ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick has an in-depth look at the pitching market. I’ll highlight a few new tidbits.
- Hiroki Kuroda might require four years, as some teams are viewing him as the best available free agent starter.
- Scott Boras might wait out the market a bit and then push for five years for Kyle Lohse. That’s right, five years for Kyle Lohse.
- Matt Clement to the Reds is a possibility I hadn’t considered. Clement did pitch for Dusty Baker with the Cubs.
- Crasnick reports there would be huge interest in Mark Prior if the Cubs non-tender him. As in, pretty much every team in baseball. Crasnick’s source indicates that Prior and the Cubs don’t have the best relationship.
- Crasnick spoke to Doug Melvin and confirmed that Claudio Vargas and Chris Capuano will not be non-tendered. But they could definitely be traded.
- The Cubs are listening to offers for Jason Marquis, who is owed $16.25MM over 2008-09. So maybe they are still in on Kuroda.
- New Pirates GM Neal Huntington is shopping Dave Littlefield’s mistake, Matt Morris. Morris makes $9.5MM in ’08 and would be owed a $1MM buyout in ’09.
