The e-Book is now available, plus a little COFFEY.
By Jamey Newberg | Wednesday, December 12, 2012
- The 2013 Bound Edition is now ready in e-Book format. If you go to the book order page, you can order the Bound Edition in either hard copy ($24.95) or e-format ($9.99) – and if you buy both I’ll send you a $5.00 rebate.
(It will take two separate order entries since hard copies are ordered directly from the publisher and e-Books are ordered directly from Amazon or other outlets – but I can send you the $5.00 right away, by PayPal or check.)
At the moment, the e-Book is available via Amazon (Kindle), Apple (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch), and Kobo (desktop, various eReaders and tablets). It will eventually be available from Barnes & Noble (Nook), Sony Reader, Copia, Gardners, Baker & Taylor, and eBookPie, once those folks get their act together like Amazon, Apple, and Kobo already have.
Regarding the $5.00 discount, you don’t have to order the hard copy and the e-Book at the same time. That is, if you already ordered the hard copy, you can now order the e-Book and then just email me the two email receipts – I’ll then send you the rebate right away.
- Arizona’s acquisition last night of Reds shortstop Didi Gregorius in a three-team trade with Cincinnati and Cleveland – a deal in which the Diamondbacks seemed to settle for a young shortstop not on the level of the others they’d reportedly been seeking (Elvis Andrus, Jurickson Profar, Asdrubal Cabrera, Andrelton Simmons, Francisco Lindor, Xander Bogaerts) but also in which they didn’t have to move Justin Upton – does two things as far as Josh Hamilton and the Rangers are concerned.
On the one hand, with Upton now likely off the market (according to Buster Olney [ESPN], Ken Rosenthal [Fox Sports], Bob Nightengale [USA Today], and John Gambadoro [Sports 620 KTAR Phoenix] – though Nightengale suggests Arizona will continue to consider offers), it would stand to reason that the Rangers’ interest in bringing Hamilton back now intensifies.
On the other, it gives Hamilton added leverage, for the same reason.
- Evan Grant (Dallas Morning News) offers this take: “If [the] Rangers don’t go get Hamilton, I think they withdraw from the market and look at the kids all year long (Martin, Perez, Profar, etc.). . . . If [the] Rangers make no more additions, ’13 [is] not necessarily [a] rebuilding year, but, to win, would require significant growth by many players. . . . [I a]lso think that if Hamilton lands elsewhere, it does give [the] Rangers [the] ability to make a long-term offer” to Elvis Andrus.
- Twitter was atwitter last night with speculation on the reasons that Mike Napoli’s introductory presser in Boston didn’t happen Friday as originally scheduled and then didn’t happen yesterday . . . after his physical didn’t happen last Wednesday as planned and then, when it went forward Monday morning, would have produced results by Monday evening to pave way for the Tuesday announcement that didn’t happen.
- Rosenthal wonders openly whether the Red Sox saw something in the results of the physical that they didn’t like, and whether it could jeopardize the three-year, $39 million deal the two sides agreed to a week ago.
- Gordon Edes (ESPN Boston) tweets that neither the Red Sox nor Napoli’s camp were responding to his calls last night, which “[m]akes you wonder.”
- Jim Duquette (MLB Network Radio) believes the delay indicates some sort of medical concern, and notes that the Mariners apparently backed off of Napoli earlier in the winter over concerns about his hip condition. Duquette hears that only the Red Sox and Indians made concrete offers to Napoli before he accepted Boston’s deal.
- This morning, Rob Bradford (WEEI) suggests that “[t]here were whispers that Napoli’s leg issues (quad, ankle) were more serious than initially thought. When doing due diligence on Napoli, the physical concerns were certainly something on the Red Sox’s radar.”
- Sorta adds a layer to the hindsight on the Rangers’ decision not to tender Napoli a one-year, $13.3 million qualifying offer.
- Bradford wonders whether the two sides might be “working out contract language that protects [Boston] against any physical concerns, such as was the case in the J.D. Drew and John Lackey contracts,” and that’s why there’s been a delay.
- Bradford also reports that the Red Sox have maintained contact with free agent Nick Swisher, and that if the Napoli deal gets banged, Boston could sign Swisher or Adam LaRoche and then bring Cody Ross back as a right-handed bat in Napoli’s place.
That would also, of course, make Napoli a free agent again.
Hmm.
- Joel Sherman and Mike Puma (New York Post) report that Texas and every AL East team have expressed varying degrees of interest in trading for R.A. Dickey (though the Yankees were “mainly just doing due diligence”). The Mets, according to Sherman and Puma, “have made it clear (a) they want a high-end prospect such as Texas’s Mike Olt to front a deal and at least one other very good prospect to complete a deal and (b) they would consider providing an acquiring team a window to negotiate an extension with Dickey if that would improve the prospect haul.
- Regarding all this talk about Olt (and maybe necessarily more) for Dickey: I’m cool with the idea of adding Dickey here. It makes personnel sense. And maybe Olt is the appropriate ask, from the Mets’ standpoint – since they aren’t in a position where they need to trade the righthander at all. (And I’m still betting, as we talked about yesterday, that New York’s interest in Olt is less as a corner outfielder than as an instant flip piece.)
My reservation is about the opportunity cost of moving Olt in a deal for Dickey. Asset allocation, and all that.
- The Dodgers can’t even button straight.
- The Cubs have hired Storm Davis, who served the last two years as pitching coach for the Rangers’ Low Class A affiliate at Hickory, to be the pitching coach at High A Daytona.
- Ben Badler (Baseball America), responding on Twitter to a fan asking which organization currently has the best farm system in baseball: “Hard to beat Texas.”
- Four minutes after that, Badler on which organization has the game’s worst farm system: “Angels have a strong case.”
- Look, I’m as eager as any of you to see the Rangers make their next winter move. But the off-season isn’t over – Napoli and Adrian Beltre didn’t arrive two winters ago until January – and as we talked about last night on Twitter, a comeback win is still a win.
Hang in there. This front office has earned our trust.
- For those of you who jump in on the Bound Edition e-Book, I’m eager to hear your feedback. Thanks.
