Both the Royals and Mets hold a 2-0 lead in their respective League Championship Series following the Mets’ 4-1 win over the Cubs in Game 2 of the NLCS tonight. Five Mets pitchers (including Noah Syndergaard, who threw 5 2/3 innings) held Chicago to five hits in the game while Jake Arrieta struggled, allowing four runs in just five innings of work. The NLCS has an off-day Monday as the scene shifts to Wrigley Field, while the Blue Jays will try to get on the board in Game 3 of the ALCS at Rogers Centre. Some news from around baseball…
- Matt Harvey’s excellent start in Game 1 of the NLCS should end any trade speculation surrounding the ace righty, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald writes. The innings-limit controversy between Harvey, Scott Boras and the Mets in September led to rumors that the Mets could look to part ways with Harvey this winter, though his postseason performance has surely gone a long way to erasing any hard feelings.
- Dusty Baker spoke to reporters (including MLB.com’s Barry M. Bloom) about his desire to return to a dugout. Baker said his recent interview with the Nationals “was good” and apparently he cleared up some misconceptions the Nats might’ve had about him. “People think they know you through word of mouth, but it’s somebody else’s opinion. I mean, they don’t really know you until you talk to somebody. Then, it’s like, ’Wow, I didn’t know you were like that,’ ” Baker said. It doesn’t look like the Padres have an interest in Baker as their next manager, however, as he said he contacted San Diego “and they said, ’Thanks for the interest.’ That was the extent of it.”
- Twins owner Jim Pohlad discusses several topics in an interview with LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, including Torii Hunter’s future, Paul Molitor’s rookie season as manager and how the club is responding to their return to respectability. In regards to payroll, Pohlad said that “we’re willing to do whatever it takes,” though there are apparently some limits. “I will tell you that I’m not a huge fan of long-term contracts. It’s having to commit for so many years and there’s really only downside to the club. There’s hardly any instances where it has been upside, across baseball,” Pohlad said.
- That comment from Pohlad is parsed by 1500 ESPN’s Derek Wetmore, who notes that several of the Twins’ recent long-term deals aren’t projecting to end well. Still, Wetmore doesn’t think Pohlad is absolutely against long-term deals as a rule, and perhaps the owner could be more interested in contracts for fewer years but with a higher annual average value.
- While the Cardinals haven’t missed a beat in the standings, their offense has been in slow decline for a few seasons, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. The Cards’ lineup has been propped up by statistical anomalies (an incredible average with runners in scoring position in 2013, for instance) and their run differential has been inflated by their great pitching and defense. Power has been a particular issue over the last two seasons, though it’s possible more pop could come from within once youngsters Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk grow more accustomed to the majors.
Pohlad kind of has a point. Players/agents seem to care as much if not more about years than AAV these days. You just don’t get much better than mid range players on 3-4 year deals anymore.
The teams that signed Billy Butler, Melky Cabrera, Ubaldo Jimenez, Scott Feldman, Matt Garza, Ricky Nolasco, Nick Swisher, Brandon McCarthy, and others might disagree with you.
How would they disagree, exactly? The names you mention and what you pay to get them kind of make my point. It takes a significant financial commitment to bring in mediocrity and inconsistency. Feldman gets a “meh” and Ubaldo and Garza are 50/50 so far. The rest of them are dismal so far into their contracts.
Agreed. And I think by long term he meant more than 4 years. This is shown by their reluctance to add a 5th year into free agent offers in recent years. Thus causing them to lose out on a few players. But, I completely agree with him, long term contracts (usually) only favor the player.
There comes a point where you just have to pay for some decline years in order to get premium talent, because that’s the business of baseball right now.
Eventually there has to come a little better balance between long-term security for players without handcuffing teams if things don’t work out. Even if that point only comes when 50% of the league’s collective payroll is paying eight 38 year olds on the DL three quarters of the year.
Maybe at some point we could get something where the total value of the contract is guaranteed but there’s a few “reverse” incentives based on PA/IP that defer portions of the AAV out so you don’t necessarily have to pay a pitcher off with TJ surgery all of his $27m for the season up front, allowing the team some flexibility to fill the hole in the roster in the mean time.
Hope the nats stay away from Baker, he will have Scherzers arm ruined in <2 years.
I keed, I keed.
Sigurd? WHO ruined the arms of Zack Wheeler, Stephen Strasburg, Matt Harvey, Adam Wainright, Brandon Beachy 2x, Kris Medlin 2x, Brandon McCarthy, and so on and so on??? ALL of the people who’ve had arm/shoulder surgery, blame it on Dusty. You sound like an Idiot, spewing that SAME nonsense about ONE man ruining pitchers arms. Is that the ONLY garbage you can come with on a guy that has a career winning % of over .500? Keep Trying
A) Cool it. Name-calling and hysterics are generally frowned upon here.
B) None of the guys you listed, with the exception of possibly Beachy, are ruined. Their situations are not comparable to Wood and Prior. Wood never started another game after turning 29. Prior never did after turning 25. You can argue whether or not Dusty Baker ‘ruined’ those two pitchers, but bringing up a bunch of guys who’s situations aren’t similar doesn’t really make sense.
You are JUST as Bad as Sigurd… So what Wood Never started a game after turning 29?? Josh Johnson hasn’t pitched in 3yrs, so who’s fault is that? If you or anyone thinks that ONE person is responsible for a pitcher having injuries, then they are IDIOTS!
Once again, you’re bringing up a pitcher who is irrelevant to the conversation. The theory is that Dusty Baker overused Wood and Prior and that their careers were derailed as a result. Do you have an actual counter-argument? Or are you just going to bring up more pitchers that have nothing to do with this conversation and resort to childish name-calling?
Further, neither myself nor Sigurd is even arguing that Baker ruined either pitcher. Sigurd was making a joke, and I was explaining what the prevailing argument is. Calm down, please.
So, what you are saying is that used Prior, Wood on 2-3 days rest? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the case. Maybe those guys were unlucky pitchers. That’s The same reason I brought u all those other names. Maybe they were unlucky also. Somehow Dusty gets blamed for ruining “STARTING” pitchers arms. If you were talking about relievers then that’s a valid argument. I don’t see how someone get blamed for overusing starting pitchers, unless it’s a college coach
The Cardinals run differential is “inflated” due to great pitching and defense??
What does that even mean? Yes, they allow fewer runs than other teams because they are good at preventing them. That’s just as important as scoring runs. Is the Jays run differential inflated because they have a great offense?
So, after one start, all trade speculation (which is 100% a product of the media to begin with as the Mets have shown no desire to trade Harvey) should stop? So if his next start is a poor one, does the trade speculation kick back up again? ‘Tis the season for reactionary baseball articles.