If you read these very slowly, maybe they'll last until Opening Day!
- MLB.com's Bill Ladson has a terrific Q&A up with Nationals President Stan Kasten. Among the topics covered: will Stephen Strasburg make the Opening Day roster (almost certainly not) and early returns on GM Mike Rizzo (positive).
- ESPN.com's Jayson Stark provides an entertaining look at just how certain Derek Jeter is to stay with the Yankees, even though his contract is up at the end of the season. Stark quotes one Yankee official as giving Jeter's chances of leaving as "zero", but then amending them to "none and none".
- The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham describes just how well the Billy Wagner trade has worked out for the Red Sox. In short: the 20th and 57th picks in next year's draft belong to them, they got fifteen terrific appearances from Wagner, and all they gave up were a pair of low-level prospects. Abraham also covets Adrian Gonzalez for the Red Sox here.
- Ryan Franklin is considering retirement after the 2011 season, writes Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. Mark Buehrle might, too, according to Chicago Breaking Sports.
The Red Sox will be the W.S. Champs if they get Gonzo.
Yup, and Barney Fwank will marry Lady Gaga.
Lady Gaga actually wears something decent.
Ya and I will run naked through the streets if I bang Andy Roddick’s wife
How could you argue that they won’t have the best, most balanced team if Gonzo were obtained? You’re just naive if you think that they won’t be one of the best if not THE best.
Oh let’s see. Their division contains the WS winner who has far as I’m concerned improved during the offseason. You are relying on Beltre to bounce back, you lost your main RBI and HR guy, so that accounts for some loss in chemistry.
Chemistry? Are your projections also based on Astrology?
…Indeed. The stars are aligned for the Yankees to get to the WS. I can see it!
(I see the Cardinals winning obviously :D)
Raymond Domenech used tarot cards to pick the line up for his French throughout the 2006 World Cup campaign. Got them all the way to the finals.
I think u need to redirect those questions to good ol Jeff Wilpon…who only wanted to save the 1 or 2 million dollars he owed Mr. Wagner
The Pirates will win 100 games before Jeter leaves the Yankees.
I think theres a better chance that the Cardinals trade Albert Pujols, Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, and Chris Carpenter for Oliver Perez than the chances of Derek Jeter leaving the Yankees.
Let the Mets rumors begin….:)
The Cardinals would also pick up the balance of the contracts.
“The Mets didnt receive any prostects in said deal. Bad move by Omar. Fire him!”
I look forward to next year when the report comes out that Boston checked in on FA Derek Jeter. It will be a classic. Boston should offer him 40 mil for 2 years.
No way… the guy’s got enough money. I don’t even like the guy, but he seems way too loyal to do that
Yeah, even as a Red Sox fan he is very classy and will stay with the Yankees.
That would be probably the most hilarious signing I have ever seen.
It would be epic if Jeter signed with the Red Sox. A-Rod was actually supposed to be traded to the Red Sox for Manny back after the ’03 season, but it got called off.
Jeter signing with the Red Sox would be the equivalent of seeing all 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. Also it should be noted that the potential ARod to the Sox deal also had Lester going to the Rangers.
The Sox should offer him that deal with like 10 million in incentives. That would be epic. I can just imagine how much coverage Sports Center would give it. People would be outraged.
The Cardinals can’t win with a Mitchell Report guy as their closer. Don’t wait until 2011 to retire, get out sooner Franklin.
Nah, I’m holding judgement on him. It could very well have been mental as well as physical fatigue at being in a role he isn’t used to all year. Besides, who the hell will replace him?
I hope with the 20th pick (it’s the 20th right?) the Red Sox go for Nick Castellanos. As someone else who put it better than me said. “3rd baseman/shortstop with some good power that should get better as he fills out (6’4″, 185 right now.) He won the UA Home Run Derby in Wrigley with wood bats, and hit 4 doubles in the All-American game part of the event.”
If Strasburg makes the Opening Day roster, Mike Rizzo can add that to a long list of fails.
Maybe he’ll do it for the lulz.
If you get a chance to ask him, can you please ask him why he didn’t sign any pitching this off-season, Traded Brian Stokes for Gary Matthews Jr., and ask him why every other thing he has done this off-season and everything he hasn’t done has backfired on the Mets. Thanks Metsvilleslugger.
It was a salary dump. They saved 3mil.
….because there was simply no circumstance where the Mets could afford to be paying Wagner in 2010….
….and because in order for Boston to collect draft picks on Wagner they needed….
A) Wagner to stay healthy, from a guy who was bitching about how he couldn’t pitch in back to back days.
B) Wagner to perform at an extremely high level to warrant closer consideration, from a guy coming off a major surgery and less then 10 total innings under his belt.
If either of those did not happen, Boston wouldn’t have been able to offer him arbitration for fear that he’d accept and they’d be saddled with a 10+ million set-up man for next season.
To pull an analogy, the Mets sold Boston a lottery ticket. Boston hit the lottery. Congratulations to them. It was still the right move for the Mets to sell on Wagner and take what they could get at the time.
They’re the Mets…..God that team ownership is incompetent. Why couldn’t the Cards have a revenue of 100 million and a half. Least they wouldn’t epically blow it.
“New York, we have a crappy baseball team”
Even Marty noble critized him.
What Omar was probably thinking was that the Mets saved $2.75M by trading Wagner ($1.75M for his salary for one month + $1M for declining the 2010 option). On top of that, when Omar had to decide whether or not to pull the trigger, Wagner only had 2 post-TJ surgery starts. Therefore, if they had not traded him and he had suffered another injury – which had to be considered possible at the time – the Mets would have had to pay the $2.75M and not offer arbitration for fear that an injured Wagner would accept. In hindsight, with Wagner throwing a decent month for the Sox and signing with a top 15 team netting Boston a 1st and a supplemental pick, it looks like Omar basically gave up the picks to save $2.75M. However, at the time that he had to decide, he was facing the possibility of paying $2.75M for no return. IMO, of all of the moves that Omar has made in his tenure, this one looks a lot less egregious than others when you look at Omar’s options at the time.
I disagree that 2 outings is enough of a sample to ensure that they would be able to offer arbitration and know that Wagner would turn it down. That being said, I’m not a Mets fan, so I do appreciate your unwillingness to accept a salary dump.
I know you don’t like him but actually I listened to him talk once and watched him on TV once but that’s about it for Marty Noble.
“Billy Wagner would not accept a role as anything but a closer… you must not know Billy.”
I know Billy….I also know a team would have been ridiculously foolish to offer him a closers gig unless he came back from injury and was pitching at an elite level. And if his choices were being a set-up man or a middle reliever on some mid level team making chump change, or making 10+ million to do so on a contender….well, now that’s just a no-brainer, isn’t it?
Production was absolutely essential to collection compensation on Wagner.