Play ball!

The Dodgers just keep pouring it on. Teoscar Hernandez, 1 year/$23.5M

It's ridiculous, isn't it? And Teoscar is good, but he's not worth that much.

When the weather outside forces me to do my daily exercise inside I've been watching the 10 disc Ken Burns documentary "Baseball". I started the "Fifth Inning" disc today (each disc is an inning number instead of a disc number) and today I learned that the Cardinals had the first ever farm system in baseball. Vice President and General Manager of the Cardinals Branch Rickey didn't have the money to buy players from other teams so he came up with the whole farm system idea. I had no idea.

Wow, MLB Network is reporting that Jordan Hicks has signed a 4yr/$44M deal with the Giants. No way is that guy worth 11M per year.

Wow! He is certainly not worth that. In the Jays' bullpen, he was about the 3rd or 4th guy.

The Jays have done nothing to improve the team from last year. So much for the "we're going to do something big" statement.

The local sports said the Giants signed Hicks as a starter. That makes the deal even more baffling because he tried starting in St. Louis and I don't remember him ever making it past the 5th inning because he walks WAY too many batters. Most of his starts he had as many walks as strikeouts. Good luck with that plan San Fran.

I can see that failing.

It's been a very boring offseason.

Yeah that's why I decided now was a good time to watch the 20 hour Ken Burns "Baseball" series. I started the "8th Inning" disc today. It's up to the 60s. They just covered all the teams moving to the west and then how a bunch of other teams saw how much money the west coast Giants and Dodgers made and they moved away from the east coast too. I didn't realize that originally the Angels were actually called the "Los Angeles Angels" just like they are now.

This is really well done (as all the Burns docs are) but you really have to be a major baseball fan to watch this whole thing. After I watch the last two discs I think I'll just watch certain decades because it's kind of a slog to go through all 10 discs in order. At least starting with the 6th inning disc we started getting more actual vintage footage instead of just still photos.

I just finished the *8th Inning". There's a segment that compares and contrasts baseball and football which was overtaking baseball as "America's pastime" in the late 60s. Of course it contains the classic George Carlin bit but there's a great quote from columnist George Will (a noted baseball fan) who says "Football embodies two of the worst aspects of modern society; it's violence punctuated by committee meetings." I love that.

Yariel Rodriguez????

Some Cuban relief pitcher, it says. I know nothing about him.
The Jays are absolutely stacked with pitching, starting and relief.

tohostudios wrote:

I just finished the *8th Inning".  There's a segment that compares and contrasts baseball and football which was overtaking baseball as "America's pastime" in the late 60s.  Of course it contains the classic George Carlin bit but there's a great quote from columnist George Will (a noted baseball fan) who says "Football embodies two of the worst aspects of modern society; it's violence punctuated by committee meetings."  I love that.

I like football, but I love baseball. They still call baseball "American pastime", but there is so much competition for the sports dollar: football, hockey, NASCAR, basketball, and more. I wonder how they all rank.

Started the Ninth Inning today. The disc covers the 70s and 80s. Did you know Tim Raines started using the headfirst slide because he didn't want to break the vial of cocaine he kept in his hip pocket?

No,I didn't know that. That's an odd one.
That would be the disc is like best. The early 80s are when I got into baseball.

Lol, I always loved George Carlin. He always had a unique take on things.

I have Texas vs Baylor on ESPN right now and Dan Shulman is doing the play by play. I think he's my favorite sports announcer these days; the guy just has a voice made for calling sports.

He does have a smooth voice, doesn't he? And he never gets over dramatic or says stupid stuff. As far as I know, he didn't play professional or college sports either. That makes it more impressive.

5yr/$95M for a reliever???? No way I'd pay that for Hader but that's what the Astros did.

That IS a crazy amount. And relievers are volatile. I'm always hesitant about going more than 3 years on a BP arm, especially a closer.

Did you see that over the weekend the Cardinals signed Matt Carpenter back? For the league minimum of 750,000. I'm not sure what the point of it is really but at least it's not an expensive move.

I hadn't heard that. It's pretty hard to complain about that contract, though.

The Jays' hot stove is quiet. It's so quiet, in fact, that I think someone up and ran off with it.

Didn't they re-sign somebody recently?

They re-signed Kiermaier a while back. He was there last year and had a good season so that doesn't really improve a team that didn't hit well enough. Their defence and pitching should still be among the best.

That's right, that's what I heard.

MLB Network is reporting that the Jays and Justin Turner are close to a deal.

EDIT: Confirmed. 1yr/$13M

I've been busy all morning so hadn't heard. At least it is something. They still need someone like Soler, or to make a trade for a solid 3B.

The Orioles traded for Corbin Burnes. It seems like a pretty light return for the Brewers. It also seems that the Orioles and Yankees have gotten better, while the Jays have pretty much stayed the same or gone slightly backward. It's been a disappointing offseason so far.