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Archives for December 2007

A-Rod Adds Another Agent

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UPDATE, 12-18-07 at 1:35pm: Sounds like Boras remains A-Rod’s baseball agent, and Oseary is taking over for his other ventures.

FROM 12-18-07 at 11:29am:

Variety is reporting that Alex Rodriguez has dropped Scott Boras to sign with Guy Oseary.  A-Rod is Oseary’s first athlete; he’s worked with celebrities ranging from Madonna to David Blaine.  (Hat tip to Mark Feinsand on this one).

Whatever Oseary does for Rodriguez probably won’t concern MLBTR readers much.  Rodriguez’s current contract, which he negotiated himself, runs through 2017.  He’ll be 42 when the deal is done, perhaps ready to retire.  I can’t see into the future but it doesn’t seem like the Yanks will ever trade him.  I haven’t read whether the new contract includes a no-trade clause but I assume so.

The more interesting part is Boras, whose rep has taken a hit this winter.  However to me it seems like that hit is mostly from the media.  It’s not like the Boras Corporation is going to go out of business or players will start leaving in droves because A-Rod and Kenny Rogers did.  He’s still the best in baseball and he’s got plenty of big names that we’ll be hearing about in coming years such as Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, Adrian Beltre, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Pena, Mark Teixeira, and Prince Fielder.

Robertson Looking For Extension

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30 year-old Tigers starter Nate Robertson is offering his team a chance to buy low.  He just finished an off year (4.76 ERA) and doesn’t reach free agency until after the ’09 season. But he’d like to sign an extension now to stay in Detroit longer than that.

My guess is that the Tigers might entertain the idea of buying out his two remaining arbitration years plus one year of free agency.  A three-year extension in the $27MM range might make sense for both parties.  Thoughts?

Melky Held Out Of Winter Ball?

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Peter Abraham noted yesterday that Melky Cabrera was set to play winter ball.  However, it seems that the Yankees have changed their mind and won’t let Cabrera play this year.

There is a "fatigue clause," where if a player played a certain amount during the regular season the player cannot participate in winter ball.  It seems that typically teams lift this clause and allow players to join the winter leagues, but this year they refused to lift the clause for Cabrera.  The implication is that Cabrera is a trade candidate, perhaps in a Johan Santana deal.

More info on this extreme fatigue clause can be found here.  Thanks to Carlos S. for the links and translation and to Keith Law for translation.

Pirates Looking For Catching Help

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Ronny Paulino.  The Pirates’ backstop turns 27 in April and sports a career OPS of .730 (NL average for the position in ’07 was .712).  Paulino nailed 26.7% of baserunners in ’07 and 36.2% in ’06.  For his gamecalling skills I’ll defer to devoted Pirate fans, but he’s got to be improving after two years behind the dish.  In short, there’s no reason to spend money at the catcher position for 2008.

That is exactly what the Pirates are planning, however.  The names on the radar:

  • Johnny Estrada – free agent with few remaining skills, will cost between $3.5-4MM
  • Miguel Olivo – free agent hits for pop and guns runners down, will cost around $3MM
  • Damian Miller – aging backup with little left, will cost around $2MM
  • Michael Barrett – intriguing buy low trade possibility, but could cost $4.5-5MM

I don’t really support any of these moves, but I can at least see the logic in acquiring Barrett on the cheap and hoping to cash in on a rebound year.  But bringing in a vet to split time with Paulino doesn’t seem good for his development.

Cubs Interested In Bedard?

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With the volume of rumors that flew around during the Winter Meetings, it’s easy to get confused.  Luckily MLBTR has archives of everything.  That’s how we were able to research the Cubs’ alleged interest in Erik Bedard.

It started on December 4th with Joel Sherman saying the Cubs were part of a pool competing for Bedard that contained 8-10 teams.  Then three days later, Bruce Miles reported that Bedard was "not on the Cubs’ radar screen."

The latest, per an uncredited blurb on ESPN Rumor Central: "In recent days, the Cubs let their interest be known."  The blurb also references the Seattle PI, perhaps this article, but there’s no Cubs reference there.

Anyway, it makes sense that Jim Hendry and Andy MacPhail would at least have a high-level Bedard discussion.  The Cubs need a pitcher like him, they’ve liked him before, and they do have some decent young talent.

Needs and Luxuries: Chicago White Sox

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Next up in the Needs and Luxuries series, the White Sox.

C – A.J. Pierzynski
1B – Paul Konerko
2B – Danny Richar/Juan Uribe
SS – Orlando Cabrera
3B – Joe Crede/Josh Fields
LF – Carlos Quentin
CF –
RF – Jermaine Dye
DH – Jim Thome

SP – Javier Vazquez
SP – Mark Buehrle
SP – Jose Contreras
SP – John Danks
SP – Gavin Floyd

Setup: Scott Linebrink
Closer: Bobby Jenks

Needs

The Sox had the worst OBP in the AL at .318.  Everyone knows they need a good strong dose of on-base percentage.  Their .404 team SLG ranked 12th of 14, so some added pop is needed as well.  The pop may come from more Fields and less Erstad/Podsednik.

Center field is pretty much the only position at which the Sox aren’t committed.  I suppose they could upgrade second base too.  So let’s see…center fielder who can get on base…that rules out Juan Pierre and Coco Crisp straight off.  Honestly the Sox have backed themselves into a corner by not having OBP at catcher, second base, shortstop, third base, or right field.  I will say that I loved the acquisition of Carlos Quentin.  And Thome is an OBP monster.  Anyway I recommend signing Kenny Lofton or trading for David DeJesus.

I know Kenny Williams and Dayton Moore get along well, though the price for DeJesus will probably be the shred of starting pitching left in Chicago’s farm system.  So how ’bout Lofton, who played for the Sox back in ’02?  But here’s the kicker of my plan: pair him with Ryan Freel.  Freel couldn’t touch lefties last year but the two previous years he had OBPs over .400 against them.

Stay with me here…taking Lofton’s ’07 vs. righties and Freel’s ’06 vs. lefties and creating one hybrid Frofton Monster, you get a .311/.394/.444 hitter.  Even better, Freel can help out at second base when righties are on the hill.  And Sox fans will love his style!  He can’t be that hard to pry away/buy low from the Reds, can he?  I admit this idea didn’t give much consideration to CF defense, but hey, I’m just spitballing here.

Every team needs starting pitching, but I feel the White Sox are right to just go with what they’ve got here and hope for the best.  Gio Gonzalez is a decent prospect who might be able to help by summertime if Danks, Floyd, or Contreras really craps out.  If two of them crap out, Kenny Williams has to make a deal.  As for the bullpen, I wouldn’t throw more money at that even if it’s not perfect.

Luxuries

Joe Crede, who should cost $5MM or so in the last year of team control, is the team’s main luxury.  Strong defense, good pop, weak OBP, weak third base market.  Still, his trade value isn’t huge right now coming off back surgery.  One nice fit could be the Halos, who have extra outfielders.  Crede isn’t a match for Reggie Willits; the White Sox would have to kick in something really nice to pull that off.   The Giants could send Rajai Davis over, who could be a decent platoon partner for Lofton in center.  The Brewers could maybe flip a starting pitcher over.  The Phils don’t seem to match up with Chicago’s needs.

Relievers David Aardsma and Nick Masset are out options, so they might be thrown in to spice up a deal.  The Sox also have Brian Anderson and Ryan Sweeney, a couple of center fielders they may be ready to give up on.  Hopefully for Kenny Williams quantity means quality and he can throw together a bunch of these guys to get one player who can really help the ’08 team.

Phone Woes

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I don’t know much about cell phones, so I figured I’d tap into the MLBTR community a little bit.  I recently bought a T-Mobile Dash and so far I’m not jazzed with it.  I might bring it back and get something different.  Here’s what I’m looking for in my phone:

  • The ability to receive emails from my gmail account the second they come in.  The Dash seems to do it on five-minute intervals at best.  Is this a gmail or a Dash limitation?
  • I believe it needs to be a Windows phone to enable me to use TypePad Mobile and make blog posts from the phone.
  • Preferably it would have full, fast web browsing.  The Dash seems pretty slow in loading up websites from various newspapers, or BP, or whatever.
  • I’m going to stick with T-Mobile, so the iPhone isn’t an option.
  • Any insight?  Should I stick with the Dash?  Is there something else you would recommend?  Leave a comment or email me at mlbtraderumors@gmail.com if you have any experience with this crap.  Thanks.

Mark Prior Rumors: Astros, Cardinals

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More info coming in on Mark Prior, who’s starting to seem like a hot commodity.  I can see how teams find him tantalizing, though a decent half-season from him is probably the upside.

The Astros have an offer out to Prior; throwing out tons of early offers seems to be Ed Wade’s style this winter.  Wade says the expectation is for Prior to be ready by late May; you can easily push that back a month if you want to be realistic.  The ’Stros will also watch Kris Benson throw.  That means only two of the ten clubs interested in Benson remain unknown.

Another NL Central team may have an eye on Prior.  MLB.com’s Matthew Leach says Prior is on the Cardinals’ radar.  You might think the Cardinals already have enough injury risk in the rotation.  But as Larry Borowsky notes, the Edmonds trade may have left the team with enough money for one innings eating starter and one wild card like Prior.

By the way, it doesn’t appear the Mariners are interested in Prior.

Astros Looking At Rusch, Jennings

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UPDATE, 12-17-07 at 7:50pm: Rusch’s agency verified to my via email that he became a Padre as of Friday.

FROM 12-17-07 at 3:39pm:

The Houston Chronicle’s Brian McTaggart notes the Astros’ interest in starters Glendon Rusch and Jason Jennings.

  • Wait a minute, you’re saying, didn’t Tim Brown report on Friday that Rusch signed a minor-league deal with San Diego?  Indeed he did.  However, Tag says he hasn’t signed yet and Houston still has an offer on the table.
  • The Astros would like to get Jennings back on a one-year, incentivized deal.  Jennings wants two years, despite his lost ’07.  Not sure if anyone will be open to that.  Maybe one year with a club option.
  • It’s been reported previously that the Astros were one of the teams contacting free agent Mark Prior.

Odds and Ends: Johan, Hudson, A-Rod, Dallas

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Collection o’ links…

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