Ananas

Save some $$ on avoiding taking Hanson to arbitration after opening the vault for Upton? Or they're concerned with Hanson's shoulder going forward maybe. I dunno, I get the trade for LAA but I can't figure out the Braves side. They don't just have Kimbrel, they've got Venters and O'Flaherty too. Maybe a replacement for Chad Durbin? No way Walden closes ahead of Kimbrel obviously. I just think some front offices over value bullpen arms.

Braves acquire Jordan Walden from the Angels for Tommy Hanson. And I know Atlanta has pitching depth to spare and all, but really? Angels did really well. Ervin Santana out, Tommy Hanson in. Now imagine if they can get Greinke to come back.

You have no idea how old I feel seeing Kenny Lofton on a Hall of Fame ballot.

Damn you and your sabermetrics! Put it in laymens terms! Fair. That average annual value in 2012 dollars gets you an above average regular, occasional all-star. Longoria is already a perennial all-star candidate, and should still be in his prime (albeit at the end) when the contract kicks in. Because player salaries tend to escalate 5 percent a year, the contract value is fair in today's terms and would be very favourable in 2017 terms (with salaries having escalated 25% over those 5 years). He'll age and decline as it goes on, but if you project salaries continuing to go up, the contract should still be fair value so long as he's good enough to play everyday at the end of it.

It shouldn't even really need restructuring. If you're averaging 16.66m per year, right now that's the going rate for a 3-3.5 win player. Longoria is already a perennial 4-5 win player, and by 2016 when the extension kicks in that salary will be somewhere in the range of a 2 1/2 win player based on predictions for future player salaries (and those calculations were pre ESPN's new contract). So as average salaries escalate, it's logical to assume that Longoria's deal will be very team friendly at the start, and the continued inflation of player salaries should be enough to offset his inevitable performance decline. Based on average player salary escalation of 5% a year, he'll really only have to be an average regular in 2022 to be worth that dollar figure.

Rays extend Evan Longoria with an additional 6 years, 100m and now have him under control through 2022 (age 37 season). If you take salary escalation into account it's a high risk, but really high reward move and it's so cool to see a small market team extending its franchise player through possibly the rest of his career. Not enough career franchise guys anymore, and when they do exist they tend to be Yankees.

Of course based on Rupert's recent fortunes Cashman will likely get caught hacking into Peter Gammons' voicemail and the Yanks will be forced to shut down within a year.

WAR is just a composite stat that should never be used as a catch-all argument except maybe for trying to calculate the worth of contracts (and even that isn't perfect). But the thing is that it's a composite state based on a lot of much more tangible stats that paint a more accurate picture. Trout had a slight edge in making it on base, Cabrera had a clear but not overwhelming advantage in hitting for power. Cabrera had 62 more total bases, Trout had 45 more stolen bases. Cabrera made 56 more outs, and although this comes over 58 more plate appearances the same argument can be made to somewhat muddle Cabrera's TB advantage. If you take all these numbers into consideration it's really a toss-up for who provided the most offensive value. Baseball Reference has Mike Trout creating 138 runs, with Miggy creating 139 runs. Incredibly close. But can anyone really make the argument that Trout's defensive superiority, mostly in CF, is actually worth less than 2 runs more than Miggy's average to below average defense at an infield corner? Miguel Cabrera had an incredibly valuable season and is absolutely the MVP in just about any season. But Trout was better - not based on impossible to understand complex formulas that traditionalists find shady. He was better when you take all of the basic stats and do the fairly straight forward math with them. The WAR thing I think is really just a convenient dismissal of Trout because baseball writers FEEL like they should be voting for a Triple Crown winner just because. If Hamilton or Granderson hit 2 more home runs this season I can't help but feel that Mike Trout wins MVP. And that's just silly. On a brighter note, THE MELKMAN COMETH!

You know how many baseball players other than Trout have had 30 home runs, 45 steals and 120 runs in a season? None.

I'd have always put Angelos above Loria. At least recently he's been TRYING to get players to take his money. This is just a mind blowing trade. Defensible on both sides from a pure baseball perspective (although outside of Hech, for each prospect in this deal there's a better prospect in the Jays system at the same position), but a potential franchise killer optically speaking. The Jays accumulate risk but I think just how much is being overstated. Reyes managed to get into 160 games last year and he's only had two seasons where injuries kept him from being statistically a 4-6 win player. Even if he continues to miss an average of 20-30 games a season his contract profiles as market value, he's only guaranteed through age 34 and with the new TV revenue coming plus assumed inflation, he won't need to stay a 4-6 win player for it to be a fair contract. Mark Buerhle is the one who they'll almost certainly end up overpaying for, but it's only a 3 year commitment and he provides almost guaranteed durability, quality innings and he'll consistently make his starts (the kind of consistency this team has sorely lacked in recent years). Josh Johnson is an unbelievable get, probably one and done but you never know, and if he does go then you'll recoup a 1st. If he stays healthy then you have a legitimate #1 to go up against any pitcher in this division. Bonifacio is an unspectacular but useful supersub, and a respectable starting 2B if they so choose, and John Buck gives them the option of trying to move JP Arencibia as part of a package to address the remaining area of need in LF while they wait for Travis D'Arnaud to be ready. In one move the Jays addressed almost every offseason need they had. I don't even mind that it took being the beneficiary of Jeffrey Loria's con to get it done.

Actually, reports are saying it's likely so that he can work on The Secret Service, a project he's developing with Mark Millar. A likely production title for Star Wars Episode VII: The Secret Service.

Crazy, almost certainly untrue speculation on my part, but Matthew Vaughn recently dropped off the X-Men: First Class sequel for undisclosed reasons. Seems like they've been planning to go ahead with this sale and film for at least a little while. Lucas says they've been meeting with writers recently and Vaughn is a self-described "Star Wars fanatic" who by virtue of First Class has handled both fanboy expectation and budget with success. Just saying it would make more sense than Abrams, Whedon or Nolan.

Look at it this way. Star Wars is now in the hands of the studio that turned around Marvel Studios and made the Avengers. This is a positive development, since we all knew sooner or later somebody was going to make another Star Wars.

I don't particularly mind either of the teams beyond the fact that one team has Delmon Young. So go Giants, I guess.

Congratulations to Larry Lucchino's personal tampering machine, the Boston media, on getting themselves a manager. John Farrell's pretty mediocre, but he's all yours now. Hope Farrell enjoys being scapegoated in a few years like Larry does to all of his hires when he's in a tough spot. Love that John had that integrity to really stick it to the guys who completely screwed over his mentor like that last year.

I think you can make compelling cases for Kershaw or Gio. But it's really, really close and Dickey's innings load might be the tiebreaker that makes him the Cy Young to me.

Zimbabwe are like the living, breathing argument in favour of the Woolf Report. How this side continuously gets a free ride into these tournaments while sides like Ireland, Afghanistan, Canada and the Dutch have to fight tooth and nail is absurd and completely contrary to growing this sport. If South Africa had any NRR concerns at this stage they probably could have chased Zimbabwe down inside 10 overs.

Canada appealing Clayton/Evans decision. I'm assuming it's on the basis that Evans was warned three times for holding down Custio's head and should have been deducted the deciding two points. Doubt anything will come of it.

I wouldn't say they got nothing. They got someone to take Soto off their hands and Christian Villanueva is an interesting prospect in an organization scarcely lacking in interesting prospects. And I don't think the Cubs were too likely to have extended to Dempster the 13 million dollar offer it would have taken to get compensation for his signing elsewhere in the off-season, so with his no-trade clause they kind of had to take what they could get. Put it this way - long term the Cubs are a better team today than they were 30 hours ago.

Angels better make a run this year, because their very average farm system just lost 3 of it's best 10 for a 2 month rental. Makes them a shit load better though without having to hope for a Haren turnaround to be dangerous in October. With that line-up plus Weaver/Greinke/Wilson you gotta like their chances as much as anyone else in baseball right now.

I like this move for the Yankees and I'm surprised no one else was at least willing to kick the tires. They're adding about 2.5m in salary which is minimal, they're giving up two complete nothing minor leaguers (and I know this from when Danny Farquhar was with the Blue Jays, then the centre-piece of a really fun game of waiver hot potatoes with the Athletics). And in return they get a guy who, if ratio stats are to be believed, has absolutely gotten unlucky this year. His line drive rate of 25.6% ties him with Curtis Granderson for 6th in the majors, he's hitting less ground balls than recent history and with the increase in fly balls it's not unreasonable to believe that the BP porch they have out there at Yankee Stadium could turn some of those into home runs. Actually his peripherals actually look astonishingly similar to Robinson Cano's. Couple that with the defensive value he still provides and it's not unreasonable to assume that not only will he be a sizeable upgrade over Dewayne Wise but also perhaps a reasonable facsimile of Brett Gardner down the stretch.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today on Twitter: Please please please let this happen. And include the camera crew from The Franchise so we can watch Hanley Ramirez and Bobby V in the same locker room.

Going to see Stephen Strasburg throw live today. It doesn't even bother me that it's against the Jays, I will watch with childlike wonderment.

That being said - Jameson Taillon, Gerrit Cole, Mark Appel. In 3 years you guys will only need to score like, 3 runs a game to win the division.

Somebody locate Tim Lincecum and send him back to AT&T Park. Wiley Wiggins has been making an ass of himself on the mound wearing Timmy's jersey this year.