Heaney deal is official with Rangers. AJ Alexy has been DFA.

— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) December 9, 2022

2021 notable pitchers

SP: Frankie Montas (traded)
SP: Chris Bassitt (traded)
SP: Sean Manaea (traded)
SP: Jesus Luzardo (traded)

RP: Lou Trivino (traded)
RP: Yusmeiro Petit (left in FA)
RP: Sergio Romo (left in FA)
RP: Jake Diekman (left in FA)
RP: Andrew Chafin (left in FA)

— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) December 12, 2022

Sheesh is Oakland even going to field a team?

Maybe they are going for the Major League approach? Getting to move to a new city by being so crappy no one fights to keep them?

Remember when we all hated on Jon Boy for not signing Anthony Rendon?

wbt5845 said:

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Remember when we all hated on Jon Boy for not signing Anthony Rendon?

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dodged a bullet there for sure. The past two seasons he has only played a combined 105 games, and with subpar results.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rendoan01.shtml

Oakland A's owner John Fisher deserves 90% of the blame for this disaster. The other 10% goes to MLB.

John Fisher is a business man. The A's are an asset. Nothing more.

He purchased the team for $180 million in 2005. It's now valued at $1.18 billion and he hasn't spent a dime.

— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) December 12, 2022

investorAg83 said:

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Oakland A's owner John Fisher deserves 90% of the blame for this disaster. The other 10% goes to MLB.

John Fisher is a business man. The A's are an asset. Nothing more.

He purchased the team for $180 million in 2005. It's now valued at $1.18 billion and he hasn't spent a dime.

— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) December 12, 2022

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In fairness, Oakland won't work with him on a new venue. They are worse than the City of Dallas.

I'm not saying the city has to pony up $500M, condemn all of the property, and then give tax breaks on sales, but they have tried several options and places for a new venue.

They need to pack that franchise up and move it somewhere else. Vegas, Nashville...anywhere that isn't Oakland. One of the worst fan bases in baseball and absolutely the worst stadium.

rbtexan said:

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They need to pack that franchise up and move it somewhere else. Vegas, Nashville...anywhere that isn't Oakland. One of the worst fan bases in baseball and absolutely the worst stadium.

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If Vegas and Nashville are the options, send them to Nashville and give us one less team in the Pacific Time Zone Them moving to Vegas still gets us the late night game times.

KT 90 said:

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rbtexan said:

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They need to pack that franchise up and move it somewhere else. Vegas, Nashville...anywhere that isn't Oakland. One of the worst fan bases in baseball and absolutely the worst stadium.

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If Vegas and Nashville are the options, send them to Nashville and give us one less team in the Pacific Time Zone Them moving to Vegas still gets us the late night game times.

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I agree, but it'll almost assuredly be Vegas. Can't call it the AL West when 60% of the teams are in the central time zone. Plus they'll want to give the Angels a somewhat close rival still and not have the nearest divisional team be an 18 hour car drive away. And yes, I get that we were screwed for pretty much 2 decades being the only central zoner in the AL west. But I doubt they'll want to go back and screw an LA team like that.

Oklahoma City would also be a good option and like the Thunder, would get good fan support.

RHP A.J. Alexy has been acquired by the Washington Nationals via waiver claim.

— Texas Rangers PR (@TXRangersPR) December 13, 2022

A casualty of the 40.

If A's moved to Nashville, AL could realign and put them in the Central and give the AL West Kansas City. KC used to be an AL West team way back in the day.

Only issue Vegas may have is $$$ due to what it took to get the Raiders. If Nashville gives more $ and if the Rays stay in Tampa, that's where the A's may go.

Nashville is in a pretty good spot with MLB as a potential landing spot for a team, either a move or if there's expansion again. The city has 3 pro sports teams it supports well (MLB, NHL and MLS), and a new stadium they built about 5 or 6 years ago in a downtown location. It was built with the idea in mind that it could be added on to at a later date if they got a team.

That being said, I think Vegas gets the A's if they move, and if Nashville winds up with a team that moves, it will most likely be Tampa Bay...another crap stadium and lousy fan base.

Based on proximity, I would think the A's would end up in Vegas. Vegas has many California transplants and a natural base for the Raiders and A's.

Nashville will likely get an expansion. When the Rangers and Astros started swapping teams, there was activity among the Texas minor league teams.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/elmore-sports-group-shuffles-its-franchises/

The desire was to get AA San Antonio Missions into a new stadium in San Antonio and make them AAA with the idea they'd be well positioned for expansion. Soon, there after, MLB decided to let MLB owner groups have more freedom in owning minor league teams. Part of that was resolved in the new CBA and new Minor League deal, where minor league players were given more financial support. Make the teams use MLB money to support the living standards for Minor leaguers.


Looks like the Missions are being sold.

https://www.ksat.com/sports/2022/11/16/san-antonio-missions-sold-to-group-of-local-business-civic-leaders-sports-greats/

I think ideally, MLB would get the A's into a new stadium in Oakland.

6 team expansion... 2 new teams every 4-6 years.

Top contenders: Portland, Vegas, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Nashville, Charlotte, Montreal

What will the shift rules look like this year? is it just a ban on infielders being positioned in the outfield or is it two fielders on each side of second base?

Rodon to the Yankees.

AgsWin2011 said:

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Rodon to the Yankees.

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6 for 162. That seems awfully cheap

Bummer.

Mr Gigem said:

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AgsWin2011 said:

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Rodon to the Yankees.

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6 for 162. That seems awfully cheap

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Yeah, I'm not understanding this one. I was expecting in the 30 - 33 per year range. Guess he wanted to be a Yankee real bad.

I'm trusting Chris Young here.

Quote:

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Carlos Rodon

The upside: In the last two seasons, Rodn has made 55 starts and is 27-13 with a 2.67 ERA (157 ERA+), 0.998 WHIP and 422 strikeouts against 87 unintentional walks in 310 2/3 innings. On a rate basis, he's been one of the best, most dominant pitchers in baseball. He's a lefty ace to stand tall alongside the righty Cole!

Oh, and here's a good stat: In fourseam fastball whiff rate (with 1,000 pitches minimum) last season, Cole was number 1 and Rodn was number two in all of baseball. The Yankees have the heat.

The question: Rodn dealt with shoulder injuries in 2016 and 2021 and had Tommy John surgery in between. This means he started, by season,12, 20, 7 and 2 games, respectively, from 2017-20. In 2021, it looked like his career year, but he only managed 23 innings in five starts after Aug. 7. As noted, the shoulder injury was a concern. Even in making 31 starts last season, he averaged just 5 2/3 innings per start, adding up to 178 on the season. That was his career high.

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His red flags are basically his GS and innings for the past 5-7 years

I guess the Rangers feel better about deGrom's just being freak injuries, whereas Rodon is more recurring issues?

IIRC, there was a lot of concern that Rodon was overworked when he was at NC State and that it might lead to future injury issues. Maybe the Rangers felt like that was legit, who knows. There's also the possibility that they're working on bringing another starter over in a trade. The two I would target if it were me would be Corbin Burnes or Sandy Alcantara. Either would cost a ton of top prospects.

KT 90 said:

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Mr Gigem said:

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I guess the Rangers feel better about deGrom's just being freak injuries, whereas Rodon is more recurring issues?

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Clearly the answer is yes here. At least that is what I am telling myself

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It has to be. We actually just had a meeting with CY but I didn't get a chance to ask his thoughts on the Rodon deal

I also think they believe Heaney unlocked something last season with the Dodgers. Question is can he stay healthy.

So there are still a few lower tier guys out there. How about Wacha is you can get him for - 2 years? He was pretty good for Boston last year.

2 more corner OFs off the market in Gallo and Benintendi. Did the front office go on vacation after the Heaney signing?

I think us fans want the OF more than the front offices does.

Don't think so with even the shift change rules? Surely his average would climb above .200 and get him some more long balls