2016 MLB Thread

[Maxx]

Waiting for Stanton to start growing a beard in an tempt to get traded.

[Meacon Keaton]

Mattingly instituting that policy is hilarious since he was the bad boy that was fined multiple times by Steinbrenner for refusing to get haircuts. Not sure what he's trying to accomplish. Especially with the 'no mustache' rule. Even the military can have creepy mustaches. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

He's really tired of hearing "I mustache you a question".

[Draevyn]

1 hour ago, Meacon said:

Mattingly instituting that policy is hilarious since he was the bad boy that was fined multiple times by Steinbrenner for refusing to get haircuts. Not sure what he's trying to accomplish. Especially with the 'no mustache' rule. Even the military can have creepy mustaches. 

Can they? I thought for sure my buddy couldn't have any kind of growth in the Marines. He used to say he loved his time off because he could be lazy and not shave.

On a baseball note, there's a chance the Jays might not resign Bautista. I hate to already say "Fuck this season" but well, you know...

[Meacon Keaton]

You can have a mustache, but it can't go any lower your upper lip. A lot of corporations have that as a rule too, believe it or not.

And you may lose Bautista, but word is you guys are trying to trade for Jay Bruce. So hey, there's a .225 hitter as his replacement.   

[Draevyn]

5 minutes ago, Meacon said:

You can have a mustache, but it can't go any lower your upper lip. A lot of corporations have that as a rule too, believe it or not.

And you may lose Bautista, but word is you guys are trying to trade for Jay Bruce. So hey, there's a .225 hitter as his replacement.   

You are totally off my Christmas Card list now  

[GhostMachine]

Personally, I think its stupid that a manager can have any say whatsoever about a player's personal appearance, unless it may have some effect on the game. Telling a player to not wear jewelry (including piercings) because it could get damaged or lead to injury (from snags) would make sense. Telling a player he can't have facial hair is bullshit. And if there's nothing about it in the players' contracts, I fail to understand how it can fly.

 

[gunnar hendershow]

The Jay Bruce trade is off the table for now.

Bautista will be 36 next season so I don't know how much the Jays want to commit to a guy who is at the age when his offensive stats start rapidly declining. I also don't know what the Jays have as a possible replacement.

[Toe]

I think it sucks that Batista has come out and been so forward about his demands. It's going to make this a bit of a shit-show, and it's a no-win scenario for the new Jays management... unless they win the World Series.

[gunnar hendershow]

Fuck you Dexter Fowler.

[Gabriel]

Honestly, where I'm at is that the Jays should pick one of Bautista or Encarnacion, throw money at them, and then trade the other one for the best and cheapest pieces that they can acquire... and do it early. Letting this run into the season is a bad idea, as it creates more trouble than its worth. If they take care of it now, move one guy out and move forward, everybody's focus should be on the Post-Season. If they let it steep here, who knows what kind of trainwreck we have in Toronto this season.

 

EDIT: But one thing that the new management absolutely cannot do, after completely breaking off contact with David Price before even talking new contract, is not retain one of these guys. This is a show of good-faith to the fans, to re-sign one of our franchise cornerstones. We still have a very good team, with a decent amount of good prospects in the system. If one of those guys ends up with a big contract and starts slipping, we can eat it as fans because at least they're trying. If neither guy ends up with a deal and the season falls apart, that is the worst case scenario for the new management team, and that's probably a one-way ticket out of town before next season.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Gabriel

[MalaCloudy Black]

On 2/25/2016 at 12:05, damshow said:

Fuck you Dexter Fowler.

Since Srar is in recovery mode, presumably, I'll fill in:

Also, Shane Victorino signed a minor league deal with the Cubs. $1m deal, $1m incentives if he plays in the majors.

[thatshortguy]

Yet another sneakily good move from the Cubbies.  They're treating their farm system like a backup plan in case anyone goes down to injury or slumps.  $2m for Victorino has potential to be a steal.

[The Buscher]

At least Fowler, assuming he takes the buyout after the season, will wind up banking $13 million total - not too far off from the $15.8 million he could have gotten had he just taken the qualifying offer in the first place.  The biggest loser in this offseason was clearly Ian Desmond.  Rejected a 7-year, $100+ million extension from the Nationals after the 2014 season, produced a pretty crappy 2015 season, turned down the $15.8 million qualifying offer anyway, and has now finally signed with the Rangers.  He only gets 1 year, $8 million and he's going to be moved to left field with Josh Hamilton out.

If the qualifying offer stays in the next CBA I'll be very interested in seeing if even more guys start accepting it.  Eventually you're just going to see the middle of the road players accept that they won't get close to that high of an AAV on their next contract and they'll just accept the high priced 1-year deal and bet on themselves.

[gunnar hendershow]

That's why Matt Wieters accepted it. He's coming off 2 bad years (largely due to injury) and wasn't going to get $15 million annually from anyone, and probably wouldn't have gotten a long-term deal either. It's the safest way for a player to bet on themselves.

[The Buscher]

5 more weeks.  This is going to feel like the longest Spring Training ever. 

[Meacon Keaton]

It's so friggin' nice having baseball back on the telly. The cold weather, the sun going down at five o'clock, the whole wearing long pants, it's all almost done for another summer.  

[Toe]

It's a tradition for me - get really drunk one night, get woken up by some obnoxious ray of sunshine peaking through my window, then watch some spring training baseball while nursing a hangover. I'm looking forward to it.

[Your Mom]

Aroldis Chapman has been suspended for the first 30 games.

[Meacon Keaton]

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:14874405

What in the blue shit is wrong with Brett Phillips?