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Re: The MLB Thread
Blue Jays bring back the blue with vintage-themed uniforms
by AP
TORONTO (AP)—The Blue Jays are bringing back uniforms with a more vintage look, tweaking its old-school logo, tinkered with the lettering and given the bird head a more stylized look.
Players will wear blue hats and blue shoes for all games next season, the team announced Friday. Black jerseys have been shelved in favor of white uniforms at home, light gray on the road and a royal blue alternate jersey.
The scripted lettering is gone. The uniforms resemble a version of the jerseys worn when the team won consecutive World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
“Blue Jays” is spelled out on the home and alternate uniforms, while “Toronto” appears on the road jersey.
Re: The MLB Thread
Those are some sharp SHARP uniforms. I LOVE those uni's. Very nice to see Toronto bring back 1992/93-themed uniforms.
Hopefully they won't completely abandon those powder blue-colored uni's they've been wearing the last couple seasons.
It's still nice to see them abandon those ugly, football-lookin' uniforms they've had for the last several years. Never got that look. The previous logo looked like something you'd see the Seattle Seahawks with.
Re: The MLB Thread
Matt Kemp signs new eight-year / $160 million dollar extension
with Dodgers
by Reuters
Nov 18 (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Dodgers have re-signed All-Star outfielder Matt Kemp to an eight year deal worth $160 million, the richest player contract the Dodgers have ever signed, the team said on Friday.
Kemp, one of the favorites for the National League’s Most Valuable Player award, to be announced on Tuesday, had a breakout year in 2011, hitting .324 and leading the league in home runs (39), runs batted in (126) and runs scored (115).
Kemp became the seventh player in the Major Leagues to finish a season ranked in the top three in homers, batting average, RBIs and stolen bases, joining Hall of Famers Ty Cobb (1907, ’09-11), Honus Wagner (1908), George Sisler (1920), Chuck Klein (1932), Willie Mays (1955) and Hank Aaron (1963).
“This past year was a great year for me personally and definitely set the bar, but I have to have even better numbers next year,” said Kemp, who was in the final season of a two-year, $11.1 million deal.
Already a two-time National League Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award recipient, Kemp is hoping to cap his stellar season with the game’s highest individual honor.
“I still want to win the MVP,” he said. “Being thought of as one of the best makes you want to try harder the next year,” said the 27-year-old.
The new deal surpassed the previous Dodgers’ high, a seven-year, $105 million contract signed by pitcher Kevin Brown in 1998, and gave team owner Frank McCourt renewed hope the Dodgers can win their first World Series since 1988.
“If you continue to grow as you have in the last few years,” McCourt told Kemp at a news conference. “There’s no doubt in my mind you’re going to be the leader that this franchise has been looking for for quite some time.”
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; Editing by Julian Linden; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Re: The MLB Thread
Indians close to one-year deal to keep Grady Sizemore
by Jordan Bastian / MLB.com
CLEVELAND -- Even after allowing Grady Sizemore to enter the free-agent pool, the Indians insisted that they maintained interest in keeping the center fielder in the fold. Now a deal between the two sides appears close to fruition.
On Friday night, multiple reports indicated that the Indians and Sizemore are in serious negotiations on a one-year contract. General manager Chris Antonetti declined to comment on any ongoing talks.
"I will refrain from specifically commenting on any speculation," Antonetti wrote in an e-mail to MLB.com. "But we remain interested in keeping Grady in an Indians' uniform and have expressed that sentiment to Grady and his representatives."
The two sides were working out the details of a deal for Sizemore this weekend and an announcement is likely to come within the next couple of days. Prior to this latest turn of events, the general thought was that Sizemore was unlikely to stay in Cleveland, given the considerable list of organizations showing interest in him this offseason.
It has been reported that as many as eight teams -- including such big-market clubs as the Yankees, Rangers, Cubs, Red Sox and Phillies -- have shown some level of interest in rolling the dice on Sizemore, who became a free agent after the Indians declined his $9 million club option for 2012.
One stumbling block for other teams is that the 29-year-old Sizemore is rehabbing from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, performed by Dr. Richard Steadman on Oct. 3, and is unable to go through a full workout.
The Indians, however, are extremely familiar with Sizemore's recent medical history, and Sizemore's agent, Joe Urbon, indicated that the club "came at us with an aggressive offer," according Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com.
The details of Cleveland's offer are not known, but the Indians would likely be interested in a contract that includes a low base salary and performance incentives. Given Sizemore's recent history of injury, keeping him for $9 million was not something Cleveland wanted to do.
This past season, Sizemore hit .224 with 10 homers, 32 RBIs and no stolen bases in 71 games. He hit .282 with six homers and 11 RBIs in his first 18 games following a 10-month rehab from microfracture surgery on his left knee (also performed by Steadman).
Sizemore was hindered by an injury to his right knee in 2011, and it was revealed in July that he had been playing through a sports hernia, which also required surgery.
Over the past three years, Sizemore has undergone five operations (both knees, two sports hernias and his left elbow).
If the Indians do indeed re-sign Sizemore, they can only hope they are getting the player who was a three-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove winner and 30-30 threat from 2005 to 2008. During that stretch he had a line of .281/.372/.496, with 107 homers, 115 stolen bases and 325 RBIs over 639 games.
Between 2009 and 2011, Sizemore has hit .234/.314/.413 with 28 homers, 17 stolen bases and 109 RBIs over just 210 games.
Right now it is unclear whether Sizemore would return to his familiar spot in center field. The alternative would be for the Indians to play him in left field, with Michael Brantley in center, and it has been reported that Sizemore is willing to accept a role in any outfield spot as a free agent.
With the rotation strengthened by the addition of sinkerballer Derek Lowe, Cleveland's primary offseason need is offensive help. The Indians have identified the outfield and first base as the two possibilities for upgrades.
Re: The MLB Thread
Phillies acquire veteran utility man Ty Wigginton from Rockies
by Doug Miller / MLB.com
The Phillies and Rockies orchestrated a late-weekend trade Sunday, with veteran Ty Wigginton packing his bags to travel from Denver to the City of Brotherly Love in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
Philadelphia stayed true to its usual offseason strategy with the deal. Manager Charlie Manuel's team added a respected and talented bat and versatile defender to the fold.
Wigginton, a former All-Star who played in 130 games for the Rockies last year after signing with Colorado as a free agent in December, figures to fit in as a utility type whose primary experience is at the corner-infield positions but also has extended to the outfield corners.
With Ryan Howard likely to begin the season on the disabled list as he recovers from a torn Achilles tendon, Wigginton provides the Phillies another option at first base. Philadelphia also signed free agent Jim Thome, who said he could fill in at first base on a limited basis.
Wigginton's major selling point, however, is a right-handed bat with some pop. The 34-year-old Californian has hit more than 20 home runs in a season four times in his 10-year Major League career, including 22 in his All-Star season of 2010 with Baltimore.
Wigginton batted .242 (97-for-401) with 21 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs and 47 RBIs last year while seeing time in the field at first base (36 games), third base (68 games), left field (21 games) and right field (six games) for manager Jim Tracy's Rockies.
Philadelphia is the seventh Major League franchise for Wigginton. He also played for the New York Mets (2002-04), Pittsburgh (2004-05), Tampa Bay (2006-07), Houston (2007-08) and Baltimore (2009-10).
Wigginton is a career .265 (1,087-for-4,107) hitter with 232 doubles, 14 triples, 158 home runs and 548 RBIs in 1,190 games. He has at least 15 home runs in seven of his past eight seasons.
By parting with Wigginton, the Rockies have 37 players on their 40-man roster, so more moves could be coming soon.
Re: The MLB Thread
Mariners outfielder Greg Halman killed in the Netherlands
by 'Duk / Yahoo! Sports
Here's the worst kind of baseball news imaginable: Seattle Mariners outfielder Greg Halman was stabbed to death in his native Netherlands on Monday morning.
Though details are still sparse, it's being reported that Halman's younger brother Jason has been arrested and is being questioned by police in Rotterdam. Greg Halman had reportedly been playing baseball and conducting clinics in the Netherlands over the offseason.
From the Associated Press:
Rotterdam Police spokeswoman Patricia Wessels says police were called to a home in the Dutch port city early Monday morning and found Halman bleeding from a stab wound.
The officers attempted unsuccessfully to resuscitate the 24-year-old.
Wessels says the officers arrested Halman's 22-year-old brother. She declined to give his name, in line with Dutch privacy rules.
She said the brother was being questioned by police. No charges have been filed.
"He is under arrest and right now he is being questioned," Wessels told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It will take some time to figure out what exactly happened."
Halman was far from a household name here in the United States, but he had as interesting a career path as anyone. Signed by the Mariners in 2004 when he was just 17, Halman spent several years in the team's minor-league organization before finally getting his chance. He was called up in September 2010, playing in nine games near the end of the season. He also played in 35 games for the M's in 2011, hitting .230/.256/.345 with two homers and six RBIs after being called up in early June.
Halman was also a member of the Dutch national team that won the 2007 European championship and appeared with the honkballers in the 2009 World Baseball Championship. His father Eddy was a member of the Dutch national baseball team, as was Jason, the brother being held for questioning in his murder.
Re: The MLB Thread
Pirates agree to 2-year deal with SS Clint Barmes
by Will Graves / AP Sports
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Clint Barmes wanted to play shortstop, not second base. He wanted a two-year deal and he wanted to play for Clint Hurdle.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were only too happy to meet all three demands.
Barmes and the Pirates agreed to a $10.5 million, two-year contract on Monday that gives the 33-year-old shortstop a chance to reunite with his old manager and gives Pittsburgh a chance to add some needed pop to the bottom of the lineup.
“The deal that the Pirates were offering, to guarantee two years at shortstop it was hard to pass up,” Barmes said.
Barmes spent the first seven seasons of his career playing under Hurdle in Colorado, helping the Rockies to the 2007 World Series while becoming one of the most dependable defensive shortstops in the game.
That relationship led the Pirates to aggressively court Barmes, who hit .244 with 12 home runs and 39 RBI in 123 games last season with Houston, who acquired him in a trade with the Rockies..
Pittsburgh viewed Barmes as the third-best free agent prospect at shortstop behind Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins. While they don’t have the deep pockets required to go after the perennial All-Stars, they did have enough to give Barmes a deal paying $5 million next year and $5.5 million in 2013, up from the $3,925,000 he made last season.
“In the past we’ve sat back and waited to see what everyone else picked through,” Pittsburgh general manager Neal Huntington said. “You’ve got to be aggressive and in Clint’s case it was guaranteeing the job at shortstop.”
The Pirates were in need of someone to play alongside second baseman Neil Walker after releasing Ronny Cedeno, who played spectacularly at times and sporadically in others while providing very little power. Cedeno hit .249 with just two home runs in 128 games and sometimes angered Hurdle by taking unnecessary risks, getting benched one game for trying to drop a bunt in a bases loaded situation.
There should be no such issues with Barmes, who has solid career stats at PNC Park, where he’s hit .276 with four homers in just 24 career games.
“I’ve have had some success here and it definitely plays in the decision to sign here,” Barmes said.
His job will be to provide some clubhouse leadership for one of baseball’s youngest teams. The Pirates were in first place in the NL Central in late July before fading to a 70-92 finish, a 13-game improvement over 2010 when they had the worst record in the majors.
Hurdle’s presence had a lot to do with the uptick, and Barmes is embracing the next part of what he hopes is a baseball Renaissance in a city starved for a winning product.
“The young talent that they’ve got and the season they’ve had last year, there’s a lot of promise and a lot of good things to come,” Barmes said. “It’s only getting better and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Barmes is the second free agent signing by the Pirates in as many weeks. The team agreed to terms with veteran catcher Rod Barajas, hoping he can help mold a young pitching staff and provide some power for one of the National League’s weakest offenses.
Pittsburgh hit just .244 as a team last year and finished 27th in the league in runs and home runs. Barmes and Barajas will try to change that while the Pirates will try to change the perception that they’re unwilling to spend money to bring in contributors.
Huntington pointed to the team’s quick courtship of Barmes as proof they’re ready to invest the money necessary to compete.
“We could have been patient and maybe there’s a better deal for us out there in December,” Huntington said. “But at the same time we might have ended up with our sixth choice for catcher and our ninth choice for shortstop.”
Re: The MLB Thread
Tigers' Justin Verlander wins AL MVP Award
by Jason Beck and Jordan Bastian / MLB.com
DETROIT -- Justin Verlander's case for winning the American League Most Valuable Player Award is closed. His trophy case, on the other hand, had better be open, because he's going to need room.
With a no-hitter, an AL pitching Triple Crown and a Tigers division title on his resume, Verlander on Monday became the first starting pitcher in a quarter-century -- and the first Tiger since 1984 -- to win the AL Most Valuable Player Award. This, after caputring the AL Cy Young Award last week.
"Not even in my wildest dreams had I thought of this," Verlander said. "I want to say this is a dream come true. I can't say that, because my dream had already come true -- to win the Cy Young. The next dream is to win a World Series. This wasn't even on my radar until the talk started."
As Verlander's win total increased and Detroit surged up the AL Central standings in midsummer, talk of the right-hander's chances of claiming an MVP gained momentum as well. The votes are in, but the debate will surely live on, considering Verlander beat out a significant group of strong candidates.
Verlander received 13 of 28 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, two in each AL city. Just as important, Verlander received three votes for second place and three votes for third, boosting his point total to 280. He received more than double the amount of first-place votes as any other player.
Boston center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury finished second in balloting with 242 points and Toronto right fielder Jose Bautista was third with 231. Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson -- a former teammate of Verlander's in Detroit -- was fourth and Tigers teammate Miguel Cabrera placed fifth.
Verlander felt his case was helped by the fact that the Tigers claimed the division crown.
"I think the word 'valuable' implies that something good happened," Verlander said. "Obviously, that had a huge impact on me winning the award this year. I believe with the guys like Bautista and Ellsbury -- those guys not making the playoffs -- obviously that, I think, is a major weighing factor as to why I won."
The last pitcher to win the award was A's closer Dennis Eckersley in 1992. The last starting pitcher to be named AL MVP was Roger Clemens of the Red Sox in 1986. Verlander has known the latter bit of trivia for years and he felt honored to be the first starting pitcher since Clemens to accomplish the rare feat.
"An idol of mine growing up, Roger Clemens, was the last starting pitcher to do it," Verlander said. "I remember seeing that. Once I got into baseball -- really got into it, not as a kid, but as I started to grow up -- I remember seeing that he won an MVP and thinking that may never happen again, and how impressive that was.
"That means a lot to me, to be the successor to that, to be the next starting pitcher to win MVP."
As the 2 p.m. ET announcement drew near, Verlander still had his doubts. He remembered what time he received a phone call last week and learned he had won the Cy Young Award in a unanimous vote. On Monday, his phone remained silent long enough to have him convinced someone else was going to take home the MVP.
"I was talking myself out of it, saying, 'I'm not going to win it,'" he said. "I was trying not to jinx it. Then, I was saying, 'Well don't do that. You want this, so don't talk yourself out of it.' I was playing ping pong in my head, really. Then I just decided, you know what? Fate's already been written. The votes are already in. There's nothing I can do about it now but sit back and wait."
He waited.
Then Verlander's phone began to ring.
"When I got the phone call, I couldn't believe it," he said. "It was just a weight off my shoulders and just pure elation."
Verlander's total shows how much voters accepted the idea that a pitcher is worthy of being MVP. It would have taken just a few voters in adamant opposition to keep him from the honor, since those voters might have left him completely off their ballot. Only one -- Jim Ingraham, an Indians beat writer of The News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio -- did so.
Last week, Verlander wouldn't allow the MVP debate to overshadow his AL Cy Young Award. Still, it was clear that it was on his mind, and he didn't hide the fact that he wanted the dual honor.
"If you had told me at the beginning of the year I would be a shoo-in for the Cy Young, I would have been excited and ecstatic. I would've never even thought about the MVP," Verlander told reporters on his Cy Young conference call.
Verlander went into a detailed explanation why he believed pitchers deserved to be considered alongside everyday position players for MVP. The impact that a starting pitcher has on determining the course of a game was one of his reasons, and he estimated that a good start gives a team an overwhelming chance to win. The impact that a dominant starter has on the use of a bullpen was another reason.
Verlander reiterated as much after getting his wish and earning the MVP.
"On the pitcher's day, the impact we have is tremendous on that game," Verlander said. "You have to have a great impact almost every time out to supersede [a position player winning MVP]. It happens on rare occasions. I guess this year was one of those years."
Verlander also noted the current trend in Cy Young voting toward the best statistical pitcher in a season. There must be a place for the most valuable pitcher, he said, and he believed MVP was it.
The way Verlander pitched this season, he dominated both the statistics and the results.
Verlander topped all Major Leaguers with 24 wins and 250 strikeouts and led the AL with a 2.40 ERA, becoming the first to lead the American League in all three categories since Johan Santana of the Twins in 2006 and the first Tigers pitcher since Newhouser in 1945.
No AL pitcher won so many games in a season since Bob Welch won 27 for the 1990 powerhouse Oakland Athletics. No Major League pitcher had posted that combination of strong Triple Crown stats in the same season since Randy Johnson of the D-backs in 2002, no American Leaguer since Oakland's Vida Blue in 1971.
Verlander also led AL pitchers with 251 innings, a .192 opponents' batting average and a 0.92 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) ratio. The Tigers went 25-9 in games Verlander started, accounting for better than a quarter of their win total. But his impact went well beyond that.
His win opposite Jered Weaver and the Angels on July 31 was cited as a game that gave the Tigers confidence that they could compete with and beat the best teams in the league. His May 7 no-hitter coincided with the stretch during which the Tigers began to dig out from a slow start.
His 16-3 record against division opponents made him a difference-maker in an AL Central race that was close for much of the summer until Detroit pulled away down the stretch. From July 21-Sept. 18, Verlander won 12 consecutive starts and posted a 2.28 ERA during that stretch.
When that run began, the Tigers and Indians had been tied for first place in the division. When it ended, Detroit was well on its way to a playoff berth.
Verlander knows, however, just how important a role his teammates played in his successful season. Shortly after learning he won the MVP, the pitcher called catcher Alex Avila and exchanged texts with Cabrera. Verlander plans on reaching out to more of his fellow Tigers, too.
"Obviously, you can't do it by yourself," Verlander said. "I called Alex and Miggy right away as soon as I found out and talked to those guys. I haven't had a chance to talk to the rest of my teammates yet. But they're all a part of this, just as I am."
And now Verlander is a part of baseball history.
In a way, it was probably fitting that he won the MVP. Verlander became the Tigers' fifth MVP in the past 70 seasons. All of them have been pitchers, joining Verlander with relief great Guillermo Hernandez in 1984, 30-game-winner Denny McLain in 1968 and '69, and Hal Newhouser in 1944 and '45.
Being on that list was special for the starter.
"Just having my name involved with those individuals means a lot for me," he said. "I started in Detroit. Hopefully, I finish in Detroit. To have my names linked with those guys for a long time -- for the rest of history, really -- it means a lot for me, and hopefully for the city of Detroit."
