2014 MLB Thread
 

Pitchers and catchers already reporting for Diamondbacks and Dodgers as they have the opening March 22/23 game in Sydney.

I think it's time to start up a regular season thread and stop thinking about snow.

I'll be in Arizona for my first Spring Training the last week of February :D

SI

I always think I'll have like a month or so after the Super Bowl to get in gear on my fantasy research, but really, it's about time to start right now.

Ah the best part of the sports year will be starting soon enough. I'd love to see some spring training games this year.

Can't. Wait. Anymore...

Need. Baseball....

dola

Anyone have any predictions they want to share? I'll go.

ALE -Tampa Bay
ALC -Detroit
ALW - Oakland
ALWC - New York, Texas

NLE - Washington
NLC - St. Louis
NLW - Los Angeles
NLWC - Atlanta, Arizona

My exciment is dampened a bit by Matt Harvey need TJ surgery. Would have been great to see HArvey and Wheeler at the top of the rotation. Still, the Mets brought in some guys that can help win games, but I think they are a few years away still from competing.

Excited to see another long-time Royal helping out. Having Brett and Sweeney in camp should be great for some of these hitters.....

Mike Sweeney joins Kansas City Royals' front office | royals.com: News

Roy Oswalt is calling it a career.

Roy Oswalt decides to retire - ESPN

It had been two years since he could retire anyone else effectively. May as well retire himself.

Dayton Moore getting slammed about on the airwaves today. He decided to make a statement alluding that the Royals are at break-even at their current payroll level. Not sure if it was something that management had told him, but no one is buying it.

Nolan Ryan has returned to the Astros as a special assistant to the owner.

Ultimate Astros » Nolan Ryan to return to Astros as special assistant to Jim Crane

Fucking idiot Rangers.

I don't think New York has the pitching to be a wild card team. I especially don't think the Sox are going to finish 3rd or worse.

I don't think Arizona is run well enough to be a playoff team in the NL. I'd guess San Francisco or Pittsburgh gets that wild card spot ahead of Arizona.

A.J. Burnett agrees to deal with Philadelphia Phillies - ESPN



not sure this is offseason or not... but wow. why would a team that bad waste the money?

Congrats to the pirates front office for fucking that up

Because Cole Hamels is going to miss the opener....Phillies are going to be bad, I think Amaro has to go, and blow this sucker up ala the Sixers.

Cardinals return to the World Series.. I think so! :)

My predictions are:

Wash
StL
LA
SF/Atl

TB
Det
Oak
Bos/Tex

I'm really not looking forward to this season. I think the Reds window has closed, but they'll likely be competitive enough to keep them from getting a good return on their free agents to be. With the loss of Choo, this team is clearly worse offensively than last year, and last year wasn't good enough. The pitching is really good, but probably not enough to get them over 90 wins. It will take very surprising years from two of Hamilton, Ludwick, Frazier and Mesoraco to allow them to be dangerous in the playoffs.

I don't blame Walt for getting the team to this point as I think he did a great job of building a winner, things just didn't work out in the short series. I do hold him responsible for the awful state of the bench (no average, no power, no glove, no speed, no youth, all for too much money), but otherwise he's done a very good job.

I wish, though, he was bold enough to be more like Tampa or Oakland. I wish he would have explored trading Bailey and Chapman this offseason. Bailey could have been replaced by resigning Arroyo and Chapman could be replaced by Hoover, Marshall or Broxton. The quality would drop some, but those two pitchers could bring back really good prospect/young player hauls. If done right the team could be as good or better this year and much better in 2015 and beyond.

Instead, though, the Reds will likely be a few games out all season. They won't be in a position to add to the team due to payroll and they'll be close enough that they can't trade away any parts either. They may get a Wild Card, but they won't seriously compete with the Cards, Braves or Dodgers.

Blah.

Jeter to retire after the season.

Cecil Hurt ‏@CecilHurt

The official date for some bonehead to leave Derek Jeter off their Hall of Fame ballot has been set for 2019.

Amusing that the Yankees apparently wrap up the season at Fenway. So his last game will be at Fenway unless he sits for the final series. Good times.

Saw a story about how within minutes the minimum price for a ticket at Fenway for that series on the secondary market shot from $20 to $250 and average is now over $1000

SI

Saw the same thing about his last home game.

But sweet, another season long farewell tour.

And there's decent odds that he'll be injured by the end of the season.

I was trying to remember when exactly this became a thing.

Granted I'm a Mets fan but I've always been pro-Jeter...couldn't escape the coverage of his pending retirement when I was at the gym yesterday and wanted to slice my throat. It's enough, Jesus.

The first one I remember is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I think Julius Erving had one too, but Abdul-Jabbar actually had a ceremony and got some kind of present at every "final game" in each road arena.

I almost always listen to sports radio, and I am actively avoiding it today for that reason.

I don't care who you root for, you have to respect Jeter , but the farewell tour is going to get old fast.

I like the, Jeter: Best SS ever? talk.

most over rated player ever. he was very good... but if hes not a yankee hes marginal for the HOF. his career highlight for me was winning a gold glove, while being the worst fielding SS in the majors. thats jeter in a shell.

I think this is pretty harsh and he is far from a marginal HOFer.

If Jeter manages 120 hits he'll finish #6 all time. If he somehow gets 199 hits, he'll finish #5. I know, longevity stats, blah blah, but still historically signficant and impressive. (And you have to go all the way down to Rod Carew at #23 to find someone that got his hits in fewer total season that Jeter will have had).

Agreed.

Mentioning this here since he's been a part of quite a few teams for an awful lot of years.

Fregosi hospitalized after suffering stroke | www.ajc.com

I hate the Yankees. But...

...I don't agree that he's a marginal HOFer. I do believe that he's overrated in large part because he plays for the Yankees. His Gold Glove was one of the biggest jokes in all of sports award history because he's only an ok fielder with an abysmal range. He also benefitted from being overrated when it came to the MVP awards. Just look at 2009 - Jeter slugs .871 and posts a 6.6 win share and finishes 3rd in the voting. Evan Longoria slugs .889 with a 7.1 win share and finishes 19th. Other years where he was close for the MVP were similar. His reputation has always been bigger than his game, but that comes in large part from playing in NY.

With all that said, Jeter was a very good and durable hitter for a very long time. Even in the 'roid, juiced baseballs and small stadium era, maintaining a .312 BA over 19 seasons is remarkable. Plus the guy was never a distraction, never a problem and you have to give him major points for professionalism. I don't know if he juiced or not, but then again I don't care either. He was good enough, long enough to be worthy of the HOF without question.

To look at it slightly differently, he and Roberto Alomar have similar stats in terms of hitting (OPS, OPS+, batting average, slugging). Alomar was the better fielder without question. But Jeter didn't spit in anyone's face and had that streak of excellence for much longer to the tune of 700 more hits and 400 more runs. If Alomar was a sure thing for the HOF, so it Jeter.

By the end?

Jeter's a great player, but I don't want to spend a year hearing about the intangibles and desire to win of a player who has actively hurt his team by refusing to move to 3B for about a decade now and has more or less extorted well above market deals (although those don't matter as much in a league without a salary cap).

Yeah - I'm tired of it already.

He and Berkman are going to sign one-day contracts so that they can retire as Astros, and will be honored before their April 5th game.

Astros to honor Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt prior to contest with Angels on April 5 | MLB.com: News

I would read the fine print. Houston might try and get a season out of them to sell some actual tickets and win some actual games.

Note to self: get tickets to game

SI

Derek Jeter has never in his life slugged .871. Barry Bonds' best slugging year was an .863.

You're talking about OPS, not slugging, right?

Yeah

Single game tickets not on sale yet but I'd be good with getting together with our local Houston folks for the game. However, I think tickets are going to be a tough get and if they go on sale while I'm in Arizona, that's a problem.

SI

The thing that strikes me about Jeter is that he never finished higher than 3rd in MVP balloting.

I couldn't have told you that until looking it up today.

I felt like he got robbed in 09 but I probably thought it looked bad, in retrospect, cause of that one Rollins year. Morneau was probably the right choice but from a narrative stance it was the year Jeter could have won.

This discussion is silly due to the fact that Honus Wagner has played the game.

Cal Ripkin, Jr. is a better SS than Jeter as well.

Exactly, but NY radio has had hours of that discussion.

Gator Fans

SI

I also am tired of hearing how Jeter made a diving catch in the stands against the Red Sox a bunch of years back. No he didn't. He made a great play getting to a ball that likely would have landed fair, caught it fully standing up, and his momentum took him over a 3 ft high wall and into the crowd.

All great. But it wasn't a diving catch.

died this morning.

RIP