Mets May Pass On Millar
Kevin Millar is hitting .249/.333/.421 for the Orioles, as opposed to Carlos Delgado‘s .246/.324/.411 line. The Mets could decide not to pursue Millar simply because he’s not a clear improvement. None of the available first basemen are.
Nonetheless, MetsBlog picked up some interesting chatter from a Jon Heyman radio appearance. Apparently Millar has his detractors within the Mets organization, perhaps because he crossed the picket line in ’94.
Meche Available?
WEDNESDAY: Jon Heyman of SI.com says Meche is "expected to be shopped by the Royals at the trade deadline," tossing out the Cubs as a possibility. Who knows. On a related topic, Buster Olney says "some folks within the industry" believe the Cubs would be C.C. Sabathia‘s most aggressive suitor if he becomes available.
TUESDAY: Yesterday, ESPN’s Peter Gammons said the Cubs are "sifting through names that could be available," mentioning starters A.J. Burnett, Gil Meche, Randy Wolf, Paul Byrd, Joe Blanton, Erik Bedard, and Aaron Cook. Gammons notes that the Cubs tried to sign Meche in the winter of ’06 (as did the Jays).
The Kansas City Star’s Bob Dutton spoke to Meche as well as a club official. It doesn’t seem that the Royals will shop Meche, and he wouldn’t necessarily waive his no-trade clause for Chicago anyway. Dutton’s club source indicated that Meche is expected to be a big part of the next winning Royals team. Meche earns $11MM this year, $11MM in ’09, $12MM in ’10, and $12MM in ’11.
Odds and Ends: Viciedo, Gibbons, Uribe, Danks
Today’s link collection.
- The Yankees are in the mix for Cuban third baseman Dayan Viciedo, as are 13 other clubs.
- The Mets designated Abraham Nunez for assignment. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
- Hank Steinbrenner gets a monthly magazine column…this should be interesting.
- Jay Gibbons is begging for a minor league deal. Might make sense to join an independent league and prove himself. Additionally, Barry Bonds‘ agent has talked to all teams and can’t get a bite at the minimum salary.
- Juan Uribe wants to stay with the White Sox. In the same article, John Danks sounds open to a long-term deal.
- Not rumor-related, but I found this Tom Verducci piece about Chipper and .400 interesting.
- Buster Olney says Freddy Garcia should be able to pitch a simulated game by month’s end.
Considering A Tigers Fire Sale
The Tigers are ten games out in the AL Central, 10.5 out of the Wild Card. Jon Heyman talks of fire sale speculation, but he doesn’t know where they’d start. Lynn Henning has ideas, though. Let’s discuss the trade candidates.
- Magglio Ordonez, RF. Henning thinks dealing him makes sense, since the Tigers have replacement options. He earns $15MM this year and $18MM in ’09 with possible expensive vesting options for ’10 and ’11. He also has limited no-trade protection. Brian Giles or Xavier Nady might be more sensible targets teams in need of right field help.
- Ivan Rodriguez, C. It appears that Rodriguez also has no-trade protection. He’s been reduced to a platoon and earns $13MM.
- Edgar Renteria, SS. Renteria has an $11MM club option for ’09 with a $3MM buyout. It appears that the Red Sox may be on the hook for the buyout though. Renteria isn’t hitting much and his defense is not rated highly.
- Todd Jones, RP. Teams will be wary of his 0.82 K/BB ratio. He wouldn’t bring much of a return.
- Brandon Inge, 3B/C. Unless the Tigers acquire a catcher have a free agent target in mind, they may want Inge around for ’09.
- Placido Polanco, 2B. He’s having a decent year and is signed through ’09 at $4.6MM per year. He may actually have some trade value.
- Nate Robertson, SP. Robertson earns $4.25MM in ’08, $7MM in ’09, and $10-11MM in ’10. He has a fairly respectable 2.2 K/BB despite his 5.88 ERA. He has value, but a trade would mostly be a salary dump.
- Kenny Rogers, SP. He makes $8-10MM this year. He’s made all his starts but has not impressed.
- After this exercise I can see what Heyman meant. The Tigers’ veterans don’t have much trade value.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Kemp, Bradley, Fuentes, Street
New Rosenthal. Seems like he just put a column out a few days ago.
- Rosenthal believes the Dodgers would consider trading a young player (especially Matt Kemp) for a slugger. He discusses what it would take to get Jason Bay, Magglio Ordonez, Adam Dunn, or Matt Holliday. This all seems like a bad idea for the Dodgers.
- There are certainly arguments for the Rangers to keep or even extend Milton Bradley. But Rosenthal thinks he could net "multiple high-end prospects" if Jon Daniels goes the trade route. He says the Rangers could shop some of their veterans while also trying to acquire a controllable reliever.
- Rosenthal’s best guess is that the Pirates will trade Xavier Nady or Jason Bay but not both. He says Neal Huntington is not under pressure to clear salary.
- The Cubs are interested in Brian Fuentes, which is a new one. Rosenthal adds that Jim Hendry plans to pursue the best available starter.
- The Brewers have many quality minor league trade chips, and they may be looking for a starter.
- Minimal trade interest in Huston Street, and the A’s have backed off the extension idea.
- The Yankees are "aggressively" trying to move LaTroy Hawkins.
- The Dodgers wanted to do an Esteban Loaiza–Juan Uribe swap, but the Sox just waited them out and signed Loaiza.
- Rosenthal says the Phillies "lack the prospect inventory" to get an impact starting pitcher, which I don’t agree with. He says they may look for another lefty reliever or bench bat.
Trade Market Summary
Off Topic: The Griffey Ball
Cody Ross‘ recent comments about Ken Griffey Jr.‘s 600th home run ball really irked me. A Marlins season ticket holder, Joe, caught the ball and hasn’t decided what to do yet. Here’s what Ross said:
Just give it to the Hall of Fame, get to meet him, get an autograph, whatever. But people get greedy. They want to make some money. I guess the whole Internet thing kicked all of this stuff off. It didn’t use to be like this, but it’s a different era. People get money hungry now.
This is coming from Cody Ross, a man who will have made over a million dollars for three years of baseball. A guy whose ’09 salary alone should be close to a million bucks. It’s ridiculous for Ross to flippantly suggest Joe would be greedy to make money off the ball.
The ball might be worth anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000. For many people, that’s a life-changing amount of money. A down payment on a new house, maybe. Joe is right to take his time with this choice, and he’s under no moral obligation to give up the ball for some signed Reds bats and jerseys. He doesn’t owe it to baseball to give it up. If anything, baseball owes him. He’s a Marlins season ticket holder.
Actually, that’s the perfect solution. MLB, the Reds, or Griffey himself should offer a paltry $50,000 to Joe for the ball. It’s not going to set MLB back if they offer up fifty grand for every future milestone home run ball. They could probably find corporate sponsorship for it.
The ’08 Draft: Knee-Jerk Reactions
We live-blogged the ’08 amateur draft last Thursday, and it was a lot of fun. Over 4,000 people came along for the ride. You can read the transcript here.
Immediately after each of the first 30 picks, I polled readers on whether the team "made the right choice." We can keep the results for posterity and determine whether it’s fair to rag on a team for picking the wrong guy. If most people liked the pick at the time it was made, it wouldn’t be right to criticize it in hindsight. Here are the poll responses to the question, "Did Team X make the right choice by drafting Player Y?
- Tim Beckham, Rays – 80% said yes.
- Pedro Alvarez, Pirates – 89%.
- Eric Hosmer, Royals – 63%.
- Brian Matusz, Orioles – 80%.
- Buster Posey, Giants – 68%.
- Kyle Skipworth, Marlins – 54%.
- Yonder Alonso, Reds – 33%.
- Gordon Beckham, White Sox – 79%.
- Aaron Crow, Nationals – 82%.
- Jason Castro, Astros – 14%.
- Justin Smoak, Rangers – 90%.
- Jemile Weeks, A’s – 41%.
- Brett Wallace, Cardinals – 65%.
- Aaron Hicks, Twins – 79%.
- Ethan Martin, Dodgers – 62%.
- Brett Lawrie, Brewers – 62%.
- David Cooper, Blue Jays – 26%.
- Ike Davis, Mets – 55%.
- Andrew Cashner, Cubs – 57%.
- Josh Fields, Mariners – 65%.
- Ryan Perry, Tigers – 53%.
- Reese Havens, Mets – 33%.
- Allan Dykstra, Padres – 28%.
- Anthony Hewitt, Phillies – 32%.
- Christian Friedrich, Rockies – 89%.
- Daniel Schlereth, D’Backs – 65%.
- Carlos Gutierrez, Twins – 21%.
- Gerrit Cole, Yankees – 82%.
- Lonnie Chisenhall, Indians – 17%.
- Casey Kelly, Red Sox – 74%.
There you have it. Readers agreed least with the Astros’ selection of Castro and most with the Rangers’ pick of Smoak.
Odds and Ends: Broussard, Ledezma, Cooper
More random linkage.
- The Yankees have released first baseman Ben Broussard.
- The Padres designated Wil Ledezma for assignment. The 27 year-old could help someone as a reliever.
- The first first-rounder of ’08 has signed: David Cooper of the Blue Jays. He could be in High-A ball by year’s end. Last year’s 17th pick, Blake Beavan, got about $1.5MM. By the way, only 26% of readers thought the Jays made the right choice with Cooper (according to our in-draft poll).
- Funny Mike Mussina quote from John Feinstein’s new book.
Steve Trachsel Designated For Assignment
According to Roch Kubatko of the Baltimore Sun, the Orioles designated pitcher Steve Trachsel for assignment today. The move was expected, given Trachsel’s 8.39 ERA and 0.59 K/BB in 39.6 innings this year.
The Sun’s Jeff Zrebiec talked with Trachsel this spring and got the impression that he’d retire if the Orioles let him go (unless another team puts him in the rotation).