Who Lurks?

I’m currently on a plane back to Virginia for 5 days. There is no internet, and I just realized that my work laptop doesn’t have ANY games on it. Seriously. No games? Time to blog. But I’m going to blog from memory of the transactions from baseball’s offseason… some of the exact details in this might be wrong, and for that, I apologize in advance.


First, this will be known as the offseason that Albert Pujols left St. Louis. For all the other quasi monumental activity, it all comes in 2nd to Pujols. I, like most people, am pretty shocked that he ended up leaving St. Louis. But I don’t blame him. The Cardinals didn’t really make an effort to retain the guy. Sure you could say they made him a 200 million dollar offer, great..but they wanted him back the same way the Mets wanted Jose Reyes back. They wanted him back on the cheap. There isn’t any other way to put it…to me? That’s stunning that an organization like the Cardinals could treat an icon like Pujols that way. Pujols wanted icon-type money. He is the best player in baseball… and yes, his numbers have been sliding in recent seasons. That being said, looking at the numbers he posted this season (basically one hit away from another .300/100/100/30 season) and one could argue he still is the MVP. He changes the way a lineup is constructed. Add in the fact he’s a gold glove first baseman? Come on now. Take care of the guy. The Angels make out like bandits….
I’m never going to assume that anyone is clean anymore, but if Pujols stays clean (for all we know) then the Angels will benefit from his ridiculous run of hall of fame numbers , most notably, his chase of Barry Bonds. The Angels might sell 20 million dollars worth of merchandise during that particular run. Never mind the jerseys, hot dogs, bobble heads and anything else they sell because of Pujols. I’d venture a guess that the auxiliary money generated by the Pujols signing will come close to 100 million over the next 10 years. This includes the increase in tv ratings, sponsorships, suite sales, ticket sales, merchandise, parking, and everything else. Oh..and we haven’t mentioned how much better the team is and how the Angels are officially one of those teams players like Lance Berkman will join on the cheap to team up with a Pujols to make a world series run. All that being said, it is borderline moronic that St. Louis balked at his asking price. Sure, I don’t want to be paying Pujols 25 mil when he’s 40-42 years old… but if I manage my team correctly, that won’t be an issue.

Ryan Braun testing positive
This is beyond sad for baseball. He’s one of the good guys that I think everyone can and was rooting for. He’s fun to watch play baseball. And was content to sign and stay in Milwaukee. Apparently the circumstances surrounding his positive test are unique… but isn’t that what everyone says? Everyone says, oh I THOUGHT I could take this because it said it was just like Dr. Pepper (or whatever they say). Fact is, this is a bummer for baseball. Should something be done about the MVP award? I think so. Listen, I’m not the biggest Matt Kemp fan in the world, but one could make a fairly easy argument that he should have won to begin with. He played a premium defensive position in an extreme pitchers park and still put up silly numbers. The Dodgers, if I recall, were barely above .500. But they played respectable ball all year… basically because of two guys. Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp. The rest of that team, with the exception of Andre Either, kind of sucks. It doesn’t help that I think I currently have more net worth than anyone who “owns” the Dodgers… which is still yet to be determined. I wouldn’t have a problem taking the award away from Braun and giving it to Kemp. That seems like the fair thing to do… or at least putting a GIANT asterisk next to Braun’s name in the MVP record books.

The Miami Marlins
What the hell? So they changed their uniforms, moved into a new ballpark, signed a big time manager and paired him with a trio of marquee free agents… and after all that, I’m still not buying them. Why? Two words. Jeffery Loria. We’ve seen this before…remember when they signed Carlos Delgato? Remember how they always dump their young guns for younger guns? This is the same team that has taken baseball’s revenue share money and ran by having a lower payroll than what baseball allocates to each team. NOW they want to compete? NOW they want to pay players and be a major player? Sorry, but I don’t buy that this is for real. Look at what they did… they bought valued commodities that they could easily flip without reservation. This is actually a brilliant fantasy baseball move… maybe not the best idea in real life baseball. What is stopping them from flipping Jose Reyes in 2 years when the team is still drawing 20k people to the game? You don’t think a team like Seattle or the Angels or the Cubs or some other desperate franchise gives up a couple of their best young prospects for a locked in Reyes ? What about Heath Bell? How many times have we seen a good closer fetch a couple decent prospects at the trade deadline? Shit. Mike Adams who SET UP Heath Bell got the Padres a couple fantastic prospects this year… and he wasn’t even closing. And we all know starting pitching is always in demand. I’m just saying… read between the lines. I don’t think the Marlins win a world series with these guys, but I do think they sell them off, get cheap again, and repeat the cycle.

This is the same thing the Oakland A’s have been trying to do. Problem is, the guys they sign are on the significant downside to their careers. Nobody wants them and if they do, they aren’t giving up a single B level prospect much less a young kid with value. Is it any coincidence that the Marlins’ farm system has finally thinned out? Sure, they’ll sell some tickets (probably) and some merchandise (maybe) and make a few dollars initially, but give this 18 months. There was a reason they weren’t giving out no-trade clauses. What do you think the Yankees or Red Sox would give for Pujols in two years? Just saying, read between the lines.