Hot Stove League 2015

http://m.mets.mlb.com/news/article/162639412

As I said, he really seems to like New York a lot.  Glad he is staying, it is a good deal for both him and the Mets.  Kind of sucks for Lagares and De Aza.  They are so high on Conforto that I find it hard to see them benching him to put Yoenis in left field.

Astros add Fister for one year at $7M.  He is only a year or so removed from some good pitching, but he really stunk it up last year.  His velocity dropped off, his strikeouts were way down, and his home runs surrendered was way up.  And that was in the National League.

Houston has some pitching depth, so it is not like they will be relying on him as a top of the rotation guy.  Still, $7M is a lot of money for a declining pitcher.  Unless they know something others did not, like a partial tear that has healed or something like that.

Ok, so this is not a hot stove league thing.  But I love this story about Daniel Norris, a 22 year old pitcher who seems to be a really neat guy and now a cancer survivor to boot.  He is slated as the number five starter on the Tigers' depth chart, and I hope he gets a lot of starts and does really well.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/162979090/daniel-norris-beats-cancer-looks-ahead-to-2016

How can you not love a guy who drives a 1978 VW van named Shaggy, goes surfing in Nicaragua for kicks, and takes awesome photos of people everywhere he travels (you gotta see the photo of a mechanic in Colorado in this article--stunning).  He was treated for thyroid cancer but told almost no one until it was all over.  

Teams you probably don't care about are still doing business, tinkering with their line-uos, trying to find an edge somewhere.

The Rockies had too many outfielders and never can have enough pitching.  So they traded outfielder Corey Dickerson to the Rays for lefty reliever Jake McGee.  The Rays, on the other hand, has a surfeit of good arms in the bullpen, anchored by 2015 saves leader Boxberger  Both Dickerson and McGee were injured last year, but have been solid in the previous few years.  Only now the Rays have too many outfielders themselves....

The reason a local fan might care about this deal is that it did NOT involve the Mets, which is damned good news.  Had the Mets not signed Cespedes, they may have felt the need to take a gamble on Dickerson to add a little more pop to their outfield picture, and the Mets do have pitching depth both at the bigs and in the minors that potentially can be traded.  Besides being injured last year, Dickerson's splits away from Coors field are a lot lower than at Coors Field, and there is a pretty good chance that he winds up a middling hitter for the rest of his career.

The Cespedes signing has a big impact on the Mets that goes far beyond his bat, arm, and legs.

Bad news for the Yankees.  Greg Bird is out for the season with shoulder surgery.  While he was going to start the year at Triple A, given Tex's recent history it was only a matter of time before Bird was called up.

Now the Yanks either have to use McCann at first if Tex goes down or find someone else.

Ackley is as of now the likely back up at first from what I read. Sorry for Bird who fit in nicely, but he played well last season with the injury and proved he can play at the major league level so lets hope he comes back strong.

Looks like the O's never got the memo that the Hot Stove League is over once Pitchers and Catchers report.

They just signed RHP Gallardo, and are close to a deal with OF Fowler.  While neither are superstuds, both will fill important roles with the O's, not to mention costing them two top draft picks as restricted FA signings and pushing their payroll over $150M.  Gallardo will eat up lots of innings in the middle of the rotation, and Fowler showed he can do well outside of Coors Field and will provide some pop and speed.

The message is that the O's are not going to cede the division to the other spenders.