Twins and Dozier agree to contract extension

The Minnesota Twins and second baseman Brian Dozier have agreed to a four-year contract extension, the deal wipes out his remaining years of arbitration eligibility. The contract is worth $20 million. This season he'll make $2 million, after that $3 million in 2016, $6 million in 2017, and $ 9 million in 2018. After the 2018 season he would become a a free agent.

Dozier, 27, was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in June 2009, out of Southern Mississippi, in the 8th round of the MLB draft (overall he pick no.252). He'll be 28, in May. He's entering his fourth MLB season in 2015. He hasn't won any awards yet, but he has turned himself into a pretty good home run hitter in his career so far.

Last season was his best out of his first three seasons. He hit .242, with, 112 runs, 145 hits, 23 home runs, 71 rbi's, 21 stolen bases, and 89 walks. And while he didn't end up as an All-Star, he did make some records for the Twins franchise. The 112 runs were the 2nd most in a season, since Chuck Knoblauch had 117 runs scored in 1997. Dozier also had a 20/20 season (which is where a player has 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a single season), that was the first time since 2004 a Twins player did that. In 2004, that player was Torii Hunter (who signed back with the Twins in the off-season, after leaving them after 2007). He was the 13th player in the Twins franchise history to have a 20/20 season.

And in April, 2014 he scored 25 runs that month. That broke a record that had stood for 18 years for the Twins, it had been set by Hall of Famer and current Twins manager, Paul Molitor.

Over his first three seasons his career stats are: 387 games played, 217 runs, 355 hits, 77 doubles, 6 triples, 47 home runs, 170 rbi's, 44 stolen bases, 156 walks, and a batting average of .241.

Will Dozier continue to improve? Maybe, he has a shot to improve if he stays healthy. It's a good deal for the Twins. He's pretty much has become a fan favorite on the Twins team too.

St. Louis Cardinals 2015 Season Preview

Offseason Additions: Jason Heyward, Jordan Walden, Mark Reynolds, Matt Belisle, Michael Ohlman, Ty Kelly, Dean Anna, Carlos Villanueva, Marcus Hatley, Miguel Socolovich, Jose Gonzalez

Offseason Subtractions: Daniel Descalso, Mark Ellis, Tyrell Jenkins, Justin Masterson, Shelby Miller, Jason Motte, Pat Neshek, Audry Pérez, A. J. Pierzynski, Jorge Rondón

Point team prediction: 88-90 win range, 1st place

Starting rotation should be fun to watch if healthy. Pretty much you need Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha, and John Lackey healthy. I think both Wainwright and Lackey will be healthy. It may take time to see if Wacha is healthy or not, if he isn't, you have Marco Gonzales who started 5 games last season, who could take his spot or if he were to get hurt. The no.5 spot is Carlos Martinez to lose.

Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn, Michael Wacha, John Lackey, Carlos Martinez.
If anyone has trouble or gets hurt in the minors you have Marco Gonzales,  Tim Cooney, Tyler Lyons, and maybe Zach Petrick ready.

Bullpen, I don't see the Cardinals going with three lefties. Right now the three lefties are Randy Choate, Sam Freeman, and Kevin Siegrist. If Sam Freeman does well in spring training, I could see him and Siegrist as the two lefties out of the bullpen, with the Cardinals cutting ties with Randy Choate, even though he's owed $3 million. The Cardinals have cut players who they owed money to in the past like Ryan Franklin, and Ty Wigginton. Sam Freeman is also out of options. So if he were to be sent to Memphis, he would need to clear waivers first. I have a feeling if that were to happen some team would claim him.

On another note Carlos Villanueva is in camp on a minor league deal. He's capable of pitching out of the bullpen, and making spot starts. Pretty much all he needs to do to earn a spot in the bullpen is show that he can pitch. It's a smart signing, when he's a pretty good pitcher out of the bullpen. He can eat innings along with Matt Belisle. Both Villanueva, and Belisle are capable of making a bullpen start if need be too. Last season while out of the bullpen Villanueva had an era of 2.64. 2.99 FIP, 24.1 K %, 6.8 BB % in 58 innings. I also think he can serve as a mentor for Carlos Martinez in someways, because both of them are from the Dominican Republic.

That's not too bad to have two innings eaters out of the bullpen. As for closer Trevor Rosenthal, he should be better. The Cardinals and him pretty much know what pitches he needs to work on. And if he gets overworked and needs a day off, Jordan Walden can take a day or two closing.

Trevor Rosenthal, Jordan Walden, Kevin Siegrist, Sam Freeman, Seth Maness, Matt Belise, Carlos Villanueva.

Starting lineup, should be better. Just because offense had a down year, doesn't fully mean all the players will have another down year. The MLB as a whole had an offense drought. It wasn't just the Cardinals. Jason Heyward could end up being what the Cardinals needed. Kolten Wong should be able to improve more in 2015, he should what he's capable of. And pretty much is a spark plug to the Cardinals offense.

As for the bench pretty much the true locks are Tony Cruz, Mark Reynolds, and Randal Grichuk. Is Peter Bourjos still safe with Stephen Piscotty being close? He almost made the team last season out of spring training. Who ever wins that spot, leaves one bench spot left. Pete Kozma (out of options), Ty Kelly, Dean Anna, Greg Garcia, and Aledmys Diaz could be options for the last bench spot. If I had to pick someone to win it, for now it would be Ty Kelly. I even kind of think Diaz could end up being in the MLB sometime in 2015. What if he were to have a great camp though?

Sleeper: Jason Heyward

I think him getting out of Atlanta will help him out, and get his career taken off. He still has the talent to be the player people think he is capable of being. I think the Braves messed him up pretty much hitting him all over the lineup, when players usually like sticking in one spot. That seems to be where players do best in, once they find one spot. Look for Heyward to bat 2nd in the Cardinals 2015 lineup.

Fantasy Stud: Yadier Molina

I went with him last season, and I'll go with him again. He's lost 20 pounds already this offseason, so that should help him stay healthy. I still think if he had been healthy last season, his numbers would have been better.

Rookie to watch for: Stephen Piscotty, he should be in the MLB at some point in 2015. Could he be in the MLB to stay once he does come up? Time will tell. 

All in all this team will still be competing for the NL Central title again. They still have the right tools in place to win the NL Central, even with the Cubs making moves. The NL Central should be fun this season, for the first time in while.

Cardinals land Heyward, in blockbuster move

After the death of future star Oscar Taveras, the Cardinals were in search of a new need for their 2015 team. A starting right-fielder, which last season combined the Cardinals at that position hit .237.  They found one on Monday when they traded starting pitcher Shelby Miller and pitching prospect Tyrell Jenkins to the Atlanta Braves for right-fielder Jason Heyward and relief pitcher Jordan Walden. Heyward is the best right-fielder not named Giancarlo Stanton.

The Braves brought him up when he was 20-years-old, back in 2010. That season he ended up an All-Star in his first MLB season, and hit 18 home runs with 72 rbi's. After 2010, he pretty much has battled injuries. In 2012, he re-found his power though and hit 28 home runs with 82 rbi's. Last season, he seemed to show some flashes of being healthy again playing in 149 games (his most since 2012, when he play 158). His power may not have been there much last season, but he did show signs of speed stealing twenty bases, and hitting again .271. He hit only 11 home runs, which was a career low. He ended up getting 155 hits, his second most in his career.

Heyward right now is 25-years-old and will be a free agent after the 2015 season. Is Heyward starting to re-find his power slowly? I think time will tell, the Braves weren't going to be able to re-sign him. He's won two Gold Glove awards 2012, and 2014. He still is capable of power, and is still young. With Heyward in place the Cardinals should have one of the best defensive outfields again in the MLB.

His career stats in five seasons are: 681 games played, .262 batting average, 367 runs, 644 hits, 84 home runs, 292 rbi's, and 63 stolen bases.

What does Walden add? He looks like he will replace current free agent Pat Neshek. Walden has two more years of team control, and is 27-years-old. He's a former closer for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, back in 2011, when he saved 32 games. He was an All-Star that season. He's been known to be a shutdown guy in late innings. Last season, he had an era of 2.88, with 3 saves and 20 holds.

His career stats in five seasons are: 231 games, 12 wins, 13 losses, 211.2 innings pitched, 38 saves, 254 strikeouts, 3.10 era, and a whip of 1.23.

To me it looks like a good move for both teams. The Braves needed pitching, and the Cardinals needed a starting right-fielder. Will there be a winner in this trade? To me time will tell, if Heyward isn't kept then the Braves are clear winners. I think the Cardinals wouldn't trade for Heyward if they didn't think that they could re-sign him beyond 2015.  And in Walden the Cardinals have someone who can close, if closer Trevor Rosenthal needs a day off.

Orioles and Hardy agree to contract extension

The Baltimore Orioles and shortstop J.J. Hardy agreed to a three-year contract extension, which includes an option for the 2018 season. The contract is worth $40 million. Hardy, 32, was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the second round of the 2001 MLB draft, he was picked 56th overall. He would play five season for the Brewers, from 2005-2009.

In the offseason heading into the 2010 season, the Brewers traded Hardy to the Minnesota Twins for outfielder Carlos Gomez. He would only spend one season playing for the Twins, before being traded to the Orioles for minor league pitchers Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson. It's safe to say that Hardy ended up finding a home in Baltimore after being traded by the Twins.

2011 was his fist full season with the Orioles, and he ended up hitting .269, with 30 home runs and 80 rbi's. He's won two gold gloves with the Orioles, in 2012 and last season 2013. He's also been an All-Star two times in his career 2007, and 2013.

This season, Hardy's power has dropped. It's the first time in three seasons, he didn't hit 20 or home runs. Instead, he hit .268, with 9 home runs, and 52 rbi's. His defense has still been there though, he led all American League shortstops in defensive value (20.4) and defensive runs saved (10).

He's a great player for the Orioles to make sure they have kept, he's proven to be one of their leaders on defense and at times with his offense.

Overall Hardy has played ten seasons in the MLB. His career stats are: 1,259 games played, .261 batting average, 1,234 hits, 606 runs scored, 167 home runs, and 579 rbi's.

If he had it free agency this
December, Hardy could have been one of the most target free agents.

Cardinals land John Lackey from Boston

On Thursday the Cardinals were busy on trade deadline day. They picked up starting pitcher John Lackey from the Boston Red Sox, along with prospect LHP Corey Littrell for right fielder Allen Craig and starting pitcher Joe Kelly. I'll get to Lackey and the others soon. As for Littrell he seems like a good pitcher for depth, he's young and right now in 19 games and 18 starts he's 5-5 with an era of 3.60, he's pitched 100 innings in his seconds minor league season. He has 91 strikeouts and 38 walks. In his future he could be best as a middle reliever or a back end of the rotation type of guy. That's if he reaches the MLB, his stats seem like he has a chance.

Littrell can reach 89-92 on the radar gun, besides his fastball; he throws a curveball, cutter, and a change up. He was ranked the the Red Sox 36th best prospect at the time of the trade.

As for John Lackey, the Cardinals get a starter who has been a big game pitcher in his career, he's not scared to speak his mind. He'll battle on the mound. In 2013, Lackey became the only starter to win to clinching World Series games for two different teams (the Los Angeles Angels in 2002, and Boston Red Sox 2013). The Red Sox signed Lackey as a free agent in December, 2009. The contract was a five-year deal worth $82.5 million. In the contract the Red Sox put a clause in his deal that said if he missed any season due to an injury, they'd have a club option for $500,000 in 2015.

He would later end up having Tommy John surgery and ended up missing the 2012 season. He was able to pitch his way back after having Tommy John surgery. So, he's strikeouts always have been about the same in his career, except for the 2011 season. He also gets lots of credit from people for the Red Sox success in 2013.

Now for Allen Craig and Joe Kelly. It's sad to see both leave. We all need to know that in sports it's always a business. So fan favorites who mean a lot to a team do get traded. Just because they get traded doesn't mean it's the end of the world. Craig was one of the best RBI' machines over the last couple of years. For whatever reason his power seems to be on the decline. And the Cardinals have someone named Oscar Taveras who has been waiting to play full-time.

Taveras mastered triple-A, so why send him to back to Memphis, when there's pretty much nothing left for him to learn? If you had been in a GM shoes what would you all have done if you had to find playing time for Taveras in the MLB? The Cardinals weren't going to trade him, even though there were rumors about him being traded. There's always rumors, teams even wanted Matt Adams? Would you have traded Adams, who's the Cardinals best hitter? I wouldn't have.

I hope Craig does well in Boston, I wish him luck. It's time for Oscar Taveras to play full-time, he has it in him to be a good player. Any GM would have been in a hard situation deciding what to do with both Taveras and Craig. In the end both are starting, so that should be good for both players.

Joe Kelly he's young, but still learning and can improve. Why did the Cardinals trade him you might ask? Easy, they wanted to upgrade their rotation. They need pitchers who can eat innings if they want to make the playoffs. Ever since Michael Wacha got injured and landed on DL, pitchers not named Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn haven't been going deep into innings. That has made the bullpen become overworked. You don't need a bullpen overworked, when trying to get a playoff spot.

Kelly can help the Red Sox, it was kind of like spring training again for him though. And that's because he's just getting off the DL, and refinding his pitches. He was getting killed in his last four starts, with an era of 7.32 combined for those starts. So, does it make sense to let Kelly stay starting or find pitching who can help make the playoffs or decide to tank it and miss the playoffs?

In Lackey, they get a proven starter who can eat innings and at this point is better than Kelly. Would I have liked to see Kelly stay? Yes I would have. But the Cardinals goal is to always make the playoffs isn't that the goal every season? After all no one knows what will happen in the playoffs once a team gets in. This team have the offense to scoring runs, and can hit. I think the team needed a wake up call somehow and someway. Teams need wake up calls at times, even if it means shaking up the roster.
Allen Craig had been struggling. And didn't seem to be helping the team much, when given chances to see if he could bounce back. Maybe it's because he needs a new team to refind his power. If that's the case, Craig should do well in Boston.

In the end we can be glad the Cardinals are trying to do their best to make the playoffs. And trying to fix one of their main problems which has been starting pitching, ever since Wacha landed on the DL. Keep in mind the rest of the teams like the Pirates and Brewers didn't do much to try to improve, even though the Brewers got a nice player in Gerardo Parra. Other than that the other teams didn't improve. I think those teams sent a message that the trade market is too high.

And if the Cardinals need to add a little offense they still can make a trade in offense, which I could see happening. That's if teams prices drop on players. A lot of the reason to why prices are so high on players is because there are two wild cards now, so there are lots of teams who think they can make a playoff push. So teams now days tend to want to play it out and see if they can make a playoff push.

Just to name a few August trades from the past who ended up helping the team are: John Axford, Larry Walker, and Woody Williams. At least the Cardinals didn't panic and trade the farm for a rental for a few months. When there's no guarantee that the player would stay. And you don't want to give up a prospect you could regret in the future, Micheal Brantley is a perfect example of that who comes to mind. I'm sure the Brewers wish they never traded him.

All in all this should turn out to be a good trade for both teams. The Cardinals also have a ton of pitching depth who could be ready for the MLB soon. One of those pitchers who isn't far off is Marco Gonzales, just to name one of them.

Jori Lehtera leaves KHL, signs with Blues

Finland native, center Jori Lehtera, has signed a two-year contract with the St. Louis Blues. He'll make $5.5 million over those two years. Lehtera, 26, was drafted by the Blues in the 2008 NHL draft in the 3rd round, and was picked 65th overall. He had a short stent in the Blues minors in 2008-2009, for then the Peoria Rivermen. He played in 7 games for them and recorded an assist. That season they made the playoffs, and he played 7 games in their playoff run, with 1 goal, and 1 assist, and 2 points. Besides that short stent in North America, he's been playing in the KHL, Russia's top league for hockey.

He's was able to make himself one of the top players in the KHL, while playing for Sibir Novosibirsk. One of his teammates there was current Blues player Vladimir Tarasenko, in 2011-2012. Both had great chemistry playing together, so that should be able to help Lehtera who hasn't played an NHL game yet. He's pretty much player who is high skilled, and is a pass first player. Last season, while playing for Sibir Novosibirsk, he played in 44 games, with 12 goals, 32 assists, 44 points, and was a plus 14. In the playoffs for them, he played in 10 games, getting 6 assists, and 6 points. He made back to back All-Star games while playing in the KHL the last two season.

It sounds like he could center a line with Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko. If that line ends up to be true come the start of the NHL season, it could end up being a pretty sweet line to watch.

I'm excited to what Lehtera can do in the NHL once he plays. There's been lots of talk about him before.

Blues make big splash on first day of NHL free agency, land Paul Stastny

The St. Louis Blues have been looking for a number one center for awhile, that that on today when they signed free agent center Paul Stastny. He gets a four-year contract, the deal is worth $28 million. Stastny,28, was drafted by he Colorado Avalanche in the 2005 NHL draft in the 2nd round, picked no.44th overall. His first season in the NHL was in 2006-2007. That season he played in all 82 games, scoring 28 goals, with 50 assists, and 78 points, he finished as a plus 4. He also scored 11 goals on the powerplay that season. He ended up finished second in the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year) voting. He's played eight seasons in the NHL, so far he's played in 538 games, 160 goals, 298 assists, 458 points, 47 powerplay goals, 1 shorthanded goal, and is a plus 6. In the playoffs, he's played 22 games, with 8 goals, 10 assists, 18 points, and is a minus 4.

Stastny, made his first NHL All-Star team in 2010-2011. Last season he played for team USA in  Sochi, Russia. He joins current teammates David Backes, T.J. Oshie, and Kevin Shattenkirk who were part of team USA. Shattenkirk also knows Stastny from the Avalanche, before the Avalanche traded him to the Blues a couple of years ago.

He's the son of Hall of Famer Peter Stastny, who played for the Blues before the end of his career, and is the younger brother of former Blue Yan Stastny (played for the Blues from 2007-2010). He'll become the fifth farther-son combo to play for the Blues in franchise history.

This is a great move by the Blues to start their offseason. The Blues needed a number one center and more offense. They get both in Paul Stastny. Kudos to the Blues for stepping up and landing him.