rjortiz

I can't wait to see the look on that prick Barry Bonds' face when Chris Heisey and Luis Valbuena get close to 71 home runs. I'm also pumped about the possibility of Marwin Gonzalez and Logan Schafer's challening The Splendid Splinter's batting average record. Schafer only hit .379, but with a little luck, I'm sure he's going to build on it!

I wouldn't go that far.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/an-early-look-at-the-price-of-a-win-this-off-season/

You are nuts. He was the actual MVP two years running. 10, 10.4 WAR at age 21 and 22. The cost per win is up to around $7 million, so you're looking at a player who was worth $140 million in value making $500 K in those two years. ZIPS has him at a projected 8.9 WAR in 2014, so that's another $63 million in value. He's a huge asset. You are right about the arbitration. If he got $60 million, he'd set records in each year of arbitration. Good player to break the record with.

What's the point in keeping a young player on the bench? He'll get everyday AB's at Pawtucket.

Msbulldogs21 claimed that he was a huge asset. Don't get me wrong, I think he's good insurance for Napoli, but I don't think the Red Sox would get enough of a return to make a move. Maybe he improves his defense to average at 1B, and shows the power he did in the minors.

2-2.5 WAR as an everyday starter?

I can think the Marlins, Brewers, Pirates, Phillies, and Rockies as places he would be an upgrade.

He's rates as a bad defender at both positions, he had a BABIP of .385, and had a 27.6 K%. I don't see anything that valuable here. He's probably worth more as a backup for the Red Sox.

Probably looking at a $31.5 million AAV for the free agent years. I can't believe that this is actually a bargain. How high can it go?

Yankees passed on a similar deal for Robinson Cano. No one was going to a 33 year old 1B a potential 10/308 contract. This might go down as the worst contract in MLB history, especially if he's able to trigger one of those vesting options.

The Dodgers and Yankees (and the Red Sox) are able to tie up a lot of loot to many different players. The dichotomy between spend big or go young is only relevant to small market teams. Big market teams can choose either one, or both at the same time if they want.

Dave Cameron pointed out that the Tigers owner is 84, and that we should really evaluate the deal as the Tigers signing Cabrera through Ilitch's age-93 season. It's a horrible deal, but I don't think Ilitch is too worried about Cabrera 10 years from now.

The exact same reason why Scherzer was not applicable to Verlander, Hernandez, and Kershaw. Rodriguez was a free agent. Trout will most likely sign with some arbitration years left on his contract. There's a price that young players are paying to avoid risk multiple years from free agency, and it will bring Trout's bottom line down.

Absolutely agree with this. How many of these young stars have actually reached free agency? He'll get a huge deal, but not $400 million.

The Phillies got around the same total as comparable teams, which suggests the bubble is peaking. There has to be some uncertainty with the Astros being blacked out in 60% of Houston because of a carriage fee dispute. Forbes claimed that CSN Houston hasn't even been able to deliver full payment for the first year of the contract. The Dodgers are still involved in a dispute, and the Padres just settled theirs. Many analysts have predicted that the bubble will finally pop when consumers refuse to pay higher cable bills. Without those customers, they'll have a hard time avoiding losses on those mega contracts. Other regional sports networks will follow in an inability to pay the terms of their contracts, and some teams that took an equity stake into those networks are going to face huge losses. The teams that haven't signed TV contracts yet will get substantially lower deals than originally expected. I'll bet a new TV contract was at least a partial factor behind some huge contracts. It actually seems the Red Sox have avoided getting involved in this bubble. No ridiculous contracts so far. Kudos to them if they have recognized the bubble. However, there doesn't seem to be a great track record of businesses recognizing a bubble, and adapting their strategies. Most likely there will be some teams that will continue to throw huge money around, while hoping they've finally found the bubble that never pops. Haha, I'll bet we'll be forced to bailout MLB, sports networks, and satellite providers as "Too Big to Fail." Forgot to add the possibility of a la carte television, whether it comes from DirectTV or by legislation. If that happens, then it will be a total disaster for MLB.

The Tigers need to take some lessons from the Pirates. Quietly inked Marte to a ridiculously team friendly deal.

Detroit is banking on getting a massive TV contract like other MLB teams. They better hope that the bubble is still inflated when they negotiate their next contract. I know the Astros and Padres aren't huge draws, but the fact that cable and satellite providers balked at paying the fee to carry their games is pretty alarming.

The Lakers, Knicks, and Heat would each sign one of them when they reached free agency. There's no way the Thunder could make a competitive offer to match what the big markets could make.

Huge overstatement. Cano is a six win 2B, whereas Johnson hasn't exceeded 1.5 WAR. Hard to shake an antiquated mindset. Idiots like Rob Dibble, Tom Seaver, and Nolan Ryan seem to forget their fellow pitchers who flamed out at early ages from high pitch counts.

That could suggest good bullpen management, but I think that a skewed pythag record is based on luck. The Orioles winning a huge majority of their one run games comes to mind.

I was not aware of that. Seabeachfred mentioned a mandate, but did not say whose decision it was.

Should have mentioned that I meant just Crawford and Gonzalez. Crawford was a solid regular with a 2.9 WAR last year, although a lot of that was because of his defense and baserunning. It would be interesting to see if that has returned.

You are putting value on statistics accrued in March.

That is why I am making a prediction. I'm basing my prediction of Brentz on the fact that players with high K% and low BB% in the minor leagues do not translate very well to MLB. He wasn't even that great in AAA last year. A .312 OBP is below average at the MLB level, and he put that up in AAA ball. Maybe he'd be passable if he had other skills to bring to the table, but the scouting reports suggest otherwise. A .750 OPS (which I think is too optimistic for Brentz) RF with no baserunning skills, and below average defense is a worthless player. I think he would need two injuries to get the call. As for Bradley, you should know better than to just look at batting average as an indicator for value. He strikes out far less, gets on base much more often, and he plays quality defense at a harder position. He's the better prospect, and much higher in the pecking order.