Aw, damn.

Holy hell! Is that really CC????

Another shocking CC Sabathia weight loss picture … | HardballTalk

Following up on Lathum's update. 6x All-Star, an NL title, an AL division title.
Rest in peace.

Former major league manager Jim Fregosi , 71, dies - ESPN

RIP Jim.

The very first Angel star, really. And picked in their initial expansion draft as a minor leaguer. He was a power hitting middle infielder before they became more common.

He was traded away for one of the best Angels ever (Nolan Ryan), in a trade in which Fregosi was the star, not Ryan (Ryan was just one of several pieces the Mets traded to acquire the All Star Fregosi).

He retired to become the manager of the Angels at Gene Autry's request, and promptly led the team to its first division championship and visit to the playoffs at just 37 years old.

Really, he was very significant to the Angels in history, and his number is retired at Angel Stadium.

He's leaving quite the legacy behind. He'll definitely be missed in Anaheim.

I know he lost a lot of weight a couple offseasons ago. Remember reading that previously, he was eating something like two boxes of Cap'n Crunch for breakfast daily.

It seems like his bigger issue is keeping weight off during the season, probably when he's out on the road. He should probably employ a full time chef/nutritionist to latch on to him.

When I eat cap'n crunch the roof of my mouth is sore. I can't imagine eating 2 boxes.

I grew up a Phillies fan and the 1993 squad was my favorite (and still is my favorite) team of all time....Jim Fregosi was a part of that madness. :)

I guess the season is really here, I'm getting tons of Twitter updates from the Red Sox pitchers and catchers and just re-upped my MLB.TV subscription. Let the good times roll. ;)

/tk

I just got my renewal notice from MLB.TV and spring training broadcast start Feb 26! :banana:

He finished 2nd in '06. Ironically, he probably lost the MVP that year because of a perceived lack of leadership.

Ryan Dempster is going to miss the 2014 season.

Ryan Dempster to sit out 2014 season - CBSSports.com

Word is the Reds are very near to a 6 year $100 million extension for Bailey. Very interesting......

Can't decide if this is a solid move considering Kershaw's deal or a huge risk considering how long Bailey has been an upper level pitcher.

Love that deal, but I wonder what that means for Latos.

Man - I've just never bought into Bailey. Would much rather see that money go to Latos or a bat. I can't imagine Bailey being worth 17 million and lasting six years.

Shitty to hear about Fregosi. The term, right manager for the situation, couldn't be more apropos of him and that 93 team. So now Harry, Whitey, Vukovich, Fregosi are all gone. Daultons got a brain tumor. Bleh.

I think I'd wait on Latos, with his bone chips and now knee. I've never been a huge Bailey guy. But with the price of FA pitching, and him looking to get $11 million in arbitration, I think you go ahead and pull the trigger. Hell, he's only 28. He really has taken a liking to Bryan Price, and it's worked out very well for both.

Thought Ortiz should have won it that year. Still can't figure out how he didn't.

Jeter is a clear cut hall of famer. No questions about it. Should have been playing a different position for about 12 years though.

Not that old vets on minor league deals should be worthy of note, but I thought it might be interesting to some of you that Mark Mulder tore his Achilles in one of his first training sessions with the Angels and is out for the year. Comeback is over before it starts.

It's not every day you unexpectedly get a $13.25 million 6th-starter off the books. Though there's not really any impact you can make as a result at this point.

I guess you could go sign Stephen Drew, but I'm still hoping they don't do that.

Gotta give some credit to Dempster for voluntarily walking away from $13m+. Best of luck to him and his daughter going forward.

Btw, we're officially running out of ways to portray playoff odds before the season starts - Playoff Odds as Distance from Rome circa 200 AD | NotGraphs Baseball

Thought this was a pretty cool Spring Training story.

Mets Get Creative to Get Jerseys Right for d'Arnaud, den Dekker and deGrom - WSJ.com

Homer Bailey of Cincinnati Reds agrees on six-year contract - ESPN

its final, big money for Bailey

Man, that Bailey deal is going to set a new level of expectation for younger guys that are solid pitchers but have maybe had one good year. I guess you hope that 2013 was his jumping off point and that he will continue to improve on that. Previously he hadn't put together numbers that would suggest he was worth more than about 10m a year.

Well, When guys like Ricky Nolasco start getting 50m dollar deals it leaves this scenario all the more likely. MLB owners must be bringing in more revenue lately and can afford this market value increase.

I also think Bailey has turned the corner and will be a very solid pitcher going forward.

At that price he has to be better than "very solid"

This deal scares me. A lot of money for a pitcher that could still go either way.

Andrelton Simmons gets 7 years.... I thought he was a rookie last year? I also thought he couldnt hit? 58 M for a glove only SS seems silly to me.

Andrelton Simmons latest member of Atlanta Braves to get extension - ESPN

The market price for players has gone up. I am not so sure about this.

It is a matter of perspective. 10 years ago we would have thought a pitcher getting 4 years/50 million needed to be better than "very solid" and now it is the going rate for pitchers like Nolasco and Edwin Jackson.

Well Peralta just got 4 years and 53 million on the downside of his career coming off suspension. Simmons is a sabermetric dream on the defensive side.

The per year isn't that bad, AJ Burnett just got basically the same amount. Its the years that are the scary part of a deal like that IMO. There is no way you can count on a guy staying healthy for that long a stretch.

I wouldn't call him a "glove only" shortstop. He had 17 HRs, 59 RBI at 24 yrs old. Defense is definitely his calling card at this point in his career but the offense could come around. Maybe that's what ATL is banking on.

Report: The Phillies Ratted Out Two Draft Picks To The NCAA

thoughts?

Phillies should mind their own business and stay out of the business of the NCAA and these kids. I cant believe they would pull this dirty trick as part of negotiations.

The NCAA looks a lot worse than the Phillies here, IMO. But I think the NCAA almost always looks terrible. So here, a college student is not allowed to hire professional help to pursue a post-graduate career opportunity. For the glory of "amateurism" or something. What the Phillies did was pretty cut-throat and scumbaggy too. But they're at least a massive business organization, so you have to understand they'll be operating in their own interests. (Which is kind of why it helps to have an agent to deal with them when you're a college kid). The NCAA doing their nonsense in the name of the amateur purity, which makes it more nauseating to me.

Getting harder and harder to enjoy this organization. From the brainless top to the heartless bottom.

The Phillies did nothing in their own interests here. It would appear to be fully vindictive since there was nothing for them to gain. And they've probably made things more difficult for themselves going forward with non-senior talent.

It gave them leverage in that and future negotiations, and serves as a warning to others not to bring agents to the table. They could have brought that up at some point. "Look, you have an agent now, so you can't go back, because they'll find out about it. We made you a fair offer, what choice do you have?"

This also kind of sounds like some PR spin on behalf of him, or the agent who managed to talk him into signing on. Why did it require the Phillips to "rat" anybody out? Don't agents have to be licensed or registered? Is who they represent classified information? Its a stupid rule that college students aren't allowed to pursue post-graduate employment in this manner, and that they apparently have to have some kind of confidentiality agreement with their agent, but I can't imagine it's difficult info to become aware of.

From what I understand there is an allowable "advisor" which stops short of being an agent, but most amateurs blur that line. No teams complain because there's literally no point to doing so.

It gave them no leverage - the deadline to sign draft picks had already passed. Entirely vindictive.

Leverage doesn't work unless the other side actually thinks you'll go through with the threat. Maybe teams have made this empty threat for years and the players have caught on. Now, maybe more of them will think twice.

What about benefit to the ncaa? What do they get out of this restriction?

I'm not defending the NCAA, they are enforcing their ridiculous rules. Just not letting the Phillies off the hook for starting the whole thing.

Still don't understand what the Phillies gain here - now their draft picks will feel threatened to sign for cheaper, is that your contention?

All I'm saying is the ncaa is a huge pile of flaming horse shit whereas the Phillies are more like a pile of horse shit that isn't on fire. The ncaa (and the schools) exploits people more and impact more lives than the Phillies do

Yes, and they want to counteract the advantage a kid gets with an agent by emphasizing that once thay happens, they have all the leverage. They either want that leverage, or to be able to negotiate with a less savy college kid and his family. It's scummy, but I think I get it.

From reading more about this it seems that in the past the NCAA has usually let the kid play. Lets hope this is the case.

Sure, I would guess that could be a possibilty, but to me it is much more likely that the below is true (from the BA guy who first reported the story):

One agent: "As of today, Phillies are out. Phillies are not getting into any more of our households. We're shutting down all communications"

— Aaron Fitt (@aaronfitt) February 20, 2014

Not surprised. Enough of them powerful agents team up and they will provide a lot of headaches for Phillies on this.

And the agents are mad because the Phillies move risks business for them and makes them look bad for not emphasizing the risks to kids before they get them to sign on. Everybody's in this for themselves.

I still don't understand what the Phillies are in this for, but whatever

edit: your assertions about hard-balling these kids, to me, that dog won't hunt