Links for Monday…
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports wonders if the convergence of Joe Mauer, Ron Shapiro, and Bill Smith in St. Paul Wednesday for a Rick Reilly program will accelerate extension talks.
- The Rockies "remain firmly in the mix" for free agent reliever Derrick Turnbow, reports Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post. Turnbow could make a choice by Wednesday.
- In his latest MLB.com mailbag, Jordan Bastian notes that Blue Jays starter Dustin McGowan is out of options.
- MLBTR's resident translator, Nick Collias, passes along this Esteban Loaiza interview with Hector Linares from the Mexican newspaper Excelsior. Loaiza says he's doing everything possible to make it back to the big leagues, and has received a few calls from teams. He last pitched for the White Sox in June of '08.
- Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News explains why the Phillies' Cliff Lee trade was the right move. He says fans don't understand, and the Phils needed the prospects.
- Aaron Gleeman wouldn't mind seeing Delmon Young benched and Jim Thome added by the Twins to platoon at DH.
- RotoAuthority assesses David Wright's fantasy prospects for 2010.
- Baseball America's Ben Badler says MLB voided the seven-figure contract Dominican third baseman Duanel Jones had with San Francisco. ESPN's Jorge Arangure says (via Twitter) the move was prompted by Jones failing a drug test administered by the Giants.
- Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie told MASN's Steve Melewski that his $120K pay cut from 2008 to 2009 did not affect his '09 performance.
The Thome question all comes down to the money. Do the Twins like him at $1m? Sure, who wouldn’t. Do they like him at $3m? God I hope not.
Too bad Gleeman totally sidesteps that issue, which, as always, is the decisive factor in a good free agent signing…
I think $3MM for Thome in Gleeman’s scenario would be acceptable. Granted, the Twins have much bigger needs. But, in a vacuum, signing Jim Thome to platoon at DH and crush RHP for $3MM isn’t a bad thing at all. Especially given the fact that he provides insurance should Young, Cuddyer, Kubel, or Morneau fall to injury.
Cuddyer can move to first again, with Kubel moving to the OF in the event of a Morneau injury. In the event of an OF injury, Kubel/Young moves to the OF and Thome is your full-time DH.
Thome at $3MM would be a move I’d be in favor of, if somehow we failed on all attempts to bring in a free agent who fills a more pressing need.
As it is, I think he ends up back in Chicago anyway, but you Thome would be fun to see in Minnesota for the right price or as a last resort (i.e. Gleeman’s scenario).
Hard for Thome to “platoon” at DH when his platoon partner would also bat left handed
Loaiza has pitched really great in the Playoffs in Mexico this year.
That’s always great to see, and is encouraging sign for him. The thing is that it’s not the same level of play you see in the majors, so even though he looks good it’s hard to know how effective he would be pitching the same way back in the bigs. I remember the dominance of Nelson Figueroa in winter ball 2 seasons ago (la Serie del Caribe) but he was much less impressive when he started for the Mets that same year, and since.
It seems he now realized and come to terms with the fact that he has to use offspeed pitches and more control now that his velocity has decreased. A nice guy who seems to know that experience can be equal to sucess in the majors where batters are at their best.
Hopefully we get to watch him in the caribean series this year, he’s been pitching gems, 7 inn of 4 hits and 1-2 earned runs even if he doesn’t win the games, he could bolster the rotation of a low tier team, specially in the NL (he is using low pitches).
This sounds good – that he is on his way becoming a true “finesse” pitcher. Mostly I get the dominican baseball around here (or venezuelan), but yes, maybe we will have the luck to see him represent for the mexican leagues. I will look for him!
Some interesting times coming in Philly after this season…2011 could be walk years for Howard, Rollins, Madsen, Ibanez, Lidge…the Phils will have HUUGE money coming off the books. They currently have for 2012:HalladayUtleyBlantonPolancoVicRuiz….on the payroll for $64m, with arb cases for:HamelsKendrickFransisco…if Hamels returns to form he’ll probably get $14-15m, so figure @20m for those guys…the Phils will have around $50-70m to spend to fill:1BSSLFRF5th starterentire bullpenbench…this is why the Lee trade happened. At least one OF slot will probably be internal (Brown/Gillies/Gose) if not both, 5th starter and a couple bullpen parts internal (Aumont/Bastardo/Escalona/Flande/Ramirez/Mathieson)…the Phils will be in position to make a strong run at any FA’s in 2012, be they Howard/Rollins or true FA’s (I’m looking at you, Prince Fielder).People hate the Lee deal, say he overpaid for Ruiz and Blanton…whatever. Amaro has set the team up beautifully to get the most out of the current players in their primes AND maintained flexibility in two years. Keeping Lee would have made for one great season, but lessened the Phils’ chances of filling holes with internal guys in the future.
That doesn’t make too much sense. If the Phillies were that concerned over keeping money off the books in the future and filling holes internally then they would not have even made the Halladay deal and kept the superior prospects (Drabek, Taylor), and they wouldn’t have signed Polanco to that ridiculous contract. That would leave them with better prospects and more financial room than they are going to have now. Either go for it this year or build for the future (obviously they will be going for it all this year given their roster). When teams try to do both it often leads to them falling short in each aspect.
It would be very ironic if the Phils are looking to improve at the deadline and starting pitching happens to be a spot they want to improve, which it very well could be.
Well, you can say going for it now plus planning for the future often leads to failure in both, but that’s ideally what every GM is trying to do.
I never said they were concerned with keeping money off the books…but their current situation has lead to an ace signed for a very team-friendly contract, many of their current players signed long-term, AND flexibility in the future…with multiple prospects competing to fill roles they have coming available. How does that not make sense?
If they were trying to just go for it now, they never make the Lee deal. As you said, if they were overly concerned with internal options, they never make the Halladay deal. They did both so…
Aaron Gleeman = Lifelong Delmon Young Hater
I would’ve seriously considered non-tendering Delmon this winter.
The only thing worse for Smith than trading a young pitcher and solid SS for an OF prospect with an attitude problem, would be proceeding to cut said OF prospect only to watch him hit .310 for another club.
Not saying I like Delmon either, but the politics of the matter preclude Smith from doing what the stats say he should.
There’s not much of a reason to not hate Delmon Young if you’re a Twins fan.
I remain optimistic, but only because I want to believe that trade will be moderately salvaged someday… Delmon’s done a whole lot of nothing since he landed in Minnesota.
We’ve been teased with a couple of three-week samples of the player we thought we were getting, where he legitimately looks like he can carry a lineup. Until he looks more like that and less like a pre-Mets Jeff Francoeur, he doesn’t deserve to be lavished with praise.
I’m inclined to agree… with hating Delmon that is. I’ve still never gotten over the whole “Call me out and I’ll chuck a bat at you, Mr. Umpire” episode.
Any stats aside, on character issues alone, I absolutely loathe him.
i honestly dont want to here about the lee trade anymore i understand it was the biggest trade of the offseason but people have kept on ranting about whether it was the right move or not, it was the right move because they needed to dump salary for the long run now in my opinion i think people should focus on what is goin on in the offseason besides this since weve tlked about it so much
Why do you hate capitalization and punctuation so much?
oh woops……haha
Mauer, Shapiro and Smith in the same room at the same time and that room is a public forum? That doesn’t sound like a negotiation to me it sounds like an announcement!
Hope your right
once this is done they’ll know what they can bid on a infielder ( Hudson lopez
I can’t help but think that they’ve been having talks for quite some time and, if Smith didn’t know exactly what was left in the budget, then he had a pretty good idea. And that includes Mauer’s new contract, plus settling with all the arbitration eligable players as well. Not only that, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if they had a good idea what the budget for 2011 would likely be as well.
I’ve been looking at the 5 million they offered Washburn as a sort of hail mary for a player the team has had an interest in for quite some time. In other words, it was everything the team felt it had left in the budget to spend. So, since the Washburn offer, I’ve been using that 5 million as a guideline when I speculate on possible moves.
5 million should be enough to sign Lopez for a year (they might even have a little change left over as well). I would like to think that if they wait a few more weeks, 5 million would be enough to sign Hudson for a year as well, but I’m not holding my breath.
Now here’s the thing (and this is why I’ve blasted any talk of signing other players no matter how cheap they may go), if the team signs Thome, there is no way they have enough money left to go after Hudson and Lopez seems unlikely as well. Even if they can get him for a million (and I highly doubt that), Hudson is probably a no go and Lopez is questionable.
I say use the 5 million to fill the most glaring hole (in my mind that would be 2nd base), then, if there is anything left, start poking around the scrap heap for bargins and re-treads.
You’re right, and I’m not saying they’re absolutely going to get rid of Howard…I was trying to illustrate that IF they don’t feel Howard will continue to produce, they’ll have money and flexibility to look elsewhere.
I think the REAL plan is to let Rollins walk, with the hope being they can pull a speedy leadoff guy out of the farm. That’s the reason Gillies was the real center of the Lee deal…the Phils now have two lightning-fast leadoff types in the minors (Gillies and Gose) that are not ready NOW, but could be after 2011 when Rollins walks.
They’ve always liked him in the bottom of the order. He didn’t hit 2nd full-time until this season..even in ’08, Werth saw time in the 2.
He COULD do it, and there’s plenty of fan support for giving him a shot, but it’s just my gut that they want him in the 6/7. I actually like him down there as well, the bottom of the order was SO SLOW with Feliz-Ruiz in the 7/8.
Heh exactly!
That’s a problem for the Phils right now…they’ve got good OF prospects, good pitching prospects, but they have no infield depth at all in the minors. They tried last year by drafting Hewitt, knowing he was a big-upside project, but he’s been even worse than they thought. Still young though so who knows.
I was just messing with him. It would be easier to read with a couple periods here and there, though.
Indeed. Thanks for catching it.