Rosenthal's Latest: Byrd, Putz, Wilson

Oh god. Zdurenick needs to realize that THE MARINERS ARE IN REBUILD MODE. Stop doing a Bavasi impersonation.If the M's can get a good deal for Putz, trade him. The only excuse for not trading Putz should be that nobody made a decent offer.

Utley's injury could be a blessing in disguise. We get to see what we have in Donald instead of possibly shipping him out for pitching. Just make sure that we see him in spring training/start of season. We know what we have in Bruntlett.

Can we get a Hermida to the Cubs rumor going?

byrd to the mets? make sense? gives them some back-end help...

melonis rex -

I'd have to disagree with you. Yes, they COULD be in rebuild mode, but with a weakened AL West, they can rebuild on the fly while still being competitive. They have one of the best rotations in the league (King Felix, Bedard, Morrow, RS), and they play in that huge park of theirs.

The AL West is pretty much wide open. With the Angels are in transition mode, as they could lose Anderson, Rivera, Texeira, AND K-Rod; The A's have a young rotation and weak offense, even with Matt Holliday; and the Rangers have no pitching to even be close to contending this year, and they're about a year away from being serious competition.

In previous years, the M's were in contention because of their great defense. They were 26th ranked defensively last year, 27th the year before. In 2001 and 2003, they had the best defensive teams in franchise history. And they were very competitive then. As many teams are learning, defense wins games. They already have a pretty good infield defense, with Beltre anchoring the left-side infield defense with Betancourt, and Lopez at 2nd. They have a gold-glover in Ichiro in right. With the loss of Ibanez, they could definitely improve upon their defense in LF. If they can grab the best defensive CF out there, they could prevent runs big time. SIgn a bopper bat, and they can stay competitive in that division.

I mean, it's not like the A's are going to blow anyone away with their offense either, and their considered serious competition to the Angels in that division. Comparing the M's to the A's, the M's have better pitching (well, SHOULD HAVE better pitching), and their offense is similar, if only because the M's won't have Vidro and Sexson playing for them at all next season.

So yes, they could be in rebuild mode, but there's enough talent there to have a chance to compete in the AL West. Besides, if the Mets are interested in Putz, I highly doubt the M's will get any good enough prospects to make that happen.

Byrd back in Atlanta? Reaching and grabbing lately??? the return to prominence started with Vazquez and ended when they got put in the mix for a has been like Byrd

sox agenda should read.....

1. sign varitek to a 2 year deal worth around 12 million
2.sign teixeira to a 8 year deal worth around 185-190
3. trade for a young catcher from texas im leaning more towards salty with the numbers hes putting up in the winter league but teagarden would be a better defensive solution without giving a whole lot up offensively.

varitek can only blame himself for the lousy contract in a contract year you have to play above the grain and he played well below it but his veteran leadership skills will earn him atleast 6 million.

''why is it that any team with an OF vacancy isn't going after Adam Dunn. 30-40 HR, with over 100 RBI. This guy is no slouch. Put him on the Mets, and you have a lineup where you can have Reyes, Beltran, Wright, Dunn, and Delgado. And the Mets can then trade Delgado...if they choose, and put Dunn at 1st.
Either way, the Mets would be able to add a strong bat, and then add someone like Paul Byrd, and/or Derek Lowe to solidify the rotation. And with regards to the bullpen, they have many options.''

Yup, or put Dunn at first base in 2010. Put Dunn and Delgado back-to-back in the 4 and 5 spots, which would settle Beltran into the #2 spot where he belongs, trade Church for pitching help to break up the constant string of lefties in the lineup and put Murphy/Tatis as a platoon in one of the corner outfield spots and Dunn in the other. Then, get to work on the bullpen and some back-of-the-rotation pitching help).

If I know Omar well enough, a (very good hitter, right now at least... in) Raul Ibanez is getting 3/36 that'll leave him in Queens until the ripe age of 39, which is the way Omar likes it.

Man, I really hope this guy flips the script and does something different this offseason than what I'm used to him doing.

this offseason has been a complete mess. yesterday, rosenthal says the cubs/padres speak daily about peavy. today, the whole thing is on hold. then, there was that one day a couple weeks back that every report that came out was later denied that same day. now there's the jack wilson drama (never thought there'd be so much written about jack wilson). and then there were all the questionable arbitration decisions (wood, abreu, dunn). i guess the economy is messing things up quite a bit, but it also seems like there's a ton of misinformation out there, moreso than other offseasons.

The only reason the Braves need Byrd is if they can sign AJ or get Peavy then...only if he signs for around 4 mil

Without an ace

Vazquez
Jurrjens
Byrd
Campillo
Hanson/Glavine/???

With an ace(Looks much better)
Burnett/Peavy
Jurrjens
Vazquez
Byrd
Hanson/Glavine

sign teixeira to a 8 year deal worth around 185-190..

i dont think the red sox will sign him, i think they are just in it too drive up the price for the angels and yankees.

lars anderson is going to be ready within a year, if lowell doesnt come into spring training healthy next year, i think anderson starts at first for the sox, pending a good Spring training

If only you could have confidence that Milton Bradley could start 135+ games, then he is the obvious answer for the Cubs. His "attitude" issues are a minor concern IMO, especially in a player-friendly town like Chicago.

But the guy just isn't capable of putting a full season on the board, which is a shame. Lifetime average GP/season < 100? Yikes.

I can't imagine a team like the Red Sox, one that considers themselves a WS contender, would ever imagine starting the season with Lars Anderson (133 AB at AA and 0 at AAA) as their opening day starting 1B. The guy is an awesome prospect, but in an organization like Boston a September call up is likely the earliest you'd see Lars at the ML level.

nrmax,

I usually like what you have to say, but you seriously couldn't be more wrong on this one. Do you seriously think you can just find some 1B off the scrap heap to OPS 850? There were only 13 1B in all of baseball who posted an OPS over 850 last season, but there are plenty of 850 OPS guys available on the FA market for nothing? Teams must be pretty dumb then...

Seriously, the only 1B in baseball within 70 points of Tex in OPS were Pujols, Berkman, and Youk. The guy isn't a 900-950 OPS guy. Excluding his rookie season, he has been at 930 or better all but one year and each of the past two years he's been north of 960, with an OPS+ of 150 or better. Throw in the gold glove caliber defense (voted #2 by the Fielding Bible), age, and the fact that Tex is unlikely to start declining anytime soon and a 4 year 60 million dollar offer just looks ludicrous. If you seriously think that's all Tex deserves, then you must think Dunn's contract is going to be for 2 years and less than 20 million.

I wouldn't give any 1B 20 mil. Or any LF. Besides Manny or Albert or something. Those positions are too easy to find production. Spend your money elsewhere. Find a minor leager like Chris Carter, or like you said, give Adam Dunn 3/45 too play 1B. Adam Dunn at 3/45 beats the hell out of Tex at 8/190.

I also can't believe you said you'd give Manny 20 million per, but not Tex. Manny still has a slight advantage currently with his bat, but once you take defense into account it becomes pretty clear that Tex is the more valuable player. Throw in the fact that Manny is a head case and turning 37 next season and I don't think there's really a big debate.

For a team like the Cubs, I could see that making a lot of sense. It'd be kind of similar to the Red Sox with JD Drew. Sure he might miss some time, but as long as he's healthy come October he gives the Red Sox a better chance than just about anyone else would in RF.

I'm gonna side partially with nrmax on this debate.

While I'm not going to say Teixeira is not a top 5 1b, i will say that I don't believe he's worth that to many clubs, especially the RedSox.

My take on it is this:

Tex (1B) at 22M
Youklis (3B?)10MM (arb. guess)
Lowell (bench) $12MM
Ortiz (DH) $12.5MM

That's $56.6 million in 4 guys. Can you trade Lowell? His value is low due to injury and then knowing that he's expendable what will Theo get for him??

Sorry it makes no sense to me.

And while his stats are very good, even great in most years, you can get first baseman that have close enough stats at a much lesser cost. Save your money at get pitching. Now in a fantasy world where cost is no option, absolutely go get him and AROD too.

Check out these numbers too...

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/10/22/639856/best-first-basemen-of-2008

Only Pujols, Berkman, and Youk were worth even 1/2 as many runs above replacement as Tex.

Only 10 1B were worth even 1/3 as many runs above replacement. Thats right, 2/3 of the leagues starting 1B didn't even manage to match 30% of Tex's production in terms or runs above replacement level.

maybe a lot of teams are truly interested in Adam Dunn but dont want his price to get jacked up by some mass bidding war. I would meet a lot of teams need in the of. not to mention he can play 1st and a little catcher.