Baseball Obit: Al Luplow, age 78, died in his hometown of Saginaw Michigan. Early 60s OF for the Tribe; he and Ty Cline were rookies together in 1962 I think.

Here's a box score from July 5 1962 when we surprisingly beat the Tigers on a Don Dillard 9th inning homer. It was a good day for Luplow, he singled walked and homered and raised his OPS to 923, although they didn't have OPS back then. Lot of other familiar names in the box score: Johnny Romano, Pedro Ramos, every kid's favorite name Frank Funk, Woody Held, Bubba Phillips [lots of good names in those days] and the Real Tito Francona. Tribe record moves up to 45-34. Can they build on this start and take the Yankees to the wire? Well not quite, they finished at an 80s typical mark of 80-82

Well, it looks like I forgot the box score but no one seems to have noticed. It does take me back to the good old days of lousy Indians baseball

civ ollilavad wrote: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.

We haven't addressed this here, but what the hell. It's the elephant in the room for the dirge that is the offseason.

My take is that many aspects have contributed. First and foremost is the $197 million cap....err...tax point. Make no mistake about it even the Yankees and Dodgers do NOT want over that cap because it is very punitive. Those were the types of teams that would splurge in the past and are holding back now.

But almost as important are the front office staffing now. Every team has an industrial sabermetrics/stats department and the research shows that the majority of long term contracts - ESPECIALLY to guys 30+ do not work out. (Look no further than Jacob Ellsbury with the Yankees as to a total disaster 7 year contract that NY is stuck with) Bottom line those types of contracts were impulse buys in the past by less informed people making the decisions.

This new breed is too smart for that. (and by the way there's a reason the Jays grabbed Shapiro. He built a front office that was the forerunner of these modern day ones - look at all the guys who have been plucked from the team. Luckily we kept Antonetti/Chernoff.) Remember the LA Dodgers bringing in Andrew Friedman from the Rays??? This trend is very real - running the big market teams smarter like the small and middle markets were forced to do for a long while now.

So now this offseason. Agents STILL want to operate under the old paradigm in their contract demands. Guess what? The front offices now are too smart for that. Shorter term contracts are now the rage unless the star player is still in their 20s (and even then....hmm)

Also money is being allocated towards relievers (big contracts for the Shaws and Joe Smiths of the world) because it's smarter more cost effective allocation of funds. By the way Tito and the KC Royals showed the world how smart and effective that was.

Bottom line agents (ahem Scott Boras) have to understand that they aren't dealing with dummies anymore - these guys are Ivy league grads and will not be bullshitted. They have their spreadsheets for their defense and are not budging.

Time for agents to recalibrate. The new rules all around (last CBA included) have taken effect. Agents doing a VERY poor job of adjusting. But they will be forced to eventually. In the meantime, standstill.

The few contracts so far - Jay Bruce at 3 for $39 mill, Todd Frazier for 2 years at $17 mill and yes our Yonder Alonso for 2 years at $16 mill - that is the pattern these days. Smart moves by the Mets and Indians. They found agents willing to move in the new direction and they still ain't going to no soup kitchens.

Just off the press - exhibit 1


Jake Arrieta - S - Cubs

ESPN's Buster Olney reports that if the slow market forces Jake Arrieta to defer pursuit of long-term deal, there are teams "very interested" in him on a short-term, high-salary contract.

We would be shocked if that weren't the case. Ultimately, it would be a surprise if it comes to that for Arrieta, as he should still be paid handsomely by someone even if it's not nearly what he might've been shooting for at the beginning of the offseason.

Arrieta will turn 32 in a month, so taking a short-term deal and trying free agency again next winter would be an awfully risky move on his part.

To add - teams are not willing to go long term unless it's for a super duper guy in his 20s.

See Manny Machado and Bryce Harper NEXT offseason. But those are young guys who are now exceptions. Even the back end of the contracts the guys would still be mid 30s on a 10 year.

Well, looks like the Cubs gave Darvish the extra year....

Yu Darvish - S - Dodgers

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Cubs and Yu Darvish have come to an agreement on a six-year, $150 million contract.

The deal is pending a physical. Finally, into the second week of February, there's a resolution to the top remaining name on the free agent market, which will hopefully allow for the other dominoes to fall into place, Darvish joins a stacked rotation that already boasts Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, Kyle Hendricks and Tyler Chatwood.

This is actually a 6 year and $126 million guaranteed with incentives that could make it go up to $150 mill

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports that Logan Morrison turned down a two-year, $20 million offer from the Indians earlier this offseason.

The Indians then moved on to Yonder Alonso, inking him to a two-year, $16 million deal. It's possible Morrison regrets rejecting Cleveland's offer, as it doesn't seem like a slam dunk that he'll receive a better or comparable one at this point. He's reportedly been drawing interest from the Red Sox (as a backup plan to J.D. Martinez) and the Royals (as a backup plan to Eric Hosmer).
Related: Indians
Source: Boston GlobeFeb 11 - 9:39 AM

Some time back, Logan was dating a girl from the area.

Be interesting to see how that plays out. IF it happened:

Logan Morrison's agent, Fred Wray, has denied a report that his client turned down a two-year, $20 million offer from the Indians earlier this offseason

Think there's going to be more players that received better offers than they eventually will sign for.

Poor babies !!

The Indians were the forerunners of "waiting the market out". They got EE that way most notably, but also bargains like Austin Jackson.

Now virtually all teams recognize the stupidity of impulse overspending - whether they can afford it or not.

I think the info about EE and Boston might have been the Indians looking for payroll flexibility early in FA .

rusty2 wrote:I think the info about EE and Boston might have been the Indians looking for payroll flexibility early in FA .

Absolutely. Say they did that deal then they have Bradley cheap - and then sign another FA to take EE's spot (Morrison?) much more cheaply than EE. Just an example of a possible option.

Though a righty would have been better.

Might have been trying to bring Carlos back plus add an outfielder.

Good one rusty

Indians GM Mike Chernoff on @ESPNRadio on if Jason Kipnis will be the Indians starting 2nd baseman this year: "That's a challenging topic..."

11:08 AM - 11 Feb 2018