Chris Carpenter and Ryan Vogelsong will oppose one another at AT&T Park a few hours from now. Here are some links from around MLB to keep you entertained while waiting for the NLCS to resume…
- Giants assistant general manager Bobby Evans told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle that the team had approximately a dozen offseason conversations with Carlos Beltran's agent, Dan Lozano. That's a stark contrast from Beltran's statements, who said the two sides never talked. Shea speculates that Lozano didn't convey any of the communication to Beltran, who is of course, squaring off against his former teammates in the NLCS.
- Matt Eddy of Baseball America has a rundown of 10 minor league deals that reaped significant Major League benefits, including Gregor Blanco, Brandon Moss and Quintin Berry.
- Mets 2011 draftee Bradley Marquez will undergo surgery on his left knee after sustaining an injury playing football at Texas Tech, writes ESPN's Adam Rubin. The Mets allowed Marquez to continue playing football in order to facilitate the signing of their 11th-round selection.
- Alex Rodriguez may be in the midst of a disappointing October, but at least he has a long-term contract in place. Robinson Cano, an offseason extension candidate, may have diminished his bargaining power by hitting poorly in the postseason, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Plus, Rodriguez's struggles probably won't make the Yankees over-eager to spend a comparable amount on another struggling player.
- The Nationals are set at every infield position but first base heading into the offseason, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post writes. Ian Desmond could be in line for an extension this offseason, and Kilgore suggests a six-year, $45MM contract could work for both sides. It sounds as though there's a good chance Adam LaRoche will re-sign in Washington, even if he declines his side of the mutual option on his contract.
- Giants GM Brian Sabean said coaches Ron Wotus and Dave Righetti would be excellent managers given the opportunity, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports (on Twitter). Wotus is the Giants' bench coach and and Righetti is the team's pitching coach.
I would think Wotus would be a great manager and I’m basing this on his 14 year experience with the Giants organization. As a bench coach he has seen the best and worse of the Bonds, Baker, Alou, and now Bochy eras.
As for Rigehtti I hope he stays with the Giants team for as long as he can. One of the truly great pitching coaches of the league.
I really doubt the Yankees would let their best player go on the basis of one bad playoff. That’s something the Red Sox would do…
True but its been awhile since they made the playoffs anyway lol.
We dont even need to make the playoffs, we just let people go!!!!
Especially since without cano O’s probably take division.
Does anyone else dream of Robinson Cano in a different uniform.
french maid?
I would prefer “would u like fries with that”
Is this what Yankee fans fantasize about?
Is this a joke?
Cano’s one of the best hitters in the game. To think a slump, albeit very untimely, is going to deter the Yanks from giving him a large contract is just plain silly.
I don’t think Swisher and Granderson will be brought back, but Cano is the definition of irreplaceable in that lineup.
I dunno… so what he has a long track record of success, he’s in a 1 week slump at the worst time… he may have to settle for a one year deal in my opinion.
It’s a shame more people don’t understand sarcasm…
its an acquired taste
It’s not a joke- it’s Joel Sherman!
I completely agree. I think Swisher is punching his ticket out of town with his continued playoff inadequacy and if Granderson doesnt figure out how to not swing at a bad pitch out of the zone, he will be bait at the trade deadline next season. I would love to bring back Ichiro for next season, but on a 2 year deal max. Gardner healthy and Ichiro in right is amazing corner defense. I have no answers for the A-Rod issue though, that is going to be a terrible situation for a long time to come. Cano is a MUST sign, I would prefer an extension until he is 35 at the latest, but we know how Boras gets down.
Cano is not getting only 4 years(after the option). He is looking at 8-10
Career Postseason Batting
Jeter: .308/.374/.465
Arod: .265/.372/.467
Granderson: .236/.342/.472
Cano: .226/.273/.431
Swisher: .167/.284/.300
1. It annoys me to no end how arod is thrown under the bus over and over again because he “can’t perform in the postseason”, yet his obp and slg are almost exactly the same as Jeter’s. They both have had years that they have been great, and postseasons that they would rather forget.
2. I also don’t think that swisher punched his ticket out of town. Sure he didn’t help his value, but the playoffs is only a small portion of a season. For alot of teams on the bubble swisher is one piece that could help put them over. Fact of the matter is that he is that he still puts a consistent 3.8-4.0 war, and puts up a wrc+ of around 125. Had the Yankees not had swisher they probably only slide into the wildcard slot or worse. There are tons of teams that would love to have swisher, and Yankees is one of those teams.
The fact that Jeter’s slugging percentage and OPS is close to A-Rod’s either looks really good for Jeter, or really bad for A-Rod, considering A-Rod throughout the course of their career obviously has been the better slugger between the 2 and it’s not even close
Career regular season/potsseason OPS
Jeter- .829/.838
A-Rod – .945/.838
.838 is a pretty good OPS, but it’s pretty low for a guy who has a career regular season OPS of .945, although Jeter still has played more than 2x the amount of postseason games as A-Rod (158 to 74).
Players numbers generally go down in the postseason. Arod’s 107 point OPS+ gap is pretty normal. You face better pitchers in the playoffs. Not only do teams with high ERA’s not make the playoffs. Teams use their top 3 or 4 starters and drop their fifth starter. Teams also use their high leverage rerlievers more.
There are still many power players who have postseason numbers similar to their career numbers (Bonds, Manny, Beltran to name a few). Even Chipper has decent career postseason numbers.
A-Rod is a below average postseason performer (except for 2004 and 2009).
Later on (unless someone else does it by the time I have more time), I’d be interested in seeing Jeter and A-Rod’s postseason stats since they’ve been teammates which woudl be from 2004 – 2012
And you are correct about facing better pitchers. I’ve mentioned that before (not on here though). But the fact that Jeter can hit good pitchers in the postseason and A-Rod for teh most part cannot, tells me A-Rod is under a Lot of pressure. He succeeded in 09 and in 04, not in the other years though.
I am not saying Jeter succeeds all the time, but I think he’s a much better postseason performer than A-Rod.
You can point out they have similar numbers, but Jeter is not a power hitter. A-Rod is.
It’s also cold as hell in some places, which affects the numbers.
I’m aware of that, but the usual discussion is that arod never performs in the postseason, and that is simply wrong. He doesn’t do as good as he normally does, but his obp/ slg are still in a good range.
I hoping the Yankees don’t pick up Cano’s option and the Jays sign him. He is a great hitter.
Wishful thinking…a playoff slump doesn’t take away from him being the best offensive 2B.
agreed.
also felix hernandez will have a bad spring training and be traded to us. and then joey votto won’t smile in a team photo and be put on waivers, picked up, by you guessed it, the blue jays
Otay! it’s 92-93 again!! (you forgot Jake Peavy and Dan Haren)
Oh really? How you gonna do that when the Jays won’t go longer than 5 years on contracts.
Nats should either re-sign or replace LaRoche with a comparable bat and sign a friggin top tier closer that can get 3 outs with a 2 run lead in the biggest game in franchise history.
He was gassed(Storen). Kimbrel nor Chapman coulda got it done on three consecutive days work, qalong with still getting his mojo back after missing most of the season. Davey should have went to someone else to begin with.
Kimbrel and storen is not comparable
It’s true…. Kimbrel broke down from overuse in game 162 last year, not game 5.
Ya 37 games this year really compares to 79 games in your rookie season .. im a braves fan #1 but a dc native and i have watched both alot and kimbrel is hands down a better closer and almost every team will take kimbrel over their closer
I’m not saying one is better than the other. Just both we’re tired from overuse at the time they blew the game. Kimbrel should never have had 80 appearances last year, and there is no reason to use Storen who was just back from injury in 3 consecutive high stress appearances.
Clippards falling apart made davey have to use storen.. if he hadnt used storen and they lost every nationals fan would have been mad that they didnt use their best pitcher in the bullpen to try and close it
Closers working 3 straight days isn’t uncommon nor is it an excuse.
Kimbrel did it twice.
Papelbon did it four times.
Two elite closers right there.
He blew a game… it just happened to be the wrong one.
As a Mets fan, I can only hope every other team in our division spends a large chunk of its payroll on a closer. Look how that turned out for the Marlins.
Agree. Yankees should pick up Cano’s option and trade him.
Signed,
The Dodgers
Noooo, Adam, come to Boston D: We promise we won’t trade you after 5 games this time!!
Cano is the best All-around 2nd basemen in the game he’s not going anywhere.
There are 2 more that have the defensive range he does and are more sure handed. Cano makes errors like he did last night.. he gets too ahead of himself. If he would slow down just a tiny bit it would help.
Many give him too much credit for that lightnig quick transfer and call it an asset, but it leads to errors and sometimes just lost double play chances that do not become errors.
Offensively? Yep.. he is the best for sure.
That’s why he said All-around. Defense plus Offense… he is the best.
Daniel Descalso might disagree
The Yankees won’t spend big on free agents again because of A-rod’s struggles this year? Is Joel Sherman a comedian?
Yes.. He, Shaugnessy and Cafardo from the Globe teamed together would make a terrific 3 Stooges act.
They should get together with TJ Simers at the LA TImes. He could be Shemp to the other three.
“Larry, Moe and Curly-Joe are the funniest guys I know”
Lead in song to the greatest cartoon of all time to me.. Moe Howard, Larry Fineberg and Joe Besser voices for the cartoon characters…
Sherman wrote an article arguing the Mets were the biggest loser of the big Red Sox-Dodgers trade.
And what was the gist of that argument, I wonder? FWIW, we have to endure a similar columnist for the LA Times. He also takes ludicrous positions.
Sabean should give Righetti or Wotus an opportunity to manage… Namely by getting Bochy out of town.
The Bochy haters never give up.
He gives us no end of ammunition.
I have a feeling that Morse is moved to 1B this off-season and the Nationals go after a CF to allow for Harper to move to a corner spot
If that’s what they decide to do I hope they go after Upton instead of Bourn
If the Yanks aren’t sure about Cano, they could always pull a Burnett and send him to Pittsburgh.
Chris Carpenter is 3 for 4 in the postseason
Robinson Cano is 2 for 32
Yes it’s a SSS but I thought I’d point that out anyway
Anyway, it’s pretty sad Sherman thinks that Cano’s thusfar 7 game slump (I can say 5 game actually because he a had a hit in back to back games of the LDS) is going to cost him money on his next contract
I know they are different positions, but if it didn’t cost CC Sabathia or CJ Wilson money on their contracts, it shouldn’t cost Robinson Cano money on his
I wonder if the Nats have any thoughts about getting rid of Espinosa, or at least making him compete with Lombardozzi for the starting job? I like Espy a lot and his defense is pretty excellent, but his inability to put the bat on the ball hurt the team a lot this season. I can recall quite a few incidents where we just needed him to hit a fly ball or a grounder to the right side and he whiffed on big hacks time and time again. It seems like Lombo might be a better fit as the lineup could use a solid contact hitter rather than 15 more homers and 100 more K’s.
Going on what I’ve heard I think what Davey hopes will happen is what happened with Desmond. This was Desi’s third full year in the league and he broke out. Next year will be Espinosa’s.
A bigger question I have is why they haven’t helped him adjust his left handed swing. It’s way too long. If he shortened it up like he does when he hits right handed it would cut way down on his K’s.