CarterHud

The Houston Astros have acquired C Brian McCann from the New York Yankees in exchange for minor league RHPs Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman. In addition to that, the Astros also signed OF Josh Reddick to a 4 year, $52 mil deal. The club also signed RHP Charlie Morton to a 2 year, $14 mil deal. Traveling a little bit north, the St. Louis Cardinals have signed LHP Brett Cecil to a 4 year, $30.5 mil deal. Let\’s get into details.
   The Astros\’ acquisitions of McCann and Reddick filled a big void: quality left handed hitting. Stars Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and George Springer are all righties, so bringing in lefties was a good move. With Jason Castro leaving in free agency, the only catchers on the roster was Evan Gattis and Max Stassi. Gattis is a really good power hitter but is really just a DH. Stassi is a full time backup at best, so that\’s why Houston acquired McCann. The price they gave up, Abreu and Guzman are both hard throwers with Abreu\’s velocity range being 97-99 MPH and Guzman\’s being up to 102-103. Abreu was Houston\’s 7th best prospect and Guzman wasn\’t in their top 30. In addition to Reddick and Springer, OFs Norichika Aoki (who was recently claimed off waivers), Jake Marisnick and Preston Tucker have the best shot at making the team. Marisnick or Aoki have the best shot at center, while Reddick and Springer cover up the corners. The acquisition of Morton was for a 5th rotation spot behind Dallas Keuchel, Collin McHugh, Lance McCullers and Mike Fiers.
    The Cards\’ signing of Cecil was actually a little surprising, compared to other teams, like the Seattle Mariners, who need a left handed reliever. The Cardinals southpaw relievers are: Zach Duke, Marco Gonzales, Tyler Lyons, set up man Kevin Siegrist and Cecil. That\’s an odd fact considering that the Mariners\’ best lefty looks to be newly acquired James Pazos.
   Stats: McCann had an AVG of .242 and 20 HRs for the Yankeees last season. Reddick hit for an AVG of .281 with 10 HRs with the Oakland A\’s and LA Dodgers last year. Morton had a 1-1 record and a 4.15 ERA in just 4 appearances with the Philadelphia Phillies last season. Last but not least, Cecil had a 3.93 ERA, with a 1.28 WHIP in 54 games last year with the Toronto Blue Jays. 
    That\’s my brief recap of the Astros and Cardinals recent moves.

 The ROY, or rookie of the year award is given to the best rookie from the NL (national league) and AL (American league) every year. There is always 3 finalists but other rookies can still receive votes. Here were the finalists:
 AL: RHP Michael Fulmer of the Detroit Tigers. Fulmer\’s 11-7 record, 3.06 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 132 SOs, all in 159 IP won him the award. C Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees. In just 53 games, Sanchez would of been second in MLB history for least amount of games for a position player by one game, to Willie McCovey. Sanchez had a .299 AVG plus 20 HR in that span. OF Tyler Naquin of the Cleveland Indians. Naquin\’s .296 AVG and 14 HRs was solid to get the 3rd spot.
 Here\’s the NL finalists:
 SS Corey Seager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was unanimous that Seager would win with his AVG of .308, 26 HRs, 105 runs was amazing for a rookie, who might get some MVP votes. RHP Kenta Maeda of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The other Dodger came of Japan, and is the oldest finalist at 28 years of age. His 16-11 record, 3.48 ERA with a 1.14 WHIP in 175.2 innings was pretty good for a rookie, even though he\’s 28. CF Trea Turner of the Washington Nationals. Turner, who was acquired in a 3 team trade a couple of years ago, converted positions from SS to CF, and boy did that work out. Turner had a blasting .342 AVG and 33 SB shows a sign that the Nats have an amazing leadoff man in years to come.
 Do I agree with the winners? Yes, every one agrees that Seager should win, but it was close between Fulmer and Sanchez. Being a Yankees fan, I still think that Fulmer should win, mostly because of him playing 5 months while Sanchez only participated in 2.
 So that\’s my recap on the 2016 ROY results.

 The Toronto Blue Jays have signed DH/1B Kendrys Morales to a 3 year, $33 mil deal. Also, in unrelated news, the Philadelphia Phillies have acquired 2B Howie Kendrick from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for 1B Darin Ruf and 2B Darnell Sweeney. Let\’s get to details.
 The Jays signing of Morales almost guarantees that DH/1B Edwin \”Walk the Parrot\” Encarnacion won\’t return to Toronto. There is hope Encarnacion returns but it seems unlikely that Encarnacion returns to Canada. Morales will DH regularly while 1B Justin Smoak starts at first.
 The Phillies-Dodgers trade is an interesting one. Days before, Kendrick wished to have a fulltime 2B job, after sharing it with Chase Utley this past year. Now that the Phillies have Kendrick, they have a chance to trade away 2B Cesar Hernandez, their former starter. What L.A. got in return? Sweeney mostly plays 2B so he\’s basically Kendrick\’s replacement. Also, he plays all 3 outfield positions, so he has value. Ruf is a backup 1B, in this case for Adrian Gonzalez, and can play the corner outfield positions if they want him too, because L.A. has solid outfield depth.
 So that\’s how I recap the big signing and trade of today.

 The Atlanta Braves have signed starting pitchers R.A. Dickey and Bartolo Colon, in the span of a day. Dickey is definitely on the team while Colon has a physical before he officially signs. Anyway, even though Colon, who\’s 43, and Dickey, who\’s 42, aren\’t going to be around long, both deals were just for the 2017 season. The Braves probably just wanted more starting depth. It\’s uncertain what Atlanta\’s rotation will look like by opening day because trade rumors around RHP Mike Foltynewicz could change that. Right now it looks like the Braves\’ 5th starter will be out of spring training unless Foltynewicz stays and Aaron Blair takes over after a horrid 7.59 ERA in 15 games last season. Like I\’ve already said, the Braves opening day rotation is uncertain, but if they don\’t make anymore moves (which I doubt will happen) the rotation should look like this:
 1. Julio Teheran. 2. R.A. Dickey. 3. Bartolo Colon. 4. Mike Foltynewicz. 5. Aaron Blair.
 And that\’s what I think the Braves will do if they don\’t make anymore moves.
 Stats: Dickey was 10 and 15 with a 4.46 ERA and a WHIP of 1.37 in 30 games last season. He also has a career record of 110 and 108 with a 4.01 ERA along with a 1.29 in 369 games (starting in 269) in 1883.2 IP in 14 seasons also winning a NL Cy Young in 2012. Colon had a 15 and 8 record and a 3.43 ERA plus a 1.21 WHIP in 34 games last year. In his career he has a record of 233 and 162, an ERA of 3.93 and a WHIP of 1.29 in 509 games.

     

 The next trade of the 2016-17 NHL season has broke, let\’s see what happened.
 The New York Rangers sent defenseman Dylan McIlrath to the Florida Panthers in exchange for defenseman Steven Kampfer and a conditional 7th round pick (year not announced yet), Bob McKenzie of TSN reports. The Rangers get the 7th rounder only if McIlrath plays 30+ games for Florida. Here\’s my review:
  Florida most likely wanted more defensive size. Last year\’s tallest d-man, Erik Gudbranson (6\’5\”), was dealt to Vancouver in the offseason. So, that meant, at 6\’4\”, Aaron Ekblad and Alex Petrovic were the tallest defenseman. But, Ekblad\’s more than just a big defenseman, he\’s an all-star. Petrovic is fine but they wanted more height and Kampfer, who is 5\’11\” wasn\’t working. So, they went after McIlrath, who had trade rumors surrounding him, and plus, at 6\’5\”, he\’s a perfect match. The conditional pick was just the cherry on top to make sure it happened.
 Now, the other side. I\’m not really sure why the Rangers would do this because they trust 22 year old Brady Skjei, and Adam Clendening and Nick Holden are solid top 6/7th d-man. Maybe it was that the Blueshirts didn\’t want McIlrath or like the way Kampfer plays and didn\’t need size. All these suggestions are IFs but it could explain why this trade is for real.
 Stats: McIlrath didn\’t register a point in his only game this year and only has 4 career points (2 goals, 2 assists) over 38 career games over the course of 4 seasons, all with the Rangers. (Including this year.) Kampfer also played 1 game this year and didn\’t receive a point. Over 6 seasons, (this year too) Kampfer played in 134 games and scored 9 goals along with 14 assists for 23 points with Boston Minnesota and Florida.
 And there you have it, McIlrath to Florida for Kampfer and a conditional 7th round pick.