This week in baseball blogs:
- Unsung Zeroes breaks down the ramifications of the newly minted collective bargaining agreement.
- Jays From the Couch blames Edwin Encarnacion’s agent for the first baseman/designated hitter’s departure from Toronto.
- Camden Depot ponders the future of Orioles center fielder Adam Jones.
- Real McCoy Minor News chats with Indians outfield prospect Bradley Zimmer.
- The 3rd Man In interviews highly touted 2017 draft prospect Royce Lewis.
- When Sid Slid praises the Braves for their work this winter and looks ahead to next offseason.
- Pirates Breakdown (links here) identifies potential bargain outfielders and relievers for the Bucs to target in free agency.
- MLB451 wonders if anyone is today’s game is capable of finishing a season with more home runs than strikeouts.
- Call To The Pen suggests a few moves that would help the rebuilding Padres return to relevance in the coming years.
- Chin Music Baseball sees striking similarities between the Mets and Indians, two World Series hopefuls.
- Bronx Bomber Blogger discusses the Yankees’ offseason in a podcast.
- The Point of Pittsburgh analyzes the Pirates’ young, in-house rotation options.
- Jays Journal writes that drafting and developing relievers could be the next competitive edge in Major League Baseball.
- BirdsWatcher tries to determine how much it would cost the Orioles to extend second baseman Jonathan Schoop.
- Notes from the Sally previews the 2017 Charleston Riverdogs, the Yankees’ South Atlantic League affiliate.
- Now On Deck and Rotisserie Duck present their mock Hall of Fame ballots.
- Fake Teams offers a two-round mock fantasy draft.
- Sports Talk Philly doesn’t expect Mike Trout, a New Jersey product who grew up a Phillies fan, to ever play for the club.
- Everything Bluebirds argues that the Blue Jays should be wary of trading with the Rockies.
- Outside Pitch MLB opines that the lack of a market for free agent catcher Matt Wieters could benefit the Nationals.
- Die Hard NYY regards free agent first baseman James Loney as a logical Yankees target.
- Call To The Pen previews a few positions that will be up for grabs for the Phillies during spring training.
- North Shore Nine revisits the top 10 moments of the Pirates’ 2016 season.
- Pinstriped Prospects credits the Yankees for the amount of undrafted players positively impacting their system.
- The Runner Sports looks back fondly at former major league right-hander Darryl Kile, who died in 2002.
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That’s some breaking news from Sports Talk Philly.
Yeah I wonder if any other writers for other teams have made that prediction.
Not like he has anything else to write about.
Lol, great comments.
Phillies: “We will give you every player we have and every player we will have for the next 5 years for Trout”. Angels: “Ummm……no.”
At least you got them on the phone.
Would Pirates consider a trade for Gardner for Taylor Hearn? He could be a stop gap if you trade Cutch and 4th outfielder when Meadows gets called up.
Wait, the Pirates 22nd best prospect according to MLB rankings for Brett Gardner, gold glove 33yo and decent war?
Explain why the Yankees make that deal when they can deal him at deadline for soooo much more?
I agree in terms of numbers it seems like a low asking price but Hearn is a hard throwing lefty that is highly under rated and will probably rank in the pirates top 10 next year. I’m open to other suggestions.
I think Gardner should fetch a McCann type deal. I think a lot of people undervalue Gardner
I agree a top ten prospect from an Organization easy. If he can have a bounce back year maybe even higher if you look at the am Adam Eaton return. Gardner still has a year and an option year after this one at only about 11 mill a year which is good price. The Yanks may be willing to eat some salary like in the Mac deal which should only aid in the return.
As a Mets fan who’s seen a lot of Gardner over the years, I would definitely agree that he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves in NY especially as so many of his teammates have broken down around him over the past few years. He’s a gamer, a truly hard worker, who always exciting to watch as it’s so obvious the high level of effort he always puts forth even when he’s not at his best.
Because Gardner is expensive, declining, and can’t play CF anymore, and prospect ranking are basically meaningless, seeing as its two MLB writers who have probably never seen Hearn pitch with their own eyes doing it
Gardner can play CF but they have ellsbury so they don’t need him to. He’s not expensive considering the market he’s just not cheap for a team like the Pirates. I accept that the Yankees would have to pay off some salary.
Yes prospect rankings suck but does that mean Gardner is worth one prospect who is a huge risk at even being a starter?
No! So what’s your point?
How is $12.5 mil per season expensive nowadays ?
I think the Yankees should get more for Gardner than that.
And I think I’d rather the Pirates kept Hearn and signed a FA instead. Saunders or Rasmus or whoever ends up being cheap.
Gardner just isn’t that good anymore. He never has been great, honestly. A singles hitting outfielder with decent OBP is a useful player in center, but he plays left, the steals have declined and even the OBP is nothing special. He also strikes out a ton for a guy with no power.
He plays left because of Ellsbury. I don’t know how people don’t understand that. And his K% (16%) is below league average (21%)
He’s not a great in lf, he’d likely be terrible in cf.
He just won the Gold Glove this past season. An award that now has advanced defensive metrics having part of the vote. So it’s not really a joke of an award anymore.
I’m a RedSox fan and I think Gardner is an excellent player… and he plays in the largest left field in the majors, so you can’t play a chump out there guys. He is not a power hitter but a table setter. Yanks need a better 3-4-5 combo to really take off and some SP help, pen looks great, and always look forward to some great games against…
You’re off by a decade on when Kile died.
Usually I think some typos are ok and don’t really matter but this one should be fixed.
Darryl Kile died in 2002 not 2012.
is the pirates and quintana deal a dead issue now or what? i have not heard anything in a while about it
I agree with the article that says EE’s agent is to blame for him not still being a Blue Jay. I’m a Ranger fan so I know this will come as a shock but I respect the Blue Jays and love going to games at the Rodgers Center. I flew up to watch the Jays and Baltimore wild card game. Something about an entire country rooting for a team is cool to me. Like a ton of other fans I don’t like Bautista and that goes way back before the bat flip (which I actually think baseball needs more of that type of emotion). I just think his ego is too big. But anyway it would have been nice to see EE stay and play for a team that had an entire country rooting for him. He’s gone basically because his agent was greedy and misread the market.
NL predictions:
West: Dodgers
Central: Cubs
East: Nationals
Wild Card: NYM vs STL
AL predictions:
West: Rangers
Central: Indians
East: Red Sox
Wild Card: HOU vs SEA
NLDS:
Dodgers at Nationals
Cardinals at Cubs
ALDS prediction:
Astros at Indians
Red Sox at Rangers
NLCS predictions:
Nationals at Cubs
ALCS predictions:
Astros at Red Sox
WS predictions:
Astros at Cubs
“At” meaning the team with home field? (I.e. Cubs would have HFA in the World Series)