Dec 4 2018

What I don’t understand about baseball and the Astros

Since Sears is late delivering our Hot Stove, it feels like time to just throw out random things that have occurred or will occur in the near future that I don’t understand about baseball and in some cases specifically about the Astros. What? Sears filed for bankruptcy? Maybe that Hot Stove is never coming.

  1. Why would a team like the Mets put a former player’s agent in charge? Brodie Van Wagenen moved from player’s agent to GM in one fell swoop and is now making big moves like trading for Robinson Cano (whose huge contract was negotiated by his then agent … Van Wagenen). I know that he would “know” something about baseball, would “know” something about contracts, would “know” something about the value of contracts, etc. But agents live in an alternate universe where they think that Dallas Keuchel is the new Tom Glavine. Maybe they don’t believe what they say, but what do they believe?
  2. What exactly are the Mariners doing? I understand they picked up a number of highly thought of prospects in their trades to date, but is the plan to strip totally down like the Astros did or to try and do a half %^&# job and bounce back quickly. The Mariners won 89 games in 2018, but they were probably going to regress after going 36-21 in one-run games, and they missed the playoffs for a 17th straight season. Are they just trying to cut their payroll or do they think they can rebuild quickly to compete?
  3. I don’t understand how somebody like Charlie Morton suddenly found more mph in his mid-30s. I’m not saying there is pine tar working here, it’s just that it is counterintuitive that at an age where most guys are losing a tick or two this guy found a few ticks.
  4. I don’t understand why baseball can’t speed up a little. I mean basketball was able to transform from a sport where they had a jump ball after every basket to one where they could hold the ball forever to one where they have to shoot vs a certain time clock. Maybe we could attach electrodes to the hitters and pitchers and give them an uncomfortable zap when they take too long.
  5. I don’t understand baseball finances.  It seems even when attendance is down or eyes watching on TV slumps, the broadcast rights and the salaries still soar. Is there no balloon ready to burst here like in other unsustainable areas?
  6. I don’t understand why I can’t get it through my head that I am laying my heart on the line for what is a business. Teams have little loyalty and can say goodbye to anyone including former Cy Young Award winners over money. Players have little loyalty and can say goodbye to their teams and fans over money. I need to encase my heart in a Kevlar case.

What don’t you understand?

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118 comments on “What I don’t understand about baseball and the Astros”

  1. Dan, my bestie Blondie would say to you:

    Once we won it all . . . and it was a gas!
    Then Dan found out . . . he had a heart of glass.
    Seemed like we were buds, but it’s about green!
    They see big bucks – it’s ‘Goodnight Irene!’

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    • I have to be impressed with anyone who can cross Blondie with Leadbelly Ledbetter (writer of Goodnight Irene) and the Weavers (who had the #1 hit with Goodnight Irene)

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  2. And as Jiminy Cricket might say:

    When you doctor with pine tar;
    the ball spins faster, yes by far!
    The swings and misses you desire will come to you!

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  4. When I retired over 12 years ago from LSU, I built a home on some farm land in East GA and used Sears products for our kitchen appliances. The expensive refrigerator was deamed unrepairable after less than two years and all the other appliances have needed frequent repairs. So Dan, I decided to never purchase a sears product again. I concur with the rest of your non understandings except for one. I know that these baseball games can linger and I can rarely finish the game when the Stros are on the west coast, I will always support the timeless side of baseball. It is a charming throwback to a more laid back time in our life and away from the frenetic activities that most of us are confronted with. Concerning Morton and his fastball recovery, I hope that it doesn’t relate to the reasons that Roger Clemons is suspected of recovering his.

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    • Larry I am hopeful that Morton’s velocity addition was tied to a change in his grip and from him deciding to actually throw harder – which he said he did when he was in Philadelphia. Maybe as a starter he felt he should hold back to last longer and finally said the heck with that.
      As far as Sears goes – when my wife and I got married 38 years ago, we only had one credit card (other than a gas card) and that was a Sears card and we bought tons of stuff there including appliances and kitchen ware, etc. It is hard to think about how much the Sears’ world has fallen since then.

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      • Dan, when I was a young hippie songwriter I wrote a song about a medieval knight who to his great confusion found himself transported through time onto the bustling streets of a 20th Century American city wearing a coat of mail and heavy medieval armor. One of the lines of the song, sung from the perspective of the apologetic knight who kept bumping into everyone, was ‘I look a bit funny, my clothes aren’t from Sears’. Now anyone who is wearing clothes from Sears probably feels like my old friend, the awkwardly dressed knight.

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  5. 7. I just don’t get the discussion of Brice Harper being a 400 million dollar man. Yes, he’s a dynamic player. There’s no doubt there. But, even with his remarkable 2015 season with the 1.109 OPS and all those other gaudy stats, his lifetime OPS is .900. That’s excellent, but not worth 400 million. He makes some highlight reel plays in the outfield, but he’s not a great outfielder. For all the power, he’s averaged just 26 plus homers a year. There is only one guy I could give 400 million to, and that might not be enough when the time comes.

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      • That’s a blast from the past Daveb – those guys are still active (won a Grammy in 2009) and now stationed in Northwest Arkansas (where there is a heck of a lot more trout fishing than in Houston)….

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      • Dan, then you might remember the local band Wheatfield, that became St. Elmo’s Fire. When St. Elmo’s broke up, Trout Fishing came about. Ezra, the tall guy, was named Chris when I first met him. I think the drummer for Trout Fishing also was with St. Elmo’s.

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      • Yeah that is back in my college hey day – Ezra (the tall guy) was a former college basketball player (it figures) and they both played in Wheatfield and St. Elmo’s Fire – this is taking me back.

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    • Then there was Craig Calvert and Connie Mimms, I think from Bellaire High School where the first band got its start. Dan it’s likely we were in the same room at some point along the way.

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      • Yes – I hope we are not boring the rest of our buddies here – they say on their web site that Ezra and Keith get together with Craig and Calvert a few times a year as Wheatfield and perform…..
        Yeah we were probably in the same place somewhere along the way

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      • Yep, we could go on a long tour of 70’s plus music history. Let’s not wear out the other customers though. Shake Russell was never one of my favorites. But I never missed a 5.00 cover charge when Stevie Ray came though to play Club Hey Hey and then The Bon Ton Room.

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  6. As G. Gordon Gecko said in Wall Street “greed for lack of a better word is good.” I think that just about sums it up. I doubt you’ll hear a player sum it up like Shoeless Joe Jackson did in Field of Dreams, “Man, I did love this game. I’d have played for food money. “

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    • The Mariners are getting out quick and knocking that payroll down – the Astros are testing the waters but will probably get wet in a week or two…

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  8. mlbtraderumors are saying Patrick Corbin is going to the Nats for 6 yrs – $126 million
    I think that is more than Drayton McLane paid for the Astros but that is ancient history

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  10. Let me try my hand at making sense of the Mariners and the Mets.
    A. First an foremost, what occurred between the Mets and the Mariners provides the Mariners everything they needed to get their rebuild going. If they couldn’t get an equal deal for Cano, their goose is cooked! Cano’s deal was an albatross and they are out from under the three worst years of that deal.
    B. Nobody else, and I mean nobody, knew how Cano felt about the Mariners than Brodie does. That is the gunpowder that promises this deal.
    C. Very view people in all of baseball knew exactly how the current Mariners decision makers felt about Robinson Cano. Brodie did, because it was his job to know as Cano’s agent. He didn’t get to be who he was by not being to read people and he knew exactly how Seattle felt about Cano. This gave Brodie an
    unbelieveable advantage over all other MLB GMs. He’s the Mets GM and he knows exactly how Seattle rates his ex-client.
    If Brodie knew Cano wanted out and Brodie knew Seattle wanted him gone, then Brodie had this deal in the bag from the very outset and he knew he could get rid of two players and two salaries that he didn’t want. He used his knowledge of Cano’s situation in Seattle to get Diaz. No other GM could make this deal because no other GM had the inside scoop that Van Wagonmaster had on Seattle’s desire to rid themselves of Cano.

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    • Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to do a Tonya Harding on Cano and collect the insurance money when he is physically unable to play? Of course they would have had to hit him in the knee every year for the next three years, might get suspicious….

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    • This is a move that I just can’t understand. Below average pitch framing, one of the worst arms in the league (10% CS in 2018) and a mediocre bat. With the Astros power pitchers you need a gun behind the dish to have any hope of controlling runners. I think he is a downgrade from Stassi….. and I’m not much of a Stassi fan.

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  13. Chirinos had only a .222 BA last year [down a little from career], but had a .338 OBP [up a little from career]. His OPS was .757 [up slightly from career avg.] He did hit 28 HRs [career high] and drove in 65 runs [career high by a mile]. He’s a RHB, so I’m guessing he’s likely to be teamed with a catcher who bats LH – i.e. Stubbs, rather than another RHB like Realmuto, Cervelli , Sal. Perez, or Max Stassi.

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    • 1OP, I love your vim, vigor and wit (i.e. sarcasm). I would rather see Stubbs/ Stassi than Chirinos/ anyone. The more I consider, the more I believe that this move does not mean that another catcher is on the way. You are right when you say that he is the best backup catcher on the team.

      I still believe that we will either make a trade for Realmutto, with Stubbs and or Stassi included or sign a free agent. Chirinos would not be so bad if he were backing up Ramos/ Grandal/ Realmutto to free them up for some DH ABs.

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  15. I will remain optimistic for now. I don’t think this guy becomes our starter. I’m thinking Stubbs or Stassi is going somewhere soon. I think we’re getting a shinier backstop.

    Keuchel must be smiling right now. Corbin got what he got for having a career year. Dallas won’t get much less.

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    • db7, I’m kinda leaning in your direction. I like Chirinos as a #2 provided he is cheap. It does allow us to package Stassi or Stubbs in a deal.

      I’m blown away with Corbin at 6/140. He is not worth it. One good outlier of a year and he cashes in. Career ERA close to 4, career WHIP close to 1.3, health concerns and only topped 200 IP twice in 6 years. I agree, Keuchel must be licking his chops knowing he just got way more expensive.

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      • AC, don’t blame us. Everything we do wrong is because our parents spanked us. Now that spanking is not allowed, the world has become a more safe and loving place to live.
        I do not have a beverage permanently wedged in my hand, but I needed a doctor to remove a wedged Walkman yesterday.
        Hey Jude, don’t bring me down….
        .Nwod em gnirb t’nod, eduJ yeD
        Backward masking, ya know.

        Liked by 3 people

  18. Let me take on #4. I think they could very easily implement a pitch clock. A. When the pitcher receives the ball, he has 5 (pick a number) seconds to get ready to take the catcher’s sign with his foot touching the rubber. B. When the pitcher touches the rubber, the rubber has to be ready to bat, if the batter wants to fool around, the play continues without him. C. The pitcher then has 5 (pick a number) seconds to throw the ball. If the pitcher fails to deliver a pitch with 10 (pick a number) seconds, the batter is awarded first base.

    That seems drastic, but so did the shot clock in basketball.

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  20. OH…PUUULLEEZE…..CHIRINOS???? JEEZE……what the HELL????? Good thing I went Christmas shopping, because I CLEARLY did not miss anything Luhnow did today. GOOD LORD.😠

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  22. -Remember a couple of months ago when I recommended the Astros step up and get Patrick Corbin for 5/100?. Mike Hampton had one great season and then got paid a huge amount of money. Wasn’t he a lefty, too?
    -I am encouraged that the Astros have not traded for Jonathan Villar.
    -How come Jose Altuve couldn’t have been good buddies with Realmuto?
    -I found the Hot Stove! It is the waiting room area restroom at the urologists office. AND it takes six weeks to get an appointment to view this amazing circus. The good news is that we are now accepted patients and we had no problem getting a follow up appointment in a month. Between that and the Chirinos deal I am just….dilly freakin’ dilly!
    -Charlie Morton is not old. If he were old he would not take a month to make a decision. Old people do not have a month to make a decision.
    -Since the WS, Chris Russo’s baseball world has expanded to two cities. Damn those Red Sox.
    -Wait till we find out that Miami accepted the Astros offer two weeks ago, but can’t get ahold of anybody in the Astros front office. Maybe if they could contact Rosenthal, he could find Luhnow and let him know.
    -If Luhnow ever leaves, the Astros could hire Casey Close as their GM.
    -Who knew that the highlight of Brady Aiken’s pitching career would be High School?
    -Who knew that the highlight of Mark Appel’s pitching career would be a bullpen session at MMP?
    -Thank you for letting me on this blog.

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    • We let you on this blog, old pro, because you bring us joy, which is not always what one thinks about when someone is coming from the urologist’s office.
      – I’m betting Corbin was not picturing 6 yrs / $140 million when he finished 2016 at 5-13 and a 5.15 ERA or 2017 at 14-13 and a 4.03 ERA. So, will he have 5 years of so-so performance with his contract year the one where he really pitches well – again?
      – I’m sure the Astros held onto the lady or gentleman who answers the phones. Now whether they can locate anyone to pass along a message to…..
      – Aiken isn’t as shocking as Appel. High schoolers are a whole lot more speculative than college players. Everyone thought Appel was a gem for two straight drafts. Hey – Scott Boras said this about Appel who passed up the Pirates and went back to school – “Mark Appel got to go to a great college and his work ethic and perseverance and confidence in himself says a lot about the character that he takes the path he takes. Whenever you’re able to get better and go through the process he went through in the last year, it says a lot about why Houston took him and a lot about why he chose Houston.” I guess his work ethic, perseverance and confidence all got used up in college…

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      • I have no regrets on the Appel pick except for the fact I don’t think the Houston organization could develop their starting pitchers. In fact, I’m not convinced they can. Excepting Keuchel, who almost got thrown to the curb like JDM, what have we seen? Appel underperformed and got traded to Philly. LMJ was terrible, then great, then great in Houston, then hurt, then hurt, and is now recovering from elbow surgery. Martes is recovering from elbow surgery. David Paulino got busted for PEDs, converted into a reliever, and traded to Toronto. Brady Rogers – PCL pitcher of the year to TJ surgery. Someone needs to start looking out for Josh James.

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  23. Remember back in 2015 when the Astros had a pitching staff that averaged the slowest fastballs in MLB?
    Now close you eyes and imagine
    Justine Verlander
    Gerritt Cole
    Charlie Morton
    Nate Eovaldi
    Josh James.
    Now that the Astros can’t get 10 sellouts by giving away replica rings, they could find a manufacturer of cheap radar guns and give them away. Ten sellouts, at least!

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  25. #3. Charlie Morton’s velocity.
    If you take a guy who is tall and lanky and has always been able to throw 93 mph, how can you add 3 mph to his fastball?
    Morton has not thrown a ton of pitches in his career because he was always on the DL. He found 2 mph in his short time with the Phillies with a delivery change and then found 1.5 mph with Brett Strom in Houston. His change in velocity is 3.2% I don’t find this to be a miracle.
    Diet, actually being healthy, a realignment of the lower body with the upper body. A change in workouts to add leg strength. A slight change in grips, which Strom is famous for. Moving from one side of the rubber to another, resulting in a better balanced landing on a slanted mound(or worse balance and higher velocity, as we see him sometimes pull that big fastball to his left when he loses his control)
    Putting a guy with a great arm, who is finally healthy under the tutelage of a pitching genius is a formula for a slight uptick in velocity(3.2% is slight to me). It would seem to be harder to increase revolutions on his fastball.

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      • What very few people know is that along with raising cattle in Alvin, Nolan owns the largest free-range pine tar ranch in the world.
        (Which of these buttons is the sarcasm font?)

        Yeah, Zanuda I thought that Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver were the two pitchers that best used their length strength in support of their arm velocity. And let’s face it using those big leg muscles correctly was one of the reasons these two gentlemen were not straining their arm muscles over their long careers.

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  26. This is the stat wRC+ for the Astros four catchers last season and their WAR, and also that of Chirinos:
    Stassi 100 wRC+ 1.2 WAR
    McCann 82 .5
    Maldanado 77 .3
    Federowicz 42 -0.2
    Chirinos 103 1.6
    As of right now, the Astros have improved the Catcher position in their lineup. We will have to see about catcher defense.

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    • I got to Houston in time to see game 5 live. There was something missing at that point. It was over the night before. Altuve’s one legged homer taken away. An imperfect game played by our guys. And yet in the end, Benintendi had to make a stunning play on a ball destined to tie the series. Our guys were the ones making that play in 2017. It’s hard to repeat. In spite of so many setbacks, we came close.

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    • We could have easily come up with a Goldschmidt package. I can only guess that Luhnow just did not want to pay what it would cost for him in 2020 and beyond.

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  30. #4 is easy. The reason why it is hard for baseball to shorten the game is because they don’t want to. The game isn’t timed because they don’t want it timed. They make more money the longer the game goes. More concessions, more commercials, more time to spend in the gift shop.
    Major league baseball is not concerned with how long the game lasts. They are lying if they say they are.
    How do I know, besides the obvious motivation of everybody in baseball wanting more money? Because of the talk of eliminating the shifts. Shifts cause outs and outs is the limiting factor on how long a baseball game lasts.
    Why would baseball be talking about getting rid of shifts, when shifts actually causes more outs, thus speeding up the game.
    Eliminating shifts will slow the game down. That’s how you know baseball really doesn’t care about the length of games.

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    • The game is now taking at least 3 hours with the playoffs and world series games approaching 4 hours. At least 25% of that is commercials. I’d like to see baseball do what they do in soccer. Show a commercial in the corner for a product w/o interrupting the flow of the game. Imagine if golf were played that way. As Tiger or Phil get ready to hit their shot or putt, we break for a commercial and they have to wait until the 2-3 minute commercial is over before they can resume play. That would go over like a bad shank.

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      • I can remember when Bud Daley got traded from KC to the Yankees. He threw one pitch each of his 3 pitches and was ready. He got in trouble with the league because the commercials were not complete.

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  31. Red Sox are in intense talks with Eovaldi…..in other words, Astros aren’t even sniffing at this pitcher. So we can cross that guy off your list. I’m sure any pitcher still left is VERY impressed with a catcher the arlington little league didn’t even want.

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  34. Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson,
    our FO sees far more in you than we –
    Hee! Hee! Hee!

    Welcome aboard, you of the Cheery Nose,
    can you really guide our sleigh to victory?
    I guess we’ll see! I guess we’ll see!

    Here you come from Arlington where Roofie Odor plays;
    how will you get that stench out of your suitcase?
    Try OcyClean, call Mr. Clean – use acid if you must.
    don’t let this hot stove be a bust!

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  36. Some thoughts:
    -Laugh if you will, but the Astros signed Chirinos for just one year, kind of like a fill-in situation, with Stassi and Chirinos as a slight improvement offensively over 2018. So who are they a fill-in for? I think the Astros would like Stubbs and Quintana to be good enough to catch for them in 2020.
    -The Astros will lose almost their entire bullpen after the 2019 season ends and probably Cole and Verlander from the rotation. Smith, Rondon, Pressly, McHugh, Peacock and Harris are all free agents after this coming year. They will have to be replaced by a number of the Astros young pitchers and those young pitchers will have Stubbs and Quintana as their primary catchers for last year and this coming year. If this catching duo works out in AAA this year and end up being average hitters and above average defensive catchers coming out of Round Rock by the end of this season, I could see them in the Astros plans for the coming years.
    – I suspect the Astros will try to get a veteran starting pitcher this winter for at least a 2-3 year deal and another veteran starter next offseason to go with LMJ, Whitley, James, and all the rest of the young pitchers to build a pitching staff that doesn’t break them financially in the coming years, as core position players come due their money.

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  37. -If MLB makes the change to cutting down on shifts, like we are hearing rumors about, that will cut down on the emphasis of ground ball pitchers and putting more emphasis on strikeout pitchers. Which reminds me of the fact that the Astros pitchers led every major league AND minor league in strikeouts in baseball in 2018.
    – If I could carry this a bit further, the Astros are, by their makeup, a contact hitting team and not a power hitting team. That way of thinking fits right in with the elimination of shifts, as multiple holes in the infield would now be part of baseball again. The Astros also struck out less than any team in MLB over the last two seasons, fitting the Astros into a good niche, if indeed pitchers are going to try to create more Ks and less ground balls.

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    • I think trying to regulate shifting is a terrible idea. Let guys like Brice Harper learn how to bunt the ball down the third base line for a base hit, or better yet, a double. As soon as guys handle the bat better and defenses get burned more often, shifting will lose some effectiveness and won’t be utilized to the same extreme as they are today. Let the players playing the game control the continuing evolution of defensive shifting.

      Can you imagine an umpiring crew led by Joe West arbitrating new shift rules, on the field, during play? I do not.

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    • Until I know how Manfred and friends want to kill the shift I don’t know whether to support it or not. In my opinion the way to fix it is to 1) implement a pitch clock for the first pitch of an at-bat and 2) add a rule that there must be two infielders on the left-side of the infield and 2 infielders on the right side. This would be defined by an imaginary line crossing directly from home plate through second base. A player would be considered to be on a side by having at least one foot across the line.

      Basically, if the defense wants to re-position for every hitter they should get their butts moving. I hate watching people walk around the outfield just as much as I hate watching them re-adjust their batting gloves.

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    • Sarge, I think they are waiting for Morton to decide. I believe that a commitment from him would lead them to have a ton more confidence to make an additional move to shore up another area. If Morton costs them just money, they might then make a trade to fill another need. If Morton doesn’t work out and they have to make a trade to acquire a #3 type pitcher, then their additional move could be a signing, so that they don’t lose a double dose of prospects in two trades.
      I still see them going for a starting pitcher and a bat. Morton’s decision would really help move things along.
      For all we know Luhnow and Morton might have already reached an agreement verbally and it is not going to be made public until the Astros finish at the winter meetings.
      Anyway, that is what my gut is telling me.

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      • Yeah – they would have announced the Morton signing already but the person who reserves the conference room and orders the doughnuts and coffee went with Elias to Baltimore…..

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      • The thing about Morton is that one of the guys that have left might well have given Charlie pause. Maybe he is more apt today to consider a move. I also stated earlier, it could simply be that Luhnow wants to make sure he’s fully healthy.

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  39. Regarding the idea being floated around about limiting shifts . . .

    1. What do you do, have the grounds’ crew draw a fielder’s box – similar to the batters box – in every defensive position, and not allow the pitcher to toe the rubber until every position player is in his nice, neat little ‘box’?
    2. Put a shock collar – or at least an ankle monitor – on every infielder and outfielder that gives off either an electric shock or sounds an alarm if the defender is outside his mandated geographic ‘defender’s space’ when the pitcher toes the rubber?
    3. Let renowned expert baseball genius Angel Hernandez decide when a defensive alignment is inappropriate?

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  40. Something I’m struggling with…..
    – The Nationals just signed Corbin for 6 yrs / $140 million – with $10MM of that deferred into the future
    – They owe Max Scherzer about $150MM – though with his contract they will pay him $15MM a year for the next 10 years – 7 of those years are deferred payments – he fulfills his 7 year contract in another 3 years at $15MM a year and then continues to get $15MM a year for 7 more years whether he is with Washington on a new contract, somewhere else with a new contract or “sitting on a beach earning 20%” (Extra credit if you can identify where that movie quote came from)
    – Stephen Strasburg has a contract for 5 yrs at $138MM or he could collect $38MM next year and opt out
    – They are talking about extending Rice grad Anthony Rendon – heck that could be in the $20-25 million/yr range for a strong and consistent player
    – They say they are not done on Harper for whatever that means – but it could mean $30 – 35 million/yr range
    – Washington drew 2.5 million fans last year and has never drawn more than the 2.7 million their inaugural year in DC -the Astros were just a tad under 3 million fans last week through the turnstiles
    – Where the heck is all this money coming from? Do we overpay taxes so much that all those federal employees can just pony up whatever they charge for tickets and $15 beers???

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  43. OP, Clev is looking for OF help & salary relief. They extended Carrasco which leaves Kluber/Bauer as potential trade bait. Can’t we send Reddick, Jake, a pitching prospect for Kluber? If Clev is truly averse to a prospect oriented trade, surely we could use Kluber. Can we make that work money wise along with a decent prospect? Just wondering

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    • Cleve is maxxxed out on payroll. That is why they want to dump a pitcher. Riddick makes too much for them. They want a young less expensive OF in a trade.

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  44. Keuchel off the books at $13 million. Gattis at $6.7, Marwin at $5.13, McCann at $17, Maldonado at apart of $3.9 and Morton ??? Add back some in arbitration and Chirinos at $7. No way that Luhnow is finished. Just no way. PLEASE.

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    • We already have a bit of an issue in the outfield. Sending Reddick and Jake away sure would make us thinner out there. Chances are that Reddick will improve over 2018. Take Jake, but I’d still like a left fielder.

      45, please don’t nervelate. It will keep you from getting a good nights sleep.

      Boston really had to sign Eovaldi. He was stunning in the post season. The faithful would have been pissed to see him paid more by us or the Yankees. And they need rotation help a lot more than us. No telling how long he goes without his arm blowing out again. It’s nice to have guys like James and Whitley nearby.

      I want to see the Cole/Springer war chest built up.

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      • What is wrong with you two? The World Series was over in OCTOBER. It is now DECEMBER. Fire the front office. Well those that are left. Maybe only the lady that answers the phone.

        (My mother was a first grade teacher. One day she asked if anyone in the class knew the meaning of the word “patience.” One little girl answered “that is what doctors have.” I agree with the little girl)

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  45. 30 teams are waiting for one of these free agent prima donas, to ink some BIG money contracts. Personally I would LOVE to pry Stroman, away from the Blue Jays, but I don’t see that happening. Alex Cora was on thin ice with me already but he just fell through the ice in very deep water. The off season irritates the cr@P outta me. Everytime I see the Astros interested in some guy….the (spit) Yankees fly in and scoop them up. You would think they have enough pitchers by now. I’m still steaming about giving the former rangers catcher over $5 million next year😠

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