Goat3001

So I guess my follow up question is: Do you agree with them putting him on the trade block? Ellsbury/Bard combo is nice. You get a solid outfielder (if he can stay healthy, which remains to be seen) and you get your future closer (yes, I remember your posts about their bullpen last season ), you might be able to snag a pitching prospect too... but if Upton has that much upside at 23 years old you must want to keep him around.

Edit: I also see the Marlins and Rockies are interested and the D'Backs are asking for 4 players in return.

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_r...pton?eref=sihp

Deftones

the team's front office is trying to overhaul the entire team. do i think they should trade him? no, i do not. however, if they get bowled over with some ridiculously good deal, where you can shore up your bullpen, get a good OF in return and maybe a few other pieces, they'd be stupid not to at least listen.

fwiw, there is absolutely no way the Dbacks would trade upton within the division. unless the rockies gave up jimenez and a few other pieces, there is no way that's happening.

dsa_shea

So when will the Yankees get smart and realize that Jeter isn't worth the 20 million a year he wants? If I were them I would offer no more than 15 million per and tell him to take it or take a walk. He is a good player still but not worth the cash or number of years he is now asking for.

coli

So Selig announced today it is pretty much a done deal with the addition of 2 new wildcard teams in 2012. The wildcard round will be best of 3, and the division winners will get bye.

I think this is a horrible idea that the division winners will essentially get a week off, and face the chance of being rusty come the division series. MLB had a stat that the losing team in each playoff series had more days off then the winning team.

I believe this was intentionally done by Selig so there will be an outcry by the teams with a bye that there is too long a layoff as they sit idle. Selig can then push for 16 teams without anyone getting a bye with 4 playoff rounds like the NHL and NBA. That will force them to shorten the regular season and the new playoff TV revenue will offset the loss of about 10 regulars season games.

At this point, the regular season is pretty meaningless in all these sports except the NFL, and maybe we should all just tune in when the playoffs start

sleepyhead55

Agreed. He looks like a perenial all star/possible HOF. Unless you get a Texiera like package they should keep him. Oh yeah, he's only 23.

CRM114

The talent is diluted. That's why the teams with money have talent and those without do not. Contraction is needed but obviously would never happen. Perhaps major league baseball is not a good fit for some of these cities. Perhaps some underperforming minor league squads could relocate and kill two birds with one stone. What I don't want to see is diluted talent spread around with an artificial salary cap.

I'm aware that other Phillies fans here believe in the sanctity of baseball over the quality of baseball.

NotThatGuy

Deftones

or, and i'm just going to throw out this crazy thought, you put in place a hard salary cap. oh, say, something like the nfl. then, you make it impossible for teams to spend ridiculous amounts of money and hoard all the good talent. parity would be a result of this new-fangled system, which would be good for baseball because it wouldn't always be the teams with the highest payrolls with the biggest chance to go to the playoffs.

nuts, right?

VinVega

The initial offer from the Yankees is 3 years, total $45 million. I heard somewhere that Jeter wants 5 years for a total of $100 million.

Somehow I think we're going to see a 3 year deal around $54 million with a club option for a 4th year.

VinVega

Justin Upton is the real deal. He's not a flame out like his brother. Ellsbury, Bard and prospects are the least they can ask for. His prime is still ahead of him and he's going to mash. I wouldn't trade him period if I'm the D-Backs. He's a guy you can build around.

Goat3001

I agree. If they're going to do this then I think that they should have the 2 wild card teams have a 3 game series in a 3 game span and start game 1 of the division series the next day. HFA in the wild card round goes to the team with the better record and all three games get played on the same field. Game 3 is an afternoon game and the winning team flies to the division winner right away for a quick turnaround. That gives the division winner 3 days off and that's not too much at all.

Assuming this leads to teams playing hard down the stretch to avoid being a wild card then the 3 day rest should be good enough to set up the rotation, which is a privilege they would deserve.

Of course this won't happen though.

Drexl

The problem seems to be the number of years, and Jeter's camp wonders why Alex Rodriguez can be under contract longer.

It seems to me that Rodriguez can be moved to DH later on, whereas Jeter can't because he's not a power hitter.

DaveWadding

Even the talk of Justin Upton getting traded makes my stomach turn. I have said a million times that I would give up on this team in the past, but Upton would be the absolute last straw.

Obey The D

I really like Jeter, but I think he's being completely unreasonable if the rumors are true regarding his demands. He's been the face of the Yankees for years, but he was compensated quite nicely over that time period.

The Yankees signed A-Rod to that huge extension a few years ago because they figured he'd break the home run record as a Yankee and at that point in time no one had any reason to believe he was tainted.

Jeter should be more than happy with an offer of 15 million a year, because the Yankees would be paying him at least 5 Million more a year than he's worth at this point in his career.

Deftones

while i agree mostly, what if you got a deal like the Texans got for Teixiera. 2 of those guys (Perez, Andrus) are starters on the team and are potential stars. I know it's a crap shoot, but if you got can't miss talent in return, you'd still give up on them?

At least Towers is doing something.

DaveWadding

and DiPoto fleeced Ken Williams for Daniel Hudson. That's something.

Red Dog

Selig never ceases to amaze. You have a league where you have 162 games. That is plenty of games to sort things out (even with an unbalanced schedule). Wild cards make sense in the NFL given that there is a relatively small sample of games. In hockey, it makes sense to have long playoffs because it's so dependent on the gate (and the playoffs are what the television carriers are basically paying for).

Deftones

I won't disagree. However the fact remains. If you can get major league talent like Andrus/Perez in a deal for Upton, I think you'd have to be crazy not to consider it.

coli

Thats what makes me laugh is that Selig's reasoning was, 'Well the other sports have 10+ playoff teams, why cant we?'

What Mr. Selig has forgot about is that MLB plays twice the amount of regular season games then the NHL/NBA, and 10 times the amount of regular season NFL games!

The problem is the new generation of fans who are brought up with the wildcard and extended playoffs in other sports, want as many teams as possible in the playoffs, and don't really care about the regular season anymore.

I love following the regular season in sports, (standings, league leaders, etc.) and the playoffs are just icing on the cake. If my team looks like it is out of the race midway through the season, I become more a national fan and just enjoy the pennant races. But we have an ADD culture these days in sports, and everyone goes crazy if ALL teams arent in the hunt all season.

dsa_shea

Just cut the damn season in half and put all of the teams in the playoffs and use the 80-100 game schedule to determine the seeding.

Goat3001

I agree in general but I do like the idea of adding two wild card teams in this instance. No team will play for the wild card anymore like the Yankees did this year. If they're in the hunt for the division they'll play their ass off down the stretch to make sure they're not a wild card team. However, I would like the idea better if it were a 1 game playoff between the wild card teams rather then a 3 game set spreading over 5 freaking days.

dsa_shea

The Wild Card round would be best served to have 3 games played in 3 consecutive days with a one day break before each of the Division Series start. I would also like to see the Division series increased from 5 to 7 games as if you win your division you shouldn't be at risk to be knocked out in only 3 games.

wm lopez

Sometimes you have to look back on how things used to be. Then you decide if the past was better.
You compare both methods and look at the "what ifs" and then you decide that one way does give you the true and best way.
But still not everyone will like that way because they won't make as much money and it reduces the chance of their crappy team of making a so called "playoff spot".
That's the world we live in today.
No instant replay because it tells the truth, but arguing that's o.k.

Red Dog

That's why you shouldn't have a wild card period. Play your ass off for 162. If you can't beat out another team playing so many common games, you don't deserve to be a champion.

If I ran MLB and must have wild cards, and profit wasn't the object, I'd have 2 divisions in each league with a completely balanced schedule and have the 2 wild cards play a 5-game series all on the road vs the division champs. Then if a wild card can win that, then you have a normal home/road 7-game LCS. Baseball has no business being played in November.

coli

This was originally considered, but shot down because several owners. I could live with this idea because you could have the 1 game wiildcard playoffs on Monday, an off day on Tuesday, and then the Division Series start Wednesday, and nothing would change.