Looks like the Tigers may have honed in on Rajai Davis to play left field, seems finally the philosophy is changing here in Detroit and we may start seeing more stolen bases and a National league style of small ball play as the Tigers have certainly added speed and defense to the lineup in order to compensate for a fat man that couldn't hit bombs.
Quote:
Sportsnet.ca's Ben Nicholson-Smith reports that the Tigers are the frontrunners for Rajai Davis.
He's also saying that Davis is expected to sign quickly, so it appears he might be Detroit-bound soon. The Twins are reportedly willing to offer Davis a multi-year contract, but it apparently might not measure up to the Tigers' offer. Davis batted .260/.312/.375 with six homers and 45 stolen bases in 2013.
Source: Ben Nicholson-Smith on Twitter
Dec 10 - 12:18 AM
Looks like a deal may come down today
Quote:
FOX Sports' Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Tigers are "close" to signing free agent outfielder Rajai Davis to a two-year contract.
Sportsnet.ca's Ben Nicholson-Smith reported late Monday that the Tigers were the frontrunner for Davis, who was expected to sign quickly. The 33-year-old batted .260/.312/.375 with six homers and 45 stolen bases in 2013 and would likely split playing time with Andy Dirks in left field. Adding Davis likely takes the Tigers out of the mix for Shin-Soo Choo.
Source: Jon Paul Morosi on Twitter
Dec 10 - 8:50 AM
Deal is done
Tigers Aquire Rajai Davis
Quote:
Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports that the Tigers have agreed to a two-year deal with Rajai Davis.
Source: Sportsnet.ca
MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball have agreed to a new posting system for Japanese players that will significantly reduce the amounts teams pay Japanese teams for their players:
Quote:
As for the details, it's likely as expected: The NPB team posting a free agent will reportedly be able to name a posting fee up to $20 million. At that point, all interested teams will agree to the posting fee, and the free agent in question will then be allowed to negotiate with the teams that have consented to the specific fee. However, only the team that signs the free agent will owe the posting fee to the player's former NBP club.
This new system is a win for MLB, as the old format permitted posting fees much higher than $20 million -- Yu Darvish's $51.7-million tab and Daisuke Matsuzaka's $52.1-million fee, for notable instance.
25-year-old pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who was 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA last season in Japan, was expected to get a posting fee in the $75 million range. There's conflicting reports on if Tanaka's current team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, will agree to let him leave for MLB under the new posting system. Tanaka is expected to get a deal somewhere in the 6-year, $100 million range if he's free to leave.
Great blog from Keith Law today about Roy Halladay and his HOF case.
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Roy Halladay's retirement brought about the usual postcareer canonization we hear when any very good player hangs them up -- He's a surefire Hall of Famer! He's a lock! If he's not a Hall of Famer, just tear the place down!
There's a five-year waiting period between a player's retirement and his first year on the ballot, a lag I always assumed was there to help escape the emotional response to the end of a great player's career and add the perspective that distance can provide. Halladay may very well get into the Hall of Fame, and I'd certainly be thrilled to see him get in as a fan and as someone who got to see several of his best years up close when I was working for Toronto, but I don't think his case, examined objectively, is quite so clear-cut.
In fact, Hall voters have summarily rejected a number of pitchers comparable to Halladay, which is why I think Halladay could turn out to be a very interesting test case for the modern era.
Halladay's HOF résumé
Halladay's case for the Hall revolved around his high, lengthy peak, as he won two Cy Young Awards, deserving both of them, and having a solid case for a third in 2011, while ranking in the top five in his league in Baseball Reference's WAR eight times, all in a 10-year span. There were multiple points where you could have argued he was the best pitcher in his league or in the game as a whole. That said, he qualified for the ERA title just eight times and finished his career with 2,749 1/3 innings, which by the standards of the Hall is a low figure for a full-time starting pitcher.
Among post-World War II starters already in the Hall, only Sandy Koufax -- whose Hall of Fame case was built as much on narrative and geography than on his work on the field -- has fewer innings pitched than Halladay does. Koufax threw just 2,324 innings, the second-fewest of any Hall of Fame starter in the modern era, and had just six seasons where his performance was above-average, two of which rank among the greatest seasons by any pitcher in major league history. He's an exception, not a rule, and probably never would have sniffed Cooperstown if he'd had the same career while toiling for the Orioles.
Looking just at the most recent era, Halladay stands below a number of his contemporaries -- clearly below Greg Maddux (almost 40 WAR) and Randy Johnson (almost 40 WAR), but also below Mike Mussina (by 17 WAR) and Curt Schilling (by 15 WAR), neither of whom is himself a lock to make the Hall. Pedro Martinez threw just 78 more innings than Halladay did but racked up more than 20 more WAR, and did much of his best work, as Doc did, in the tough American League East. Enshrining Halladay in Cooperstown implies that all of the above must go in as well.
And that group is just the tip of the iceberg. A whole host of other excellent pitchers have a case very similar to Halladay's but haven't come close to the Hall.
Kevin Brown: Brown produced 3.1 more WAR in about 500 more innings than Halladay but fell off the ballot in his first year, 2011, with just 2.1 percent of the vote. Brown was the best pitcher in the National League twice, including a remarkable season in 1996 that NL Cy voters ignored because John Smoltz had more of those extra-pretty pitcher wins.
In fact, Brown ranked in the top three in the NL in pitcher WAR for five straight seasons, leading the league in ERA in the last of those, the 2000 season. He had a longer career and was just as good as Halladay during his peak seasons, but he wasn't good with the media, wasn't well-liked by teammates and had the temerity to earn what was at the time the largest free-agent contract given to a pitcher. If Halladay's a Hall of Famer, Brown probably should be, too.
David Cone: He produced 3.8 fewer WAR in about 150 more innings than Halladay, so he's clearly a tick below Doc but close enough that it's a fine distinction to say one is clearly over the line while saying the other is clearly below it. He won the Cy Young in 1994, leading the AL in WAR that year and finishing second in WAR in 1995 and 1988 (the latter in the NL).
He also has four World Series rings, for voters who care about that stuff. He even threw a perfect game, as Doc did. And yet Cone fell off the ballot in just one year as well, taking 3.9 percent of the vote in 2009.
Bret Saberhagen: He doesn't really pass the eye test for the Hall; as good as he was in spurts, he was also hurt all the time and finished his career with just 2,562 innings pitched, 187 fewer than Halladay threw, but was also 6.2 WAR behind Halladay -- essentially one borderline Cy Young season of difference.
Saberhagen won the Cy Young Award twice, in 1985 and 1989, and got a ring with the Royals in the first of those seasons. He was second in the NL in WAR in 1994 and lost probably eight to 10 starts because of the strike. Again, I don't think Saberhagen is a Hall of Famer, but his résumé is quite similar to Halladay's in value, bulk and shiny baubles, yet he fell off the ballot after one year, getting just 1.3 percent of the vote in 2007.
Kevin Appier: I don't think anyone would argue that Appier is a Hall of Famer -- I'm not -- but in 2,595 innings, about 150 fewer than Halladay threw, Appier was worth 55 WAR. You can argue that Halladay is a Hall of Famer and Appier isn't, given the space between the two, but if Halladay is a lock or a slam dunk or any other idiom for an easy Hall of Famer, then why did Appier fall off the ballot after one year with just 0.2 percent of the vote? (For what it's worth, Appier racked up more WAR than Koufax. Appier was kind of underrated while he was active and might be even more so now that he's retired.)
John Smoltz: He won't hit the ballot until next year, and I think he'll get in if the ballot backlog permits it (deservingly), but I'm not sure whether his case helps Halladay. In seasons when he worked as a starter, Smoltz threw 3,183 innings and racked up 59.1 WAR, including the minus-0.5 WAR he generated in his final year with Boston and St. Louis.
On top of that, he worked in the pen for four years, adding another 7.5 WAR. He won a Cy Young and a ring, had a strong postseason résumé (a 2.67 ERA in 209 innings), and was even worth another 3 WAR as a hitter. Halladay had a better run strictly as a starter, but didn't have the added value of Smoltz's years in relief.
Again, this isn't an argument that Halladay isn't a Hall of Famer, or that he shouldn't be one, or that I don't want him to be one. If he makes it, I might visit Cooperstown for the first time in 30 years just to watch his induction. This is just an objective examination of his case, compared to other cases that the voters have previously rejected, as well as some upcoming test cases that may also have bearing on Halladay's candidacy.
Hall of Fame vote results are neither logical nor rational -- this is part of why so many fans, myself included, put little or no credence in enshrinement as a measure of anything -- so Halladay could sail in on the first ballot even though Brown was told not to let the door hit him on the way out. But if we are just looking at the electorate's history, Halladay likely won't have an easy go of it.
In response to my tweets about Halladay's workload, D-backs pitcher Brandon McCarthy tweeted that Doc will be sort of a test case -- the model of what makes a Hall of Fame starter may be due for an adjustment that reflects lower seasonal workloads and shorter careers. Perhaps that's necessary in an era of five-man rotations, pitch counts and innings caps. If that's the case, Halladay is a fine candidate to usher in such a paradigm shift, but that shift hasn't taken place yet and probably won't until his turn on the ballot.
Posting fees that much are retarded lol, if the guys contract is up its up if hes good MLB can woo them.
His contract isn't up yet. I believe he has 2 years left. Obviously the team wants to get something for him because he's going to sign w/ a MLB once his contract is up. Thing is his team doesn't need to post him this year. They can post him next year. I hope they post him because we could use him this year.
His contract isn't up yet. I believe he has 2 years left. Obviously the team wants to get something for him because he's going to sign w/ a MLB once his contract is up. Thing is his team doesn't need to post him this year. They can post him next year. I hope they post him because we could use him this year.
Theres no guarantee you even get him, as I said before the Yankees have an unfair market advantage in MLB due to the way they do things. That yes Network pays for any salaries before a pitch is even thrown. MLB dont need a luxury tax they need a hard cap and floor to even out the competition as some of these salaries are just stupid. Fielder, JV, King Felix, Pujols, Cano, Arod soon to be Miggy and Scherzer are the ones that come to mind. If MLB did like NHL and NFL then the league would be so much better for it.
Perfect example of doing what you want is the CC contract years ago, 15 million nope dont wanna play for NY, 16, nope, 17, nope, 18, nope 22 sure what the hell I love NYC, and for some odd reason the fans loved him for it... WTF!?!
Theres no guarantee you even get him, as I said before the Yankees have an unfair market advantage in MLB due to the way they do things. That yes Network pays for any salaries before a pitch is even thrown. MLB dont need a luxury tax they need a hard cap and floor to even out the competition as some of these salaries are just stupid. Fielder, JV, King Felix, Pujols, Cano, Arod soon to be Miggy and Scherzer are the ones that come to mind. If MLB did like NHL and NFL then the league would be so much better for it.
Perfect example of doing what you want is the CC contract years ago, 15 million nope dont wanna play for NY, 16, nope, 17, nope, 18, nope 22 sure what the hell I love NYC, and for some odd reason the fans loved him for it... WTF!?!
Funny how you say we have an unfair advantage when 4 of the players you named are Tigers (Prince is now an ex-Tiger). Plus we don't even have the highest payroll. Baseball doesn't have a hard cap and will never have one. The league is just fine w/out it. I agree on the floor. I'm looking at you Marlins.
Last edited by walruswarrior; 12-10-2013 at 04:14 PM.
Funny how you say we have an unfair advantage when 4 of the players you named are Tigers. Plus we don't even have the highest payroll. Baseball doesn't have a hard cap and will never have one. The league is just fine w/out it. I agree on the floor. I'm looking at you Marlins.
Funny how you say we have an unfair advantage when 4 of the players you named are Tigers (Prince is now an ex-Tiger). Plus we don't even have the highest payroll. Baseball doesn't have a hard cap and will never have one. The league is just fine w/out it. I agree on the floor. I'm looking at you Marlins.
The Tigers just recently upped there payroll, look at the contracts the yankees handed out between 2000-2010. that 10 year period where you guys went crazy Wells, Justice, Clemens, Arod, Jeter, CC. Whatever Steinbrenner wanted he went out and bought, there were times when you guys had payrolls that easily topped 200 million, and that was because of your market. The Red Wings did the same thing here 97-2005 so trust me I know how great it can be. It just sucks for the rest of the league. The heat did it a few years ago, Dodgers are doing it now. For the betterment of the league 85-120 million should be the salary floor/cap range, every team makes money, and ticket prices might actually not be so damn ridiculous.
and before you ask I didnt agree with the Prince contract when he signed it and im happy as hell they were able to unload it. Dont believe Miggy is worth the 220+ hes gonna get next year, the 185+ Scherzer is gonna command. I dont believe any of these athletes are worth this ridiculous amount of money they are making.
I would be willing to move Gardner in a deal for Hamels.
No thanks. That's too pricey of a contract for a pitcher who has never pitched in the AL (120 something million left). I'd rather take Cliff Lee due to his cheaper contract 2yrs about 60 million left) and he has a track record in the AL
The Tigers just recently upped there payroll, look at the contracts the yankees handed out between 2000-2010. that 10 year period where you guys went crazy Wells, Justice, Clemens, Arod, Jeter, CC. Whatever Steinbrenner wanted he went out and bought, there were times when you guys had payrolls that easily topped 200 million, and that was because of your market. The Red Wings did the same thing here 97-2005 so trust me I know how great it can be. It just sucks for the rest of the league. The heat did it a few years ago, Dodgers are doing it now. For the betterment of the league 85-120 million should be the salary floor/cap range, every team makes money, and ticket prices might actually not be so damn ridiculous.
and before you ask I didnt agree with the Prince contract when he signed it and im happy as hell they were able to unload it. Dont believe Miggy is worth the 220+ hes gonna get next year, the 185+ Scherzer is gonna command. I dont believe any of these athletes are worth this ridiculous amount of money they are making.
Like it has been stated before, there will never be a salary cap in MLB. The players union won't allow it (and the MLB players union is the strongest of all the major sports unions).
Like it has been stated before, there will never be a salary cap in MLB. The players union won't allow it (and the MLB players union is the strongest of all the major sports unions).
The owners would never agree to a salary cap either. I don't know how many owners would have to agree to a cap but I would think it would be at minimum it would be a majority, so 16 owners would have to agree to it. That would never happen. The teams that traditionally spend big wouldn't want a cap so probably the Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Phillies, Red Sox, Tigers, Rangers, Giants, and Nationals would vote against a cap. The teams that don't spend much wouldn't want a cap either because if you implement a cap you're going to implement a salary floor, and teams like the Marlins, Astros, Rays, A's, Padres, Royals, Twins, and Rockies would vote against anything that forces them to actually spend money.
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