No kidding. Actually not betting the farm on Pujols in his 30's was a great move on their part collectively, but they pissed away a lot of those savings on the Yadier signing. I guess they figured they had to so something; the money was burning a hole in their pocket.

yeah it doesn't make sense. I'd rather bet the Farm on the best baseball player the team has ever had than over pay for a catcher that has 3 good years left.

The home run feature at the new Marlins Stadium....horrible. Who gave the approval for that?

I just wrapped up a week long work trip in AZ going to half of the spring training camps that are going on here. 3D scanned a bunch of players, mostly newer kids, hot shot rookies, etc for some video game stuff. Had all access badges at all the facilities we went to and I'll tell ya what... Some of these spring training stadiums are a lot nicer than some of the MLB ball parks I've visited. Just finished today. Met lots of good peoples and saw a shit load of baseball. Kinda got me fired up for the season and for some teams I normally wouldn't give a shit about.

Spring Training in AZ is awesome....I think I have now hit up all the Stadiums aside from Oakland's and there are definitely some nice ones. The new Rockies/D'Back Stadium, Salt River, is my favorite and it has nothing to do with a hometown bias. Just a nice stadium. Heading out to AZ in a few weeks myself to catch a few games and can't wait. Going to ST definitely gets the juices flowing for baseball, no doubt, and I agree it can get you interested in teams you otherwise might not pay attention to. That was definitely the case with me and the Brewers last year.

It's official...I like the addition, personally.

Also happy to see that teams from the same division can now face each other in division series. I always thought the best team should face the weakest team no matter what.

It's awesome news

I agree that Molina is getting overpaid, but some things to consider:

1) He is arguably the best defensive catcher in the game w/ 4 Gold Gloves (should be more), and he's just as good w/ intangibles - handling staff, calling pitches. W/ Duncan now retired as pitching coach and a raft of top pitching prospects in the waiting, Molina will have an even more prominent role w/ intangibles. He's basically a player/coach.

2) Since Molina became the Cards full-time starting catcher in 2005, the team's staff has the 5th lowest ERA in the MLB. And Carpenter missed two full seasons and Wainwright missed one during that period. Anybody who can name - w/o Wiki-ing it - two of the Cards starting pitchers from 2009 not named Carpenter or Wainwright deserves a lollipop. Molina gets much-deserved credit for staff success.

2) He's been on three All-Star teams and two World Series championship teams, and he's 29.

3) He's turned into a solid hitter - .300 BA and 15 HR guy. Not many catchers can put up decent offensive numbers, while playing defense at a high level.

Even with those factors floating around, I still think they overpaid him, but there is a case to be made that he has great value. I just don't think his value has that kind of price tag.

Marquis and lohse. Where's my fucking lollipop?

At least we had an incredible finish to the final season before this lame new one-off's implementation. Still don't like the new Wild Card idea, primarily because it ensures things like last season's finale won't happen again.

mccutchen got a 6 year deal from the pirates. a little more than 9 million a year. might be a bargain for the pirates in the long run

Good deal for both sides.

Pittsburgh HAD to do this.

yeah they did. now they have 2 fantastic outfielders locked up for the next 6 years

Besides McCutchen, who is this other fantastic outfielder you're talking about?

Jose tabata

That's where we will disagree, Tabata is a nice, solid OF. He doesn't hit for high average, or have a great on-base percedntage. He has good speed, but a guy who hits at the top of the order like himn should be stealing at least 30-35 bases a year. However, he is still young so he has room for improvement, but I don't see him becoming this "fantastic" OF.

Hes above average defensively and he has a rocket arm. He will hit .285/15hrs and like you said 30/35 steals. I didn't call him a potential hall of famer. He could eventually put up jeter type numbers

I don't think he's the type of player that will hit 15 home runs in a season. He has never hit more than 8 at any level. You may not have said he was a Hall of Famer, but "fantastic" to me would mean something along the lines of a potential All-Star and i just don't see that in Tabata.


http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tabatjo01.shtml

Ok. That's cool

Not sure I'd call Tabata fantastic either.

Right now he's potential not actual proven product. Even if he lives up to his potential not sure that would make him "fantastic. " Even your projections for him have him don't equal fantasic. Those numbers as an outfielder and he's probably not even an all star.

Not hating on him as I think he got the chance to be a good, valuable piece for them. But he and McCutchen are on two seperate levels.

oh i know that man. the sky is the limit for mccutchen. he has a damn "potentially" fantastic guy right beside him in rf too though. and when he did play last year he produced ok if i remember correctly

tabata has a good obp for someone that hit 266. 266 isnt bad for someone that is developing.

Is Mike Stanton no longer Mike Stanton? Has he changed his name to Giancarlo Stanton?

Giancarlo is actual first name so he decided to go with that. Maybe it'll add another 5 home runs to his total for this year.

Surprised with all thing Miami this off season I hadn't heard about the name switch. Mike was so much easier type and say.