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NEWS TICKER -  Fangraphs reports ;- ) that the Rockies signed Wade Davis.  The amount?  3 years, $52M, which by the old math used to be $17M per year or something.  This sets a record for RP salary, and --- > should cause us all to take up a moment of silence for Edwin Diaz.

I mean, it's not even like Diaz is going to be gone after NEXT year.  Or the next year...  Dipoto complains, nobody gives him credit for his club-controls guys.  He's got some traction there.

The going rate for "elite setup men" is $8M per year and let us all reflect on the idea that Juan Nicasio is spoken of as an Elite. Setup. Man.  Do you buy that?  Enter comment in form provided below.

Speaking of club-controlled impact players:

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NEWS TICKER - Greg Johns has an Inbox up, which is obviously required reading for SSI Denizens.  However, the quote below contains a glaring mistake, which Zuumball fans might spot quickly:

Who is most likely to have the leadoff spot, Dee Gordon or Jean Segura?
-- Elliot C., Seattle

Manager Scott Servais has already said his initial plan heading into Spring Training will be to have Gordon hit first and Segura second. With his elite speed, Gordon is a classic leadoff batter and has hit first almost his entire six-year career (605 of his 651 starts with the Dodgers and Marlins). Segura has led off in 335 of his 739 career starts, and hit in the No. 2 spot in 160 games.

Gordon led the National League in stolen bases three of the last four years, and he can impact a game with his speed, so it's natural to hit him in front of Segura. Additionally, that sets Seattle up to alternate Gordon (left), Segura (right), Robinson Cano (left), Nelson Cruz (right), Kyle Seager (left) and Ryon Healy (right) atop the lineup.

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I think that for at least a few more weeks, the little SSI island is the only place in possession of the precious knowledge that is Mike Zunino's slugging percentage.  At .575 he's going to be baseball's number one 8 hitter ....

On another point:  it hadn't hit me that Dee Gordon would push Juan Segura back into our clutch of 3-4-5 RBI men, either.  And Johns IS right, either way, about the uncanny L-R-L metronome.  Pretty cool, I'd say.

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NEWS TICKER - Dave Cameron has this analysis - excellent as usual - on Manny Machado's trade value.  It's worth the read for the WAR/$ perspective alone.  However, Dr. D was amused to note this comment buried below the lead:

And yes, I know, it’s easy to justify offers like this by talking about how wins now matter more than wins in the future, and that there’s more to deciding trades than calculating surplus value. Of course that’s true. There are team-specific circumstances that can and should move the needle enough to rationally make inefficient deals at times. But those on-the-margin factors are basically never large enough to justify this kind of unbalanced transfer of value.

Guess Dr. D's work is done here, what?

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NEWS TICKER - It seems we need Cam Newton to win this week, if we're going to keep Russell Wilson's perfect playoff streak alive.  (Sorry to bring up such a sore subject, Jerry.)  Looks like Atlanta is 3-4 point faves at home.  Any of you NFL-first Denizens have anything edifying for us baseball geeks?

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NEWS TICKER - Fangraphs has an interesting piece up on the way MLB's "salary cap" is jelling.  What used to be a fairly meaningless soft tax has now become a harder line that rich teams are reluctant to cross.  Just this last week, the Yankees (!) and Dodgers (!) made moves to control costs.

Intersect that with Scott Boras' list of unsigned stars, including J.D. Martinez and Eric Hosmer as well as Jake Arrieta.  Well, well, well....

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Enjoy,

jemanji