The Astros employed a creative plan in the 2012 amateur draft, reports the New York Times. The club selected shortstop prospect Carlos Correa with the first overall pick. They then signed him to a $4.8MM contract – $2.4MM under slot value. That allowed the club to go over slot for Lance McCullers Jr. and Rio Ruiz. Correa is perhaps the most highly anticipate prospect in the minors. McCullers is currently with the big league club and has made three starts with 10.80 K/9, 3.60 BB/9, and a 2.40 ERA. Ruiz was dealt to Atlanta as part of the Evan Gattis trade. Houston tried a similar tactic last season, but it backfired when pitcher Brady Aiken failed his physical. They’ll probably repeat their plan when they pick second and fifth this June.
- The A’s have placed closer Sean Doolittle on the disabled list with shoulder imflammation, writes Jeremy F. Koo of SB Nation. Doolittle had a MRI on his shoulder this morning, tweets Joe Stiglitz of Comcast SportsNet California. The test revealed no new tear in the shoulder, just inflammation. The previously injured part of the shoulder does not appear to be damaged. Per Jane Lee of MLB.com (via Twitter), there is no timetable for Doolittle’s recovery, although he will take at least two weeks off according to manager Bob Melvin.
- Angels manager Mike Scioscia is in the midst of a 10-year contract that expires in 2018. However, Scioscia can opt out of the deal following this season, reports Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. He would forfeit $18MM in salary if he opted out. For what it’s worth, a move strikes me as unlikely although he could use the opt out as leverage to negotiate an extension. As Gonzalez notes, it’s not unimaginable that Scioscia could be wooed by the Dodgers or his hometown Phillies.
I couldn’t imagine a rebuilding club (Phillies) spending top dollar on a manager.
“Top dollar” for a manager is 5M. Thats not gonna do anything to the Phillies payroll.
They’d be better served spending that $5 million on an international prospect, a veteran they could try to flip (i.e. Aaron Harang, Jason Hammel, Scott Feldman), or saving that money and spending it later.
Its not like the Phillies are the Rays, they are very wealthy and if Scioscia was on the market, they would make a very aggressive play for him as he is in the elite class of manager.
You’re just stating that they would without giving any reasons on why they would except that they could afford it.
Well you haven’t given any reason why they wouldn’t. Rebuilding means a lot different for the Phillies then low budget teams. He is an elite manager and would be the best one on the market. I would assume the Phillies, Dodgers and Red Sox would all be major players for him.
I stated the reasons why in the first comment you responded to.
The Cubs rebuilding is comparable to the Phillies rebuilding. The Cubs didn’t spend much on a manager during their rebuilding years; however, they did once they were ready to compete.
Well those dont make much sense since the money that a manager cost doesnt factor into payroll as far as the tax is concerned and the Phillies have the capacity to pay the 5 million and sign all the Aaron Harangs of the world you could want. The Phillies rebuilding plan isnt going going to be a decade unless they get a ton of bad luck. Managers are not like players with 5 year primes.
Its 5 million dollars, they can buy every INT prospect they want, and still afford a good manager. 5M is nothing to them.
I look at it the other way around. I don’t see why Scioscia would want to join a rebuilding club like the Phillies.
There is no way he opts out of his contract with the angels, Scioscia is one of the top managers in the game I would say top 5.
Rebuilding is exactly the time to bring in an experienced and successful manager. You have two choices, you can start rebuilding and bringing players together through promotion from the minors, trades and free-agent signings and try to get them to gel as a team under one manager. You then yank that manager for another, thereby changing the structure and philosophy the team has been learning to play under as a unit and institute a brand-new structure and philosophy which usually delays the rebuild for another year or two. Your second choice is to bring in the manager that you want to guide the rebuild from the beginning. Unfortunately for the Phillies, by the time Scoscia is available ( if it should happen) they would have no choice but to be in the first scenario.
I consider Mike to be the best manager in MLB, just ahead of Bochy.
He has a great mix of Dodger/Branch Rickey tradition while using statistics quietly for over 10 years. He would fit perfectly with Friedman and the Dodgers. Heck, he was being groomed to be their manager until Fox owned them and fired him after managing an AA game one night for no reason other then they wanted to do things their way. If he still has the house in Westlake Village, he can drive home at night instead of staying at his 2nd residence in Orange county.
I’d put Scioscia in the 8-12 range, up from the bottom 5-10 three years ago when he and his team were more concerned with looking cool than playing good baseball. I’d put Bochy somewhere in the top 5.
8-12? How can you name that many better then him? Scicscia is easy top 5.
8-12 range?
I have Bochy, Joe Madden, Bob Melvin, Clint Hurdle, Buck Showalter as better. I’d put him 6th.
I’ve got Buck up there with Bochy.
Scoscia developed Maddon and has had 3 coaches become ML managers. He is sharp. His problem the past 8-7 years is being given a roster which does not fit with what he wants to do – which (like the Royals) is to play NL style baseball. The past 4 years the owner spent a large part of the payroll on 2 players – Puhols and Hamilton – that can not play Scoscia style baseball. They could have paid 5-7 decent players for what they are paying those 2. Mike would fit perfectly with Friedman
He may have helped develop Maddon, but Maddon is easily twice the manager he is.
He’s definitely the best at using traditional, kind if boring, NL-only tactics and whining and complaining at umpires – although he’s toned down that a bit in recent years. Angels games were painful to watch 5 years ago due solely to him coming slowly out of the dugout every 10 minutes or so to “chat about the call”..
As annoying as the Astros approach has been I have to admit they know what they are doing which is not easy as we are learning from what is sure to be Cherington’s impending departure.
Bochy is the best manager in the game.
I wonder if Beane will get an itchy trigger finger and see what the Reds would want for Chapman from the A’s. 4 years of Pomeranz, Bassitt & Wendle? The A’s can not and should not be trotting out the worst pitcher to ever don an A’s uniform in Angel Castro – its disrespectful to the fans.
The A’s might say no to Chapman for Wendle straight up. They just traded Moss with a lesser salary than Chapman for Wendle. So, Chapman and his salary might net Pomeranz and a scrub prospect.