^ Yeah, I was bummed/surprised to see the Sale move...then, Thornton went out and gave up the Peralta bomb, so that went up in flames...Addison Reed is still the future closer, right?

marmol has been stinking it up

Now that was as impressive display by Josh Hamilton. 4 home runs and 8 RBI's. Can you say contract year?!?!

i think that's the plan, but I'm not super knowledgeable about the Sox. I'm a cubs guy, but have a lot of friends that are sox fans.

It seems like every time Hamilton flashes his ability to totally dominate the MLB, he subsequently heads for the DL...would like to see a repeat of 2008 when he played a full season, but that may never happen...that said, Hamilton for 120-130 games is better than 99% of the league playing a full season.

Josh: "I'm one of the best offensive players in the game and play a premium defensive position well."

Rangers: "But you get injured a lot and are a crackhead and relapsed alcoholic."

The Rangers are right to hedge their bets with the guy. If he were to leave, they'd still have a pretty elite MLB team and they'd have another $14MM freed up by him to spend on a replacement. Their payroll is like $115MM and they will whup up on any team more days than not. Since Nolan Ryan took the reigns, they just do not sign bad contracts (hello Anaheim!).

Young and Cruz go off the books after 2013 (edit), freeing up another $27MM for 2014. They will have the long-term money to re-up with Hamilton, but it's all a matter of what his agent tells him to do. I would think a guy with that big of problem with sobriety would want to continue the status quo life/routine(s), even if it costs him a boatload in the long-run.

In light of the Young and Cruz contract situation, I think that would motivate me more to do a Hamilton deal. Use that freed up money to offer a few extra dollars annually so that they could sign him for a couple years cheaper. His injury history is a major red flag (his alcohol and drug history far less of one. I think the fact he relapsed last year and came back from it so quickly and strongly is positive) so I would be leary of giving him a deal that could hamstring the organization long term, but a 3 year deal at max money I'd offer, for one of the best players in the game right now. Make any years beyond option years.

The ol' Jeff Nelson might be turned into a balk next season.

Vlad Guerrero signs a minor league deal in Toronto.

He's always been one of my favorite players so I am happy to see him stick around, but not sure he necessarily has much left in the tank.

With Encarnacion, Bautista, and Lawrie locked in at 1b, RF, and 3B and Lind as their regular DH who loses playing time when and if he gets called up? I think since Vladi can't play the field I think Lind would go to LF and Rasmus, Davis and Thames all fight for the CF job. It's not a bad move by the Jays. It's a low risk move in which it could possibly give the Jays a nice piece to move at the trading deadline.

With the way Lind's playing, him.

Definitely Lind. Think about how much trouble the Jays would be in if Encarnacion wasn't having a career start to his season.

Vlad batted .290 with 13 HR, 63 RBI in 145 games last season for Baltimore. With the built-in offense Toronto already has, I bet they'd take that. Just for the average alone to help keep that lineup churning over. You'd think that Bautista would start connecting the dots at some point of the season. Lawrie already looks awesome and has huge upside. He is gonna be a rock for them for years. Add Vlad batting around .290, Bautista batting around .275 and Kelly Johnson batting over .250 (he's at .259 right now) and that is an elite offense. Not high on average, but nearly every guy (outside of Escobar) could hit 20 HR this season.

That would be something. It would be so weird to see Philly as traders.

It would have to be tough for Roy Halladay to swallow.

didnt escobar hit 15 one year?

Which Escobar are you talking about - Yunel, Asdrubal, or Pablo?

Yunel. He is responding to my claim that every everyday player on the Jays lineup could potentially hit 20 HRs this year, except Yunel. Yunel is a power SS as well though. The team could punch in 250 HRs if Vlad performs and if they hit a .250 average collectively.

Speaking of which, Josh Hamilton is on pace to beat Bonds' 73 HR season. I don't usually take stock on stretching out stats on this small of a sample size, but it still would be a fun thing to see and/or root for.

hamilton has been a straight up monster this year. i went to school with him. his pops was a major fucking crackhead. after he got his signing bonus when he got drafted he bought alot of fucking crack and had a huge crack party

Hamilton is ridiculous. I really hope he doesn't get injured this year, I want to see how far he can take this hot swing.

Looks like the Braun effect is in play.

not sure how many of you saw lawrie "assault" the ump last night but man that ump needs to be. that is the worst called strike that i have ever seen. and if thatbump thinks that pitch was a strike then he shouldnt have his job as an ump
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/t ... nsion.html

That was a horrible call. It wasn't even borderline. I've seen better eyes on a potato. I'm sure Lawrie is going to get suspended a few games because of his helmet striking the ump.

i know right? it was too high and way too far off the plate

It ended up being four, which is about right. Ten games was being bandied around, which would have been outrageous. Easily the worst ball/strike call I've seen occur this season.

Pretty happy that in my "PRO" yahoo league I'm facing the Josh Hamilton owner H2H this week and he's got zilch for HRs after belting NINE last week. Dodged a big bullet and I'm subsequently smoking the dude. Probably gonna end up #1 there at the end of this week.

Interleague games this weekend already. That was fast.