Let's round up the last of the leftover links from the work week….
- MLB.com's Thomas Harding shares a few Rockies notes from Spring Training. According to Harding, 2011 free agent Jorge de la Rosa would like to stay in Colorado beyond this season.
- After watching Roy Halladay dominate the AL East for years, ESPN.com's Jayson Stark is eager to see what the Phillies' new ace is capable of in the Senior Circuit.
- Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports that the Astros agreed to terms with three Minor Leaguers on their 40-man roster today: infielder Jose Vallejo and right-handers Matt Nevarez and Henry Villar. The trio signed one-year contracts with corresponding Major League values of $400K.
- Bruce Bochy's plan to give Bengie Molina a few more days off this season could hurt Molina financially, according to Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News. Molina has multiple games-started incentives in his contract, and will not maximize his earnings if he starts fewer than 115 times.
- GM Alex Anthopoulos wants to focus on speed, athleticism, and strong baserunning throughout the Blue Jays' organization, writes MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.
- Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post says that the Marlins are optimistic about their chances in 2010, despite being the only team not to sign a Major League free agent this winter.
- Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball updates his arbitration scorecard following Jeff Mathis' win over the Angels. The only remaining arbitration case is Ryan Theriot's.
The Marlins didn’t need to sign free agents. They have so much Minor League Depth and are a very well ran organization. Really one of the best front offices in Baseball. They did make some trades that could impact their team in a few years.
If AA wants to build his team around speed and athleticism, Not only does he have a long way to go (Vernon Wells’ contract) But trading Michael Taylor for Brett Wallace and signing Alex Gonzalez instead of Felipe Lopez is contradicting his wish.
Well run indeed. On the other hand, their curious inability to cultivate a truly solid CF is a mystery to me.
Yeah. I think that CF is really going to be Cameron Maybins now.
The best way to give Molina time off would be to take hm out late in games. He still gets to start but plays less and gets time off.
Buster Posey deserves a shot either way.
I wonder if Molina would agree to a deal with Bochy that in order to get that money, Molina would catch the first 5 pitches or something, and the Giants could let Posey catch the next 26 outs. That way, If Posey tears it up in triple-A, the Giants could let Posey be the starting catcher without hearing Bengie Molina get upset. I know, this is just wishful thinking!
There are two statements that show that Bengie knows and is happy with the situation going into the deal.
One right after the signing in January:
“In an intriguing role reversal, Molina said that he sent a soothing text message Thursday to Posey.
“I told him I’m not here to take his spot,” said Molina.
Second the quote from Baggerly’s article:
Asked about starting fewer games, Molina described his outlook thusly:
“If he checks with me and I say I’m OK to go, why get a day off, you know what I mean? But I’ve never been opposed to what Bochy says, never.”
… but you never how feelings will be when the magic day approaches. Other teams have had to deal with these situations too. To put it in perspective, Molina caught 123 games (maybe not all starts) last season and needs 115 starts to max out his incentives. To hypothesize today is premature, however.
I agree. No way does he start that many games.
Actually he starts accruing his incentives with his 90th start @ $250K. Then he gets $250K for each additional 5 starts up to a final accrual at game 115. So if he starts 100 games, he will get a total bonus of $750K, which is definitely possible if he stays healthy.
105 starts gets him up to the Mets’ last offer.
Gotcha
The Giants need to be strategic and careful with the catcher position. They could run into the same problem they had with Lincecum — i.e., Posey could gain Super 2 arbitration rights if called up before June 1. I see Molina and Whiteside splitting time (80/20) and Buster getting called up later in the year.
Posey was called up in september…You mean starting behind the plate right?
It’s funny how AA talks about focusing on speed and athleticism after signing a Molina the same day
Maybe he took the joke about the flying Molina brothers literally.
how biased is jayson stark? honestly? he wrote a book called “worth the wait” … what a loser
Peter Gammons:Red Sox::Jayson Stark:Phillies
I cant wait to see halladay pitch either…………and i wonder how much his presence helps the young guys like kenderick hamels and happ…..kenderick is already hangin round him
halladay should be close to a favorite for the cy young this year.
I just looked something up. April 28th the Phils are in SF and both team will be playing their 21st game of the season… so assuming Halladay and Lincencum are opening day starters and both teams don’t break a 5 man rotation and assuming no injuries: Halladay v. Lincencum, the pitching duel of the season.
That’s a great sighting and I’ve got it marked on the calendar – day game in SF, doesn’t get any better. Be warned though, both the Phils and Giants have 4 days off in April (SF has all Thursdays off), and given the questionable 5th starter status for SF, the rotations could easily get out of whack by the 28th. It might come down to Moyer vs. Wellemeyer. Sheesh!
Yeah, you just know its too good to be true. Still, I might break one of my rules and root for the Giants to get the Wild Card just to see a postseason match up of Halladay v. Licencum. It’d be more epic than the CC v. Beckett postseason games in 07,
moyer most likely wont be starting by then unless he turns into like superman or something
I kinda figured that, but I needed a quick placeholder for the last starting spot, and MLB had Moyer as the #5 on the depth chart. Who would be a more likely choice right now?
giants probably will win wild card…….cause the padres got no chance, the dodgers did nothing this offseason but lose a couple of guys, the diamondbacks im not sure whats up with them, and rocks will win the division
Actually, every team has different needs. The Dodgers had needs and never followed through. The Marlins on the other hand didn’t need to sign a player to a major league contract. They made a couple of trades and signed a trio of relievers to Minor League Deals and ta-dah, There are all the Marlins needs adressed. Could they use a few more starting pitchers, absolutley, but they have some nice rotation depth and a great duo of General Managers in Larry Beinfest/Michael Hill.
You could sign 10 players to Major League Deals and still have holes to fill or still have a bad season.
Quality, not Quantity.
Well the Dodgers had a great season last year and the year before. It’s just that it’s some of the things the Dodgers didn’t do…They didn’t offer arbatration to Wolf and Hudson, they couldn’t spend money because of McCourt and his divorce situation. They didn’t get a 5th starter and they could have had a better off-season. I personally don’t think that the Dodgers off-season was as bad as people made it sound but it really could have been better and I know why people rated it the worst. They don’t seem like the team that can make it back to the ALCS while they just watched the Diamondbacks and Giants improve.
How is it a dishonest practice? He signed the contract knowing that the team held a leverage against him and he’ll very early on have to prove he’s worth starting more if the team wants a shot at the playoffs.
Well yeah, the point of offering arb to Wolf and Hudson was to get the draft picks in return. If they accepted the arbatration and returned to the Dodgers, There would be nothing wrong with that except the money involved. Thats was the writers were upset about. It was a win-win for the Dodgers that god spoiled over Ned Colletti’s decision not to offer arbitration.
Although you are absolutley right about the Dodgers decision not to trade for Roy Halladay, There were other ways to improve aside from that. In my opinion, A Roy Halladay trade that emptied out the Dodgers minor league system (for example, Dee Gordon, Clayton Kershaw, Trayvon Robinson, and could have also lost them James Loney) would be the wrong move, therefore, good job by Ned Colletti not to pull the trigger on that one, but a trade for a second baseman (Akinori Iwamura or Alberto Callaspo) or for a starting pitcher, would not have emptied out the Dodgers system and would have meant that The Dodgers got the draft picks after offering Arbitration and got an okay number 4 and/or 5 starter plus a second baseman and bench depth could have been very possible if Ned Colletti had thought to do that.
The writers just expect better than Jamey Carroll, Reed Johnson, Vicente Padilla, and Ronnie Belliard. They could also expect better than trades for Armando Zerpa and Carlos Monasterios who both have to be on the active roster the whole season or returned to the Rays and Mets respectively while the Dodgers paid cash for both of them.
But don’t think that the Dodgers are in the cellar in the NL West. I just think that a team that has few improvements to make to be World Series bound, should make those certain moves.
Yeah I guess Zerpa and Monasterios are just gambles for now.
If the two had accepted arb, The Dodgers and the player would work out a contract for the 2010 season. The reason a player would decline, would be because the money wasn’t there, or they want to simply be on a contender if the former team wasn’t a winning team. If they did decline and Hudson and Wolf had signed elsewhere, the Dodgers would have gotten two first round picks and two sandwich picks in all. They could have just lost 4 solid prospects.
I actually think that Iwamura would have done real well if he were on the Dodgers. It may have costed them Cory Wade or Belisario or something but remember, our good friends Armando and Carlos could fill those bullpen spots.
Also, remember, the Dodgers are paying the White Sox 9MM plus Juan Pierre.
Well it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion (all else being equal) that Posey will at some point in the season assume the role of starting catcher and Molina knows that. So when he signed an incentive based contract he knew that there would be on some level a decision to limit his time. So no… not dishonest.
No no no I wasn’t being sarcastic at all. I was just joking about how they jumped back in to the conversation.
The Royals wanted AJ Ellis for Callaspo. Come on, If you are Ned Colletti, you can’t say no to that.
True. Very true.
The Royals wanted Ellis’ good defense behind the plate.
should be cool but santana probably shouldnt of said anything untill or if he has anything to back it up……….then again thats never stopped jimmy rollins
yes and how rollins predicted clinching in 5 games didnt work so well……but thats what next years for……winning another ws
it would be kyle kenderick if anybody……….him drew naylor, drew carpenter, antonio bastardo and others
Madson has no chance of starting. He’s our top set-up guy. Kendrick/Moyer are top contenders. Contreras has a small outside shot and Carpenter if all else fails. Bastardo is in the bullpenn for good. He says his arm can’t handle starting.
right you have to beleive your the best or else you wont be, i understand that its just in a division with so many good pitchers just gotta watch how you say things