Previous experience is no longer the most important criterion for teams deciding on new managers, Phil Miller of the Star Tribune writes. “There are managers who are in the postseason right now who didn’t have one game of experience as manager,” says Twins GM Terry Ryan. A number of recent hirees have had little or no previous managerial experience, including Mike Matheny of the Cardinals and Brad Ausmus of the Tigers. It sounds like the Twins might not prioritize experience in their search for a manager, either. The Twins have recently interviewed Paul Molitor and Doug Mientkiewicz, neither of whom have been big-league managers, although Mientkiewicz has managed in the minors. Here are more notes from the American League.
- The Red Sox might end up regretting trading John Lackey to the Cardinals, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal writes. Lackey had an option for 2015 at the league minimum salary due to an elbow injury, and that made him very valuable. But Allen Craig and Joe Kelly, who the Red Sox received in return, have been disappointing, or at least questionable. Craig hit just .128/.234/.191 in 107 plate appearances in Boston. Kelly had a respectable 4.11 ERA in 61 1/3 innings, but with 6.0 K/9 and a very high 4.7 BB/9.
- The Tigers, who were eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday, are now “expensive, star-laden and old,” Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. The Tigers have gone to the playoffs the last four seasons, but they’ve fallen short of a World Series victory each time, and now they have Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera signed to long and potentially onerous contracts.
“are now “expensive, star-laden and old,” But on Friday they were young and hungry.
I have little doubt that Joba Chamberlain and Miguel Cabrera were hungry last Friday.
Craig has been a disappointment but getting four years of team control with Kelly is a great return for Lackey. There was no guarantee that he was going to uphold his league-minimum contract in 2015, and though Kelly’s FIP may not be the prettiest, he has two above-average pitches and the ability to eat up innings for a really low price. I’d say at this point the return is alright.
I agree. You likely blame Craig ’14 on being injured. Joe Kelly totally worth a cheap one-year John Lackey. I liked all the Red Sox’s moves at the deadline and that’s saying something because picking on them is a guilty pleasure of mine.
Seems like they decided to go with immediate impact, low-ceiling, high floor guys, rather than high ceiling guys. I didn’t like the approach at all.
We all are entitled to our opinions—which makes MLBTR.com such a fun place to comment at. I like Kelly and ERod Pick-ups. It was nice to see them get Castillo. Craig has been a great competitor over the years and he has helped Kelly make the adjustment to RSN. We have Cespy and it was nice to see him contribute down the stretch. Not sure if he will be around for RS ST but if not he will bring us a quality player in return. In addition we might get a PTBNL to contribute from the Cubs. This should be a very active Hot Stove for RS Nation. It would have been if we hadn’t traded Lackey, Peavy and Doubront.
If we don’t resign Lester and/or Miller it will be a disappointment.
I’m not sure Cespedes would bring back that quality of a piece in a trade. He’s a one year rental only. And any team acquiring him can’t offer him a QO. He probably has more value to the Red Sox than he does as a trade piece.
I think if the Sox can find a team he would be interested in and give them an opportunity to work something out it may result in a better return–but I agree otherwise they ride for the season and hope he has a banner year.
They did well and they’d be smart to grab either Lester (for the right price) or even Brandon McCarthy because he’d be a nice less expensive grab as well as Justin Masterson. Cheaper high promise grabs for a good #3 starter or so. i would love to see both the latter two rather than just Lester. There would be a much higher reward with the latter two I feel. if only one though aim for the cheaper of either Sherzer, lester or shields.
It’s way too earlier to really judge the trade. Kelly is still young enough and has good enough velocity and sinker that he could be a pretty good starter. Craig could be an expensive gamble though.
Exactly. Lackey might have played for that dough (because he HAD to), but he would have sulked all season and made Ortiz’s “I’m being disrespected” whine look lame in comparison.
Rumors had it that Lackey wouldn’t play in 2015 for the Red Sox without an extension. He’d just retire I guess. I think the fact he was traded away proves there must have been some truth to that.
That’s what I heard from a pretty reliable source. I then understood that, when asked if he would play next season for the Cardinals at minimum, he said he had no problem with THAT.
I had heard he was considering simply not playing rather than play for that amount. I think that would have been pretty selfish of him. Did the RS have the option of not paying him the 16M he earned one year without throwing a pitch? Both sides obviously knew that there was a good possiblity of his elbow blowing out during the contract, so the two sides agreed that if the RS ended up getting nothing out of a year of the 16M per, he’d owe something in return. Now he needs to be a man and honor that, even if it’s with a different team.
What got me was that Lackey was essentially saying “I’ll play for minimum for St. Louis but not for Boston”. Maybe his feelings were hurt when he was mowing down opposing batters to the tune of a 6.41 ERA and the Fenway faithful didn’t respond in kind. I just thought his comments were unnecessary.
I stopped reading at the “tried to manage payroll” with Fister trade. Fister trade was not about managing payroll. Why would you trade a young, cheap pitcher who wasn’t going to be expensive in 2014 if you wanted to keep payroll down?
No, the Fister trade was Dombrowski seriously thinking Robbie Ray was going to be a star. It was a really bad gaffe.
Ray is still young enough, but yea it was a bad trade. He only making $7MM, yet they can sign Nathan for $10MM. The biggest problem is not that they traded him. The problem is that they got a terrible return on their piece.
Ray could turn out to be good but yeah it’s not a good use of resources for a club that’s trying to win now.
Exactly. So many Tigers fans have tried to spin that as “Fister for Nathan.” It was a horrible trade.
At the time, maybe they were looking ahead at the Scherzer negotiation.
I think looking at the Lackey trade now that Castillo is in the mix, Betts has proven he is a legitimate OF option, and Napoli is still producing the return of Craig and Kelly might not be weak (Kelly has good peripherals and years of control Craig was a phenomenal hitter until 2014) but may not have fit the teams needs (3B/SS/left handed bat).
Anyone else besides me find it kind of depressing that one of the Royals or Orioles is heading to the World Series… I guess the Giants win another World Series huh….
Actually I find it very exciting and I wouldn’t count either the Orioles or Royals out automatically. Or for that matter the Giants the winners already.
Anything can happen… but I’m not sure I’d want to run into the Royals right now…and if Baltimore tops them….then they certainly have every ounce of momentum. A KC-SF series would be some VERY good baseball
I agree but I don’t think MLB wants it–something about a tree falling in the forest and no one around to hear it fall. I’ll be tuned in but the ratings might be very, very weak. I want KC to win because the fan base deserves it.
Oh, I’m sure from a business sense they don’t want it…TV ratings are bad enough as is. But I think its good to reenergize the dormant non Yankee/red Sox fan bases. Certainly baseball doesn’t want it…. the post season is still skewed to favor large markets… but luckily the game still must be played on the field
I was born in the Bronx and my dad worked 1 mile from Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx. He was a fanatical Yankee fan and I saw my first game at age 6 in 1961. I have been a huge Yankee fan ever since (even when they were bad). Still, I agree with what you say. There is nothing positive for the game when franchises from small markets never contend. Good Luck–you guys deserve it.
I think most teams generally have the same % of real fans. Good baseball is good baseball
I certainly remember the battles the Yankees had in the 70’s and 80’s Billy Martin, Herzog, George Brett, Nettles, Hal McRae, etc., etc. Those were great games!
I was small during those late 70s games..but I do remember a day twin bill at Royals Stadium with the Yanks. Ron Guidry started one of them…Butch Wynegar was behind the plate…Willie Randolph at 2b. Summer 1985
My first Royals game was when my Mom was.still pregnant with me…my Dad.stopped a screaming liner at my mom stomach off George Brett’s bat…vs blue jays…1977
Why would anyone be assuming the Giants win?
I’m not sure anyone outside the KC area can truly understand what this is like for the fan base. It’s been 29 years since a postseason. You’d have to be mid 30’s to even remember 1985. The Royals are a regional team in an area that doesn’t have another close team really. Many fans drive 4 hours to the games…that’s why they oddly had AstroTurf…to avoid rain outs and long rides home for so many people. No, I’m not a fan of the wild card….but its the system. I certainly think either the Royals or Orioles are the equal of SF.
I do feel that the Angels were not rewarded properly for the 162 game season they played. But honestly the only way to play it that way would be to pair the Angels with the Nationals in the series without a playoff.
How times have changed when “star-laden” has a negative connotation.
If the Tigers were playing 4 years ago, their team would be great.
4 years ago the Tigers had no Cy Young winners or MVP winners.
I think of the old All Star Games. They were star laden and typically lacked the actual best current players in the game. The idea that the window might be closed on Detroit is ludicrous. But I do see the central narrowing. KC will be back… and Chicago will be better
Its the new model for winning, post drug.
Interestingly, its also the old model…and look who we are getting in the playoffs…. the teams that were solid pre Canseco/Oakland Dynasty. Its actual baseball. These playoffs have a serious 80s throwback feel
Maybe compare team salaries of the teams in the playoffs (I.e Dodgers vs. Cards, Orioles vs. Tigers, Angels vs. Royals). I believe you will find the organizations focusing on building from within and focusing on advanced stats are doing pretty well.
I’ve never heard anyone laud the Royals for their advanced metric approach…but they do show that there are other ways to win and that excellent pitching and defense can win games especially in a series
So the Tigers will lose Sherzer and Price in b2b years?
Tigers lost because they didn’t have a bullpen and JV and Miggy are not 100%. Young players such JD, Jose I, Nick C and LF options should help. Most of the starters are in their prime except for JV and he just 31 (roughly). They need to resign VMart and fix the bullpen this off season and thy will be back. Signing another starter would be good but their payroll is still rising quickly due to pay raises and Arb.
You don’t just “fix a bullpen”. You build a bullpen by having a large number of top pitching prospects, the ones who fail as starters become your bullpen. Going out and trying to sign guys is a game of chasing shadows.
So true–bullpens can’t be fixed by signing last year’s good 7th or 8th inning guys. Many of them have been overworked and follow an excellent year with a bad one. Young, power arms from the farm system is the best way.
Your are right but also wrong. You cannot go by stats. This is when scouting comes and you look for certain things in a reliever. The reliever could be in A ball or free agent. Obviously, Tiger scouting let them down especially in the Soria trade and failing to outbid for Miller.
If Leland was still there, they’d blame the series loss on him.
Craig was injured, fell into a deep hole, and never was able to climb out. Sometimes even the good ones have an atrocious year that is an outlier. Kelly may never be a #3 starter but he might be a competent #4 or 5 and fill out a rotation. I doubt Lackey pitches for the MLB minimum next year–he’ll renegotiate or retire.
What I’ve seen of Kelly live and on TV..he’s top end a 4 starter. He throws hard but he’s straight and will have games that he’s shelled