HOT STOVE, COOL SAND

based on how the united states government has decided in the past few years to prosecute rich and powerful men that raped the citizenry for its money, i don't have much optimism that jeffery loria is going to be fined into oblivion, let alone put in jail

i think i'm going to throw up

Juan C. Rodriguez
@JCRMarlinsbeat Juan C. Rodriguez
Loria, Samson, Beinfest, Hill heading upstairs for meeting. Pujols situation could crystallize soon. #marlins

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha this is one is for morbs

@Buster_ESPN Buster Olney
Friends of Loria with other teams say that he has always followed NYY and has wanted to emulate George Steinbrenner.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

(note that i am laughing WITH morbs in this situation)

ugh, offering pujols 10 years is a terrible mistake, no matter who does it

hopefully you'll have some fat retired Teamsters/mobsters in the bleachers next year

xp

might as well be the marlins then imo, i'm pretty cool with it despite having a horse in the nl east race already

I cant wait for marlins to sign all these dudes and still see empty seats in their new crystal palace

i think ppl will turn out this year as long as they're playing well. even the nats had an attendance bump with their new park in 08 when Christian Guzman was the best player on the 25-man for most of the summer

nah, people will show up. the stadium's in a better place, and miami loves nothing more than a front runner. plus there's so many economic factors different b/w the old stadium and new one that it's not like they'll have to draw 60k a night to make money exponentially more money than they did at the old park.

seriously i went to a game that summer and Paul Lo Duca was their starting first baseman

J's just traded a guy named Nestor for Sergio Santos.

the J's zoo of a message board had been slobbering all over Nestor for a while now - surprised they've not entered full-on melt-down mode (yet)

Keith Law:

With the deal that sends Chicago White Sox reliever Sergio Santos to Toronto for Blue Jays prospect Nestor Molina, the Jays trade maybe their sixth-best pitching prospect for a very effective short reliever.

under a quality contract too.

the jays have like 16 dudes with good grades from sickels.. I wouldnt be too stressed out.

this is the second straight pretty good SP prospect that the white sox have gotten from the jays in the past five months

but anthopolous knows his shit

clarkspencer clarkspencer
#Marlins make no comment after meeting with pujpls agent for 75 minutes

here's the full law

Blue Jays get value in Sergio Santos
December, 6, 2011
Dec 6
1:25
PM ET

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With the deal that sends Chicago White Sox reliever Sergio Santos to Toronto for Blue Jays prospect Nestor Molina, the Jays trade maybe their sixth-best pitching prospect for a very effective short reliever (whom they had previously when he was still a position player). This should take Toronto out of the market for free-agent closers, most of whom end up overpaid thanks to the winner's curse and the short peaks of most relievers' careers. The White Sox, on the other hand, get an extreme control right-hander without much of a breaking ball who could be a dominant two-pitch reliever, but is probably a year away from seriously contributing in the majors.

Santos was a shortstop (and not a good one) as recently as 2008, but converted to the mound in 2009 and raced to the majors even though he was mostly just an arm-strength guy at the time he switched roles. He's much more than that now, getting ahead with a mid-90s fastball but putting hitters away with a hard, extremely late-breaking slider that looks like it drops off a cliff at the last second. Santos threw 174 sliders in two-strike counts this year, according to Bloomberg Sports, and 57 percent of them resulted in strikeouts. The White Sox didn't use him much in number of games or within the games he pitched, with 80 percent of his outings comprised of one inning or less, so between that and his time as a position player, he's about as lightly used a reliever as you'll find in the big leagues. As long as Santos is healthy, he'll provide excellent value to the Blue Jays either on the field or in a trade a year or so from now, when he's a more "proven" closer.

Molina, also a converted infielder, has outstanding control, walking 16 batters in 130 innings in 2011 across two levels, most of it in high Class A. He has a solid-average fastball at 90-92 with a plus splitter, a pitch that made him more effective against left-handed batters than right-handed by more than 100 points of OPS this year. His breaking ball is a work in progress, to say the least, and he doesn't offer much projection, so there's still an open question of whether he can remain a starter with a midrotation ceiling or a late-game reliever. He should have a significant role in the 'pen even if he ends up exclusively a fastball/splitter guy. Molina is a good prospect, probably the best now in a fallow White Sox system, but the return seems a little light for a major league reliever signed to a very affordable three-year deal.

I can see Miami drawing pretty well now that there will be percent chance of zero for rainouts. If I'd lived in S. Fla. the past few years I'd still never have gone to a Marlins game -- the thought of getting into a dunk tank doesn't appeal to me.

It breaks my heart that Albert Pujols, Heath Bell, and Jose Reyes will have to wear those uniforms.

lol someone is squatting on jon heyman's old si account, or something

SI_JonHeyman:
hearing #Marlins boosted offer to pujols to 13 years.... they are obvs pushing hard... long and hard... [via Twitter]

mlb network baseball winter meetings™ coverage makes me want to puncture my eardrums

wheeeeeeee

RT @truebluela If Harang deal backloaded. Dodgers will pay Lilly/Harang/Capuano/Uribe/Ellis/Hairston/Guerrier ~$47.75m in 2013

JimBowdenESPNxmJIM BOWDEN

Mariners are now front=runners on Fielder with Milw,Cubs & Tor all wanting shorter term deals....stay tuned

SI_JonHeyman:
hearing #Marlins boosted offer to pujols to 13 years.... they are obvs pushing hard... long and hard... [via Twitter]

what the hell!!

that's a fake

heyman's new account is Jon_Heyman

i saw it in the yahoo tracker and freaked out slightly until i clicked on over

ok, whew -- I mean, I would love for that to be true, because I have my NL East hunt already, but

fielder to mariners has seemed like a foregone conclusion for like 2 years now

?

they have money to play with and their GM drafted prince while in MIL and lallygagged covets him

ah! thx.

RT @truebluela If Harang deal backloaded. Dodgers will pay Lilly/Harang/Capuano/Uribe/Ellis/Hairston/Guerrier ~$47.75m in 2013

ned and frank dont give a fuck. the new ownership should fire ned's stupid ass for fucking them before they even get a chance to start.

yeah its just they've got money and at this point could really use a guy like him to remind fans what a home run is or what a major league hitter is like

plus their gm is the brewers former scouting director etc etc

cards are apparently furiously trying to unload lohse or westbrook. wonder what that could be about...

tryna free payroll for poo-holes or burly

feel like the solution would've been not giving jake westbrook 40m in the first place but \(o_O)/

the sox are apparently in on some japanese shortstop and are playing hardball with david ortiz--gave him a low 2-year offer that seems to be designed to get him to accept arbitration.

Exec: white sox asking for 'ubaldo Jimenez package' for John Danks.

Uh

they might be able to get a package from ubaldo jiminez

joecapMARLINS joe capozzi

Growing buzz in lobby that #Marlins will emerge as winner Albert Pujols derby. Nothing final yet but fish r favorites, accd 2 lobby walkers

"the ubaldo jimenez package" sounds like some black market plastic surgery you can get or something

GordonEdes Gordon Edes
Red sox confirm they did not post on Japanese ss Nakajima

*wipes brow*

JeffPassan Jeff Passan
Cardinals owner. Whoa. RT @jonmorosi: More DeWitt on Pujols: "We're realistic about the fact that it may not happen."

It seems damn peculiar that the Marlins are going to sign free agents at two positions they really already have pretty decent players.

Obviously they hope Hanley pouts but moves to third or perhaps the outfield, but where do they put Gaby Sanchez if for some reason this pyramid scheme actually does bring in Pujols?

hanley ramirez is not a good shortstop

he's a good hitter who plays shortstop, but those are two different things

gaby's gonna get traded for pitching