Some links to tide you over until tonight's first pitch…
- The Mariners would have traded Michael Pineda to the Blue Jays for Brett Lawrie and another prospect,Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun reports. One executive tells Elliott that “Toronto said no at Lawrie.”
- Angels first baseman Albert Pujols told Bob Nightengale of USA Today that he's not going to lose his edge, even after signing a massive free agent contract. "I always have that chip on my shoulder, no matter what kind of success I've had," Pujols said. He added that he wouldn't be hurt if the Cardinals assigned his former number 5 to another player.
- Major League Baseball is on the cusp of a new era, Tom Verducci of SI.com writes. The sport is doing well thanks to extended labor peace and growing TV revenues.
- Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen expects big things from his third baseman, Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post writes. "Hanley Ramirez has a chance to be MVP in this league," Guillen said.
They wanted a stud 3B and a prospect, got turned away and settled on a DH? Those are the Mariners for you.
they were under the influence of Tony Reagins
They also settled on a probable Hall of fame caliber Bat.
Perhaps we should, you know, let him play a few seasons before HoF talk comes up.
I don’t direct that toward you solely. The media likes to spew nonsense on a regular basis.
And not only that, they gave up an intriguing piece in Campos in the Montero trade as well. Wanting Lawrie AND a prospect for Pineda seems silly when they ended up giving up Pineda AND a prospect to land Montero.
Mariners were DESPERATE to get rid of Pinata uhh I mean Pineda. Yankees bought broken goods.
unless you think trades just happen spontenously with no exploration beforehand (in which case you are weird and wrong), the fact that they tried to get lawrie+ before trading him for a top 10 overall prospect does not in any way suggest desparation
if they didn’t shop around before agreeing to the montero deal, that would seem more like desparation – and really bad business
Geez, you say being “weird and wrong” like its a bad thing.
If Pineda is broken goods…then ill have some broken goods hes pretty solid.
haha Mariners be crazy
Seattle has a better chance of winning the AL West this year than pulling off that trade! AA might still be chuckling!
Lawrie and another prospect…? I wouldn’t trade Lawrie for Pineda straight up. Lets see, stud everyday 3rd baseman who is Canadian to boot for a 2 pitch once in every 5 day player who had horrible stats against the AL East….No.
right, it’s just a given that he’s a stud everyday 3B. no question
i like lawrie a lot; he has loads of potential. but 170 PA do not make him a lock to become a stud regular. if that small sample did make a stud, pineda would be twice the stud lawrie is (and he’s not)
you’re going to make a fine blue fan one day my friend.
gose is going to make it tough. go trade for strasburg and i’m in
pineda and lawrie both have small samples, 171ip to 171pa. how does having a 9-10 record, 3.74 era and fading the second half make him “twice the stud” as lawrie with his .953 ops, 9hr, .293avg and having a great season from april-sept. plus pineda has a more disturbing injury history if you’re a fan of their respective teams.
because 171 PA is not equivalent to 171 IP (starts). lawrie played a quarter of a season while pineda played the whole thing
again, this is not my logic. i prefer lawrie. but if you are going to treat a 1/4 season sample as if it’s significant, a full season has to put it beyond dispute. any sample-related questions about pineda apply doubly to lawrie
Not only that, but the second half fade myth has been debunked on Fangraphs and every major Yankee blog. The statistics just don’t back it up. His last start was the only one that showed any real decline in anything. Heck, Axisa writes here, go check out RAB.
When the Jays asked about Gio Gonzalez the A’s asked for Lawrie in the trade. The Jays offered other players but the A’s said no unless Lawrie was included. End of trades offers. With the lack of 3b prospects in baseball Lawrie has the highest value of position prospects. Montero doesn’t come close since the A’s turned down the Montero offer for Gio from the Yanks.
actually, they asked for syndergaard and thats where AA said no thanks
I don’t see how Albert would be hurt…. He’s an Angel now. No reason why he would care. I think it’s a awhile before anyone takes 5 though.
I can think of 240,000,000 reasons why I wouldn’t be hurt either.
lol champion ^
guys, it’s not about the $240 million. God was really putting the Angels on his heart, remember?
Right, right, right … how could I forget ?
God: “Hey, Albert, go with the $240M.”
I can’t believe the Angels let Pujols take #5! That was Mathis’ number! Ha!
The Blue Jays better get more compensation in that deal then.
big ups to justin froim vaughan
Doesn’t hurt the mariners to ask.. Realistically if they wanted mlb ready position players, lawrie is all the jays have, unless they want thames or snider, which seemed unlikely.
Reality is montero is a better bat than lawrie, but the defensive value makes it a significant difference.
Really you’re already saying Montero has a better bat? I think It’s going to be pretty close.
maybe, but lawrie essentially has one year of elite hitting to his name while montero has been considered an elite bat for for 3 years or so and didn’t slow down when he got a taste of the bigs last year
i will take lawries bat at 3rd over monteros bat at DH any day of the week, lawrie brings way more to the table than montero overall
you act like lawrie has 500 PA’s to his name both have small sample sizes so…
Pujols left the Cardinals. #5 is theirs to give to someone. Oh well if he’s hurt by it. Having said that, who would want to follow in those foot steps?
Jeff Mathis just stepped up.
The Mariners should’ve dealt Pineda and Franklin to the Blue Jays for Lawrie and Felix to the Yankees for Montero, Banuelos and Betances.
Would the yanks give all three of those? i dont really think so, i think they tried that
If you’re referring to the Mariners/Felix by saying “I think they tried that,” the Mariners have never shopped Felix. I do recall hearing the Yankees were willing to give up those three.
Hopefully, the Cards will offer Pujols old uniform number as an honorary jersey for LeBron if he ever goes to a game in St Louis.
Hanley (and Reyes) will have to work very hard to have a chance at MVP. They both played badly tonight.
i had a #5 Jersey once…. oh wait I donated it charity. I’m sure the #5 will be on the shelf for a while. I’m sure the cards don’t want people upset due to a number being brought back out. Remember when #51 tried to be brought out?