2016 MLB thread. THE CUBS HAVE BROKEN THE CURSE! Chicago Cubs are your 2016 World Series champions

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Gordon Edes
I'm having a tough time believing this, but I'm told Red Sox plan to make huge effort to re-sign Lester

i don't buy that at all. it's an act to appease fans like myself...i'm not that naive tho :lol:

I agree.

I don't like that we gave up a solid catcher prospect for Prado. We should have saved him for a better deal later. I like Prado but ehhhhh

He's not that valued around the league though. He was great in A ball but is getting handled recently in AA...for a 24 year old to get killed in AA says something. His value is strictly from the power because his defense is pretty below par and he has no plate discipline. I'll take my chances on Prado rather than that big gamble
 
Gordon Edes
I'm having a tough time believing this, but I'm told Red Sox plan to make huge effort to re-sign Lester

i don't buy that at all. it's an act to appease fans like myself...i'm not that naive tho :lol:

I agree.

I don't like that we gave up a solid catcher prospect for Prado. We should have saved him for a better deal later. I like Prado but ehhhhh

He's not that valued around the league though. He was great in A ball but is getting handled recently in AA...for a 24 year old to get killed in AA says something. His value is strictly from the power because his defense is pretty below par and he has no plate discipline. I'll take my chances on Prado rather than that big gamble


Too many guys ahead of him at Catcher as well. McCann - Cervelli - Murphy - Romine - Sanchez (player of the future)

He'd be 27-28 before he would even get any time in the Majors. If he ever got there.
 
I'm sure you're not the only one canceling season ticket packages. CBP is always empty now. Thats why before the season they went around giving out tickets to anyone wearing Phillies gear, had a Phils sticker on their car, or even just said they liked the team.
 
I'm sure you're not the only one canceling season ticket packages. CBP is always empty now. Thats why before the season they went around giving out tickets to anyone wearing Phillies gear, had a Phils sticker on their car, or even just said they liked the team.

No doubt about it; if they fire RAJ then I would stick around but I'll take that money and go to some extra Eagles games with it
 
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I work on the grounds crew for AA Portland. I saw O'Brien get pulled from BP and say goodbye to his teammates. Kinda cool.
 
Winners

Tigers
Cardinals
Red Sox's
Marlins

Losers
Phillies
Rays
Royals

Jury will still be out on the A's trade. A's fans have known all along it would either be Cespedes or Donaldson to get the big deal within the next 2/3 years. Now they need to pony up and pay DJ. I feel like the A's should have asked for prospect back as well in the trade (2B or OF).
 
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Cliff Lee left the Nats/Phils game early. Looks like his elbow, and he looks pretty defeated.
 
Red Sox ace Andrew Miller trade.

It's a small deal relative to the others we saw on Thursday, but the Red Sox acquiring lefty Eduardo Rodriguez from the Orioles for two months of left-handed reliever Andrew Miller was the best value move of the day -- a great return for Boston, and the deal with the best minor league prospect moved over the course of the whole day.
[+] EnlargeEduardo Rodriguez
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Eduardo Rodriguez is a great return for two months of Andrew Miller.

Miller has truly remade himself as a specialist reliever after failing to pan out as a starter. He was the best prospect at the time of the 2006 draft after three strong years at UNC where he would regularly hit 97 mph with an unhittable slider and helped the Heels reach the finals of the College World Series. He had trouble commanding his stuff in the rotation, with a long arm action that proved tough for him to repeat 100-odd times a game, and major league hitters were willing to lay off that big-breaking slider and sit on the fastball.

The Red Sox acquired him in 2011 and were patient in remaking him into a quality reliever, with the fourth-best strikeout rate of any MLB reliever this year -- and he's now getting left- and right-handed hitters out, so he's more than just a specialist. That gives the Orioles an outstanding eighth-inning option and provides the left-handed power arm that Brian Matusz was supposed to be.

But two months of Miller, who's a free agent after the year, isn't much of a return for one of the top 100 prospects in the game, so Boston made out great here in getting Rodriguez. The 21-year-old left-hander needs more consistency and his slider is not yet an average pitch, but he's consistently up to 94 as a starter, touching 96 in his best starts, with an above-average to plus changeup in the mid- to upper 80s. His control is way ahead of his command, and my last time seeing him this year in Class AA (the fourth time I'd seen him in the past 15 months) he struggled as much with bad pitch-calling as anything else. I think he's a potential mid-rotation starter and slots in very well toward the top of the Red Sox's farm system, behind Henry Owens (who has better deception and a better changeup) but in line with the other big arms.

A shockingly low return for David Price.

I'm floored that this is all the Rays got for David Price -- as are some of the execs I've talked to so far -- and I can't imagine that the return this winter would have been any worse. The three-way trade that sends Price to Detroit, Nick Franklin, Drew Smyly and Tigers prospect Willy Adames to Tampa, and Austin Jackson to Seattle, nets out as an outstanding move for the Tigers and a solid exchange for the Mariners. But for Tampa Bay, it may end up as a huge missed opportunity to restock their system.
[+] EnlargeDavid Price
AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
It's been a while since David Price hasn't faced almost daily trade speculation.

The Tigers didn't need another starter, but Price is certainly better than Smyly -- who's been very good this year -- both looking at the regular season and in lining up the postseason rotation. Price can work deeper into games than Smyly and is less likely to run into fatigue in late September from a full-season workload, taking pressure off a bullpen that has been Detroit's only real weakness this year. And he gives them yet another playoff-worthy starter who lines up well against any other team's No. 1 starter. The team's a little worse off in the lineup without Jackson, but that's a small matter to offset compared to the gain of Price from now through the end of next year, after which they can re-sign him or take a draft pick.

The move makes Justin Verlander the Tigers' fifth-best starter right now, although they're not likely to use him as such; I'd have more confidence in Rick Porcello as the fourth starter in the playoff rotation right now than Verlander, given his struggles.

Rays fans who at least could console themselves with hopes of a Wil Myers/Jake Odorizzi level of return in an eventual Price deal had to be disappointed to see the total return today. Smyly, one of my preseason breakout picks for 2014, has shown a much-improved curveball as a starter this year to go with his cutter, giving him two above-average major league pitches along with above-average control, and he profiles as a solid midrotation starter, 3 WAR or so a year, very valuable while he's cheap, but not someone to anchor your rotation.

Nick Franklin has been terrible in limited major league time over the past 15 months, but I still project him as at least an average regular at second base, as the Rays are likely to consider his defense insufficient for shortstop. He's a switch-hitter but needs to stop trying to hit right-handed; he has an unorthodox left-handed swing that has produced power but not high averages. Franklin is still just 23 and ready to play against right-handed pitchers. If the Rays solve his issues against lefties, he could be an above-average everyday player, but that's a significant hurdle to overcome. They also added 18-year-old low-A shortstop Willy Adames, who likely moves to shortstop and has some upside with the bat, more in the hit tool than power. He's a lottery ticket in the scope of the deal.

The Mariners had no room for Franklin, their second first-round pick in 2009, and seemed to have lost faith in his ability to play short or second every day for them, so flipping him for an every day centerfielder makes sense from a perspective of need, although it's not a great use of value. Jackson is a free agent after next year, and outside of the phenomenal 2012 season -- powered by career highs in BABIP and walk rate, without any sustainable reasons -- has been about a three-win player, and his defense is heading in the wrong direction as he gets older and slows down. If Franklin becomes just an average regular, he'll be a much better value than Jackson considering service time and salary, but Jackson's a surer bet and fits a current need for the M's.
 
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