2025 Major League Baseball Thread

[Navster]

Originally Posted by sycro

Braves traded Evan Gattis to Astros. Guess I can skip MLBtv this year.

Why'd they do that?

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Navster

Why'd they do that?

Don't try to rationalize what the Braves front office is doing of late. We have morons making these deals.

[sycro]

Originally Posted by Navster

Why'd they do that?

Rebuilding for 2017 and the new stadium. Picked up 3 top prospects.

[Navster]

Originally Posted by sycro

Rebuilding for 2017 and the new stadium. Picked up 3 top prospects.

Who may or may not pan out, why would you trade one of your best players, Braves front office

[sycro]

Originally Posted by Navster

Who may or may not pan out, why would you trade one of your best players, Braves front office

I understood if the early reports of it being a Gattis/BJ trade were true. But not just Gattis.

[sycro]

Apparently deal isn't done, and its possible he ends up with Rangers instead.

[ChadFL]

Hah, charging your players to attend offseason drills. This does sounds like something the Mets would pull.

http://deadspin.com/are-the-mets-cha...rko-1679731273

The Mets are currently holding offseason workouts in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and based on some chatter coming from reporters who are at the camp and local beat writers, the Mets are running some *ullshit.

Things got started when ESPN's Adam Rubin sent out the following tweet:

Lucas Duda, Dilson Herrera agility drills in Port St. Lucie, via @JonSantucci: pic.twitter.com/fmf7KIVWk4

— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) January 15, 2015


Someone then asked him if he could confirm a rumor that players attending this camp had to pay for it out of their own pockets:


Think an agent told me they asked $1,000 from minor leaguers.RT @SaltyGary: is it true players are paying for this out of their own pockets?

— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) January 15, 2015


They're pushing envelope of what's permissible in terms of sponsored offseason workouts. Almost seems like there's penalty for not attending

— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) January 15, 2015


That's when Jon Santucci, a sportswriter who is actually at the camp, chimed in:


@SaltyGary @AdamRubinESPN that's what Mike Barwis said today.

— Jon Santucci (@JonSantucci) January 15, 2015

Mike Barwis is a strength and conditioning specialist who has his own reality show on the Discovery Channel—it's called American Muscle, because of course it is—who was hired by the Mets to run offseason workouts like these.

The Mets aren't allowed to make attendance at "voluntary" workouts mandatory, but young guys in the minors who are trying to scratch their way onto the roster don't really have a choice when it comes to attending. The fact that they are also apparently being asked to pay their own way is *ullshit, and also a very Mets thing for the Mets to do.

[sycro]

Tigers avoided arbitration with David Price with a 1-year, $19.75 million deal.

[burner xxx]

Verlander sure ****ed us for starting pitchers.

I'd like Scherzer but not at his $200m asking

[sycro]

Due to reconstruction, the left field bleachers at Wrigley will be closed until May 11, and the right field bleachers will be closed until late May. While center field is not being worked on, it will not be opened until the left field bleachers are open.

It'll be weird seeing games with nobody in the outfield. At least outside of Miami (and possibly Atlanta this year).

[R3P0]

Nationals Overpay for Scherzer

Report: Nats, Scherzer agree to 7-yr deal

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports that the Nationals and free agent right-
hander Max Scherzer have agreed to a seven-year contract.
FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal hears that the deal will be worth more than $180 million. The contract will run through his age-36 season in 2021. The Nationals' rotation was already plenty scary, but the addition of Scherzer makes Tanner Roark (who had a 2.85 ERA and 15 wins last year) the team's sixth starter. Not bad. Not bad at all. Of course, that might not last long, as the Nationals are now expected to move Jordan Zimmermann or another starting pitcher.

Source: Jon Heyman on Twitter
Jan 19 - 12:04 AM

[fatediesel]

Originally Posted by R3P0

Nationals Overpay for Scherzer

Interesting structure for the deal. It's reportedly worth $210 million, but with significant deferred money, with Scherzer receiving $15 million per year for 14 years.

[ChadFL]

How... how does this happen? MLB put a guy in charge of it's Finance Committee who can't manage finances.

http://deadspin.com/mets-owner-to-ru...tee-1680598336

Mets Owner To Run MLB's Finance Committee

Incoming commissioner Rob Manfred has begun swinging the ax, installing his preferred owners in positions of power and shunting Bud Selig's confidants to the side. But one of those Selig allies, Mets owner and CEO Fred Wilpon, isn't just being put out to pasture: he's been appointed chairman of MLB's finance committee. This is maybe a little troubling, because Fred Wilpon is very bad with money.

Wilpon, you'll remember, lost as much as $700 million investing in Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme (not the first one he fell for). It would be one thing if it were just his own money, but Madoff was closely involved in the Mets' finances; Wilpon's favorite trick was to offer contracts with deferred money, and investing that money with Madoff's firm. "Bernie was part of the business plan for the Mets," one former employee told the New York Times.

Madoff money went to cover the Mets' payroll, to support the single-A Brooklyn Cyclones, to construct Citi Field and to launch a regional sports network. And when it disappeared, Wilpon and co-owner Saul Katz found themselves desperate. They took out a reported $450 million in loans (including about $65 million in emergency bailout money using a line of credit from MLB), using the SportsNet channel as collateral. They publicly announced he was willing to sell minority shares in the team to inject much-needed cash into the operation. They settled a lawsuit brought by Madoff victims for $162 million. They still carry hundreds of millions of debt.

[Samus Aran]

R.I.P. Ernie Banks.

[sycro]

[sycro]

Don't want to speculate, but sounds like there may be some... circumstances... around his death.

The family will be holding a press conference Sunday in downtown Chicago at noon. We are working on the funeral arrangements right now.

He did not die of natural causes. His death was not expected. I'm not at liberty to say anything else right now until the press conference.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by sycro

Don't want to speculate, but sounds like there may be some... circumstances... around his death.

Hmm.. Very strange. I mean Banks was 83. Not a suspicious age for a person to die. I hope he wasn't killed by someone.

[ChadFL]

Former MLB pitched Ted Lilly is an accused insurance fraudster.

http://deadspin.com/ted-lilly-charge...aud-1681568885

Ted Lilly Charged With Felony Insurance Fraud

Ted Lilly earned over $80 million in his baseball career, but that didn't stop him from trying to defraud Progressive Insurance out of $4,600, according to the California Department of Insurance. The Tribune in San Luis Obispo (Ca.) reports that Lilly was charged back in October with three felony counts, and faces five years in jail.

According to the Department of Insurance, the uninsured Lilly got an estimate for damage on his motor home, bought insurance five days later, and then claimed the damage four days after that:

The department's investigation showed Lilly sustained damage in a collision while backing up the vehicle and sought an estimate from a body shop on March 19, [California Department of Insurance spokesperson Nancy] Kincaid said. The estimate was $4,600.

Then Lilly bought insurance from Progressive on March 24 and claimed the damage on March 28, Kincaid said.
According to Kincaid, many body shops enter repair estimates into a database accessible by insurance companies. Lilly was caught in a sting that has netted at least 200 people who bought or enhanced their coverage after an accident occurred.

[Samus Aran]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Hmm.. Very strange. I mean Banks was 83. Not a suspicious age for a person to die. I hope he wasn't killed by someone.

Maybe he took his own life.

[sycro]

Originally Posted by Samus Aran

Maybe he took his own life.

That's more what I was thinking. Of course, it could just be that they didn't word the release very well and they just meant it was "sudden" and unexpected.