Life is back.
Can't wait to start reading NYT sports pages again with renewed enthusiasm - baseball and Mr Kepner.
I am glad to read these 10 stories - but there are 20 others he left behind - as in Astros, Indians or the Royals.
Mr Kepner needs to complete the whole deck.
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Up here many of us are hoping the Yankees will be foolish enough to pick up Manny Mechado. All the more opportunity to boo him and hate the Yankees. Go Sox Repeat in’19!
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Jeter got a really good pitcher from the Phils in that recent deal.
As for Machado and Harper/ Both head cases who don't always hustle and the former is a dirty player to boot.
I hope the Phils wait for Mike Trout.
happy to see McCutcheon on the team. A real gamer. He will be very popular in Philly.
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@Lonnie
Its silly to fault a player for taking what is offered.....no one does that.........and it would be an incredible act of generosity (stupidity?) to give money back to billionaire owners that you feel wasn't deserved because of your poor performance. The players and the owners are acting in what they perceive to be in their best interests. So it is and so it will always be. If this results in dysfunction, the system will adjust, as it appears to be doing now.
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"to form an imposing bullpen. " That's how Kepner see the Yankees bullpen, Imposing.
Let' see how he compare Red Sox-the defending champions " must continue to improve in relief" and their bullpen is in shambles. Kepner didn't find any positives or improvements in any other team. And of course, he didn't mention the debacle of Sonny Gray.
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After watching Machado's antics last season, I wouldn't want him on my team.
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Joe Maddon lives in Tampa, not Mesa.
Machado is WAY over-rated. He choked in the playoffs. No.
Kimbrel's weird "crouching spider" pose is just stupid.
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Collusion? Maybe Machado and Harper are just not worth that kind of money.
Machado acts like a disgruntled 14 yr old. Not exactly a Frankie Lindor. He's a bad act in the clubhouse. Apparently not paid enough to run out ground balls or fly balls. Is likely to get suspended for dirty play. Yeah. Let's pay him a few hundred million guaranteed.
Harper? His Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is middling. There are 30 players with better stats. He's trending down. And he turned down a $300m, 10 yr contract offer from Washington. Who is going to outbid that?!
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Ichiro? You think we are intrigued by or pondering Ichiro? Mr. Kepner you suffer from what all Mariners fans have contracted -- "Who's He-fluenza". I don't know any of the new players either but why not ponder if any of these names will become household by August -- Justus Sheffield, Mallux Smith, Kikuchi, Santana, Long and Dunn. We've known and loved Ichiro since 2001 but we have to move on thanks to DiPoto's moves.
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The Red Sox don't need a closer. They can bring in starters to close on their side throwing off days.
I'm glad that some attention is being paid the Reds that is sort of the good kind.
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@Robert L. Abell
Amen.
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Last fall's play-off games showed that Machado is not the kind of person anyone should want on their team. Repeated intentional efforts to kick or spike defensive players. I hope no one signs him.
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Long-term free agent contracts may be dead. I think the problem is that the "play cheap when you're young, cash in later as a free agent" game is getting old, partly because owners are tired of paying for aging and fading players, and also because younger players don't want to wait for the big money. So I suspect we will see increases in pay for younger players and few contracts longer than about 5 years.
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Last season eight MLB teams had 95 or more losses. That's eight teams that aren't even trying to win. It's like the owners are trying to kill the game. Them and Scott Boras...
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I'm another Lonnie and I agree with Lonnie's comments. Are the unsigned players willing to sign for a year or two. If they're great, they might be able to do even better in one or two years but 30 year olds are not to get ten or even seven year contracts as did Pujols and AJ. Their agents might tell them that instead of whining about collusion. I suspect the Yankees might give Harper a lot of money for a year or two.
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The players are wondering why the money isn't the same as it use to be, and there is a simple answer and that answer is not collusion. The players haven't anyone to blame but themselves, they took advantage, they wanted everything to be one way, their way. They wanted guaranteed contracts with absolutely no relief for teams when they could no longer perform, they held clubs to contracts when they could barely get themselves on the field. Players making 30 million dollars on the backend of deals, none of which ever paid off for the clubs and the fans. Clubs are now using analytics to get the best bang for their buck. The players made it all about the money and now the clubs are giving it right back to them. The clubs have taken the emotion out of the negotiations, the players are now nothing but a commodity and that's the way they made it. Check out the contracts and what is owed to aging players like Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujuls, Jacoby Ellsbury among just a few, not one of them would give a dime back, they took advantage of a situation, they killed the golden goose, it's stopped laying eggs.
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@Lonnie, I understand your position, but it's hard to blame a player for signing a huge contract that was placed on the table by the team. For my part, I've never looked at a job offer and told my prospective employer I couldn't accept the job until they offered me less money. If teams were offering more than they or the game can handle, that's poor management and not the fault of the players.
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@ChrisH Chris I don't think there is one fan of baseball that would begrudge a player the moon if he was living up to the contract, but we have seen is player after player signing the kind of contracts that Mickey Mantle could only have dream about, contracts that reach 30 million dollar a year, and the player either lose their edge, get hurt, get old, can't perform, some are literally let go, they make 30 million a year doing absolutely nothing, in a circumstance like that, if you had any professional pride you would go to the team and say, hey, I can't play anymore and I am hurting the team by handcuffing them financially, lets work out a buyout that we can both live with.
There is a famous story of Ted Williams requesting a pay cut because he had an off season and didn't think he deserved the money. And maybe that is why the legend of Williams has grown over the years.
We have created a culture in which people have no pride anymore...they want the money. Even if they have to embarrass themselves on the field..they want the money. You can have the money or you can have the pride, you cant have both.
Joe DiMaggio walked away from the game in his prime rather than embarrass himself.
I guess I am just a regular guy who goes to work every day and cant understand these pampered spoiled athletes. But I know one thing, when a lot of them sign those big contracts they don't play with the same motivation.
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@Lonnie
The pay cut for Teddy Baseball is an interesting point.
Considering "Fair is Fair", should the Marlins provide rebates for their fans since the team tanked in April for the last 4 years? How about the Mets waved the white flag in August for the last two years and selling off anything not nailed down?
The Fans should see some comp for supporting a team the Owners have said "We're done".
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