Giants reportedly making 'strong push' for Cole Hamels - McCovey Chronicles

I think this "Strong push" is merely an attempt to push up the eventual prospect cost to the Dodgers, if he ends up there. Any deal with the Giants would surely include Kyle Crick or Tyler Beede, which I could live with, but also Andrew Susac, which I could not.

from McCovey Chronicles:
Giants reportedly making 'strong push' for Cole Hamels - McCovey Chronicles:

There are complications, true. The first is the Giants can offer quantity over quality, but the Phillies might prefer the quality. Also, of note is that the Giants aren't on Hamels's list of pre-approved trade destinations, which means he might want them to pick up his $20 million option for 2019 in exchange for agreeing to the deal. Even though one of the Giants' selling points is their ability to take that Jon Lester money and shovel it to Hamels without the Phillies kicking in that much, an extra year at $20 million might make them think twice. At least the Dodgers are in a bidding war now. Stupid Dodgers.

'via Blog this'

David Price is a better option and a better fit, at less cost. Mike Leake is a better option and a better fit long-term ,at less cost AND perhaps an Aroldis Chapman chaser.

Give me

• Price
• Leake and / or Chapman 
• Hamels 

in that order. On my desk by Friday, sirs!!!

----

from the Twitter-sphere (or whatever you call it)

bayareasportsguy.com 

The Dodgers are better-suited to pay for a starter like Cole Hamels or David Price, because they have a couple prospects in Julio Urias and Corey Seager who are rated higher than Finnegan. However, Morosi thinks the Giants have some pitchers in the minors that teams might like.

The Dodgers are said to be highly reluctant to move left-hander Julio Urias, but Double-A right-hander Jose De Leon should be ready to join a major-league rotation by next year.

The Giants, meanwhile, have a number of pitching prospects who could be major-league-ready by next year: Tyler Beede, Joe Biagini and Kelvin Marte at Double-A and Keury Mella at high Class A.

Tossing aside the very real possibility that the Tigers won't sell on Price or Yoenis Cespedes (they're only four games behind Minnesota in the Wild Card race), it's hard to believe the Giants have enough to land a superstar like Price.

• Biagini and Marte are pitching quite well for Richmond (in a pitcher-friendly league), but the former is 25 and the latter is 27.
• 
  
• At 21, Mella is a year younger than Beede and he's pitching well in San Jose, but it seems unlikely he'd be a candidate to make a big league rotation next year.
• 
  
• Beede doesn't seem like a guy the Giants would want to trade, and he lasted just 1/3 of an inning today (one hit, three walks, one HBP) while allowing five earned runs, as he came within one pitch of the team-instituted 30-pitch limit. One has to wonder how many scouts were in the stands today in Erie, PA.

If a scout or team really likes Beede, a start like today's (where it appears that he didn't have his normal command) wouldn't have too much impact. But the Giants consider Beede a future starter, perhaps as soon as next season. They also don't want to saddle themselves with another big contract for a pitcher unless he's the perfect guy, so this is almost certainly true:

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Brandon Crawford is slamming!!

http://m.giants.mlb.com/sf/video/v118669583/?adbid=10152812148946828&%3Badbpl=fb&%3Badbpr=43225541827&%3BpartnerId=as_mlb_20150517_45938836&%3Bshort_code=30bpp

Crawford drives in six runs

 05/16/15 | 00:48

5/16/15: Brandon Crawford hits an RBI single in the 2nd, an RBI double in the 4th and a grand slam in the 5th for a career-high six RBIs

A lot of good things came out of the Cincinnati series:

• A sweep
• Hunter Pence's return to the lineup
• Brandon Belt's bat returns, the opposite field pop today was a thing of beauty
• Buster Posey's bat heating up    
• Matt Duffy in the lineup with increasing frequency  

The best thing might have been the continued brilliance of Crawford's bat ( he is Mrs. The Slav's favorite player, must be the glove  ;)  ). The average rises to ,277 and the 6 HR's and 24 RBI translate into approximately 25 HR's and 102 RBI for the entire season. He actually looks like he wants to challenge Posey and Belt for the HR and RBI title. And to think, he was hitting eight in the order as recently as a week or so ago. The righty - lefty split is sill .258 versus righties and .346 versus lefties. It is still comical to watch opposing managers bring in a lefty from the bullpen to face Crawford and get torched. Panik has a similar .277 / .292  righty/lefty split so maybe it's not as uncommon as I seem to believe.  Weird. You would think they would crush righties and struggle against lefties. 

The right guys are heating up at the right time. 

The downside was Heston not following up on his outstanding performance but that's what you would expect from a young starting pitcher is somewhat uneven performances.

The strength of this team was on display with the performance of every name listed after Chris Heston in the box score. 

Get away days are great for the Giants as they allow Bochy to go to the bullpen early and often and patch a start like this here and there. Hitter friendly parks will do that, but that was just what the doctor order for the heretofore anemic Giant offense. 

P.S. - Aroldis Chapman - Buster Posey matched up for even one AB is worth the price of admission. 

San Francisco

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	WHIP	ERA

Chris Heston	2.0	7	5	5	2	2	0	1.30	3.72
Yusmeiro Petit(W, 1-0)	3.0	3	1	1	0	0	1	1.14	3.27
Javier López(HLD, 2)	0.2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.50	1.80
George Kontos(HLD, 1)	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.92	1.25
Jeremy Affeldt(HLD, 4)	1.2	2	2	1	1	0	1	1.55	3.27
Sergio Romo(HLD, 9)	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1.24	3.97
Santiago Casilla(SV, 9)	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	0	1.17	1.76

Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman signs with Reds for $30M

Well off from my hysterical and hyperbolic $75M estimate.

It helped that the Yankees and Red Sox seemed disinterested or otherwise content with their pitching.

Six years, $30 million is still not bad at $5M per.

By contrast, Dice-K got $52M over 6 years for ~8.7 per year.
Stephen Strasburg's deal was for $15M over 4 years or ~$3.8M per year.

Almost, but not quite in between the two deals which I suppose in hindsight makes some sense.

Dice-K was an estabhlised, veteran with a solid track record.
Strasburg is somewhat less of a proven commodity, however, the draft limited his negotiating options.

Fix the draft??...That's right, fix this...

I SET THE OVER-UNDER ON THIS GUYS CONTRACT AT $75 MILLION - NO DICE-K LIKE BUYOUT FEE TO CASTRO REQUIRED

Now this is MY pet-peeve about the draft. These guys want to further strangle the negotiating ability of American kids, so they can allow more funds to flow to the bottom line AND have more money for SPECIAL situations like this.

NOW, we shall see what the recently demonized Stephen Strasburg was ACTUALLY worth.

This kid here is 21 years old, and a LEFTY with a 102 MPH fastball. The lefty-ness may even make him MORE valuable in an open market situation than Strasburg.

HOLY COW!! These huckleberry owners won't be able to keep their checkbooks in their pants long once they get close to this guy and his agent. (It's got to be Boras).

We will see if my $75 million, back of the envelope calculation rings true here.

I officially declare him comparable to Strasburg. What he gets, Strasburg would have received, give or take a few perks to be named later.

What really roils me is I don't see how players in this situation are not required to be subject to the next player draft. The headline says he is "petitioning" MLB to be a free-agent. I'm not asking them to say NO. But why can't they say, "Sure, you can play here. Your fastball is welcome here, but you are subject to the same rules as other youngsters your age, we'll see you at the next years draft, televised by ESPN." Would the current major league players or the union object? What other constituency would stand up and represent for these guys? The World Future Baseball Players Defector Society?

I don't want to hear from these idiot owners or any of their weeny-whiny media mouthpieces about what needs to be fixed in baseball until they fix the most obvious problem, which is the payroll disparity and it's correlation to teams ability to compete and make the playoffs from year to year. I mean if anything calls for the phrase "level playing field" these two issues certainly do.

SHARE REVENUES BETTER OR IMPLEMENT A SALARY CAP TO EQUALIZE THE CURRENT PAYROLL DISPARITY!!
and
EQUAL TREATMENT OF PLAYERS REGARDLESS OF COUNTRY OF ORIGIN!!
FIX THAT MLB AND MLBPA!!!!

FROM ESPN:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4491904

Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban defector considered to be one of the top pitching prospects in the world, petitioned Major League Baseball for free-agency status recently and is likely only weeks from becoming a free agent, according to his agent.

Early Monday, Chapman's representatives announced that the left-hander has established residency in Andorra, a tiny country of about 84,000 that borders Spain and France.

By establishing residency outside the United States, the 21-year-old Chapman avoids being subject to baseball's amateur draft. MLB must study his residency and legal paperwork before declaring him a free agent.

"We chose Andorra because of its tranquility, its tax benefits for Aroldis, and also being a commercial mecca of sorts, particularly for its size," Edwin Mejia, Chapman's agent, wrote in an e-mail. "We felt that it could translate to unique marketing opportunities for Aroldis in Europe.

"Andorra is a winter playground for the wealthy and powerful residents of Europe, of which, God willing, Aroldis will be as well. Given all our options it became the perfect choice. He even has health insurance, life insurance, and a pension all before he even signs his first major league contract. We are very proud of this."

( The Slav - won't this guy fit right in, he sounds like a Hall of Fame prima dona already. )

The New York Yankees have already shown interest in the lefty, whose fastball was clocked at 102 miles per hour at the World Baseball Classic this year. It's also expected that teams such as the Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers will at least show initial interest in Chapman.

( The Slav - what no Pirates, no Royals, no Padres? Don't they need pitching?)