Thanks to MLBTR readers, we’ve advanced to the second round of Busted Coverage’s sports blog tourney. Awesome. We managed to get past Joe Sports Fan. Take a moment to check out JSF site – I enjoy it, it’s a daily read of mine. And any kind of Back to the Future reference is a positive.
Anyway, we need your votes again for Round 2. Scroll down to the second voting box and help us out! It only takes a second, you just click a few buttons. Thanks.
A few minor moves to speak of…
George King has a few quotes from Phillies’ assistant GM Ruben Amaro Jr. today. Basically, the Phils wouldn’t go past three years on Kyle Lohse, and have dropped out of the bidding for the Scott Boras client.
King indicates that this might put the Mets in the lead for Lohse, perhaps the best of a mediocre group of free agent starters. Ken Davidoff, however, wrote yesterday that the Mets "did not seem particularly interested" in Lohse at the current price. Tim Brown wrote on Monday that both the Phils and Mets had four-year offers out to Lohse.
According to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, the Phillies have signed outfielder Geoff Jenkins to a two-year, $13MM deal. There’s an option for 2010 that could bring the total to $20MM. We knew the Padres were in on him; Crasnick says the Rangers were also bidding.
Jenkins’ job will be to hit righties. He hit .262/.326/.482 against them in ’07, and was better than that in ’06. He’s frighteningly bad against southpaws, so Jayson Werth will platoon with him. Jenkins can also play left field when Pat Burrell is ailing or DHing.
A $6.5MM platoon outfielder who doesn’t really mash the pitchers he’s supposed to match? It’s an uninspired signing. This takes the Phillies out of the running for Mike Cameron, by the way.
A few notes from this evening…
Ken Rosenthal has the scoop – the Royals have signed southpaw reliever Ron Mahay to a two-year, $8MM deal. Nice move by Dayton Moore getting him for less than the Phillies paid for J.C. Romero, an inferior pitcher.
Mahay is 36, though many readers pointed out to me that he converted to pitching late in life (when he was 25 or so). However – and I can’t find the link the moment – Will Carroll has found position player converts to be at greater injury risk.
The Royals are three-deep with lefty relievers, so maybe they’ll shop Jimmy Gobble or John Bale now. Mahay had been a Yankee target, so perhaps they’ll move on to Damaso Marte.
Mahay was a Type B, so the Braves receive a sandwich pick for their loss (not at the Royals’ expense).
ESPN’s Jayson Stark dishes some good rumorage in his latest column.
Here are today’s random rumor tidbits.
From time to time you will notice that I omit various minor transactions here at MLBTR. For better or for worse I don’t post stuff I find inconsequential. Or maybe it’s just that I have nothing to add. In my opinion MLBTR is not a register of all transactions. More an aggregator of rumors, signings, and trades of note, plus a little bit of analysis/opinion and a great community. So for those wondering where Gary Bennett, Chad Paronto, and D’Angelo Jimenez are…eh. The guys left out are entirely subjective, but for the most part I focus on guys who will get regular PT.
Here is a link to an interview I did recently at Sports Tech Now.
