A look back at the original reporting and analysis found on MLBTR the last seven days:
- Just days ago, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes unveiled his 2017 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings. Stephen Strasburg takes the No. 1 position on the list as he looks to break David Price’s record deal for starting pitchers.
- Chuck Wasserstrom sat down with Andy MacPhail to discuss the 25-year anniversary of the Twins’ 1991 World Series championship. One of the key moves in building the Twins’ championship roster came in July 1989 when they dealt fan favorite Frank Viola. MacPhail admits that trading the pitcher was difficult. “I remember just wanting to have to sit down for a moment and sort of collect myself. Independent of the market size, it clearly was not an easy decision,” MacPhail said. “It was not going to be popular, because you are trading a known for multiple unknowns to some degree. While I felt conviction that it was the right thing for us to make the trade … I wouldn’t say I was conflicted, but I recognized back then that of all the trades I had made in my career, this one was going to have the most riding on it. If it was not successful, it was going to come back and bite you personally – probably in a big way. You trade a potential 20-game winner to a New York club, you better be getting something back.”
- Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart surprised everyone in baseball this winter with his moves. Recently, Brett Ballantini sat down with the agent-turned-GM to discuss his offseason overhaul in Arizona.
- Speaking of Stewart, MLBTR’s Steve Adams looked back on the Diamondbacks’ aggressive offseason. Arizona committed a whopping $206.5MM over six years to pitcher Zack Greinke while trading a sizable package to the Braves for right-hander Shelby Miller (and left-hander Gabe Speier). Now, the D’Backs are hoping to go from 79 wins to the top of the NL West.
- On the latest edition of the MLBTR Podcast, host Jeff Todd spoke with former big league catcher John Baker to discuss his role with the Cubs organization. Jeff also spoke with Tim about his power rankings for 2017. A new episode of the podcast is released every Thursday and can be accessed on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher.
- This winter, the Braves continued their build towards contending in 2017 in an effort to boost fan interest when their brand new ballpark opens up. Jeff looked back on Atlanta’s moves, including deals for Shelby Miller and Andrelton Simmons.
- The Astros’ success in 2015 was a pleasant surprise. In 2016, they’ll enter the season with some very real expectations for success. Steve reflected on Houston’s offseason dealings, including the acquisition of reliever Ken Giles.
- Faced with a payroll crunch, new GM Billy Eppler was somewhat limited in what he could do this past winter. Still, as MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk writes, the Halos made a couple of trades to improve their infield situation while making some other low-cost moves.
- The Rays needed offense this offseason and president of baseball operations Matthew Silverman wasted little time in getting that accomplished, as Mark writes in his Offseason In Review for Tampa Bay. While Tampa brought some new bats into the mix, however, there are plenty of questions remaining for the team in the wake of their winter dealings.
- The Orioles spent more than ever this winter in an effort to try and win the AL East. Mark looked back on all of the O’s moves, including headline-grabbers like Chris Davis’ deal, the Darren O’Day re-signing, the addition of Yovani Gallardo, and the trade for Mark Trumbo.
- After adding David Price and Craig Kimbrel, the Red Sox are hoping to make David Ortiz’s final season a memorable one, as Mark writes.
- The Pirates’ offseason wasn’t splashy, but there are still additions that are worth paying attention to, as MLBTR’s Charlie Wilmoth writes.
- The rebuild continues in Philly and Jeff looked at the deals made by the Phillies’ new forward-thinking regime.
Favorite in the AL? Behind Price, starting rotation terrible, Bullpen not much better, and question marks at both corner outfield and corner infield. Betting on JBJ and Castillo can severely backfire like the signing of Sandoval and Hanley. I see Hanley possibly hitting better this year (can’t do much worse than he did last year), and Sandoval looks worse physically than he did last year. Your comments are ridiculous.
Depends who ya ask. Some have MY Astros as favorites.
Come on Houston!!!
They were the “favorites” the past two years also. How did that work out? Oh that’s right the finished last both years The Royals were picked to have a losing record last year. How did that work out? Oh that’s right they won the World Series. And guess what “I’m not making this stuff up” I think I speak for everyone when I say that you should bet everything you have on them winning it all and going over 101.5 wins like you have so ridiculously stated.
Also the reason lines are where they are is based on bets made. The Royals and Blue Jays both have better odds to win the AL than “Your sox” (5/1 and 11/2) and the Astros are 6/1 tied with “your sox” I don’t expect you to understand how Vegas works because you don’t even understand how Baseball works.. Since the turn of the Century the Vegas favorite in the preseason has been correct just twice.
No one can ever say a certain team has “better odds” than another team. Nearly every team in the AL is evenly balanced, excluding maybe the A’s and the White Sox. You can’t predict this stuff like you can in other sports because baseball is an unpredictable game.
Carson Smith is set to hit the DL, Papi is a shell of his former self, 2-5 starters are all fifth starters or bullpen arms. Shaw has looked great this spring but Sox are determined to make Panda and Hanley work. Rest of the bullpen is about average. Besides Betts, the outfield has potential to be average to garbage.
Um yes. Favorites not in Al east but american league so who’s ridiculous?
You want to know who is ridiculous? It’s those who take Pecota and Zips and all these projection systems seriously
The same system that picks the Red Sox to finish with the best record in the AL picks the World Champion Royals to finish Last in the AL. This was one year after they picked the Sox to win the ALE in 2015 and the Royals to finish with 78 wins in 2015.
I have outperformed the PERCOTA ratings the 3 years I’ve seen them.
Teams that play for their statistics wind up high in the preseason projections. Naturally. Teams that play to win wind up winning. Naturally.
You can’t be favored to win the AL if you aren’t favored to win the AL East. That’s common sense. The troll level is getting ridiculous on this site now. Please point me to the site where logical serious fans are.
Sox had a good off season. They managed to improve their team at some levels. Good enough to go from last to first??? I highly doubt it. Pedroia doesn’t look much of himself anymore. Big Papi is in his last season for a reason. Sandoval is a serious question mark on third, and behind Price in the starting rotation all I see is injure prone pitchers and attempts to come back… At the same time, Jays, Orioles, and Yankees seem to be moving on the right direction… Good luck with that!
The division is a complete toss up.
Man how have you gone so long without being discovered by your sox??? You could be the best manager in ALL of baseball! Maybe you should audition on Americas Got Talent as a baseball manager and see how you fare! Maybe then you’ll get the ownerships attention up there in Boston and be bored as their manager! They’d win the World Series of very year for 86 years! What a record!