HOT STOVE, COOL SAND

i want to know who won the budding on Yu NOW!

Steven Goldman and Ben Lindbergh of BP are now in the BBWAA btw

Adios, Mat Latos. Padres got Yonder Alonso.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/12/reds-acquire-mat-latos-for-alonso-others.html

Edinson Volquez may also be going to the Padres in the deal. Remember when he was good?

nope!

Rollins to stay w/ the Phillies for 3 more years apparently!

so Mat Latos is now out of the NL West, that is good for the Giants.

still pissed off at my team and their horrible moves this off-season so far. the owners are broke apparently.

yay, Rollins is an essential part of the Phils' advancing decrepitude!

SD got a haul for Latos. This trade is all in how it plays out.

Yonder Alonso can hit. I'm not sure he will hit for huge power, but he looked like a guy that knows the strikezone and had some composure in the batters box. The guy kind of reminded me a bit of Sean Casey.

I'd think like Harang, Volquez will probably get some benefit from just not having to pitch half their games in GABP. Volquez has pretty bad control, even when he is going good, the guy will burn 100 pitches in 5-6 innings to get it done.

Never saw Grandal or Boxberger play, but they were a 1st and 2nd round pick in the past few years. Grandal is a switchhitter and supposedly pretty good with the glove, but Devin Mesoraco was already ahead of him in the line to get to the Reds. Boxberger was already being talked about to possibly make the club in the bullpen coming out of spring training, so he might be on the Padres this year. Grandal is only in his 2nd year out of the U, so they might have him start at AAA or something next year.

I've only seen Latos pitch a couple of times. He was really overpowering on the Reds both times I saw him pitch. I don't know if the guy is an ace, but he definitely has upside and time on the side for the Reds to find out. You either got to be able to strike them out or have them hit the ball into the dirt to pitch in Cincy's field - as that place will give up the HR pretty easy, especially when it is hot outside.

i think it's a really good trade for the reds -- latos is a fantastic pitcher, and they traded two prospects who were blocked anyway

just seems like a fair trade all around, except for the part where the padres traded for a top first base prospect last off season

good trade -- hope wieland and/or erlin work out for the padres

Cespedes Video II

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15694

dbacks signed jason kubel to a 2 year deal w/ an option, which seems like a terrible move

thanks for the analysis, earl.

huh

so the rangers won the darvish bid

really the Rangers? did not see that one coming

Texas eats Nippon Ham sandwich (stolen from Jason Parks)

well, lets all hope he turns into a disaster.

if he gets $15m a year (which seems likely), the Rangers will essentially have paid about $23-$24m per year over 6 years for this guy? for that to work out, he'd have to be worth about 6 WAR per year. the only pitchers worth that much in 2011 were Sabathia, Halladay, Lee, Kershaw, Verlander, and Haren (though C.J. Wilson was very close). that's a hell of a projection

yeah, it's a lot

well, lets all hope he turns into a disaster.

Go Jays!

ha ha! watching the J's msg board going mental this morning was good for a laugh.

having lived through the matsuzaka posting i'm v. sorry for jays fans

pourquoi?

eh checking msg boards every 5 mins, tons of misinformation and confusion, but sox came out on top and jays didn't (assuming yall were pro-darvish). it was just a really exciting and happy moment to be a fan. of course then we saw matsuzaka pitch.

yuni -> back with the royals!

also it is being reported that the mets, in a cost-cutting move, are abandoning their rookie-level appalachian league team in kingsport, tennessee. (i can't imagine that this saves a tremendous amount of money, but whatever.)

the appy league president claims to know nothing of this (which is totally feasible, because it's the appy league). also, it would drop the number of affiliated minor league clubs to 159 when the bargaining agreement requires 160.

lol at everyone, basically

wow, it must be so agonizing as a Royals fan if Yuni winds up being the starting SS this year. just when they thought he was out...

I'll be really surprised if the money for Darvish really pays off in quality pitching. I suppose it raises the Rangers rep over seas, but really outside of Hideo Nomo has any of these Japanese pitchers been really that good? Nomo struggled with injuries but he put up a few good seasons.

dice-k was 18-2 or w/e right? i wouldnt put it outside the realm of possibility he could be at least serviceable esp as an innings eater if he can somewht get a hold of his control in the future

eh that season was insanely weird and lucky; also he only pitched 167 innings and could never go deep into games so innings eater is kind of wishful thinking.

taking sides: dicek or lackey

oh god just kill me

this is most likely a somewhat-to-epic overpay - but, on paper, this guy looks even better than Dice-K.

for what it's worth.

hey mook, the NYT sez it's the Gulf Coast team the Mets wanna cut.

that is true

it's not an absurd move baseball-wise -- they still have two other short-season teams -- but the money being saved is a drop in the bucket

australian baseball league all-star game is now on mlb network live

Was it Dice-K (pre-posting) that one of the BP guys was claiming had some magical never-before-seen pitch?

yeah that was the whole gyroball thing

world 8, australia 5

sydney blue sox dh tyler collins with a key three-run blast

"I suppose it raises the Rangers rep over seas, but really outside of Hideo Nomo has any of these Japanese pitchers been really that good?"

Kazuhiro Sasaki was pretty good, but he was a reliever.

i'm still waiting for that freakishly overpaid Yankees minor leaguer to get his second shot!

@rustindodd Royals believe addition of Betancourt as UTL guy could allow them to carry 8 relievers at times.

brian cashman and the yankees no longer have kei igawa to kick around, as his contract has ended. they also no longer have $46m loooool

career major league era: 6.66

that whole thing is weird -- he could've become a pretty okay bullpen pitcher, even just as a lefty/lefty guy

i think they honestly hated him, first because his suckiness pointed out their horrible blunder, then because he wouldn't just quit and go back to japan. i'm surprised they didn't send him to class a charleston

holy shit - i totally forgot about him!