MLB Offseason and Winter Meetings

[Benny B]

I'm really not trying to throw any hate here, but neither pitcher is projected above a C-level.

Knebel's is a bullpen arm.

Diplan could break into the rotation, big fastball guy, but likely a bullpen arm as well.

I think Melvin could have done better trading Gallardo at the deadline.

I don't think he could have... I'm sure the guys who are paid to watch baseball saw exactly what some of us saw with Gallardo: declining K/9, increasing BB/9, high pitch counts/decreasing quality starts, etc.  Not a lot of teams are going to want to pay $8figures for a guy like that, which is why MKE had to send some cash in return.  But the prospects are the risk that is commensurate with the risk Tejas is taking with Yovani.  DM is hoping that one of these three turns into something just like Jon Jon is hoping that Gallardo's 2015 season will turn into something.

[🏀]

I don't think he could have... I'm sure the guys who are paid to watch baseball saw exactly what some of us saw with Gallardo: declining K/9, increasing BB/9, high pitch counts/decreasing quality starts, etc.  Not a lot of teams are going to want to pay $8figures for a guy like that, which is why MKE had to send some cash in return.  But the prospects are the risk that is commensurate with the risk Tejas is taking with Yovani.  DM is hoping that one of these three turns into something just like Jon Jon is hoping that Gallardo's 2015 season will turn into something.

I just keep looking at what Billy Beane paid for Samardzija at the deadline and then what BB took from Rick Hahn....I just shake my head and fist pump for both sides of Chicago.

All said and done:

A's get Marcus Siemen, Chris Bassitt, Josh Phegley and Rangel Ravelo - Rangel being the best potential of the bunch.
White Sox get Jeff Samardzija
Cubs get Addison Russel, Billy McKinney, and 1/2 of Dexter Fowler. Russel and McKinney both in the Cubs top 10 of prospects.

[reinko]

I just keep looking at what Billy Beane paid for Samardzija at the deadline and then what BB took from Rick Hahn....I just shake my head and fist pump for both sides of Chicago.

All said and done:

A's get Marcus Siemen, Chris Bassitt, Josh Phegley and Rangel Ravelo - Rangel being the best potential of the bunch.
White Sox get Jeff Samardzija
Cubs get Addison Russel, Billy McKinney, and 1/2 of Dexter Fowler. Russel and McKinney both in the Cubs top 10 of prospects.

We gonna see a lot of this in 2015?

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I just keep looking at what Billy Beane paid for Samardzija at the deadline and then what BB took from Rick Hahn....I just shake my head and fist pump for both sides of Chicago.

All said and done:

A's get Marcus Siemen, Chris Bassitt, Josh Phegley and Rangel Ravelo - Rangel being the best potential of the bunch.
White Sox get Jeff Samardzija
Cubs get Addison Russel, Billy McKinney, and 1/2 of Dexter Fowler. Russel and McKinney both in the Cubs top 10 of prospects.

The one thing I will say is that I love the potential of Siemian. Wish the Sox didn't have to give him up but also realize they had the give the As something.

[Benny B]

I just keep looking at what Billy Beane paid for Samardzija at the deadline and then what BB took from Rick Hahn....I just shake my head and fist pump for both sides of Chicago.

All said and done:

A's get Marcus Siemen, Chris Bassitt, Josh Phegley and Rangel Ravelo - Rangel being the best potential of the bunch.
White Sox get Jeff Samardzija
Cubs get Addison Russel, Billy McKinney, and 1/2 of Dexter Fowler. Russel and McKinney both in the Cubs top 10 of prospects.

To be fair, Samardzjia and Gallardo are completely different pitchers on opposite trajectories... in the past 5 years, YoGa's K/9 went from 9.7 to 6.8.  Samardzjia, 4.2 to 8.3.  Samardzjia is trending in a direction that GM's will pay for; Gallardo seems to have one foot on the scrap heap.

[buckchuckler]

To be fair, Samardzjia and Gallardo are completely different pitchers on opposite trajectories... in the past 5 years, YoGa's K/9 went from 9.7 to 6.8.  Samardzjia, 4.2 to 8.3.  Samardzjia is trending in a direction that GM's will pay for; Gallardo seems to have one foot on the scrap heap.

Samardizja also had another year of team control. 

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Beckham is back on the south side! Dont know how it happened but he was my favorite player for the Sox when he was here.

[GGGG]

Beckham is back on the south side! Dont know how it happened but he was my favorite player for the Sox when he was here.

I think you are more excited about this than the rest of the White Sox fan base combined.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I think you are more excited about this than the rest of the White Sox fan base combined.

Probably, but in theory it gives a veteran presense that can play 3B and 2B. But yea, im pretty thrilled, I get to break out the Beckham jersey again.

[buckchuckler]

I think you are more excited about this than the rest of the White Sox fan base combined.

Yeah, I kind of groaned, then thought, I sure as hell hope they aren't planning on playing him every day.  At least we will soon know the fate of Viciedo.  

[Lennys Tap]

Yeah, I kind of groaned, then thought, I sure as hell hope they aren't planning on playing him every day.  At least we will soon know the fate of Viciedo.  

He gone.

[🏀]

We gonna see a lot of this in 2015?

Yes, I'm thinking 80-83 times.

[Benny B]

Yes, I'm thinking 80-83 times.

Is that per win?

[🏀]

Is that per win?

Ask and ye shall receive.

[Blackhat]

The Cubs are still 4or 5 decades away.

[WI inferiority Complexes]

Beckham is back on the south side! Dont know how it happened but he was my favorite player for the Sox when he was here.

Were you only watching in 2009?

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Were you only watching in 2009?

Everybody has that one player they fall in love with because of a great rookie season but can never put it together and no matter what you want them to be good. Thats like me with Beckham, great guy and the only Sox player I have a jersey for.

[MerrittsMustache]

Everybody has that one player they fall in love with because of a great rookie season but can never put it together and no matter what you want them to be good. Thats like me with Beckham, great guy and the only Sox player I have a jersey for.

I'm still waiting for Corey Patterson to come around. I think this is the year!

[RJax55]

I'm still waiting for Corey Patterson to come around. I think this is the year!

Corey Patterson, hell, I'm still on the Dwight Smith bandwagon.

[🏀]

I'm still waiting for Corey Patterson to come around. I think this is the year!

[CTWarrior]

Everybody has that one player they fall in love with because of a great rookie season but can never put it together and no matter what you want them to be good.

Sam Horn was my guy like that for the Red Sox.  That guy could crush a baseball.  He was a second half call-up in 1987 and was awesome.  I saw him hit a line drive that the first baseman jumped for and it left the park for an HR.  I always wanted that guy to be a star, but he just had too many holes in his swing.

[Wally Schroeder]

First guy I thought of too. Hill had that magical 2007 where he was actually able to throw the 12-6 for a strike, ran into some injury troubles the next year and has done nothing at the big league level since. I had high hopes. Eight years later and he's still getting a shot to contribute at the big league level. The beauty of being left-handed with a pulse.

Hill kind of reminds of Randy Wells, who had a very good rookie campaign, a mediocre second year, and then he completely lost the ability to get major league hitters out. Even looking at more advanced stats, his FIP was a solid 3.88 and 3.93 his first two years before it ballooned to over 5. Interesting fun fact: Wells was drafted as a catcher.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

With football season over and spring training approaching, I saw this article that I thought was pretty good for discussion.
The Yankees on everyone's list?

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/108219880/mlb-rivalries-dodgers-cardinals-giants-yasiel-puig?partnerId=ed-8933872-658620023


Every MLB Team's Top 3 Rivals

Last week, Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig -- who is slowly revealing himself to be nearly as entertaining in the offseason as he is in the regular season -- made waves by noting that he felt the Cardinals were the Dodgers' "truest adversary." This led to the obvious protestations from Giants fans, who sort of remember about 80 years of back-and-forth between to two franchises, on one side of the country or another.

It's difficult to blame Puig for thinking the Cardinals are the Dodgers' main rival, though: He has been in the league two seasons, and both of those seasons have ended in playoff losses to the Cardinals. Heck, if you just walked into the room, you might think the Giants' biggest rival are the Royals. You have to have been paying attention a lot longer than Puig has to truly know everyone's rivals.

And no one knows that better than fans, the ones who make up these rivalries anyway. I tend to believe players just sort of humor us on this, enjoying the extra buzz when two rivals face off, but not storing any of the extra vitriol we fans feed off. After Johnny Damon not only signed with the Yankees but publicly cut his hair for the privilege, I gave up any idea that players cared about inter-franchise hatred.

So, for all those players like Puig who aren't sure who their teams' actual historical rivals are, here's a helpful guide. It requires your input, though: If I've got your team's rival wrong, or in the wrong order, or I'm just overlooking one, let me know at leitch@sportsonearth.com. I can do a general overview, but no one knows where the bile rises more than a team's truest fans.

Atlanta Braves
1. New York Mets
2. Washington Nationals
3. St. Louis Cardinals

The Nationals-Braves rivalry was catching up, but now that the Braves have gutted their team, they seem back in the Mets' range. Don't sleep on the Cardinals, though: They've caused the Braves plenty of postseason pain -- and the Braves know postseason pain -- and they just swiped Jason Heyward, a local kid and one of the Braves' most beloved players.

Arizona Diamondbacks
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Colorado Rockies

You might remember a little bit of an incident with a pool.

Baltimore Orioles
1. New York Yankees
2. Washington Nationals
3. Boston Red Sox

It's probably still the Yankees -- the Mike Mussina signing might have secured that, and there's always some Buck Showalter anger there too -- but don't count out the Nationals. The better both those teams are, the more heated that gets.

Boston Red Sox
1. New York Yankees
2. Tampa Bay Rays
3. Baltimore Orioles

Obviously, the Yankees are the big one here, and no one else is close. They do love to get in fights with the Rays a lot, though.

Chicago Cubs
1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Chicago White Sox
3. Milwaukee Brewers

I'm Midwestern, so I believe the Cardinals-Cubs rivalry is in fact the best in all of baseball ... it only needs a postseason series to truly secure the title. One might be coming.

Chicago White Sox
1. Chicago Cubs
2. Minnesota Twins
3. Cleveland Indians

Back in 2012, a lawsuit filed by a White Sox fan claimed that the Indians are the White Sox's main rival, and the judge ruled that it is, in fact, the Indians. The plaintiff and judge are both wrong. I also might argue the Tigers belong here ahead of the Tribe.

Cincinnati Reds
1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Cleveland Indians
3. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Cards-Reds feud -- a spotlight most bright and intense on Yadier Molina, Johnny Cueto and Brandon Phillips -- has lost a little luster since Tony LaRussa and Dusty Baker left town ... but just a little. The Reds might be trending the wrong direction, though.

Cleveland Indians
1. Detroit Tigers
2. New York Yankees
3. Cincinnati Reds

The Browns have a lot more fierce rivalries than the Indians do, it seems. You can maybe make a case for the Red Sox and the White Sox here too.

Colorado Rockies
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Arizona Diamondbacks
3. San Francisco Giants

Just sort of default division picks here, really. Develop more anger, Coloradans!

Detroit Tigers
1. Cleveland Indians
2. Chicago White Sox
3. New York Yankees

I find it of note that more AL Central teams seems to hate the Yankees than they do the Twins', an intra-division rival. Though everyone in the AL Central is generally rather agreeable. 

Houston Astros
1. Texas Rangers
2. Oakland A's
3. St. Louis Cardinals

It's difficult to sustain rivalries when you move leagues -- the Cardinals are a remnant of a decade ago -- but it does help when you've got a division rival in your state. Though fights help too.

Kansas City Royals
1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Oakland A's

The '70s were terrific for the Yankees, but 1985 and I-70 (along with the Cardinals swiping Albert Pujols out from under their noses) secured Royals' animus for the Cardinals forever. If the Royals can sustain what they did last year, this could be fun for a while.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Oakland A's
3. Texas Rangers

The Angels might have missed their window to win their battle for Southern California, but that won't stop them from trying.

Los Angeles Dodgers
1. San Francisco Giants
2. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
3. St. Louis Cardinals

Because of all the postseason history, we'll grant Yaisel the Cardinals at third. But that's as far as we're willing to go, and probably ever will be willing to go.

Miami Marlins
1. Atlanta Braves
2. New York Mets
3. Tampa Bay Rays

Even Marlins fans aren't sure what to think on this one.

Milwaukee Brewers
1. Chicago Cubs
2. St. Louis Cardinals
3. Minnesota Twins

The first two tower over the third here. The Cardinals nearly passed the Cubs in this decade, but geographic proximity ultimately rules.

Minnesota Twins
1. New York Yankees
2. Chicago White Sox
3. Detroit Tigers

There have been some arguments even for the Brewers here, but the Yankees have to top the list if just because the playoff wipeouts. This one is a tough call, though.

New York Mets
1. New York Yankees
2. Philadelphia Phillies
3. Atlanta Braves

For a team that hasn't been good in nearly a decade, the Mets still have plenty of rivals. And don't sleep on a fun potential Nationals rivalry coming up in the next few years. Still: Mets fans have been hating the Yankees since birth. Probably before.

New York Yankees
1. Boston Red Sox
2. New York Mets
3. Tampa Bay Rays

If there has been one downside to the relative parity of recent years, the Yankees-Red Sox games just aren't quite as electric as they used to be. Still, though: Tough to find much else in baseball that comes close.

Oakland A's
1. San Francisco Giants
2. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
3. Texas Rangers

The Royals are probably just below -- the WIld Card game loss rekindled some old '70s anger -- but the Giants-A's battle will never end.

Philadelphia Phillies
1. New York Mets
2. Atlanta Braves
3. Washington Nationals

The Pirates might have been here three decades ago, but not anymore. Though Phillies' fans most hated rival, from my personal experience, tends to be "the Phillies."

Pittsburgh Pirates
1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Philadelphia Phillies
3. Cincinnati Reds

The Pirates haven't been good enough for two decades to have a rival, but it's clearly the Cardinals now, particularly after the Cardinals eliminated them from the playoffs during their dream season in 2013. Considering the young talent on both teams, the Cubs could be moving up this list too.

St. Louis Cardinals
1. Chicago Cubs
2. Cincinnati Reds
3. Los Angeles Dodgers

All told, this Cardinals fan would love to put Boston and San Francisco on here, since they've been the postseason phantasms for the Cards ... but this feels like the real top three.

San Diego Padres
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Arizona Diamondbacks
3. Colorado Rockies

I'm pretty sure none of these teams hate the Padres back.

San Francisco Giants
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Oakland A's
3. Arizona Diamondbacks

The real Giants' rival, of course, is "odd-numbered years."

Seattle Mariners
1. Oakland A's
2. Texas Rangers
3. San Diego Padres

The Yankees almost made this one too, and it's possible that I'm letting scheduling get to me on that Padres business. But until Portland gets a team, there's no natural rival for Seattle.

Tampa Bay Rays
1. New York Yankees
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Miami Marlins

This is closer than you might think -- remember all those Red Sox-Rays fights -- but the fact that the Yankees make their spring training home in the Tampa area probably pushes it over the edge. It must still gall to see March games in Tampa where everyone's cheering for the Yankees. (To be fair, that sometimes happens in August too.)

Texas Rangers
1. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
2. Houston Astros
3. Oakland A's

It should be the Astros, and it probably will be in the next few years, but for now ... the Astros probably need to win a few more games for that to click. It will, soon.

Toronto Blue Jays
1. New York Yankees
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Baltimore Orioles

As tough as any team in the sport to find a rival for: You end up just falling back on the division teams. With as rowdy as Jays fans can be, you'd think they could work up some more. It would help if the Blue Jays made the playoffs more often, which is when rivalries are often forged.

Washington Nationals
1. Baltimore Orioles
2. Atlanta Braves
3. St. Louis Cardinals

That Orioles rivalry still feels mostly media-created, but it's still there. (Isn't everything in Washington media-created?) Don't count out that Cardinals anger too: There's no team Nats fans would rather take out in the playoffs, preferably while Pete Kozma weeps nearby.

* * *
Email me at leitch@sportsonearth.com; follow me @williamfleitch; or just shout out your window real loud, I'll hear you. Point is, let's talk.

[Spotcheck Billy]

I'd say the Brewers #1 is the Cards more than the Cubs. I still get depressed about the '82 series.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Put me down for the Twinkies and the Tigers over the Cubs.