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The Mets Bring Back Jay Bruce and Find Some Value

1/18/2018

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Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images
By Chris Kubak

A week after it was first reported, the Mets made the move official: Jay Bruce is once again a New York Met. Five months after trading him to Cleveland for minor league pitcher Ryder Ryan, the lefty slugger is set to spend the next three years in Queens and will reportedly earn $39MM worth of guaranteed money along the way. For the investment, the Mets are banking on Bruce to provide some pop to a lineup that badly needs to produce if the team is to have any chance of competing for a Wild Card spot in 2018, and some protection in the batting order for the likes of Yoenis Cespesdes and Michael Conforto. It’s a move that makes a lot of sense for the Mets, a team that has been hamstrung in their ability to spend over the last several years, and at least some sense for Bruce given the success he has experienced during his playing for the Metropolitans.


But consider this: given the current state of the market, has there ever been a free agent who’s so closely matched his value as Jay Bruce? When you look at the money that has been spent, along with the projected contracts for the players still unsigned, chances are you will be hard pressed to produce an alternate answer. I’m sure if you go back several seasons you could find one. So far this offseason, Bruce has a stranglehold on the title, and the reasons why become clearer when you look at the details.


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Why Carlos Santana Makes Sense in Philadelphia

1/10/2018

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by Chris Kubak

​Back in the middle of December, the Phillies made what has arguably been the surprise splash of the baseball offseason to date. By agreeing to terms with first baseman Carlos Santana on a 3-year/$60MM contract, Philadelphia was able to snatch up one of biggest corner infielders on the market. In a city that has endured several long years of “The Process” and a lifetime of “maybe next years” in many of their other major sports, the move seemed to indicate that Phillies ownership and management are ready to leave the rebuilding process behind. After making the playoffs for five consecutive seasons as a perennial NL powerhouse their postseason drought has now reached a half-dozen, which is something that everyone within the cozy confines of Citizens Bank Park would like to see change as soon as possible.
 
All the same, bringing in Santana raised eyebrows across the baseball world for a multitude of reasons. Some viewed the move as a premature endeavor, since the Phillies may not be legitimate contenders until at least 2019. Still many more feel that the fit is less than ideal, since the arrival of Rhys Hoskins in August meant that first base was not a position of need. Other folks question the dollars and cents of the signing, suggesting that 3/$60MM is a lot of money to promise a player entering his age-32 season. I admit that I was initially confused by the move, both from a player personnel and a monetary viewpoint. But the more I consider all of the fine details and future implications of the deal, the more reasons I see as to why Santana will actually be a good fit in Philadelphia.
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AP Photo/Ron Schwane

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The Mike Mussina vs Tom Glavine Hall of Fame Argument

1/5/2018

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by Chris Kubak

On the 1/4/18 edition of his MLB Network show “High Heat,” Chris “Mad Dog” Russo spent a good portion of the program discussing the Hall of Fame credentials of several players featured on this year’s BBWAA ballot. While he championed the merits of a few, most notably Edgar Martinez, he mostly used the platform to deride many of the candidates as merely being “very good” and having no place in Cooperstown. One of the focal points of this discussion was Mike Mussina, a guy Russo argued was merely ‘very good’ and not stacking up to the likes of the great pitchers, citing Tom Glavine as an example of the type of pitcher who does belong. I could not help but to be curious with the fact that Russo chose to use Glavine as a tool to illustrate Mussina’s Hall of Fame shortcomings, so I thought it would be a fun exercise to stack them up against each other to see how the two pitchers compare from both a traditional and sabermetric point of view.   
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Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images
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Photo by John W. McDonough/SI

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    Spanning an entire continent, lifelong fans Chris Kubak and Tom Baird take you on a magical, sabermetrically enhanced journey through Major League Baseball. 

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