On this date in 1998, Mike Piazza signed what was then the most lucrative contract in baseball history. The backstop inked a seven-year, $91MM contract to remain with the Mets just a few weeks before he was scheduled to become a free agent. Had he hit the open market, Piazza could have very well become the first $100MM player in baseball history. Here is the latest from around the baseball blogosphere…
- Baseball Nation says Giants GM Brian Sabean is underrated.
- Sports of Boston broke down the John Farrell trade/hiring.
- Over The Monster wonders why the Red Sox chose Farrell.
- The Cornell ILRSBS Blog analyzed the Farrell trade.
- Baltimore Sports & Life wonders if the Orioles' coaching staff will remain intact.
- Yankees Fans Unite says the Yankees must look into moving Alex Rodriguez.
- Disciples of Uecker doesn't buy into the Brewers reported interest in Josh Hamilton.
- Royal Revival looked at Kyle Lohse as a free agent target for the Royals.
- Wahoo's on First thinks the Indians should look into acquiring Coco Crisp.
- Rays Colored Glasses wonders if the Rays will trade for Alfonso Soriano.
- Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness thinks Yunel Escobar could be a fit for the Dodgers.
- Phillies Nation says the Phillies should pursue Eric Chavez this winter.
- Blogging Mets looked at how the Mets could rebuild.
- Climbing Tal's Hill analyzed some of the Astros Rule 5 Draft eligible prospects.
- Seedlings to Stars wrote about baseball prospect turned NFL player Russell Wilson.
- The Knuckle Blog analyzed nine-figure contracts.
- Orioles Nation examined the accuracy of WAR during the 2012 season.
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If only Wilson could hit a pro curveball. Another NCSU guy I wonder about is Andrew Brackman, who had NBA talent, but playing for Herb Sendek would want to make you switch sports fast.
Pure, 100% fantasy.. Reyes, despite having 92m left on his contract is still one of the better SS in the game and is a productive player at a position many teams (even PO ones) are playing people who should be at AAA, or out of the game period. Buehrle? Yep.. Owed 48m over the next 3 seasons and STILL will draw back a decent prospect either over the winter, or next 7/31 trade deadline.
These NYY blogs are worse than some of the writers, rivaling Sherman.. Just because Cashman is under some kind of self imposed pressure to reduce the payroll doesn’t mean the Fish are going to take on a DH and THEN give NY a LT solution to their SS problem, plus a solid #3 SP who has thrown 200+IP for well over 10 seasons..
A team that is probably not going to contend next year such as the Marlins might be interested in ridding themselves from their current financial entanglements in order to create more financial flexibility.
That makes no sense.. Take on a bare minimum salary of 114m and escalators that could total another 25m in a DH type player that has almost total negative trade value and give up 2 players who actually help the current team and have positive trade value for someone/something they actually could use if they chose to?
They could trade either/both for positional players instead if that was the goal and rid themselves of the contract, not prospects and not take back that horrid contract.
Those NY blogs are going to be fantasizing all year about who they can swindle and it just ain’t going to happen, unless they take nearly nothing back and pay the entire salary.. Not get impact players in return that just so happen to fix 2 major holes that team has.
There’s something strange about the image of Josh Hamilton wearing a jersey with the Brewers name on it…given his past issues with alcohol….been in that ballpark plenty of times…you can get a contact buzz walking through the parking lot.