Rockies Acquire Livan Hernandez

You're welcome for the tip ;).

The Rockies claimed him? I can't believe this. They paided 1.5MM for 2 months of a guy with an ERA at 5.48. I thought he'd easily clear waivers and then would eb traded with some money thrown in by the Twins. I wasn't even sure there would be a taker with the Twins eating salary. He could've benn released. Bad move by the 7 games out Rockies.

Too bad, now the Rox won't want Washburn. Not a terrible pickup by the Rox.

Jose Vidro was DFA'd!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://mlbnow.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/jose-vidro-dfad/

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...LOL

I don't if Rockies "win" claim on Livan was the right choice of words.

achengy, just shy of 4 hours late on that comment!

guru,
i don't know exactly how much seattle has coming off the books, though it seems to be fairly substantial. regardless of how much it is, i see them getting one of the two you mentioned at best. tex will sign for more than 17.5MM and even if he didn't, he wouldn't want to play in seattle anyways. he has said he wants to play for a team that is contending now and will contend most years he is there. i can't think of too many places that fit that description worse than seattle. and i don't think LAA cares about what seattle does or does not do for the time being. as for sheets, i guess he could go to seattle, but why? there are plenty of better places to pitch, and ultimately i think he will choose to stay in milwaukee. even if he doesn't, he will command more than 12.5MM. you can't say his value on the market will be hurt by injury concerns as he has been on the DL just once since the start of the 07 season. he is pitching tremendously and even if there are lingering injury concerns or something comes up later this year, we have seen in the past that there is no shortage of interest in him even when injury concerns overshadow his ability. with the season he is having he would require more than 12.5MM in free agency. still, i think he stays in mil.

I think this is a pretty good move by the rockies. Livan has always been solid pitching in the nl and knows the nl west very well. Considering the rockies are currently trotting out guys like glendon rusch and jorge de la rosa, this move looks even better and won't exactly cripple the rox, money or prospect(s)-wise.

theoldgrizzlybear,

Comeback and tell me all these reasons why Colorado did a good job bringing in talent when Livan posts a 7+ ERA in Coors!! It won't be laughable, it'll be painfully pathetic. I'll bet two dollars and fifty cents that he's released before September! Another thing, the most recent scounting report on Livan was:

*No ability to overpower the hitter
*Throws very soft, even for a control pitcher
*Has decent command
*Is a competitior
*Lacks an out pitch
*All pitches are fairly flat and lack movement
*Has good stamina and should eat a lot of innings for a team in need of a #5 starter in a good rotation. Sorry, but Colorado needs a whole hell of a lot more than a #5 starter and promoting someone else from AAA would have been better for the team in both the short and the long run!!

Guru,
First off I think your math is a little fuzzy and you miss part of the big picture. The Mariners have 11 players under contract next year that will make more than $1 million dollars (Dickey and Burke will enter first year of arb and will prob be between $750k - $1 million and aren't part of the 11) those 11 will account for $88.45 million (figureing in small raises for Bedard and a nice little boost for King Felix as he enters arb.) That is just over $29 million to spend not $32 million compared to their 2008 payroll of $117.66 million. If they do resign Ibanez which seems to be a big point of your reasoning as to why Tex would want to play in Seattle, that would be prob around $7.5-$9 million. At which point you are down to under $22 million so if you figure you add Tex at 17.5 which is prob around what he'll get and figure that the other 12 players on the roster will get $400k (and again Burke and Dicky would get more) prob making the total for those 12 players about $6 million, you'd already be over your payroll without even signing Sheets. Who I agree with other posters will make more than 12.5 on the market, sure some injury concerns but i think around $15mill will be a fair price considering his age and potential, he is a few steps above Silva, Washburn Meche and even Burnett who have all gotten nice deals over the years but with the exception of Burnett none of whom is even a number 2 starter.

"Rocky" or "Rockie"?

A new question I have never had to pnder before.

LetsGoOs,

I was trusting in your ability to figure out that Boston concluded Manny was a bust and would no longer be signing players for that kind of money. However, you could not come up with this even though you know I just said that about Boston and had just meantioned Manny and his contract... You disappoint me, you really disappoint me... I expect more out of people on this site. I thought maybe I could just write without explaining but clearly I can't trust some people to figure it out for themselves.

Final thing to say to you... You do realize that your sole offering was to TRY and correct me?! If you don't have the cerebral ability it takes to create your own thoughts, you have to poach other people's ideas, and your only offering is to jump into the boards to act like a know-it-all and criticize others, then you really should either not be on this site or should only read it, you totally miss the point of why people write on here. You know just realize that nobody fails at being an analyst and then actually does whatever it was they analyze (i.e. sportswriters and broadcasters don't become baseball players), so that alone should tell you the hardest part is to create the original thought. Your job to tear it apart is so much easier because you already have my writing in front of you, I'm exposed as a writer to the scrutiny. So I compare your barb to that of a sucker punch, thrown like a girl I might add... Have a good day...

Silly move by the Rox. This is why teams like the Rockies aren't perennial contenders. They just wasted about 1.5 million dollars on a pitcher who isn't going to do well for them, and even if he did it wouldn't make a difference anyway. Livan could go to the Rockies and throw 10 perfect games from now to the end of the season and the Rockies still wouldn't sniff the playoffs.

The money they're going to spend could have been better spent on signing prospects, improving scouting, saved for paying good free agents in the offseason etc etc...... Spending it on a less than mediocre pitcher to throw meaningless innings in a decidedly hitters park was stupid, pure and simple. It doesn't matter who Livan is replacing, whether he's replacing the worst pitcher in the history of the game or not won't make a darn bit of difference in their season.

Furthermore, if they don't pick him up through waivers, he probably clears and they get him for 1/10 of the salary when released and no compensation. pageian, you hit those nail on the head, it was dumb and inexcusable.

HAHA, way to be overdramatic. Maybe read your posts before you submit them and you won't come out looking like a clueless idiot all the time.

rangerchick,

you painted a very good picture and I agree 100% (except for the whole killing spree thing). you had me laughing. i like how you put the lol at the end to make it sound like less of a malicious statement.

No matter how much they pay him (and believe me - the Rockies owners don't pony up money for ANYBODY so it shouldn't kill them), Livan is a much better option than anyone they have in the minors. Franklin Morales and Jason Hirsh are their best pitchers above A-ball, and they can't get people out in AAA...why would they be able to come into the big leagues, in that park, and pitch any better? As bad as Hernandez had been for the Twins before he was DFA'd, there are two things that you should consider: 1) The Twins play in the AL, where offenses are much better; and 2) If nothing else, he knows the NL West, its ballparks, and its hitters. Maybe Paul Byrd would have been a better option, but the Rockies are relying solely on Livan's experience within their division. And one thing you should not do is count the Rockies out - not that team, and certainly not in that division.

The Manny contract is in no way proof that Boston will give a player 20 million. It's a different front office from when he was signed. That being said, I'm fairly certain I read an interview at some point where Theo stated he'd give that kind of money to "the right kind of player" or some frustratingly ambiguous statement along those lines.

Rangerchick: Too much hate. Chill out. Based on a couple other posts I've seen from you in the past, you're on course for a stroke or something.

sorry if I misspelled it, luckily I don't have to go through that... Oh and by the way, unlike you I'm not here to improve my social life, I'm here to talk baseball and disagreements create the best conversations, if we all agreed than there would be nothing to talk about, so clearly I would want to be where people might dislike me a lot. Furthermore, I'm not going to dignify your comments about high school as I refuse to sink to your level of maturity which speaking of high school, seems about right. I work nights, so my social life is dictated by this and as my friends aren't losers wanting to get their nails done in the middle of the afternoon while living off their significant other, they tend to have things called jobs, let me spell that out for you in case the noxious smell of the finger nail polish is causing your vision to blur, that's J-O-B also commonly referred to as working, to put it in a context you could understand... It's the other option besides leaving off your bastard child's father and the government!

be = being

typekey you are my friend.

By the way, three weeks ago an error was committed and the runs following the error (was two outs when the error was committed), all counted as EARNED RUNS, check it out, NOT ALL ERRORS PREVENT EARNED RUNS!! In this instance it was a pop fly in foul territory, which would have ended the inning and two runs then scored. It actually happens a lot... Because you can't wrap your brain around this, I'll go to stats inc, and get an official explanation for you. By the way is rangerchick supposed to signify where your allegiance resides in terms of your fandom or is it merely you bragging about what you consider to be your new luxury vehicle?! I'd say that I hate you, but it's not accurate because you can't hate someone who at most only annoys you. Well in the mean time, I'll just explain my feelings about you as a person, as a baseball fan, and as a ranter for that matter as pitiful.

Thanks DirtyThirty, I don't try to be an ass on here, but when somebody comes after me, I'm going to defend myself...

If you pay attention, I've never gone after anybody that didn't come after me first... If these people would stick to baseball, ignore my posts, or just stop trying to control what I write, then we'd be perfectly happy talking baseball...

I do admit that I'm opinionated and passionate, so I do come across as somewhat over-bearing and confrontational, but I'm not going to change who I am to please the masses, and that's not for you, but more of a general statement in regards to what you typed to me...

I'd rather have everyone hate me for being myself than have everyone like me for being something I'm not! Sorry if my lack of self-loathing ruins the day for the rest of you, you'll just have to live with the fact that I have a good self-esteem and can take the internet insults with a grain of salt...

Manny is a great player, although he does suck with the glove. At the time he signed his contract I would've definitely said he was a 20MM a year player, nowadays I see him as slightly less than that because of his age and the constant headache that is manny being manny. He's still an amazing hitter and that alone should earn him around 17 or 18MM a year. BaseballGuru, your arguement more shows that David Ortiz is underpaid rather than Manny being overpaid.(although in the current baseball market I guess you could consider most baseball players overpaid!)

BaseballGuru,

don't ever change. I go to the comments hoping that you put something down because it is always hilarious. I was in no way criticizing you, just applauding a post that I thought was funny. yeah totally.

Guru,

I absolutely think Manny was worth 20M a year. You're missing a few key points.

1) Manny has been a productive hitter longer than Ortiz. Everyone knew Manny was going to be a hitting savant since day 1. Ortiz mostly was trained by the Twins in a system where they emphasized small ball instead of taking advantage of Ortiz's power potential. It wasn't until he went to the Sox when the hitting coaches told him to stop trying to take the ball the opposite way and just unload. Point being, as much as I love Ortiz, in Manny's prime, which included his 2004 campaign, he's easily a better hitter and easily one of the best of all time.

2) Piggy backing on the last point: Ortiz signed a team friendly contract for a reason, he credits the Sox organization for launching his stardom. Again, they told him to swing away and stop trying to be an opposite field hitter. Add to it, let's face it, Ortiz is treated like a god in Boston... very few places he could get that kinda treatment.

3) Manny's 20M contract came in the Duquette era. I'm betting in the Theo era that wouldn't happen... then again that's also because the farm is better than ever (let's not get into an argument about how good the farm is, I'm simply saying it's superior to the Duquette era)

4) As for Manny's glove. I honestly believe he was very underrated as a left fielder at Fenway. Other parks, oh yeah he was a liability range wise, still had a good arm, but lacked hustle and range. But in Fenway, he had more experience than anyone playing. He knew how the ball would hop. Ever watch a rookie from an opposing team play left in Fenway, or ever a vet... In Fenway, Manny was a good defender.

5) Ultimately Manny's value is determined by the return. You cannot understand what it meant to the city of Boston to win the world series. Chicago will understand the same elation if the Cubs win (White Sox fans, I honestly don't know about your level of elation because I don't really know how much you guys were in the "we'll get 'em next year" mode)

So yes. Manny was worth it and then some. Smart hitter, played the Monster well, and 2 rings in his reign.

On a side note. Cot's is saying Delgado has a 16M option with a 4M buyout, so it's still a 12M difference. Do you have different data?