Baseball: Brandon Morrow, Miguel Sano, Jorge Soler, Prince Fielder

The Toronto Blue Jays, however, decided to give their 27 year old starting pitcher Brandon Morrow a two year contract worth $20 million. Morrow is guaranteed $4 million for 2012 and $8 million in 2013 and 2014. The Blue Jays hold a club option for $10 million in 2015. Morrow, the starter turned reliever turned back to starter again, is that pitcher with the 10-11 record and 4.72 ERA. The Blue Jays would never be confused with the Yankees or other big market teams. While the organization has systematically locked up their talent such as Jose Bautista and Rickey Romero, the idea of throwing $20 million to a pitcher who has some injury history and hasn’t produced anything more than league average results seems a bit of a stretch. http://www.baseballdigest.com/2012/01/28/morrows-time/

Miguel Sano (3B) -  The Twins surprised many with a massive bonus to sign Sano out of Latin America. He has lived up to expectations thus far and has a chance to be one of the best offensive prospects in the game after his full-season debut in 2012. He has tremendous raw power that earns easy 8’s from scouts. He has enough hitting ability for his power to play to that level in games and he should be an elite level power hitter. The Twins insist he can stick at third base and he has shown good actions there so far, leading to some optimism. His timetable to the big leagues could be accelerated after the 2012 season. Continue reading  →  http://baseballprospectnation.com/

Jorge Soler, OF. A younger version of Cespedes is going through a similar situation. I might prefer his potential to Cespedes but he would probably begin in Low-A or maybe High A ball as a 19 year old. A cautious team may even place him in their complex level team in the Gulf Coast or Arizona league before sending him to a full season league next year. Timing will also be a large part of this. Whoever signs him will need some patience http://www.minorleagueball.com/

Prince Fielder's over-the-fence power received what is approximately an 18% boost thanks to his home park in recent years. Comerica Park is much less forgiving though; the homer park factor for lefties is just 88, so it suppresses long balls by lefties approximately 12%. Now we can't just add the 18% and 12% and say that Fielder's homer total will drop 30% because of the ballpark switch, it doesn't work like that. Prince isn't your average home run hitter, he has arguably the most power in all of baseball, so it's not like he's just barely clearing the wall on his way to 35+ homers each year. Petco Park and Tropicana Field didn't stop Adrian Gonzalez and Evan Longoria from hitting all those homers, and Comerica is unlikely to do the same to Fielder. Heck, just look at his new teammate Miguel Cabrera, who still continues to rank among the league leaders in long balls every year. Park effects don't always apply to great hitters.  http://www.rotoauthority.com/