Odds and Ends

Some random links I've come across, best categorized as Odds and Ends.

• Tim Marchman of the New York Sun discusses why the Yankees can't practically pull off any kind of fire sale.  Bobby Abreu is the one big name they can move, though Andy Pettitte is worthy of consideration.  Marchman likes the Angels, Diamondbacks, and Dodgers as fits for Abreu.
• Shea Hillenbrand was waived today; insert "ship is sinking" reference here.  I guess Bill Stoneman couldn't find a taker for Hillenbrand even while eating most of his remaining salary.  Now the Angels will foot the bill while some team picks up the opinionated DH for the league minimum.  The Twins are often cited as a team in need of a DH, but Hillenbrand might disrupt the clubhouse chemistry.  And of course, the Yankees have been connected to him since this winter.
• RotoAuthority lays out a plan for starting your own keeper fantasy baseball league.
• Torii Hunter would consider playing for the White Sox, for what it's worth.  It'd take a franchise-record contract to sign him. 
• Indians reliever Fernando Cabrera is a fine candidate to be traded to a rebuilding team. The Tribe can't option him to the minors without losing him, but his performance isn't helping the team and he's taking up a roster spot.  As a 25 year-old with a K/9 over 10 in 129 career innings, there should be plenty of interest.  Swapping him for a seasoned reliever like Octavio Dotel, Eric Gagne, or Al Reyes makes sense to me.  By the way, the Indians' Rafael Betancourt is quietly one of the five best relievers in baseball this year.

Comments

[thenerbster]

how quickly should we expect hillenbrand to be picked up?

[darkstar1661]

“Indians reliever Fernando Cabrera is a fine candidate to be traded..."

Thanks for posting that about Cabrera Roto! I actually saw something similar over at LetsGoTribe and was wondering if it was something which was being discussed anywhere else ~ guess so…

Its too bad, the kid has awesome potential but cant seem to put it together for us. Sometimes he is amazing to watch, but we cant count on him at all… Its kind of the exact situation we went through with Davis until we shipped him out earlier this year. It was actually even rumored one of the two would be gone to start the season, having both gone by the trade deadline wouldn’t make any Indians fans cry too much :)

Also of possible interest is the fact that Stanford is in a similar situation. They called him up to make the spot start a couple weeks ago, but now cant send him back without exposing him to waivers. Since he pitched so well in that start they kept him as a long man, but if a bullpen arm is brought in he would probably need to go as well. Currently Matt Miller and Aaron Fultz are on the DL, Stanford and Cabrera are the most likely to be shipped off.

Thank you also for giving Raffy some much needed props! Being left off the AllStar roster is a tragedy, he has been nuts ~ too bad setup men get such little respect in the media...

Lastly, ” Torii Hunter would consider playing for the White Sox, for what it's worth” ~ man I hate that punk!

[russell]

As quick as Young last year and Boone a couple of years ago. Its going to be a long summer for Shea.

[QuoSF]

Betancourt deserves props for sure, but I wonder if perhaps he could adjust his pace to the rest of the baseball world. ;-)

[astralpanda]

Sox will not give a franchise record contract to a guy like Hunter who's gonna be on the tail end of his career. Expect them to re-sign Rowand.

[obsessivegiantscompulsive]

Torii Hunter is kind of slutting around, hard to take what he says seriously. In today's local newspaper (SF Bay Area), Torii is quoted saying that he would love to play for the Giants, he loves how passionate and excited the fans here are.

[darkstar1661]

"Betancourt deserves props for sure, but I wonder if perhaps he could adjust his pace to the rest of the baseball world. ;-)"

hehehe, hey now thats just part of his "get into the hitters head" game... I didn’t see the umps with a stopwatch timing Nomar when he did his little voodoo dance at the plate...

I really do hate this “do anything to play every game under 2 hours and make sure there are lots of HRs for the public to go giddy over” mentality the league has though, so many things which are the little things that makes the game great are scrutinized or changed for the “casual fan appeal”…