Curmudgeonly

I hope we get him too, the dude looks awesome. This year is the year to do it since we went after Baldoquin.

It's actually not a bad thing imo, they are not giving them less money, they are just changing the benefits to something they employees have more control over. "Under team-funded pension plans, employees receive a fixed monthly benefit upon retirement based on a percentage of their top five earning years. The plans can’t be transferred from one team to another or to an outside company, and employees have no control over how funds in the plans are invested. The 401k plan is funded by employees with pre-tax and after-tax payroll deductions, a percentage of which is matched by the teams. Employees can choose how aggressively or conservatively they invest funds, and the plans are portable. Employees can also borrow against the plans." Also, employees with pension plans will get to keep them.

Who is Sum Yung Gui? An Internet search did not provide answers.

Great! That seems more reasonable. I think we can make room for Featherston.

Angels official twitter just commented on him, and not the others, so I'd wager you are right. Thanks!

So wait, are you saying that we have to keep all these players we acquired via Rule 5 draft on our 25 man? That doesn't seem possible... We acquired Pedro Ruiz, Kentrail Davis, Chris Curley and Taylor Featherston.

Nice work Houston! Do it again!

Fangraphs posted an article today on him after his game against the Phillies: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/garrett-richards-whos-making-sense/ Was a good read, in particular the shift on the mount.

Yep, great pitching tonight by the BP. Bravo!

Good to hear. I guess that means he's on the 40 man?

Jeremy Berg looked really good out there, any reason he didn't make the cut?

Funny, considering I lived abroad for close to 20 years of my life, but believe what you want. It's not an argument I'm willing to have.

I wouldn't go that far, considering most of the world doesn't care about Baseball. I would wager the Lakers and Bulls are more well known around the world as far as American Sports teams are concerned.

I did some more digging to be sure, as I was basing this off of something I read this morning. They are actually under it currently ($151 million), so my bad there. But they have several players under arbitration and if they pay Tanaka anywhere close to what people think he will receive, it's unlikely they will stay under it.

Yankees aren't under the CBT yet, even after the 25 million they save not paying A-Rod. Paying Tanaka and being under the CBT is not possible for them.

I like the comment that said Fangraphs would make a new stat called Wins Below Trout. lol

ESPN reporting that in the unveiling of Choo by the Rangers, they said Tanaka for them is unlikely. "We're probably comfortable where we are in terms of financial commitments, and Tanaka would be a tough thing," Simpson said. "I guess I should never say never, but at the moment, we're more interested in just rounding out our team [rather] than marquee players." That's one less team to worry about.

I'd like to believe we'll offer a competitive contract, but I don't see us outbidding Yankees or Dodgers. I think we'll settle for Garza, but I hope I'm wrong!

Here's to hoping!

New user here, been a lurker a while. Finally found something worth posting... Keith Law claims the following reason for Skaggs drop in velocity. Still just 22 years old, Skaggs took a step back in 2013 as the Diamondbacks shortened his stride, resulting in a higher release point that cost him several miles per hour on his fastball and depth on his breaking ball. Lengthen him out so he finishes out over his front side again and he should be back to 90-94 mph again with the hammer he had as recently as 2012, when he projected as a potential No. 2 starter and was the best left-handed starter prospect in the game.