artie_fufkin wrote:

"Also, I did not watch this season, but to hear people on this board, it sounds like he pissed off Matheny."

I don't know if he pissed off Matheny, or there were other people Matheny preferred to have out there. Carpenter essentially took away Skip's outfield role, and Descalso took away his infield role. I suppose you can make an argument that after Furcal got hurt, Scal could have moved to short and Skip could have played second, but that would have left the Cardinals with some serious defensive issues on the right side of the infield, and it would have crowded the lineup with left-handed hitters without a lot of power.

I believe Matheny made several comments how he wish he could work Skip in more.  Skip is still a usefull outfielder but he doesnt offer more then the Cardinals everyday players.  If one of them needed a break Carp was the guy filling that need.  Nothing against Skip but as you started his skill set wasnt needed on the Cardinals.

IMO, the Quality Start statistic has grossly expanded the pool of pitchers considered good.  6 innings and 3 ER (otherwise known as a 4.50 ERA) is suddenly considered a "quality" start.  Of course, the people who came up with the statistic failed to take into account that the starter has left the game in the hands of at least 3 relief pitchers and with an ERA well above league average (last year's MLB ERA was 4.01).

You want to talk about meaningless stats, the quality start has to be near the top of the list.

"Well, it's hard to argue logic with a guy who conspired with Ed Wade to win a whopping 86 games twice in four seasons, but I'd like to see how many times Anibal Sanchez actually let the game get away in the seventh inning or later because he didn't understand the fundamentals of winning enough to retire batters a third or fourth time through the order."

Good points, which is probably why Bowa didn't come right out and call Sanchez a pansy. The gist of his comment was from the perspective of being in the dugout, probably when he was a coach with the Dodgers and Sanchez was pitching against them with the Marlins.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"Also, I did not watch this season, but to hear people on this board, it sounds like he pissed off Matheny."

I don't know if he pissed off Matheny, or there were other people Matheny preferred to have out there. Carpenter essentially took away Skip's outfield role, and Descalso took away his infield role. I suppose you can make an argument that after Furcal got hurt, Scal could have moved to short and Skip could have played second, but that would have left the Cardinals with some serious defensive issues on the right side of the infield, and it would have crowded the lineup with left-handed hitters without a lot of power.

Skip certainly fell out of favor, but I don't think it's anything he did as much as it was the Cardinals happened to get hot when Descalso and Kozma were the middle infield combination and, unlike Larussa, Matheny was more likely to stick with a set lineup.

Going forward, as much as anything, Schumaker's problem was he was left handed.  The Cardinals need a RH hitter who can play CF and give Jay the occasional day off.  Until they sign a better option, that's Shane Robinson.  Descalso offers a LH infield bat, and Carpenter a LH corner outfield bat.  Skips biggest problem was that he didn't offer anything the Cardinals didn't already have.

The way salaries are going, I don't even think the $1.5M price tag was that big of a deal.  The average MLB salary is something like $3.3M.  Skip was making less than half of that.  But Skip was buried on their depth chart, so it made sense for him to leave.

As of right now, who's on the bench (assume Descalso is the starting 2B)?  Wigginton, M. Carpenter, Cruz and ???  Kozma and Robinson??

Drew seems alittle pricey.  I was thinking 6 million would be a good price but I thought he would get more then one year.

Actually, anyone who needs pitching should be calling the Dodgers.  A friend just pointed out that the Dodgers currently have 8 starters under contract for next year.

Kershaw- $11M
Greinke- $19M
Ryu- $3.33M
Beckett- $17M (plus $17M in 2014)
Billingsley- $11M (plus $12M in 2014)
Lilly- $13.1M
Harang- $7M (plus a 2014 mutual option)
Capuano- $6M (plus a 2014 mutual option)

Both Billingsley (elbow) and Lilly (shoulder) finished 2012 on the DL, but both are expected to be available at the beginning of spring training.    You would think the Dodgers would be willing to give a couple of these guys away for a basket of batting practice balls.  They're probably stuck with Beckett unless they pick up a lot of his contract, probably the same with Lilly.  But Harang and Capuano would be very reasonable contracts considering what other teams are paying for pitchers.

Korean, not Japanese. They paid quite a bit just for the right to negotiate with him, and I read something that said they can't send him to the minors. He's expected to be in the rotation.

Kerahaw is a free agent after 2014. We were actually discussing him today. I didn't realize he's only 24. His record is something like 60-35, his career ERA is about 2.75, and he's averaging better than a strikeout an inning for his career. He'll be 26 when he hits free agency.

Don't laugh, but I wouldn't be shocked if Kershaw signs the first $200M contract for a pitcher. I bet he starts at 8/$240 and works down from there.

forsberg_us wrote:

Actually, anyone who needs pitching should be calling the Dodgers.  A friend just pointed out that the Dodgers currently have 8 starters under contract for next year.

Kershaw- $11M
Greinke- $19M
Ryu- $3.33M
Beckett- $17M (plus $17M in 2014)
Billingsley- $11M (plus $12M in 2014)
Lilly- $13.1M
Harang- $7M (plus a 2014 mutual option)
Capuano- $6M (plus a 2014 mutual option)

Both Billingsley (elbow) and Lilly (shoulder) finished 2012 on the DL, but both are expected to be available at the beginning of spring training.    You would think the Dodgers would be willing to give a couple of these guys away for a basket of batting practice balls.  They're probably stuck with Beckett unless they pick up a lot of his contract, probably the same with Lilly.  But Harang and Capuano would be very reasonable contracts considering what other teams are paying for pitchers.

Jeez...is their plan to "Frankenstein" a Koufax and a Drysdale out of pieces of those guys?

forsberg_us wrote:

Actually, anyone who needs pitching should be calling the Dodgers.  A friend just pointed out that the Dodgers currently have 8 starters under contract for next year.

Kershaw- $11M
Greinke- $19M
Ryu- $3.33M
Beckett- $17M (plus $17M in 2014)
Billingsley- $11M (plus $12M in 2014)
Lilly- $13.1M
Harang- $7M (plus a 2014 mutual option)
Capuano- $6M (plus a 2014 mutual option)

Both Billingsley (elbow) and Lilly (shoulder) finished 2012 on the DL, but both are expected to be available at the beginning of spring training.    You would think the Dodgers would be willing to give a couple of these guys away for a basket of batting practice balls.  They're probably stuck with Beckett unless they pick up a lot of his contract, probably the same with Lilly.  But Harang and Capuano would be very reasonable contracts considering what other teams are paying for pitchers.

I have always liked Lilly.  His price tag is to steep.  They would have to pick up some of the contract.  However Billingsley is worth the price.  I dont see the Cardinals looking for starters but if they were that is how I would approach it.

Eh. Jackson is an average pitcher and the Cubs had some dreadful pitching last season. All he has to do is throw 200 innings and be his average self and they come out ahead.

Theo has actually done a decent job building a cheap rotation that won't be vomit-inducing bad for the fans, but between Jackson, Baker, Wood and Feldman there are going to be a lot of home runs flying out of Wrigley this summer.

You can have an average rotation and still give up a lot of home runs.

As for Jackson, there's value in at least being respectable (75-80 wins) instead of horrible. There's no point in the Cubs going full Houston and just sitting on a pile of cash. They have the money so dropping $13 million annually on an average pitcher isn't that nuts.

BTW, I think Shaun Marcum is injured.

forsberg_us wrote:

The way salaries are going, I don't even think the $1.5M price tag was that big of a deal.  The average MLB salary is something like $3.3M.

FWIW, I think median is more informative here.

Max wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

The way salaries are going, I don't even think the $1.5M price tag was that big of a deal.  The average MLB salary is something like $3.3M.

FWIW, I think median is more informative here.

Going by this chart, it looks like the median of the median is about $1.1 million. Interesting that the Brewers were ahead of the Yankees.


http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/baseball/mlb/salaries/team