This isn't entirely true, at least from the few times I saw him in Florida.

"However, the Reds enjoy the advantage of 18 remaining games with the four also-rans in the NL Central: the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates" Is this way more than STL has against the central?

agreed

The package for Longoria seems way too weak, and the one for Pujols seems to be much...the rest are surprisingly good though.

Yeah, this was a really fun read.

Yeah, well done.

Yeah, same on my weak temporary internet in eastern europe. :(

Who's this Andrew Dobies? I'm always curious about random roster moves like that.

What do you mean by this?: "There's no room to "plead down" on a positive test, so the attack is usually on Christiane Ayotte and her Montreal lab. "

Yeah, it took me a while to figure that out because it isn't quite standard odds notation. p.s. What's the deal with Harper? Is he expected to go top 3?

yeah, well done.

I'd like to see that too.

An iPhone app would be huge (and I'd probably buy it for $5 or so), but what would keep me on the site even more is a more usable quick way to look up stats. I know they're flawed and whatnot but when I need a quick summary of a player, I go to baseballreference for OPS+ and ERA+ and fangraphs for $Value.

An agent at the winter meetings told me he thought they were going to submit 24.

24 million

I agree actually. Just even something that's a summary of the methodology behind +/-, FRAA, etc.

well done.

I have absolutely no face memory, but he was the only person (GMs and players included) that I immediately recognized at the Winter Meetings. Thanks again Will, and Christina and John, for all your help, and for not immediately bushing me off at the meetings the last two days. -Gabor Debreczeni

I don't know, I actually found the Aurilia quotes interesting. Hadn't really heard that perspective before.

Do most baseball people tend to stay in the Marriott and the Westin?

These are always great, Alex.

Hear anything about Ryan Lavarnway?

at the very least, linking to the videos should be fine

There have been a LOT of typos on BP recently, and not just in unfiltered. I'm available if y'all need a copy editor, haha.

Let's remember that a 4% swing is very, very small.

Is Morneau healthy enough to come back for some at bats in the playoffs, maybe as a pinch hitter? Is he rostered?

I like them too.

right, doesn't pitching quality matter as well? as in, a worse staff would give up more hard-hit balls to the OF, no?

Where did the promised paragraph on the marlins go? :(

have you thought about adding playoff odds to the hit list column? it'd be great to see

way agreed.

good get!

So, I hadn't heard of this Baseball Daily Digest thing until today. Can someone explain it? If it's still all BP, why not condense it to one site? Are the writers BP staff? Or freelancers? (In any case, welcome onboard. I'm excited for more updates.)

so good!!

I like your writing..

yes please!

oops I meant that in response to the salaries shedding 15-20%.

that's silly.

agreed. I don't think this is true btw: "On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog. That used to be the joke. Now, no one cares if you’re a dog. Anyone can blog, update their status, retweet a story, post a 12 second video, or try to be the next Kige Ramsey." Sure, anyone can blog, but that doesn't mean people will notice them or listen to them. Authority still exists on the internet...

wow that houston coach needs to be fired.

If you go with whipsaw's strategy and draft pitching early and expensive, I'd go for pure upside on the offense. Travis Snider? Wieters? LaPorta? so on

Honestly, I didn't notice that the pecota cards were late, but I guess I'm pretty new here. You all are great -- it really is the best baseball site on the web and has pretty much replaced espn/mlbtraderumors/etc for me.

Actually I just skimmed some more of the comments and I will never, ever read another Marlins-related article on here again. Total bullshit, like this: \"About time a city stands up to one of the owners, especially when said owner runs a team that can\'t even seem to find enough interest to draw in the 5 digits every game.\" I\'m pretty sure that\'s EXACTLY Miami\'s number one concern.

As a Marlins fan, I was kind of mad when I saw this. But now, after reading the comments, I am outright enraged. For one, why does everyone here feel the need to relish in other team\'s fan\'s suffering? If you think the Marlins are so badly run, buy them. Can\'t cost too much. Also, and I\'m not going to go into this, whoever made the point that a stadium IS stimulus is absolutely right. People speak of infrastructure spending as if it simply disappears. That\'s nonsense. That\'s how people get jobs!! So now, those Miami blocks must probably wait another few years until they see redevelopment. Sweet. How cool. Way to go guys.

If you build it, they will come!!!

Admittedly, Scott Boras would be my far-and-away #1 choice. other than that....maybe like a career minor leaguer or a AAAA player?

Jay, can you sometime say more about why you decided to set the bar at the average hall of famer, rather than somewhere a bit below? Setting it at the average would raise the bar over time, which kind of feels unfair.

I\'m impressed by this attempt: Romero, MLB, MLBPA, and GNC all refused comment for this story.

I think the last thing we\'re forgetting here is that player\'s stats are notorious for, you know, not being the same in two consecutive years.

That is economic nonsense. The non-profitable teams would fail. This whole article is about how the Marlins would NOT fail.

Not really. A firing\'s a departure too.

There are two things I still don\'t understand about these Marlins accusations. 1. Are you suggesting that we should give a team like the Nationals or the Pirates brownie points for trying (and failing) to spend 2 or 3 times as much as Marlins? 2. Why the griping over the publicly funded stadium? The Miami city government isn\'t some puppet organization. They decided that they had something to gain long-term by enticing the Marlins to move to their city. I don\'t understand the intricacies exactly, but the stadium would obviously result in decades of additional tax revenue for the city. Even if you just consider the state, growth\'s good for everyone. I don\'t even know what to say anymore. I\'m done.

my impression has been that the decisions are not sugar-coated it\'s generally just like: \"this was a good baseball decision.\"

\"Joe Nelson: Nelson had a 2.00 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 54 innings. Granting that he\'s 33 and not quite this good... what the hell? How can you like money so much that you won\'t take a chance on going to arbitration with a middle reliever who might get $2 million? The Marlins are a blight on the face of the American sports landscape, and the citizens of Florida are supposed to reward that by coming out in droves to watch and taxing themselves to build a new ballpark? Please.\" I kind of resent this. The Marlins may be cheap but they kept a number of players this year who are getting more expensive. I think there has to be another reason to have cut Nelson -- whether AAA replacements (like Nelson last year) or because Nelson is hurt. I\'m sure the Yankees are fun to watch too, but I\'ll take my Marlins any day.

isn\'t this a LOT of money?

Yankees, 7/171, 12/12

Marlins: Lower payroll enough to allow for major pieces in July if rotation is healthy and something magical happens, but make sure not to sacrifice 2010-2011.

Fully agreed, location is huge. -- fan in Weston Also, I think I\'m not the only one who\'s not (usually) bothered by the fire-sales.

I seriously think a VERY large part of the attendance problem is due to the very poor location of the current stadium.