Stark On Andruw, Swisher, Hudson, Pedro

phils had better have raised payroll since we lined ownership's pockets with about $30MM in playoff gate receipts.

Stay away from Borowski as we went down the road with him before and he backed out of a deal if i remember correctly and went to cleveland where he eventually got injured. Also i don't need a repeat of the Rudy Seanez experiement.

World Series winners always cash in. However, the Phillies did it pretty stuipdly, giving Ibanez 3/30.5 when Burrell went for 2/16.

if bobby cox really wants him, he should agree to manage one more year. then the organization would have a reason to pick him up.

AtlantaMike,

well put. I have a small company too and no one is spending. Even those that want to are finding it difficult to get financing. that may be impacting it as well because many owners have financing on their stadiums that could be affected.

Those on the "union" side of the world need to get a grip and should be starting to with the way people are being laid off left and right.

Oh and AtlantaBred part of the issue there is that the economy wasn't completely in the crapper when Ibanez signed, by the time it got around to Burrell it was. that should be factored in too.

"They're scared that sponsorships are going to be cutting back"

this is part of my theory with the cardinals. budweiser being taken over by InBev has to be affecting advertising at Busch Stadium. How much is anybody's guess but I definitely think the cards are very leery of this. People in St. Louis are p*ssed about the cards lack of spending, and they're p*ssed about the busch family selling the beer business.
That said, I mystified by how the cubs operate. The Trib is bankrupt, and the company has been saying for years that just because we pack Wrigley every single game that the organization doesn't turn nearly as much of a profit as it should. Yet now, in this economy, they're still increasing payroll, while the car dealerships have already pulled their advertising and the team has sued Under Armour (which I assume means no more UA ads on the outfield walls.) The Trib's books must be a complete mess, hence the never-ending sale of the team.

"The Yankees and Mets have not pursued Orlando Hudson, despite Hudson's statements of their interest. Stark sees a one-year deal with the Nationals or Dodgers in his future."

This is definitely one of the big surprises of the offseason, as far as I can tell.

Hudson seemed in line for a solid 4/40ish deal before this winter.

He's a solid defensive second baseman that was previously elite, and his bat is now pretty good after a few years of consistent improvement. He gets on base, makes some contact, and even has a bit of power.

Hudson on a one year deal, even if the deal is like 1/10, is still a pretty solid buy.

I'm sure Bowden is really happy he signed Belliard and Young for all that cash back in 2007. That was some money real well spent. What a moron.

Sorry, that underserved sarcasm was directed mostly at PhilsWSChamp and a bit at Ibanez as well

Either way Burrell makes more sense for that lineup AND Ibanez is a downgrade to Burrell so.... they should've given that same contract to Burrell.

"Either way Burrell makes more sense for that lineup AND Ibanez is a downgrade to Burrell so.... they should've given that same contract to Burrell."

Totally agree.

They probably could've gotten Burrell for substantially less too considering he took 2/16 to play in Tampa, a different place that he also wanted to play in.

If Philly offered like 2/20, a much better deal for them than the 3/31 for Ibanez, then he probably would've taken it.

Amaro and the front office completely misjudged the free agent outfield market, somehow, despite the fact that it was clear that prices would be deflated.

"The Dodgers could sign Hudson, but only if they find more than one Type A free agent to sign. Hudson is hardly worth the price of the 17th pick in the draft. "

That logic doesn't make ANY sense.

Yah, as far as i can tell the economy was doing on on Dec 16 when Ibanez signed his contract, and then for some reason the very next day it went into the crapper ... oh man, i think i know why the economy is so bad now !

Why oh why did the Phillies have to sign Ibanez ?!?!

Posted by: BaseBallz | February 06, 2009 at 12:43 PM

Was doing on on? Exactly what does that mean?

Alright recent history lesson people. Speculation out of Philly was that they offered Burrell 2 for 22 and he didn't accept it and wanted no part of it. That's when they turned to Ibanez. Burrell along with everyone else didn't know the economy was going to go as bad as it did.

Baseballz,

you do realize these things (the economy going bad) don't happen overnight right? Its not a switch that gets turned on and off.

Is anyone making this big a stink about for example the comparative market for Jeremy Affeldt (SFG signed for 2 years, 8 MM) when Ohman remains unsigned? Its timing.

Anybody now think that Bob Howry is better at $2.75MM than Juan cruz who is still unemployed???

Also if they had offered Burrell arbitration he would have likely asked for around $15-$16MM and if he got it that's 5-6MM that isn't going towards the bullpen, Hamels' extension, Werth's or adding the extra pieces we need. The Phils were in a bad spot with 10+ arbitration eligible players and they needed some cost certainty especially with the way the economy was going.

Sometimes some people need to realize this isn't fantasy baseball where you can drop players in and out.

phils-i see your point about howry, but i think this needs to be considered: the cubs declined him arb., meaning he only cost money, not any draft picks. the more i've thought about it, that's why they didn't offer it to wood either: to make him more attractive to other teams. hendry was determined woody got his long-term deal somewhere, but it was never gonna be the cubs. howry, on the other hand, even though he was a type A, probably would have accepted arb., and the cubs would have been stuck with him. cruz does cost draft picks and money to boot. you're right, though, it is about timing. hindsight being 20/20, what would manny/boras be saying if they had actually accepted LA's original 2/45 deal? makes you wonder

I don't know why the Angels would be surprised by Boras or his client, Teixeira. It has been known since Teixeira hired Boras that all he was looking for was a massive payday.

Hudson is not worth the 17th pick? What a joke, mccheap has really brainwashed people!

"Has anyone else read how many columns have been written about how the Orioles and A's got the upside of the deals for Wuertz and Hill? I haven't heard anyone praise the moves that the Cubs have been making."

Where have you seen people saying the A's got the better of the Wuertz deal? Not counting A's fan blogs. I want to read these.

I personally think it was even. Surplus for surplus. All the players were buried deep on depth charts. Cubs had to clear spots on their 25 man, and have way too many relievers.

How Hendry got into that predicament was ridiculous though.

melonis-the only out of option cub guys i really have a problem with in how he was handled by hendry was pie, and even him it was more lou than hendry. lou flat out would not give him a chance, so hendry felt he needed to move him. cedeno had his chances and has proven nothing. wuertz completely lost his out pitch (slider) and was getting hit hard. shark's emergence last year, along with the acquisition of gaudin made wuertz a redundant piece. don't forget wuertz has been in the bigs for a while, he's not exactly a young guy anymore (in fact i think he's 30 already). i don't know that they really could have handled him any differently. as for hill, as for hill, i'm just as mystified about him as anyone. to completely lose the strike zone like that is pretty rare. now i think they pulled the plug on him too early last year, and maybe his confidence was killed because of that to the point that he coudln't be effective at all. he was bad in spring last year, didn't figure it out in the season and they booted him to the minors. i still think they could have waited a little longer, but they've proven time and again they are NOT going to wait on people to figure things out. i don't think any of those scenarios are exactly hendry's fault. now some of his other moves this offseason are questionable, no doubt, but i don't think his deals with the out of options guys are necessarily his fault. just my opinion.

FyreKnight,

No question in my mind Ibanez has been the better player.

The upside I see with Burrell is that he's a good deal younger and is RH -- and the Phils could use a RH bat.

They're both lousy fielders.

All things equal, I like Ibanez more. Burrell seems to be a better match for the Phils, however.

I still don't understand why the Braves have so much interest in Nick Swisher when Bobby Abreu is still out there.

He puts up better numbers than Swisher (at least, average wise) and wouldn't cost us any prospects.

And Andruw Jones...oy. The Braves have enough problems in there OF to deal with him.

homeofdabrave

i am sure they are just as interested in Abreu if not more - the only thing better about Swisher is that you would have him for multiple years and they could trade him once Heyward is ready.

i personly would rather Abreu over Swisher - and Nady over Abreu

JL-i guess i should have clarified more, but i was more referring to the state of the company when zell first bought them. and i'm obviously no economist or financial expert, but who knows how zell has been hit with how messed up the real estate market is. not to imply that he's hurting for money or anything, and the cubs clearly aren't, they just have a budget to adhere to very strictly. i guess i'm saying that zell inherited a franchise that's books are pretty hard to figure out. and from what i've read in past years the cubs aren't as profitable as one might think, since they don't have as much in-park advertising as other parks, no naming rights deals, and remember there's no parking at wrigley. i don't know what their deal is on concessions. long story short (to borrow your phrase) i don't think zell quite knew what he was getting into with owning a baseball team. before zell took over, it seems to me that the cubs made money almost despite the trib's efforts.

I can't imagine trading for nick swisher when abreu is on the market. Come on Braves! This is the time to sign players, not trade!