Vegas is offering 10-1 so I'll just be loading up there, thanks anyway

Coward.

true, I'm afraid you guys won't pay up

It is a Boras thing.
For years I've wondered how these owners constantly let Boras swindle them so bad. He has done a great job for his players but far more often than not the teams get totally duped and stuck with terrible contracts.

I still cant believe the contract Chris Davis got.

He's a great example of why not to retroactively reward someone for mediocre performance. But there are tons more. Players union is going to have to tell current old guys what they already know, they are ****ed. New CBA isn't for a few years and it's going to have to let young guys get paid, but the interim free agents are boned.

With Chris Davis specifically, what other team was even offering 100M, and he got like 163.

Just got the Athlon baseball preview. They always include a big list of the first time something has ever happened. Here are some of my favorites from this issue:

-a team that won the World Series the year before placed no one from that roster in the next year's All-Star Game (Cubs).

-a team lost a lead of six or more runs in a contest that eliminated them from postseason contention as late as their penultimate game of the campaign (Brewers).

-a team blew a two-game series lead in back-to-back postseasons (Indians).

-a batter hit more than 10 home runs, but only 10 singles, in his team's first 50 games of a campaign (Ryan Schimpf).

-a batter popped a sacrifice fly to the shortstop for a third time in his career (Matt Carpenter).

-a pitcher punched out as many as 13 batters in a complete game of fewer than 100 pitches (Clayton Kershaw).

-a pitcher who had made an All-Star team at any point in his career allowed home runs to the first three batters of a game (Max Scherzer).

-a pitcher recorded a save for a sixth different team in a span of two seasons (Tyler Clippard).

-a pitcher allowed eight homers in a postseason (Clayton Kershaw).

Who were the 2017 Cub All Stars?

Wade Davis

Nice stats, thanks DK

Really like the one about Schimpf

And of course the Scherzer one (Go Dbacks!!!)

The Scherzer one is kind of mind-blowing.

Cutch doing Pence is awesome.

If Utley isn't getting in does Cano get in right now, or with a couple more decent years? Mariners probably won't the playoffs in his career, so no heroics, and it would be crazy if a team picks up that contract.

Damn that Indians mention burns

Cano has had a much better career already. 3rd lowest season WAR is 3.2. Almost 2400 hits with 6 years left on his contract.

Cant believe he hit 39 dongs in 2016.

Cano already has 65.7 career WAR and 2376 hits.

Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg had 67.5 WAR and 2386 hits.

Cano has a great history of health and should significantly add to his career totals, even factoring decline.

Both should be Hall of Famers and compare favorably/similarly to Ryno, not sure what I'm missing.


Cano > Ryne > Utley imo but all pretty close

When its all said and done stick Kent between Cano and Ryne as well.

Utley is highly unlikely to make the HoF unless a large number of baseball writers become more sabermetrically-inclined.

Utley had a huge peak but got a relatively late start to his MLB career which hurts his career counting stats. It also doesn't help his chances that a large part of his career value came from fielding and base-running, which tend to get overlooked. Prime Utley hit as well as prime Jeff Kent, but with a far superior all-around game, making him much more valuable to his team. He's probably also the most underrated player of all-time based on MVP voting, never finishing higher than 8th, despite pretty much being the best player in the National League after Albert Pujols for every year from 2005-2009.

MLB Cumulative WAR leaders from 2005-2009:

44.5 Albert Pujols
39.5 Chase Utley
34.1 Alex Rodriguez
27.2 David Wright
27.0 Carlos Beltran
26.8 Grady Sizemore
25.9 Joe Mauer
24.8 Chipper Jones

Averaging 8 WAR for 5 seasons is pretty insane as only inner-circle HoFer's have that kind of peak.

Looking at this list, the Mets, with a core of Beltran-Wright-Reyes really should have done more during this period, but sadly their pitching was pretty unremarkable.

Ooh! we are going off 5 year samples to make hall of fame cases, conveniently setting the range for their peak.

I'll do a 6 year range because I am generous.

2003-2008. Name the unknown pitcher (sorted by fWAR):

1) Johan Santana: 33.6
2) Roy Halladay: 30.6
3) Roy Oswalt: 29.9
4) XXXXX: 29.9
5) CC Sabathia: 28.5

Mark Buehrle

Nope. I’m not at home so I can’t say where he is atm.

Buehrle

Lol grunch

Fat Bart?