Daily Archives: January 24, 2017
Should The Red Sox Extend Chris Sale For 3 Or More Years Right Now?
We will be delving a lot more into all team payrolls on the MLB Reports as part of our regular features from now on. One of the things that I have been thinking about a lot is the Red Sox Payroll. I wonder if they shouldn’t just extend Chris Sale for an additional 3 years. Yes it is risky with a guy who throws with a whipping motion, but you have a lot to consider on this. First you could offer him a 3 Year deal extension worth about $90 MIL total. It would be an awesome move to align Sale on the same years of service with David Price. IMAGE by Sports Mockery
Chris Sale will enter the year at age 28, and while his current deal will take him to age 31 before he hits Free Agency prior to the 2020 season, maybe the Red Sox could capitalize on him maybe seeking some security.
I am suggesting the starting point of a AAV of $30 MIL. Maybe the club adds a Mutual Option for the 4th and 5th year of the extension with a Buyout, but this is a smart concept from the Red Sox perspective.
Never in their long standing organization have they had such rich young superstars just entering the league at the same time.
Mookie Betts/Jackie Bradley Jr – and Xander Bogaerts are both under Team Control until 2021 and 202o respectively- with Betts/Bogaerts as perennial MVP contenders.
Even better than that are Andrew Benintendi (2023) and Blake Swihart (2022) rounding out a nice nucleus of talent held for cheap on the longterm. Read the rest of this entry
With No Top 50 ALL – Time Contracts Signed This Winter – Who Is Next To Make The List?
Signing Cespedes has signed the biggest contract of the offseason thus far at 4 YRs/$110 MIL. it is ranked tied for 60th ALL – Time even though the Annual Average Value is tied for 2nd ALL – Time among position players. With power having been devalued and a firm new set of penalties for Luxury Tax Threshold Abusers, it may take until the winter of 2018 – heading into 2019 – for another player to ink a contract that places them in the top 50 ALL – Time Salaries.
The winter has seen a lot of great Free Agents sign like Yoenis Cespedes, Aroldis Chapman, Dexter Fowler, Kenley Jansen, Ian Desmond, Mark Melancon and Edwin Encarnacion, however none of them were historic by any means.
While Cespedes’s $110 MIL pact over 4 years is $27.5 MIL per year, which ties him for the 2nd best AAV ALL – Time for a position player with Alex Rodriguez, (trailing Miguel Cabrera‘s 8 YR/$248 MIL extension that started in 2016) – only brings him in for a tie for about 60th on the ALL – Time Biggest Contracts list.
To crack the top 50 list ALL – Time right now, you need to bring in a deal that makes at least $120 MIL for the life of the contract.
During last years offeseason, David Price ($217 MIL), Zack Greinke, ($206.5 MIL) Jason Heyward, ($184 MIL), Chris Davis, ($161 MIL), Justin Upton ($132.8 MIL) and Johnny Cueto ($130 MIL) all inked pacts in excess of that.
Early in the season, Stephen Strasburg shocked the world with his new 7 YRs/$175 MIL deal soon afterwards. Read the rest of this entry
The Tampa Bay Rays Should Play 3 Series A Year In Montreal Right Now
Tropicana Field is regarded as the 2nd worst facility in the Major Leagues next to the o.co in Oakland. The Rays are always in the bottom 2 for attendance in the ML and simply can’t draw much more than that – even though they had 6 straight 80 win seasons from 2008 – 2013. With 4 other clubs in their Division all spending double to triple the amount of money on payroll as them, it will not get better for the clubs finances any time soon. They are locked in a lease deal until 2027. Why not play some of their games at Olympic Stadium in Montreal in the meantime?
With horrible attendance each year, coupled with the recent success of exhibition games at Olympic Stadium over the last few years, along with the stadium issue sill being prominent in the area, the Rays should host 9 – 10 games in Montreal, QC, Canada.
My idea would be to have one series in the French Province against the Jays, one against the Boston Red Sox and also one set of games versus the Yankees.
Considering the amount of traveling fans from these 3 AL East contending clubs, I would think the contests would be well attended.
This schedule would still allow the Tampa Bay Rays to hold 2 other series in St. Petersburg versus all 3 clubs.
With the 19 Games a year versus Division rivals, this is a good way to have the Rays also not create team fatigue within their home dates. Read the rest of this entry
Odds To Win The 2017 MLB World Series:
Last time we did these odds we talked more about why clubs should be wagered on, and now I will explain how we listed our top 5 bad value bets.
The New York Yankees head the category for this one. There is no rhyme or reason this club should be parallel with their crosstown rivals the Mets – and ahead of the Cardinals, Rangers or Mariners for their odd.
Quite simply, the club is not as good as those other squads right now. The direction of the organization to the youth movement may change that scenario in the near future – however can you really bank on any of their Starting Pitchers in a playoff series?
Also if you have the Blue Jays and Red Sox already ahead of you on the list, a lot of other 2nd place clubs in each of the other Divisions may hav a better leg up on you to snare the 2nd Wild Card Spot.
I like the Detroit Tigers as more of a chance to make the playoffs the Bronx Bombers in 2017. I will say that if they are in contention, that the money is always there to acquire guys midway through the year (hopefully all on expiring contracts.) Read the rest of this entry
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – January 24, 2017
Denis Poroy/Getty Images North America
Took a question from Cubs Fan with an 8.
@sullybaseball What are the top 5 (or 10) moments of the regular season that will stick with you from the 2016?
— cubsfan (@cu8sfan) January 22, 2017
We tend to forget the regular season moments, so let’s savor them while they still are fresh.
Loving the days of Spring and Summer on this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Philadelphia Phillies Optimistic About Heading To Spring Training In 2017
By Dan Wanser
Philadelphia held a massive consecutive sellout streak from the time CBP was in its first year until the latter parts of their team starting to decline in 2012. In 2015, the franchise finished 14th out of 15 clubs at the turnstiles with just 1.8 Million fans. This was the second straight year of a huge decline. For those reasons it is okay to slowly build this team up with salary. Philadelphia even dipped below the $100 MIL barrier in 2016 for payroll, and managed to bump attendance up to 1.95 MIL fans. With a projected payroll of $104.0 based on recent additions of Clay Buchholz and Howie Kendrick, the club will look to be a little more competitive in 2017, and rise that attendance beyond 2 MIL again.
The Philadelphia Phillies used to be a force to be reckoned with. “The team to beat” started their historic stretch in 2007, ripping off five straight National League East Division titles which included two trips to the World Series and a championship in 2008.
Players like Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard paved the way to the first championship team since 1980, but that all began to spiral out of control when Howard tore his achilles tendon during the final out of the 2011 NLDS.
Since then, the Phillies have not broken the .500 mark and the players that led the parade down Broad Street have moved on to other teams or left the game for good; the 2017 team is not the team of old. Read the rest of this entry
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