Daily Archives: December 12, 2016
Joyful Chaos: David Nemec’s Old Time Baseball History and Trivia
The intent on my part, of course, was to plug the book.
That was the intent...
It’s joyful chaos. (READ THE FULL STORY AT PLATE COVERAGE)
Who is the Most Intimidating Hitter in Today’s Game?
For a pitcher, deciding who gets the “Intimidator” label is easy: Guys like Gibson, Clemens, R. Johnson, Pedro. Guys who throw 95, with a mean streak. Guys who throw with skull-cracking menace. Guys who stand you up, then knock you down.
It’s harder to define an intimidating hitter. It’s not about who the “best” hitter is—or else the list might begin and end with Ted Williams. Wade Boggs, Rod Carew and Tony Gwynn were superb hitters, but they were more frustrating than intimidating to pitchers. Sammy Sosa averaged 60 HR a season for four years, but his hop and smile didn’t intimidate anyone – meanness counts. At his peak, Edgar Martinez had no weakness as a hitter, but his preternatural calm seemed designed to lull, rather than panic. And it’s not just about size: Adam Dunn, Jose Canseco, and Dave Kingman could each launch a ball 500 feet; they were also out machines.
Dodgers must choose between Justin Turner or Kenley Jansen
This time of year in baseball really means one thing: new faces in new places. It’s looking increasingly unlikely that Kenley Jansen returns to the Los Angeles Dodgers as their closer in 2017. This is coming on the heels of news that the Miami Marlins have offered Jansen $80 million dollars over five years to come to South Beach.
Did anyone notice at the Winter Meetings this past week that Los Angeles was ‘in’ on players but nothing really materialized? There may be good reason for this. The Dodgers were reported to be in serious amounts of debt. As soon as this news broke, it was obvious that they weren’t going to be able to retain their All-Star closer and their starting third baseman, Justin Turner.
Once Again: Why The MLB Should Consider A Geographical/Market Size Re-Alignment For The Next CBA:
The new CBA has been a godsend for the mid – market teams, and not so great for the 10 top markets, but even more devastating for the 10 lowest markets. One thing the CBA did address was to give the players an additional 4 days off during the league year – stretching from 183 Days to 187 – in lieu of expanding the rosters of 25 to 26.
This website has continued its stance since day 1, that while the economics have been a lot more fair to teams in the last 15 years, there is still much work to do. The best small market teams we have seen in the last 7 years have been the Oakland A’s, Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates and of course the 2015 World Series winning Kansas City Royals. Only one of these teams actually were a decent franchise for some time before they took off.
Pittsburgh lost for 22 years before they finally made 3 straight postseason appearances. With the new CBA not giving them 1st RD Draft Picks for departing players in future seasons like Andrew McCutchen, Gregory Polanco, Starling Marter and Gerrit Cole, this is a sure fire way for the brass to cut the cord on their service team a lot of time ahead of them hitting Free Agency.
Kansas City was a laughable organization from the mid 90’s to 2013 as well, and despite winning back to back pennants in the AL< and being the first small market team to win the World Series since the 2003 Marlins, they will soon start to see their team ripped apart under the same Free Agent terms like the Bucs – with Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Danny Duffy and Mike Moustakas likely all not re-signing with the franchise. Dayton Moore already had to trade ace Closer Wade Davis this past week.
The Tampa Bay Rays were awful from 1998 – 2007, and were able to stockpile #1 overall picks to build up the franchise. The Joe Maddon era ensued for 6 straight quality years where they competed beautifully, including a World Series Loss in 2008, but now they are at a crossroads again from a 68 win campaign. and teams all spending double what they can. Read the rest of this entry
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – December 12, 2016
In New York City, I took a look at the Yankees rebuilding process, the assumptions and the last time there were no active World Champion Yankees on the roster.
It is a step by step rebuild episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
MLB Reports 
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