SB Nation User Blog: UribeAuction

Forde: Pinkel gets extension, raise

UribeAuction — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:12:40 -0000

Ed. note - Bumped from FanPosts, and not just because it's Front Page Friday

Missouri and its football coach, Gary Pinkel, have agreed in principle to a lucrative contract extension that will make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country, according to sources.

"Basically, he'll be able to end his career at Missouri," a source close to the situation said.

The length of the deal is not known, but the extension will include a sizable raise for an annual salary of approximately $2.5 million.

I never was particularly worried about the Pinkel-to-Washington rumors, and this deal will kill those pretty quickly. I don't have anything else to say, I just wanted to make my debut on front page Friday, though.

Greatness from EDSBS

UribeAuction — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:05:41 -0000

Greatness from EDSBS

There had to be a second spitter!

"What if" scenario for The Boy

UribeAuction — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:33:27 -0000

I don't know how much you know about this one, but just an interesting what-if that came to my mind while watching game one of the Sox/Rays ALDS:

What happens if Carl Crawford decides to be the quarterback of Nebraska instead of signing with Tampa Bay? He would've been there from 1999-2002. How would've this affected the Nebraska program—assuming that Crawford turned out to be as good of a quaterback as he was projected?

Alfredo Acevas?

UribeAuction — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:15:42 -0000

I just wrote up a quick thing on Alfredo Aveces, but it's pretty bare and all I have are a few numbers. This was about all I gathered:

He uses the fastball and cutter the most, throwing those pitches 51.7% and 20.5% of the time in his limited major-league innings. Aveces uses his offspeed pitches much less, featuring his changeup 16.1% of the time and his curveball 11.7% of the time.

From those who have seen him pitch, what can us Sox fans expect tonight? I'll confess I've never heard of Aveces until about 45 minutes ago. Any comments, insight, etc. would be appreciated just so I can get a better handle of what to expect tonight.

Alfredo Aveces

UribeAuction — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:09:13 -0000

A quick look at Alfredo Aveces that I threw together this afternoon:

Aveces is an excellent control pitcher, walking just 29 batters in 154.2 innings between A, AA, AAA, and the majors this year. He features a low-90's fastball and a high-80's cut fastball to go along with a low-80's changeup and high-70's curveball.

He uses the fastball and cutter the most, throwing those pitches 51.7% and 20.5% of the time in his limited major-league innings. Aveces uses his offspeed pitches much less, featuring his changeup 16.1% of the time and his curveball 11.7% of the time.

I'm not exactly sure if he's the kind of pitcher the White Sox could crush or get shut down by. Any thoughts?

Leo Lyons loves Photobooth.

UribeAuction — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:58:28 -0000

Leo Lyons loves Photobooth.

(From FanGraphs) That's good for an average of 96.1mph on his fastball. Good. God.

UribeAuction — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:49:15 -0000

(From FanGraphs)

That's good for an average of 96.1mph on his fastball. Good. God.

White Sox Olympians

UribeAuction — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:04:26 -0000

Here's my short list of events some Sox players could go in.

Anybody have something I missed or should've changed? Too bad we don't have Livan Hernandez (correction: it's a REALLY good thing we don't have Livan Hernandez) because he would clean up at sailing, so long as it's on a shoddy raft of logs and doors.

Freaking fanshots have to be 75 words, apparently. I'm almost there...just two more words. Screw Flanders.

Aaron Crow update

UribeAuction — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:26:50 -0000

The clock is ticking, and things aren't looking so good for the Nationals...which means, things might be looking good for Mizzou.

9. RHP Aaron Crow, Washington Nationals
The Nationals would have loved to have had Crow in the fold shortly after the Draft and gotten straight to work with him. But he and his reps, the Hendricks brothers, are playing hardball, looking for considerably more than the $2.15 million the club gave Ross Detwiler, last year's first-rounder. This one is contentious, and it doesn't appear the Nats will budge. Crow was talking in the $8-10 million range before the Draft, and that's just not realistic.

He can take his chances and go back to Missouri for another year, but next year's crop of Draft-eligible pitchers is much deeper. Crow has some leverage, but he might just use it to push himself out of a good deal. Washington signed its third- and fourth-round picks earlier this week, but the club has been adamant about not giving out a Major League contract.

While $8-$10 million is absolutely insane (without checking, I'm pretty sure it'd make him the highest-paid player in the Nationals organization), the Nationals need to sign Crow—who, unfortunately for them, has all the leverage here. Crow could contribute to the big league club as early as next year and could form a pretty solid 1-2 punch at the top of their rotation with John Lannan, and if Washington can't get him signed, they're going to continue to have pitching problems for years.

On the other side, Crow would be crazy to go back to Mizzou for another year. If he got hurt (remember this? There seems to be a decent chance of that happening), he'd drop out of the first round and lose a lot of money, even if he demanded more money as a later-round pick. It's just not worth the risk for Crow, and ultimately, his camp could fold and take a deal for much less money than he initially wanted.

The MLB.com article also writes that Orioles #4 overall pick Brian Matusz's negotiations likely will be impacted by what Crow gets—so if Crow ends up getting somewhere in the $7 million range (still pretty high), the O's might have to give Matusz a ridiculous contract. If Matusz signs before Crow and gets less than Crow wants, though, it'll give Washington a ton of leverage into signing him.

In the end, I think somebody budges—which usually happens right before the deadline—but out of all the negotiations, it seems like this one has the highest potential to fall apart and send a player back to college.

How badly are the Sox in trouble: Starting Pitching

UribeAuction — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:01:43 -0000

Full Article

A short synopsis:

-Danks: Fine

-Buehrle: Fine, but far less okay as Danks

-Floyd: On his way down, but you all knew that already

-Vazquez: Yeah, not so good.

-Fifth Starter: Not what we want if we want to make the playoffs.

And, unfortunately, this White Sox rotation does not look like the rock-solid group that it was before the All-Star break. John Danks is the closest the White Sox have to a guarantee stopper in their rotation, and if the White Sox want to make the playoffs, they're going to need Buehrle and Vazquez to step up and assume the 1-2 ace roles they were expected to fill before the start of the season.