The 2007 Major League Baseball Thread

[Vendetta]

Major Free Agent Signings for 07

Alou Moises, RF from San Francisco to New York Mets. $8.5M for 1 Year

Rich Aurilia, 3B from Cincinnati to San Francisco. $8M for 2 years

Dannys Baez, RP from Atlanta to Baltimore. $19M for 3 Years

Rod Barajas, C from Texas to Philidelphia. $2.5M for 1 year

Miguel Batista, SP from Arizona to Seattle. $25M for 3 Years

Chad Bradford, RP from New York Mets to Baltimore. $10.5 for 3 years

Frank Catalanotto, LF from Toronto to Texas. $13M for 3 Years

Mark DeRosa, 2B from Texas to Chicago Cubs. $13M for 3 years

Octavio Dotel, RP from Yankees to Kansas City. $5M for 1 year

J.D. Drew, RF from Dodgers to Boston. $70M for 5 years

Adam Eaton, SP from Texas to Philadelphia. $24.5 for 3 years

Cliff Floyd, LF from Mets to Cubs. $3M for 1 Year

Keith Foulke, RP from Boston to Cleveland. $5M for 1 year

Eric Gange, RP from Dodgers to Texas, $6M for 1 Year

Marcus Giles, 2B from Atlanta to San Diego, $3.2M for 1 Year

Alex Gonzalez, SS from Boston to Cincinnati, $14M for 3 Years

Shea Hillenbrand, 1B from San Francisco to Angels, $6.5M for 1 Year

Audrey Huff, 3B from Houston to Baltimore, $20M for 3 Years

Carlos Lee, LF from Texas to Houston, $100M for 6 Years

Ted Lilly, SP from Toronto to Cubs, $40M for 4 years

Julio Lugo, SS from Dodgers to Boston, $36M for 4 Years

Greg Maddox, SP from Dodgers to San Diego, $10M for 1 Year

Jason Marquis, SP from St. Louis to Cubs, $21M for 3 years

Daisuke Matsuzaka, SP from Japan to Boston, $52M for 6 years

Gary Matthews Jr, CF from Texas to Angels, $50M for 5 Years

Gil Meche, SP from Seattle to Kansas City, $55M for 5 Years

Andy Pettitte, SP from Houston to Yankees, $16M for 1 Year

Juan Pierre, CF from Cubs to Dodgers, $44M for 5 Years

Jason Schmidt, SP from San Francisco to Dodgers, $47M for 3 years

Alfonso Soriano, LF from Washington to Cubs, $136M for 8 years

Jeff Suppan, SP, from St. Louis to Milwaukee, $42M for 4 Years

Any I haven't mentioned please feel free to let me know.

So I'm not a cubs fan, but this year looks very promising. They have made the biggest improvments this offseason and have spent a total of $296.5M on free agents this year. So they are putting out alot of money for this season to go bust.

[Guest PotatoClassic]

How is Frank Thomas to TOR not a big signing?

[Vendetta]

Like I said. I might have missed a few. Barry Zito and Frank Thomas have both been brought to my attention.

[Mofoticon]

I personally think the Cubs spent 300 mil to finish below 3rd place again...they aren't a whole lot better than they were last year, IMO.

[GhostMachine]

Hmmm......Cliff Floyd, Ted Lilly and Alfonso Soriano on the Cubs? I might actually have to watch a few more games than usual when the season starts. Not too thrilled Aurilia left the Reds, but I'm not surprised. At least they picked up Alex Gonzalez.

How is Frank Thomas to TOR not a big signing?

Edited January 30, 2007 by GhostMachine

[Ananas]

Because Frank Thomas hasn't been all that noteworthy in several years.

[Your Mom]

Go Cubs! WE ARE GOING TO RULE!!

[crazedfan]

So to all you Sox fans, who the hell is going to be closing for you? Papelbon is going back to becoming a starter, right? And now Foulke's gone... who's left?

[Maxx]

Delcarman or Hansen are being discussed, we could try and plug Tavarez in there, but I expect we'll make one more move to get more relief help.

[Evil Chase K]

Don't forget Tony Armas Jr. to the Pirates.

Armas Power will lead the Pirates to the World Series!

...If teams with under .500 winning percentages got to the World Series.

[EWRFan]

Since no team plays in Puerto Rico, I am always more inclined to follow players and not teams. Although at heart, The Indians and Mets have been my teams. I think the Mets have a good chance this year(they did last year and blew it), but the Indians are far off. I do like what the Cubs have done, but they need a healthy Mark Prior and a healthy Kerry Woods to even make it to the playoffs.

[Mofoticon]

I dont think the Indians are that far off...They played very well in the 2nd half again, and made some nice moves to improve the weakness of the team, the bullpen. They have a very solid lineup and a good starting rotation, so you can't count them out...although the AL Central is the best division in baseball.

[GhostMachine]

Because Frank Thomas hasn't been all that noteworthy in several years.

I'd say 39 home runs in 2006 is pretty noteworthy.

[Lowerdeck]

Since no team plays in Puerto Rico, I am always more inclined to follow players and not teams.

Nationals, even though they're gone? Marlins since they're the closest to the continent?

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

I'm scared to death that the Tigers AL Pennant winning year was a fluke.

[Ananas]

I'm scared to death that the Tigers AL Pennant winning year was a fluke.

[ACCBiggz]

NEW YORK --Time Warner Inc. has reached a deal to sell the Atlanta Braves baseball team to Liberty Media Corp. after more than a year of negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The deal, which must still be approved by Major League Baseball, would involve Time Warner transferring the Braves, a group of craft magazines and $1 billion in cash to Liberty in exchange for about 60 million shares of Time Warner, the Journal reported, citing an unnamed person familiar with the deal.

Based on the closing price of Time Warner's stock Monday, the market value of those shares would be about $1.27 billion.

Liberty Media spokesman John Orr and Time Warner spokesman Ed Adler declined to comment on the report, which the Journal posted on its Web site Monday.

Liberty currently has about 170 million shares of Time Warner, which is equivalent to a stake of about 4 percent of the giant media conglomerate, whose holdings include Time Warner Cable, HBO, AOL, CNN, Warner Bros. and the Time Inc. magazine publishing company. The deal would reduce the size of Liberty's stake in Time Warner to about 2.6 percent.

Time Warner acquired the Braves when it bought Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting Systems from CNN founder Ted Turner in the mid-1990s.

[Vendetta]

They wouldn't move the braves would they?

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

...no?

[ACCBiggz]

No. At least not right now, Atlanta has been a very good town for the Braves, but if any team were to move the #1 city on the list is Las Vegas but that is like 1000000x what no one wants to do right now. Mainly because of gambling, and it being baseballs #1 rule. But that is where the Marlins talked about a potential move if they did not get a new stadium in Miami. But with the stadium in Atlanta only opening in 1996 and the support there is no reason to move.

I'm not sure where the locations of the main LMC offices are, but a note of interest... They not also are about to get the Braves, but also control of DirectTV. While that may not mean too much now, but MLB are negotiating with having its "Extra Innings" package exclusive through DirectTV in the future. So LMC will not only own a premiere baseball team, but also exclusive rights to the MLB's Season Package. So they SHOULD have a vested interest in building the Braves back.