2019-2020 MLB Non-Phillies News/Notes Discussion

[mdougherty12]

The Giants are cutting prices for many of their season tickets for 2020:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/amp/Giants-to-broadly-cut-season-ticket-prices-for-14417107.php

[bkox]

WOW

News: Less than one year after winning the World Series, the Boston Red Sox have fired president Dave Dombrowski and are elevating assistant GM Eddie Romero to head of baseball operations. Story at ESPN: https://t.co/KLkki68qMI

— Jeff Passan ( @JeffPassan ) September 9, 2019

[schillingfan]

I’d take him over McPhail.

[fish]

They became impatient after under achieving? A year after the World Series? Dear Mr Middleton, the precedence has been set.

[Philsmania]

By comparison, what if the Phillies won it all in 2011 and fired Amaro in September of 2012? Red Sox went for broke in 2018 and got the brass ring. But, now they may be broke.

[zambonir]

And they fired Cherington not long after he won a title too (having first replaced Lucchino with Dombrowski).

I don't really think Dombrowski would be an improvement but MacPhail isn't anything special either. He really seems like more of an administrative figure, doing Monty and Giles' old job, than a true baseball operations boss like Dombrowski (who was actually Boston's GM too) or Theo or Andrew Friedman.

The Red Sox won that title with Cherington's young players and Dombrowski's big-money guys but now the bill is coming due; no doubt if he'd been running the Phillies we would have signed Corbin or Kimbrel and traded prospects mid-season.

[zambonir]

A Cubs fan friend of mine doesn't even want them to make the playoffs if they can't win the division. Of course they've had a lot more success than us.

His summary:

The Cubs feast-or-famine offense has been a matter of concern even back to that long playoff drought during 2016. But then they somehow won, and any offensive inconsistency was attributed to being such a young team. Which they no longer are, so they kept switching batting coaches and will soon switch managers. Partly it's a change in the nature of the sport, which has gone HR boom and K bust. But the Cubs need more of an offense that will work the strike zone and develop more consistency.

[andyb]

Baez is now out also, perhaps for the rest of the regular season. Hairline fracture of his thumb. Cubs a little more vulnerable without him.

[zambonir]

Oh they definitely look like they could miss the wild card completely, we just won't be the team to catch them.

My back-door point is that fans have complained about the Cubs offense for five years even as they won a World Series, and it would be funny if we fired our manager, in part because of a struggling offense, to hire Maddon, especially after also hiring and firing Mallee. It's also funny that Maddon now comes off as a more conservative elder statesman (with his comments in Philly).

[BostonRoss]

Some of the media here in Boston are saying that Dombrowski's dismissal is not only due to the failure with an increasing payroll, but it's the lack of prospects in the system and the lack of flexibility to deal with upcoming pay increases, some of them huge (Betts).

The Sox are paying $84M to four starting pitchers, who have a collective ERA over 5. Three of them are hurt, and the other is a free agent at the end of the year.

[zambonir]

Dombrowski was no different for the Sox than he was for Detroit. But he was John Henry's pal from Florida. Now they've realized their mistake, I guess? But it's never been an easy place to be the GM.

[bkeich]

The Red Sox are 1.5 games ahead of the Phils coming off a WS win. It is just an oddity this year that the AL has very good and awful teams while the NL has teams bunched in the middle.

There would be confusion if an NL team with Boston’s record would clean house now as they are right in the hunt. In the AL they are already eliminated baring a crazy, crazy run.

[mdougherty12]

Seattle up to 67 players used in 2019, extending their new MLB record:

Justin Dunn makes Mariners debut, becoming record 41st pitcher used this season

[zambonir]

Klentak's closest GM pal of course.

[zambonir]

This is funny stuff

Jeremy Frank on Twitter

[fish]

Dombrowski was no different for the Sox than he was for Detroit. But he was John Henry's pal from Florida. Now they've realized their mistake,

Maybe it’s not realizing their mistake as much as understanding exactly how to play the Dombrowski card. Much like Pat Gillick, Dombrowski has a reputation for getting teams to championships. Neither guy leaves teams better in the long run after getting the ring. I’ve heard lot of media types stunned that the Sox would fire Dombrowski the next year after a championship, but it doesn’t take a genius to see the the big league rotation is aging and the minors are now thin. Everyone knows Dombrowski isn’t suited for fixing that problem.

The guys at High Hopes had an interesting take on the Rosenthal article- that it seemed likely someone, maybe from within the organization, fed Rosenthal storylines as a hit job on Klentak. The most interesting guess was that it came from Boras. Now I wouldn’t think that is something Harper would have requested, but signing with the Phils was premised on the promise that the Phils would keep spending to do whatever it takes to win. Klentak probably cheesed a lot of people off when he clearly gave up on improving the team at the deadline- that couldn’t have pleased Boras.

[zambonir]

I mean, Boras might have been annoyed they didn't sign Keuchel though I thought the whole "Keuchel calls out Philly" headline was way overblown. Right now Boras should be grateful we took both Arrieta and Harper. Maybe he'll bring us Moose next year.

As for Harper, of course he wants to win and improve the team always (and players aren't known for being long-term thinkers) but he's going to be here for a long time, it wouldn't be great for him if the Phillies had traded away Haseley and Howard just to upgrade the rotation and bullpen short-term.

Boston, despite their four titles, always seems to be dysfunctional. It went bad for Theor too. Dombrowski supposedly expected Cherington to be his GM when he got hired too. And the he lost the next guy to Arizona. I agree he's Gillick-like, in Detroit he just had the advantage of an owner who always thought short-term.

[flyers19rw]

If Middleton & Co. want to keep Harper happy, they need to re-sign Realmuto ASAP

[zambonir]

They will. (But also, Harper is not exactly in a position to make demands. If Curt Schilling had been signed to a 13-year contract he wouldn't have been able to force his way out of town.)

In any case I think Harper and the Phillies are still in their honeymoon phase. The team he signed with is the team that had this pitching staff. Had they been in better shape in July they would have made bigger moves. As it is Dickerson might be the best move any team made for a hitter, just not the most expensive.

[zambonir]

It really is cruel that our (now-former) domestic scouting guy signed several international Braves star and our beleaguered manager used to run LA's development.

Plus we signed Bryce Harper and the Nats are still better than us.