hahaha,from the MLB trade rumors site:

"The Marlins do not think they’ll have to pay out the entire $325MM balance of Giancarlo Stanton‘s contract, Pirates president Frank Coonelly told a crowd (including the Tribune-Review’s Rob Biertempfel) at PirateFest Saturday. Speaking very candidly for a team president, Coonelly recalled a recent conversation with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and president David Samson: “They said to me, ‘You don’t understand. (Stanton) has an out clause after six years. Those first six years are only going to cost $107 million. After that, he’ll leave and play for somebody else. So, it’s not really $325 million.'"

So Loria and Samson really think that Stanton is going to opt out of a seven year, $31MM/year deal. Whoa! Pretty ballsy move on their part, especially not even knowing how he is going to perform in the $107MM/six year part of the deal. Mind-boggling ownership down there.

The White Sox's activity this offseason seems to have come out of nowhere. AL Central might now be the most competitive division with the Tigers, Royals, Indians, and White Sox all fielding teams that shouldn't be too far a part from one another.

Frank Connelly spilling the beans like he did is a bit shocking but I still expect Loria to try to sell that team in the next couple years, so whether its through that or Stanton bolting, I don't expect current ownership to expect to be paying that entire contract off.

stanton already regrets signing that shit. hes gonna have to deal with this talk for the next 6 years now.the whitesox rightnow are my favorites to win the central. you didnt mention the twins. they have loads of talent coming up within the next couple seasons

I think of all the AL Central teams I think the Royals are the team that will probably slip. They kind of overachieved last season, and they still haven't done anything to replace Shields.

Dodgers and Yankees flaunting their money.

LAD gives Brett Anderson a 1 yr, $10 million. If only he could stay healthy, that could be a steal of a deal. But he makes Rich Harden look like he was Cal Ripken Jr.

Yanks sign Chase Headley to a 4 year, $52 million. Lot of money and years for a mediocre 3B. He had that one great year, if he ever repeats it this deal will be a steal. But that one year sure looks like an outlier. I wouldn't have been as enthusiastic about him as so many teams and Keith Law are.

Astros sign Jed Lowrie to a 3 year, $23 million deal. Reeks of desperation...and for no reason. They aren't going anywhere with or without him.

Royals sign Alex Rios for 1 yr, $11 million.

Also wouldn't be surprised in the least to see KC go backwards next year. The lost of Shields is going to be felt. If, for no other reason, than he was the experienced veteran that could lead that staff. Plus, he was good.

Yeah, I expected from the moment Bumgarner got the final out that we wouldn't be seeing KC in the playoffs anytime soon again, unless they spent some serious coin because they played completely out of their shoes last October. They won't catch lightning in a bottle like that again, or at least get in the playoffs again if their biggest free agent catches are Alex Rios and Kendrys Morales.

I think the AL Central has evened out to the point that only the division winner will be able to get into the playoff, and you have Chicago and Detroit to contend with now. I don't think that even if they re-signed Shields, I would consider them the favorite in that division now.

Decent signing, but the Royals have no power at all on their team. I'm not even sure anyone on that team will hit 20 plus home runs this year.

Indians take a flyer on Gavin Floyd for one year. Don't remember what I read the financials to be, maybe $6 million? Like the gamble there. If healthy, like his potential as a mid to back end rotation guy.

Looks like a whopper of a trade is about to go down between San Diego and Tampa Bay and a potential 3rd team, which one rumor has identifying as possibly being Seattle. Key name in the deal is Wil Myers.

Huh, I hadn't seen that Seattle was linked in with Wil Myers. That's kind of intriguing. Myers still doesn't really seem like a can't-miss kind of guy to me, but it's certainly better than chasing the Alex Rios' of the world.

A few posts back I was pretty anti-Ian Desmond, but man looking at his stats, he's really impressive. 20/20 player, 75-90 RBIs the last few years, plays great defense. I guess I'd be in as long as they could sign him to a reasonable deal. The type of deal he turned down in DC.

Brian Cashman announces A-Rod is going to be a DH only for them. Three years, $61MM left on that deal. Yowza.

Uh oh.



Also, looking like the speculation on myers to seattle might have been premature. Potential 3rd team likely to be trading with TB, not SD.

weird trade. it makes me wonder why tampa has given up on meyers. is his wrist fucked?

Myers definitely took a step backwards last year but still has tons of potential. Wrist issues I'd think just need time to recover from. Still, is he worth giving up a big time SS prospect for given last years performance? SD better hope so I guess.

Kemp apparently has two arthritic hips, but SD still wants him and is just using the issue to squeeze more money out of the Dodgers.

2 arthritic hips sounds terrible to me. I'd bail.

Royals sign Volquez and Medlen. Volquez scares me, Medlen is a worthy gamble but still a gamble.

TB voted nay to allowing the Rays a new stadium. Rays owner had previously stated if that happened he would sell the team to an owner looking to move the team. Might be for the teams best interests if that happens, given how little support baseball teams in Florida get.

A's continue the fire sale and send Derek Norris to San Diego. Makes you wonder why they bothered signing Billy Butler and giving him 3 years, $30 million?

Yeah, but Oakland got Jesse Hahn back for Norris, which seems like more than enough, plus another prospect. The Padres seem to be intent on making a series of risky/ill-advised moves to try to cobble together an MLB-ready offense. This could (and probably will) all blow up in their face.

And say what you want about Oakland, they've got really, really good pitching locked up for years to come.

I hadnt realized he was in the majors last year. I read he was a good get for Oakland but assumed he was another minor league prospect.

Looks like SD just traded for Justin Upton. This has been a really crazy offseasn made even crazier in some ways by the teams involved.



If the Rockies trade Tulo and the best piece they get back is Syndergaard, they are hopeless. Especially with him coming off a pretty bad year.

SD has a total glut of OFs now. They'll need to turn or platoon Seth Smith, Quentin, Maybin and Venable. I know he had a down year this season, but I really like Venable and think he's under-rated.

They need to put Kemp and his arthritic hips at 1B. Myers in RF, Venable in CF, Upton in LF. Maybin and/or Smith the 4th OF.

They still have too many OF's. Seth Smith is probably who should be traded, since he can't play center like the other 2 can, but apparently SD promised him that he wont be traded. That said, he doesnt have a no trade clause in his contract. It'll be interesting to see how SD handles that given its new management there but same ownership. Do they honor the promise or not?

Edit: forgot about Carlos Quentin. They should dump him to whoever will take him. Offers power which is something.

i think that brian cashman is quietly putting together a solid team. today he tradedprado. what seemed to be the odd man out in the infield fpor nathan eovaldi and garrett jones. they have a kid they are gonna start at 2nd. rob refsnyder... they say he can hit the cover off the ball but hes a natural CF. i think the yankees will be much better than people think.

I can't recall another team that has gone off, as far as adding quality players, like SD have done in this last week. Even when like Miami shipped their core players up to Toronto a couple years ago, that was all done in a single transaction. It'll be interesting to see how this all comes out for them. They were saying on MLB Network this morning that AJ Preller is going to make a lot of mediocre teams' GMs look pretty bad right about now and I have to concur. At least they're trying something in a division with the 3-time WS Champ and the highest spending team in the game.

Casey McGee to the Giants. Seems like a Giants type of player.

remember the name max fried. hes the guy the braves got from sandiego