Links for Tuesday…
- I joined Jeff & Jeff on KNFS 590 St. Louis today; click here to listen to audio.
- Jorge Ebro of El Nuevo Herald tweets that the Red Sox signed 22-year-old Cuban outfielder Jorge Padron to a minor league deal with a $350K bonus. Cuban Ball Players has a bit on Padron here.
- SI's Jon Heyman tweets that the Royals will join the Mariners in the Jarrod Washburn bidding. Heyman first made the Royals-Washburn connection on January 11th, but nothing much came of it.
- Kevin Baxter of the L.A. Times spoke to Orlando Cabrera, Tony Reagins, and Walt Jocketty about the decline in multiyear free agent contracts.
- Rays first baseman Dan Johnson cleared waivers and accepted a Triple A assignment, tweets Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune.
- Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun feels that Orioles catcher Chad Moeller is unlikely to accept a minor league assignment now that the team has chosen Craig Tatum to back up Matt Wieters.
- Aroldis Chapman is expected to begin the season in the minors, writes MLB.com's Mark Sheldon.
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs praises the Rockies for their player development, but questions their offseason tweaking. For more on that topic, check out our Rockies offseason in review.
- Rich Hill, recently reassigned to Triple A, can elect free agency around June if he's not in the Majors according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
John Fay and Mark Sheldon just talked about the race between Leake and Wood. Tomorow is such a big day for the decision because they both pitch and I hope that Mike Leake pitches well because I really want to see him make that jump and be the Reds 5th starter. I love Travis Wood and he is a lefty, something that the Reds don’t have in their rotation, but I think Mike Leake is the next Greg Maddux and I really think the already talented Reds and the already stocked up Reds can win the Wild Card (at the very least) this season but I think the addition of Leake in the rotation will only make things better.
The Rockies, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Red Sox, and Twins all have amazing player development and thats one of the reasons why those teams (among others) are such great organizations. If you take a look at the Mariners under Bavasi (for example) they didn’t draft well and expecially didn’t develop players that would help their team. They either traded their prospects or just spent money.
Rich Hill can elect for free agency now as far as I’m concerned.
I think you’re right. He’s done. You’d think that if he wouldn’t drop backwards during his delivery, he could solve some of the control problems. The idea is to throw down, not up. He dips so far back, it’s like he’s throwing up hill. Even I can see that….