The latest from SI's Jon Heyman…
- Heyman writes that the Rays and Marlins are thought to have interest in Hank Blalock. We discussed Blalock here; his prospects are dim now that the Indians, Orioles, Braves, and Pirates have gone in different directions.
- Heyman notes that the Yankees love Carl Crawford and that could be one reason they were reluctant to give Johnny Damon a two-year deal. We discussed Crawford's situation earlier today.
- The Diamondbacks offered Mark Reynolds an extension to cover his first three arbitration years, in the $11MM range. That'd be quite a concession, since he should easily top $5MM in his first arbitration year.
- Heyman tweets that the Braves and Reds "could be in the mix" for outfielder Garret Anderson. Presumably, Anderson is in line for a minor league deal. He was linked to the Dodgers before they signed Reed Johnson.
I would love to see Carl Crawford on the Yankees!
I would also think that Hank Blalock would be a great fit on the Marlins. I think Logan Morrison deserves a shot at first base. Blalock can back him up and pinch hit.
Remember everybody, Before the Marlins acquired Hanley, they were going to trade Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell for Hank Blalock. Wow.
As for Garret Anderson, His career OPS+ isn’t spectacular but he could be a future hall of famer. I think the Angels should at least consider bringing him back.
More like, Hall of Marginally Above Average
Im sorry, i normally enjoy your posts span, but no way is GA ever a hall of famer. He had a nice career, but not even close to the Hall
Well i hope you still continue to like my posts!
I just think that if he plays as long as Griffey and Vizquel are, he will get 3000 hits. I’m not saying it’s likely, but theres a chance.
Hall only if he gets 3000. I’ll give you that Brendan’s Mustache.
Griff was a once in a lifetime talent, who without injuries, may be pushing for the all time HR record now.
Vizquel was an absolute whizzzzzz with the glove.. probably top 3 at SS defensively over the last 25 years.
GA was a nice player, but didnt really stand out at anything, and never really excelled. IMO, he just doesnt have enough of the extra things throughout his career. He was an all-star only 3 times, no real annual awards minus winning the silver slugger twice.. he’s had a nice career.. just not hall worthy, even if he somehow gets 500 more hits.
Ok ill tip my cap to you on that one. But if he does get to 3000, that is the benchmark.
According to Rally’s WAR database, Anderson has posted a WAR above 2.0 in just five seasons. A 2.0 WAR is approximately a league average player.
Anderson’s had two great years, three good years and a couple of years as a below average everyday player. He’s not even remotely a Hall of Famer, his induction would make Jim Rice’s vote look genius.
Anderson has ONE argument, and it’s the one you pointed out: he’s accumulated a lot of hits.
Unfortunately, he’s accumulated a lot of outs too.
I’ll take a 295 career Average anyday.
Of course!!
But when you match him up with the greats of all time, or even the greats of today, GA just doesnt stand out.
Nice player, nice career.. not much more though
But we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about the Hall of Fame.
3000 is a magical number no doubt.
Over the last 5 season he’s averaging 147 hits/yr.. i just cant see him producing at that level for another 3.5 years.. or the one coming up for that matter.. i just dont think he’ll get the plate opportunities.
I guess time will tell, but even with 3000 hits i just dont think of HoF with GA’s name
When you think about it, it would take 15 seasons of 200 hits to get that 3000. Most players don’t last that long, and 200 hits annually is extremely rare. 147 as an average = no dice for Crawford to reach 3000.
If GA is a hall of famer than Helton and Vlad are first ballot. Anderson should get some votes when he comes on the ballot because he was dependable and very likeable. Love GA, but I dont think he will be a HOFer.
Agreed, no chance he’s in the hall. He was a good player, but only good.
Braves will not bring LOAF back
“Heyman notes that the Yankees love Carl Crawford”
Color me surprised.
They should give him a bit more than Chone Figgins got next winter.
More like, double what Figgins got this winter.
Did I miss something, or did Crawford just sign on with Boras minutes ago?
… and it’s already starting.
Big shock that the yanks would be in on Crawford. Why do they even play the seasons out when the teams with the largest payrolls just get everyone else’s stars. Nothing like being a farm system for MLB.
Actually I disagree. There are plenty of great players who play their whole career on one team and there of plenty of players in this day and age who are not leaving their small market team.
Tony Gwynn
Cal Ripken Jr.
Kirby Puckett
Craig Biggio
Ryan Braun
Ichiro
Greinke
Griffey Jr. (Never went to a big market club)
Those are just some.
I’m certain you can soon add Mauer to that list, as well as Pujols and even Jeter.
Not for a minute will I add Pujols but I’ll add Mauer and I can’t add Jeter because I’m trying to prove a point that great players are on the small market teams as well.
Derek Jeter will in fact end his career with the Yankees.
Greinke is 26.. if you arent putting Mauer or Albert up there, idk why Greinke would be
And Braun’s had three whole seasons and has only given up two years of free agency. Considering most of those guys either retired like ten years ago or are still in their twenties, that’s a pretty terrible list of examples. Yes, Greinke and Braun both signed extensions, but they’re still going to hit free agency before thirty and are likely going to either take a big fat payday in their prime or sink into mediocrity, dependent on their career path going forward. They could both continue to play exceptionally and retire with their respective teams, but it is WAY early to use either as an example for the (incorrect) notion that there don’t go where the money is nine times out of ten.
Ichiro’s really the only player you put who is a great modern player whose chosen to stay with one team for what is a lengthy career.
I think you could make a good case against Ichiro too.
Ichiro didnt come up through their system, Ichiro signed with them as a FA initially.. he chose Seattle. Its not like he signed with them as a 16yr old kid, or was drafted by them.
Granted, since then he’s shown loyalty, but if he were forced to go into an international draft, and signed with the Marlins for example, we might be signing a different song.
if I am reading stats correctly, Ichiro played for 1 team in Japan, and looks like he will end his career with 1 team in the USA (hopefully as a pitcher!). That’s pretty loyal in my book. I see your point, but this is definitely a closer call than Greinke or Braun.
Nothing like being a farm system for MLB.
And there’s nothing like a League that lets that happen. Sure profit sharing is some help, but it does little to alter the economic equation of who can and can not afford the big $$ guys.
This is in no way a perfect system, but I am sure TB ownership has 0 problem pocketing 30m+ profit every year as they take their share of the profit sharing revenue that is produced by the NYY, BOS, STL, NYM, etc of the MLB. and letting their fans play the ever-present “victim” role while they take swims in their Scrooge McDuck-esque money vaults. Ya, it’s MLB’s fault…
IF what you suppose is true, stricter regulations about how the $$ is to be used and better oversight and accountability on the part of the MLB might be the antidote to that. Obviously, and for the usual greedy reasons, providing a monetary helping hand plus free rein to the funds to be used “however” is obviously not the way to go. Also, if what you are inferring is true, the Rays wouldn’t be the only team guilty of that. Seems to me that the Marlins were hit with similar criticism recently.
Question is, what are we approving if we allow an oversight situation to occur? That’s not a perfect situation either in the fact that in down FA years, such as this one, there might be 200m between 7 teams that an oversight group might say needs to be spent = massively inflated contracts. I mean, how much has this FA been worth? Not that much.
I do agree with the set draft pick compensation, that makes total sense to me.
And what I am suggesting is true. The Rays have been a total farm team for years and have been pocketing more money than any other team in MLB as far as profits go (if I read the report correctly). Yes, the Marlins were on the front line this year due to Scott Boras calling a press conference and making it very public about how much teams are pocketing. The low and behold, Marlins extend J. Johnson the following day and decide to keep Uggla…
I wish there was an answer, but in my opinion, there is not. It’s hard to blame the Yankees for dumping so much of their income back into the players. Their fanbase now expects a top level quality product on the field, and Cashman and Co. deliver that. That quality product sells merchandise which in turn lines the pockets of TB and FLA ownership. There are probably a couple holes in my argument here but that’s the Circle of Life, que Elton John.
Great response by the way.
I see what you are saying, and in light of that I wonder if there might not be some way for funds to be held aside for the teams in question, perhaps for a single season at a time, and only to be accessed for hefty acquisitions? So if not being used this to land big-$$ players it’s “no touch!” Maybe some permutation of that could work. Obviously I wouldn’t expect such a plan to be as simplistic as I make it sound (not being in finance I have to describe this in very general terms ’cause that’s all I got!). Also, if something like this was feasible I would anticipate all sorts of devilish details that would need to be worked out…but it’s an idea anyway!
For the record, the Yankees are hardly the only team I had in mind when I made my comments but I know they are useful to illustrate your point.
Come on Craig, “Nothing like being a farm system for MLB” is such a cop out comment. The Rays have been pocketing money for years and choose to be a farm system. Sure they may not put up 175m, but they sure as hell can do a lot better than the 40m avg or so player budget they have been shoving down their fans throats as “effort to contend” for 10 years now. Come on man, we as fans have to be smarter than this.
Crawford is a great talent and should be payed as such.
Regarding Anderson, more of Heyman being Boras’ sock puppet, that’s all.
How Dayton Moore has not yet signed Hank Blalock is beyond me.
Agreed.
How shocking to see the Dbacks lowball another one of their premiere players. Way to go ownership! This must be more of that organizational advocacy we’ve been hearing about.
Who doesn’t like Carl Crawford?
But the key word is love.
Oh, but the love is there. Unfortunately the key word is really “money.”
🙁
Good point
Sad point, Spanny….sad point!
Guess who has all the coin 🙁
Thaaaaaaaaaat’s what I’m talkin’ about!
Because it’s good for baseball, the Rays need to keep Crawford, and as many of their stars as possible.
I feel the exact same way, and I have had a lot of conversations about this. Just having two or three teams that can suck up all the prime talent in the league is NOT good for the League or for the game. It’s about all 30 teams, dammit!
And go figure my Jays have to be the same fackin division as the two I know you speak of.
Got that right!
Well thats another good point for you Innie. But I meant good point that you make. And the point that you made was true. So it was a sad good point that you made. And a Good point you made after that.
Spanny:
1. ROFLMAO!
2. Priceless
Just doing my best Mr. Fly.
An outfield of Crawford/Granderson/Gardner would be about as fast as you can get.
Unless they signed Usain Bolt…
Do you think Bolt will settle for a minor league deal? I still think Swish will be in that outfield.
I don’t think so. He is scheduled to make $9MM in 2011 and is nowhere worth that in the current market.
Even if he can’t be traded the Yanks are trying to get more athletic and defense savvy. They could use him as a 4th outfielder/backup 1B.
If they don’t win this year I can see them getting him at any cost ala Sabathia/Burnette/Texiera in 09 because of the lack of the playoff birth.
Wait who will be a 4th outfielder?
Haha, I changed the subject to Usain Bolt, but I think Steve Espinosa was still on the subject of Crawford. If Crawford is signed, I’d assume Swisher gets traded (unless Gardner is horrible at the plate this year).
However, if Usain Bolt is signed, I’d expect him to be a pinch runner (unless he can grow into his own similar to how Willie Mays Hayes did on Major Leage–in that case, he’s the new leadoff hitter).
I think Bolt will take a 3 year/ 46MM deal.
Everyone is going to be in on Crawford, if the Rays are out of it at the half look for them to trade him away as they stand little chance in resigning. This gives advantage to non al east teams of whom may look to lock him up within trade. That’s about the only way the evil empire doesn’t crack open the bank and land him.
Would love to see what kind of talks transpire in July for Crawford if Manny really wants to be an AL East DH…
At least as a 2nd half rental; highly doubt TB could afford Ramirez in ’11.
if the dodgers pay 7mil of the 3mil. technically, at half season, manny would only cost 5mil, so the dodgers are really only kicking in 2mil.
actually, it seems like a pretty good idea.
Why would they bench Swisher if, as you said, they’re already paying him $9M?
He’s been a 3+ WAR player in three of the past four seasons, he’s a solid defender, and he’s coming off the best season of his career.
He’s simply too good to be pushed to a reserve role, especially given his salary. The Yankees spent monster money after 2008 because they had monster money coming off the payroll. They’ll certainly be in the race for the majority of top players, like they are in most offseasons, but they have a pretty solid core set so I wouldn’t expect a monster spending spree post-2010.
More likely, they’ll use 2011 to fully implement Chamberlain, Hughes, and Jesus Montero.
I’ll change the topic of conversation a little. How about the joke of an offer the D’Backs gave to Reynolds, 3 years 11 mil? Am i missing something here? He’ll probably make at least that in his third year of arb. 3 years 22 mil sounds about right. If I’m him, I’d just go year to year.