Signing(s): Bryce Harper to Phillies (13 years/330 M)

[ArchAngel55]

Not sure if it has been mentioned but Harper and Trout have been talking all offseason and Harper asked Trout about Philly. I think it's pretty much a lock that Trout is coming to Philly. Harper's contract allows Trout to sign for what ever he wants. Harper has already tweeted LeVeon Bell to come to Philly. It turns out he never wanted an opt out clause. That was all Boras. He wanted to go somewhere and spend the rest of his career there. Also the Phillies won 80 games last year and their 1-2-3 hitters last year are now their 6-7-8 hitters.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

That Pujols contract is bad, the Cardinals were not gonna pay that much to a guy entering his early 30's.
He has put up modest numbers with the Angels but one playoff appearance since the 2011 World Series.

I think the Cardinals offer was 7 or 8 years heavily front loaded. As a fan I was extremely upset when he left, but by the next day when logic set in and emotions crept out I was so happy they didn't sign him, especially to the contract he got from Anaheim. They the turned around and filled his spot in the lineup with Beltran who was great for them for 2 years.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

This, however, is one point of the contract that shouldn't be overlooked. While Harper is one of the most overrated in all of sports, he is a star. He sells jerseys and single-handedly puts butts in seats. Most of us agree that Yelich is a much* better player. However, he isn't a star. On the Braves, Freeman is a top(ish) 1st baseman in the league. He's not a star. He does sell jerseys (locally), but doesn't sell tickets. Braves fans are praying that Acuna becomes that player. We'll see.

I was trolling my Phillies fan friends that the Cardinals acquired the better player this offseason (they actually did, but I just wanted to have some fun on the twitter around all the hysteria) and they were telling me I was insane. I pointed out that Goldschmidt beats Harper in literally every category on top of being elite defensively while Harper's average, and they were having none of it. The best they could come up with after that was "but Harper's 5 years younger, so he's better." I said ok I'm done here. You should have saw the reaction when I said Betts and Yelich were better RFs. They gave me Betts, but you might have thought I said Jose Martinez was better when I said Yelich. It was good fun.

Harper is a great player, and a star, especially in terms of merch sales and being in front of the camera, but media hype would have you believe it's Trout, then him, which is simply not true. And soooo many people buy into it.

 

[Voight]

Baseball's LeBron? How we were right -- and wrong -- about $330M man Bryce Harper

 

[Voight]

Not sure if it has been mentioned but Harper and Trout have been talking all offseason and Harper asked Trout about Philly. I think it's pretty much a lock that Trout is coming to Philly. Harper's contract allows Trout to sign for what ever he wants. Harper has already tweeted LeVeon Bell to come to Philly. It turns out he never wanted an opt out clause. That was all Boras. He wanted to go somewhere and spend the rest of his career there. Also the Phillies won 80 games last year and their 1-2-3 hitters last year are now their 6-7-8 hitters.

& he didn't want an opt out because it would be hard for him to convince guys to come play with him if he could just bolt after a couple years. This way he can tell his fellow players that hes in it for the long run.

 

[Voight]

I think Trout will get less than Harper simply because he'll be 29 when he's UFA. Trout will most likely shatter AAV.

Bonds was 29 when he first hit free agency & he signed the biggest contract ever (at that point in time)

Or did you mean years? Which is totally true - nobody will give him 13 years at 29 despite his skill.

At least we know his decision wasn't about winning.

That was made crystal clear

 

[ArchAngel55]

& he didn't want an opt out because it would be hard for him to convince guys to come play with him if he could just bolt after a couple years. This way he can tell his fellow players that hes in it for the long run.

It was important to his wife that he goes to a place and stays there. That is why he also has a NTC. He could have asked for a 5 or more year opt out but didn't. I see that it would be easier to "recruit" without the opt out.

Remember this conversation when Trout is in Philly in 2 years.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

It's pretty obvious RBI is valuable stat. Only those freak analytic guys don't value rbi lol

Rbi's are an important team stat, but aren't a good barometer of individual offensive production.

Pujols had 101 rbi's in 2017 but only had an ops of .672. So he drove a lot of Angels in who did their jobs but didn't produce much offense individually.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

No, he hates them. He just posts about them and actively roots for them as a sad joke.

It's a shtick of his where he pretends to forget where I'm from and what teams I like.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

It's a shtick of his where he pretends to forget where I'm from and what teams I like.

It would be even better if he forgot about the baseball board all together

 

[ref19]

Rbi's are an important team stat, but aren't a good barometer of individual offensive production.

Pujols had 101 rbi's in 2017 but only had an ops of .672. So he drove a lot of Angels in who did their jobs but didn't produce much offense individually.

I mean yeah Al didn't have a great year but anytime you knock in 100 it's still impressive anyway you slice it. He was able to have a productive AB in those situations. He did stink though otherwise.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Sorry to say but you've got to be pretty frickin stupid to value RBI in this day and age as anything other than a curiosity.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

It would be even better if he forgot about the baseball board all together

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

I mean yeah Al didn't have a great year but anytime you knock in 100 it's still impressive anyway you slice it. He was able to have a productive AB in those situations. He did stink though otherwise.

Uhhh... you’re looking at the situation a little too glass half full on that.

 

[ref19]

Sorry to say but you've got to be pretty frickin stupid to value RBI in this day and age as anything other than a curiosity.

Maybe as a stat nerd, personally as a coach no sir.

 

[ref19]

Uhhh... you’re looking at the situation a little too glass half full on that.

I think you're right.. Just the way I am

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

I think you're right.. Just the way I am

Like imagine if he was getting hits instead of sac flys and groundout fielders choices? The stats show he was a bad hitter. He was fortunate to have the best player in the game constantly on base ahead of him when he came up.

 

[Voight]

It was important to his wife that he goes to a place and stays there. That is why he also has a NTC. He could have asked for a 5 or more year opt out but didn't. I see that it would be easier to "recruit" without the opt out.

Remember this conversation when Trout is in Philly in 2 years.

He may be from NJ/Philly, but the Yankees will do whatever it takes to land him if he becomes a free agent (I'm not a Yanks fan either).

 

[Jack Straw]

Harper actually made a not-too-subtle reference to the possibility of Trout signing with the Phillies at his presser. Kind of shocked he went there.

 

[Dale Best Goalie]

It's pretty obvious RBI is valuable stat. Only those freak analytic guys don't value rbi lol

How's it obvious? It's entirely based on situation and is a better measure of a player's teammates' ability to get on base rather than the player's ability to create runs. For example, Mike Moustakas had 95 RBI's last year. Ian Desmond had 88. Mookie Betts had 80. Does that mean that Moustakas is an 18% better run creator than Betts? According to you, that's what RBI says.

I don't understand how you're unable to see these glaring flaws in RBI as a statistic to measure run creation.

 

[Del Preston]

 

[Del Preston]

Oops.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

My guess is he will care about Philly about as much as he cared about D.C. (which isn't very much). Generation of athletes who view themselves as CEOs of their own corporation rather than parts of something bigger.

 

[robert terwilliger]

just like teams see athletes as nothing more than cogs in the machine.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

just like teams see athletes as nothing more than cogs in the machine.

It's almost like it's purely an employer-employee relationship these days.