The Rays locked Evan Longoria up to a historic six-year, $17.5MM extension on this date in 2008. Then a rookie with just six games of experience, Longoria has since evolved into one of the game's top players. Here are today's links…
- An insider recently told Andy Martino of the New York Daily News that he has a gut feeling the Mets will extend David Wright (Twitter link). However, an extension for the hot-hitting third baseman isn’t a priority at the moment. The Mets have a $16MM club option for Wright's 2013 season.
- Michael Bowden hadn’t been placed on waivers as of yesterday, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com tweets. The Red Sox recently designated Bowden for assignment along with Luis Exposito, who has since been claimed by the Orioles.
- Tim Lincecum, Kevin Youkilis and Jair Jurrjens are among the players who may be making their general managers nervous so far this season, Jim Bowden writes at ESPN.com.
If Youkilis doesn’t play well and the Mets don’t take Wright’s option for 2013 the Red Sox could get Wright.
I think they’d go with Middlebrooks.
Far too many times has Wright been linked with Boston. They have refused to move Middlebrooks for a reason.. He will be the 3b this season if Youk goes down, or next year regardless.
Youk will be back (as the DH) next year ONLY if he puts up excellent offensive numbers and as a part time 3b/1b.
…and Ortiz doesn’t.
Youk gives you more flexibility and depth that Oritz doesn’t though.
Exactly.. I seriously doubt Ortiz is back, unless he puts up truly monstrous numbers and THEN it is on less than the 14m he is currently making.
Or Youkilis gets dealt for a pitcher and middlebrooks comes up from triple a.
Youk for Jurrjens maybe?
lol
If the Sox paid the salary difference and Chipper went down for the season, I’d have to think about it. So not really.
SMALL SAMPLE SIZE. Love how reporters have little to write about in terms of baseball yet so they conclude that pitchers with two bad outings are worrying their gms already.
I wouldn’t be worried about Tim Lincecum. I think he’s going to turn it around… if it wasn’t for boneheaded play in centerfield and the outfield in general (why were the Giants playing that deep anyway against a slap hitting Phillies line up?) He probably puts up a 7-8 inning 1 run win against the Phillies on Monday (although granted – it is the Phillies).
I’d be concerned about his fastball velocity but I’d expect that to tick up as the season goes on and it gets a little warmer out.
Early in his career Youk would start hot then trail off a bit towards the seasons end. After a few years of that he found more consistency. Seeing as he came into the season a little bit out of shape I wouldn’t be surprised if things were working in reverse of that right now. Its the first month of the season and he has already had some multi-hit games I think he will put it together. As long as he is healthy I am not worried. On the Bowden front I am really hoping we get him back. I think he could still get a call and settle in for the long haul. I don’t know why he lost his spot to begin with considering some of the other guys we kept are worse. Hopefully Bowden stays and Ciraco comes up in place of Spears sometime soon.
I’m not anti Longoria, but his stats don’t actually say he is a top player. Any input on that? Maybe we should define what “top young player” actually means? Hits for average? EL is a career .275 hitter. Power? He has topped 30 hr 2x. OBP? .360
Again, Longoria puzzles me…
30 homeruns is power. The only time 40 signified “power-hitter” was during the steroid era, pretty much. BA means pretty much nothing. .360 OBP is solid. IF you want to talk about power, that .251 ISO says power more than 30 HRs, anyway.
Well that doesn’t quite help my fantasy team…considering he usually goes in the first 2 or 3 picks.
You mean literally 2 or 3, or second or third ROUND?
If it’s 2 or 3, that’s a joke that’s not worth it. His glove is great, too, and defense means nothing in fantasy baseball.
The top 3 in my league this year were Miguel Cabrera, Matt Kemp, and Jose Bautista.
Yea second or third round. If someone picked him in the first three that’d be pretty bad. Kemp is a beast so far this year.
Ugh, I hate myself. I had the first overall pick, but I didn’t want to risk Matt Kemp’s possible regression, and went with the safe pick of Bautista. Oh well, if anything happens with Zimmerman, Bautista can play third and I can have Ichiro back in the OF.
Honestly, I would not have ever picked Matt Kemp or Bautista first pick. For me it was between Pujols and Cabrera. I chose Cabrera because of position flexibility. Oh well, I’m sure Kemp will cool off.
Same reason I chose Bautista.
I’d rather have the flexibility of OF/3B over 3B/1B, because you will never plug Cabrera into first, whereas Bautista is a strong pick for either OF or 3B.
I but Cabrera is a better all around hitter and has been for years.
I don’t understand why Bowden was put on waivers. He has been good this spring and can be a great reliever.
Signed,
Fellow Delusional Red Sox Fans
The article says Bowden “hadn’t been put on waivers as of yesterday”. They’ve only designated him thus far. So unless something has changed? But I bet if they did, Epstein would be all over it. Seems like he’s one of “his” guys. I wouldn’t doubt they are watching both the Red Sox & Padres moves for the waiver wire. I still don’t know who the Cubs gave the Padres for Hoyer compensation.
I thought I read was put on waivers. Either way, he will clear. He has literally no value to anyone. I’m actually pretty sure he’s been on waivers in the past and cleared.
Don’t know if Jurrjens is hurting or what, but he’s been extremely disappointing since exactly after the All-Star break last season. I get that he’s not a sub-2 ERA pitcher like he did pre-All-Star break and some regression was coming, but you don’t typically see the law of averages work by having exactly one great half season followed by one crap half season to even out and end at average.
I’m a Braves fan and I’m not surprised by this at all. Yes, he’s usually better than this when he’s healthy, but he’s was the luckiest man in the world last year (per his BABIP). He could have won the lottery twice with that luck. I was screaming for them to trade him at the All-Star Break – really, I was – and you see where it’s come. He’s now that worst SP on our team and his trade value is going down by the start. ATL gets 14 runs on board and he still can’t get a W by getting though 4 IP. He’s all over the place and if Teheran was ready, I wish they’d just trade him now, knowing Hudson is coming back in a month. If he doesn’t improve by June 1, he might not be in ATL by July. I hope not.
I think JJ will turn around, but if he doesn’t, you might just have to non-tender him.
Jurrjens was never as good as last years stat line indicated. Expecting that again would be unrealistic he was lucky ALOT.