Zack Wheeler is interesting. High draft pick by SF and soon traded to NYM for Carlos Beltran. A #1/2 with NYM. Elected FA Oct 31,2019 and signed with the Phils Dec9, 2019.It seems to me that he should not have been eligible for FA so he must have been a super 2.

Phillies got a good deal. Don't know the details.

It seems to me that he should not have been eligible for FA

He had six years and change of MLB service time by the end of the 2019 season. He'd lost two of them on the Disabled List, but they still counted.

Wheeler signed for 5 years & $118M in a free agent class consisting of Gerrit Cole (9yr/$324M), Anthony Rendon (7yr/$245M), Strasburg (7yr/$245M), Bumgarner (5yr/$85M), and Ryu (4yr/$80). Dollar for dollar, Wheeler looks like the best deal in that class.

Thanks Magpie and Cracka.

Yeah, Wheeler has been the anomalous dream of every GM. A big ticket pitcher who's been better and healthier after signing as a FA than before.

Wheeler has already earned his contract, with 2 years to go.  I'd still say that Cole is the better long-term bet and his contract might even end up better for the Yankees than Wheeler's does for the Phillies.  We'll see.  Who knows- we might see Cole vs. Wheeler in the World Serious (that's a joke for the old-timers). 

I only care about San Diego winning.
I dislike the Phillies less than the AL teams .I'm pretty ambivalent about who wins here.
Jays had some bad pitching overall compared to the other playoff teams, but that seems to be more about extremes. Oh well. Maybe the less important pitchers will do better next year and give the Jays more consistency.

Hand vs. Drury in a key PA. Weird.

Have the Yankees found something to turn Harrison Bader into Willie Mays?

Probably not, but they aren't called the Evil Empire for nothing.

I look at the ALCS as the old evil empire versus the wanna be evil empire.

When the Yankees traded for Bader he was injured and Montgomery started by pitching well for St Louis. As a result the front office caught some criticism of the deal. That would be all gone now of course.

The Nola brothers faced each other last night in the Philadelphia-San Diego series. Both were drafted by the Blue Jays in 2011. Aaron was selected in Round 22 out of high school but elected to attend college. Austin was picked in the 31 round as a junior at Louisiana State but he decided to stay there for his final year. Kevin Pillar was picked in the next round and current scouting director, Shane Farrell was taken in the 46th round.

It's always Houston against someone.
So far, so good.

I looked up Bader in Fangraphs positional rankings.
I think they put him 7th, behind the Jays.
They say he's an excellent defender with speed who swings hard at everything and struggle with pitches on the edges. He's got the perfect name for the evil empire. He's a free agent after next year and his numbers are not very different from Aaron Hicks'.

I gotta admit that I like the new system.
Lots of meaningful games.
Better playoffs. Almost every game matters--Yankees would have loved home advantage.

As long as Houston doesn't outspend other teams for top free agents, they don't look like an evil empire.
The wannabees are the Dodgers and the Mets.
Yankees are paying Gallo 6M, Montgomery ~4M, Brett Gardner 1.5M, Andujar 1.2M.
They are still paying Roughed Odor 12M-700K.

Yankees have a bunch of young guys on their teams.
Donaldson is still owed around 22M next year.
Stanton is there for another 5 years.
Lemahieu collects for another 4 years.
Hicks makes about 10M for 3 more years.

Torres could be moved, but he's only hitting arb2.
Kiner-Falefa has a last year or arbitration.
I hope that Judge cashes up an historic amount before spending the rest of his career on the IL.

I totally agree scottt about overspending. NYY are really not that much better than many teams. Their 99 win season was dependent on their incredible 1st half.

You probably cannot spend your way to playoff success or even survival. The NL is a perfect example of that.

This is some matchup in the Bronx tonight. In one corner, tying to save his team's season, Gerrit Cole goes against his old team. In the other corner, Cristian Javier, who in his last four starts has gone 3-0, 0.00 allowing 6 hits and 0 runs in 23 IP.

Pass the popcorn. And nice of them to get it started well before Leafs and Raptors...

Didn't notice the Phillies manager is a Canadian - Rob Thomson born in Sarnia Ontario, and played for Canada in the 1984 Olympics. At 7-2 he has the best WL% among active managers. C'mon Phillies! I now have a team to cheer for. Lets have the best in the AL vs the weakest in the NL to make the playoffs face off (FYI: best in MLB was the Dodgers, worst in MLB to make the playoffs was the Rays). Funny how the 2 leagues went opposite - weakest 2 in NL made the NLCS, best 2 in AL made the ALCS. Go figure.

Houston has great Latin pitchers.

Bryan Abreu signed Nov 11, 2013 so probably a low ranked prospect.

Louis Garcia signed July 2, 2017 so probably a high ranked prospect.

Christian Javier signed March 19, 2015 so probably a low ranked prospect.

Jose Urquidy signed Mar 9, 2015 so probably a low ranked prospect.

Framber Valdez signed March 19, 2015 so probably a low ranked prospect. I don't think Houston is particularly smart or lucky, they just flood the system with arms and see what develops.

Ash & Richardi did not do this with Latin players. AA was good Vlad, Osuna, Miguel Castro. The Shapiro group has flooded the system but it takes time. So far Kirk and maybe Moreno & Max Castillo. Zulueta is close.

The Pirates don't have a whole lot to show for the Gerrit Cole trade, do they? The four players they received are all long gone. They did get a useful reliever (Bednar) and a good catching prospect (Rodriguez) when they eventually flipped Musgrove on to San Diego.

That is the challenge with players from Latin America - it takes time for them to develop and often the GM will be long gone by the time they are ready. AA put a LOT of effort into getting Vlad as I recall and also signed Castillo at the last minute (September 25, 2015) before leaving, which helped Atkins who then signed Kirk & Moreno the following year. Yosver Zulueta was a 2019 signing, and least we forget Gurriel was signed as an IFA November 12, 2016. Boy 2016's IFA signings really impacted the 2022 team didn't they? But they also show how long it takes - Moreno just reaching now, same with Castillo despite being signed in 2016/2015 respectively. Sadly no site lists all IFA signings, The Baseball Cube has a decent listing but to get full details I think you need to sign up for premium. I've sent requests to Baseball Reference for it but it doesn't seem to be coming anytime soon.

I was thinking that Ash and Richardi did not do enough regarding the Latin players.

We have G Martinez and R Nunez which we don't know too much about really. G Martinez looks promising and could be added to the 40 man. But there is a few more years before they contribute in a meaningful way. If ever.

NYY lost 5-0. Down 3-0.

bpoz - that was my feeling as well. Checking TBC for UFA's you see how many reached from each years class.

• Gillick: 1977-1994: 1004 signed, 52 reached, 55.8 per year signed, 2.9 reached per year, best Tony Fernandez
• Ash: 1995-2001: 391 signed, 11 reached, 55.9 per year signed, 1.6 per year reached, best Gustavo Chacin
• JPR: 2002-2009: 409 signed, 9 reached, 51.1 per year signed, 1.1 reached, best Henderson Alvarez (made an all-star team after leaving Toronto)
• AA: 2010-2015: 419 signed, 18 reached, 69.8 per year signed, 3.0 per year reached. Best Vlad
• Atkins: 2016-now, 407 signed, 9 reached, 58.1 signed per year, 1.3 per year reached (most still working through the system). Best Kirk (so far)

So AA easily signed the most per year, just shy of 70 a year, and had the most reach at 3 per year. If you go by # signed vs reached the worst was JPR at 45.4 signed to get 1 in the majors. Atkins is at 45.2 (will improve as time goes by), Ash at 35.5, AA at 23.3, Gillick at 19.3. Super scout Epy Guerrero was amazing under Gillick but Ash/Interbrew (owners of Jays during Ash's time) cut the coaching in the minors and scouting money which shows up here big time. JPR was horrid by any measure (lowest per year reached, worst ratio of signed/reached, lowest # per year signed). Kind of surprised that Gillick and Ash signed almost an identical # per year (0.1 spread) but Gillick had 1.3 more reaching per year - that is massive. AA/Atkins both signing more than any other GM before did although AA really went nuts with it and got the results (Osuna, Vlad, Adeiny Hechavarria was decent too plus lots of minor guys).

Note: this includes undrafted free agents in the USA/Canada/PR. So guys like Casey Lawrence & Chris Rowley are included.

Takes awhile to get back into the International market because of all the underage handshake agreements made.
JP hired Marco Paddy in the second half of his tenure.
AA's turn hired Ismael Cruz from the Mets.
Atkins promoted Sandy Rosario.
Hard cap started 2017.

Houston has a lot of free agent pitchers who were old when they were signed.
Flamber Valdez was signed at 21. Urquidy at 20. Luis Garcia at 20.
Berrios is a bit like that. He switched to pitching late.

Gerrit Cole had an era of 4.26 when he was traded. League average.
They held on to him too long, but the previous year was also a down year where he had an ERA+ of 104.

The Pirates won 98 games in 2015. That's when Gerrit Cole had his maximum trade value--but they certainly couldn't trade him then. In 2016, they had to attach 2 prospects to Liriano to trade him to the Jays. They only won 78 games. The following year, Glanow had an ERA of 7.69 leading to the horrible 2018 trade.

So basically, the Pirates were not good but still had a solid farm so they tried to go all in before heading for a rebuild.

Will be interesting to see what the market for Taillon is.

Agreed scottt that those Latin pitchers were old when signed.

Dany Jimenez was 21 when the Jays signed him. So the Jays are using that strategy as well. I looked at his minor league numbers and you could see some flaws OR work in progress. So not good enough to protect against rule 5. He was taken and returned twice. Over time he became a minor league FA and Oakland signed him as a minor league FA and sent him to AAA. He dominated in 2 games and was promoted. This time he stuck. Since Oakland had no real expectations to contend they could try anyone. He became their closer.

A few Bauxites, including me, have said that we need to hit on some of these unknowns and longshots. Maybe next year.

Very interesting Taillon vs Stripling as to who signs for what.

For some reason, the Pirates had Cole easing up on the 4-seamer and relying more on sinkers and changeups.  His 4-seamer usage went from 51% in his great 2015 season to 41% in his not-so-great 2017 season, and both sinker and changeup usage were increased.  The Astros reversed that the first season and then got to work with him on his slider.  He hasn't looked back. 

A good part of the reason was Searage, who was a 2 seamer proponent.

So I've been looking at all-time franchise records in preparation for the World Series (all four teams still standing are interesting, each in its own way) and somehow the Blue Jays came up anyway. And here's a weird thing. If they go 90-72 next year - and surely that will be a disappointment to everyone - Ross Atkins will have the best winning percentage of any Blue Jays GM. Really. Go figure. (Obviously, he's only as close to Gillick as he is because of all those 100 loss expansion seasons at the beginning of Gillick's term.)

And usually GMs come in because the previous GM got fired due to the lousy state of the franchise. That usually results in a few early years of big losses. That wasn’t the case for Atkins.

However the team did do a rebuild. It just went amazingly quickly. Remember posters here and elsewhere in 2019 telling us to be prepared for 4 more years of losing. Meanwhile, comparable teams like the Tigers and Rangers are still sputtering.

Now how much credit should go to Atkins is another question altogether.

Yeah, Atkins situation is actually a little like Gord Ash - he inherited a successful team but one that was also really, really old and just about ready to crumble into dust.

Anthopoulos inherited the strangest 75-87 team in the history of baseball (they actually outscored the opposition.)

Ricciardi inherited... mediocrity? And passed it along?

Gillick inherited... some uniforms.

Atkins was luckier than Anthopoulos in one very important sense. It's about time. Atkins inherited a great RH slugger, but Guerrero was five full years away from becoming Guerrero when Atkins took over. Anthopoulos inherited two of those guys - but Jose Bautista was already 29 when he had his breakout in 2010, and Edwin Encarnacion was also 29 when he did likewise in 2012. If you're going to maximize talent like that, there's no time to lose, none at all. You can't wait around - you have to move right now.

Now how much credit should go to Atkins is another question altogether.

Surely the same amount of credit Anthopoulos received for the 2015 team, or Gillick received for the 1985 team. What else would it be?

Didn't see this mentioned here, but apparently neither starting pitcher making it out of the 1st inning hadn't happened since 1932.

Shapiro convinced Rogers to spend on free agency, Beeston not much at all.

Beeston not much at all.

Not as free agents, but someone talked Rogers into the money still owing on the guys obtained in the Miami trade. Buehrle and Reyes had both signed big free agent deals a year earlier, and as Loria usually did, the first year was the cheapest year and he traded them immediately afterward.

neither starting pitcher making it out of the 1st inning hadn't happened since 1932.

Of course I had to look! You know me!

Guy Bush started for the Cubs, already down 3-0 in the Series. His inning went single-single-hit batter to load the bases. Lou Gehrig hit a sac fly to CF, and it must have been pretty deep CF. Babe Ruth, 37 years old and fat, tagged and went from first to second. A walk to Lazzeri re-loaded the bases and Grimm brought in Lon Warneke who escaped the trouble with no further damage.

So the Cubs jumped on Yankees starter Johnny Allen for four runs in the bottom half - five hits, a three run HR by Demaree, an error - and Joe McCarthy brought in Wilcy Moore to pitch to... Warneke? Whom he retired. The Yankees eventually won 13-6.

Most forget that Ash actually inherited a great, great situation. The Jays in 1994 fell apart just as the strike hit and that was the perfect time for a fast rebuild. That spring, once trades were allowed, Ash should've cleared out the old deadwood - guys like Paul Molitor (1 year left), let Carter go as well (either free agent or traded). But I suspect pressure from above would've been hard on him to try to contend anyways. The Cone trade was dumb but not costly (2 guys who never reached plus Chris Stynes 8.2 WAR) and they traded him mid-season (2 who never reached plus Marty Janzen -0.5 WAR brought up too fast to try to appear to have done good, despite a 7+ ERA in AAA). Ash was handed a top ranked minor league system (Jays in top 100 pre 1995 were Shawn Green, Alex Gonzalez, Shannon Stewart, Chris Carpenter, and flops Jose Silva, Angel Martinez) not to mention Carlos Delgado (23), Olerud (26), Hentgen (26), among others. This was a stacked team with tons of kids coming but Ash totally blew it despite many more kids coming (Halladay drafted that year, then Casey Blake the next year, Orlando Hudson-Vernon Wells-Michael Young the following year, etc.) The Ash years will always be wasted years. So much talent, such a poor job filling in the holes.

I'm going to do a post later about draft and IFA's by GM. It is sad in some cases but tells a lot about each GM we've had here.

I suspect pressure from above would've been hard on him to try to contend anyways.

I think everybody assumed they were going to contend in 1995, which was Ash's first year on the job - players, manager, front office, Belgian beer people. The strike year was just a blip, back to business as usual. But they didn't come close, and Ash sensibly traded David Cone away at the deadline instead of bringing in help. So the team completely collapsed, and all the free agents - White, Alomar, Molitor, Leiter - got the hell out of Dodge when it was over. At that point Carter was the only old guy left, signed for just one more year.

But the kids weren't as all right as they expected, they gave Carter an extension, and my gosh there were some bad trades.

#1 problem then was not signing Alomar late 1994/early 1995 - iirc Alomar wanted to sign but Ash felt prices would go down so he didn't want to sign him too soon. Then Albert Belle signed for a record and everything went back to normal quickly and Alomar's demands increased which Interbrew wasn't happy with. In retrospect it is kind of amazing they didn't fire Ash at the end of 1995 but they knew nothing about baseball so just trusted Beeston who liked being in control with Ash being there to do what Beeston didn't want to do. Post 1995 the stupidity started with signing Erik Hanson (knew the team wasn't contending in '96 but signed a free agent anyways who was decent pre-Jays but not wow). Also signed a lot of minor free agents - eating up roster space like Otis Nixon, Danny Cox, Charlie O'Brien, Mike Huff, Juan Samuel, Frank Viola, traded prospects for Quantrill, Bill Risley, Jacob Brumfield, etc. This was the time to give kids a shot, not to bring in 1001 retreads. Then in November came the 6 prospects for Garcia-Merced-Plesac (disaster outside of Plesac) and dumping Olerud (plus cash) for a nothing reliever (Robert Pearson).

The stupidity and panic that is painfully obvious really stands out. By the end of '95 Ash had to know the team was needing to rebuild, and that Interbrew was going to be a LOT cheaper than Labatt's was. Kids were the only hope for the team to get better. Yet he got in to a fight with Epy Guerrero, kept trading for vets over kids, signing free agents all over the place. Dumb, dumb, dumb. So sad that Halladay & Delgado's time here was wasted.

The Quantrill trade might have been the best deal Ash ever made. Howard Battle and Ricardo Jordan never amounted to anything.

Signing Danny Cox to a third one year deal was definitely a roll of the dice - he was always a serious shoulder injury waiting to happen - but he had pitched very, very well in both 1993 and 1994. Off past performance, he actually had a chance to be good. The other free guys... not so much. It seemed sometimes they were signing guys because they were famous and had been good once, long long ago. You mentioned Frank Viola. Don't forget Dave Righetti. Lance Parrish. Ruben Sierra!

I also think Gillick saw the rest of the 1990s in Toronto and decided it wasn't for him. He'd already built one contender from scratch. He didn't have much desire to do it all again. He knew how old all those guys he'd brought in were, and he knew when all the contracts were expiring.

He may not have liked the Belgians as much as Labatts's but he went to work for Peter Angelos after his year of rest. Couldn't have been that big a deal.

Bryce Harper, people. We are all witnesses, or something like that.

Correct Magpie!!

Does anyone else get a thrill at the end of Star Wars when the Death Star explodes? (Not sure why I thought of that image right now.)

Danny Darwin.

Very happy to have NYY eliminated.

Houston let Correa walk with a QO.
The rookie who takes his spot is the ALC MVP.
That's how you dream it.

While the Quantrill trade worked out, the point is it made no sense logically given the Jays weren't a contender or even close at that moment. Same with Cox. One can argue signing a free agent that didn't cost a pick wasn't a bad idea of course. When you suck signing rehab guys makes sense - you might be able to trade them for parts that will help later. Sadly Ash was so poor at trades in general that things never worked well. Ah well. It was 20+ years ago, maybe I need to let it go.