gil4

That answer might have changed in the past two weeks. (I know - replying to an old post by game thread standards - I'm play catch-up)

OPS+ has that built in (and that's part of its purpose.)

He's not paid like a good MLB pitcher (yet). He's paid close to the minimum, like the AAAA/marginal pitcher that he was last year. If he's good, that's a bonus.

The teams weren't too bad. The pitching wasn't great, although Goltz was really good in '77. The lineup was great - Carew, Hisle, Bostock, Wynegar, Disco Dan. The photos were worse than I could have done with my mom's camera at age 12. I really don't like the fake follow-through poses of Smalley and Wynegar - the look like 7-year-olds learning to get into a hitting stance before the coach says "don't cross your hands, and turn sideways to the pitcher."

Unfortunately, that didn't sway him. He just agreed to a deal with the Giants. That's one option off the table, unless he has an old ankle injury that makes the Giants think twice...

To quote the great philosopher Joe Walsh, "I can't complain but sometimes I still do. Life's been good to me so far."

I'm not sure it's relevant, but I went about 4 years on a knee that the doc said "The next step is replacement. You'll tell me when you're ready." I finally was about 4 years ago. I'm at that spot with the other one now after having it scoped for the 3rd time, although it's not as bad as the other one was and I hope it has more than 4 years left. My knees hurt at least a little bit almost all the time. I assume it's a normal part of getting old. I also assume most pro athletes deal with pain during and after their careers. Dobnak is back to pitching at the AAA level. In the big picture, that's a very high level. Realistically, the odds of him getting back to the MLB level are not great, but he's still just one step away. He has made a lot of money, he gets to play baseball for a living, and he still has a chance to get his dream back. If he doesn't make it back, he still should be able to do a lot of things and not have to worry about money. And how bad is his finger pain? If it hurt all the time to the point is affected non-baseball activities, would he be back to throwing a baseball? Maybe, but probably not. I know Dobnak had surgery on his hand, but I'm not sure if it was because the pain was so intense or because he just couldn't do the things that his livelihood depended on. My guess is when he's sixty his daily pain will be from his shoulder and elbow, not his finger.

Doing it after getting paid. The attrition rate for pitchers is worse than it is for NFL running backs. Plenty of guys better than him get hurt and lose their careers before making the money he made. Plus he's still just one step away from the show if he discovers some magic and dominates AAA. That pecking order can change in a hurry.

I would be surprised if he wasn't. The price is a little on the high side, but one bad year usually doesn't wipe out the memory of several good ones. And he wasn't horrendous last year, just not very good Decent catchers are hard to find - the Brewers just signed Gary Sanchez, and he hasn't been good for a while (and has never been good defensively)

I like that jersey in the photo. It seems I remember one similar in light blue - does anyone know what they called those jerseys / what the occasion was?

This is something I'd love to do, but it once again will not be this year. My umpiring schedule is full March 1 - May 4 and will be full Aug 10 - Oct 5. We're doing the northeast for our family vacation, and the dates don't line up with the Twins in Boston or New York. My best chance to see them will be Aug 15-18 - I can probably block a few days off to go to Arlington. (I have probably seen them more in the 3 Rangers' stadiums than anywhere else, although Fenway might still be in the lead.)

A Correa-like deal makes much less sense for a pitcher because the odds of paying $100M for three years of nothing are much higher. If we are going to take that much risk (even 3 years), we need to get the reward if it pans out.

Yeah, I was going to say "and the other plays guitar."

That sounds about right. He said between DeSclafani and Santana we had enough to re-sign Gray instead. I just considered those two players in a vacuum, but yeah, the net salary change between those two deals was a lot closer to zero than to the +$9.5M I allowed. So instead of being $15.5M away from signing Gray (plus two additional years at $25M per) we were short the full $75M. I also didn't mention that even if we had offered 3@$25M per, there's no guarantee he would have accepted it. His stated willingness to re-sign seemed far more diplomatic and business-like than heartfelt (which is fine.) We also got the supplemental draft pick, which doesn't do anything for us this year, but is still an asset with some value.

Not even close - Santana is $5.5M, DeSclafani is $4M ($12M is offset by the $6M the Giants sent to the Mariners, who passed it along to the Twins, plus the additional $2M the Mariners kicked in.) Gray got $25M/yr for three years.

I went to Baseball Reference to refresh my memory, and I found this, which was good for a laugh. (Yeah, I bet that question comes up all the time.)

I always took it as lots of great athletic ability but hasn't harnessed them to make a good player. I can see that being somewhat insulting. At least he didn't get mad and yell through the the door, "I said toolsey to be nice. I really meant fringy at best." She'd DFA him right then and there - no coming back from that

My guess is they believe the medical intervention was fairly minor and sounded like it had a reasonable chance of correcting the issues he had last year. The news right after the surgery sounded like what they found was best-case scenario for him.

I'm not familiar with him, so I'm not sure how to take your comment. Is he prone to wild trade claims that never happen and your second sentence is sarcasm, or is he a solid source and you are saying it's a real possibility?

You don't sound angry enough about that.

I don't want him to have a bad life. I just don't want him to play like a $700M player. He doesn't have to get the Ankiel yips - he was just the closest to a 2-way player I could think of, other than Babe Ruth, and I definitely don't want that. Would 1B Joe Mauer be a better wish? I want most Yankees players to be bad, too. And I want the big contracts they throw at players to become albatrosses. And I want our big contract players to be great.

I'm hoping they just passed it and Ohtani turns into Rick Ankiel.

I can't get there

I was off by $200M+

Ugh. I used to like the draft lottery way back when they first started it. (I know it was just last year.) https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39049994/guardians-win-mlb-draft-lottery-select-first-2024-mlb-draft