Here are a few items of note for Jan. 29, 53 years to the day after Stan Musial became the National League's highest-paid player with the one-year, $100K contract he signed with the Cardinals …
- The Rays will pay Kyle Farnsworth $2.6MM in salary in 2011, tweets Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. If Farnsworth's option for 2012 is picked up, he will earn $3.3MM that year. If it's declined, the buyout is $650K. The deal also includes up to $300K in incentives for games finished.
- The Phillies have not re-signed free-agent reliever Chad Durbin because he is seeking a two-year deal at a higher annual salary than the club is comfortable giving him, tweets Jayson Stark of ESPN.com. Philly is also intent on preserving the roster spot for the sake of grooming younger relievers, according to Stark.
- The Reds will decide whether to sign free-agent reliever Jason Isringhausen after watching him throw a bullpen session on Monday in Arizona, tweets John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Isringhausen signed a minor-league deal with the Reds last July but did not appear in any games for them. He last appeared in the big leagues with the Rays in June 2009, a stint that ended when he suffered an arm injury that required Tommy John surgery.
- The Orioles remain fairly interested in free-agent pitcher Justin Duchscherer after receiving positive feedback on the right-hander's Friday bullpen session, blogs Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Rays are in on him (Duchscherer) as well. He’s been pretty consistent and the Rays need veteran bullpen arms. Plus it would keep him from going to the Orioles.
Rays need all the bullpen help they can get
He’d be a great addition to the Rays, but ultimately he wants to start and someone is going to give him that opportunity. Duchscherser is really worried about the strain of being in the pen, and would prefer to have the consistency of routine as a starter, for health reasons. To the point of probably taking a lesser money deal from a team willing to give him that opportunity.
I would have rather had the Yankees sign Durbin to a two-year 8 million dollar deal than give Soriano the deal he had.
Another ex-Card that Jocketty is bringing in… How many is that now?
he was already in cincy (“Isringhausen signed a minor-league deal with the Reds last July but did not appear in any games for them.”). there are plenty of ex-reds on the cardinals too… its almost like in the free agent era, players switch teams often, and GMs are most likely to sign players they’re familiar with. crazy.
before you make snide comments perhaps you should read closer. Lol… what a joke.
Durbin will wind up with the Phillies in the long run. I think that if it came down to having to accept a one year deal worth less than he wants because no one is going to give into his demands, he’d re-sign with the Phillies rather than going somewhere new. Now, if someone is going to offer him two years and more than $7 million, he’d be wise to accept that deal. Haha.
Someone call Reagans.
It’s good to know Kyle Farnsworth is out there, takin’ it easy for all us sinners.
Duchscherer makes sense for just about every team in baseball. He can be solid in the rotation or out of the ‘pen and he figures to be relatively affordable this season.
He’s said his preference is to start, but with just about two weeks until pitchers and catchers report, I gotta think getting a job might be his real preference.
If the dude can stay at least moderately healthy for a full season, someone gets a steal here…I don’t know why the Yankees aren’t making a bigger push, or even the Red Sox, just in case Dice-K/Wakefield can’t combine to make a competent fifth starter or if the Beckett/Lackey implosions last year are real.
Personally–as a horribly biased Twins fan–I think he makes sense in Minnesota. The bullpen needs help and he’d be a better option than half the guys vying for a starting role with the club. Either way, he’d be a nice boon for any club that lands him.
Yeah, IF healthy JD will be a very good deal for just about anyone.
Agreed. It’s a mystery to me why the Yankees haven’t signed Duchscherer. He seems like an excellent low risk / high reward candidate and perfectly meets their most pressing need for an inexpensive competent mid rotation starter. Let’s face it: the Yankee rotation 3-5 is in a shambles. AJ was the worst starting pitcher in the majors last year… Nova’s a rookie and come on, Sergio Feckin Mitre??? If they go to war with this trio, they are seriously jeopardising their chances of making the playoffs!
Can some team not named the Phillies sign Chad Durbin before Rubin Amaro feels pity and gives him a 3 year 15 million dollar deal! Can the Royals take him back?
The Cubs could really use Duchscherer also.
We have a ton of quantity, but questionable quality competing for the 4th and 5th spot in the rotation.
Pitching in the N.L. Central will make his life easier than pitching for the O’s where he would see a ton of New York, Boston and Toronto.
C’mon Hendry, reinvest some of the money you saved on the Kerry Wood sweetheart deal on a pitcher who will be fairly cheap and has some serious upside.
Im not saying that the Cubs couldnt use Duke but as far as needing him i dont see it. I think Wells will bounce back and hopefully you can squeeze 5-10 starts out of Silva before handing that job over to Cashner unless he wins it outright out of ST. If we were to bring in Duke i would see it more as a move for the pen and not the rotation.
And while im not saying that the NL Central is the AL East but here are some names that he would have to face in the NL Central. Votto, Bruce, Phillips, Braun, Fielder, Hart, Holliday, Pujols, Alvarez. I know that isnt Teixiera, ARod, Cano, Agon, Youk and so on but its not exactly easy either.
The phils need durbin in their ‘pen
No we don’t. He is a nice middle inning guy, but so is Contreras if used that way.
The real problem is what happens if J.C. Romero starts issuing more walks than strikeouts again? Is Bastardo ready for LH set up?
Farnworth is the very definition of reliever instability, from year to year you never know what you’re going to get. The Rays are essentially placing a $3.2 million dollar bet that he’ll be good and from what I can tell the chances that he is good are below 50%. Nothing against Farnsworth, he is what he is, but he’s earned over $30 million dollars in his career and he’s only occasionally been good enough to justify his salary. I guess that just illuminates the power of a good fastball. The Cubs did absolutely right with this guy, they paid him roughly $3 million dollars for his first 6 years and then traded him away before he got expensive. Jim Hendry takes a lot of heat from me and most other Cub fans (and baseball fans in general) but for all he does wrong he also does quite a few things absolutely right.
Speaking of the Farnsworth trade to Detroit, whatever happened to Roberto Novoa? He was granted FA after the 2008 season and hasn’t been heard from since. Last pitched in the bigs with the Cubs in ’06. He wasn’t good but I can’t believe he hasn’t been able to hook on somewhere for another shot.
Farnsworth was caught sleeping in the clubhouse late in a game which made the idea of trading him a little easier for Hendry. I always thought his problem was his fastball has no movement at all. Better hitters who can handle a good fastball love hitting against Farnsworth.
I don’t know about Novoa, but I saw the Cubs have invited Angel Guzman to spring training. I thought he was done for at least a couple of years, if not for good.
Have you heard if he is ready to throw?
As a Royals fan I watched Farnsworth pitch the last two seasons, and while it certainly was hilarious to watch Trey Hillman bring him in and get lit up in pressure situations, he finally settled into a groove when he started to throw pitches OTHER THAN HIS FASTBALL. Straight heat is great, but when major league hitters sit dead red on a fastball every pitch, they’re gonna succeed most of the time. Bob McClure helped Farnsworth start to atleast cut his fastball and throw some off-peed stuff, and the results were positive. I think the Rays will be pleasantly surprised by Farnsworth in 2011, but that’s just because I’m in an optimisticly good mood today.
As a fellow Royals fan, I think that’s a very good analysis of Farnsworth. Fair and accurate as to what’s happened with him. That said, I’m glad we traded him for Tim Collins.
Actually what you just said about Guzman is the first I’ve heard about him in months. The last I knew, his injury was career threatening, hard to believe he’d be able to pitch this year. It would be great if he came back strong, the Cubs bullpen could turn out to be one of the best in the league. For all of Grabow’s faults he should at least be healthy this year. With Marshall and Wood setting up Marmol guys like Grabow won’t be pitching much in high pressure situations. If Guzman came back and pitched as well as he did in ’09 that would be fantastic. I wonder what that would mean for Samardzija though since he’s out of options?
I would love to see Guzman come back but how effective can he be? As far as the cubs having one of the best pens in the league i kinda doubt it right now. Beyond Marmol, Wood, and Marshall they dont have a whole lot especially in the way of experience. Hopefully Grabow can stay healthy but i also hope that Scott Maine takes his job from him. I think Cashner should be a starter and therefore not used in the pen at the ML level. Stash him at AAA and let him work on that changeup and building up his innings. I think that bringing in a guy like Chad Durbin would help. he has put up solid numbers the last couple years with PHI and also brings experience to the pen. Another minor-league deal type to look at is Lance Cormier. He pitched well out of the pen for TB last year and could be useful. Has anyone heard anything about the status of Esmailin Caridad? He would be another useful piece.
I think youre looking at a rotation of Z, Demp, Garza, Wells, and Silva to start the year with Cashner taking over for Silva at some point.
The pen will have Marmol at the backend with Wood and Marshall as the main setup guys. Grabow or Maine as the 2nd LH. Probably looking at Coleman as the long reliever. That leaves 1 or 2 spots for maybe someone like Durbin. Then you let Samardzija, Stevens, Diamond, Gaub, Caridad, or possibly Guzman compete for the last spot.
Id love to see what Samardzija can do when given a defined role. Bouncing a pitcher back and forth between the rotation and the pen is not going to lead to success for them. Just look at the difference in Sean Marshall. Once he was given a defined role instead of being bounced back and forth he flourished. I think that Jeff can do the same thing if put strictly in the pen. He has a good fastball and slider combo but where he gets into trouble is with his 3rd and 4th pitches and his command. Eliminate pitches 3 and 4 and focus on 2 really good ones and the command will come.
Thoughts?