Other Baseball stuff

Can we have Prince back?
At his old salary of course.

I had no ide Sarah Connor is Josh Hamiltons mom

HaHa, whoops.

Red Sox dismiss pitching coach Nieves http://t.co/GHY6YJLdqv

— Ian Browne (@IanMBrowne) May 7, 2015

.@JohnAxford's son, Jameson, will throw out the 1st pitch before tomorrow's game: http://t.co/MoSnpk8cvU pic.twitter.com/lQXMGqq6sW

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 7, 2015

Following up on Axford, video of his son and interview with John.  

 

Glad to see he's doing better, tough tough kid. 

No words, just shocked emojis: http://t.co/nmdJ13k03c pic.twitter.com/9Qd2i034AQ

— MLB (@MLB) July 21, 2015

Blue Jays get:

Troy Tulowitzki

LaTroy Hawkins

 

Rockies get:

Jose Reyes

Jeff Hoffman

Miguel Castro

 

I like this deal for the Rockies.  Tulowitzki's reputation is better than his performance at this point in his career IMO.  He's slashed a .300/.348/.471/.818 so far this season which is +++ for a shortstop but when factoring in Coors Field the batting line isn't super-impressive.  Biggest issue is that he's only played in 47, 126 and 91 games the last three years.  No matter how good a player is, if he's not playing he's not contributing.

 

All that being said, Tulowitzki is still better than Reyes.  Way better.  Reyes is vastly overpaid and misses a bunch of games himself.

 

Here is what the Blue Jays will be paying Tulowitzki:

2015 = 9.54 million (7.54 million in salary and 2 million assignment bonus for being traded)

2016 = 20 million

2017 = 20 million

2018 = 20 million

2019 = 20 million

2020 = 14 million

2021 = 4 million buyout (15 million club option)

Total = 107.54 million

 

Here is what the Rockies will be paying Jose Reyes:

2015 = 8.295 million

2016 = 22 million

2017 = 22 million

2018 = 4 million buyout (22 million club option)

Total = 56.295 million

 

IMO the signifcant downgrade for Tulowitzki to Reyes is made up for by saving 50+ million dollars.

 

LaTroy Hawkins...I can't believe that guy is still pitching.  Hasn't he said he's going to retire each year for the last three or four years?  But it looks like he was doing a pretty good job in Colorado (3.63 ERA, 1.16 WHIP).  The Blue Jays pick up roughly 850k in salary here.

 

The two prospects the Rockies get back both look pretty good.  Hoffman is ranked the #33 prospect in Baseball America's midseason update, so he's a plus-plus prospect.  He's had Tommy John surgery but still viewed as someone that has the potential to develop into a #2 starter.  Castro is ranked #4 on the list of top Blue Jay prospects.  He's a big, fireballing right-hander but all his secondary stuff is still fringy.  He probably projects as a reliever but, if so, is probably one of the better reliever prospects out there.

 

The value of this deal will be determined on Tulowitzki's health.  I have doubts about that and think the Rockies did a good job making this deal now.

 

Seeing the return that the Rockies got makes me think the Brewers might get an "overpay" from Toronto for Fiers. 

this deal is a steal for the Rockies.  They made a smart business move regardless of how attached Colorado fans are to Tulo.  

 

Those knees on artificial grass should be a trainwreck

Blue Jays minor league pitcher Jesus Tinoco is also heading to the Rockies in the Tulo/Reyes deal.  He is ranked 29th on the Blue Jays top prospect list at MLB.com.

 

The odds of a Fiers deal looks pretty good to me.  Toronto upgraded the lineup and the bullpen but still need a starting pitcher.  Castro was the only piece moved in the Tulowitzki deal that could have played into a Fiers deal, there are still plenty of pieces left.  Toronto could make a deal with the Brewers, the Brewers could get value back and even after that Toronto would still have two legitimate top 50 prospects in their system.  I'd upgrade the asking price to C-Max Pentecost, RHP-Sean Reid-Foley and 1B-Rowdy Tellez.  They probably wouldn't give up Pentecost...but packaging Reid-Foley + Tellez plus another prospect off the list of SS-Richard Urena, 3B-Mitch Nay, OF-Anthony Alford would be good enough to move Fiers.

Toronto can't hit RHP, so ironically they could probably use Adam Lind.

 

Fiers and Parra might be the overpay the Jays need to make.  

The Rox need to move Cargo right now, he will never be worth more and if they truly want to start over they should be able to get some good prospects.  

Too bad Escobar never developed any home run power.  He might have turned into a pretty good player.

 

 

I was never thrilled with his 40 time

So the Rangers get Cole Hamels without giving up Joey Gallo or Nomar Mazara...they also unload the 32 million left on Matt Harrison's terrible contract and they get the Phillies to throw in an extra 9.5 million in cash.

 

That pretty much sums up why the Phillies are the worst team in baseball.

That's Joey Callo.

Can report/confirm Cards have traded LHP prospect Rob Kaminsky to CLE for IB/OF Brandon Moss. @SBNation was 1st to report deal in works.

— Bernie Miklasz (@miklasz) July 30, 2015

If they did this to replace Holliday, Lind might still be in play

 

*Edit- Cardinal fans hating this move.   Recognize Moss doesn't bring a lot to the table.  Speculation is that the organization refused to move Kaminski to Milwaukee for Lind b/c they didn't want Kaminski to grow up with a rival org, instead sold him for way less value in Moss.  

His gut is too big to have tried to throw it across the front of his body.