2011 Winter Meetings: Winners and Losers
by Craig M Williams on Dec 10, 2011 12:56 PM EST
in MLB Free Agency
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After a quiet offseason, some sparks flew this week as a general managers, agents, media and many other baseball people met in Dallas during the MLB Winter Meetings. Actually, fireworks is probably a more appropriate term in some cases. Not everyone will look back on this week with a smile though. Who will emerge as the winners and losers from this year's meetings?
Winners
Los Angeles Angels - Anytime you add one of the best hitters of all-time to your lineup and the best pitcher on the free agent market to a strong rotation, its hard to complain. These moves have significantly increased the Angels' ability to win the American League West over the next few seasons.
Mark Buehrle - Who the hell expected Mark Buehrle to get four years and $58 million? I certainly didn't. Not only does he get the long-term contract and big money, but he is "reunited" with manager Ozzie Guillen and he gets to move to Miami.
St. Louis Cardinals - You might call it crazy, but I call it ironic. The sting of losing Albert Pujols will linger for a while - maybe even a season or two for Cardinals fans. After a while though, they'll breath a sigh of relief knowing that they didn't have to commit ten years and $254 million to one player.
And the irony continues...
Losers
Los Angeles Angels - As good as Albert Pujols is, there isn't a successful track record of ten year deals given out to 32 year olds. Just ask the New York Yankees how they feel about Alex Rodriguez and the six years remaining on his deal. The early portion of the Pujols deal will be great, but I won't envy the latter half.
Miami Marlins - The Marlins said that they were going to spend money this offseason and they weren't lying apparently. Aside from Jose Reyes (and the residing concern over his hamstring issues) though, the only big moves were to overpay for Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell. That's a lot of mass, but not much muscle.
Oakland A's fans - It's not necessarily the Trevor Cahill trade that A's fans should be upset about specifically, but the fact that Billy Beane was willing to move him signals that he was genuine about embarking on another a rebuilding effort. Speaking of which, how do you rebuild when there was nothing to tear down in the first place?
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the A's need to get approval
on that new stadium otherwise they’re just going to continue on this groundhog day rebuilds over and over and over. oh and f the sf giants for holding up the move.
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 10, 2011 1:15 PM EST reply actions 2 recs
Agreed
Parker has the potential to be exciting, but honestly, this wasn’t the trade I wanted to see. Cowgill seems like a decent prospect, and the fact that he can play CF at least reasonably is a bonus, but it just seems like there’s not a lot to like here for A’s fans.
I’m not sure what happens next, but if the next move is sending Gio Gonzalez to the Marlins for Matt Dominguez+, that will be another loser.
Writer at FakeTeams
Writer at MLB Daily Dish
Billy Beane is horrendously overrated.
He essentially does what the Marlins have done historically. Build up talent and hope to God ya win, then trade it all away for prospects instead of actually paying them to build further because you’re owner’s a cheapskate.
It’s no wonder both of these franchises are seldom, if ever, seen as legitimate destinations by superstar players.
Ummm.
Has there ever been a 10-year contract given to a 32-year old? I guess that means there isn’t a sucessful track record, but your wording assumes that it always works out badly. That has never been the case either.
Moreno also just got a huge new TV contract, and one has to assume the size of that has to do with a new 1B who is very popular, and of the right ethnic group to sell very well in Southern California. Doesn’t that temper some of his salary?
At the end of the contract, Pujols can DH, and has always hit better than Rodriguez.
In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.
Walden
by matthiasstephan on Dec 10, 2011 5:21 PM EST reply actions
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