Lucas Giolito. Brilliant tonight. Just wicked slider from
Giolito swing and a miss elevated fastball got a really
good change up from G Lucas Giolito looking on the
hit tonight SG and the Red Sox are an agreement
on a two year deal. 38.5 million that includes
an opt out after year one in Boston lands its
first big signing of the winter. Let's talk about
Lucas because that's a team that needed pitching and clearly
was not up to his standards. Let's put it
that way. Not a great year for him,
but he did give a lot of innings. You
know, I I like the contract first of all
because if he establishes himself the way he was years
past, he can get out of it and go
hit the jackpot as a free agent next year.
Coming off a down year. I think it makes
sense to have a short term deal. I like
the signing for the Red Sox. They need starting
pitching for me. They have too many guys,
they're in between hybrids, guys like Hawk and Whitlock
and going back and forth. This guy, as
you mentioned, Matt, he's an innings guy and
there's an upside to Giolito Andrew Bailey, the new
pitching coach, maybe he gets it out of him
. Lucas has always had that great high fastball changeup
combo and he's kind of lost the feel on it
the last couple of years, but the arm is
still healthy, intense competitor upside to this guy.
There's no question about it. I like this fit
here as we finish the 2023 season. It got
us thinking of course, the great Sarah L did
an article on mlb.com about some of the key milestones
of the 2023 season. So that got me thinking
, what are some of the most memorable moments of
2023? That's where we're going to have our brush
back begin today and I'm going to start with Miguel
Cabrera ground by Cabrera crosses the his left foot one
out. Of course, the ball will always find
you and Miguel Cabrera gets the first ground ball,
the first ball put in play to make the out
at first. And that's it. Of course,
the first ballot Hall of Famer. Why not?
What an unbelievable career he has had last year.
He became just the 33rd member of the 3000 club
. The future first ballot Hall of Famer became or
began his 21st big league season 24th on the all
time hit list with 3088 by the end of his
Cooperstown bound career. He was 16 on the all
time was passing. Listen, the names each day
, Alex Rodriguez Tony. When Robin Paul Way or
George Brett and Adrian Beltre, he also finished his
career with the most hits with 3174 home runs at
511 RB I with 1881 all time by a Venezuelan
born hitter cannot wait to see Miguel Cabrera in Cooperstown
. It's been an absolute pleasure watching his career.
The sweetest swing from the right side of the plate
. Next is a milestone achieved by two veteran closers
. Great two pitch ground ball to third. Harrison's
got it for a moment. Fires across the diamond
in time. It's save number 400 for Craig Jensen
throws swearing in a miss he got him and can
Jen becomes the seventh member of the 400 save club
. Now before they join this exclusive club, only
six pitchers had achieved 400 saves for Kimbrel. The
Phillies were the seven team he recorded the same with
for Jen. The Red Sox was his third.
Now, of course, Jansen is back with the
sock and Kim is not with the Phillies any longer
. He is a member of the Baltimore Orioles,
but congratulations to both of those gentlemen. Now you
knew the National League MVP was going to make the
list. It is, he did it 3070 season
and a season unlikely in major league baseball history.
Take the base and take a number 13, Ronald
. The junior created a historic category of his own
, achieving an unprecedented 4070 season. Only four players
have ever had 44 seasons previously, they can say
go in 1988 very bonds in 96 A Rod in
98. So in 2006, by the way,
no player has ever had a 4050 or 4060 season
. Either a junior led the national league and runs
with 100 and 49. He had a 217 hits
, 73 stolen bases and on base percentage of 416
and an on base plus slugging of 1.012. All
right. So let us brag on Corbin Carol for
a second and he leads up here against Ryan Walker
and it's the first pitch to deep right field back
of the warning track back to the wall. And
for the Diamondbacks outfielder is a member of the 2050
club. He had 25 homers, 54 stolen bases
as a rookie. That's why this is so impressive
. The prior mark for most stolen bags in a
rookie season with at least 25 home runs was 49
by Mike Trout, future Hall of Famer in 2012
. His 54 steals were the most by a rookie
Billy Hamilton in 2014 when he swiped 56 backs regardless
of the rookie steps. Now, junior accomplish this
in 2023 as well. Carol has already shown that
he is worth the eight year$111 million deal.
He signed in 2023. I'd say winning the National
League rookie of the year award unanimously speaks to that
. And finally, if we can't have a list
like this without show that one is out, he
just did what everyone came out to the ballpark to
see. It's a home run number 40 of the
season. There truly is no words to describe the
American MVP, American League MVP by a unanimous vote
the first ever to unanimously win an MVP two different
times. 40 homers, 10 wins. Now,
oi the hitter led the American League with 44 homers
, a 4, 12 OBP and 325 total basis
. He led major league baseball with the 654 sops
of 1.066 and a 184 ops plus. So Tony
, the pitcher led the American League in opponent batting
average against at 184 moving on to 2024. It
seems like we have you on quite a bit to
talk about the movement that isn't happening. What's the
latest as far as the biggest free agent pitchers and
the biggest free agent position players? Well, I
mean, Blake Snell Le, you know, Cy
Young winner is still out there. I mean,
a lot of guys are still out there. We're
three days away from the New Year. It's hard
to believe how many free agents are still on the
board. And certainly Blake Snell, a superstar pitcher
, uh the Giants and the Angels to me make
the most sense at this point, I think both
have interest. Not sure the Angels are gonna be
able to outbid the Giants if it comes down to
that. Obviously, the Giants want to make big
moves. They've already uh acquired Lee for 100 13
million, a very fine center fielder from Korea,
but they want to do more as far as position
players and pitchers. If they do get Snell combined
with Webb, that's one of the best 12 combinations
in baseball. I'm not gonna count the Phillies either
. They do want another big time pitcher to go
with Nolo. They brought back for 100 and 72
million dollars. They did better than in free agency
than just about everybody. I mean, Zack Wheeler
was a great free agent sign Harper, uh Castellanos
Schwarber. I mean, everybody they signed, they
have hit on. So I think the Phillies are
a possibility there. Uh Montgomery, Jordan, Montgomery
is another big free agent still out there. I
still like the Giants and Angels there. He seems
to have more possibilities, more possible landing spots,
the Yankees would like him back. I think the
Mets certainly are in play. Red Sox in play
. I'm not gonna count the Phillies. So those
are the top two guys, Snell and Montgomery and
, uh, they certainly seem to be doing well
even though they haven't signed. Obviously Yamamoto got a
great deal of 325 million. We thought that these
other signings would follow shortly. It hasn't happened,
but, uh, I think they're gonna be fine
still in Montgomery for more on these and other stories
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