MLB is back

[RBritt]

Dickerson stroked one today in Milwaukee.

[War Machine Dawg]

Did you notice all the swing and approach changes he's made? Things that have been talked about with him in the past but he has refused to address...then all of a sudden when his hometown team ships him off he decides he better do what It takes to be successful.

Look, 4-5 yrs ago I was the biggest JHey fan there was, but just like with francouer...although on a much smaller scale...he wouldn't take the coaching he needed and therefore never met potential offensively. Guys who refuse to be coached are typically not chemistry glue guys. I got scoffed at when I've said it in the past but he was traded for a reason other than his impending contract.

I'd been rooting for us to trade him for 2 years. Glad he's gone. Other than a much better walk rate, he really was Francouer 2.0. He may blow up with STL, but he'd peaked as a Brave. Moving him was absolutely the right decision. I'd much rather have found a way to keep J-Up.

[DudyDawg]

I think the Heyward trade was a good one for both teams. And for him. He needed to move on, cards needed him to make a possible push for the title, Braves didnt wanna pay him and he was plateauing for them. Win for all

[dawgs]

Yeah, that's not even remotely close to what I'm talking about.

He dives into pitches but doesn't clear his hips, which basically locks the hitter up and even if they do catch up to it they will have no lower body to provide power. Add to that the fact that he had gotten to where he held his hands away from his body, something he didn't do early on, and it becomes really difficult to extend thru contact because you can't keep your hands inside the ball. Poor extension thru contact+hips locked up= No power. The adjustments i saw him make last nite were almost 100% what he needed to do 2+ years ago. As long as he doesn't resort back to his old ways I expect him to be a .280/20/75 guy and possibly better.

The first person I remember questioning his mechanics at the plate was bobby valentine when he did games for ESPN before going to the Red Sox.

Well I don't think heyward purposefully wanted to be bad. Either the Braves coached him poorly or they weren't very good at relating to him why he needed to make adjustments that the cards apparently convinced him to make over the course of a couple of months.

[shoeless joe]

Well I don't think heyward purposefully wanted to be bad. Either the Braves coached him poorly or they weren't very good at relating to him why he needed to make adjustments that the cards apparently convinced him to make over the course of a couple of months.

No, but he wanted to do it "his way" and not take coaching. A player being uncoachable is not on the coaches. And it was prolly a big wake up call for someone who thought they were the face of a franchise to get shipped off early on in offseason. Add to that the fact that he most likely heard the same thing from the cardinals coaches that he'd heard in Atlanta and he decided he did need to make a change. I expect him to have a good year but I wasn't heart broken when he was traded.

[Dawg61]

Corey Kluber's agent did a horrible job..

5 YR just 38 million for one of the best arms in the game.

Anddddd Rick Porcello just got $82 mill over 4 years. Before he's ever thrown a pitch for Boston. That's fu@ked up. CY Young winner gets $44 mill less AND an extra year. Ouch!

[dawgs]

Anddddd Rick Porcello just got $82 mill over 4 years. Before he's ever thrown a pitch for Boston. That's fu@ked up. CY Young winner gets $44 mill less AND an extra year. Ouch!

I don't think he's worth the deal, but porcello is approaching free agency after this season, and he's also been in the bigs for 6 full seasons, made 27+ starts each of those seasons, and is only 26, so he has the benefit of age and service time on his side, and the leverage to walk away in 7 months. Kluber is 3 years older, still has 4 years of team control, and his only leverage would literally be to threaten to sit out the season. When your alternative is to sit out and not get paid at all, $38M over 5 years sounds awfully good.

Look, literally everything about kluber says he's a better pitcher, his actual numbers, his sabermetrics (which predicted a breakout last season fwiw - K/9, K/BB were better but not grossly out of whack from 2013 to 2014, and his FIP and xFIP in 2013 were 0.55 and 0.75 runs lower than his actual era), everything. But to say kluber's agent screwed him over is a failure to understand the circumstances surrounding both signings.

[Dawg61]

I don't think he's worth the deal, but porcello is approaching free agency after this season, and he's also been in the bigs for 6 full seasons, made 27+ starts each of those seasons, and is only 26, so he has the benefit of age and service time on his side, and the leverage to walk away in 7 months. Kluber is 3 years older, still has 4 years of team control, and his only leverage would literally be to threaten to sit out the season. When your alternative is to sit out and not get paid at all, $38M over 5 years sounds awfully good.

Look, literally everything about kluber says he's a better pitcher, his actual numbers, his sabermetrics (which predicted a breakout last season fwiw - K/9, K/BB were better but not grossly out of whack from 2013 to 2014, and his FIP and xFIP in 2013 were 0.55 and 0.75 runs lower than his actual era), everything. But to say kluber's agent screwed him over is a failure to understand the circumstances surrounding both signings.

Still doesn't make it not fu@ked up.

[dawgs]

Still doesn't make it not fu@ked up.

Gotta be a fair balance for small market teams that develop a guy in their system to have him under reasonable contract for a period of time once he reaches MLB and letting guys make their millions. Its not fair to the Indians to spend years developing a guy like kluber, only to lose him 2 years into his MLB career because they can't compete with the Yankees, nats, Mariners, Cubs, red sox, or Dodgers on the free agency market.

[msstate7]

Matt Cain gets MRI on elbow, Jake Peavy officially scratched as Giants rotation goes into full scramble mode

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/...scramble-mode/

[dawgs]

Matt Cain gets MRI on elbow, Jake Peavy officially scratched as Giants rotation goes into full scramble mode

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/...scramble-mode/

It's an odd year.

[Dawg61]

Matt Cain gets MRI on elbow, Jake Peavy officially scratched as Giants rotation goes into full scramble mode

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/...scramble-mode/

Yea not good. They've both struggled in preseason too. Vogelsong and Petit will take their spots.

[Dawg61]

Gotta be a fair balance for small market teams that develop a guy in their system to have him under reasonable contract for a period of time once he reaches MLB and letting guys make their millions. Its not fair to the Indians to spend years developing a guy like kluber, only to lose him 2 years into his MLB career because they can't compete with the Yankees, nats, Mariners, Cubs, red sox, or Dodgers on the free agency market.

I have no sympathy for "small" market teams in this current era of ridiculously ludicrous TV contracts.