« Padres Meet With Hoffman | Main | Molony's Latest: K-Rod, Helms, Valverde »

Odds and Ends: Pujols, Isringhausen, K-Rod

By Tim Dierkes [September 9, 2008 at 11:15am CST]

I am going to toss up some links as I come across them, so check back on this post.

ESPN's Jerry Crasnick has an excellent piece on the Pedro Alvarez situation, including quotes from Scott Boras and Max Scherzer. The grievance will be heard tomorrow, but the entire process could take months.
The big news of the day is not hot stove related. Albert Pujols is considering offseason Tommy John surgery, which would require seven to nine months of recovery time. It could cause him to miss April of '09. UPDATE: Ken Rosenthal's sources say Pujols does not intend to have the surgery this offseason.
In the same article, reliever Jason Isringhausen says he hopes to be ready for spring training after elbow surgery. He spoke of getting "an incentive-based deal with someone."
Joel Sherman doesn't buy into the speculation that the Mets will be aggressive in pursuing Francisco Rodriguez due to Billy Wagner's injury. K-Rod has had 61 save opportunities this year, 14 more than anyone else. No other pitcher has reached 60 opps this decade. Rodriguez may pursue a five-year, $75MM deal.
SI.com's Tom Verducci looks at the dumbing down of bullpen roles.
Andrew Baggarly offers a possible explanation for Conor Gillaspie's call-up: a "predraft understanding." Gillaspie signed for slot as the 37th overall pick. Adding him to the 40-man roster now is less than ideal.
RotoWorld's Matthew Pouliot predicts destinations and contracts for free agent pitchers. His article also includes non-tender candidates.
Cork Gaines gives a rundown of the Rays' 2009 commitments.
This week's chat has been moved to Wednesday at 2pm CST.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515b9a69e200e55510cefd8834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Odds and Ends: Pujols, Isringhausen, K-Rod:

Comments

I thought so on the predraft understanding. Posey would have been called up before Gillaspie.

Isringhausen with an incentive based deal would be a good idea for a team who has the pen strength to function without him but could use that extra oomph in the pen. Although he could be done.

I feel sorry for Mets fans. K-Rod will get a huge contract and then go on the DL/end up with 20 saves on the season. The Angels defense does K-Rod favors; if he had a league average defense behind him, I would be willing to bet he'd have more blown saves and an ERA around the 3 mark.

Posted by: melonis rex | September 09, 2008 at 11:46 AM

Kinda a go figure on the Giants... doesn't make it any less stupid. Should have tried to throw him an extra 100k instead.

As for Pujols, here's a radical idea... shut him down now. Really, ESPN's article says he and the Cards agree it has to happen eventually and this season is pretty much over so sacrifice the reminder of this season and prepare for next.

Posted by: start_wearing_purple | September 09, 2008 at 12:18 PM

I think the Cards, being 4.5 behind the Brewers and still having some games with them, believe they are still in it. The sad thing is that if the Cards had shown up at all in the last two series against the Brewers, they would be right there with them.

Pujols is hard to figure out. Bad elbow and he hits .359? Really? Who is this guy...

I think the Cards should be very competitive next year. If Wainwright and Carpenter are back, even if Carp is only 80% of what he was 2 years ago...why can't they compete with the emergence of Ludwick in the lineup and a bunch of money coming off the books this offseason??

I'd probably delay the surgery too honestly.

Posted by: Aduncaroo | September 09, 2008 at 02:02 PM

"Pujols is hard to figure out. Bad elbow and he hits .359? Really? Who is this guy..."

He is the best hitter of my generation (he and I are roughly the same age), that is who he is. While I was alive for guys like Gwynn, Walker, Piazza, Boggs and Bonds, there is no one between 26 and 29 right now that hits like Pujols. If you look at the similarity scores, Pujols is almost a carbon copy of Joe DiMaggio, which should say just how good a hitter that man is.

"even when pujols doesnt have a good game at the plate he plays great defense, instills fear in the other team, and most importantly gives confidence to his teammates."

I don't think there is a day that goes by that Pujols doesn't have a good game at the plate. He may go 0-4, but he makes the pitcher work for everything.

"i believe the injury is costing him about 5 homers a year but thats not as big as it would be without no pujols."

I don't think so. I think Albert Pujols costs himself 5 homers a year by 1) being so good that other teams pitch around him no matter who is hitting behind him and 2) striking out so rarely that he probably misses a few that are just out of the zone that he could probably send 400 feet.

Posted by: AA | September 09, 2008 at 04:42 PM

As if we needed any more ammo to Pujols' greatness, I was at the game last night (as a Cubs fan), and had to watch Albert crush the first pitch off Dempster (one of his few mistakes) into the seats. Man I hate the the Cards have someone that freakin good. And I agree...the only players I've ever watched and lived through that are in the neighborhood are A-Rod and Bonds.

Posted by: Aduncaroo | September 10, 2008 at 09:31 AM

"Man I hate the the Cards have someone that freakin good. And I agree...the only players I've ever watched and lived through that are in the neighborhood are A-Rod and Bonds."

I don't think A-Rod is in the neighborhood of Bonds and Pujols. One only needs to look at his K rate as compared to them to understand the difference. A-Rod is a good Hall of Fame player. Think Harmon Killebrew or Jimmy Foxx. Bonds and Pujols are the kind of transcendent talents who aren't just nice memories, but are legendary like Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio or Willie Mays.

Posted by: AA | September 10, 2008 at 12:37 PM

Odds and Ends: Pujols, Isringhausen, K-Rod

TrackBack

Comments

Post a comment

Top Stories

Search MLBTR

MLBTR Mailing List

MLBTR Features

Recent Posts

Rumors By Team

Monthly Archives

Live Chats


Home Contact About Advertise Archives Widget Fantasy RSS Usage