f13.net

The Diamondbacks overpaid for overrated players.  I still don't have a reason now to drive up for a game.  Troy Glaus, Russ Ortiz, Craig Counsell...
STILL MY BEATING HEART.

Oakland traded right-hander Tim Hudson to the Atlanta Braves for two pitchers, left-hander Dan Meyer and right-hander Juan Cruz, and outfielder Charles Thomas on Thursday, the A's said in a press release.

ESPN Radio is reporting that Tim Hudson just got traded...

to Atlanta.

The Yankees have reached agreement on the principal players in a three-team blockbuster trade that would land them coveted lefthander Randy Johnson, Newsday has learned.

A few details have yet to be worked out, but indications are they are not big enough obstacles to kill the deal.

The Yankees would receive the 41-year-old Johnson in the deal while sending pitcher Javier Vazquez and two minor-league prospects, catcher Dioner Navarro and third baseman Eric Duncan, to the Dodgers, according to an Arizona source. The Dodgers would send pitchers Brad Penny and Yhency Brazoban and outfielder/first baseman Shawn Green to Arizona to complete the deal.

Well, the Braves needed a starter and apparently the A's needed an untested minor leaguer, a 5th outfielder and another shitty reliever. I assume the "jewel" of that trade was Meyer, as he was supposedly well-regarded. Cruz failed with the Cubs as a starter, and I don't think he was all that great in middle relief either.

Enjoy. (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1947892)

YEAH! Suck on that Kenrick!

But I HATE the thought that the Yankees might have Johnson, Wright, Pavano AND Beltran. How do you compete with that?

But I HATE the thought that the Yankees might have Johnson, Wright, Pavano AND Beltran. How do you compete with that?

In other related asshat news, Pedro is a Met.

.......hahahahahaha

Right-hander Matt Clement, who became one of the most sought-after free agents this winter, on Friday agreed with the Boston Red Sox on a three-year deal that is believed to be in the range of $25 million.

Pedro could give Blizzard fanboys lessons in whining.

Red Sox get Clement.

Speaking of which, why, when I look down the long list of transactions, I only see one thing by the Giants for the whole page, and that is "Released A.J. Pierzynski"?  Our team has lost players every single year for the past few years, with nobody brought in to replace them.  Why the fuck won't our owners spend anything else on the team!!!!  We need at least one more big bat besides Bonds, not to mention the state of our pitching rotation.  We had really better get somebody this off season, I was so pissed when all those good players were up for grabs last year and we didn't even make an attempt.

Speaking of which, why, when I look down the long list of transactions, I only see one thing by the Giants for the whole page, and that is "Released A.J. Pierzynski"?  Our team has lost players every single year for the past few years, with nobody brought in to replace them.  Why the fuck won't our owners spend anything else on the team!!!!

12/13 Mike Matheny C Giants 3 years, $10.5 million

St. Louis is a playah.

ESPN Radio just broke that St. Louis aquired A's pitcher Mark Mulder.

"Breaking News

Mulder to St. Louis

The Big Three is now down to one. ESPN's Peter Gammons reports A's ace Mark Mulder has been traded to the Cardinals for Danny Haren, Kiki Calero and Daric Barton. Earlier in the week, Oakland sent Tim Hudson to Atlanta."

ESPN Radio just broke that St. Louis aquired A's pitcher Mark Mulder.

Scott Boras, king cocksucker of the agent world. How anyone still deals with this fucker is beyond me. You KNOW he's going to fuck you on the deal.

Did Carlos Beltran's agent play fair with the Astros?
News reports suggest Boras may have overstated bidding

By MARC A. LEVIN

Astros fans are understandably distraught by the departure of talented free agent Carlos Beltran after the team and city did everything conceivable to make Beltran and his family feel at home. In addition to being saddened, we should also be disturbed by the ethically and legally questionable conduct of Beltran's agent, Scott Boras.

There are now at least two reported incidents of Boras' allegedly deceiving the baseball teams with whom he has negotiated. Boras apparently told the Texas Rangers in 2000 that he had obtained an offer for star shortstop Alex Rodriguez for at least $200 million, but according to Atlanta Braves General Manager John Schuerholz, the highest offer at the time was the Braves' $150 million. The Rangers evidently bid against themselves, raising the final price tag to $252 million over 10 years, a contract that prevented the Rangers from fielding a competitive team around Rodriguez and ultimately led to his being dealt to the cash-rich Yankees.

In the last few weeks, Boras repeatedly told media outlets, and apparently the Astros, that he had five Beltran offers for at least $100 million. In fact, the Chronicle, ESPN and others have confirmed that only the Astros and Mets ever bid as much, and the Mets at the point of Boras' first utterance of this claim had apparently not even made their initial offer. These reports state that the Cubs topped out at $80 million and the other rumored teams — the Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles — never entered the bidding.

If these reports are accurate, Boras arguably acted unethically in both instances. An attorney, Boras is subject to the ethical rules governing lawyers, even though his work involves negotiating deals, not appearing in court. The Texas Rules of Disciplinary Conduct, Rule 4.01 titled "Truthfulness to Others" states, in part, "In the course of representing a client, a lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact to a third person."

If indeed Boras misrepresented his clients' offers to other teams and the media, it is hard to imagine he did so unknowingly, since as Rodriguez and Beltran's sole agent, he would necessarily know what offers they had and had not received. Although violating this rule could be grounds for disbarment in Texas, Boras is a member of the California Bar, where no such rule exists, meaning all the Texas Bar could do is deny him admission should he seek to practice here.

Beyond ethics, the legality of Boras' conduct can also be questioned. In Texas, the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) prohibits making false or misleading statements in the course of selling a product or service, but because the Astros and Rangers have assets exceeding $25 million, they could not bring a claim. However, the Texas attorney general could initiate a DTPA claim on their behalf.

The Astros or Rangers could sue Boras for fraud. In Texas, to establish fraud, a party must prove: 1) that a material representation was made; 2) the representation was false; 3) when the representation was made, the speaker knew it was false or made it recklessly without any knowledge of the truth and as a positive assertion; 4) the speaker made the representation with the intent that the other party should act upon it; 5) the party acted in reliance on the representation; and 6) the party thereby suffered injury.

If the Rangers sued, they could claim injury for overpaying for Rodriguez, while the Astros' damages would be more nuanced. It is conceivable that, absent Boras' bluster about other offers, the Astros would have given Beltran an ultimatum to sign by an earlier deadline, realizing they had the only major offer on the table for some time. This would have forced Beltran's hand and, if he declined, at least have enabled the Astros to sign other quality free agents who are now unavailable.

Baseball executives are particularly vulnerable to being misled about the extent of other offers because they could be charged with collusion if they attempt to contemporaneously contact their counterparts to verify them. Remarkably, Boras' credibility is so low that some teams refuse to negotiate with him. Thus, Boras' best defense to a fraud claim might be that baseball executives know they cannot rely on the veracity of his statements.

To be sure, the blame goes well beyond Boras for the integrity deficit in both baseball and the corporate world. From steroids to revenue sharing, the players' union and owners have so far failed to ensure that the game is played on a level playing field. From Enron to WorldCom, millions of Americans have suffered financially as a result of deceptive statements.

While Boras is unlikely to face any ethical or legal repercussions, professional athletes should choose agents who negotiate in good faith and abide by basic rules of fair play. Like their clients, baseball agents are entitled to play hardball and swing for the fences, but they should refrain from making misleading pitches.

Levin, a former staff attorney for the Texas Supreme Court and law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, is a lifelong Astros fan and an attorney at Potts & Reilly, L.L.P. in Austin.

How anyone still deals with this fucker is beyond me.

Beltran will hate losing. Again.

That's the part that gets me... Houston's been a winning (and classy) organization for 8+ years straight now (with the exception of 2000).  The Mets have a decent team every 5 or 10 years.  All of Beltran's talk about how important it was for him to be on a winning ballclub looks like a load of horse shit now.  It was always just about the money for him.

Barring a delay that would force Astros owner Drayton McLane to arrive to Houston later this evening, the club is set to announce a record deal with future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens, the Chronicle has learned.

The Astros will likely hold a press conference this afternoon to announce Clemens' signing. McLane, who was in a board meeting for Scott and White Hospital in the morning, was unavailable for comment. Astros general manager Tim Purpura has not returned calls to the Chronicle for three days.

Clemens' agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, also were unavailable for comment.

Clemens, who won his record seventh Cy Young Award and first in the National League this past season, is due to get a steep raise from the $5 million he signed for last year.

He filed for a record $22 million in salary arbitration, $8.5 million more than the Astros' offer of $13.5 million, which also is a club record. But McLane on Tuesday said he was sure Clemens would not earn $22 million this year.

Nonetheless, Purpura said the negotiations would begin at the midpoint of the offers, $17.75 million, which eclipses the most ever earned by a pitcher in major-league history. The previous record was set last season by Pedro Martinez, who earned $17.5 million with the Boston Red Sox.

Clemens, 42, was the NL's starting pitcher in the All-Star game and finished last season with an 18-4 record. He led the majors in winning percentage and was among National League leaders in ERA (2.98) and strikeouts (218).

Um, Stros fan here also.

Now to sign another OF so that Biggio can stop being a statue and can sit on the bench where he belongs.

You can't steal first base.  Hairston will be an average 2b for the cubbies.  If he plays OF for any significant time, the Cubs are sunk as he can't hit enough for the OF.  

Burnitz will keep the infield cool with all of the swinging strikes but he is at least a major league OF.  The Cubs are really hurting in the OF and their hitting overall is weak.  

Basically, if a hitter is doing something that's completely out of step with the rest of his career, you should be skeptical and demand a larger sample before you buy into those reports that his stroke has been tweaked or how he's seeing the ball better since he started drinking liver smoothies. Sample size is a major principle to grasp, and you'll never look foolish by being roundly unmoved by what a player does in the first few weeks of the season.

That's not all that's wrong with batting average. As much as the .300 hitter is a lionized, what does that really tell us about a player? It tells us he got a hit of some kind in 30% of his at-bats. We have no idea what kinds of hits he got, and we have no idea how he fared in terms of reaching base by other means. We don't even know how many times he came to the plate.

When dealing with percentage statistics, having at least a rough idea of the number of plate appearances is essential. And as far as batting average goes, you can tell much more about a player if his average (AVG) is presented along with his on-base percentage (OBP) and slugging percentage (SLG).

This article (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2562) explains it.

You are in the minority on Batting Average.  Have you read Moneyball?

/sadf

I'm just happy the Cubs got Juan Pierre, though a case could be made that Damon is more valuable. I'd have taken either.

I think I will start running a pool on what date Everett first does something batshit insane. When does spring training start?