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Archives for December 2007

Pirates Rumors: Bay, McLouth, Morris

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MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch jumps into the fray with her own set of Pirates rumors.

  • Jason Bay rumors are flying around.  Langosch mentions Steve Phillips’ rumor at ESPN: Kelly Shoppach and Cliff Lee for Bay. Andy Marte could be involved as well.
  • The Rangers have decided they desire a corner outfielder, and moved from Nate McLouth to Bay accordingly.  Langosch suggests the Rangers would send relievers over to Pittsburgh – now that would be a bad trade for the Bucs.
  • McLouth, by the way, is drawing interest from the Giants and Padres.  He’s also been linked to the Marlins.
  • The Rockies may have some interest in Matt Morris.
  • Dealing Morris might allow the Bucs to give Brett Tomko what he wants – an opportunity to start.  The Pirates will meet with Tomko’s agent this week.

Padres Working On Trade For A Starter

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The Padres have already signed Greg Maddux and Randy Wolf this winter, but GM Kevin Towers isn’t done.  He’s expecting to finish a trade before the Padres leave Nashville.  Tom Krasovic thinks it might be Mark Prior or Josh Towers.

Both are said to be non-tender candidates, but surely the Cubs and Jays can work out deals rather than lose the pitchers for nothing.  Prior is the high risk high reward guy, Towers is the opposite.

Rangers Rumors: Bay, Gagne, Fukudome

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T.R. Sullivan has the Rangers goods for us this evening.  Wow, did MLB.com send 30+ reporters out to Nashville?

  • The Rangers are still pursuing Eric Gagne to return as their closer (and then maybe they’d flip him again).  The interest is mutual. 
  • The team is also considering LaTroy Hawkins, Shawn Chacon, Luis Vizcaino, Trever Miller, and Octavio Dotel.  Basically, most of the relief market.  Problem is, the Rangers don’t want to give more than one year to any of these guys.
  • The Rangers are moving toward filling center field internally after exploring options.  Carlos Gomez, Felix Pie, and Carlos Gonzalez proved unavailable or too pricey (though if all the Mets wanted for Gomez was Gerald Laird, Daniels should’ve pounced).
  • Daniels has shifted gears to a corner outfielder.  Kosuke Fukudome remains on the radar.
  • The Rangers had a preliminary conversation with the Bucs about Jason Bay. 
  • The team isn’t focused on getting pitching for once, but Daniels is still perusing medical reports on Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, and Jason Jennings.   
  • Daniels said he’s not shopping Hank Blalock.

Indians Have Mild Interest In Ibanez

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UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 10:11pm: Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times has heard the Ibanez for Lee rumor as well.  The concern is that the Indians would be overpaying.

FROM 12-3-07 at 2:02pm:

We’ve got a few correspondents at the Winter Meetings in Nashville.  One source just checked in to mention that the Indians have a minor interest in Raul Ibanez, depending on the asking price.  A match could be found with Cliff Lee.

White Sox Make Third Base Decision

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MLB.com’s Scott Merkin reports that Kenny Williams has made a decision about his third base logjam.  Williams wouldn’t say who’s on the way out – Josh Fields or Joe Crede.  It stands to reason it’s Crede though.  Perhaps Williams’ decision is to trade Crede, no matter what.  I can’t see why it would ever get to the point of non-tendering him.

Though the team’s assistant GM recently spoke to Scott Boras about Crede, they discussed his back rehab and had no extension talks.  The Phillies and Brewers both make sense for Crede.

Nationals Shopping Lopez, Kearns

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According to Bill Ladson of MLB.com, the Nationals are shopping shortstop Felipe Lopez and outfielder Austin Kearns.  Two targets: Mike Pelfrey of the Mets and Kevin Slowey of the Twins.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Omar Minaya flip Pelfrey for someone with more immediate value.  While the Mets could use Kearns in right field, he’s not the type of return one envisions for Pelfrey.  Maybe for a Phil Humber though.  Kearns will earn $5MM in ’08, and $8MM in ’09 plus a $10MM club option for ’10 with a $1MM buyout.  The 27 year-old hit .266/.355/.411 this year.

The match for Slowey seems better – Lopez could play short for the Twins and Kearns might be able to handle center.  However, trading Slowey and Matt Garza in the same offseason seems unlikely, and even less likely if Johan Santana is moved.  If Lopez’s defense is truly improved, maybe the Rays would have interest.

Another guy who could work for the Rays is Cristian Guzman.  Ladson says the Cubs were rumored in on Guzman but that one was shot down. 

Dodgers Interested In Blalock

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UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 9:37pm: Tony Jackson doesn’t like this one either.  He says the notion of the Dodgers and Rangers talking Blalock trade is false.

FROM 12-3-07 at 1:11pm:

Yahoo’s Steve Henson says the Rangers are quietly shopping third baseman Hank Blalock, and they’ve spoken with the Dodgers.  The Dodgers don’t have faith in Nomar Garciaparra or Andy LaRoche as third base solutions.

Blalock, 27, earns $5.95MM in 2008 and has a $6.2MM club option for 2009.  Blalock missed a lot of time in ’07 with shoulder surgery.

Giants Rumors: Lincecum, Tejada, Molina, Fukudome

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Another MLB.com article for you, this time about the Giants from Chris Haft.

  • Brian Sabean is getting a bit annoyed with teams thinking Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are available.  They’re pretty much not, but since the door is open a crack it may be inhibiting other deals.  Sabean did admit that one team made an "interesting" offer for Lincecum.  Any guesses?
  • The Giants had talks with the Orioles about Miguel Tejada, as has been reported elsewhere.  The Giants aren’t thrilled with Miggy though because of his age, salary, and the position switch thing.
  • A team asked about Bengie Molina.  Any guesses on that?  The Marlins don’t seem right.  Rays maybe?
  • Nothing much going on regarding free agents Andruw Jones and Kosuke Fukudome.

Reds Interested In Tim Lincecum

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UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 9:10pm: MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon debunks this rumor, even though three different industry guys were pimping it.  The MLB.com team is doing a lot of debunking this evening.  Hmm, that sounded dirty for some reason. 

FROM 12-3-07 at 3:51pm:

According to MLB.com’s Jim Molony, the Reds are interested in the Giants’ Tim Lincecum (who isn’t).  Molony says the Reds won’t include Jay Bruce in any deal, however.  Why inquire then?  Why would the Giants give up their best player for anything less than the Reds’ top prospect?  I guess it didn’t hurt to ask. 

At any rate, it’s cool to see teams actually talking about even swaps of young players to fill their needs.  So many trades these days are really just poor teams dumping off expensive stars to the rich ones.

Cardinals Rumors: Rolen, Feliz, Capuano

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UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 9:01pm: About four teams have talked to the Cards about Rolen, perhaps including the Brewers, Giants, and Rangers.

UPDATE, 12-3-07 at 6:38pm: Tom Haudricourt breaks down the Rolen to Milwaukee situation in detail.  Talks are ongoing but Doug Melvin doesn’t think there’s anything serious yet. 

FROM 12-3-07 at 5:42pm:

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss has an update from the Winter Meetings.

  • Strauss notes, as Ken Rosenthal did, that Scott Rolen and Pedro Feliz have the same agents.  This somehow makes Feliz a candidate to replace Rolen at third base.
  • The Brewers are in the lead for Rolen, with Chris Capuano still being mentioned as the likely return.  The Cards will cover Rolen’s salary to a certain extent depending on who they get back.

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