The Indians have lost nine games in a row, but they don’t plan on reacting to their struggles by making a managerial change. General manager Chris Antonetti said Manny Acta will return as the team's manager in 2013, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports (on Twitter). The team already exercised Acta's 2013 option last September. Here are today’s links…
- Shane Victorino hasn't been with the Dodgers long, but he'd like to stay there long-term, in part because of the proximity to his parents in Hawaii and family home in Las Vegas, writes ESPN's Mark Saxon.
- The Dodgers and Angels could bid against one another for Zack Greinke when the right-hander hits free agency this coming offseason, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes. The Angels intend to keep Greinke, and the Dodgers are prepared to spend on elite pitching, as evidenced by their claim of Cliff Lee.
- Olney points out that Kyle Lohse is positioning himself for a solid free agent contract, and suggests he could approach Mark Buehrle’s four-year, $58MM contract. Lohse is older than Buehrle and doesn’t have the same history of durability, so I will personally be surprised if Lohse gets a four-year deal or an annual salary of $14MM.
- Matt Kemp, Carlos Gonzalez and Andrew McCutchen provide their respective teams with considerable value, relative to their contracts, but Evan Longoria has the most team-friendly contract in MLB, Yahoo's Jeff Passan writes (Passan's not considering pre-arbitration eligible players). The Rays announced that they will activate Longoria from the disabled list for tomorrow’s game.
- The Nationals announced that they agreed to sign four international free agents: right-hander Ramses Rosario and outfielders Aldrem Corredor, Darryl Florentino and Luis Guzman.
If Lohse gets 4 years, 58 million, we are heading down a dangerous path. Where is all this money going to come from?
Government Bailouts.
Hello Texas Rangers
Majority of the stadiums in the league are brought to nobody but limited, local population, Yet the cost is borne by a statewide tax population and sometimes? Even national tax dollars were at work.
No tax dollars should **ever** figure into stadiums, teams, any sports/entertainment enterprise period, if the entire costs cannot be paid for by an owner/owner of that particular group.
Yet more proof that there are far too many teams in sports than there should be. Without tax dollars subsidizing teams in various ways.. Tax shelters, stadium builds etc.. Many would be bankrupt, or unable to exist.
One example? How many knew that fenway park was on the NE register of historical places and John Henry got several million dollars per year for it?
Now.. That is probably an ownership that could survive, but an example of tax dollars wasted.
Why shouldn’t Fenway be a historic place? The argument can be made that because of Fenway, Boston reaps the benefit of additional tourism which helps inject revenue into various businesses and industries around the city.
I think this is a fair deal for the government to offer to pick up the tab on maintenance (and maybe a little more) in exchange for the Red Sox ownership not tearing down the stadium in favor of a newer facility which could generate more revenue.
Thats all they have right now is the stadium, never liked watching a game their with all the collums, and don’t go the restroom you will miss 2 innings.
Umm.. The thing.. Is why should an owner, who just (10 years ago) paid just north of 800m for something so frivolous as a sports team be entitled to a ‘kickback” at all from the government?
I just looked the amount up paid by the federal government to mr. John henry over the last 10 years and it is *200M* US dollars.
That money isn’t better spent on US parks that are being shut down annually, rather than a huge, private money making venture to a rich millionaire who has the highest ticket prices in the game?
Paleeeaase.. I am a Red Sox fan for over 50 years, but give me a break.
Since Lohse has been healthy, he has been a very solid pitcher. It was a really weird case that had never been seen in a pitcher before. At this point he is very underrated and I’m so glad the Cardinals didn’t trade him to make room for Oswalt like many people wanted
Buehrle relies on same as Lohse to succeed, Buehrle is also left handed and a 10 year track record.
not saying Buehrle is worth his salary, even as a marlins fan cause he has been so hit and miss this year in a pitcher friendly park that I still despise that deal Loria gave him.
*maybe* some NL team in a pitcher friendly park will give Lohse 2, even 3 years with the 3rd a team option, but that is a mistake to go longer, just like the Buehrle deal will be/was a mistake at 4 years and Buehrle’s will be impossible to get rid of with the contract so back loaded.
Buerhle has also never had a season as good as Lohse is having.
Buehrle once had a 6.3 WAR season. Lohse this year: 2.4.
I’ll take Buehrle in 2006 over Lohse in 2012. Comparable ERA+ and WHIP but much different environment for pitchers and Buehrle was a horse, leading the league in innings back to back seasons.
In fact, aside from the record, Lohse isn’t exactly head and shoulders above Buerhle this season.
Longoria’s contract is so good that he was #1 AND #10 on Jeff Passans list! lol
I saw that too!! He made some good points, but that article was poorly arranged
The ten degrees articles always have the same person first and last. It wasn’t a mistake
Longo’s contract is a good one for the Rays, but the guys hasn’t played that much the last 2 years. You could call him injury prone!
Luis Guzman is a pretty funny guy, not sure he can play baseball though.
Not a bad actor, questionable conditioning.
Lohse in his prime was never paid the money Buerhle got last year. 2-3 years maybe and I doubt he’ll come home with more than $30M guaranteed.
I never got why Greinke is considered a elite pitcher. Greinke is more of a #2-#3. If I was a GM I wouldn’t spend elite pitching money on Greinke.
no he is a number one or two pitcher but he isnt elite like kershaw or verlander or anyone like them
find me a team where Grienke is a #3.
-The Angels, Weaver and Wilson over Grienke.
-The Giants discounting Lincecum’s aberrant season.
-The Nationals (have you seen that stating staff).
I’d take grienke over wilson any day
Giants he’d be a #1a
nationals, strasburg any day for sure, but no one else.
his FIP and xFIP are under 3 the last 2 seasons..
Start with the team he was just traded to… Weaver and Wilson both have better numbers this season, and Haren has been better than Greinke in years prior.
On the Phillies, Greinke would arguably be the #4.
Same could be said for the Giants. Cain, Vogelsong and Bumgarner all have better numbers this season.
Nationals. Behind Zimmermann and Strasburg. Gonzalez and even Detwiler have arguably had better seasons, too.
White Sox? Sale and Peavy both have better numbers this season.
lol i’m not even going to reply to this
wilson, vogelsong, gonzalez, detwiler, over grienke?
wow
Grienke has had arguably one of the greatest pitching seasons in our generations a couple of years ago… To even mention some of those pitchers in the same class, wait BETTER than Grienke…is absurd…
That was 3 years ago to be exact, and he hasn’t come close to approaching those numbers since. He was also bad in his only postseason chance. We’re not talking Bob Gibson in his prime.
Honestly just look at his stats there really is no arguing that he is in fact an ace
… but you did reply.
Anyway, even excluding the four pitchers you took exception to, Greinke would still be the #3 on 4 out of those 5 teams.
I’m only basing this on performance this season. If we want to evaluate seasons passed, you’d have to factor in Haren for the Angels and Lincecum for the Giants, too…
Pitching is a bit more than just wins. Since 2008 Greinke has been one of the best pitchers in baseball with a WAR of 3.9 or higher. Not only are their just a handful of pitchers who can claim that, but most of them are over the age of 30 (many by quite a few years).
Finally just because a pitcher would be the 2nd or 3rd best pitcher on a particular team (and I’m not even agreeing fully with your example) doesn’t mean they are a “2” or a “3”. If the Tigers had traded for Felix Hernandez, he is not a number 2, because Verlander is there.
So by “performance” you mean only ERA and Wins right? Because in a variety of other things (K/9, BB/9, HR/9, GB%, FIP, xFIP, WAR) Greinke is better than most of those #3 or even #2 pitchers you mentioned.
just because there are 2 ace pitchers on the same staff doesn’t mean one is now a number 2
cliff lee, hamels are still aces, just because roy halladay is on their team doesn’t mean anything
you are taking the rotation slot too literally
don’t forget Chris Sale!!!
This year, absolutely. Just looking at the AL, giving Greinke the benefit of the doubt, there are 6 guys clearly better: Sabathia, Price,
Sale, Verlander, Weaver and Felix. Then there’s a group that are about on his level: Peavy, Kuroda, Wilson and a couple others. At best he’s 9th or 10th best in the AL and there are just as many ahead of him in the NL. So top 25? Probably. Top 15? I don’t think so.
I’d say only the Phillies
He’d be the #2 with the Dodgers behind Kershaw or maybe the #3 depending on which Billingsley shows up next season.
there is no Billingsley in the world that is better than Greinke. Greinke is 3rd in the league in WAR according to Fangraphs this season, and would have been a legit NL Cy Young contender if not for the trade.
I have Grenkie as a top 25 starter. That makes him a solid number 1, and a great number 2 starter.
there are not 24 starters better than grenke
he’s a top 15 starter in the league. That makes him a number 1 anywhere
Not a big fan of Greinke but I think people under appreciate him.
From 2009-present
#3 in FIP behind Johnson and Halladay
#4 in K/9 behind Halladay, Lee and Haren
#5 in WAR behind Lee, Verlander, Halladay and Felix
#10 in K/9
Dude’s been a #1 quality pitcher.
why not a big fan yfs?
I don’t dislike him or anything. Just rubs me the wrong way with some of the stuff I’ve heard regarding how he left KC. And from a NY perspective, not someone I would want them to acquire because of his the anxiety issues. But I would be a liar if I didn’t acknowledge his ability.
The problem with your analysis is that nearly 60% of his WAR since 2009 were accumulated in 09. Since 2010, BitLocker is correct. He’s been more of a #2 or at best a low level #1. He was off the charts good in one year. Since then, not so much.
Since 2010-present
FIP-8th in mlb (ahead of Sabathia, Weaver, Lince, Cain, etc)
WAR-8th in mlb (ahead of Cain, Hamels, Lince, Wilson, Lester)
K/BB-6th in mlb (ahead of Kershaw, Felix, Hamels, Verlander, Weaver, etc).
Your turn sir.
@daveineg:disqus has left the building.
it be cool if this was under the dodgers section aswell
And just a week ago, Shane wanted to be a Phillie for life. Kinda funny.
A week ago the team didn’t trade him yet
Also, a week ago, the General Manager didn’t come out and tell the media they had almost no intentions of resigning him.
I thought the GM did pretty say they were not resigning? I have a feeling they are going to try and resign with a hometown discount come fall.
You know baseball players are full of it. They’ll say they want to stay with the team they’re with regardless of the circumstances. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Greinke is a very, very good pitcher but in my opinion he has a few too many games where he implodes to be a true ace. I’d consider him something like a 1b.
Greinke gives the Angels the best pitching in the playoffs, he would be a welcome addition to any team.