Sports Time Radio

Slowly but surly we’re starting to see more and more Major League teams add the players they need to fill out their rosters. Now while all of these signings are going on we’re still waiting for some of the bigger name free agents to sign.

It was expected that the free agent market would be a little slow as teams waited to see if and where Giancarlo Stanton would end up. Now Stanton was traded a couple of weeks ago and there still hasn’t be a ton of movement with the top named free agents. Why could that be?

Right now it seems like teams are more interested in exploring trade options rather than signing a free agent. There are some big names that might be available as trade pieces. The Manny Machado talk has been out there for a little while now and Gerrit Cole’s name has came up in the last few days. There has also been some reports that the Pittsburgh Pirates might do more of a complete tear down meaning players like Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutcheon would be available. Tis could be one of the reasons we haven’t seen a big name free agent signed, but there are a few more.

It’s possible that pitchers like Alex Cobb and Jake Arrieta have priced themselves out of the market. It’s been reported that Cobb wants a deal for a minimum of $20 million dollars a season while Arrieta wants a contract that totals $200 million dollars. While starting pitching is always going to be expensive and top starting pitching is going to be even more expensive these are big contract numbers for a couple of starters that there are questions about.

Cobb has never started more than 29 games in a season and the most innings he’s every thrown in a season is 179 1/3rd, both last year. With the price tag Cobb has out on himself teams may want a pitcher who can give them at least 200 innings.

Arrieta was the best pitcher in baseball in 2015 and has consistently made 30 plus starts since that season, but his E.R.A, is headed in the wrong direction. Now I don’t think anyone expected him to repeat the 1.77 E.R.A. he posted in 2015, but in 2016 his E.R.A. jumped to 3.10 and then last season his E.R.A. went up to 3.53. Now there’s actually nothing wrong with either of those E.R.A. numbers, but the fact that they seem to be trending up might be an issue for teams.

As for position players it looked as though Eric Hosmer was on a lot of teams radar, but them the sabermetric community chimed in and it seems as though some teams dropped their interest in him. Hosmer tied his career high in home runs with 25 last season while posting his highest batting average for a season at .318 while playing in all 162 games. There have been a few 1st baseman that have signed recently, but they weren’t asking for or going to get the kind of money Hosmer will eventually get. The question now is who’s going to give him that contract as it appears the only real suitor he has ate the San Diego Padres.

J.D. Martinez was the top everyday player on the free agent market coming into the off season, but there has been very little if any interest shown in him right now. Last season playing for the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks Martinez hit 45 home runs and drove in 104 RBI’s while hitting .303. Martinez has also mentioned some big contract demands as he’s looking for a deal in the range of $200 million dollars. The Boston Red Sox have seemed to be the team front and center when there comes to talk about where Martinez would end up, but the Red Sox have a pretty full outfield; so you’d have to think that one of them would have to be moved before Martinez could be brought in.

Yu Darvish is the other big name pitcher out there, but he seems to be closer to signing than any of the other top free agents. Darvish had meetings with the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros this week and there where actually reports that Darvish was close to signing with the Cubs, but he denied that. Out of the bigger name free agents out there it appears as though Darvish will be the first to sign with a team.

Where do you see these players signing? and what kind of money do you think that they’re going to end up getting?

It may sound weird, but the Los Angeles Rams lost a key player when they had to place Kicker Greg Zuelien on injured reserve with a back injury. Zuerlein will have surgery in Los Angeles on Thursday morning to repair a herniated disk. This procedure typically comes with a 12-week recovery process.

The Rams tried out about 10 kickers during two separate workouts at their facility Wednesday including notables such as Travis Coons and Roberto Aguayo before signing former Penn State kicker Sam Ficken.

Zuerlein had been kicking through some back issues throughout the year, but they never kept him out of practice, and they never threatened his availability for a game until Sunday. Zuerlein had a disk flare up on him while sleeping the night before the Rams’ matchup against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field.

Zuerlein still played, but most of his kickoffs were short, and he missed an extra point. The his back pain was so bad that the Rams even went for it on a late fourth down attempt despite leading big in the second half.

Rams head coach Sean McVay was aware that Zuerlein was experiencing issues with his back, but never really knew the extent of them. Zuerlein and the Rams were hoping he could continue to kick throughout it and get it taken care of after the season. But the pain he experienced in Seattle became too much to tolerate.

Zuerlein is going to be very difficult to replace, but Ficken is going to have to do the job for the Rams. Ficken was an undrafted free agent back in 2015 and has spent time with the Jacksonville Jaquars and Kansas City Chiefs, but has never actually kicked in a regular season NFL game.

The Rams are 10-4 heading into their Week 17 game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. They’re in 1st place in the NFC West and are looking to clinch a playoff spot and try to get a 1st round bye. These things just became a little tougher for the Rams to do as they just lost the best kicker in the NFL.

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