It's time for him to retire. He has his WS win from last year to emphasis. Now let's move on. I hope we get back to the analytics.
Ohtani to the Giants please... Dodgers would just be the rich getting richer. And the Rangers, well yeah. They're the Rangers and in the same division.
Yes Ohtani is the Big fish and great for marketing but wouldn't it be better for the Rangers to try to sign Montgomery and Hader? Unless they plan on signing Ohtani + others.
Spoiler https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...y-bidding-war-begins-gm-meetings/71461163007/ The Los Angeles Dodgers are the overwhelming favorites to sign Ohtani. The Chicago Cubs are the sleeper pick, several GMs say, particularly with $43 million coming off their books with the expiration of Jason Heyward’s contract and Marcus Stroman opting out. The Boston Red Sox, with new GM Craig Breslow, are expected to be heavily considered. The New York Yankees, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers will all make strong pushes. But it’s foolish to discount the Angels. If the Angels didn’t think they had a chance to sign Ohtani, they would have moved him at the trade deadline. Ohtani, who relishes his privacy, is quite comfortable in Anaheim. He has complete autonomy over his schedule. He loves the lifestyle Orange County has provided him. If the Dodgers don’t sign him, don’t be surprised if he’s back in an Angels uniform. … The Padres took out a $50 million loan just to meet payroll in September, and plan to reduce their payroll by about $50 million this winter. So that means Juan Soto, who’s expected to earn about $33 million in salary arbitration, is gone, right? Not so fast. The conventional thinking among GMs is that Soto will actually have more value at the trade deadline than moving him now. Besides, GM A.J. Preller isn’t about to punt on this season. He believes they were as talented as any team in baseball. He wants to keep Soto at least for the first half to see if they recover and become the elite team he envisioned all along. If they have to make some tough decisions, GMs say, they wouldn’t be surprised to see the Padres dangle shortstop Xander Bogaerts and outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. in creative deals to avoid trading Soto. They would like to move Jake Cronenworth, who signed a seven-year, $80 million extension in April. … GMs believe that the Phillies will Nola walk, and will turn their attention to Blake Snell, who’s about to win his second Cy Young award. This would leave Nola going to either St. Louis, Atlanta, Texas or perhaps the Los Angeles Dodgers. … A year ago, it was starter Kodai Senga and Masataka Yoshida that made the biggest splash on the international market, but this winter, Japanese starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto will make more money than both of those players combined. He’s expected to receive at least $200 million where and Snell will be the two highest-paid pitchers. Yamamoto dominated an offensive-challenged league (1.21 ERA), and was phenomenal in his last outing. He struck out 14 batters without a walk, yielding just one run in his complete-game, 5-1 victory in the Japan Series, throwing 138 pitches. Rival executives believe he’ll wind up signing with the Mets. Also, Korean center fielder Jung Hoo Lee, 25, is among the top position players on the market. He was the 2022 KBO League MVP, and has a slash line of .340/.407/.491 in his seven years in Korea. He’s considered the second-best center fielder on the market behind Bellinger. … The Rangers will make a run at Ohtani, who was on his original list of teams he was interested in signing with when he left Japan, and will be on the lookout for starting pitching. Bringing Jordan Montgomery back makes the most sense, but certainly Nola and his durability is quite attractive to the Rangers’ rotation, with several GMs predicting Nola will end up in Texas. The Rangers’ bullpen concerns could also suddenly disappear with the signing of free-agent closer Josh Hader. It’s hard to find a single executive who isn’t predicting that Hader will ultimately be a Ranger. … ≻ The Arizona Diamondbacks, who desperately want a third baseman, plan to pursue free agent Justin Turner, who exercised his opt out with the Boston Red Sox. He is atop their wish list. ≻ The Chicago White Sox aren’t shopping Dylan Cease, but are telling teams they will listen to offers. He could be the best pitcher available on the trade market. ≻ The Toronto Blue Jays, who badly need a left-handed bat, have strong interest in free-agent outfielder Cody Bellinger. The Blue Jays, however, still need to lock up Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, who are free agents after the 2025 season. A back-up plan would be to sign left-handed outfielder Joc Pederson. ≻ The Los Angeles Angels are giving serious consideration to former players Torii Hunter, Tim Salmon and Darin Erstad to become their next manager, and plan to interview each of them. ≻ Craig Counsell is the hottest free agent manager in years, but while the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians are in strong pursuit, friends close to Counsell still predict he returns to Milwaukee, but receives a raise from $3.5 million to more than $5 million, making him the highest-paid manger in the game. ≻ The Chicago Cubs say they don’t have any intention to bring back starter Marcus Stroman after he declined his $21 million option in 2024. ≻ The White Sox desperately tried to trade shortstop Tim Anderson, but couldn’t find any takers, before declining his $14 million option. Several teams believe he’s best suited to play second base. ≻ The Minnesota Twins, who are losing free agent pitchers Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda, are planning to use their position player depth to acquire arms in trades. They also have interest in free agent center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. ≻ The Cincinnati Reds told first baseman Joey Votto they simply could no longer guarantee him a starting job, and Votto didn’t want to return as a bench player, so declining the $20 million option was an easy call. ≻ Free agent outfielder Tommy Pham, who struggled to get a one-year, $6 million free-agent contract a year ago with the Mets, already has several teams expressing strong interest in hopes of fortifying their clubhouse culture. “He’s one of the better offensive players on the market," one GM said.
They'll be paying repeater tax of 30% if they sign anyone of consequence (and they will). They'll start paying the Cohen tax if they sign more than 1 top FA. It would be an astronomical cost for them to sign Ohtani and the pitching help they need. I'd be stunned if Ohtani doesn't stay in California. They are however going to be scary good if they do what I expect and sign a starter plus 2 top bullpen guys.
As much as an owner is willing to spend? They've had a very lucrative TV deal with Fox/Ballys for years, with partial ownership. Now some of that may not be a given in the future based on what Bally's and all the RSN's are currently going through. A lot of baseball owners with even half favorable TV deals could probably spend more than they're currently doing. Granted, the Padres recently had to take out a private loan to meet payroll... but some of that was because their TV money no longer was guaranteed.
Just make it like tennis that still has line judges that get the majority of the calls right. The challenge takes 3 seconds. Figure out how many balls/strikes challenges each side gets and go from there. The rest of the “points” in this article aren’t really points. Just potential “it’s not always better to get the call exactly right!” rationalizations that we heard before they implemented replay for all the other things in baseball. Tennis will always have an umpire, and at least in the bigger tournaments… will always have line judges. Once this gets implemented, we will be nostalgic for the days where umps were eye-balling the balls/strikes just like we were nostalgic when Jim Joyce ruined that perfect game on the play at first, or Don Denkinger missed that first base call in the World Series (narrator: “we’re not”).
I really am against creating the challenge balls/strikes skill for baseball players. If they have a system that can fix calls, fix them. I doubt tennis has nearly as many close calls as baseball.
This isn't me pissing in the water because I'd be beyond thrilled if the Astros signed Ohtani - but it does seem like the fact he won't be pitching in '24 - and likely unable to play a position - is just flying under the radar. He's going to be 30 the next time he tries to hit + pitch, and that's a *big* deal.
I agree to a point. Depends on how long it takes for them to reverse a call… if it takes 3-5 seconds, it’ll be noticed. It will be even more noticed if it’s happening during inconsequential parts of games or games that are well decided. I really don’t get the argument that it was leading to “more walks” in the minors thus was making the games longer, etc. Sounds like you had a lot of minor league pitchers without command and umpires were getting tired. To me that’s even more reason they should take the human element away from calling something that should be as black/white as anything.
