Someone has to tell him that he is not the Choo York Yankees and he does not have to get below the $189M threshold to avoid the luxury tax.
Quick, someone tell him before he makes a drastic move to save some cash.
Oh, nevermind, I guess it's too late.
 |
| Choo gets: Carlos Beltran, Brandon Belt, 2nd overall pick ERA gets: Robinson Cano, Desmond Jennings, 11th overall pick |
That's right. Steroid is back in the news. Must be something about A-Rod that makes him want to steal all the headlines. A day after David Walter made me write something JLB related, Steroid thought about how nice it would be to see his name back in the headlines.
More like, Steroid.EGO.
Choo, on the other hand, read Tuesday's JLB news and realized that he had not made a trade all year. That was unacceptable.
So less than 12 hours later, he changed that, tossing coal into the good ol' Choo Choo train and shipping Robinson Cano, Desmond Jennings and his 11th overall pick to Steroid for Carlos Beltran, Brandon Belt and the second overall pick.
Belt and Beltran? All he needs is a trade for Adrian Beltre to create the complete the collection of MLB Belts.
But that's for tomorrow.
Today, he welcomes in an aging outfielder and a first basemen who he constantly made fun of me for. I still have faith in Brandon Belt and he will make a great first baseman someday.
But by the time that happens, I'm sure he'll be on another team.
Because you know Steve's slogan, "Choo Chooday, Not Choomorrow."
When you look at this deal at face value, you wonder what he's doing, but maybe I wasn't too far off when I called him the Choo York Yankees.
He ditches Cano, brings in Beltran and now has a great chance at landing Masahiro Tanaka with that No. 2 overall pick. He won't admit that, but I believe if the Yankees land him in real life, he's without a doubt becoming a Choo — at least for a day.
On the other side of this deal is Steroid, who you could criticize for giving up that No. 2 pick.
I'm not going to, though, because adding Cano and Jennings is a big deal for him, and he'll still get pick No. 11, which will make his wait for the second round not as bad. Picking second and waiting until pick 23 is a bit nerve-wracking. Now, he has Cano, picks 11 and only has to wait 12 picks instead of 21 to get to his second. It also makes that infield I wrote about on Tuesday even better. With Cano and Jedd Gyorko and second base, perhaps Gyorko is back on the trading block.
I guess that means I'll be writing again tomorrow.
On behalf of the 11 JLB teams not named Gameday Gamblers, I'd like to say, "We don't care."
Sorry, Parker.
Yes, you have a rich pitcher, but what has he done for you lately?
Well, $10 here and there for a pair of Cy Youngs in 2011 and 2013, and if it wasn't for R.A. Dickey in 2012, he wouldn't have been the Cy Young runner-up.
But how many World Series have you won during his three-year reign as MLB's best pitcher?
Zero.
Yep, zero. You know, the same number of runs Kershaw typically holds opponents to.
So, yes, we know you're happy your pitcher has cashed in for $30.7M a year, but what happens when pitchers get their big deals? Just ask the owners of Matt Cain and Justin Verlander.
In all seriousness, it's a great deal for the Dodgers and a great deal for Kershaw. The Dodgers get a pitcher in his prime and they won't be stuck with him when he's in his 30s. It's the long-term deal that should be handed out. And for Kershaw, he's got some protection in case he goes through what happened to Tim Lincecum.
The Freak turned down what was at the time a huge contract for a pitcher to test the market. He never made it there. Well, he did, but he wasn't the pitcher he was when he could have signed a huge deal.
Kershaw avoids that potential embarrassment with a huge payday. After signing the contract, he said, "I cannot wait to sign my keeper contract with the Gamblers and watch slow-moving pictures of me on his silly preseason slideshow. I hope he hires Katy Perry for the background music."
Comments