What will we do? The World Series is over. There are some of us that are baseball fans that will need something to do. Since the middle of February we have been following our teams from the reporting of pitchers and catchers, to the reporting of the players, into watching spring training games (and trying to figure out who that guy is wearing #74), through Opening Day, watching the All-Star Game, hoping our team is in the pennant races and finally staying up late (on the East Coast) watching the playoffs. It is all over, congratulations to the San Francisco Giants the 2010 World Series Champions. Now What do we do?
First, the Major League Baseball Players Association put out a press release as the Giants were celebrating announcing that 142 players are now free agents and that their contracts with their current teams have ended. We all know the players that have the free agent headlines already (Cliff Lee, Jason Werth, Carl Crawford, Derek Jeter), but ironically players on the San Francisco Giants that had contracts ending were now free agents. Imagine if any of them tore an AC lint he celebration on the pitcher’s mound. They didn’t. They are free agents and they will be getting a championship ring no matter what uniform they are wearing in 2011.
So, from today until the middle of February, what will those of us that are baseball fans do? So, today’s Top 5 is, the Top 5 Off-Season Events for the Baseball Fan.
#1 – Team/Player Options – This has already started. Once teams were eliminated from the playoffs, they began announcing that they did not pick up the options of a number of players. What does this mean for those players? They have become free agents along with everyone else whose contracts have ended.
These players have two options. The first is to accept free agency and test the market. The second option is to return to the team that did not pick up the option, at a lower cost. A good example of this type of player is Kerry Wood, previously of the New York Yankees. Wood had an option for 2011 for $11 million. He signed this contract when he was a closer for the Cleveland Indians after his career with the Cubs. Do the Yankees want him on the roster for 2011? They have announced that they do, but at a lower cost. So Wood must decide, Yankees or another team. Who will pay him the most and does he believe that he can be a closer or will he be happy as a set-up man for the length of his upcoming contract.
Now that the season is officially over, the players with the options have to decide whether to keep their current contract and the guaranteed money coming to them, or do they test the free agent market and hope for a better payday. An example of this type of player would be Adrian Beltre. His option for 2011 doubled from $5 million to $10 million when he had his 640th plate appearance in 2010. After an excellent 2010, Beltre needs to make the decision to stay for $10 million or hope for a bigger and greener contract.
#2 – Winter Meetings – I have been there as a job seeker (a story for another day) but these meetings are the real beginning of the hot stove season. At these meetings, organizations as a whole meet and discuss their overall goals. Major league clubs meet with their minor league organizations and discuss how their minor league players performed, the strong points, the weaker points and how they can improve in the future. The other bigger event that occurs during these meetings is the gathering of the general managers. They get together and set the groundwork for the trades that you read about for the remainder of the winter. There are trades that occur behind closed doors and other that occur at the hotel bar at the end of a long day. Free agents and their agents go to these meetings and their agents go team to team making their pitch. These meetings are fun and sometimes uneventful. However, every so often you get that blockbuster that occurs and you get that memorable week of meetings.
#3 – Arizona Fall League – This is already going on. The Arizona Fall League is comprised of players from all of the major league baseball organizations joining forces to form six teams that compete for a month and is used as development of organization prospects. Each team in the AFL is comprised of players from five of the major league organizations. Players who participated in the AFL in 2009 were Stephen Strasburg, Buster Posey and Ike Davis. From 2006 to 2008, participants included Ryan Braun, Jacob Ellsbury, Phil Hughes, Austin Jackson, Jed Lowrie, Mike Pelfrey, Max Scherzer and Troy Tulowitzki. This is a league that is fun to attend and fun to pay attention to. Plyers of the AFL are the stars of tomorrow.
#4 – International Baseball –Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico all have winter leagues currently going on. These leagues have players who never made it to the majors, some career minor leaguers and other homegrown talent.
http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/ Check out that webpage. It will show you the logos of all major league franchises and what players are playing in which Winter League.
These leagues can be interesting and fun when you go on vacation this winter. Why not take in a game in Puerto Rico and see these games played Carribean style. By the way, if you go to San Juan go see my friend Ray Navarette play for the Senadores de San Juan. By the way, Ray was the 2009 MVP for the Atlantic League while representing the Long island Ducks.
#5 – Trades – This is the fun part. We as baseball fans sit back all winter and watch our teams form through free agency. We listen to the radio, look through the internet and hear all of the latest rumors. Will we get the latest star or get those top prospects? Will we have a top starter or will we give away salary so we can rebuild? This is the time that we wait for the season to start, we get excited as we hear the whispers of things to come and we learn that 99.99% of the rumors we heard were not true at all.
There you have it baseball fans. We have four months to get ready for spring training games to begin. As we wait, get excited. We have months of fun, speculation and hope to look forward to. That is all for now, hope you enjoyed this week’s Top 5. Have a great week. See you on the other
