Weekend hot stove open thread

Let's refresh the header to make room for the latest gossip.

In other news, for those who care about such things, four weeks ago I transitioned out of my role with NBC Sports Regional Networks (formerly Comcast Sports Group, the corporate arm of Comcast SportsNet) into a new, non-sports opportunity with Comcast Corporate Communications, where I will manage the next iteration of Comcast's corporate Web site. It's a terrific opportunity and I'm grateful for my experience with the Regional Networks, where I served as the Creative Services Manger for digital. It was an essential leg in my career and I was surrounded by many talented and spirited individuals who helped guide me.

Fortunately, it's a good time to transition since nothing is really happening in the world of baseball to detract from on-boarding into a new gig. Long story short, that's why the posting has been on the light side lately. But no worries. There are only so many posts to be gleaned from winter ball, Ken Rosenthal and non-roster invitees.

A sage mentor once told me if I have nothing to write about on a particular day, just post the words "Bobby Abreu" and comments will pour in.

So carry on. Business as usual. Bobby Abreu ...

Comments

[Scotch Man]

Is Bobby Abreu available?

[Dickie Thong]

Blue Jays to sign Melky Cabrera at 2yr/$16M.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/11/blue-jays-to-sign-melky-cabrera.html

[upton fan]

i want BJ

[Scotch Man]

Jays snagged Melky off the table. I was kind of hoping the Phils would end up with him. When I see the deal he gets and the deal Upton most likely ends up with, I'll probably scream.

[mkoz]

Me too! Upton would be nice as well

[Dickie Thong]

i want BJ

Posted by: upton fan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't we all!!! :)

[Willard Preacher]

Probably safe to say that the Blue Jays have been "slightly aggressive" in the early off-season.

Rube has to be like a caged tiger at this point.

[Sil Campusano]

BJ Upton signed to 6 year, $75 million dollar deal in 3...2...1...

Also, Bobby Abreu is a big doodoohead. Or something.

[Cyclic]

Better go buy my Josh Hamilton shirsey.

[bay_area_phan]

Back to the MVP debate . . . I have a hypothetical question which will perhaps help flesh out the parameters of this debate:

Let's say Juan Pierre lands a NL starting gig in 2013 and let's say he has one of those magical years where all of his slap hits manage to fall in, and he beats out every infield grounder. When all is said and done, he finishes the season with 600 PAs, 30 walks, a .360 slugging percentage, a 70% steal rate, his typical lousy left field defense, and a .402 batting average for a division winning team. Meanwhile, Buster Posey duplicates his 2012 numbers, while still playing catcher. Who's the National League MVP?

Personally, I would vote for Pierre.

[MG]

Congrats JW. The real important question is did you get an office with a window view out of Comcast Corp Office HQ?

[lorecore]

congrats JW, keep on moving up.

[lorecore]

Melky for 2yr/$16M?

Holy crap i would have jumped on that. Whoever said BJ Upton signs for 6yr/$75M, yes please. I think it'll be around 5yr/$80M most likely.

[jbird]

JW needs quit his job at Kabletown and come back to Beerleaguer full time. This whole "bloggers with real jobs" phenomenon is a fad that is detrimental to the free internet experience, and someone needs to put a stop to it.

[Xyz]

"Bobby Abreu" or an Eric Bruntlett gif

[Unikruk]

BAP trolling hard!

[MG]

Anthopoulos has come on like gangbusters this offseason with the Blue Jays. I guess he see the AL East being wide open next year and I would agree.

Putting all his chips into the table for the next 2 years. Either makes the playoffs or he is gone I bet.

[Dickie Thong]

Personally, I would vote for killing the MVP debate.

[RedBurb]

MG - You think AA will be fired? From some of the posters on this site, you would think AA is infallible. Surely he can't be fired.

[lorecore]

If you are in the AL East, you have to pick your spots. That or draft #1 for a full decade until you finally get enough hits to contend.

[Bake McBride Was Here]

After I die and am inevitably reincarnated, I will immediately start planning my worldwide rock-and-roll takeover in a band of youthful hipsters known as The Sage Mentors.

[bay_area_phan]

Unik: Not trolling. Just curious. To me, hitting .400 -- a feat which hasn't been done since 1941 -- would outweigh all else. It wouldn't make Juan Pierre the best player in baseball by any stretch of the imagination. But it would make him the most deserving of having MVP honors bestowed on him for that one year.

[jbird]

hm. Triple Crown involves leading 3 big categories though, not just 1. +.400 average would be awesome. Definitely would be a huge plus, but I think he'd fall short in the voting unless he had some other stuff like obp, runs, sb's, and/or defense metrics.

[lorecore]

bap: disagree. The triple crown is associated with being the best offense player during a season because it covers more than 1 part of the game. Batting .400 would be an amazing feat, but that doesn't come with the honor being the best offensive player, just that you can do 1 thing extremely well.

What if Pierre had a 57 game hit streak, but ended the season with his usual stat line. Are you voting MVP then too?

[Bonehead]

I am still trying to wrap my head around the physics of a .402 batting avg. with a .360 SLG.

[J. Weitzel]

MG: Yes.

[lorecore]

bonehead: haha good point, do you still get a total base if you get thrown out on the bases, i.e. stretching a single into a double? Thats the only why I think its possible.

[bay_area_phan]

lorecore: Good question. The answer is: probably not. I would be more impressed by a .400 average than by a 57-game hitting streak -- mainly because the former is accomplished over the entire season, whereas the latter is accomplished over just one-third of the season.

[bay_area_phan]

bonehead: Er, yeah, that may not be mathematically possible or, if it is, it's so improbable that it could never actually happen. But you know what I was driving at: he has a .400 average but virtually everything's a single. In other words, he's Juan Pierre, but with a .400 batting average.

[Willard Preacher]

Interesting hypothetical. Though there's been 35 players to hit .400 or better, versus the 56 game hit streak that's really not even been sniffed, I think I agree that .400 in this day and age is the bigger achievement. Neither are in and danger any time soon, in this era of repressed offense.

However, don't give the BBWAA too much credit for being anywhere near progressive (yesterday proved that out). I wouldn't be the least bit shocked to see Pierre (I love how he is the hypothetical player here, BTW) win the MVP if he did either. These guys love their lore, even if it is rooted in counting stats.

[R.Billingsly]

Great news, Jason. Congratulations!

[GTown_Dave]

Undoubtedly JW is more deserving of his new position than Bobby Abreu was of a Gold Glove Award. Congrats!

[Michael Martinez's Tools]

Abreu. Hmph. I wish we'd never traded Stocker for him.

[Dubee Dubee Du]

bap does Pierre's team make the post season while Posey's Giants falters? This would all have to occur too for the hypothetical to have some resemblance to this season's MVP race. If that were the case I too would vote for Pierre just as I would have voted for Miggy had I a vote. Too much emphasis was put on defensive w.a.r. by the Trout camp IMO. I'm sure few past MVPs were won with help from their defensive skills, while many were lost when a dip in the offense occurred.

[GBrettFan]

Congrats, Jason!

[clout]

Re: Keppinger. He'd be good pickup as insurance at 2B and 3B, he can play 1B and the corner OF in a pinch, but he no longer can play SS at the MLB level. So you'd still need a utlity guy.

[clout]

Jack: LAA did indeed win more games than Detroit, but that is irrelevant in MVP voting. Making the post-season, regardless of wins, is what counts. Few MVPs played on teams that didn't go to post-season, even back in the days when only 2 teams went.

[HammRadio]

Congrats Jason! Love the note about the "essential" career step to get to your current goal. Sometimes you only know it was essential in hindsight. The key is to know it ahead of time.

Loved @bap's reasoning on the what if Pierre hit .400 would he get his MVP vote if he was essentially Juan Pierre. Even if the math wasn't correct, I like to think @bap hyperbole would have given him a .360 SLG anyway. Either way, i got a good chuckle.

As a reference, the lowest slugging by any qualified .400 hitter (post 1901) was Ty Cobb who "ONLY" slugged .565. Highest was Hornsby at .756. Two guys in the 1890s hit four hundred without hitting a home run. Can you imagine.

Tried to do some fake math given Pierre's career numbers and if he did hit .400 and assuming no uptick in power... He would likely slug around .488 (for the math instead of strict ISO subtraction and adding it to .400, I took his career ISO as a percentage of his AVG and then multiplied it by .400...) which is what 2011 Ryan Howard slugged.

Anyway...
Fun stuff.

[MG]

If Pierre ends the season above .400,

Doesn't matter because the world will end shortly afterwards.

[Jumbo Jim Nash]

Brian Sanches, signs a minor league deal with the Angels. One of BL's all time favorite Phillies.

[Luis]

What is RAJ waiting for? Sign and overpay for someone know so the Bl'ers can moan about it. I be one of the moaners if they sign BlackJack Up ton or whateva the Bj stands for.

[Luis]

*now

[MG]

Looking for any word on Sarge and the Cubs TV color job. Didn't find any update but I did see this where Sarge is running dead last and a few Cubs websites that basically said either said 'didn't know Sarge' or 'yeah he sucks/terrible'

I have a bad feeling the Phils simply will be stuck with him for the forseeable future.

http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/2012/11/cast-your-ballot-who-do-you-like-for-cubs-announcer/

[Jumbo Jim Nash]

Correction, Brian Sanches, a minor league deal with the Royals.

[PhxPhilly]

Congrats JW!

If Pierre hit .400, I'd vote for him for the MVP vs Posey's 2012. WAR be damned.

Even more likely he actually wins if it is for a Division winning team because of the media attention and pressure. Plus he'd be a great story and is a good guy. That all helps.

Plus I think Posey's 2012 was nothing special.

Abreu for CF. Does he still get on base?

[limoguy]

Congratulations Jason!

[bay_area_phan]

"Plus I think Posey's 2012 was nothing special."

As MVP seasons go, you might be right. But a .336 average and .957 OPS from a catcher, in that ballpark, is pretty phenomenal.

[GTown_Dave]

Posey doesn't deserve to be thought of as a catcher. He can't handle the position mentally or physically.

[Greene Brothers]

1) Congrats JW

2) Could you imagine if Bobby Abreu actually tried?!?!?!?!

[pblunts]

MLBTradeRumors says BJ Upton says he visited the Braves and Phillies earlier this week. Did we all miss something?

[Bubba]

JW- Good for you.

And Johnny Callison is a more worthy way to use up my RF memory cells .

[ChicagoPhan]

We need to all go here and vote for Sarge.

http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/2012/11/cast-your-ballot-who-do-you-like-for-cubs-announcer/

[cut_fastball]

Jason -- Great job on the promotion! However, we have issues. Are you in or out as "Boss Beerleaguer"?

[J. Weitzel]

Cut - Just explaining why posting has been light.

[Len39]

Why is no one talking about the need for a dependable 8th inning guy out of the bullpen and a dependable lefty out of the bullpen? How many games did we lose there last season and none of the young arms showed enough to take the job. If I'm overpaying for anyone at this point it's Sean Burnett, especially with Affeldt off the market.

[Luis]

I would agree on signing some one for a year for the Pen. The Phils have a lot of young good arms. They just need time to prove, sort out which ones of them are keepers.

[Sil Campusano]

ChicagoPhan - voted. Doesn't look like it'll help though. Sarge is only at 7%.

Also, congrats to JW, since i didn't say it before.

[Meyer]

Voted for Sarge. He'll need another handful of votes to move out of the cellar.

[Andy]

If we could trade Abreu right now for the guys we got for him, in 2013 it would finally be a break even deal.

[Ted]

Poor Comcast. This site sucks, but guess they have low expectations themselves.

[Jbird]

Luis: it stands for Bossman Jr.

[cut_fastball]

JW -- It's trading time. I sure wish the Phillies had more ammo in their belt; that is, we might be a little light regarding players of interest to others. That reason alone justifies the diminished number of new threads.

Just my $0.02.

[Jack]

Clout: I understand how these things work in practice.

I was merely pointing out what a massively stupid logical argument it is to reward one player over another due to team performance, when that team wasn't even as good!

I mean, that's totally illogical. And if playing on the best team is what matters, then why wouldn't Robbie Cano have finished ahead of Trout too?

[Jack]

Bed's Beard: "Posey doesn't deserve to be thought of as a catcher. He can't handle the position mentally or physically."

I mean, he's not Yadi Molina, but he played 114 games at the position, caught one of the best pitching staffs in the league, and threw out 30% of baserunners this year. Carlos Ruiz, who is rightly considered a good defensive C, threw out 34%, and has a career CS% of of 27%. Ruiz has also only played more than 114 games at catcher twice in his six years as the starter here.

So I'm not sure what you're talking about. Why wouldn't I consider Posey to be a catcher?

[Moises Alou]

Bobby Abreu is the reason why the glory days didn't start years earlier. Like Polanco, he was a winning CANCER.

[Corey]

reading fightin phils with an ostrich as the logo

so stupid

[lorecore]

Polanco is a winning cancer, i like it.

[Corey]

http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=d6a3166492850b117faf868e2&id=264720e0b1&e=172723622c

[GTown_Dave]

The Ostrich is still better than Bobby Abreu.

[GTown_Dave]

Jack: Two reasons which spring to mind are that Posey thinks Catcher is a non-contact position, & that he wouldn't catch Dickey in the All-Star Game for fear of looking stupid. There was also a fair amount of talk in the SF press that at least a couple of pitchers didn't care for Posey behind the plate. The kid can hit, but he's a 1B.

[Bedrosian's Beard]

Jack: I haven't said anything about Posey.

[Jack]

Gtown Dave: Then why would he catch every game in the playoffs for the WS champion.

I don't understand this argument. True, he may move off C eventually (but so might every catcher without the last name "Molina"), and he may have played C a little less than year because he was coming off a gruesome and serious injury suffered at the plate.

But he caught 114 games at catcher this year and was decent enough at it that the team played him there in every game in October. That doesn't count? Because he didn't catch RA Dickey in an exhibition game? I'm very confused.

[Jack]

Bed's Beard: Sorry, got you confused with Gtown Dave. Ignore.

[Just can't be true]

I keep seeing on some other teams blogs - specifically Red Sox, Yankees, and Texas Rangers blogs about who they could trade to acquire Cliff Lee from the Phillies. Now I saw this article on a Los Angeles Dodger blog. Is Amaro shopping Cliff Lee and we don't know it here in Philadelphia? Other teams fans think we need salary relief and of course more hitting and that Cliff Lee is the player of high value that we have to accomplish both. I would hate to see Cliff Lee dealt...absolutely hate it.

http://network.yardbarker.com/author/article_external/12225007?widget=true

[circus]

Sarge needs a little over 200 more votes to pull into the lead. Seems doable.

[GTown_Dave]

I don't understand this argument.

Jack: No, you don't agree. And that's fine.

[GTown_Dave]

The Phillies are currently short one SP, & that's assuming Worley returns healthy & on time, & Kendrick already has a spot in the rotation. Figure in the questions surrounding Halladay's condition & I cannot imagine even r00b being dumb enough to trade Lee right now.

[Kendrick Appreciation Society]

Turn on MLB Network right now to see Cody Asche in the Arizona Fall League championship game (Zachary Collier, too).

[Conway Twitty]

The new Reading Fightin Phils isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but the logo sure is. I thought it was a turkey with badly shaved legs. Either way, if they play poorly, they will be called turkeys, or have their heads in the sand.
It's not about merchandise, but they have 8-I SAID EIGHT-new unis w/matching hats!

[jbird]

Just Can't : that dodger article reads like it was written by a 15 year old. Horrible. Anyone should be available for the right price, but I'd be surprised if Lee were traded. He might be the only big money player who earned his salary last year (I think Chooch & Hamels made less combined than lee made). And, I don't know that the Sox, Yankees, or dodgers have the pieces unless the are parting with MLB level talent (Texas does). Sounds like some fans hoping for a salary dump.

[Dragon]

An ostrich??? I guess one could safely say the advertising guys for the Reading Fightin' Phillies really laid an egg on this one.

[Luis]

Bossman Jr wow! BlackJack Upton is way cooler.

[FHS77]

I read a Yankees blog opining that the Phillies may be considering a straight up Lee for ARod trade. Pretty sure RAJ would need to go into some kind of witness protection program after that one, which would be the only positive. There was a similar Dodger blog, maybe the same one, saying that since they were supposedly shopping Ethier they might be making payroll space for Lee. Lots of wishful thinking and people pulling stuff out of their butts this time of year. That said, I have little faith that Rube will be able to resist the attention trading Lee AGAIN will get him, whether it's a good idea or not.

[MG]

Reading Fightins' which is kind of poor/questionable test given the perception issues that Reading already has (poverty, crime, drug rep) and just a horrible looking mascot they took from the Crazy Hot Dog Vendor (he rides an ostrich costume).

Polling at an impressive 16% 'Yes' now on the Reading Eagle poll whether people like the new name.

http://polldaddy.com/poll/6697182/?view=results&msg=voted

Reading is a place that is a pretty xenophobic place and resistant to change but only 16% support currently? My bet is that Reading P-Phils don't see a real boost in merchandise sales as a result of such a poorly-conceptualized and awkward-looking mascot.

[Edmundo]

Sarge up to 11%!

[jbird]

Lee for Arod would be a terrible deal. Lee is very good. ARod is not anymore. Plus he's a constant distraction and he's under contract till 2075 or something like that. I bet Youk will be the better player next year or at least within spitten distance.

[MG]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20121116&content_id=40327448&vkey=news_mil&c_id=mil&partnerId=rss_mil

Cool piece especially about pitching injury prevention and how successful the Brewers have been the last decade.

This did catch my attention - "Carroll and astrophysicist Meredith Wills were to make a Saturday presentation about their new field tracking system, which would allow a team to measure and analyze every movement on a baseball field.

Over the course of time, the system develops maps that could aid in defensive positioning while also noting subtle changes in players' performance, potentially predicting injuries before they occur. It could also help teams quantify whether or not a rehabbing player is ready to return to action.

"It will end up somewhere. It would be nice if it ended up here [at Miller Park]," Wills said. "I would say that whoever goes with this first is going to have an advantage. Even back at the Winter Meetings when this was still in development, I had people in baseball saying, 'Oh, you've got Moneyball 2.0.'"

Not sure if this is a competitor to Field F/x or not. I thought the contract that MLB had with Sportsvision for Field F/x was for all 30 MLB stadiums ultimately but it is only installed in 5 stadiums (San Francisco, Kansas City and Tampa Bay originally and rolled out to Boston and Milwaukee this past year) currently with no timetable to roll it out to all 30 stadiums.

http://www.sportvision.com/news/playoff-bound-baseball-gets-big-data-boost

[MPNPhilly]

I am curious to see what this faux flannel is that the Reading Fightin Phils are going to use in unis. I bet that if it works out the Philadelphia club will use it. From the pics on the Reading site it does look pretty cool in the pinstripes.

[bay_area_phan]

Yeah, that sounds like a great trade for the Phillies. We give the Yankees our ace pitcher in his prime & they give us their 37-year old oft-injured, badly declining player who is owed between $20 and $29M per year for 5 more years.

[Scott]

So long, Juan. We hardly knew ye.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/11/marlins-sign-juan-pierre.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[GTown_Dave]

I suppose Pierre will be batting .400 & winning the NL MVP as a Marlin now. Can't say I'm all that disappointed, either.

[Conway Twitty]

I know there was probably no room for him next year, but I'm still sad to see him go. I would have paid him minimum just to teach these guys how to bunt.

[MPNPhilly]

if the Fish want to waste 400ABs on Pierre more "power" to them. He can't play CF in monument valley there. Col. Nathan R. Jessup just called in from Ft. Leavenworth: All you did was weaken a ballclub today Loria.

[Conway Twitty]

This also negates the 5 extra wins I thought the Phils would gain against the decimated Fish.

[Bubba]

Whoever we wind up with at 3B next year had better field the bunt very well or Juan Pierre will have a 1.000 OBP against the Phils.

[Conway Twitty]

Bubba: Dosn't matter. He'll bunt it to Howie every time.

[GM-Carson]

I'm actually very disappointed Pierre signed with the Marlins. I loved having him on the team this past season. I know the Phils need to head in a different direction, so I'm not mad he's not with them, I'm just mad he's in the division. Maybe had he signed with the Astros or Padres I wouldn't have been as bad.

[MG]

Pierre is now an excellent candidate for a 'Philly Killer' next year.

[Bubba]

MG- Didn't he have that role in the past?

How about "Comeback Phillie Killer of the Year"?

Criteria for that honor should be at least as ill defined as league MVP.

[Iceman]

People are going to now lament what happened with Pierre when it was nearly unanimous that people wanted nothing to do with bringing him back.

Personally I'd have loved him as a bench piece, but I can't blame him for taking a starting job and can't blame the Phils for not attempting to match the offer. Look forward to him hitting .500 against us next year.