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Odds and Ends: Fukudome, Eckstein, Lowell

By Tim Dierkes [November 21, 2007 at 3:29pm CST]

Ah yes, the odds and ends post, where I cobble together the day's random links.

The Rangers have mild interest Scott Podsednik. Pods had two separate stints in the Rangers organization but never reached the bigs with them.

The Big Lead has an interesting interview with Yahoo baseball guy Jeff Passan, wherein a run-in with Jose Lima is recounted. Passan also takes on Fire Joe Morgan a bit.

Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog is hearing that Kosuke Fukudome is looking for three years and $30MM. Sounds fair.

The Angels are considering signing David Eckstein and/or Darin Erstad, for some reason.

Bob Dutton reports that the Royals can be patient with their offer to Torii Hunter, while the White Sox want a quick resolution. Bonus: a rather large, but not too pixellated picture of Hunter at the Dutton link. Hunter, by the way, could save $750K per year if he signs with the Rangers because Texas has no state income tax. Hunter is also considering the Las Vegas 51s for that same reason, I heard.

Per Buster Olney, the Dodgers put in a three-year offer to Mike Lowell. He takes this as a sign they weren't serious, but Ned Colletti has shown a tendency to offer fewer years and more per year. He did this with Rafael Furcal and Jason Schmidt. So maybe the Dodgers put out a 3/45 offer or something.

The Phils picked up oft-injured outfielder Chris Snelling from the Rays for cash. He's yet to accumulate 100 big league at-bats in a season, but maybe that'll change in 2008.

Ed Wade + relievers = trouble. Doug Brocail is on the radar.

McCovey Chronicles lists some realistic position player targets for the Giants, including Jeff Clement, Andy Marte, and Adam Lind.

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Comments

Just me getting closer to waving bye-bye to Rowand.

Posted by: no funny hats | November 21, 2007 at 03:46 PM

Fukudome 3 yr 30 mil? He should get that offer from several teams!!

Posted by: zito4cyyoung | November 21, 2007 at 03:48 PM

Maybe Erstad will be brought into coach?

The Angels have about 8 guys that can play the outfield. Don't see any reason to bring Erstad back.

As for Eck - that too makes no sense. Assuming they trade Kendrick and others for Cabrera, they still have Aybar, Figgins, and Izturis to slug it out in the middle infield. Adding Eck and his desired $7m+ salary would be absurd.

Posted by: bjsguess | November 21, 2007 at 04:04 PM

You're right... Eck and Ersty make NO sense... I'm surprised the report doesn't also speculate that the Angels are about to acquire Scott Spiezio to not play 1st, along with Bengie Molina to not catch.

Posted by: poguemahone! | November 21, 2007 at 04:16 PM

"Ed Wade + relievers = trouble. Doug Brocail is on the radar."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I completely missed this line the first read through.

Posted by: no funny hats | November 21, 2007 at 06:25 PM

Mike Scioscia has a disturbing man-crush on Darin Erstad, or "Ersty" as they referred to him on the Angels games out here (nothing says fun like listening to Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler for 100+ games a season). The disturbing thing is most sports writers love Ersty, too. Apparently he has some weird voodoo powers to make everyone love him despite the fact he really doesn't do anything well on the baseball field besides hustle and get hurt.

Eckstein pretty much fits the Ersty mold as well. The Angels will be a lot better off giving the SS job to Aybar or Wood. But this is Scioscia we're talking about, and if he can't constantly juggle players in and out of the lineup, I'm pretty sure he'd go insane (like Nomar would if he was told he couldn't adjust his batting gloves 50,000 times a night). Seriously, everyone who talks about the Angels having a permanent DH needs to wake up and realize Scioscia can't have one, or else he'd have to stop moving players all over the place in different lineups every single day.

Oh, and totally off subject, but how about this trade possibility: the Mariners send Clement and Balentien to the Pirates for Ian Snell. Anyone else think that might fly?

Posted by: CJax33 | November 21, 2007 at 07:30 PM

The Pirates hardly need a young catcher.

Posted by: Grant77 | November 21, 2007 at 08:54 PM

Passan grew up in Cleveland and didn't mention Terry Pluto or Hal Lebowitz as great Cleveland area sports journalists. I'm leaning towards thinking he's a hack...

Posted by: hairlipkarl | November 21, 2007 at 09:28 PM

why the Dodgers would make an offer for Mike Lowell seems completely stupid to me; sure, you need offense, but you have LaRoche and Abreu waiting for the hot corner!

Posted by: JD | November 21, 2007 at 10:14 PM

The Cubs should give Fukudome 3 years and 30 mil tomorrow...maybe even tonight!

Posted by: Aduncaroo | November 22, 2007 at 09:30 PM

If Not-So-Mighty-Mouse really wants something like 3-4 years at 6-7 per I honestly cannot see any MLB team that would sign him for those terms , well unless the cubbies wanna add on to their dozen or so middle infielders , that would make it a bakers dozen i suppose

Posted by: T.Papelbomb.K.O | November 23, 2007 at 01:45 AM

Will you guys lay off the Ed Wade bashing??

He's with a new team and has club President Tal Smith (and former GM) working closely with him, so his job is not an all-powerful position.

He's made some nice moves so far, and I expect he'll do well the rest of the offseason.

What if you got hired for a new job and people kept constantly ripping you for the few mistakes you made at your old job? Not fun, is it?

Ed's hopefully turned the page with his new gig with the Astros, and you Phillies fans should too.

I don't agree with a move towards Brocail, but he did well as an Astro before and might be an upgrade over some of the bums they had last year in long relief. By no means should anyone assume Brocail would close.

I'd worry about your own GM...

Posted by: astrosfan | November 23, 2007 at 10:19 AM

hey dodger fans are the Dodgers going to make this offseason now with the hiring of new skipper joe torre and the only way the dodgers will if they get a 3B and a CF and find a couple of go starting pitching.

Angels rock!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: angelfan4life | November 25, 2007 at 12:54 AM

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