Non Phillies 2016-2017 offseason Discussion

julio 2016-12-12 19:26:39 UTC #65

Another qualified free agent opting to return to his former club:

Philsmania 2016-12-13 16:06:54 UTC #66

Twins pitching prospect Yorman Landa, the Twins #20 prospect per MLB.com, died in a car accident in Venezuela last night. He was 22 years old. R.I.P.

julio 2016-12-23 02:31:41 UTC #67

This will have an impact on the 2017 draft order.

julio 2016-12-23 17:56:14 UTC #68

This is interesting:

It seems that we have finally reached the point where salaries are so high that free agents are frequently opting for less money, because they want to play in a particular place, or they don't want to play in a particular place. They're making decisions to accept lesser (still very large) salaries, because other things matter more to them. A good thing, I think.

I have to note that, had this kind of behavior been more common fifteen years ago (and not actively discouraged by the MLBPA at the time), Jim Thome probably would have finished his career in Cleveland.

flyers19rw 2016-12-28 16:47:13 UTC #69

Article by in NY Post by Joel Sherman on contracts that teams might have been better served not to make. For once there are no Phillies deals mentioned. Yeah!
http://nypost.com/2016/12/26/david-wright-jacoby-ellsbury-and-the-deals-mlb-teams-would-undo/

julio 2017-01-04 23:04:33 UTC #70

5 posts were merged into an existing topic: Phillies 2016-2017 offseason Discussion

andyb 2016-12-28 17:13:04 UTC #71

Sometimes these articles take the tone of the crusty old baseball guy that can't believe players get paid so well when they are older. Obviously it is part of the system when they are underpaid as young players and overpaid as old players.

Example of saying that the Nationals regret spending $175 million on Strasburg because they could have had both Cespedes and Melancon. I see that statement as dumb. Yes, Strasburg is fragile. Maybe he only has 3 or 4 good seasons out of 7 on the deal. But then he is also compared to 2 players that are older than he is and less good. Melancon in particular is a reliever in his 30s hanging on with really good location and average stuff. Like Papelbon he is overpaid and liable to regress at any time. And Cespedes has limited defensive value as he ages and an 800 OPS OF with below average defense is simply not valuable. My guess is Strasburg and his overpriced contract is the better value and he probably unleashes a Cy Young dominant season at some point.

andyb 2017-01-04 22:22:59 UTC #76

For all you delusional Mike Trout dreamers:

julio 2017-01-06 18:53:35 UTC #77

Another organization (Baltimore) presumably no longer interested in signing a free-agent corner outfielder. One less bidder in the Saunders/Moss auction:

Philsmania 2017-01-09 19:11:07 UTC #78

Brandon Phillips voids a trade from the Reds for the second year in a row. He must really like Cincinnati.

julio 2017-01-20 03:11:58 UTC #79

Mark Trumbo returns to the Orioles. This takes the last "qualified" free agent off the market. I'll update the Phils' draft situation in the 2017 draft discussion thread.

andyb 2017-01-23 18:15:08 UTC #80

Interesting Fangraphs article on the decline of the middle class in baseball. This is tangentially related to my point in the Hall of Fame thread about baseball players getting younger and the reason being moneyball and not necessarily PEDs. In my mind the fact that salaries are somewhat limited through the arbitration years (or at least the first 2 arbitration years tend to have under market salaries), combined with the lack of a salary floor noted in the article - all that leads to more 26-year-olds and fewer 32 year-olds.

Philsmania 2017-01-23 18:29:25 UTC #81

The Mets have good insurance on Wright's contract though. It never appeared that the Phillies insured Howard, though they would have gotten only some money back for the parts of 2012 & 2013 he missed. There were some comments in the media that they had insurance on Lee (though the Phillies were hush-hush about it) so they would have gotten something decent back for the 2015 season he never had.

BostonRoss 2017-01-24 05:57:26 UTC #82

Interesting article, andyb. I am curious to know what has happened to the median salary rather than the mean.

andyb 2017-01-24 11:31:04 UTC #83

In revenue/inflation adjusted terms it is going down. It is probably slightly up in actual dollars though that does not say too much when revenues are increasing almost 10% a year.

The union does have its work cut out for them. First, they seem to be getting a smaller share of the revenue pie. Second, they DO need some mechanism like a minimum payroll and probably some sort of NBA-like mid-level exceptions to help the middle class. Arbitration used to do a better job of this but now there are more non-tenders. A low revenue team needs some sort of incentive to keep a $10 million player that is better than a $2 million player but maybe not that much better (say 1.5 WAR for the $10 million player vs 1.0 WAR for the $2 million player).

bkeich 2017-01-30 20:13:11 UTC #84

WOW. Huge Penalty really. Completely justified, but I am surprised how hard they came down on them.

In a weird twist the Astros greatly benefit from something that may not have really cost them that much. I almost wish the Cards had done this to the Phils instead. I know that sounds odd, but we would not have been damaged very much I suspect and the gain is significant (1st and 2nd round pick).

andyb 2017-01-30 20:32:47 UTC #85

This is a ridiculous penalty. By all means the Cardinals should give up picks. But the Astros should not get them. It is not like their own drafting was really hurt by someone else looking at their scouting reports.

If this is how MLB operates I think I would invite every team to hack my scouting reports.

bkeich 2017-01-30 20:35:20 UTC #86

I wonder if it is the "looking at internal trade discussions" that got them. That might really be damaging, the scouting reports are bad but not really this bad. Of course if the Cards ended up taking some guys the Astros found because of all this then it is easily justifiable.

I think this falls in the "we want everyone to understand this is not to be contemplated" kind of penalty.

zambonir 2017-01-31 02:01:45 UTC #87

This guy thinks they got off easy. Lighter penalty than the Sox just got, the long delay meant they got to do a bunch of stuff before the punishment. It's possible that had they not signed Fowler the punishment might have been different. Also, bluster, but Crane said he was hoping to get a Cardinals player

zambonir 2017-01-31 02:04:11 UTC #88

Meanwhile, I guess we know how much more the Phillies preferred Saunders to Brandon Moss, or just how little use they thought Moss would be.