Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News has overheard a few possible offers to free agents.
He says that J.D. Drew is "expected to sign a two-year, $30 million deal with Boston." It makes sense for the Sox to pay an extra $2MM or so annually to keep the years down on this deal. Meanwhile, in a separate article, Larry LaRue writes, "Boston has offered J.D. Drew a huge contract – and Lou Piniella’s Cubs have matched it."
Ringolsby also notes that the Giants made a pair of three-year, $30MM offers: one to Juan Pierre and one to Gary Matthews Jr. The idea is that whoever says yes first gets the deal. What if both say yes? I don’t know how that works. As McCovey Chronicles points out, Pierre doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on a team that already has Randy Winn.
Did you know that according to Bill James, Pierre has a 29% chance at reaching 3,000 hits? If this causes players like Pierre to be considered for the Hall, I think we need to change the 3,000 hit standard. Same goes for 500 HRs.
In addition, Brian Sabean is already talking to the agents for Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee. Word from this same article is that the Giants may bid for Kei Igawa and haven’t had significant talks with Ray Durham yet.
