Daily Archives: December 22, 2015
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – December 22, 2015
Baseball Hall of Fame
I help a town in North Carolina honor Hoyt Wilhelm and finally Wade Boggs will get his number retired by the Red Sox.
Meanwhile I fight my allergies.
It is a small deed leading to good things episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Odds To Win The 2016 World Series
I agree that the recent signing of Johnny Cueto and the Dodgers failing to ink Hisashi Iwakuma leveled the playing field in the NL West, and might even slightly favor San Fran right now, but for the Giants to vault other teams that far up the chain is not right. The 2nd best odd on the board should not be from the NL West. The Mets, Nationals, Royals, Blue Jays and Red Sox all deserve to be slightly favored over the Giants. As such, they go from the best odd from last week, to the worst value play this week.
Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer) Follow @stokes_hunter21
Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
Just like we outlined here last week – the San Francisco Giants at +1600 was the best odd on the board. They jumped all the way from +1600 to +900 in just 7 days.
Conversely we said that the Dodgers were not a great wager at +1200. and they dropped to +1500, which is now tied for 10th with the Diamondbacks, Pirates and Rangers for the best odds.
Chicago finally broke the stalemate with the Toronto Blue Jays atop the list, going from +800 to +750. The Jays fell into a tie with the Boston Red Sox at +1000 and a tie for 3rd overall behind Chicago and San Francisco in the National League.
We also said to stay off the Rangers and Pirates, and both shifted downwards. We continue to like the Yankees at +2000, even though they didn’t change from last weeks odd.
Baltimore did go from +4500 to +5000 over the last week.
The Cardinals took the hit with some cabbage bet on the Cubs, and at are at +1200.
The Mets also are the best odd they have been at for the whole winter. Read the rest of this entry
Boston Red Sox Payroll In 2016 + Contracts Going Forward
With adding the contracts of David Price and Craig Kimbrel in recent player moves, this pushes Boston to near $200 MIL in team payroll for 2016. I think they should try to add a few pitchers near the 2016 Trade deadline. With a lot of money tied up in the future, any player they take on should have their contracts end in 2016. Boston stands to pay 17.5% for money spent over the $189 MIL limit. They could run with a $220 MIL salaried club in 2016 and only pay around $6 MIL in additional fees. Do it, and pale it back afterwards.
Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer/Part-Owner) Follow @stokes_hunter21
Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
Well the Boston Red Sox are finally going to join the Dodgers and Yankees as teams that cross the Luxury Tax Threshold for 2016. This was made possible by recently picking up David Price for 7 YRs at $31 MIL average per year.
Already in 2017, the team is committed for around $162 MIL – and that is without their stalwart DH of David Ortiz anymore. 2018, the salary obligations are at $151 MIL, and the franchise has already lumped $139 MIL on the books fr the 2019 cash.
This is a leap of faith for the franchise, as they were always reluctant to pay top dollars for Free Agent Pitchers.
Last year’s signings of Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez are looking like poor moves right now, however they can be helped with bounce back years in 2016. Read the rest of this entry
Los Angeles Dodgers State Of The Union For 2016
The Dodgers need to start spending money like right now, otherwise they stand to jeopardize themselves winning a 4th straight NL West title in 2016. Both the Giants and D’Backs have signed ace pitchers this year, and added another good Starting Pitcher besides the point. The club does have several young pieces and Depth at Roster to pull off a blockbuster trade forth coming – or they still have enough resources to acquire players for their 2016 run. The clock is officially ticking gentlemen.
Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer) Follow @stokes_hunter21
Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
The Dodgers are having the same kind of offseason the Baltimore Orioles had in 2014 – going into 2015.
If everyone remembers that year, they rejected a couple year contract with Grant Balfour, when he failed a physical, and they did the same thing with Grady Sizemore.
That club also traded back to back 50 Saves guy Jim Johnson. By the way, the 2014 O’s won the AL East with a 97 – 65 record.
Key cogs in the wheel were new Closer Zach Britton, and Super Utility man Steve Pearce. A lot of parallels can be made between that squad and the Dodgers.
Late last week, the Dodgers pulled out of a three year deal wish Hisashi Iwakuma because they had concerns with a physical.
For the whole winter they have watched the Giants sign Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, while the Diamondbacks stole Zack Greinke way from them, while trading a kings ransom for Shelby Miller. Read the rest of this entry
New York Yankees State Of The Union For 2016
The 2015 New York Yankees started off extremely strong at 21 – 12, before they finished the last 129 Games at just 66 – 63. With surprising years from Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira, the club still hosted the Wild Card Game with 87 wins. The club has done a couple of nice winter moves in picking up Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks for backup players, however the Bullpen is weaker, and the Starting Rotation has many health concerns. New York will need to address those before the season opener.
Chuck Booth (Owner/Lead Analyst) Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
Okay so one of the things that happens when you own a website is you lose some of the hardcore enthusiasm for the team you love the most. This is my story with he Yankees. Don’t get me wrong, they are still my favorite club, it is just I cover all 30 MLB teams a lot more than I used to.
Having said this, I have been railing on the Yankees for a long time on how they have conducted themselves. I traced it back to 2014, when they could have reset the Luxury Tax Threshold by trading Ichiro Suzuki, Hiroki Kuroda and Brett Gardner at the Deadline.
Instead, the club went for a half ass attempt to make the playoffs with Derek Jeter in his last season as Shortstop.
I do give Brian Cashman some credit in 2015 for the club making the postseason. I maintain that his building of the team was still flawed.
Bullpen withstanding, he has known his Starting Pitching situation has been in health peril since Masahiro Tanaka was diagnosed with a UCL injury in July of 2014.
Joe Girardi squeezed every ounce of the Veteran Lineup that he could last year. Who would have predicted the squad would have had 30+ Homer years from Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira?
That helped the club jump out to a fantastic start, and then coasted with a .500 record for the last 4 plus months to the 1st playoff Wild Card spot. They lost to the Houston Astros in that game at Yankee Stadium.
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