Lesson learned: don't write about anything unless you can detach your emotions when you have to. Back to baseball. The White Sox could trade Chris Sale for A-Rod and I'd still love baseball. The Twins and Indians could alternate World Series titles for the rest of my life and I'd still love baseball. Announcers and sportswriters could be banned from using any words other than "steroids", "HGH", and "Gold Glove winner Derek Jeter" and I would still love baseball. Baseball never makes me hate myself or makes me feel like I'm not a person. Baseball makes me calmer and happier than I would be without it. It's time to write about some fucking baseball, because I need to remember that spring is coming. One day soon, I'll have Keith Law's contempt of ignorance to focus on instead of my own.
12/16: Cardinals sign 2B Mark Ellis, 1 year, $5.25M. A solid alternative to Kolten Wong, the kind of depth signing the Cardinals always make. Good deal.
12/16: Royals sign 2B Omar Infante, 4 years, $30.25M. Infante had a career year with the Tigers last year, and there's little reason to believe he'll repeat it. Still, a second baseman who hits like the average major leaguer? Sign the Royals up. If I ran the team I'd probably make a similar gamble to turn a weakness into a strength, back up the Shields acquisition, and push all in for 2014. This is one I'll be watching all season, because this is the Royals' best chance to make the playoffs in decades. If they fail, it's probably curtains for Dayton Moore.
12/16: Rockies sign RP Boone Logan, 3 years, $16.5M. We know multi-year deals for LOOGYs (Lefty-one-out-guys) are stupid, right? And we know pretty much everything the Rockies do is wrong? We do? OK. Let's move on.
12/16: Indians sign RP John Axford, 1 year, $4.5M. Axford's rate stats hit a low point before moving from Milwaukee to St. Louis last year, but like everyone else who puts on a Cardinals uniform, he seemingly turned it around in 13 late-season appearances. Axford's always gotten his K's, but relievers have a short shelf life and everything points toward a pronounced decline. I wouldn't even find this a worthwhile move if he stayed in the NL.
12/16: Braves sign SP Gavin Floyd, 1 year, $4M. I always liked Floyd when he pitched in Chicago, but he's leaving behind a legacy of averageness and one injury-wrecked season in 2013. He's slated to miss at least the first two months of the 2014 season while he recovers from flexor tendon surgery as well as Tommy John. If he comes back strong, the deal could reach $8.5M with incentives and the Braves could get 15-20 decent starts out of him. If he doesn't, they've thrown away $4M- not an inconsequential amount of money for the Liberty Media-era Braves. Just because I'm biased in favor of former Palehose, I'll take the over and say this works out fine.
12/16: White Sox trade RP Addison Reed to Diamondbacks for 3B Matt Davidson. I'll grant that everything I know about Davidson I've read off the internet and I don't know what kind of player he'll turn out to be. That said, the Sox got a potential third base answer with all his years of team control intact in exchange for a relief pitcher. Score, score, score. This looks especially great next to the Peavy-for-Garcia and Santiago-for-Eaton trades. Have I mentioned that I think I like Rick Hahn as my GM? Dude has gotten stuff done.
12/18: Phillies sign SP Roberto Hernandez, 1 year, $4.5M. Cases like this make me feel old. Hernandez's dominant year leading the Indians to the playoffs was 7 damn years ago. Since then, he stopped using the awesome fake name Fausto Carmona, aged a couple years instantly due to the removal of his fake identity, and started being terrible. A team grasping at the fringes of relevance like Philly needs as many starting pitching candidates as they can get their hands on, but with ex-Fausto clearly in their top 5, it doesn't look good.
12/18: Twins trade C/OF Ryan Doumit to Atlanta for SP prospect Sean Gilmartin. The Twins are another team that needs as many pitchers as they can get, and 2011 first-round draft pick Gilmartin is indeed a pitcher. He's also 23 and hasn't shown any ability to succeed above Double-A yet. Doumit is a low-OBP guy with some pop and some versatility. He should provide depth backing up Evan Gattis and Justin Upton this season before hitting free agency next winter. Doumit is more valuable in Atlanta than he would be elsewhere because Gattis is shaky at best at starting catcher. Playing Doumit in a lineup stacked with whiff-happy guys isn't ideal either, but it didn't cost them anything.
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