2007 MLB Free Agents Rumors

2007 MLB Free Agents: Justin Speier

After wrongly leaving Justin Speier off my Top 50 Free Agents list, I felt the need to make it up to him by giving him his very own post. Speier was drafted by the Cubs back in '95, buried in the 55th round. He was a reliever from Day 1. The Cubs made a pretty poor trade for bullpen help at the trading deadline in '98, sending Speier, Kevin Orie, and Todd Noel to the Marlins for Felix Heredia. Things didn't go well for him in Florida, leading to a trade to Atlanta for a no-namer. Speier was placed on..   Continue Reading

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Keith Law's Top 40 Free Agents

You may not be able to read this, as it's behind ESPN's Insider wall. But Keith Law's Top 40 Free Agents list is the kind of material that makes subscribing worth it. Given the plug I just gave, hopefully I can slip in a few highlights of the list here. - Law sees Aramis Ramirez as the best FA on the market. Contrary to popular belief, Ramirez's defense is at least average at third. He's also the youngest FA outside of Matsuzaka. - He sees Matsuzaka allowing more HRs than one might think. - Law ranked Ted Lilly 12th overall,..   Continue Reading

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USA Today On Free Agent Destinations

Six USA Today sportswriters recently weighed in with free agent destination predictions. A quick summary: - They favor the Halos for Alfonso Soriano. - Very mixed feelings on Zito and Schmidt. - The writers expect Jeff Suppan, Aramis Ramirez, and Barry Bonds to remain with their 2006 clubs   Continue Reading

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Dayn Perry's Top 20 Free Agents

Dayn Perry's Top 20 Free Agents list is up at FOX Sports; it looks solid. If I had to gripe I'd say that Vicente Padilla belongs ahead of Jeff Suppan, but it's certainly debatable. And Mark Mulder looks a little high   Continue Reading

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ESPN's Free Agent Tracker

You can't deny that ESPN's Free Agent Tracker is always a handy reference. The new one is out; bookmark it. Though to nitpick I think they should include Japanese guys like Matsuzaka, Igawa, and Iwamura even though they're not technically free agents. Last year Steve Phillips left Kenji Johjima off his initial Top 50 Free Agents list and it was not cool   Continue Reading

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Top Defensive Free Agents

Let's give a little love to that difficult-to-measure skill known as defense. Using John Dewan's Fielding Bible, here are the best available free agents at each position, defensively. Any quote is from the book. 1B - Doug Mientkiewicz - "He has range and agility and is like a vacuum sucking up all throws, good and bad." The problem, of course, is that it's tough to compensate for a .410 SLG from this position. 2B - Craig Counsell - While his arm ain't much, Counsell is quite good moving to his right as well as catching popups. If he can get..   Continue Reading

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2007 MLB Free Agents: Ted Lilly

Today let's take a closer look at free agent southpaw Ted Lilly. Lilly made $4MM this year, failing to hit any of his innings pitched incentives. He'll turn 31 in January and should be able to snag a three-year contract without a problem. 2006 was not his best season despite the career high 15 wins; Lilly's 2004 effort was better and included an All-Star appearance. He's said publicly that he'd like to return to the Bay Area to play with the Giants or again with the A's. The Jays have some interest in retaining him at the right price. Performance-wise..   Continue Reading

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2007 MLB Free Agent Links

With the offseason around the corner, it's time to check out all the available free agents. 93% of you should be interested, while the other 7% can worry about winning the World Series in 2006 first. I've written quite a bit about this winter's free agent class. To see position breakdowns, check out the new 2007 MLB Free Agents section of the sidebar. Just below the Recent Posts section. I'll try to keep the free agent lists up-to-date as players enter or exit the market   Continue Reading

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2007 MLB Free Agents: Designated Hitters

Updated 12/23/06 There are a few players I haven't covered in my free agent position breakdowns yet - those who are purely designated hitters. 2007 League Averages AL: .264/.349/.469 In other words, your DH should hit something like Ryan Zimmerman did this year at the least. I'm going to leave out DH candidates like Barry Bonds and Mike Piazza, as I've covered them elsewhere. Carl Everett - The Mariners made the laughable decision to sign Everett for essentially $4MM to be their DH in 2006. He was terrible, posting a .657 OPS in 92 games before being waived in August...   Continue Reading

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Available Impact Hitters

The offseason hasn't even begun, but already we're hearing all sorts of teams are anxious to open their pocketbooks/prospect vault to acquire an impact hitter. The Angels, Cubs, Astros, and a host of others have money to burn. Let's take a look through all of the available impact hitters, whether via trade or free agency. The players are ranked by their 2006 VORP. VORP is a good stat to use as it takes a player's position into account when ranking offensive performance. 5. Miguel Cabrera - And next year is his age 24 season. Miggy made $472K in 2006 but..   Continue Reading

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