The 2009 Major League Baseball Thread

[FrankZappa]

Credit Si.com

The Mets appear on the verge of simultaneously interrupting a sluggish baseball market and solving their biggest winter. They are closing in on a deal to sign star free-agent closer Francisco Rodriguez.
The deal, which is expected to be consummated very soon, is said to be for about $37 million over three years.
"It\'s going to get done,\'\' said a person familiar with the talks.
The Mets showed they meant business on Monday, the first official day of the Winter Meetings here, when they agreed to guarantee a third year after opening bidding Sunday night with a two-year deal for about $12 million a year, plus a vesting option for a third year. Not long after, they made it a three-year contract. And the very next day, they were on the verge of a deal. An optimistic picture for a deal was first painted in a story on the New York Post Web site early Tuesday morning.

[wildcoyote]

K-Rod signs w/ Mets.  

Cites desire to spend Octobers home w/ family as primary reason.

In other news

AP  Las Vegas-Yankees talks with free agent C.C. Sabathia have ended after GM Brian Cashman failed to secure a Roscoe\'s Chicken and Waffles franchise for the new Yankee Stadium concourse.  Sabathia will likely sign with a team in Southern California in close proximity to one of Roscoe\'s 5 locations.

[ChrisPitch]

Fuck yeah! Let\'s Go Mets!

[Klout]

awesome.

Definitely our biggest hole last year. If we had had the phillies closer and they had our mess of a situation we would have won the division by like 10 games.  

I am excited for this season though. New ball park, johan, k-rod, dwright, jose, big pelf. Its gonna be a fun team to watch.

Hopefully now that this is done omar can start to fill some other holes like left field, second base, set up man, etc.

LGM!

career ERA 2.35 :thumbsup:

[Wolfman]

Sorry Mets fans, but you can\'t devastate another franchise like you did to the Sox in \'86 and not expect some seriously bad karma for a long time.  The Curse of The Mook lives on.  You will go 86 years without a championship.  22 down, 64 to go.  Next Mets championship: 2072.  Meanwhile, enjoy year number four of the Kazmir-For-Zambrano-Cost-Us-A-Championship-This-Year Era!  

If it makes you feel any better, the Patriots are gonna be paying for running up the score on teams last year for a long time too.  I figure 1 year for every unnecessary point they scored, which means they\'re fucked for about 50 years.

Sox get Sabathia, go 114-48, and 11-1 in the postseason.

[FrankZappa]

once in futurama they went by shea (which was still standing in the year 3001) There was a sign outside which read "home of the mets, world series champions 1969, 1986"

so you\'ve got at least 1,015 years according to them. Also in there time players jerseys all have fractions because "The last whole number was retired years ago"

[Wolfman]

once in futurama they went by shea (which was still standing in the year 3001) There was a sign outside which read "home of the mets, world series champions 1969, 1986"

so you\'ve got at least 1,015 years according to them. Also in there time players jerseys all have fractions because "The last whole number was retired years ago"

I like the raising of the issue "what happens 1000 years from now when teams have retired all one and two-digit integers, or retired at least enough of them so that there aren\'t enough available for everyone on a full roster to have a unique, unretired number?  It\'s a good question.  However, I disgree with the given solution.  I don\'t think it will go to fractions.  I think the three most likely things that would happen would be (in order of likelihood)

1.  3-digit numbers.  This adds 900 more potential uniform numbers.
2.  Letters.  Players can choose any 1 or 2-letter combo, such as "B", "JG", "XY" etc.  There are 702 options here.  (26^2+26).
3.  Negative one through negative 99.  
4.  Fractions.

[FrankZappa]

ugh

Credit the NY Post

CC Sabathia is not going to play on the West Coast. He is not going to play in the National League. CC Sabathia is going to be a Yankee, The Post has learned exclusively.

After three straight days of face-to-face meetings between GM Brian Cashman and Sabathia, the big lefty decided he wants to spend the next six years of his career as a Yankee. The decision came late last night after Cashman flew to see Sabathia at his home in San Francisco. By the time the meeting was concluded, Sabathia had informed the Yankees that he had made his decision to call New York his baseball home, the Post has learned.

There are still minor hurdles to finalize, notably that Sabathia must pass a physical. But after so much belief that Sabathia was stalling because he wanted to avoid New York, he agreed to the largest pitching contract in major league history, at least $140 million.

It means that the Yankees have lassoed the player they were building their offseason around: An ace in his prime. Sabathia is just 28, and last year between the Indians and Brewers he went 17-10 with a 2.70 ERA. The previous season he won the AL Cy Young. Now he is the first major new piece to be put into the new Yankee Stadium.

Cashman had met with Sabathia on both Sunday and Monday in Vegas. He then slipped out of the Winter Meetings yesterday to fly to San Francisco to meet again with Sabathia and also this time Sabathia\'s wife, Amber. It was in this meeting that Sabathia fully expressed that he wanted to come East and play in the AL, that he wanted the responsibility that comes with being the big man for the biggest team.

The Yankees had extended a six-year, $140 million bid to Sabathia nearly a month ago. As the weeks passed and Sabathia did not accept the deal, a feeling began to pervade that he was trying hard to avoid the Bronx. Instead, this might simply have been a patient game of poker, Sabathia simply taking his time to make sure no desirable West Coast team with significant money would emerge. That never happened.

So now Sabathia will front a rotation that also will include Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain. But Cashman does not want to stop there. The Yankee priority this winter has been pitching, pitching and pitching. And they are going for more.

Cashman had met Monday night with A.J. Burnett\'s agent Darek Braunacker and expressed a willingness to exceed the four-year, $60 million bid by the Braves and that they would seriously consider going to a fifth year.

"We never doubted their sincere efforts," Braunacker said. "I have maintained that if A.J. wants five years he will get five years."

Cashman also met with Scott Boras and the Yanks appeared willing to go to the four-year, $60 million plus range for Derek Lowe. In addition, the Yanks have talked with agents for several other starters, including Andy Pettitte, Randy Wolf, Oliver Perez and Ben Sheets. The Yankees received medical records on the oft-injured Sheets and were studying them. One person in the loop described Cashman as really pushing in a much more forceful way to begin closing deals, with or without Sabathia.  

The Yanks knew the worse scenario would be to be completely shut out on the top-tier pitching buffet. That would be humiliating. That would be the entire sport essentially saying the Yankees have the money, but no one wants to take it as a first option any longer. However, Sabathia showed that the lure of the Yankees and their money is still powerful.

Barring the unforeseen, Sabathia is going to be a Yankee. The Yanks scored the big prize for which they were hunting.

[tyzack]

Cites desire to spend Octobers home w/ family as primary reason.

[Klout]

Omar\'s work on the K-Rod deal =  "The Reverse Boras"

[wildcoyote]

Yankees aquire CF Mike Cameron for Melky Cabrera and another player.

Melky in Milwaukee= great band name

[Klout]

duuuuude

mets trade heilman for jj putz! BRILLIANT!

[FrankZappa]

11 AND A HALF HOURS IN A VIRTUAL WAITING TO BE OFFERED STANDING ROOM ONLY SINGLE TICKET? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :banghead:

[Me!]

I pose a question to Wolfman (who lives in Boston) and Paul Ryan (ESPN).  What is your tak eon the whole Red Sox Texeira thing.  Will we or won\'t we?

[bezerker]

how would either of them know ? no one knows. i bet he goes to nationals