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Archives for August 2007

Cubs Acquire Craig Monroe

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Today, the Cubs acquired outfielder Craig Monroe and cash considerations for a player to be named later.  Monroe has approximately $1.06MM left on his contract for 2007.

The 30 year-old outfielder enjoyed a career season in ’06, smacking 28 homers and knocking in 92.  As a right-handed hitter he’s typically better off facing southpaws.  It’d be nice to platoon him with Jacque Jones if he can handle center field.  Monroe played eight games there last year and 33 the year before.  More likely, he’ll be employed in right field once Alfonso Soriano returns.  Jake Fox seems to be the odd man out for the Cubs.

The Cubs are hoping the change of scenery will coincide with a decent offensive rebound, similar to their Jason Kendall acquisition.  Over in the AL, Monroe had been equally awful as Kendall (.222/.264/.373).  Monroe isn’t set to reach free agency until after the ’08 season, though the Cubs could nontender him rather than pay the $5MM or so he’d get in arbitration. 

Side note – I was surprised to see Jayson Stark write today that "it would be a shock" if the Cubs don’t nontender Mark Prior this winter.  Given the price and dearth of starting pitching, why not cough up the $3.5MM to see how Prior looks post-surgery?

Rogers: Detroit Or Retirement In ’08

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Kenny Rogers is technically on the list of free agent starting pitchers, but teams looking to add a wily veteran will have to look elsewhere.  Lynn Henning of the Detroit News quotes Rogers as saying he’ll either play for the Tigers in 2008 or retire.  He’ll be 43 in November, after all.

No doubt the Tigers would want Rogers back on a one-year deal if he can prove he’s healthy.  This year he’s dealt with an arterial blockage in his pitching shoulder and a barking elbow.  Most likely the two sides would get creative, maybe agreeing on $4MM guaranteed and another $4MM in incentives.

Without Rogers the Tigers can enter 2008 with a rotation of Jeremy Bonderman, Justin Verlander, Nate Robertson, Andrew Miller, and Jair Jurrjens.  That’s a solid group, even though the 2007 rotation has been a collective disappointment.  Still, it’d be nice to add a sixth decent arm to the mix.

Pirates Could Trade Duffy

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Remember Chris Duffy?  Before the 2007 season began, fantasy leaguers looked at his September ’06 numbers (.336/.403/.458, 12 steals) and cast him as a possible 100 run, 50 steal leadoff man for the Bucs. 

Indeed, Duffy entering ’07 with the Pirates’ starting center field job.  He suffered a sore neck in Spring Training, but shook it off to post a respectable .350 OBP in April.  He slumped in May and was moved to the #2 hole.  Then in mid-June he sprained his right hamstring.  That led to an ankle sprain later that month.  Now he’s got a shoulder problem and may miss the rest of the season.

With Nate McLouth having a fine August and top prospect Andrew McCutchen coming on strong, Duffy’s window with the Pirates may have closed.  According to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates are ready to move on from Duffy.  The implication is that they’ll trade him.

Whenever young center fielders come available, the Marlins are always mentioned.  Are the Fish still on the prowl for a center fielder?  Most likely – the Miami Herald mentioned earlier this month that the team had casual internal discussions about moving Hanley Ramirez to center field, but the current plan is to keep him at shortstop. 

Schilling Would Consider Devil Rays In 2008

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Curt Schilling acts as his own agent, and he has a list of less than ten teams he’d like to play for in 2008.  He actually prefers a one-year deal over two.  His main priority, as you might expect, is joining a team with a strong chance to win the World Series.  Almost any team in baseball would benefit from signing Schilling to a one-year deal.

But an intriguing possibility surfaced yesterday.  Schilling would be open to playing for an up-and-coming young team like the Devil Rays.  He’d love to join their rotation and work with young hurlers like Scott Kazmir, Jamie Shields, Andy Sonnanstine, and Edwin Jackson.  That could actually make a formidable rotation.  Granted it may have just been a throwaway comment by Schilling, made mainly because the Red Sox are in Tampa Bay right now.

Could you imagine if the Devil Rays raised their payroll from the $25MM range to $75MM?  They could add Schilling, maybe a Francisco Cordero, and even make Jorge Posada an offer he couldn’t refuse.  And they’d still have plenty of cash left over to build some depth.

Orioles Sign Fernando Cabrera

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The Orioles already plucked Jeremy Guthrie from the Indians and turned him into a credible American League starter.  Today, they signed another former Indian in 25 year-old reliever Fernando Cabrera.  Can Leo Mazzone mold this electric arm into the team’s future closer?

There’s a Guthrie connection here, as the two hurlers were teammates for the Buffalo Bisons.  Dave Trembley saw them up close and personal as manager of the Ottawa Lynx.

Odds and Ends

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Some random rumors and links for Tuesday afternoon…

  • The Rockies signed Mark Redman to a minor league contract.  It makes sense to add some depth, but I like the team’s plan of using high-octane arms Ubaldo Jimenez and Franklin Morales instead of the safe veteran options.
  • Rick Sutcliffe’s thoughts on showboating.
  • At one time, it seemed that Jason Jennings would be primed for a big payday this winter.  He still could get a Marquis contract despite his 6.45 ERA in 18 starts.  But prospective buyers have to be concerned that he replied "I don’t know" when asked if he is healthy.  By the way, that link details a failed ballpark marriage proposal that resulted in popcorn being dumped on the guy’s head.  On the Jumbotron.
  • It wouldn’t be the Kansas City Star without an enormous pixellated close-up of the player in question.  This time it’s Mark Grudzielanek, who’s been extended through 2008.  Grudz wouldn’t have reached the 500 PAs needed to guarantee his $4MM option for ’08.
  • The Red Sox still haven’t spoken to Mike Lowell about a contract extension.  He wants to stay, and Nick Cafardo suggests Jermaine Dye could be the comp at two years, $22MM.  That’d be a major concession for Lowell, who’d be the best free agent third baseman unless A-Rod opts out.  One scenario has Kevin Youkilis moving to third base and some sort of league average first baseman stepping in, like the newly acquired Chris Carter.  Another has the Red Sox signing Alex Rodriguez.  The middle ground to those extremes is just to agree on a two-year deal with Lowell.  It’d make sense for the Red Sox to hold off on Lowell until they see what A-Rod does.   
  • The Eric Byrnes contract may serve as a model for Jose Guillen.
  • Tom Koch-Weser of STATS, Inc. has a new WHIFF profile of San Diego’s Chris Young.  A must-read as always.

Red Sox To Receive Chris Carter In Pena Deal

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UPDATE: Looks like my below tip on Desmond didn’t pan out – Svrluga says pitcher Emiliano Fruto is the player going to Arizona.  Fruto was received from Seattle in the Jose Vidro deal. 

UPDATE: A source tells me that 22 year-old defensive-minded shortstop Ian Desmond is rumored to be headed to Arizona to complete the deal.

Turns out the Wily Mo Pena trade was a three-team affair.  The Nationals received Pena.  The Red Sox will receive 25 year-old first baseman Chris Carter from Arizona.  Since he’s not on the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster, I believe the Sox can get Carter now.  That leaves a player to be named later going from Washington to Arizona.  Barry Svrluga has heard it’s someone not on Washington’s 40-man roster – perhaps Winston Abreu, Arnie Munoz, or Chris Booker.  The D’Backs are looking for relief help, but those all look like journeymen to me.

Carter is a respectable return for Pena.  According to Baseball America, he’s below average on defense but has the bat speed to become a middle of the order hitter.  He’s put up decent numbers in Triple A since 2006, though Tucson Electric Park definitely favors hitters.  Baseball Prospectus’s Kevin Goldstein isn’t jazzed with Carter, labeling him a Quad-A type.  He’s definitely not appealing to scouts, but could one day make a decent DH.  Interestingly, Todd Helton tops Carter’s comparables list but Dan Johnson is second.

The Origin of MLBTradeRumors.com

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Inspired by this post over at ProBlogger, I’m going to slip in the occasional post to fill newer readers in on the basics of MLBTradeRumors.com.

First question: why did I start writing this site?  For that we have to backtrack to 2005.  During the early part of that year, I discovered online poker.  This was a time before I lived with the woman who would become my wife, and it was kind of bachelor-ish.  I’d played poker with my buddies regularly but online was different.  It’s addictive and ridiculously fast-paced.  The money seems less real.  There are many debates on whether it’s rigged for new users; I seriously doubt it.  But I won some money early on and was hooked.

I don’t have an addictive personality, but I do love to gamble.  Online poker was really engulfing every second of my free time.  I would eat meals while playing a hand at the computer.  I thought about trying to play at work.  If I made $100 in a day I dreamed about quitting my job.  I only lost a few hundred bucks over the long-term, but regardless it was just a colossal waste of time.

Sometime in June of ’05, a coworker and I were chatting.  He suggested I write a blog about fantasy baseball, because I loved that game and enjoyed writing.  I didn’t even know what a blog was at the time.  Another motivator is that my wife-to-be moved in with me, providing good reason to lay off the online poker and find a reasonable hobby.  So I started up one of those free Google blogs with the aim of writing every day.  I chose the name RotoAuthority after seeing that RotoDoc and RotoGods and RotoWhatever were all taken.

Desiring a more easily typed-in domain name, I switched over to the TypePad blogging service in July.  Here’s my first RotoAuthority post, a fairly arrogant one.  Since the trade deadline was in July, a lot of my fantasy coverage crossed over with the hot stove.  I also began writing (for free) for a site called Addict Fantasy Sports in an effort to get more exposure.  Here’s an example of that.  I did my first Top 50 Free Agents List in October and got some decent linkage to that.

As more and more of my writing on RotoAuthority drifted towards the hot stove, I decided it needed to be kept separate.  I chose a different-looking, cooler black and white TypePad template and kicked things off with a Torii Hunter rumor.  For the name of the site, I just wanted something straightforward and somewhat memorable.  Also I’d learned from my RotoAuthority traffic referrers that "MLB Trade Rumors" or some similar variant is commonly typed into search engines during hot stove season. 

I’d worked pretty hard at promoting RotoAuthority, emailing other bloggers and posting on all kinds of message boards with the link in my signature.  MLBTradeRumors was different.  It just spread virally, getting decent traffic almost instantly.  This site has a broader audience and lends itself to linking more.

Tomorrow we’ll talk a little about the Wild West early days of MLBTR.

A-Rod And The Angels

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With the Yankees starting a series in L.A. on Monday, it was only natural for some Alex Rodriguez to the Angels speculation to surface.  Indeed, George King of the New York Post and Ben Villa of the L.A. Daily News mention the topic this morning.

King’s not completely sold that the Yankees will abstain from bidding if Rodriguez opts out.  As for Scott Boras, he’s not concerned about Brian Cashman’s assertion regarding the opt-out clause. 

Still, King notes that the Angels are one of few teams that can afford a $30MM player.  And Arte Moreno would love the marketing boost.  Moreno said in June that paying A-Rod $25MM+ would be disrespectful to other Angels players, despite the team’s seven-year, $118MM offer to Alfonso Soriano.  Most folks believe Moreno is just posturing, and I’m inclined to agree.  I think they’ll be involved if Alex opts out.

Villa simply mentions "whispers in the air" about the Angels pursuing Rodriguez this winter.

Don’t forget the Red Sox, who are expected to make a "huge push" for A-Rod if he opts out.

White Sox Sign Mike Myers

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The White Sox signed 38 year-old lefty specialist Mike Myers on Sunday.  The signing is clearly focused on 2008, as Kenny Williams tacked on a $1.1MM club option for 2008.

Myers contends that he’s been done in by southpaws hitting singles off him.  The numbers bear that out, as he’s allowed 24 hits but just one home run in 18 innings against lefties.  He whiffed 18 in those 18 innings, so there is hope that the veteran can live on.

The Sox have Mike MacDougal ($1.95MM) and Matt Thornton ($0.875MM) under contract for the bullpen in 2008.  And of course Bobby Jenks and all kinds of rookies remain under the team’s control.  I actually thought the team’s bullpen would be a strength heading into this season.

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