Splicetoday: Rangers make Texas-sized commitment to Darvish

The Texas Rangers signed Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish yesterday to a six-year $60 million contract. That’s in addition to the $51.7 million the Rangers agreed to pay the Nippon Ham Fighters just for the chance to negotiate with Darvish, bringing the club’s total commitment to over $111 million. Rangers President Nolan Ryan went to the Hall of Fame by causing thousands of batters to swing and miss. A swing and miss on Darvish may define Ryan’s career as an executive. Continue Reading

Yahoo! Sports: Fantasy Outlook for Yu Darvish and other Japanese imports

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Splicetoday: Time for Cubs to bite the bullet and rebuild

The start of the Theo Epstein era in Chicago has been marked by rampant speculation, but little action. To this point the Cubs have added free agent outfielder David DeJesus and traded for Rockies washout Ian Stewart, and that's about it for the positive side of the ledger. Continue reading

The Week that Wasn't

Arte Moreno and his Angels didn't get left at the alter by a free agent as they have so often in the past.  When the Angels lost out on Carl Crawford last Winter they traded for the untradeable Vernon Wells.  I'm sure if Albert Pujols had returned to the Cardinals Theo Epstein would have raced to Jerry DiPoto's suite with a case of Sam Adam's Winterfest, some hot wings, and Alfonso Soriano's contract.

While the news of the past week centered around the Angels going for broke (perhaps literally) and signing Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson the other slugging free agent first sacker is still...well, free.  Prince Fielder is rumored to have the interest of the Cubs, Rangers, Blue Jays and Mariners.  The only people happier than Pujols and agent Dan Lozano after Albert's staggering deal with the Angels are Prince Fielder and agent Scott Boras.   Fielder is four years younger than Pujols and will almost certainly be gunning for a 10 year deal.  Good luck with that.  

Prince Fielder could be hurt by the track record of his equally famous and rotund father, Cecil.  The senior Fielder pretty much crapped out after his age 32 season in 1996 when he was productive enough  to break my heart with a playoff homer against Mike Mussina.  Fielder posted a .768 OPS in '97 and a .725 in '98 before calling it quits.  He was out of the big leagues at 34.  Prince is currently 27 but any contract over five of six seasons carries great risk.  Too bad the Angels aren't looking for a DH.

Yu Darvish has finally been posted by the Nippon Ham Fighters (lord i love typing that).  We likely won't know the winning bidder until sometime next week.  Given that the Blue Jays, Rangers, and Cubs are involved with both Fielder and Darvish we probably won't see the Fielder market heat up until Yu's destination has been determined.

Jimmy Rollins is still hanging out there as a free agent.  The Brewers opted to sign Alex Gonzalez to be their new shortstop.  The Cardinals spent $14 million for two years of Rafael Furcal for some odd reason.  I'll assume they lost a bet.  The Giants seems to be crying poor.  It's a foregone conclusion that Rollins returns to Philly, but his agent is the aforementioned Lozano so anything is possible.

The Week that Wasn't

Thanks for checking back for this week's installment of "The Week that Wasn't".

• New Red Sox GM Ben Cherington didn't get to hire his own manager last week.  The rookie GM was seemingly over-ruled by BoSox Club Prez Larry Lucchino.  Ben seemed to have a schoolgirl like crush on Dale Sveum who took the Cubs job when offered by Theo Epstein.  Lucchino supposedly wanted some experience in the dugout and went for ESPN's resident hot head Bobby Valentine.  Bobby V may do a fine job for Boston but the events that led up to his hiring don't seem to bode well for Cherington's tenure. At the very least the subtraction of Valentine should make ESPN's Sunday Night baseball broadcasts infinitely more watchable.
• Yu Darvish and Yeonnis Cespedes are still not technically free agents, let alone signed to a deal.  Darvish's posting has been held up by his divorce in Japan and Cespedes still must declare residency in the DR before he can sign a free agent deal.  The total cost for Darvish is likely to approach $100 million. Cespedes' agent is said to be seeking double the $30 million that the Reds gave Aroldis Chapman.
• Jimmy Rollins is the best shortstop left on the market with the Marlins signing of Jose Reyes.  I've long thought Rollins was a lock to return to Philly but the Brewers and Cardinals reportedly have some interest.  The Giants have been laying in the weeds but they need a SS and Rollins is an Oakland native.  
• The winter meetings are currently raging on in Dallas and my Twitter feed is all atwitter with updates, rumors and innuendo.  We'll review how this stuff shakes out next week.  

The Week that Wasn't

To this point this blog hasn't been much more than a repository for my contributions to other sites.  I hope to change that in the coming weeks.  I say "hope" because with two kids, two jobs, and freelance assignments it will be difficult.  I suppose you make time for things that are important to you so we'll see how important this is to me in the coming weeks.

Today I present to you the first installment of "The Week that Wasn't" which will really just be a roundup of all the crap that didn't happen in the past seven days.  Here we go:

• Red Sox still do not have a new manager.  Suddenly the Orioles don't look so bad.  They haven't even conducted the most disorganized candidate search/interview process in the AL East this off-season.  The Red Sox are quickly turning into a punchline.  It seems thet clearly relied too heavily on the candidate list prepared by the now departed Theo Epstein.  The convoluted nature of this search makes it look like ownership doesn't fully trust new GM Ben Cherington.  It may also be giving us a glimpse into why Epstein bolted for the Wrigleyville.  (Hint: it wasn't the deep dish.)
• Albert Pujols is a free man, for now.  Pujols paid a visit to the Marlins a few weeks back but apparently the initial offer wasn't to his liking.  I still think Pujols returns to the Cardinals, though probably for something less than $200 million.  
• A Prince without a throne.  The market hasn't really heated up for Prince Fielder.  The Angels, Rangers, Cubs and Mariners are rumored to have interest in the slugger.  At one point last Summer I would've bet a mortgage payment that Fielder ended signed with the Cubbies.  Now I'd be surprised if he did.  I think the Rangers look like the most likely landing spot for Fielder as they are very clearly not going to be giving a big contract to C.J. Wilson with the move of Neftali Feliz to the rotation.  
• Uncertainty still surrounds Yu Darvish.  The Japanese right hander has still not been posted by the Nippon Ham Fighters.  The speculation now seems to be that he will be posted.  The bidding process will be interesting to follow.  Will Theo Epstein forget about the Dice-K debacle and submit a winning bid for Darvish?  Will the Red Sox do the same?  Will Brian Cashman get off his butt and actually get a decent starting pitcher behind CC Sabathia?  And yes, I was a big SOAP fan as a kid.