Ten years and one day ago today, the Marlins traded Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca to the Cubs for Julian Tavarez, Ryan Jorgensen, Jose Cueto, and Dontrelle Willis. Willis alone made the deal worthwhile for the Fish. Here's the latest from around the league…
- When Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein first called former Padres CEO Jeff Moorad for permission to speak to a member of his front office, he asked about assistant GM Josh Byrnes according to Dan Hayes of The North County Times. Epstein was instead allowed to speak to GM Jed Hoyer because "he was the GM of a last-place team," said Moorad.
- There has been some recent "back and forth" between the Giants and Matt Cain about a contract extension, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Cain did say that his upcoming free agency is "an exciting part of your career."
- Outfielder Mike Baxter, catcher Mike Nickeas, and lefty Danny Herrera are front-runners for roster spots with the Mets, writes ESPN New York's Adam Rubin. Baxter and Herrera are not on the team's 40-man roster.
- Yankees GM Brian Cashman declined to comment when asked about Joba Chamberlain's contract situation according to Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger (on Twitter). The right-hander suffered an open dislocation of his right ankle playing with his son last week and could miss the season.
- When the Blue Jays and Athletics discussed Gio Gonzalez this offseason, Oakland asked for 19-year-old right-hander Noah Syndergaard according to Jeff Blair of The Globe and Mail. Baseball America ranked Snydergaard as Toronto's seventh best prospect in December.
and you are the CEO of a last place team
Not even that anymore.
I guess Moorad forgot that Byrnes’ old team was coming off back to back losing season.
Wow I guess thats what Hoyer gets for being with the team for one season and not bringing them a WS championship.
Despite making their farm system into the best in the MLB. Oh, Moorad…
The quote was in relation to when Hoyer came back to the Padres to give them an opportunity to match the 5-year deal the cubs offered, hence not re-working a contract that still had 2-3 years left on it. The way Mike used the quote, it was like Moorad was saying, hell yeah, take him, the Padres sucked last year, when really in the article it was all about wanting those extra guaranteed years.
Exactly. Byrnes comes in trades for oft-injured Quentin who is already injured. Gets rid of Rizzo in favor of Alonso. I get some of his moves have been alright but it seemed Hoyer had it going in the right direction bringing in Maybin and keeping Latos around to play to the strengths of Petco.
Cain is a player rep, and one of the first ace pitchers awaiting a contract post the dual WC addition. There is a ton of pressure on him to set the trend for a guy like Hamels who is in the same position.
The Giants have to budget for not just Cain, but Lincecum as well who they’ll likely have to pay more. Cain may well have to decide whether the grass is truly greener out there on the other side. He’s a fly ball pitcher- the Yanks new bandbox, Fenway, would not be kind, nor would Chavez ravine for that matter.
The Giants misread this from Day One. As a player rep, and as a guy who knew the market and had one real FA shot in his career, Sabean should have known that Cain wasn’t going to take a hometown discount, nor should he. Going into the offseason, if Sabean wasted Wheeler, let Beltran go for a few million dollars’ difference, and then grossly underbudgeted for Cain while throwing too much money at Lopez and Affeldt, then he should be fired if Cain departs after this season.
What people don’t realize is that if Cain leaves, they’ll be no Lincecum either. Timmy is not going to hang around for a bumbling franchise when he can get the same money to play at home for a team that might have things figured out by 2014.
Do you have inside information?
Sheesh Moorad, a simple no would’ve sufficed.
The more I hear about the Moorad, the more I dislike him. Really Jeff? You’re throwing the guy who YOU hired as GM under the bus? After 1.5-2 years on the job? Man, I guess the CEO of the same club doesn’t hold any responsibility. My mistake.
Initially, as a Padres fan I was optimistic, but after reading this and the issues Reinsdorf and Kendrick had with him, he just seems like a slimeball. I understand that the MLB owners definitely qualify as one of the good ‘ole boys networks, but if one of your former business partners despises you to the extent that he will do anything to impede your purchase of another franchise, something is wrong, on all fronts.
Good riddance.
The quote in Hayes piece “he was the GM of a last-place team,” was in response to Hoyer coming back to the Padres to see if they would match the 5-year offer the Cubs gave him.
The quick summary of the article, and a poor choice of wording makes Moorad look like a real prick. How many GM’s already under control for several years get extensions fresh off of dropping 20 wins from the previous season?
I understand both points, but it still doesn’t excuse what Moorad said and how he reacted.
In Hoyer’s defense, he had a couple of great drafts which dramatically changed the quality of the entire farm system. And with being an owner of a smaller market team which can’t compete in MLB free agency, IMO Moorad should have recognized that this was the correct strategy to build an organization, therefore being more hesitant to let him walk.