The Pros And Cons Of MLB Winter Meetings

The biggest move the Astros have made is acquiring the young closer of the Philadelphia Phillies, Ken Giles.

Jayson Stark, ESPN columnist, presents an interesting argument of the downfall of baseball after free agency. He uses sarcasm and slight humor to introduce the reader to the topic of free agency and uses the argument style of comparison and contrast to predict what today might have held had there been no free agency. But within his column, player agent Tom Reich states, “The people who criticize free agency to easily today don’t realize how bad baseball was twenty-five years ago” (Stark). It is Stark who realizes that the talent of the game has improved, but the overall passion in each player may have decreased.

Boston has one of the best farm systems in baseball. The scouts for the Red Sox are doing God’s work for Major League Baseball, but not the hometown team. A team grows their farm system with the intention to build the Major League roster for the future or use these prospects to attract strong, veteran trade candidates. Instead, the Sox give up guys only to watch them flourish for other ballclubs. Every other team benefits thanks to Boston and we get nothing remarkable in return.

It’s even more frustrating since the Orioles show they understand that free agency isn’t where they’re going to find excellent talent. DD has noted that signing pitchers to four year deals hasn’t worked out for the Orioles and doesn’t really work out for other teams either. The Orioles understand that trying to build their team with free agents is simply going

It’s fantasy baseball playoff time, and if you made all the right moves during the regular season, you’re battling for your league title. Now is not the time to be timid. Holding on tightly to veteran pitchers may seem like a good strategy, but it can backfire.

The 2001 offseason was a critical time for the A's front office. Center fielder Johnny Damon, first baseman Jason Giambi, and closer Jason Isringhausen were all free agents and the A's knew there was no way that they could afford to keep them. Beane believes that effective closers were overpriced in the free agent market because he thinks that saves are an overrated statistic. (Lewis pgs.125-126) So when replacing the hole left by Jason Isringhausen's departure Beane traded away a solid prospect in Eric Hinske to pick up an effective but less expensive reliever in Billy Koch from Toronto. This is an example of a tactic used by

Much like the Cubs rented Chapman last year to help them win a World Series, the Yankees can look to rent Darvish who will be a free agent at the end of the season. Darvish would fit their present need, but giving up too much for a rental is not the best move. The more intriguing option would be Sonny Gray, who has been a silent killer lately, flying under the radar with a 1.37 ERA in his last six starts. Gray would fit in with the new look Yankees. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, earlier this week, executives from teams interested in Gray claim the Yankees are the front-runner. However, with the Dodgers heavily in the mix for Gray, that remains to be seen. Still, the asking price for Gray is steep. The Yankees of the past wouldn't blink an eye on doing whatever it takes to get what they want, but times have changed. The Los Angeles Dodgers now have the Steinbrenner philosophy.

Baseball did exactly what Billy Beane had said they would do, they erased them. The Oakland A’s are starting from scratch the same way they did in the 2002 season. It all begins in the small scout room. Billy Beane tried to repeat and go farther beyond what he did the past two years with this team, which was to bring them to the playoffs. Billy knows he has a chance to redefine the way baseball people think, and that is his goal… “I don’t play this game for records, I want what we do to make an impact and change the game” Billy said to Paul Depodesta. When Billy enters the little room, he sees all the scouts talking and catching up, but they all shut up when Billy takes his seat. As the discussion begins, they keep coming to the question they

Within Major League Baseball there are two trade deadlines. The first is July 31 (or August 1 for leap years) and the second is August 31. Before the July deadline, teams face no penalties or additional fees in trading. However, after July 31 and before August 31 trades can take place with waivers and additional fees. While this discourages trades after the July 31 deadline, if a player is truly desired by a team, especially in the upcoming postseason, no barrier will prevent a team from acquiring that player. After the world series free agents are free to move from team to team. For roughly five days teams will try and negotiate a new contract with their expiring players. Most of the time this works but if a contract cannot be reached salary arbitration is used. Both the player and the team will present a proposal salary to the arbitrators who then select the proposal they believe to be the fairest. Arbitration is rare

During the research of this paper there were several discoveries about the inner workings about the great American past time of baseball that was brought to my attention. The realization of how players are selected requires a great deal of thought and ingenuity (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). As a former ball player (softball player), the remembrance of selecting individuals to play usually meant picking the best hitters and fielder for the team. However, with the tremendous amount of revenue generated in the game of baseball the organization providing the highest salary usually determines the player’s team.

And it is quite likely that at the very least, the Yankees will hold on to the No. 1 wild-card spot and host a one-game playoff against either the Houston Astros, the Minnesota Twins or the Los Angeles Angels on Oct. 6. But it is truly hard to imagine the team that lost Friday to the lowly ChiSox mounting any kind of serious charge in the postseason. Sure, it would be nice to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2012, but does anyone really believe the 2015 Yankees have it in them to do anything more than make a quick and unceremonious

On June 29th the Braves made a surprising move in sending down infield prospect Ozzie Albies to Double A. The move comes as a shock but it only certifies the answer of the great question, who will play short and who will play second?

And it seems that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are interested in acquiring him and plans to pair him with centerfielder Mike Trout.

This brief examines the assets and contributions of right fielder Julio Daniel “J.D” Martinez (“Mr. Martinez”) to be

The 10 year contract which Tom Hicks and his team proposed for Alex Rodriguez was one of the biggest ever in the history of Baseball. It was a major Investment decision for the group. The Group had taken over the Dallas Stars few years earlier and spent on buying quality players. This worked wonders for the team and Dallas Stars went on to lead the group. Tom Hicks had a policy of spending 50-55% of team revenue on team payrolls. If that is maintained he always gains an operating profit of 10-15%.