A.J. Burnett will prove to be a bargain for the Pirates, Joe Starkey of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. The Pirates have a great record with recent free agents like Russell Martin and Edinson Volquez, and Burnett is still a strikeout pitcher. He’ll also be recovered from a hernia issue that dogged him in 2014, and he’ll have a more favorable ballpark and defense than he had in Philadelphia. Here are more notes from the Central divisions.
- Potential offseason extension candidates include NL Central and AL Central players like Josh Harrison of the Pirates, Corey Kluber of the Indians, and Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas of the Royals, Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com writes. It will be awhile before Kluber can really cash in on his AL Cy Young award win, Castrovince notes — he isn’t eligible for free agency until after 2018, by which point he’ll be heading into his age-33 season. Extending him now would give the Indians cost certainty through his arbitration seasons. As Castrovince points out, extensions for Harrison, Hosmer and Moustakas don’t appear that likely — the Pirates would probably like to see how Harrison performs in 2015, and Hosmer and Moustakas are represented by Scott Boras, who may prefer to see what his players might get in free agency in a few years. Also, neither Hosmer nor Moustakas were nearly as impressive in the regular season as they were in the playoffs.
- GM John Mozeliak says the Cardinals aren’t heavily involved in the market for Asian players right now, Fangraphs’ David Laurila tweets. Mozeliak does add that the Cardinals can’t totally ignore that market, however. The GM’s answer came in response to a question about Japanese phenom Shohei Otani, who struck out 179 batters in 155 1/3 innings and threw 101 MPH as a pitcher, as well as hitting .274/.338/.505 as an outfielder for the Nippon Ham Fighters last season. Otani is probably many years away from playing in the US, if he ever does, but MLB scouts are keeping an eye on him, for obvious reasons.
Extending Kluber sounds like an awful idea unless he is really willing to take a discount.
Yeah…win Cy Young…take discount. Lol
I was referring to a RA Dickey type discount(not that exact contract…). If he realizes that they can make him hit the market at a bad age, he has no track record, huge injury risk etc. then it makes sense. If he wants typical Cy Young money of 20mil+ a year then obviously not a great idea.
Probably not a guy worth much more than a 6/80mil at this point. He lacks a lot of leverage.
I agree, the Tribe are better off waiting to extend him, he is going to cost a fortune right now plus, there is no proof that he’ll be able to continue his success. Also, Kluber’s mechanics are horrible, he is an exact image to Mark Prior. Doubt his arm holds up with the way he pitches, this is the biggest reason as to why they should wait to extend him and offer him big bucks.
He throws his slider and sinker exceptionally hard. He might get away with it. But I’ve been betting on a major forearm injury in the next few years.
IMO the main reason the Pirates have been successful in bringing in and rehabbing pitchers such as Burnett, Volquez, Liriano and others is due to Russell Martin catching. There is a question whether they are going to continue to be that successful with their pitchers if he leaves.
I’d say Martin is one of the reasons these pitchers have been able to revitalize their careers in Pittsburgh but, I’d say it has more so to do the with coaching staff. These are the people that can fix guys, Martin can only help them by calling a good game, which he does fantastically.
They did fine with Stewart too. I think it had more to do with higher quality pitchers. Consider that the rotation in 2011 was Morton, Maholm, McDonald, Karstens, and Correia.
Ray Searage and a big ballpark are bigger in my estimation.
Big ballpark in the NL, good defense, I guess you have to give the scouts/number crunchers some credit too.
He was part of it for sure, but I dont think he can get all the credit.
I really hope Otani comes over sooner rather than later. He wanted to skip NPB and jump straight to MLB but was convinced to wait. Hopefully there was an agreement to let him come earlier for not skipping NPB.
How long is he committed to play for his team in Japan? Chances are, they’ll want to milk him and then post him prior to his last season. That way, they get his production for as long as possible, as well as receiving some nice money for posting him.
Otani is 19 years old, so yes he’s not going anywhere for a while.
I think they have him for 8 years but he was going to skip them out of high school. It was a big thing a couple of year ago. He told them not to draft him because he wouldn’t sign but they did anyway. I’m hoping that as part of his deal, he can be posted sooner.
He’ll probably be posted after his year 24 or 25 season, which is still noteworthy.
That’s still a long ways away, I’ll be excited to see him then, however.
Otani is pitching against the “MLB All Stars” soon. It’s going to be fun to watch. So far all the pitchers the NPB have displayed have fooled a lot of MLB hitters.
Even if they don’t extend him into his FA years a Kluber extension makes sense for both sides. 6 years/$81MM could do it: ($1MM signing bonus 2015: $5M 2016: $10m 2017: $10MM 2018: $15MM 2019: $20MM 2020: $20MM)
Why even pay him that? Odds are he is no where near a 20mil player those 2 FA years…I see little upside here.
Can people get off this false narrative of AJ Burnett and the Phillies poor defense being the cause for his struggles? Yes, they are not a good defense. But they were hardly the reason for his struggles last year (especially when you compare some things to his 2013 season).
In 2014 (with the Phillies), his BABIP against grounders was .228, against flyballs was .138, and against line drives was .603 – for a total BABIP of .307.
In 2013 (with the Pirates), his BABIP against grounders was .240, against flyballs was .120, and against line drives was .642 – for a total BABIP of .310.
To me, it actually looks like the Phillies defense did a good job suppressing the balls in play. The problem for AJ last year was the balls not in play (Ks were down, BBs were up, and HR were up).
Corey who?
How many years to you have to play in the NPB to reach free agency?
7 season