Hot Stove: 1/21

History of Baseball: 1904
AL Champions: Boston Americans (95-59, .617 WPCT).  NL Champions: New York Giants (106-47, .693 WPCT).
The 1904 season began with a bang when on May 5th, the Americans' Cy Young threw the first perfect game since John Montgomery Ward in 1880.  In defeating the Athletics, he became the first pitcher of the modern era (post 1900) to throw a perfect game.  Two days later, a 22 year old spitballing rookie out of the mountains of northern Pennsylvania debuted with the Chicago White Sox.  Ed Walsh, who would go on to post the lowest career ERA of all time, pitched in 18 games (eight starts) in 1904 and went 6-3 with a 2.60 ERA.  In the NL, the Giants ended up running away with the league, finishing 106-47, a full 13 games ahead of the second place Chicago Cubs (93-60).  The AL saw a much tighter race.  The Americans and Highlanders took it down to the wire, with the Highlander's star pitcher, Jack Chesbro, tossing a pennant-losing wild pitch on the final game of the season, against the Americans.  Boston finished at 95-59, while the Highlanders went 92-59.  The Washington Senators ended up the laughing stocks of the league, sputtering to a 38-113 finish, 55.5 games back of Boston.  When it came time for the second annual World Series, the Giants refused to play the Americans, citing the AL as an inferior league.  It would be the last time in 90 years that the World Series was cancelled.  As far as hitting went, the Naps' Nap Lajoie was clearly the MVP, batting a major league leading .382 with five home runs, 102 RBI (led majors), and 49 doubles (led majors).  Pittsburgh's Honus Wagner again won the batting title in the NL, coming in at .349.  He also led baseball with 53 stolen bases.  The Giants' Joe McGinnity was the best pitcher of the season, going 35-8 with a 1.61 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP while throwing over 400 innings.  He also became the first pitcher in major league history to save five games in a season, although the league couldn't care less about the statistic.  Jack Chesbro, who threw the wild pitch to knock his Highlanders out of the playoffs, was close behind McGinnity, going 41-12 with a 1.82 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP in 454.2 innings.  Rube Waddell of the A's went 25-19 with a 1.62 ERA and an amazing 349 strikeouts.  Though he threw only 192.1 innings, Cleveland's Addie Joss technically led the majors in ERA at 1.59, having thrown enough innings by today's standards.  34 year old Kid Nichols, the superstar pitcher from the 1890's, had his final dominating season, going 21-13 with a 2.02 ERA for the Cardinals.

News
A Masahiro Tanaka decision is expected by Friday.
Omar Vizquel was elected into the Indians Hall of Fame.

Free Agent Signings
Brewers signed Mark Reynolds (21 HR, 67 RBI, .220 AVG, 3 SB, 2014 age: 30) to a minor league deal.
Phillies signed Chad Gaudin (5-2, 3.06 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 2014 age: 31) to a minor league deal.
Orioles signed Delmon Young (11 HR, 38 RBI, .260 AVG, 0 SB, 2014 age: 28) to a minor league deal.
Brewers signed Lyle Overbay (14 HR, 59 RBI, .240 AVG, 2 SB, 2014 age: 37) to a minor league deal.
Reds signed Jeff Francis (3-5, 6.27 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, 2014 age: 33) to a minor league deal.
Blue Jays signed Chris Getz (1 HR, 18 RBI, .220 AVG, 16 SB, 2014 age: 30) to a minor league deal.
Reds signed Thomas Neal (0 HR, 0 RBI, .133 AVG, 0 SB, 2014 age: 26) to a minor league deal.

The Brewers added a big power hitter for a bargain deal.  Without the commitment of a major league deal, the Brewers have plenty of flexibility with Mark Reynolds.  Having posted six straight seasons with more than 20 home runs, he may be the top minor league deal of the offseason.  The Virginia Beach native (and teammate of Ryan Zimmerman, David Wright, and B.J. Upton as a youth) will get the chance to take over at first base for the Brewers, who have little outside of Juan Francisco and Sean Halton for the position.  Reynolds, a UVA alum, is known for two things: home runs and strikeouts.  In 2009, playing with the Diamondbacks, he had a huge season, hitting 44 home runs, driving in 102, and batting .260 with 24 stolen bases in 155 games.  While doing all that, he managed to set a major league record with 223 strikeouts, breaking his own record of 204 from the year prior.  With all those strikeouts and the respectable batting average of .260, he managed an incredible .423 batting average on balls in play.  However, in 2010, all the strikeouts caught up to him, and despite hitting 32 home runs, he finished with just a .198 average and 211 strikeouts.  Though he's gotten his average back up into the .220 range, his power numbers have dipped, having gone from 37 home runs in 2011 to 23 in 2012 to 21 in 2013.  For his career, he has 202 home runs, 586 RBI, and a .233 average with 52 stolen bases and 1276 strikeouts in 988 games.

The Phillies added a dynamic righty in Chad Gaudin, who will be joining his tenth major league team before his 31st birthday (the others being the Devil Rays, Blue Jays, A's, Cubs, Padres, Yankees, Nationals, Marlins, and Giants).  Gaudin will compete for the fifth starter slot in the Phillies rotation behind Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Kyle Kendrick, and Roberto Hernandez.  His competition looks to come in the form of Jonathan Pettibone, Ethan Martin, and Sean O'Sullivan.  If Gaudin does not end up in the rotation, he can still pitch in long relief, something he's been very accustomed to.  He spent the 2007 and 2009 seasons as a full time starter, combining to be 17-23 with a 4.52 ERA over 65 games (59 starts).  His best season as a full time reliever came in 2006 with the A's, when he was 4-2 with a 3.09 ERA in 55 appearances.  Last year, with the Giants, he split time at both, and went 5-2 with a 3.06 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP in 30 games (12 starts) in the best year of his career.  For his career, he is 45-44 with a 4.44 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP in 344 games (87 starts).  

In just eight years, Delmon Young went from the top prospect in all of baseball to a man struggling to stay afloat in the bigs.  Outside of his great 2010 season (21 HR, 112 RBI, .298 AVG, 5 SB), he's been nothing more than an average player.  He is a liability in the outfield and in public, having racked up controversy with his hate crime charge.  Despite a solid .282 career average, his on-base percentage remains a lackluster .316, amounting to a career OPS of .739.  While Adam Jones and Nick Markakis are locks in center and right fields, Young will compete with David Lough, Nolan Reimold, Henry Urrutia, Steve Pearce, and Quintin Berry for left field, back up, or DH slots.  Last year, he batted a respectable .260 with 11 home runs, but struggled to a .307 OBP.  For his career, he has 100 home runs, 520 RBI, and a .282 average with 34 stolen bases and 201 doubles in 983 games.

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Teams followed in this update: Washington Nationals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers
If your team is not included, please leave a comment.
HR: home runs.  RBI: runs batted in.  AVG: batting average.  SB: stolen bases.  ERA: earned run average. WHIP: walks/hits per innings pitched.  K's: strikeouts. WPCT: winning percentage
Zack Silverman