Links for Friday…
- Heyman tweets that the Angels and Dodgers could pursue Garret Anderson.
- Jon Heyman of SI.com tweets that the Mets are falling behind in their attempts to sign John Smoltz.
- As Rob Bradford of WEEI.com notes, Theo Epstein says the Red Sox do not have a policy against negotiating extensions during the season.
- The Red Sox, Phillies, Diamondbacks and Rockies watched Oscar Villarreal throw today, tweets Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse.
- An MLB executive tells ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick that Jermaine Dye turned down $3.3MM from the Cubs before they signed Xavier Nady for the same price (Twitter link).
- MLB.com's Bill Ladson tweets that money may prevent the Nationals from signing Orlando Hudson. Adam Dunn believes Washington is Hudson's first choice.
- The club could go after Adam Kennedy if Hudson signs elsewhere, tweets Ladson.
- The Blue Jays have money, but aren't going to spend for the sake of spending, according to MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.
- In case you'd like more on the Johnny Damon-Yankees drama, SI's Jon Heyman talked to the player and GM.
- Alex Rodriguez was "staring at retirement right in the face" last March when diagnosed with a torn labrum in his hip, he told Kim Jones of the YES Network Wednesday night.
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs wonders if aging players are the new market inefficiency.
- Cameron compares Jason Bay to Josh Willingham and concludes that the two outfielders are pretty similar.
- In an interview with SNY's Kevin Burkhardt last night, Mets GM Omar Minaya insisted he has full autonomy. Joel Sherman of the New York Post doesn't buy it.
- U.S.S. Mariner's Dave Cameron tweets of rumblings that the Royals and Mariners have discussed Alberto Callaspo.
- The Red Sox signed catcher Gustavo Molina to a minor league deal, reports WEEI's Rob Bradford. Molina, 28 in February, hit .209/.233/.308 for the Nationals' Triple A club last year.
- Larry Granillo of Wezen-Ball digs up the true story behind Andre Dawson, the Cubs, and the blank check in '87.
- Twins lefty Glen Perkins explained his grievance to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
The mystery 4th Molina brother has been revealed?
I don’t know what that Dawson article is trying to prove. Are there people out there who thought that Dawson was thrilled to sign for half his market value? He felt it was time to move on from the Expos and he had a preference for the Cubs, and like everyone on the planet he wanted to be paid full market value. He was happy with the first part – joining the Cubs – but did anybody really think he was happy about the amount that the Cubs filled in on the blank check? Really?
28 and in Triple AAA, OH BOY!
As a GM, if you have full autonomy you will say so. However, if you do not have full autonomy you will probably say you do anyway because your boss (as in ownership) instructs you to. For an interviewer to ask that question while the cameras are rolling is a pointless exercise.
Agreed. I seriously doubt Minaya has full autonomy but saying he does sets him up to be the fall guy if the Mets fail. Ownership can wash their hands of the matter and Minaya looks like a stand-up guy for taking full responsibility. I’m not saying Minaya is blameless — far from it — but the “full autonomy” bit is just office politics as usual.
Yeah, no question. Minaya has had his problems, but this offseason he is not alone at the helm. In recent times a lot of his decisions appear to have come in response to ownership, or with at least a hint of their influence (small wonder little gets done). Clearly it serves the Wilpons’ purpose to have Omar in place as a shield from having to be the “bad guy,” but that routine can’t last forever.
Could Perkins come off as any more of a petulant child in that article?
Advice to Glen:
1. Stop feigning injury that you “forgot” to tell the coaches about after every bad start.
2. Don’t be surprised when a 5+ ERA pitcher is sent to AAA for some rehab/development starts, especially when the rotation is set with the acquisition of Pavano.
3. Don’t skip the Dome Farewell to be “bowhunting” (while simultaneously talking about a bad shoulder – pulling a bow is therapeutic I’m sure…).
4. Don’t expect to be traded, as if the Twins could get anything for you at this point. Twins are highly respected as treating their players well and giving young players alot of chances – if you are labeled an “attitude problem” here, you’re not going to find it better anywhere else, and they’re not going to want you.
5. Your fastball clocks in at 86, your command isn’t impressive, and your offspeed pitches lack bite. If you weren’t left-handed, you’d be pitching in my Beer League.
I despise Perkins, though to his credit (ha, if this is even giving him any credit), he did still manage an average of 89.7 on his fastball last year. Be still, my beating heart.
The sooner this clown gets out of the organization, the better. It’d be great if some teams are still allured by the fact that he was a first-round pick, his college pedigree, and his impressive K-rates in the low minors… but that’s not gonna happen.
Get out of Minnesota, Glen. We genuinely don’t want you around.
I mostly agree with you – Perkins needs to grow up. He threw away chances to become a local favorite and I really don’t see how he can overcome that.
But here are two points in his favor:
1. He is only successful when he has good command and can pitch inside. When he can’t locate pitches his stuff isn’t good enough for the major leagues. There’s a real chance he’s still hurt, his control won’t be there in Florida, and the advice to “rest” just cost him six months of recovery. The Twins have a history of this kind of advice and he could be missing MLB pay scale again in the next few months.
2. Kyle Lohse would like to talk to you about respect and chances. He too was a bit of a brat, but the organization has no idea how to deal with these types of kids and sometimes it costs them talent. You can say the team has a good record with young players when they choose to live within the system, but blanket statements in this regard aren’t quite accurate.
Perkins definitely falls in with Garza/Lohse as having a chip on their shoulder and falling out of favor with the club. The other two were sent packing.
You may be right the Twins aren’t good at “correcting” attitude problems, and only players who adapt to the Twins system are successful. But they’ve got a pretty good track record of turning average prospects into better-than-average performers. There’s a laundry list of players who had their best years in Minnesota, and went on to perform very poorly elsewhere in spite of still being in their statistical prime (the crop of Koskie, Doug, Guzman, Jones, Lawton, Mays, and Milton all come to mind). Our system definitely requires a particular mindset of player – on the whole, I think the results are favorable, even if it does mean dumping a Garza/Perkins/Lohse instead of bringing them back into the fold.
Is Gustavo, Bengie’s 4th brother?
No. He is not related to the Molina brothers that you think of (Yadier, Bengie, and Jose).
I read that as “full anatomy”. I thought Minaya was trying to prove he either had a brain or a set of balls. Or perhaps both.
As a Royals fan, it scares the crap out of me to hear that Dayton may be talking to Seattle.
1. Last year when the two teams dealt, we ended up paying a lot of money to the worst player in baseball, Yuni.
2. Dayton has been trying to trade Callaspo all winter so he’s probably getting desperate.
A desperate Dayton on the phone with Seattle is a SCARY though for a Royals fan. If this deal happens, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it’s going to be lopsided.
Don’t forget that we included Cortes and Saito for the privilege of paying nearly all of Yuni’s salary.
Agreed that a desperate Dayton on the phone with Jack Z is scary. Why not just put Getz in AAA to start the year? You’ve made a mess, DM, don’t make it worse.
I find it really hard to believe that AROD was considering retirement. He’s just looking for a little attention because the media has been talking more about other players (Damon for one) than him
A-Rod was staring at retirement…can we go back in time and help him change his mind? I have a couple of bucks and a donut I can offer to try to convince him. If we can get just another hundred million people to throw in a couple bucks, we could rid baseball of Alex Rodriguez! That would have been like Christmas morning!
Hey, Omar: prove it! Make the best decision you’ll ever have made for the team, and resign. I’m *sure* you’re allowed to make *that* decision on your own — if you can figure out how to do it.
A-rod is such a douchebag
He probably thinks the same of you.
Hey, don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Anyone who remembers the Dawson situation already knows he was not happy when the deal with the Cubs was fianlized. Can you blame him. But collusion is a four letter word. This, and the fact he made it very clear he wanted to come to Chicago does kind of set yourself up for less than market value during any era. He had Green as the GM, not Hendry. Dawson grumbled a bit when the initial numbers came back, but that was it. He did not hold interviews moaning about the blank check and showed class by honoring his word. I heard stories from inside how he had to prepare for every game, not just once in a while…every game. He just played. People forget he started slow in ’87 when joining the Cubs, as most players do when they become Cubs. As Harry would say, ‘another biscuit for breakfeast’ and he would have had 50 dongs that year. My most vivid memory of Dawson in ’87 was not just the MVP on a horrible Cub team. I was sitting behind home plate 3 rows back and watched him get drilled in the face by Eric Show because Dawson hit some homers off him. I remember Sutcliffe quickly charged from the dugout after Show. Anyway, it does not matter to me that he goes in the HOF as an Expo. It takes nothing away from his playing days in Chicago or anywhere.
“It takes nothing away from his playing days in Chicago or anywhere.”
Great point. Could be said of many players, with a multitude of fates. As a Twins fan, I feel the same about Bert Blyleven; whether or not he makes the Hall takes nothing away from the memories of his days in Minnesota.
Blyleven is an excellent example. He will get in next year and so will Alomar.
I’m guessing you were scratching your head when reading that article too. None of that stuff was new to me…I don’t think the author dug up anything that wasn’t already known. We all like the Hawk for many of the reasons you stated above. It had nothing to do with whether he was smiling or not when he saw those numbers on that check.
My day just got a little better knowing that Gardy says that the Mauer contract talks couldn’t be going any better. I know it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans but still makes me feel a little better.
Interesting….a) Don’t understand why people hate on A-Rod. He isn’t the only confirmed steroid user. He isn’t the 1st overpaid athlete w/ an ego. He doesn’t have the tag of being a bad teammate like a Barry Bonds or Jeff Kent type, and in fact, aside from maybe whatever was going on w/ him and Jeter, he seems very well liked by most of his teammated. He showed up well in the playoffs this year. If you had a job and your work was valued at $60,000 a year and your employer or a competitor offered you $100,000 to do the same job would you turn it down?b) I don’t understand why people automatically assume that Winn is being brought in to be the starting LF ahead of Gardner. In my opinion, and from what I’ve read, I think that, although they won’t come out and declare it, the LF job is Gardner’s to lose. As long as he has a decent ST I think the job is his. Winn would be a great 4th OF because of his ability to play LF and RF which is something Gardner can’t do.
“Don’t understand why people hate on A-Rod. He isn’t the only confirmed steroid user. He isn’t the 1st overpaid athlete w/ an ego.”
And people tend to hate those guys as well.
A-Rod is a ME player and will always be like that regardless of what fans or teammates say about him.
“Don’t understand why people hate on A-Rod. He isn’t the only confirmed steroid user. He isn’t the 1st overpaid athlete w/ an ego.”
If it’s any consolation, I don’t like A-Rod because he tried to start a fight with Tek, and also because he tried to slap the ball out of Arroyo’s glove and got caught making an illegal move down the baseline. Oh yeah, there was also that issue with the blue jays (either this year or last year) when he, in a very unsportsmanlike way, distracted the fielders on a routine pop-up, causing it to fall. And oh yeah, all the pitch-tipping he does….there are countless reasons not to like the guy. Steroids just make it all that much funnier.
Figures, Jim Hendry tried to screw up the search for a fourth outfielder by signing Dye. Thank God Dye wasn’t smart enough to take the $3.3 million he was offered.
Seriously, what was Hendry thinking? Dye is pretty obviously in decline, who would rather have him than Nady at this point, TJ surgery and all? You can come back from TJ surgery but no one has ever come back from age, at least effectively. Nothing against Dye but it’s amazing to me that he was apparently the Cubs target when guys with upside like Nady and Gomes were still available.
“You can come back from TJ surgery but no one has ever come back from age, at least effectively.”You mean Barry Bonds getting better with age when players usually decline is not a good example. :)I agree Nady was the better overall choice. Nady improves the Cub bench as an average player. Dye is bad defensively and no one knows how he would adjust to being a bench player, production wise. But I’m not sure what you mean with ‘upside’ in Nady or Gomes.
By upside with Nady and Gomes I just mean that both have had descent seasons recently (Gomes 2009, Nady 2008) and are young enough to repeat that level of production. I also thought about mentioning steroids (Bonds) but figured that was pretty obvious, I think some teams act like they still expect players to perform in their late 30’s like players in their late 30’s did 10 years ago. They need to go back to the mindset that players are going to start regressing earlier.
Yeah, check out Dave Cameron’s recent post on FanGraphs, he talks about veterans are going to be snapped up by bargain basement hunters in the next couple of years exactly because of that reason. He makes some good points, how defense was undervalued for a while, which means now that anyone looking for value is going to ramp up their defense as it’s a cheaper option right now. Therefore, in the next couple of years teams looking for cheap improvements will be looking at the 35 and up group, cause they’re getting the cold shoulder by nearly everyone else.
Nice move, Jermaine!
If losing a couple of million dollars and having to re-locate is a nice move, then I’m glad you’re not my financial advisor.
I think you missed the sarcasm.
Actually, no. The day a Sox fan chides one of their own free agents for not signing with the Cubs will be the first. You must be from out of town.
Meh, oh well, you Chicago people confuse me, Ill just stay over here in St. Louis 🙂
I agree with you, what was Hendry thinking, he definitely lucked out that Dye declined and Nady accepted. (Cards fan agreeing with a Cubs fan, wow!)
My question is – what was Dye thinking? He certainly won’t be offered that by any other team. If the rumors are true that the Reds and Pads are his biggest remaining suitors, he probably is looking at $1.5K at most since both are cash-strapped.
I’m equally amazed that Dye believes he’ll get more than that 3.3M (plus incentives?) I’m really interested to see how it works out for him. If Damon is having trouble getting 3M…how realistic is it that Dye will get that much?
I miss the Washington Times sports section. They would have real news about Dunn and O-Hud negotiations by now. Not made-up stories by Ladson delivered via twitter or complete silence by the Washington Post staff.
Why can’t Washington get creative over the Hudson signing? Instead of paying him for 2 years at $10 million, work with him to spread the dollar amount over a 5 year period and throw some extra incentives at him or performance bonuses.
I feel soo sorry for Arod and all he went thru last year. I mean he barely makes any money and Sports Illustrated said he used steroids when he never did.
I’m still laughing at the blunder that is Johnny Damon’s financial future. He should have taken that first offer from the yanks. Perhaps some team will resurrect the old polo grounds, and then damon would finally pop 30 HRs.