Winter Meeting Thoughts

*As a Met fan, I love that 32-year old Mark Buehrle signed with the Marlins for 4-years / $58m. There is a 0.25% chance of this contract working out well for the Fish.

He's a slightly above average starter that will give you 200+ innings a year. Ok, he's a lefty. So what? Why is there such a premium placed on lefthanders?

I know fantasy baseball is just that: fantasy. But you cannot tell me a guy who will find himself drafted after at least 60-75 other starting pitchers in next year's drafts warrants a contract of this size.

This deal stinks of Jeff Suppan, Brad Radke, and Kevin Appier all wrapped in one. And, I'm overjoyed by the stench.


(Apologies for the poor quality, but MLB is stingy with their highlights)

Buehrle is a great athlete and made one of the most incredible defensive plays I've ever seen, but that doesn't justify giving him almost $15m per season.

I wouldn't mind watching them fork over $90m+ for CJ Wilson, either.


*This is somewhat unrelated to the Winter Meetings, but it was announced today that Tim McCarver - yes, the same Tim McCarver I have decried as one of the WORST announcers in all of sports - was named the Ford Frick Award recipient for 2011. This means McAwful will be headed to the Hall of Fame for his excellence in broadcasting.

Yes, the BASEBALL HALL OF FAME IN COOPERSTOWN, NY. And, yes, Tim McCarver. What is going on here?

I would call this a shame, a travesty, a sham, and a bad joke, but Matt at Awful Announcing did a better job than I could.

To put into context how much AA and its readers hate McAwful, he find himself on the Mt. Rushmore-esque masthead of terrible announcers.

Seriously, am I dreaming right now? Tim McCarver going to the Hall of Fame. WTF.


*If true, I love the Octavio Dotel / Tigers deal. That's a solid bullpen now with Jose Valverde at the back and Dotel + Joaquin Benoit setting him up.


*Sandy, please stay away from Brad Lidge. However, if the Yankees are willing to pay almost all of AJ Burnett's salary, take a shot on the guy. He still has strikeout stuff and would give up far few homers in Citi Field than he did at Yankee Stadium.


*I'll give you the team's offseason philosophy; you name the team. [Hint: it's been the same philosophy for the last 20 years.]

Let's not make a major splash in free agency on established, quality talent. Instead, we'll overspend on lower-level guys and make believe everything will work out. When it doesn't, we can say we tried.

If you guessed the Pittsburgh Pirates, you are a winner.

After handing an outlandish, 2 year / $10.5m deal to Clint Barmes a few weeks back, they were back to their misguided ways today, inking Erik Bedard to a 1 year / $4.5m deal AND Nate McLouth to a 1 year / $1.75m deal.

Fast forward to August when the Pirates are ineveitably out of contention again, and GM Neil Huntington can point to these moves (and the Rod Barajas signing) and say the effort was there.

It's amazing when you look at the history of awful signings they have had. These are all of the players they have given Major League deals worth at least $1m in the last five offseasons:

2006- Tony Armas
2007- Chris Gomez
2008- Eric Hinske, Ramon Vasquez
2009- Ryan Church, Bobby Crosby, Octavio Dotel (blind squirrel finds nut), Brendan Donnelly
2010- Lyle Overbay, Kevin Correia, Matt Diaz

Just because you pay someone to play like a star doesn't mean they are one.

Thank God for the Steelers and Penguins.


*At the July trade deadline, Carlos Beltran fetched a top-flight pitching prospect. Now, no one wants to sign this guy? He's not tied to any draft pick compensation. What am I missing?


*Seriously, Sandy, get your head right. I don't want to be sitting here tomorrow wondering what you were thinking when you traded away Ike Davis and Jon Niese.