Cleveland Sports Forum

I see that KC signed that big star Danny Duffy for a cheap contract, only $65.

he’s a Tommy John surgery survivor and his 26 starts and 179 2/3 innings in 2016 are career highs.
From reading Royals sites, the fans love him, he's a really nice kid. From looking at his stats, he's been above average when he is able to pitch. Maybe sort of like Danny Salazar whose innings are low, too.

2014, 2015, 2016 WAR

Danny D: 3.6 1.5 4.2 Danny S: 0.8 3.3 2.9

Career stats:

DD 623 IP 577 H 71 HR 231 BB 540 K 3.71 ERA 1.297 WHIP
DS 484 IP 438 H 54 HR 166 BB 541 K 3.72 ERA 1.247 WHIP

65 bucks? WOW!

Indians and OF Brandon Guyer avoided arbitration by agreeing to a two-year contract with a club option for 2019.
No word yet on the financials involved. The deal buys out his final two years of arbitration and the option could cover his first free agent year. Guyer, who turns 31 later this month, played well after being picked up by the Rays last season and batted .266/.372/.423 with nine homers and 32 RBI over 101 games on the year. This included a league-leading 31 hit-by-pitches. Guyer owns an .861 OPS against southpaws in his career and should continue to provide value in a part-time role.

Jan 18 - 10:38 AM

I like him as a RH platoon OF and PH.

So the Indians have avoided arbitration once again this year.

Cleveland Indians sign outfielder Brandon Guyer to two-year contract extension
By Zack Meisel, cleveland.com

on January 18, 2017 at 10:30 AM, updated January 18, 2017 at 11:08 AM


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The last of the Indians' eight arbitration-eligible players has signed, and this one will be sticking around for a while.

The Indians have agreed to a two-year deal with outfielder Brandon Guyer worth at least $5 million. The pact includes a club option for the 2019 season.

Guyer will earn $2 million in 2017 and $2.75 million in 2018, a source told cleveland.com. The Indians' 2019 option is worth $3 million, or they can pay Guyer a $250,000 buyout.

Cleveland's acquisition of Guyer last summer might have been deemed an under-the-radar move, but don't tell that to all of the left-handed pitchers he bested. In 2016, Guyer batted .336 with a 1.021 OPS against southpaws. His .464 on-base percentage against lefties led the American League.

That made him the perfect complement to Lonnie Chisenhall in the Indians' right-field platoon. Guyer hit just .216 with a .628 OPS against right-handed pitching last year.

The Indians settled with their other seven arbitration-eligible players late last week. On Friday, teams and players still in limbo exchanged salary figures. Instead of heading to an arbitration hearing in Phoenix in February, the two sides agreed to a contract extension. The Indians followed a similar path with Josh Tomlin last year.

Guyer would have been eligible for arbitration for the final time next winter, before hitting the free-agent market after the 2018 campaign.

Guyer, who will turn 31 next weekend, appeared in 38 games for the Tribe last season. He posted a .333/.438/.469 slash line. He also batted .333 with a .500 on-base percentage in 24 postseason plate appearances. He reached base in all three of his opportunities in Game 7 of the World Series. His RBI double off of Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the eighth set the table for Rajai Davis' game-tying, two-run homer. Guyer walked with two outs in the 10th and scored on Davis' single before the Indians fell one run short.
Guyer loves facing lefties

The man does have a knack for reaching base, even in the most painful ways imaginable. Guyer has led the league in hit-by-pitches each of the last two years. He was plunked on 31 occasions in 2016.

The Cubs selected Guyer in the fifth round of the 2007 amateur draft out of the University of Virginia.

If Michael Brantley returns to full health this season, the Indians will likely have Chisenhall and Guyer share time in right, Tyler Naquin and Abraham Almonte occupy center and Brantley man left.

Cheap enough for Guyer but he is a platoon player.

Would be nice if to field a team that didn't need platoon players.

Platoon players have weaknesses.

Don't pass up chances to upgrade the position just because you think you have it covered with a platoon.

Ah Huh!

In a move that has seemed inevitable finally came to fruition Tuesday, when Jose Bautista re-signed with the Toronto Blue Jays on a deal that, will pay him $18 million with mutual options that "are rarely exercised, however," so it's likely this pact will end up costing the Blue Jays just the $18 million.

That's only slightly more than the $17.2 million they would have paid Bautista in 2017 if he'd accepted the club's qualifying offer in November. And to hear Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tell it, Toronto also got Bautista back for less than what was available elsewhere.

For Bautista, who's hit an MLB-high 249 home runs since 2010, $18 million is a nice raise over the $14 million he earned each year from 2012 to 2016. So, at least there's that.

Of course, draft-pick compensation was just one thing that limited Bautista's marketability this winter.

Another was certainly the specter of decline hanging over Bautista's head. He's 36 years old and coming off a season in which he managed just an .817 OPS and 22 home runs—his worst marks since the days before his big breakout in 2010. He also rated well below average on defense in right field.

Jays make the fans happy and overpaid.
Royals may have done the same with Duffy: 5 years for a pitcher with arm injury history?

Pudge is the first player elected to the Hall of Fame since Al Kaline who has played even one game with the Tigers.

I guess Miguel Cabrera will be the next

Well that's what I read in the newspaper. Maybe it said "position player" and "elected by writers", since looking at the list I find Jim Bunning elected in 1996, Hal Newhouser [by veteran's committee] in 1992 and George Kell [by veteran's committee] in 1983.

Since Kaline's election in 1980, the following have been elected to the Hall with at least some Indians' game experience:

1982 Frank Robinson
1985 Hoyt Wilhelm
1991 Gaylord Perry
1992 Hal Newhouser
1997 Phil Niekro
1998 Larry Doby
2001 David Winfield
2003 Eddie Murray
2004 Dennis Eckersley
2011 Bert Blyleven
2011 Robby Alomar

In 2 separate car accidents in the Dominican Republic Andy Marte and Yordano Ventura (Royals) have been killed.