earlier in the year.
- Justin Upton, Eric Hosmer and Bryce Harper have a good shot at being top-ten players five years from now, ESPN.com’s Keith Law writes.
- Bob Nightengale of USA Today discusses failure and expectations with a number of MLB players who have struggled after signing massive free agent deals. "You cannot have a worse feeling in sports," Adam Dunn told Nightengale. "It's tough, just so tough," Alfonso Soriano said.
J-up isn’t already top ten?
he’s very good and should be at some point but not now. braun, kemp, fielder, jose reyes, verlander, adrian gonzales, joey votto, kershaw, pujols, cano, bautista, and plenty more are better than him
Upton>>>Reyes
no
2 complaints. First, there’s no way in hell there are “plenty more” players better than upton. Second, Braun, and Fielder might be better fantasy players but they are not better baseball players. They are both horrible defensively. Reyes is too brittle and not as well balanced to be considered in the others category
Ryan Braun’s 145 career OPS+ vs Upton’s 119 is a pretty gap to be closed by outfield defense.
“You cannot have a worse feeling in sports” yeah I’m willing to bet that there are worse feelings in sports. Like never making the Majors and not having $56 million, for instance
how much of that money do you think dunn would give back to be able to play the way he knows he’s capable of?
I have no idea, but my point is saying it’s “the worst feeling in sports” is pretty over the top.
None of it comes to mind.
A lot of the comments on Bob Nightengale’s article remind me of the people who go to baseball games and yell “Swing the bat! Why are you just standing there?!” and the like.
Olney’s comments are right on. We’re not going to see very many David Freese for Jim Edmonds type trades as long as veterans are available on the free agent market.
Break out the tiny violins for Adam Dunn.
If Dunn were THAT upset about things then he would give up his salary for this year (since he got paid for basically doing nothing last year). Then, he would work on swinging at pitches over the outer third of the plate and hitting the ball to the opposite field (something he has NOT done since 2003).
After watching Dunn since he came up in 2001, I doubt he does either thing.
if it’s such a terrible feeling to be overpaid and suck why not give the money back.
Tulowitzki, definitely. I think Yunel Escobar has a breakout season this year, he’s better defensively and gets on base a bit more, but Reyes is MUCH better on the bases. However, if Miami’s park lives up to its ‘pitchers haven’ label I can Escobar gaining the edge in power….
After Reyes and Tulo there’s a pretty big gap though. I have Escobar at #3 right now……