Damn, was going to try to sneak a ride.

Hillbilly wrote:Our buddy J.R. used to fill us in, so I will take up the slack this year. The equipment trucks left this morning for Goodyear!

Thanks HB, good call.

Now that it's February 4, still the whole offseason has been incredibly, crazily DEAD!!

So regarding the Indians, their signing of Yonder Alonso - in retrospect - was insanely aggressive when compared to the way the market has gone. Not in price - but in how quickly it got done.

They were ahead of the curve with the short term contract with him. All those other unsigned guys are going to be forced to back off their long term dreams as teams have learned that long term deals come back to bite.

I'm calling it the Ellsbury policy. This guy got a 7 year deal that is absolutely ridiculously pathetic right now and NY is totally stuck with drastically overpaying this guy for a long time.

OK, this surprises me that they would do this for Bradley Jr, as good a CF as he is (and of course with a much friendlier contract

Edwin Encarnacion - DH - Indians

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Red Sox expressed trade interest in Edwin Encarnacion earlier this winter.

But the Indians reportedly wanted outfielder Jackie Bradley in return and Boston's front office ended the discussion there. Nightengale suggests that the Red Sox may revisit the Encarnacion trade idea if they are unable to land free agent slugger J.D. Martinez, who is said to be "fed up" with Boston's unwillingness to up its long-standing five-year, $125 million offer to him.

Encarnacion signed a three-year, $60 million free agent contract with Cleveland last winter and went to slash .258/.377/.504 with 38 home runs and 107 RBI in 157 games.

By the way - just sayin - JD Martinez is also not happy that he would have to DH in Boston.

Sooo - trading Bradley would free up an outfield spot. Then they could also add JD Martinez.

I think they'd do one or the other - but just sayin'

That seems like an unlikely trade but I have no objection to adding a young very solid right handed hitting outfieleder

So I check on Bradely and he is:

1. Youngish. 28 by opening day.
2. Left handed. Oh good he can platoon with all the other lefties.
3. Batted 245 last year. Career 237. 726 OPS last year. Ditto for his career.
4. Ugh.
Why would we make that deal????????????????????????????????????????????????????

It sounds like the nonsense deals fans used to call Pete Franklin and suggest.

civ - contracts speak loudly in sports. And go back to 2016.

Bradley is one of the top fielding center fielders in baseball and hit quite well. This past year a ton of Red Sox hit less than they usually do.

That said, I am glad they turned it down.....if they did.

Francisco Lindor - SS - Indians

Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reports that there have been no contract extension talks going on lately between Francisco Lindor and the Indians.

General manager Mike Chernoff’s young son spilled the beans last spring that the two sides were discussing a long-term deal, but it appears those talks haven't carried over into this offseason.

The contract they discussed last year was reportedly in the seven-year, $100 million range, but Lindor turned it down. The 24-year-old will be arbitration-eligible for the first time next winter and is under team control through 2021.

Those Bradley career offensive stats are not especially impressive. But a good defensive OF with speed could be appealing if he were a right handed hitter.

Fascinating article here civ that addresses this better than I can. Since apparently the Chisox and Red Sox were discussing Abreu/Bradley I guess it's no surprise we were talking EE/Bradley.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/dont-tr ... ose-abreu/

What the heck, in an off-season like a cemetery for all baseball, it's something to read anyways.

OK, I'm satisfied. Except that Zimmer may [may] be the same thing as Bradley. Put one of them in RF and the other in CF and find some RH to fly LF and we're in good shape. Maybe Clint Frazier; how'd the Yankees like Michael Brantley for Clint and Justus Sheffield? We could add a good defensive catcher since their catcher can't catch

Well it obviously didn't fly anyways and I agree about Zimmer.

Guess the Tribe figured with both Zimmer and Bradley flying around the outfield their defense would be stud. Oh, and cost controlled too.

Red Sox were obviously looking at alternatives to JD Martinez's contract demands. Probably still are.

Some interesting stuff going on with Union vs Management this spring. Spring training camp for the unsigned. Contract disputes. Holdouts. Lawsuits. Might be an exciting start to the season.