Jeff Samardzjia got a few offers on the table from the $90 - $100 mil. range. Hasn't made a decision yet.

<font color=goldenrod>Mike Pelfrey to the Tigers. 1 year, $8 million.

In other news, Mike Ilitch still gives zero fucks about money.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Sandy Alderson diagnosed with cancer. Fuck.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Turns out it's now 2 years, $16 million. god what a dumb signing</font>

Marlins officially name Barry Bonds hitting coach.

Oliver Perez signs a 2-year, $7 mil. contract with the Nationals.

Cubs grab John Lackey. 2-years, $32 - $34 mil.

The Lackey signing fits right into the Cubs plans. Not a long term investment, mid to back end rotation piece. He basically replaces Dan Haren in the rotation. I expect them to add another arm or two since they still dont have much in terms of depth beyond the 5 starters they currently have.

After signing Lester last year, I never thought they were going to spend big on a top tier SP again.

Also LOL at the thought of Barry Bonds in a Marlins uniform.

Lackey is a great pickup for them. Agree that they're likely to add one more piece and with two ace caliber arms in Lester and Arrieta at the top and Lackey anchoring the middle, I doubt they trade for or acquire another "big name". Probably a bounce back like Fister or a similar solid but not mind blowing piece.

Yup. They'll go through the DVD bargain bin at Best Buy. Maybe a guy like Beachy or Minor if they can be healthy. Would love a guy like Fister, but he would want a rotation spot, right? Seems like you would want to "get away" with keeping someone else in AAA or as a long man to start the year unless they trade Hammell or Hendricks.

Price seems a bit high for Lackey but he's been pretty good overall since his Tommy John surgery.

According to Fox Sports, Scott Kazmir is the Dodgers backup plan if Zack Greinke leaves for the Giants.

A 16 mil AAV sounds high at first blush, but it seems like the going rate for a #4 is 3/35, so 2/32 for a #3 like Lackey isn't so bad.

<font color=goldenrod>Quality pickup for the Cubs.

That being said, holy hell is this free agent market ever expensive. When guys like Chris Young, Mike Pelfrey, and Oliver Perez are fetching multi-year deals from clubs, you know it's a crazy market.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>D-Backs say "NOT SO FAST!" to the Dodgers and Giants. They've apparently jumped in with a very lucrative offer for Zack Greinke.</font>

Only gonna get more expensive if MLBPA gets their way when the CBA expires next season. Luxury Tax cap is going up.

Oh, by the way, Dodgers ended up paying the record amount of $43.7 mil. for tax this season. Ended up with a team salary of $293 mil.

Happ and Estrada are making an average of $12.5 million combined. Zimmerman just got $100 million while Price just got $30 mil guaranteed for 7 years, with Greinke right behind him and Kershaw already in that territory.

Lackey is better than those first, not as good as Zimmerman, and clearly a flight of stairs down from Price and co. $16-$20 mil is now the going rate for good to very good run prevention and innings.

It's a new world.

Also, fuck the luxury tax, draft slotting, and draft compensation. You're penalizing teams for trying to get better and it is unbelievably dumb.

The idea of a luxury tax isn't bad but probably could use more tweaks so that cheapass owners are not the big winners of it.

At least its not NBA type dumb though. NBA has both a salary cap and a luxury tax but the cap is soo soft that there is no real reason for big or wealthy teams to follow it. Net's owner became famous for not caring at all about the cap and penalties when it came to building his mega team (that failed miserably).

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: Zack Greinke has reached agreement with Diamondbacks, pending a physical. (via multiple reports) <a href="https://t.co/APeOGJ5Eu1">pic.twitter.com/APeOGJ5Eu1</a></p>&mdash; SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/672946317145042944">December 5, 2015</a></blockquote>
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D'Backs pulling a Vintage Orton with a signing OUTTA NOWHERE.

But I don't like Zack Greinke

:(

this is a problem

6 years 195 is what I'm hearing.

it's actually 206.

Gotta love old school GMs who make baseball moves in a vacuum. Would have to take a look at their roster, but this sounds like a strange move.

Who the fuck wouldn't like Zack Greinke on their team?

And while he's worth the money, the team now is essentially Greinke, Goldschmidt, Pollock and...uh....some other guys. That's like 15 wins there, but considering their farm isn't great and the team is on the wrong end of the win curve it's a rather bizarre move indeed.

Cueto is now in the driver seat. He's the last of legit aces on the market. Time to open an off shore account Mr Cueto.

it's really not. Their offense is pretty great and young and has 2 solid foundational pieces with Goldschmidt and Pollock plus other young quality young players like Ender Inciarte (who I think is overrated personally, but was worth a shade over 5 wins with an equal split between offensive and defensive value), David Peralta, whose offense was worth 4 wins, and Nick Ahmed, who had almost a 3 dWAR, even if he didn't hit a fucking lick.

The pitching on the other hand was consistently a fucking tire fire. Only one guy (Brad Ziegler) was even worth 2 wins and only 4 more were worth even 1(including Patrick Corbin and his half season return from TJ.)

Now they're looking at a full season of Corbin (who's a really legit #2) plus Greinke, developing young guys on the staff (Robbie Ray definitely, maybe Rubby de la Rosa and Randall Delgado), plus a ton of great arms on the farm, they just might be pretty set.

That's alot of "what ifs" there....

If you're depending on Delgado and De La Rosa (26 and 27 on opening day) developing thats not good. Agree with you about Corbin though. I like that dude.

<font color=goldenrod>I really don't think the D-Backs are all that far off from being a legit contender in the NL West. Still remains to be seen what, if any, big splashes the Dodgers/Giants will make in response to losing Greinke, but for right now I think Arizona is very close, terrible new uniforms aside.</font>

I actually take back what I did. Wadding's comments caused me to review the D backs current roster, where most of their top prospects are already up contributing. Greinke is a big add. If Ahmed, Lamb, and Tomas can contribute I think they might pass up the Giants.

They shouldn't say D-backs. Reminds too much of Douchebags.

The Arizona Muskrats

I do think they need at least one more starter. Reports indicate they're still in talks with Mike Leake, who I personally would love the Padres to sign. If they nab him they're at least a pretty competitive ballclub that's maybe a piece or two away.

I like Smardjizkaicka

D-Backs signing Greinke means that trying to sway Johnny Cueto to reconsider the deal they offered him failed. Front office must be gearing up to "contend now" status.

NL West should be fun to watch between the Giants, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks with the arms they got now.

For their fans sake, I hope they aren't planning on signing tons of FAs. Trying to create a super team to compete with the Dodgers would be a mistake.

Probably looking to sign 1 more pitcher. Which is what they need.

What I was really looking for is them to develop into competent #4 and 5 starters, that's not a huge stretch. I think they could do with another arm but they should wait until the market drops out the way it has for the past couple years, like it did with Ubaldo Jimenez. And a decent reliever or two on short term deals would be great.

<font color=goldenrod>Jeff Samardzija to the Giants. 5 years, $90 million.</font>

He should be much better not pitching at the Cell. I guess it goes along with the theme of SPs being expensive no matter what.

pitching costs and you end up paying for the risks involved

Consolation prize for the Giants. Miss out on Greinke, go after the next best thing.

Well I was wrong..ok

4-years, $31 mil. for Darren O'Day.

I guess you can call him an "elite" closer if he's getting that money.