No way is Jason Hayward worth 200 mil......

<font color=goldenrod>So far around 50 writers have made their HOF ballots public and Ken Griffey Jr. is on every single one of them (rightly so).

Wonder who will be the one dickhead who submits a blank ballot just to avoid having a unanimous HOFer.</font>

Anyone who does that is risking getting their voting privileges revoked.

How many RIBBIES does he have?

Bwahhhhh!!! *snort* He only hit, like, 15 homerz too. They paid him like he was Delmon Young. Lollllll

And risking Swatter attack.

<font color=goldenrod>I wish. The BBWAA have removed a ton of people who haven't actively covered the game for over a decade and banned people like Dan LeBetard who have let other people pick their ballots. But as far as I know, they don't restrict otherwise.

There are still some writers who won't vote for any 90's-era player. And then there's the "if Babe Ruth wasn't a unanimous HOFer, nobody is!" camp.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Mike Leake to the Cardinals. 5 years, $80 million with a mutual option for a 6th year. Full no-trade clause.</font>

Used to wish I was left handed and could throw 100. Now I just wish I could throw 88.

I wish I could throw 40

\_0__/

I threw mid 80s a few years ago. Then something happened in my forearm not Tommy John related, and now I have to finesse my way through lineups at about 55mph.

<font color=goldenrod>Mets sign Alejandro de Aza to a 1-year, $4.5 million deal.

As a bench guy he's an improvement over what they have...but I think the Mets are intending on platooning him as a left-handed complement to Lagares in CF. Problem is, de Aza can't play CF.

Would have rather just gone for Span or Parra.</font>

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?...C7uZHAmcVGWgwE

<font color=goldenrod>Here was the HOF tracker I was talking about. Griffey still batting 1.000 with 90 ballots public.

Looking very promising for Piazza. Bagwell and Raines in good position too but still a ways to go. Hoffman needs a late surge.</font>

John Smoltz will be in the booth with Joe Buck calling MLB games for FOX.

I guess it's a semi-upgrade over McCarver and whoever else they had after he left.

What up, Tony Saunders

<font color=goldenrod>Damn, De Aza's deal is actually for $5.75 million guaranteed with incentives that could take him up to over $7 million.

Forget him being primarily a bench guy...that's clearly starter money. Their offseason spending on hitters is over.

RF Granderson
2B Walker
3B Wright
1B Duda
C d'Arnaud
SS Cabrera/Flores
LF Conforto
CF De Aza/Lagares

I still think they can compete with that lineup especially with the pitching. One or two injuries though and they're right back to where they were last year pre-Cespedes trade. Problem is I don't know what other choice they have. They can break the bank to bring in Cespedes, Upton, or Gordon but none of them can play CF on a regular basis.</font>

What team wouldn't fall apart with major injuries?

Cubs release Brendan Ryan.

If that's the case then why not the Castro/Warren trade be a straight up 1-for-1?

Guessing they just viewed him as the last man on the 40. Might have been the best use of that spot at the time but they wanted to give someone else a look. This is the point in the year when that spot gets DFA'd, then reacquired, then DFA'd again for what seems like no reason.

Maybe Yanks wanted to get rid of him?

<font color=goldenrod>Daniel Murphy to the Nats on a 3 year deal. Writing was pretty much on the wall with that one.

Oh well. Here's hoping he Murphs things up defensively like he always does.</font>

Chatter going around is that the Yankees are close to getting Aroldis Chapman from the Reds.

This I did not see coming. Although it's probably gonna cost a lot.

CMON CASHMAN MAKE IT HAPPEN

Done deal, according to Ken "The Bowtie" Rosenthal.

Details coming soon.

Yanks sending over 4 from the farm. But none of our top guys. Phew.

And RAB has crashed.

THATS MY KIND OF HOT STOVE

Yankees sending over Rookie Davis, Tony Renda, Caleb Cotham, and Eric Jagielo.

Losing Jagielo hurts because he was gonna be our 3B replacement for A-Rod down the road.

I thought the Reds had already traded him to the Dodgers, was that just talk. I know they got rid of Fraizer.

Got put on hold and later voided because of the recent domestic charges accusations.

<font color=goldenrod>Welp, Yanks should win every single game that they have a lead after 6.</font>

Sports guys are saying that the Yankees plan to keep Andrew Miller. Which would be awesome. But I just don't see that happening. We'll see how this goes when March rolls around.

Although, 4 guys for a season's worth of service from Chapman seems a little steep. Unless we're gonna offer him a fair extension. And we still gotta wait and see if MLB Investigations hand down some sort of penalty from this domestic violence thing.

I'll take it. I hate that the Reds are selling off all their top players but I'd rather them sell them to the Yankees if they are. Just hope Chapman stays healthy in New York and out of trouble. Friend of mines going to be pissed about it, he uses the Reds in 2k and Chapman's hard as hell to hit and I use the Yankees.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Out of all the relievers in MLB last season, only 3 struck out more than 100 batters.

They all wear pinstripes now. <a href="https://t.co/7pOkI3jPBH">pic.twitter.com/7pOkI3jPBH</a></p>&mdash; YES Network (@YESNetwork) <a href="https://twitter.com/YESNetwork/status/681607657552134144">December 28, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<font color=goldenrod>Aroldis Chapman suspended for the entire 2016 season for his domestic violence case.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Just kidding. But wouldn't that be quite the swerve?</font>

Wow. I died reading that. Haha. Got me.

<font color=goldenrod>Congrats Jon Heyman on the dumbest HOF ballot of all time.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CXbCN2JU0AAU5Mb.png

You can argue all you want about letting in steroid guys (namely Bonds and Clemens) vs. not letting them in all you want. But you can't vote for one and not the other. That's just stupid.</font>

Seems like his reasoning for Bonds vs Clemens is almost the same everyone has with both guys. Bonds arguably was already Hall worthy before the roids and handled the accusations better than others. Clemens hurt his reputation and image a lot with the lawsuit and Congressional stuff like a lot of other famous roided guys who tried to fight back and failed badly.

Only real big surprise is him caving to the unwritten "No Roided Guys Ever" a lot of voters have regardless if those players non-roided period is good enough for legit considerations.

On the Chapman deal....feel like the Reds were desperate to move him. The package they got is more quantity than anything. Reading maybe one major league reliever and average every day guy, maybe. Perhaps the pending domestic violence issue forced them into a corner and they had to make due.

On the Yankees end, they give up very little bit inherent a ton of risk. With the domestic violence issues looming, a possible if not probable suspension hanging over Chapman, this could blow up on them. If he's suspended 50 games, that's a third of the year they have to go without. And in case it hasn't been mentioned, this is a one and deal for New York. Sure they could resign him, but the obvious plan is to try and maximize his value now beforehaving to pay market value.

Also doesn't look good from a public relations standpoint. You know the guy is recently accused of domestic violence, you know he's a possible suspension candidaten which hurts his overall value to the club, and you bring him in anyway without knowing exactly how that's all going to turn out.

Even though they didn't give up anything it's a lot risk given Chapman is only going to give them less than 70 innings over 162 games to begin with. Now there's a chance that total is cut by almost a third and there's no way of knowing before it actually happens.

We shall see. At least it's interesting.