2012/2013 MLB Offseason Thread

[MalaCloudy Black]

Showalter's signed with the Orioles through 2018 apparently. This oughta make damshow happy.

[gunnar hendershow]

It does make me happy. I'm always worried of a nasty divorce happening since Showalter in the past was known to grate on the organizations he was a part of by being a true control freak. However I'm of the impression now that outside of Duquette he has most of the control of the organization. Angelos, with the exception of the financial side, has taken a real seat in the background in part because of his age. His son, Louis, has taken the role as representative of the ownership recently. I was worried the three of these guys were a ticking time bomb, but now I'm not so sure. Old age seems to have mellowed them out.

[Toe]

Winning helps too.

[gunnar hendershow]

Well he was winning in New York, Arizona, and Texas and that didn't help matters. Angelos also notably fired Davey Johnson when he won Manager of the Year. Winning helps I'm sure, if Showalter didn't have signs of improvement this past year he might have found himself on the hot seat in the 2013 season.

[gunnar hendershow]

Earl Weaver died this morning at 82.

[The Buscher]

Stan Musial has died at 92 as well.

[gunnar hendershow]

I'm sure outside of Baltimore the focus is deservingly paid to Musial. And had he not passed the same day as Earl, it would be the same here. I go back and forth in my all-time OF between he, Williams, Mantle, and Aaron (Ruth and Mays are my locks). ESPN has a great article they wrote about Musial.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=nack_bill&id=3558127

I'm glad I got to see Earl 6 times this past season at the Legends Celebration series at Camden Yards. I will forever remember on September 29, which wound up being the last time many Orioles fans had the chance to see him in person, at Brooks Robinson's statue unveiling with the Orioles on the brink of a postseason berth, he broke down and cried. The emotion of that day got to him, to see the franchise he spent his whole career with finally back to relevance, to be sitting there at the culmination of a season-long series with Eddie Murray, Frank Robinson, Cal Ripken, Jim Palmer, and members of the 2012 Orioles. It was fortuitous everything that happened last season did. They honored the 6 true Orioles legends while they were all alive with both bronze statues that will be in Camden Yards forever (and hopefully see more company join them in the future) as well as a winning team that revived Orioles magic.

At his speech he said, about his statue, "This means I'm going to be remembered." And you could tell how all the wins, all the money, and everything else meant as much to him as knowing long after he was gone kids were going to see a statue of him and know who he was. And I can safely say people who never saw him manage will still remember his name.

[Your Mom]

300 million in renovations to Wrigley over the next 5 years. I'm actually fine with most of it, but they are talking about maybe doing a video scoreboard. No thanks. I mean you have to update. Cant let the place fall apart but some things should just remain classic and the scoreboard is one of them

[livid]

What's more classic than the Cubs sucking? Because that will never change, video scoreboard or not.

[Kane's Mullet Slacker]

Yeah updating the scoreboard isn't going to help the Cubs win more games. However they need to update that place. Especially the bathrooms.

[The Buscher]

This is normally the time of year that I start getting antsy for baseball, but I just can't get into it. Even in years when the Mets look like they're going to be shitty I at least can talk myself into them being somewhere around .500 and maybe making it interesting. But they've literally done nothing this off-season to improve the Major League roster. In fact I checked their transactions page and the last Major League free agent they signed was Ronny Cedeno on 1/13/12, over a calendar year ago.

I realized that they need to rebuild and focus on 2014 and beyond. I get that - I have zero issues with the Dickey trade even though they subtracted a 20 game winner from a 74 win team. It had to be done. But Sandy Alderson repeatedly says in interviews that they aren't punting on the 2013 season even though he hasn't done anything to back up that statement. They're working on signing Scott Hairston, which would end their free agent drought...but really all that does is get their lineup to be where it was last year - mediocre at best. Never mind that they only have 3 guys locked in to the bullpen. They need to get 4 more arms from somewhere but they haven't done a damn thing.

At least the Marlins might still keep the Mets out of the cellar.

[Your Mom]

Yeah updating the scoreboard isn't going to help the Cubs win more games. However they need to update that place. Especially the bathrooms.

Absolutely! Just because you have an old school field doesn't mean you can't have nice things. I choose to ignore the rest of your and Livid's comments

[gunnar hendershow]

Where would they put the video scoreboard where it could be a reasonable sign but obstruct the historical ambiance of the ballpark? Yes, it needs some updates from what people have told me. And $300 million in renovations is better than $1 billion on a whole new stadium. Hopefully they do these improvements well and the Cubbies can stay at Wrigley for the foreseeable future. I don't know how a video scoreboard would work there, but updating the bathrooms and some other things are needed. Hell, the Orioles have been in their stadium for 20 years and have done quite a few recent updates to keep up with the times.

[Ananas]

300 million in renovations to Wrigley over the next 5 years. I'm actually fine with most of it, but they are talking about maybe doing a video scoreboard. No thanks. I mean you have to update. Cant let the place fall apart but some things should just remain classic and the scoreboard is one of them

They wouldn't necessarily have to have either/or. Fenway has both.

[Kane's Mullet Slacker]

300 million in renovations to Wrigley over the next 5 years. I'm actually fine with most of it, but they are talking about maybe doing a video scoreboard. No thanks. I mean you have to update. Cant let the place fall apart but some things should just remain classic and the scoreboard is one of them

They wouldn't necessarily have to have either/or. Fenway has both.

Yeah but the problem is, where the heck are they going to put it? I mean they already have a video board on the right field wall, unless they stick the other one on the left field wall.

[SeanDMan]

They should make the entire outfield wall an LCD screen, over brick, and then covered in ivy.

[The Buscher]

The Mets' free agent drought is finally over! They sign Shaun Marcum to a 1-year deal.

Santana, Harvey, Niese, Marcum, Gee.

Health is a huge question mark with Johan and Marcum. But if they can stay healthy, that actually could be a really good rotation.

[thatshortguy]

Justin Upton and Chris Johnson to da Braves.

Allow me to say, though I don't like losing Prado in the deal....woot!

[Kane's Mullet Slacker]

So much for that Justin Upton to the Cubs rumor eh? Even if they had him they'd still lose 90 games.

[Lint]

Phillies signed Delmon Young to a 1 year $750,000 deal, with potentially $600,000 in bonus money if he keeps within weight restrictions. 6 random trips to a scale, $100,000 each. First three times he has to be at or below 230lbs, last three times he has to be at or below 235lbs