On this day in 2006, the Mets traded Kris Benson to the Orioles for Jorge Julio and John Maine. Benson, who pitched for five different teams in his 12-year career, announced his retirement earlier this month. Here's a look at today's links..
- Yoenis Cespedes has yet to establish residency in the Dominican Republic and a source tells Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter) there is no guarantee it will happen this week.
- A surprising number of baseball executives think that the Dodgers will ultimately be in play for Prince Fielder, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
- More from Sherman (via Twitter) as he writes that some executives think Derrek Lee could end up in something of a forced retirement, similar to Jermaine Dye. Lee wants to continue playing, but only at price that he likely won't get.
- The silence surrounding the Nationals' pursuit of Fielder is in line with GM Mike Rizzo's standard operating procedure, writes Pete Kerzel of MASNsports.com.
- The oft-traded Aaron Cunningham has a positive outlook on getting dealt and views each deal as an opportunity to start fresh, writes Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer. The 25-year-old, who was recently acquired by the Indians, has been dealt four times in his career.
- No team has gone through a more significant clubhouse-culture makeover this winter than the Rockies, who have added Michael Cuddyer, Casey Blake, Ramon Hernandez, and Marco Scutaro, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com.
Ahhh, such a slow day.
It’s only noon.
Yeah, waking up at 5 usually doesn’t help. It’s a Sunday though. They’re always slow anyway.
I would beg to differ about that last bullet, what about the Marlins?
The Marlins are pretty much the White Sox with more flamboyant uniforms now.
Jk, you’re probably right.
The A’s should probably be up there as well.
Rizzo usually isn’t silent about his intentions last time I checked… Last off-season before winter meetings he said it was the focus to get a starter, this off-season it was a starter and a CF if I’m not mistaken
Really, I don’t think there was anyone who saw the Jayson Werth signing by the Nationals. As for Kerzel on Fielder, he’s guessing. To be honest, I don’t know what Fielder is waiting for! I really don’t see the Dodgers, those baseball execs are full of soup! Either the Nats or Rangers, I suppose a mystery team like the Dodgers could appear out of thin air, however I just don’t see it, no matter the set of circumstances. Especially, if the team sells for what 1.7 or 1.8 billion. That is an insane amount of money for a team that hasn’t been to the World Series since 1988!
PS If the Rangers sign Fielder, they can’t keep that team intact, they will have to trade some players, not because of a financial crunch, but because of playing time concerns.
Mariners are the mystery team
So the new owner is going to pony up $1.5 billion or more but won’t pay $200 million over 8-10 years for Fielder, who would not only improve the product on the field, but also the box office receipts?
Aye Carumba!
Here:
1.) Five players who are no longer on the Dodgers are among the team’s top dozen creditors, according to the team’s bankruptcy filing.
2.) Dodgers have 573 Millions dollars in debt
3.) Dodgers had almost 3 million fans come to Dodger stadium in 2011 despite an OK record. (They were 6 out 16) Attendance isn’t the problem here!
4.) You’re telling me by going into more debt by signing Fielder would be a good thing.
Maybe you, me and some of the owners in MLB need to Audit an Econimics class at University of California– Berkeley, they are ranked 6th in the nation for Econ. Or we could go Stanford, where Mike Mussina graduated with an Economics degree in 2 and 1/2 years. Maybe he could teach it himself. Then we all can learn something! Afterwards we can take what we learned and go to Hollywood Park, Santa Anita, or Del Mar and bet the ponies. Maybe with some of the winnings, if we do, we can chip in to be apart of the new ownership.
What’s with all the comment removal and policing of this site? Geez.
I’m not sure. A lot of my posts have said that they have to be approved by a moderator first and they don’t even include anything that would throw up a red flag.
Why would Derek lee be forced to retire? The pirates had more than enough interest in him throughout this whole offseason. I’m sure he’ll eventually land with someone, with negotiations met. Hopefully that someone is a team that’s named after a ban of thieves at sea, if you catch my drift…
Cespedes avg. is 151. with 8 so far. By comparision, Dirks is 333
Cespedes is certainly not doing himself any favours playing winter ball. Despite that, he’s still going to get paid.
I just don’t see how the Dodgers are anywhere in the mix. Until new ownership is in place with a vision and direction for the team (not to mention money), I just think it’s not very feasible to see Fielder signing there. Now, if the ownership situation were to get cleared up in short-order (fat-chance of that), then perhaps Fielder becomes an option to make a big splash for the new regime.
Unless Fielder suddenly decides to take a one-year deal, he’ll be off the market before the Dodgers are players for him. Wanting a multu-year he really only has 3 true options and maybe a sleeper 4th. No matter what, the only team likely to come close to his desired years is the Nationals. If he’s willing to take a 5-year, well then I would be a bit surprisedd if he doesn’t wind up a Ranger.
I can’t wait until he signs, then everyone will stop saying that the Dodgers are “dark horses” for him and bringing my hopes up.
A shorter, backloaded deal always possible. Given that the doors aren’t exactly being knocked down to sign Fielder, I can see him potentially taking a 3-5 year deal with an NL team provided that the totals are right. He then comes back into free agency still in his prime, at least theoretically.
Fielder may begrudgingly sign a 1 year contract so he can make a run at next year’s free agent class, but no way he signs a 3-5 year deal.
I don’t see the rationale behind “no way.”
I do. Virtually no point in signing a three year deal. If there isn’t a 6-8 year deal available, sign for one year and try to get LA interested next off season.
This year or next, I don’t see him getting that many years from any NL team. If a team offered him in the neighborhood of 3/75 and he could come back on the market still in his prime, then there would certainly be a point.
I don’t see Fielder taking a one-year deal. He’s just going to end up in the same boat next year – only difference is it’ll be Joey Votto ahead of him instead of Albert Pujols. Given the choice, I see teams preferring Votto to Fielder just as they preferred Pujols to Fielder this year.
After cespedes and fielder sign the offseason is going to start to get boring. Then spring training is torture. Cant wait till opening day.
I thought Benson retired like 3 years ago
He retired last January according to the link they provided.
Awesome! Kris Benson finally retired someone……himself!