Back in Chicago just days after being traded to the A’s, Adam Dunn said that he understood the boos from White Sox fans, writes Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune. “I get it. I had a fantasy team not do very well this week, and I wasn’t happy with those guys either,” Dunn said. “Obviously it makes it harder, but it comes with the territory. Hopefully we can make them boo again tonight.” Here’s more from around baseball..
- The White Sox have just $46MM in commitments to the 2015 payroll before arbitration and General Manager Rick Hahn isn’t exactly sure how he’ll allocate that money just yet, writes Scott Merkin of MLB.com. “We’ll have to decide based on the options available to us whether it makes sense to invest heavily in one or two targets or try to spread it around between a half dozen or so,” Hahn said. “I don’t think anything is going to be precluded from us in terms of opportunities. It’s going to be a matter of allocating the resources most effectively when the time comes.“
- Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp has a pretty mediocre WAR and not much in the way of trade value, but Mike Petriello of Fangraphs has reasons to be optimistic about what Kemp can do. Down the line, however, he probably fits best on an American League team that can let him DH.
- In the wake of the Ray Rice situation, Major League Baseball and the MLBPA should amend the policy on domestic abuse in the CBA, writes Andy Martino of the New York Daily News.
Sounds like Reinsdorf is going to be opening the checkbook in a big way…Hahn doesn’t even seem to be hiding it
I kind of get the feeling that he’s laying the early groundwork for a “sorry you are so disappointed in our acquisitions, but we weren’t being cheap and money wasn’t an issue in who we chose to acquire this offseason.”
No Dunn, I think ChiSox fans boo you because you were terrible for them.
He really really was. We wanted him to succeed but he rarely made us Sox fans happy he was on our team. 2012 was his best but I wish I knew what made him stink the other three?
He’s secretly a Cubs fan…
They can have him! Good luck on defense though…
He’d be a good addition to the play by play booth.
Yeah he always seemed like a smart, well-spoken guy. I could see him as a sideline reporter in the NFL though. Like a younger Tony Siragusa.
Ever since Kemp got moved to right field and made minor adjustments to his stance, he has been very, very good.
He’s played better defense in RF and his bat definitely is coming around.
I definitely can see Kemp coming back to his 30 HR self. His shoulder and ankle injuries were more fluke injuries and as the season has progressed, he has looked healthier and his production has increased.
Agreed, but next year I still want to see Kemp in LF, Pederson in CF, and Puig’s cannon in RF. One of Ethier or Crawford will most certainly be traded.
I don’t think anybody would want to take on either of those guys to be honest, it might be easier if the Dodgers just benched/released them.
I think Kemp should stay in RF because he’s happier playing there and he’s got a very good arm for that position as well.
Pederson probably ends up the 4th OF for next year, with Crawford probably the starting LF.
Ethier is likely going to get dealt in the offseason, with the Dodgers eating like half his money and not getting a lot back in return.
Hate to say it, but I see Pederson being traded. He will fetch the most value. Ethier and Crawford are simply untradable. Plus, Pederson’s presence in this crowded outfield would force Donny’s hand to move Kemp to LF, and I don’t seen that happening. Joc will very likely be moved for a young, under team control SP. And I honestly don’t have a problem with that, if it’s for the “right” pitcher.
I agree Kyle.
Untradable means they have no value whatsoever to any MLB team. Is that what you really meant to say?
Crawford and Ethier are hardly untradeable. They just have negative trade value. Depending on how much the Dodgers kick in, somebody would take on either of those guys, no questions asked.
The Dodgers are going to have to kick in all but the minor league minimum. That means they are DFA’d before another MLB GM takes on one of those guys. Most MLB teams have guys just as productive in the upper levels of the minors. Good teams don’t want these guys. DFA both of them and move on.
At this point Ethier is obviously the most expendable, and he might not even make the playoff roster. He might benefit by going somewhere where he can play every day.
Kemp is a pretty lousy fielder these days (whose gold gloves demonstrate just how ridiculous those awards are) but I don’t think he has to be strictly a DH.
Perhaps he could go to an AL team where he could rotate between left field, first base, and DH. His value wouldn’t take such a big hit from the positional inflexibility of a full-time DH in that case, but he could also play the position some of the time to mitigate his tendency to get injured.
2011 was really fun to watch, it’s a shame his athleticism took such a dive.
ridiculous comment. He is as valuable an outfielder as anybody on the Dodgers or perhaps the NL. His “athleticism took a dive” because of injuries to his ankle and shoulder. Cmon! really?
Did you read the article? He has less than 1 WAR. Fangraphs places him as the 44th most “valuable” outfielder this year. Both Fangraphs and Baseball Reference peg him as having been the worst defensive position player this year. He has 8 stolen bases as opposed to 40 three years ago.
To suggest he’s as valuable as Puig is ridiculous, and to suggest he’s not lost athleticism is even more so. Injuries and age sap athleticism, it’s just how sports work. Not getting injured is a skill, unless the injuries are freak occurrences.
Kemp was subpar in CF and in LF (where he had never really played). He has been better in RF.
Lol, Kemp is more valuable than Puig, when healthy. At least right now. Kemp has much more power than Puig. Puig is really more of a line drive hitter who can hit 15 to 20 HRs. Kemp has 30 to 40 HR power. Kemp can drive the ball with power to all fields, when he’s right.
Also, Kemp’s a better base stealer than Puig, at this point. Kemp hasn’t run much this year, but I think the obvious reason is he is still coming back from a very serious ankle injury and so has not opened up that aspect of his game.
Kemp has been very durable in his career. His shoulder injury was a fluke, as was his ankle injury. He has been durable this year.
You nailed it: guys like Kemp, who can play a lot of games, is a skill and since Kemp has avoided slamming into the Coors Field wall and making horrible slides into home plate, he looks like he is going back to being as durable as he was before those injuries.
It’s funny, in a way. Around here, only a few weeks ago, Kemp was considered to be the Player Most Likely to be Traded for a Bag of Bats. Even at that time he was one of the most productive players on the roster, and since then has been pretty much carrying the team offensively. Don thinks so little of him, he’s batting cleanup. Yet Fangraphs still makes the argument that he has little value. Amazing. Do these people watch baseball at all?
He has less than 1 war because DWAR says he costs his team 3 wins per season. Do you really buy that? Do you think him playing Right Field costs his team 3 wins? Come on. It’s a bad stat.
It’s a stat created by and for fantasy leagues. It doesn’t have anything to do with the real game of baseball.
Thank you.
I’m a Rick Hahn supporter. Says all the right things, doesn’t just throw money because he can or wants to win now. He has the bigger picture outlook. Ever since he’s stepped into the chair, he’s focused on creating long term success for the White Sox. Personally i think the AL central is the most vulnerable it’s been in awhile so i expect the Sox to take advantage and make some strides to really improve this off-season.
I like Rick too. He’s undoing what Kenny Williams did and building the Sox the way it should’ve been all along. He trades and drafts well (so far) so this will be his biggest and most important offseason to date.
For domestic abuse, how about first time, 81 games, second time gone? A little stricter than the NFL’s current penalty but hey.
I want to see the leagues institute more penalties based on overt racist/sexist/homophobic/etc actions in general. Anything associated with systematic abuse needs to be dealt with harshly nowadays.
When was the last time a mlb player had domestic abuse
I feel like you’re implying “It almost never happens, so why should we make harsh rules about it?” If so, I really don’t know how to respond to that other than to note that it really doesn’t matter. It’s something to be taken seriously even if it isn’t currently a ‘problem.’
I’m not against it but it is like telling a community who has no drugs that they can’t do drugs. I know a bad comparison but just kind of useless in a way. But I do think the nfl needed it. Trust me I’m not for wives getting beat
A few of us have already thrown out examples of known cases that have come to light in recent years, so it can hardly be said that domestic abuse does not occur in the League.
Anyway, nobody is stating that it is an epidemic, but clearly it does occur. So having a meaningful policy in place is appropriate.
Edit: Another incident I remember was the former fireballer, Ambiorix Burgos, who was arrested for beating up his girlfriend at some hotel. So sadly, there’s another case for you.
So… MLB should wait for a(nother) player to violently abuse his wife/girlfriend before setting up a system to punish domestic abuse?
Not saying that at all.
I was meaning with how rarely this happens in the MLB, it doesn’t seem as needed. It seems to me that they would have a suspension that the commissioner would hand out. I’m not saying that they should wait on a baseball player to beat up his wife, but just saying that with the rarity of it that they would have a suspension that varied.
No, but judging by the Ray Rice situation if an MLB player got caught doing that it wouldn’t matter what the rules are. He’d be out.
Why should we wait for something to happen before instituting a rule?
Miguel Cabrera comes to mind (a couple years ago) and also Brett Myers smacking his wife around outside Fenway, was something that came to light. However there may be more (and it is quite likely, as ugly incidents are often hushed up as a PR embarrassment for the team).
Julio Lugo slammed his girlfriend or wife’s head into the hood of his car. He got cut a few days later by the Astros.
Milton Bradley
Kemp is OPS’ing 900 recently.Stop using dWAR, he is coming off an ankle injury and likely is now a corner OF.
Why should we not consider his defensive contribution? Have hitters agreed to only hit the ball to where Kemp is standing?
For the record, Kemp was basically the worst fielding CF’er in baseball BEFORE his ankle injury. While I agree that he is now a corner outfielder (or even better – a DH), his fielding issues predate his injury.
love Dunn’s comment about fantasy baseball…