On this date last year, the White Sox selected Philip Humber off of waivers from the Athletics. The right-hander posted a 3.75 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 163 innings in 2011 and projects to start for Chicago in 2012. We didn't see anyone claimed on waivers today, but we do have these links…
- A multiyear deal between the Cardinals and Jason Motte is ‘in play,’ though nothing is close, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets. Motte filed for $2.4MM in arbitration, with the Cardinals countering at $1.5MM, as our Arbitration Tracker shows.
- Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes hit his first home run since joining the Dominican Winter League and you can view a clip of it here (hat tip: Keith Law).
- Another Cuban, left-hander Onelkis Garcia, will be eligible for the 2012 amateur draft, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. MLB made Garcia eligible to MLB teams as last year's draft approached, before making him ineligible at the last minute. Scouts tell Badler the 22-year-old projects as a reliever and could be selected in the third round this June.
- Angels GM Jerry Dipoto explained to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times that at one point during the Winter Meetings, the Angels had people negotiating with representatives for C.J. Wilson, LaTroy Hawkins and Albert Pujols in three different places.
- Indians president Mark Shapiro, who is depicted in the Moneyball movie, told Jordan Bastian of MLB.com that he enjoyed the film for what it was. "I appreciate why most people would like it,” Shapiro said. “But I felt like it was an oversimplified kind of view, which is kind of what you have to do when you take a lot of history and condense it into an hour and a half."
Look at the catcher on the Cespedes homerun. Damn.
“adios”
Cranked it. Want to see him hit some off-speed stuff though
Why? You worried he’s going to be Pedro Cerrano 2.0?
you never know, he could turn into vlad (in his prime) who crushes anything and everything, or he could turn into wily mo pena, can’t touch a breaking ball to save his life but crushes fastballs 500 feet
of course i’m hoping he turns into vlad
he looks to vulnerable to the slider. I think he needs to go to minors.
There will only be one Vlad.
“Jesus, I like him very much, but he no help with curveball.”
weak pitch
Ah that pitcher really hung that one. He smashed the ball, but that swing is a little funky. A lot of power when it looks like he hardly uses his lower half.
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed his bad mechanics. That home run was all arms.
looked like a vladdy type of swing..
and I’ve only known 1 player to be able to succesfully maintain mechanics like that.
not the kind of clip that impresses scouts, i’d wager. belt-high fastball on the outer-half and he pulls it
and then stares at it. it being a pretty unremarkable home run. in the dominican winter league. a league in which he has been struggling
so far the guy is flashy in all the least promising ways
Yep, his lower half was bailing out.
Very strong to do that with just his upper body, but a poor swing mechanically.
I agree, scouts are not going to be overly impressed with that.
Agreed, that swing looks pretty long and he is all upper body
You gotta love spanish speaking sports announcers, “Dios Mio!” indeed.
I’m wondering what a Motte extension would look like. I’d love to lock him up. I can see a 3 year deal at 4-5 million per. I think a two year deal would be more likely though.
Agreed. a 2 year 4.5 million deal perhaps? I don’t think they buy out all the arb years given bullpen pitcher’s being volatile commodity and that if Motte’s velocity drops at all, he’s not going to be that valuable. The guy needs to learn to put some movement on his pitches. Even his 92mph slider is straight.
Looks more like a Nelson Cruz – Vladimir Guerrero combo.
Looks more like a Nelson Cruz – Vladimir Guerrero combo.
Baby Vernon Wells.
Lock him up Mo! Jason Motte showed great closer potential in 2011. I’d love to see how many games he can lock up in a full season. I’m glad they are giving him the closer role. His fastball is electric and he’s cool calm and collected every time he enters the 9th. And he wasn’t even drafted as a pitcher. Wow!
He is more of a thrower. Pretty much all he throws is a fastball. Its like he says here is my 99 mph fastball try to hit it.
i see nothing wrong with this. It works.
ya i suppose. But having the luxury of a 99 mph fastball is a nice asset for a closer. that is as long as he can control it. Motte will occasionally throw a cutter but the 4 seam gets him the saves
I don’t know about anyone else, but the swing reminded me of Gary Sheffield.
I hate to say it but he kind of reminds me of Everth Cabrera with a little more power.
Oh please…
Bobby Cox is that you?
Seriously. Bobby Cox did not understand cultural differences at all.
no more evident then when he told Yunel Escobar to get off his lawn
Yunel didn’t listen because Cox didn’t say it properly:
Fuera de mi césped!
a RH Barry Bonds? I don’t see it. Bonds was so fluid and compact. Cespedes flailed savagely at that pitch and crushed it.
If that swing reminded you of Bonds, then my delivery will remind you of Mariano Rivera.
If you saw me go to the right on the hard court, you’d immediately think of Kobe.
yah looked nothing like barry bonds