MLB 2013!

Too soon? Buggerit. Out with the forgettable 2012 season, in with the soon-to-be-forgettable 2013 campaign. Who will the AL Central champion lose to in the playoffs? What new and innovative method will the Reds pioneer in managing to miss the playoffs despite a roster full of talent? How many unbearable stories from east coast sportswriters will we have to suffer through about how the Red Sox/Yankees/Mets/Phillies should trade for our favorite teams' best players for peanuts?

Mysteries await!

Already so far this offseason:

• The Blue Jays generously assumed control of the Marlins' major league roster so that Jeffrey Loria can buy a new crew of cabin boys for his tertiary yacht fleet
• Atlanta signed the Bossman Junior to patrol CF and hit .230 to the tune of $75m over five years
• Evan Longoria gave the Rays another sweetheart deal because he is all that is right and good about baseball
• Seattle's long civic nightmare ended with the release of Chone Figgins, even though they still have to pay him $8m to suck for someone else
• The Ratty Natties improved the average fastball velocity of the Twins' system by about 3 mph by trading flamethrowing prospect Alex Meyer to Minnesota for CF extraordinaire Denard Span
• various and sundry other minor moves about players nobody cares about

Did I miss anything?

Phillies' season circling the drain already. Carlos Ruiz suspended 25 games for adderall. Sad face.

• Self-righteous sports columnists vomit forth millions more words that nobody cares about on the topic of steroid era players and the Hall of Fame

I'm HoF'd out after Blyleven's saga finally ended. Can't take it any more.

Here's a Blyleven story for you. My friend goes to Twins fantasy camp. Buys a couple baseballs to get Burt to sign during his HOF induction year (or what we assumed would be). Friend hands him the ball and says "Could you sign this ball for my friend Erik?" Burt replies "Sure, how does he spell it?" "With a 'K'". Burt signed it E R I C K. ...

The Mets resign David Wright to an 8 year $138m extension. I feel like they are overpaying when you consider he will be 38 when the contract ends and he won't be "allowed" to use PEDs to keep his body in shape. I just dread this being a dead money contract like Santana and Bay have become.

If he stays on the field consistently through his age-38 year, that's a fine contract.

Thanks, folks. I'll be here all night.

How about a straight-up trade for Ryan Howard and his contract?

I thought not.

I really don't like that Wright contract. Too many years.

Mets fan, Ingmar, or 3rd party observer?

Giants fan. I think it's going to look like a really heavy weight around their necks come age 35+ for Wright. But, then again, the TV money landscape is changing rapidly so maybe the dollar number won't be remarkable by then.

With Angel Pa-gone from the free agent market, the Philly papers are fixated on the Phils nabbing Josh Hamilton. Oy. Apparently RAJ thinks he's just another big free agent away from contention. Say it ain't so, Ruben.

Phils have the budget to do it, but his contract demands as reported are...optimistic, even for Philly.

And really, is another aging star with issues staying on the field what the Phillies need?

NO.

I totally did not know that the Mets and Jason Bay parted ways until I heard today he signed a one year deal with Seattle. I suppose that's good, for the Mets.

No, so now they're going after Michael Young.

Shoot me.

They released him midseason sometime this past season if I recall. Shows how terrible he's been if nobody noticed.

Nah, he played with them right up to Oct. 1. He had one year left on his contract and last month, apparently, the Mets got together with him to cancel it and pay out the next year over a few years instead of at one and made him a free agent. And not a single fuck was given.

Yazow! Twins trade CF Ben Revere to Philly for SP Vance Worley and double-A SP Trevor May. The org must have a lot more faith in the young OFs knocking on the MLB door than I though they did.

I like Revere a lot -- he's a ton of fun to watch, and he comes across as a really great guy -- but I really, really like this trade for the Twins. I would probably have done Revere for Worley straight-up, and getting a solid SP prospect in there (May was ranked much better going into 2012, where he had kind of a down year figuring out AA ball) as well is awesome.

As a Phillies fan, you're welcome.

I don't really know much about where the Phillies org is at these days (outside of "old, overpaid, and injured") -- do you just have a glut of SP depth or something? Or is Amaro just...doin' thangs?

I'm at a loss here. We've got an old, overpaid infield and no outfield to speak of. I was hoping for someone better than "a young Juan Pierre," which is what I've read of Revere. Yes, we've got Halladay, Lee and Hamels, but Halladay has injury concerns and Worley is steady and a fan favorite. I don't like this deal at all.

To be fair, Revere is a much better OF than Pierre ever was. Much better routes.

Other'n that, yeah, he's pretty much Juan Pierre.

Agreed. Twins made out in that deal, considering how badly they needed some young pitching.

And Michael Young is ours.


Never say anything bad about the elderly is my motto.

Worse than when the Indians gave up prospects for Ubaldo Jimenez a couple of years ago has to be what the Kansas City Royals just did.

I'm not the only one who thinks this is crazy. This detailed analysis is from Grantland. Must read.

I'm a lifelong Phils fans. This past season I subscribed to mlb.tv, and decided to pick an AL club to follow. I tried to become an Indians fans. Didn't work. So lately I was thinking of the Royals. After all, what a farm system! Well, that ain't gonna work after this deal.

And then there's the AL team that's a bit easier to root for, staring me in the face.

They still have a pretty damn good farm system.

Dave Cameron's point (written two weeks ago, amusingly) that trading Myers for pitching is robbing Peter to pay Paul is very valid, though. I mean, yeah, they can drop a mil on a shitty FA RF but that's not what contenders do, unfortunately.

Also not a thing that contenders do:

Kevin Correia for 2y/10M. Sigh.

Whoa. Correia certainly cashed in.

I didn't realize how close the Twins' OF prospects are to MLB. Check out the batting lines for two of our top prospects last year in AA, and realize just how tradeable Span and Revere were:



[Fangraphs stat page] Oh also he's a plus-range plus-arm defender in CF.



[Fangraphs stat page] I don't know nearly as much about Arcia's defense, but he just annihilated AA last year as a 21-year-old. That's a damn good sign, even though he's probably more of a .280 hitter than a .328 hitter (or so his sky-high 2012 BABIP would imply).

I know, I know, they're prospects and ain't nuthin' a sure thing. But I need something to get excited about, damnit!

Adam, you're totally right to get excited. The Twins have so much OF depth right now, it's crazy. Easy decision to trade Span and Revere.

Hamilton to the Angles. It's a heck of a lineup.

They give back half of what they gain in offense with the defensive dropoff from Hunter to Hamilton, though, and that's before we start guessing about how many games he'll miss per year.
.
EDIT: I mean, seriously, Torii Hunter's WAR was 2+ higher than Hamilton's in 2012. Now granted that's not likely to happen again, partly because Hamilton is a below average CF but will be above average in LF, which will help his contribution a lot, but this isn't nearly as large an improvement for the Angels as people think, IMO.

Wow. This year's Hall of Fame inductees: no one.

Biggio led the pack with 68%, and Clemens and Bonds are denied on their first year of eligibility.

Not even Piazza? WTF?

Piazza is tainted by steroid suspicions.

I thought Biggio and Jack Morris might have a chance, but I also see why they might not quite be considered HOF worthy.

A partial list of results:

Biggio: 68.2%
Morris: 67.7%
Bagwell: 59.6%
Piazza: 57.8%
Raines: 52.2%
Schilling: 38.8%
Clemens: 37.6%
Bonds: 36.2%
Sosa: 12.5%

Morris doesn't belong in the HOF. Biggio has 3,060 hits. That should do it.

Piazza isn't tainted by steroid suspicions that are at all credible. It's "some guy told me he had back acne" type nonsense, or "his arms look too big!" like Bagwell, while meanwhile a major source for the Mitchell report was in the Mets clubhouse and yet he doesn't appear on it.

The HOF process is an utter fucking joke at this point. They clearly need to issue some additional voting guidance for this era or the writers are going to continue to derp along until the HOF becomes truly irrelevant.

EDIT: And so help me I hate fucking Mike Piazza. He's practically related to Tommy Lasorda. But he still belongs in there, the bastard.

There should be more guidelines given to HoF voters, because without them they come up with their own bullshit, ad-hoc, self-righteous rules. Like never voting in someone on their first appearance for no reason whatsoever.