We're less than 24 hours away from the first official game at Marlins Park, as the Fish show off their new ballpark in their season opener against the World Series champion Cardinals. Here are some news bits to tide us over in the meantime…
- The Giants' extension with Matt Cain is "a sound deal," several non-San Francisco team executives tell ESPN's Buster Olney (via Twitter).
- Roy Oswalt will likely need around 60 days of preparation time to be ready to pitch, a source tells Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter link). This fits with Oswalt's previous statement about looking at a midseason return.
- Royals closer Joakim Soria underwent Tommy John surgery today and the medical team "couldn't have been more pleased" with the procedure, a club source tells MLB.com's Dick Kaegel. Soria will miss the entire 2012 season recovering from the surgery.
- Joey Votto's 10-year, $225MM extension with the Reds is "one of the crazier seeming contracts in baseball history," writes Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Heyman talks to several anonymous team executives about the contract, with theories ranging from the Reds being worried about the Dodgers' aggressive new ownership to the Reds being able to afford Votto thanks to several years of collecting luxury tax payments. Then again, one competing GM says simply, "The Reds look like they have no plan."
- Attorneys for Major League Baseball made a court filing arguing that the Dodgers shouldn't be allowed to emerge from bankruptcy until the team pays back $8.3MM worth of bills from the league, reports Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
- Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks at how some recent big contracts around baseball could impact the Cardinals. Miklasz thinks that Cain's deal will make Adam Wainwright's next contract even more expensive, but I don't agree, given that Wainwright is three years older and has a more checkered injury history.
- Several Padres players, as well as several players from the entire NL West and AL West, are discussed by opposing scouts in a chat with Tom Krasovic of Inside The Padres.
I vote C, the Reds don’t have a plan.
When you listen to what Ca$htellini says and then look at what he does, they often contradict each other.
Then, when you go on down the line to Jocketty and Toothpick Baker, Jocketty seems to want something different and Baker wants a third thing or way.
Then, you have conflicts between Jocketty and Baker; i.e. Jocketty says all Winter that Aroldis Chapman is going to be a Starting Pitcher yet Baker says all Spring Training that Chapman is going to be in the Bull Pen (he was saying this even BEFORE Madson went down with the season ending injury).
Then, what happens? Chapman is in the Pen making it look like Baker has more power in the organization than the GM does (same goes for Wayne Krivsky being told to sign Corey Patterson “no matter what it takes”.).
CTOWN- I am sorry but Baker never said anything about Chapman going to the pen even after Madsons injury. He was quoted several times by John Fay as saying a decision had not been made yet. I think your anger for Baker has gone into this more than facts.
Twice I have tried to respond to your reply. Once with a very long answer and once with a much shorter one. Twice the mods have not allowed those responses to be posted.
So, don’t think I am ignoring what you said or don’t have a response. I am not and I do. It’s just that the mods wont allow my responses to go through.
Very frustrating and one of the reasons I don’t come to this site as much as I used to.
“Twice I have tried to respond to your reply. Once with a very long
answer and once with a much shorter one. Twice the mods have not
allowed those responses to be posted.”
Just curious… Are you trying to post links? I too found out we cannot, except for very few.. MLB home page and a few others is it and they think have to be approved also..
Hope that helps…
In the first response, I tried to post some answers and quotes from a website, gave the date and the website (so people wouldn’t think I was just making this stuff up) adn it didn’t go through.
In the second response, I paraphrased what the questions and answers were and left out the web site and it still didn’t go through.
So, I have no clue what the mods deem appropriate and what they don’t.
Just mentioning that generally links are a no-no, as have tried to add them to several Sox sites and Boston newspapers before as an example.
Am gonna send a note to them and see if they will maybe post something for us all as a reminder, cause we all need a reminder to what we can and cannot post anyway sometimes.
I do believe there is a plan. They think Joey Votto will help the team win. This will cause attendance to climb and ticket sales. This will get a deal with a cable network worth much more than what they are in now. Bottom line signing Joey makes Castenlli richer!
They had Votto before 2012. Why didn’t it increase ticket sales then?
The “plan” is that Ca$htellini is hoping that by signing Votto to this extension, he can crank the hype machine into overdrive and get more fans to come out to the park and put pressure on FOX Sports to renegotiate the TV contract earlier than 2016 and for more money.
Unfortunately, that plan hasn’t worked in the past. Since Ca$htellini has taken over as owner, the hype machine has always been in place and running but it doesn’t translate to increased attendance. As Pete Rose said years ago, if you put a winning team on the field, the people will come out and watch it. Just like they did in the 1970’s for the Big Red machine.
From 1970 to 1979, the Reds were second in the NL in total attendance behind the LA Dodgers. Why? Because fans pretty much knew the team was good and if they went to Riverfront they had a good chance of seeing a Reds win.
The Reds have had Votto since 2008 but only one winning season in that time period. Even 2010 was a fluke and a LOT of fans knew it. That is why they were cautious about 2011 and upset when the Reds pretty much did nothing. The fans were right. Being lucky and then doing nothing resulted in another losing season.
Now, just because Votto has signed this HUGE contract, it doesn’t mean the Reds have any better chance of being successful in 2012 than they did before the contract was signed.
As far as the new TV contract goes, unlike Southern California, the population of the region where the Reds draw their fans from isn’t growing as fast and the economy isn’t recovering as quickly.
The Angels just worked out a huge TV contract and thus were able to afford Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. The Padres are on the verge of getting their own new contract which will increase their revenues. But just because those two franchises were/are about to get big TV deals doesn’t mean FOX Sports Ohio will give in and renegotiate a contract before 2016 and that they are going to give the Reds a huge boost in income.
That is because they are a business also. They can see the population trend of the Midwest and how the economy is doing. They are in business to make a profit just like Ca$htellini is. So just because Ca$htellini makes a big move and is hyping the Reds and projecting them to be winners doesn’t mean it is going to happen.
Just because Ca$htellini WANTS a new contract sooner and for more money also doesn’t mean it is going to happen. That’s because FOX has to make money also and if they pay the Reds more then it means they are going to have to charge their advertisers more. Now if those advertisers don’t have the money to pay what FOX is asking (because a higher than normal percentage of the local population is still unemployed or underemployed and they don’t have the money to spend) then FOX wont be getting that money adn the Reds, in turn, wont be getting that money.
Heyman is a NY journalist. He is forbidden from praising small market teams for holding onto superstars.
Rule 1: The Yankees must be permitted to have access to superstar-quality free agents every year.
Rule 2: Owners of small market teams must choke their payrolls sufficiently that their best players be fed into free agency for distribution among teams in major markets.
Rule 3: Stars do not play in cities like Kansas City and Cincinnati. Ever.
If you can’t see any way how the Votto deal was not the best decision for Cincy then you are being extremely narrow minded. Votto got a free agent contract when he was still under control for 2 more years, and will be under contract until he is 40 years old. For a smaller market like Cincinnati it might not be the best decision.
It may not work out. I did not dismiss the possibility.
But it may work out — which Heyman does not acknowledge. He flat out called it a bad deal. He’s the one being narrow minded.
I would believe the Reds “plan” is to extend their key players rather than fight for them in free agency. Cueto, Latos, Leake, Bailey, Marshall, Lecure, Arrendondo, Chapman, Phillips (when he signs), Cozart, Votto, Frazier, Bruce, Heisey, Stubbs all players that are on the MLB roster NOW that are under contract or team control for 4 or more years, many of them 6+. Thats 15 players under contract, leaving 10 holes for developed players and utility players. Vottos contract accelerates in 2016; he’s actually getting paid $12 million in 2014, $14 million in 2015, $16 million in 2016, and then it gets into the $22-25 million range.
With prospects still in the system like Henry Rodriguez, Billy Hamilton, Yorman Rodriguez, Donald Lutz, Neftali Soto, Didi Gregorious, Kyle Lotzkar, Clayton Tanner, JJ Hoover, Daniel Corcino, Donnie Joseph, etc theresd room to makes deals or develop talent. This team is built for hte long run and to compete for years to come. Financial estimates say that Castellini has pocketed almost $80 million in profits the last 4 years due to revenue sharing and the new collective bargaining agreement requires teams to spend that money now on MLB roster development, not minor league signings. So he HAS to spend the money now nad he’s locking up our players. What better than to have homegrown talent like Cueto, Votto and Bruce to build around for the next 4-6 years!