Indians sign Kottaras and Lowe to minor league deals
March 31, 20142014 WFNY Tribe Predictions
March 31, 2014First and foremost: Baseball!
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First and foremost (Part II), if you haven’t cast your votes yet, now is the time to do so. WFNY is nominated for Best Sports Blog and Best Podcast in Cleveland. We do this for free and count on you all to show your support through the ballot box. It’s Opening Day…why not start things off right? Thanks in advance, folks.
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Josh wants Johnny. Not long after discussing quarterback Johnny Manziel on Radio Row at the Super Bowl, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon, once again, puts his Pro Bowl vote behind the Texas A&M quarterback for the Browns at No. 4 this May.
.@JOSH_GORDONXII says which QB he would draft if he was GM of the Cleveland @Browns.
WATCH: http://t.co/ojcPb8G4Px
— NFL (@NFL) March 29, 2014
“To bring that spark to a team—that play-making ability—would be huge,” Gordon said of Manziel. “I’d love to see what he can do.”
There are some who wonder if Gordon is tipping the Browns’ draft hand, but those are also people who believe players are involved in the front office’s draft discussions. Earlier in the week, when he was on ESPN’s First Take, Gordon predicted a 10-6 record for the Browns in 2014 as led by one Brian Hoyer, so he’s nothing if not diplomatic. What Gordon’s words do signify is that (in addition to not being a scout) he’s a bit tired of catching passes from a different guy every week. The Browns continue to say that they don’t feel the need to draft a quarterback early, but the national pundits aren’t buying it. The question will come down to who’s there at No. 4, who does the team actually want (a lot of Teddy Bridgewater rumblings remain) , and do those stars align.
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Yanimal. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Yan Gomes news come across the wire this weekend as he’s clearly a guy who should be playing for more than the MLB minimum. It’s a team-friendly deal, and I’m all about the team. But I’m also all about said team locking up the only player who received MVP consideration a year ago in Jason Kipnis. This is the second offseason wherein the Indians and Kipnis were reportedly negotiating, and with Opening Day just hours away, it appears that we will head into another season without a long-term deal in place. Kipnis plays a premium position and is widely considered to be a player on the ascent. If another MVP-caliber season is on the horizon, the team is going to be in for a rude awakening once arbitration season rolls around. The Los Angeles Angels avoided such a mess by inking Mike Trout for the foreseeable future. If the Tribe wants to keep their word about locking up their core, they may want to realize the commodity they have and do the same. The benchmarks are already in place.
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Big Money Miguel. By now, you’ve seen plenty of opinions on the deal signed by Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers. It was just a matter of time before Nate Silver gave his thoughts over at FiveThirtyEight, and given my personal intersection of sports and business, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the economic rationale of why the Tigers’ deal—while disgusting on the cover—may not be as bad as we think. As the value of the average MLB franchise increases at a rate better than that of the S&P 500, and the number of billionaires continues to grow, Silver says that the economic impact of signing Cabrera to such a lucrative deal may simply be akin to holding (and eventually selling) a basket of goods—and Cabrera is a good good. Of course, there’s also the chance that this is all a huge bubble (something our own Craig has been calling for years) and Mike Ilitch could be left holding the bag. He’ll also still be a billionaire.
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And just because: We’ll miss you, Dayton. Hell of a run.
13 Comments
Josh, put down the bong, and step away from the computer.
First Take is still on the air? Is it just continuous shots of Skip Bayless flinging poo out of his cage on to a wall?
“There are some who wonder if Gordon is tipping the Browns’ draft hand…”
Really? Name one. And incoherent bag ladies don’t count.
http://search.twitter.com
xactly
Baseball teams continue to hand out completely ridiculous contracts, and they can’t pick up more of the tab for stadium maintenance?
Stop the madness!
Good signing, even if Gomes can’t exactly replicate last year. This strategy of locking up guys when they’re young works best if you do it in sufficient volume to hedge against the inevitable errors in judgment. John Hart did not hit on every guy he identified as potential core players. We don’t sing the glories of Scott Scudder, GlenAllen Hill, or Dave Otto. And we kind of overrate Paul Sorrento, who was the beneficiary of daily gimme fastballs because he was cocooned inside one of history’s greatest mashing lineups.
We are U-D. Thanks for all of the love Cleveland.
It involves a lot of yelling.
Even if he can’t replicate last year, he’s a good bet to be worth this contract. 2 WAR/year, completely average play, even after accounting for pre-arb and arb salaries, would be easily worth more than 23 million.
Even if he can’t replicate last year, he’s a good bet to be worth this contract. 2 WAR/year, completely average play, even after accounting for pre-arb and arb salaries, would be easily worth more than 23 million.
agree. And as I commented elsewhere, the player’s probably thrilled. It’s life changing to go from a fringe MLB player to $23m in less than twelve months.
May I please, humbly, add another perspective of Manziel-as-prospect? I call it, “First-Mover Advantage: The Potential Economy of Johnny Football.” I promise it has nothing to do with attracting ticket-sales or fan-interest, or anything like that. *That* story has been done and I furthermore promise that mine is a completely new, fresh take on this very popular topic (sounds impossible, right?)
Anyway, if interested, the address to it is:
http://gsmfco.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/first-mover-advantage-the-potential-economy-of-johnny-football/
I apologize if external links are frowned upon. Thanks for your article & consideration, and have a great week!