Still No Deal For Bonds
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Barry Bonds is still in contract talks with the Giants. There’s nothing right now – Bonds chose not to sign a letter of agreement when the two parties initially agreed on a figure. It may be that the Giants are trying to carefully back out of the deal. I still don’t believe that Bonds would be left without a team though. A couple of teams would happily emerge to get him at $10 million or so.
The New York Times says the hangup remains Bonds’s conduct and entourage. Ray Ratto’s source calls it a coin-flip.
I projected Bonds to hit 27 home runs in 340 ABs in my ’07 fantasy guide.
Ohka Could Sign Soon
The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo reports that Tomo Ohka could decide this weekend whether to pitch for the Nationals, Pirates, or Blue Jays. The Bucs are also working on Brian Lawrence, so they’d probably only sign one of the two.
I wonder what happened to the Mets, and whether Ohka is still holding out for a three-year deal. You can read my full profile of the 30 year-old righty here.
Cubs Close On Floyd
I know I’ve used that headline at least twice before. But the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that a Cliff Floyd deal might be completed this week.
The catch was getting Alfonso Soriano to sign off on trying center field. It appears that he’s willing to try it – it was revealed to the crowd at the Cubs Convention yesterday. Soriano could shift to right field in 2008 when Felix Pie is ready.
Floyd will be the fourth outfielder for the Cubs. He’d make a solid bat off the bench. Lou Piniella seems to like Matt Murton and he’ll hopefully get 500 ABs.
Meanwhile, the Daily Southtown reports that Jacque Jones could still be traded if the Cubs think Pie is ready to debut in right.
Carlos Zambrano Speaks
This weekend’s Cubs Convention gave all the local papers a chance to snag some quotes from Carlos Zambrano concerning his contract negotiations.
From the Sun-Times:
"I don’t want to talk contract when the season starts. It has to be before the season starts or spring training."
"There’s a [good] chance I sign with the Cubs. This is a business. I want to stay here, but like I said, this is a business." MLBTR note: if he didn’t actually say "good," doesn’t that change this quote drastically?
"You take less than Zito take and everybody talks about you, saying, ‘Zambrano sign a bad contract.’ You take more and everybody says, ‘Zambrano is taking advantage.’ I think the thing is to be around what Zito signed for, more or the same."
"He [Jim Hendry] spent a lot of money. I hope he has more for Big Z."
From the Daily Herald:
"We’re talking right now. (Today) will be the second time my agent meets with Jim Hendry."
From the Tribune:
"Zito is a great pitcher, and it’s good for him he got that contract, and I think that will help me."
Graphical Player 2007
Just received my copy of Graphical Player 2007, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s a must-have if you have any kind of interest in interpreting baseball stats, and a worthy component of any fantasy baseball arsenal. Flipping to a random page in this thing might be daunting at first, but the player graphs are pretty straightforward. It’s cool to watch a player’s midseason progression, especially the young guys. You’ll see when a pitcher started to trim his walk rate or get more groundballs. Or when Nick Markakis started cutting down on strikeouts. Plus the player comments are priceless and often hilarious. Well worth your $15. Did I mention that friends of MLBTradeRumors Jeff Sackmann and Craig Brown contributed?
While I am hawking things, I’d like to invite you once again to check out my 2007 player projections. It’s got numbers, player comments, fantasy baseball tools, and frequent free updates for only $9.99.
Wells Agrees To Contract With Padres
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, David Wells has agreed to a one-year deal. He gets $3MM guaranteed and can earn an additional $4MM in incentives. Kevin Towers thinks Jake Peavy, Greg Maddux, Chris Young, Clay Hensley, and Wells make up the team’s best rotation since ’98.
The ’98 NL Champs used Kevin Brown, Joey Hamilton, Andy Ashby, Sterling Hitchcock, and Mark Langston.
Twins Sign Ramon Ortiz
UPDATE: The deal is done for $3.1MM.
According to Ken Rosenthal, the Twins are the frontrunner to sign free agent starter Ramon Ortiz at a deal worth more than $3MM. It would be an odd expenditure for a cash-strapped club; I’m sure they have a kid capable of putting up the same 5.50+ ERA for the league minimum.
Do you remember the days when a 4.00 ERA was crap? I do vividly, and I’m only 24. Now we’re inching toward 5.00 being average, as J.P. Ricciardi recently mentioned.
Indians Sign Trot Nixon
Despite recent interest from the Pirates, the Indians signed right fielder Trot Nixon for one year and $3MM. Even with Nixon on the decline, it’s hard not to like the signing for the Tribe. The Indians already have a decent RF in Shin-Soo Choo, but this provides some depth and strong defense.
A Nixon/Choo platoon probably wouldn’t make sense – looking at the splits for both players, neither can hit lefties. However, Casey Blake can play right when the Indians face a southpaw.
The Tribe will have roughly 1800 ABs to go around for Blake, Nixon, Choo, Ryan Garko, David Dellucci, Jason Michaels, and Franklin Gutierrez. Perhaps a trade is in order.
I tried to allocate the ABs for fantasy baseball, and my brain exploded. Please go over to RotoAuthority and help out.
Cubs Press Conference
Cubs GM Jim Hendry is holding a press conference in about a half hour. There is speculation floating around that it is to announce a long-term deal with Carlos Zambrano.
However, it could be related to Jeff Samardzija committing to baseball.
UPDATE: Currently it appears that the Cubs were only announcing the Samardzija decision.
Brian Lawrence Update
According to Kevin Towers on XX Sports Radio in San Diego, Brian Lawrence is waiting to see what happens with David Wells. Towers expects an answer from Wells today. If Boomer doesn’t sign with the Padres, Lawrence probably will.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Times reports that the Mariners, Rockies, and Pirates are all still competing for Lawrence.