And we're back! It's amazing how long you can play Magic Online for free when you 3-1 every event. But I'd rather not cut it close with my 2015 baseball predictions, so instead of cracking packs of Khans and Fate Reforged, here's some more transaction reaction. I think I still have one or two more of these to go before we get to the winter wrapup and season preview posts
12/22/14: Giants re-sign RHP Sergio Romo, 2 years, $15M. A weak strand rate and a jump in home run rate left Romo with a worse-than-average ERA for the first time in his career in 2014, but his other numbers were consistent with his previous excellence. I love to mock Brian Sabean for keeping his own players instead of shopping for upgrades, but I don't think you upgrade on Romo in this price range. I like this for the Giants. In a world where Andrew Miller makes $36M, Romo likely had significantly bigger offers to play elsewhere.
12/22/14: Twins extend RHP Phil Hughes, (effectively) 3 years, $42M. The Twins scored one of last winter's biggest bargains when they got Hughes for 3/$24M and he proceeded to post a league-leading K/BB rate and a seventh place Cy Young finish. Now he's basically got a new contract at 5/$58M. Quite a reward for one great year, but if Hughes's improvement is for real the Twins have their first ace since Johan left town. Given his age and the huge drop in walk rate, I'll stay optimistic. If they can just get four more guys to pitch in their rotation, the Twins'll be right back in this thing.
12/23/14: Giants re-sign RHP Jake Peavy, 2 years, $24M. Is this where I get to mock Brian Sabean for keeping his own players? It is? Hooray! Bringing back the same rotation as last year in hopes that Cain will bounce back from injury, Lincecum will be usable, and Hudson and Peavy won't start to show their age takes some brass ones, I'll give Sabean that. And to play devil's advocate, Peavy looked better in his two months in San Francisco than he has since his Cy Young 2007. But still, this can't work out, can it? He's had all of two healthy seasons since that Cy Young and he's turning 34 this year. History does not bode well.
12/23/14: Cubs sign C David Ross, 2 years, $5M. The Cubs already have two starting-caliber catchers, and Ross's pitch framing doesn't make up for his weak bat and questionable other defensive skills. I think the plan was to trade Wellington Castillo, but that hasn't happened yet. As of now, this might just be a case of "Theo Epstein and Jon Lester like the guy". Doesn't seem likely to help the Cubs win games.
12/29/14: Royals sign RHP Edinson Volquez, 2 years, $20M. This is not the James Shields replacement Royals fans were hoping for. The more I look into Volquez, the more this looks like a disaster. So he outperformed his peripherals and looked average for a whole season with Pittsburgh? Doesn't matter. The vaunted Royals defense can't help him if he walks the ballpark, which he's had a career-long tendency to do. Could he get lucky two years in a row and look like a major-league starter, hiding behind Ventura, Duffy, Vargas, and Guthrie? Yeah, I mean, nothing's impossible. But someone from the Kris Medlen/ Brian Flynn/ Joe Blanton tier of KC pitching depth is a good bet to be a better option at a fraction of the cost in 2015. This is something like the fifth Royals move I've written up, and as a group they don't inspire confidence.
12/30/14: Padres trade OF Seth Smith to Mariners for RHP Brandon Maurer. Maurer is not yet arbitration eligible and projects to be a useful bullpen arm. There's a chance the Friars could try him as a starter, but the Mariners didn't get good results with that and there's enough depth in San Diego that they probably don't have to try it. Smith is a quality lefty bat who was out of a job after A.J. Preller's binge on corner outfielders, and he now projects to platoon with Justin Ruggiano in Seattle. Both teams filled a need. Smith will be more valuable in 2015, but Maurer's extra years of team control, along with the teams' current roster compositions, make it look a little better for the Padres.
12/31/14: Phillies trade OF Marlon Byrd and cash to Reds for RHP prospect Ben Lively. As with Jimmy Rollins, Ruben Amaro managed to trade an old player for a prospect with some real value. Great for Philadelphia. As for the Reds, they're in that dead zone between legitimate contention and full-scale rebuild that leads teams to do silly things like trade a prospect for one year of Marlon Byrd. We can't write the Reds off as a wild card possibility this year, but the window is just barely open. One more year of decline from Joey Votto probably means they miss the playoffs, they lose Johnny Cueto to free agency, and they are going to be in really bad shape.
12/31/14: Dodgers sign LHP Brett Anderson, 1 year, $10M. Anderson's been really good, when healthy- which is almost never. I think the Dodgers are basically starting 2015 with four starting pitchers. Juan Nicasio or Joe Weiland (Or Erik Bedard- ugh) are the insurance policies. That's not the kind of depth we've come to expect from Yankees West. If McCarthy and Anderson are healthy all year, then yeah, the Dodgers are still one of the best teams in baseball. But this is a bigger Achilles' heel than they've had in recent years.
1/5/15: Phillies sign RHP Aaron Harang, 1 year, $5M. If you don't have someone around to pitch a game, they don't let you call yourself a major league team. That's the motivation for this signing. Harang is a guy who will pitch in games, and he was surprisingly adequate for the Braves last year at age 36. So he'll fill a rotation slot for the worst team in baseball, and if he isn't completely out of gas, maybe he even fetches some value in a trade this July. Nothing wrong with any of this.
1/5/15: Rockies sign C Nick Hundley, 2 years, $6.25M. We haven't seen enough action out of Colorado to evaluate new GM Jeff Bridich yet, but this looks a lot like a Dan O'Dowd move. Like all Dan O'Dowd moves, it raises more questions than it answers. Do they know Willin Rosario is not a catcher? If so, why don't they have an open spot to keep his bat in the lineup? Also, why did they sign a bad catcher in Hundley to replace him? More likely, they plan to keep Rosario behind the plate. If that's the case, the question becomes what does Hundley bring that Michael McKenry- who has actually shown some offensive ability- doesn't? Makes no sense either way, but the sad thing is that this might be the most significant move Bridich made this winter. Let's hope Tulo and Cargo are healthy for once and maybe this summer we can see some decisive action. Until then, the only thing keeping the Rockies from the "least interesting team" title is their gorgeous uniforms.
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