Pancake Bear

With Cole, that will not be the case. My concern is that Eppler will hold too tightly to his valuation of players and end up with nothing. Sometimes you have to overpay. Grandal was probably not the best player for us to overpay with our lack of pitching.

Aav or total money? Because if Boras thinks anyone is paying Cole 430+, he’s having a laugh. Either way, I doubt that what he’s asking for is what he gets unless some idiot drives the bidding up. Otoh, if the Angels say no one can have a higher aav than Trout, period, that’s idiotic. Trout has a 12 year contract. Cole’s at most would be 8. At 2/3 the length for the best pitcher in baseball (arguably), I’m not entirely ruling out an aav over Trout’s, although I remain skeptical he’s asking 37m(+) over 8 years, and I’m majorly skeptical than any team is going, “Yeah, we’re in the ballpark.”

I’d sign Cole only rather than those three, personally.

If they aren’t, F Arte.

Yep. This is why people need to stop worrying about the Yankees and Dodgers. Our biggest threat for the top guys will be some team with loads of money to overpay.

That only works if no one cares. Zero chance that happens. Luhnow and Hinch best case is a suspension for both. Could easily see both gone for life. Especially Luhnow based on the Goldstein email.

Yeah, I’m not depending on Sandoval as a #5 in 2020.

Cole, Ohtani, Wheeler, Canning, Gibson

It was a rather bizarre proposal, to say the least.

The Dodgers didn’t win the 2017 WS. That is never changing no matter what. Even throwing out the Astros, why not one of the other teams they took out along the way? Whether Manfred says it or not, the 2017 WS is effectively null. Nobody won it.

Year one maybe, but he priced himself out. Last year, not really. This year, not even slightly unless Pujols is going to be a bench player and Arte is spending 100 million.

Who?

Exactly. Only way this makes sense is if we think getting him out of Boston and the AL East will turn back the clock and make him SuperPrice. Otherwise, we’re creating a hole and spending the same money we would be for another good arm with more upside.

Yeah, but just think how much fun it’ll be to see Manfred take the comp pick away when he hammers them for their dirty cheating.

What I like about the news? The Pads and Sox are the two other teams most interested. No mention of Yanks or Dogs or Phils. Also, assuming they aren’t looking at him instead of Cole but in addition to him, I like that they’re being aggressive.

Keeping quiet?

Like I said, I’m perfectly open to punishment for the players. My question is just how viable that is. Certainly, we don’t know enough to have a clear idea, but theoretically what could Manfred push through? Would pitchers get hit, or only batters? Would the punishment vary based on involvement or be straight across the board? The assumption of course is that MLB can prove this went on in the playoffs as well, and everyone knew it was happening.

Did I miss where the players were hitting the trash can? The pics I saw showed the garbage can down the tunnel next to the screen. Were the players involved? Absolutely. But they've got a strong union and I would assume they claim they didn't want to get blackballed, or they were told other teams did it, etc. If they argue that management pressured them into it and into keeping their mouths shut, I'm skeptical Manfred will push his luck by taking on the players union unless he has rock solid evidence that certain players had a larger role than simply benefiting from it. We're obviously speculating based on very limited information, so it's hard to know exactly how culpable everyone was or how much evidence Manfred will be able to obtain. That's before even considering other ramifications, like suppose they've been doing it for the last 3 years. Does everyone on the roster between 2017-2019 get a suspension? How long? Do they vary? There is no official punishment for something like this, so Manfred is basically making it up either within the commissioner's office and key figures there (like Torre, for instance). The players association would push back big time on anything to players and they'd probably have a case, depending on the details. Again, it's hard to even guess because of paucity of information available and the lack of any real point of comparison. I wouldn't object to players involved being punished - I think they ought to be - but I'm just not sure its realistic. And being realistic, players really can't set something like this up on their own, the front office or coaches at least would have to be involved. I'm assuming Manfred's primary goal in punishment would be to be severe enough to make teams think twice about doing it again. If coaches and execs are banned for life and the owner is financially hit and competitive benefits like significant picks are taken away, and international bonus money is limited, I think he probably settles for that, whether he ought to or not.

It could've been on reddit, tbh. I don't remember.

This whole situation has been strangely compared to the Skaggs opioid issue. The obvious difference is that there aren't a bunch of major exposés being published about how the Angels were covering up a big drug issue in their clubhouse. Nobody is accusing them of anything. There are no reporters who are going to make a big deal about it if that goes away. Same with Hamilton. It's an absurd fallacy of false equivalence. They have the evidence. They have witnesses. They have a freaking smoking gun with the email and the video breakdowns. There is no way the big guys walk away from this. Hinch and Luhnow pretty much have to be gone. Probably other people in the front office and coaching staff, too. The players is another matter, though.

I’d be okay with him if he's our secondary guy. He’s been fragile and I question how repeatable his 2019 season was. But there’s no pick attached, so that makes him worth monitoring if he isn’t asking for something crazy. If this is their big move, though, see you next offseason.

They’re going to be made an example of. I’m skeptical any other team is doing this to anything close to the same degree. But even if they are, the Astros are a perfect team to take it on the chin. They need someone to get hit hard to dissuade other teams for continuing or even starting up something similar.

Yeah, if Manfred soft pedals it, it’ll end him. He has to tread carefully so as not to upset the owners by acting too quick and making them dissatisfied with the result, but I don’t think he’ll go soft. GM’s are made, per reports from the GM meetings, journalists are calling for severe penalties, and pretty much across the board from what I’ve seen fans outside of Houston are really upset also. Even some Houston fans want Manfred to drop the hammer. I don’t see them getting off light. Of course, my definition of light and severe is relative to my expectations.

Similar to Calhoun. All home runs. League average at everything else.