Signed for 3 more years Rangers are looking at him as a long term option, put him with Yu at the top of the rotation next couple of years
Agree with the last part But I think it is pretty common knowledge that the Rangers have been going hard after Hamels. Don't think Philly would need to leak anything like that. The Rangers are one of the few teams that has the prospect talent to match what we could offer. I wouldn't think they would go as high as we would though, cause while they would be getting him for the future we would be getting him for the future AND to try and win a World Series this year.
This is all in our heads as fans, being leery that the owner has a small, set budget that he'll never be willing to exceed. I don't like crane as a human, but I'm not going to just assume he's not going to be willing to bump the payroll as much as need be (within reason) to get this team championships. We are in such an unprecedented position for what should be sustained contention, I don't think they will misuse it. Fans filling the seats will certainly solidify his willingness to spend though.
As much as I'd like Hamels, I really want a bat added to the roster. Carter has a negative WAR…he's actually playing worse than a replacement. That's terrifying. Having said that, a starting rotation of: Keuchel Hamels Kazmir McHugh Feldman/McCullers (Lance needs to cut down on the innings pitched) …Sounds so damn good. I think getting Lowrie and Springer back in the lineup will be good enough with that pitching staff. Just really exciting times for Astros fans.
But who would actually "leak" that they were the favorites? The only entity with the power to do that would be the Phillies.... and if they leaked it, they did it with some purpose (i.e.- to entice somebody else to up their offer).
Agree with this 100% I think Crane is a bad person...but let's not forget he is a "baseball guy" as he did pitch in the CWS. He isn't some random guy that just wanted to buy a baseball team, he understands the game. I also think he really trusts Luhnow to continue to build the farm, and would agree to moving prospects knowing that they can be replaced in upcoming years. If this is true, he would also be comfortable believing Luhnow will keep enough good prospects coming to have quality guys on the team year in and year out who don't make much money, making some large contracts workable. I do not like Crane as a human at all. I think Crane the baseball owner is going to be just fine
Sure, winning does a lot of things to people... it had Drayton pushing the payroll higher and higher (and then chasing it) when things were going good (but this was after he stripped things down after previous big spending didn't work out that well). Of course, Drayton's "chasing it" still resulted in cuts elsewhere (namely the minor league system)... although I do believe the cyclical nature of this game can cause any quality system to eventually start to run dry (however, there was no excuse for what was being done at the draft level... thankfully, the system has changed now). What I don't want is a washed up/ineffective 36 year old Hamels making 26 million dollars in the final year of his deal... at a time when you hopefully are making a move to sign a free agent to be Springer, or trying to buy out arbitration years on Correa.... but of course, I do want the elite no-hitter throwing Hamels pitching for this team for the stretch run.... and suffering through the former is the only way to achieve that.
Yea if the choice was add a stud bat or another stud pitcher, i'd rather have the bat. Just doesn't seem to be any stud bats available. And as you say, we have two bats coming, one of them soon I'll be at two of the three Angels games, how sweet would a sweep be!
Forget those reports... theres an article of Hamels himself saying that he only made that list at the time based on the direction he felt the teams were going... and didn't really take into account much else (and would certainly change his mind based on where the teams are now). Again, I doubt Luhnow wastes time without knowing he would agree to come here... much like he handles the situations of drafting "higher priced" players later, knowing they'll have "x" amount to offer them and that this will likely be enough to get a deal done.
Yea I guess I just don't necessarily think it needs to be a "leak" With so many "insiders" today, and so many guys who bring us instant updates on electronic media, sometimes these guys just hear several baseball guys say they think the Rangers are the favorite and they report it as such. I don't think teams need to "leak" info as much anymore. And I might be totally wrong on this part, but in my opinion Luhnow isn't a guy who is going to be affected by what he hears and reads anyway. He is more of a numbers guy, I would guess he knows what he is willing to offer for Hamels (or anyone else for that matter) and it will not be him upping his offer or not, it will be Philly knowing what our offer is and seeing if they can get another team to offer a better deal or not. Just how he comes across to me
It's possible the Astros leaked that they're making a "strong push" to drive the price up on another team or to drive the price down on another pitcher they've had discussions about. I was excited to hear the rumor about Hamels but expect this to draw out for awhile.
"Jayson Stark @jaysonst 23m23 minutes ago Confirmed @jcrasnick report #Astros made a late push to deal for Cole Hamels. But I'd heard Astros were told weeks ago he wouldn't go there" whatever if true smh
I think he will be moved before his next scheduled start Thursday though. Can't see them risking injury on him, assuming they have an offer already that they are willing to accept.
Santana continues to rake in AAA, and handled himself much better this last time around in the bigs. I wonder what his trade value is right now. Wonder if he would be a significant piece of a potential deal
So yes... its all bull****... which is why people shouldn't get all concerned when they read "so and so" are the favorites. A lot of it is made up... and what isn't is designed leaks by teams/agents with a purpose. No GM is affected by any of these tweets or media rumblings... unless they hear/read something about their team that is just not true. The Astros have used the media before just like other teams are using them now... especially when the Aiken stuff was going on (team leaked the UCL info in order to mitigate perceived mis-handling or incompetence... they also leaked "advisors = agents" in order to put their amateur status into question).
In my experience of modern-day twitter-verse media ramblings... the most obvious rumor or most reported one... rarely ever comes true. Nobody had Cueto to KC on their radar till it actually happened.
No idea if Crane is a good or bad person but I will just say that every day there are frivolous lawsuits and allegations and likewise cases where people either are victims and do not file suit/complain or the situation is handled internally without a peep. It has been years since I looked at the allegations so I will not pretend to know the nuances of Jim Crane.
I don't think it's all bull****...some of these insider media guys have good connections, and while they don't ever get the whole story, they do often get enough of the story to put pieces together. But in a world that gives credit to the "first" to report stuff, they do tend to put stuff out there quickly and often I would disagree on the last part from this standpoint, I think a lot of GM's have guys they would "rather not" give up, but if they feel like another team is close to making a move on the player they are after they might be willing to include them to get it done. Now I know they aren't getting that info from tweets or media rumblings, but they are often getting some info from some of the same people who are giving info to the "insiders" One of the former GM's on Sirius MLB today (can't remember which one) was saying trade deadline deals always went down a lot different from offseason or early season deals. Said there was always a feeling that when at the deadline, if you got an offer you were willing to accept, you were usually best off just accepting it and not trying to work the phones more to get something better, cause that deal that was offered might quickly be gone in another deal somewhere. Now that was just one GM's take on the situation, i'm sure they all have different ways they look at it
Oh yea no doubt about that I'm talking more about the way that Crane would pop off at the mouth his first couple of years owning the team. Mainly talking about the TV fiasco or payroll. He is a jerk. Someone convinced him to shut up though, as we rarely hear from him anymore and when we do it's pretty general comments. All I really care about is how he does as a "baseball owner" though, as I don't think me and him will be spending a lot of time drinking Miller Lite together anytime soon :grin:
Rosenthal usually reports either "done deals" or leaked stuff. He's not reporting his own thoughts or what he overhears. Being able to sift through the riffraff (which is honestly not much more useful than what we post here) is critical as a fan... but as a GM, its pretty meaningless. They talk to the teams/agents directly. That's because at the winter meetings (where a majority of off-season deals get done), you can actually schedule one-on-one face time with another GM and hash everything out over multiple face-to-face meetings at a normal pace (a lot of times, some of these meetings actually set up deadline deals).
