Some news as we head into Tuesday…
- There isn’t much new to report on the extension talks between the Cubs and Theo Epstein, as the president of baseball operations told reporters (including Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com) that the two sides “haven’t talked a lot about” a new deal. “The talks we have had [were] very amicable, productive, moving in the right direction,” Epstein said. Epstein’s original five-year, $18.5MM deal is up after this season, though the lack of urgency in talks may reflect the seemingly small chance that he leaves Wrigleyville. Both Epstein and Cubs management have both expressed a desire to continue their relationship, plus one has to think it would be unusual for Epstein leave just as the team is starting to enjoy the fruits of its rebuild.
- Nomar Mazara’s big debut for the Rangers is already drawing a lot of attention, though as Baseball America’s Ben Badler recaps, many opposing scouts were stunned by the $4.95MM bonus Mazara signed in 2011, which is still a record for a 16-year-old international player. Scouts at the time questioned Mazara’s ability to consistently make contact, and also the decision by Mazara’s trainer to keep him out of playing in actual games. His evolution into a top-rated prospect and (through two games, at least) a promising big-leaguer, however, has made the Rangers’ investment look very solid.
- In another Mazara piece, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News hears from rivals scouts who explain why Mazara is a more polished hitter than another well-regarded Rangers prospect, Joey Gallo.
- The Red Sox didn’t use Pablo Sandoval to pinch-hit against righty reliever Mychal Givens today, leading ESPN Boston’s Scott Lauber to wonder if the Panda really has any place on the Sox roster if the club isn’t willing to use him even in seemingly tailor-made pinch-hitting situations. Sandoval only appeared in three games and received seven plate appearances so far this season, after losing his starting third base job to Travis Shaw in Spring Training.
Sandoval and bully butler can join the next mlb expansion team, the Montreal Eaters Anonymous. Games to played at the Taco Bell Center. Opening lines up sponsored by Weight Watchers. Call to the bullpen sponsored by Bally”s Fitness.
You mean Centre de Taco Belle.
That’s a lot of poutine!
I assume Bartolo Colon would also be the ace of the staff?
EMT’s standing at the ready in the 1st Base dugout? Need to be ready to race out the moment someone actually tries to run down the line after making contact. CLEAR!!!!!!
Thank you Panda for not resigning with the Giants. At least you were honest that eating to excess and doing whatever you want has a bigger priority than winning ball games.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, just so my prediction is date and time stamped.
My theory is that Sabean knew Panda would be a liability. I was part of the “don’t sign Panda” group because I felt like mostly what IS happening, would happen. Except I thought it would take a couple of years for him to regress and hit the DL all the time. I also thought he would be moved to DH and at least initially play way better than he is now in a hitters park, so I was wrong about that too.
But back to Sabean…. He’s my theory.
Sabean knew he didn’t want Panda, but knew the fans wanted Panda, so he sabotages the negotiations. How does he do it? He acts like a tool, is disrespectful, lowballs him, demands a weight bonus clause… anything he can do so Panda is pissed off with the Giants.
THEN… when Panda walks, to the public Sabean looks like he tried hard to keep El Porko but really, is doing a little dance in his office. Sabean is maybe thinking “Fenway is a hitters park, Sandoval is going to light it up there for a year or two so I’m going to look bad, but 2 years from now they will see that not signing him was a good thing”.
*IF* and it’s a big *IF* my theory is true, Sabean is a genius and did the right thing.
NOW.. of course we will never know the truth, Sabean may come out and claim this was his plan in his memoirs, but it could be BS. Unless there is multiple confirmations from Giants brass that they were trying to fake sign Panda… we’ll just have to live in speculation.
Anyone think I’m crazy or does this seem plausible?
You’re crazy (not in a rude way). He didn’t sign him because the price was just too high, and he’s struggling because he’s fat. Giants made him watch his weight, he’d still be fine with us
I think Deke may very well be right. The weight was an issue. If Sandoval didn’t intend to keep himself fit, then Sabean may have pumped up the bidding to make the signing team overspend, and then he looked back at the SF fans and rightly stated that the Giants were outbid. I think AJ Preller was in the bidding war to do the same thing – drive up the bidding for an overrated asset.
333ddd1, The Giants offered Sandoval $100 million. He took LESS to sign with the Red Sox ($95 million).
The Giants TRIED to make Sandoval watch his weight they even went so far as to ask Posey and Pence to speak to him. But the reality is that he showed up “in shape” ONE time, his walk year. There were a couple of other attempts (2011) but they didn’t work out all that well.
Coincidentally? Pablo said very clearly to Giants beat reporters (who were asking him about his weight) that he only really needed to get in shape for his contract year, and true to his word THAT was the year he really lost weight… but he put it all back on (and then some) during that same season.
So anyway, the Giants offer was 5 million MORE than the Sox, which is why I believe Sabean sabotaged it intentionally by being obnoxious. After all Sandoval said “Sabean was disrespectful to his agent”, you’re not disrespectful to the agent of someone you want to sign.
The $100 million offer was only made when it was clear that Sandoval had one foot out the door on the way to Boston. The Giants offered it knowing full well Sandobal would reject it. It was more of a face-saviing move for the Giants’ front office, to show the fans “Hey, we tried”, when all along they didn’t want to take the risk that Sandoval would regress.
I do think you are absolutely right that Sabean and Evans didn’t want to re-sign Sandoval after watching him fail to keep his weight in check for the past few years. Sandoval’s excellent 2014 World Series made things more complicated with relation to the fanbase, though.
On the other hand, the Giants really didn’t have a Plan B to replace Sandoval. McGehee was a low risk move, but he was a disaster. I wonder if they even had a remote thought in their minds in the winter of 2015 about playing Matt Duffy at third. I feel like I spent that entire offseason advocating that they give him a chance there.
I sure hope you are right with that theory. Would love to read that in Sabean’s memoirs in a few years.
I would love to read a book about how the Giants were able to pivot their strategy as a franchise from Bonds’ last season with the team through their current run of success, and how they managed to do it without any significant shifts in ownership or front office personnel.
Panda need to go to the Padres for free and loser -R-Sox pays 95 % of big boy salary. I think that would work for both teams
Gee doesn’t make you wonder why MLB contracts really don’t cover stipulations on players outta shape. Let’s face it, it’s not like he didn’t have these issues in SF? Should be mandatory with the summons of money these guys are making and let’s see….give them alittle incentive to show up in good physical shape…
you can give them a bonus for meeting weight goals but you can’t make the contract conditional on weight. Also, if another team is offering something close to the same money without weight stipulations, you won’t get them to agree to a contract with you with stipulations anyway.
What is really needed is something more like the contract structures of the NFL with more options for the teams or perhaps a general CBA agreement that any contract can be dropped by paying X percent of the remaining value. Of course, that will never make it through negotiations.
Your average working Joe will get dropped in a heartbeat with not much of a layoff package if they are not performing. Why can’t the same be applied with sports teams?
You can understand where this might become problematic, right? Say a team is having a miserable season but its highest paid player is having a fantastic one.. (Think of, say, The Marlins and Giancarlo Stanton.) Any doubt, especially with Loria, that he would dump Stanton and pocket the difference? Any losing team would do this to save money, and it would be chaotic for all involved.
As to the second part of the question, the average working joe doesn’t play a spectator sport owned by billionaires. And the average working joe has a career that spans 40 years or so, not 10 or 12.
It’s called a strong union. While they may not get the severance package, most union members enjoy much more employment protection than the “at-will” average Joe.
What about players that are outperforming their contracts? Should they get to demand a new contract mid-season or be able to opt-out of their contracts at any time and become a free agent, even in the middle of a year? You open up a whole can of worms when you start thinking that pay should be made for present performance and that contracts shouldn’t need to be honored.
I don’t get why people always compare athletes to “average joes”. If you are in the MLB you are not an average joe! You are the equivalent of a C level executive, you are top of your career. No one at the top of their field is gonna accept having the same pay structure as normal guys. You could also argue baseball is one of the most competitive fields (including non-sports) in the world, there is incentive for making it.
Lordbanana, you are totally right in your analogy. It’s hard to feel sorry for any MLB player who enjoys employment rules and regulations we could only dream of. That’s life I guess.
Overall I think the Union has negotiated a very good deal for the players. I do think that teams should be able to drop a player from a contract if they are found to be using PED’s, or maybe after a second PED test given. I feel that the majority of players would support this too because they don’t want the cheaters in the game.
He was fat in SF and still put up a 4-win season in 2014. It doesn’t seem like he’s any fatter now; he just plays in the better league.
Whatever the case, contracts are guaranteed in the MLB in scenarios where they’d never be guaranteed anywhere else.
JD396 – In many High Level Executives roles in businesses (as someone stated before), they are signed to guaranteed contracts. If they are let go, the company pays them out the rest of the contract.
In fact I’ve even had jobs just as a lower level contractor (implementing software) where it was a fixed term contract and they were on the hook for paying the entire contract even if they changed their mind. I never got paid out but had known people who were given their last 6 months and sent home because they either finished early or the project was cancelled.
So it does happen, but it’s not an “Average Joe” thing. With baseball it’s because they have the strongest union in the world. With Exec’s it’s because they are “important” and with the contractor scenario, it’s just because you are temporary and they need your skill set.
This one is solely on Boston. Sandoval wasn’t worth the money before that contract. The stat guys were all over that at the time. Same with Butler. Long guaranteed contracts for high dollars are bad news. But on the other hand big market teams can afford to waste money as in the case of Pablo. Small teams cannot.
Unfortunately the Sandoval, Castillo, Hanley, signings were for people they didn’t have a position for.
Hanley may work out but he is injury prone and was before Cherrington signed him.
That, give or take $50 M, could have been the signing of Andrew Miller, and extensions for Mookie and Xander.
The Sox need phantom DL stints for both Pablo and Rushney. For Pablo, if breaking his belt wasn’t enough of an embarrassment, nothing will cause him to work on his weight issue. If the Sox want to do him a favor they should DFA him–he needs to go elsewhere and DD is just the guy that will send the wake-up call.
Also if John Farrell doesn’t have a winning home stand he may not be around for the next return to Fenway.
Thing is, they already have like a 7 million dollar contract sitting in the minors called Allen Craig, if they DFA Pablo they would have the highest paid triple A team ever
” if John Farrell doesn’t have a winning home stand he may not be around for the next return to Fenway.”
Pu-lease.. Not that Farrell’s job is secure through the All star break.. Even end of may could happen, but to say Dombrowski cans him by end of 15 games into the season, after opening the year 3-2 on the road? That’s fanciful dreaming there and not much better with the comparison’s of Ramirez to Sandoval.. Ramirez, who has hit his entire career, to Sandoval, an overweight slug whose been on a downward plunge for 3 seasons and his best years are comparable to Hanley’s worst when they signed.
I equate the Ramirez sign with lackey’s.. Was calling it a good move when made, when fans were all over lackey and still do now.. When those “change of heart” fans quietly change that tune once he dominates.. Same with Ramirez.. I fully expect Ramirez to put up excellent numbers for 2-3 years and play decent defense.. When he plays 1b. His defense (so far) around the bag has been nothing short of superb this year for posters knocking him and have quite obviously not bothered one time to watch a game with him around the bag saving wild throws, making dives and even overhead catches. early on.
Nick Cafardo reports an impending Sandoval-Donaldson trade
It was a dream—did NC mention it was a dream???
Donaldson might have challenges–he didn’t play the field because of injury over the weekend–the Sox would probably have to throw in Moncada, Devers, Benentendi or Holt in addition to Pablo’s remaining contract.
Should be a place for Sandoval with the Cleveland Browns.
Hey guys, Phillies fan here. Looks like Hamels is holding up his end of the bargain so far. Class guy, wish he was still in Philly, but for once, I think the Phillies got decent value for an ace.
I wanted to ask you guys about Jerad Eickhoff., looks like he is pitching out of his mind vs his projections., from the time of the trade. He looks like a solid #3, possibly higher. I’d say he has pitched closer to a #2. Wanted to see your guys thoughts on him, and if he still would have been included in the trade . Asher looks like a bust. The rest, pretty solid so far.
I wish we could have gotten Maraza oo Gallo, but obviously not going to happen …. trade is looking good for both clubs so far. Maybe Ruben will get a little more love from the Phils fans when the trade is judged.