Links for Friday…
- Hayden Penn cleared waivers and now has until Monday to decide whether to report to Triple A or become a free agent, according to MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch (via Twitter). The Pirates designated Penn for assignment Monday.
- Jose Veras, who was designated for assignment Wednesday, has been outrighted to Triple A by the Marlins, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post (Twitter link). This presumably means Veras cleared waivers.
- The Rockies called up Joe Beimel, according to the team. Beimel's deal pays him $850K in the major leagues.
- ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick heard that Bret Boone is trying to recruit Doug Mientkiewicz and Bobby Kielty for his Golden League team (Twitter link).
- ESPN.com's Keith Law offers updates on some of the top prospects eligible for this June's draft, including Bryce Brentz, an outfielder who Law considers "one of the top college bats in this draft."
- Fred Lewis and his representatives had been asking the Giants for a trade for nearly a year, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
- FanGraphs' Jack Moore calls the Lewis deal a no-brainer for the Blue Jays and a head-scratcher for the Giants.
- Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun takes us on a must-read behind the scenes look at the Adeiny Hechavarria signing.
- Recent injuries to Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron will test Boston's depth, says WEEI.com's Alex Speier.
- Matt Eddy of Baseball America brings us up to date on the latest round of minor league transactions. Among the notable players released: Brady Clark and Curtis Thigpen.
I wrote about this over at BtBS, but I really agree with Moore.
The Lewis trade was a great one for Toronto, landing them a high-quality platoon mate for Jose Bautista, who just sucks against RHP, and it’s odd that the Giants preferred Bowker, Velez and Torres all over Lewis.
Bowker won a batting title with the PCL last year, Freddy Sanchez coming off the DL, a bullpen full of talent, and young more shapeable talent than lewis. he was the obvious choice considering those things.
His batting coach in AA San Jose says that he never gave 100%, and needed a change of scenery.
I think that is why they got rid of him
You would never understand unless you’ve seen him actually play a handful of games. And believe me, it was not fun to watch him in LF. Talk about a disaster. His stats just don’t explain his awful fielding and his chaotic k’s. The Blue Jays can have all the fun they want with him.
The Hermdia trade looks alot better now then it did when it first went down. If Papi continues to falter, I would like to see him platoon DH and the outfield when one of them needs a rest. Maybe the change in scenery was what the doctor ordered?
I don’t understand people who didn’t think the Hemida trade was a solid move from the get-go. Even if he falls off the table, he was a former top prospect that was acquired for, essentially, junk parts.
In regards to the DH’ing, no sense in platooning him. If it’s me, I DH Drew over Hermida. Drew is technically the better fielder, but DH’ing him once a week might help him show up in more games.
Why not Lowell?
because Lowell is not as good as Hermida anymore.
Lowell would generally be the first option if he sticks around all year. That said, Drew is a better hitter than Lowell in pretty much all facets except hitting for average. He gets on base more, has more power and takes more pitches.
That said, the point was how to get Hermida more at bats. DHing Lowell doesn’t do that. You DH Lowell, the only way to get Hermida at bats is to sit a starting outfielder. If you want more at bats for Hermida, you sit Lowell and DH Drew.
I think Lowell is done in Boston no matter what he does aside from putting up batting title numbers, which wont happen because they wont even give him playing time. He will ride the bench, play probably two times a week and get traded, pending an injury to someone where he can sneak in some more at bats. I pick Hermida over Lowell for two reasons, one being that Hermdia is younger and was a first round pick that couldnt get it together in Florida, he is looking thus far like Boston put him in a groove. Two, Hermdia has one more year of team control If I am not mistaken while Lowell is a FA after this year, its better to see if you can convert the younger hitter whom you control into a possible DH
Hall looked absolutely ATROCIOUS yesterday filling in for Ellsbury. Was it 2 or 3 singles stretched into doubles on his arm?
yeah, that whole game was pretty ugly though. The sox looked like a triple-a team during that game. you could hear a pin drop watching it in boston
I was half-expecting to see “Hall released by Boston” on this site by 9am this morning.
yeah, that game and the ellsbury botch catch are two big screw ups for him and his bat is totally in a coma. Im sure the sox will create this headline you speak of soon, very soon. Jose will probably get a chance to earn his spurs
The only reason I see for them to keep Hall right now is his versatility. However I don’t think that currently outweighs the performance he’s been giving.
Whats to bad really is that 3 starting outfielders going down for the sox gave a golden opportunity for Ryan Westmoreland to get some big league action under his belt, but sadly his brain injury made that a missed opportunity, to bad, i really want to see how he reacts on the big stage even though he is still raw
He hasn’t even played in a full season minor league league yet, he’s below A-ball. He’s the last guy they would have called up. They would have signed Jermaine Dye before calling up Westmoreland.
Westmoreland is so far from the majors that the idea of calling him up would’ve been ludicrous even without the brain surgery. He’s played the field just a few times professionally, he spent a lot of time at DH last season, and his status as a prospect almost solely revolves around his talent and projection.
If any top prospect gets time in Boston this season, it’ll be Ryan Kalish or Josh Reddick.
Yeah, the idea that they would’ve brought up Westmoreland is nuts. Option one would’ve been Reddick with Kalish behind him. Westmoreland would’ve come up as like #23 on the depth chart.
You know not EVERY deal the Giants make is bad…
Fred Lewis was HORRIBLE!!!! Terrible defense. Bad routes to fly balls. Several times dropped balls right in his glove!!!
I wouldn’t have been mad if they just cut him outright!
The Jays gave up a box of balls for Lewis.. I wonder if they are all garfoosed?
Mr. Moore obviously hasn’t spent much time watching Lewis. Yea, I know I know the numbers don’t lie… Well in this case, they do. Give it two months, Jays fan will be running f-lew out on a rail.
Hechavarria didnt play in wbc because he wasnt even the everyday shortstop for santiago de cuba, the shortstop was Luis Navas, and of course he wasnt the best shortstop in cuba it was Navas, and Yadil Mujica now a free agent, im cuban and i saw him play, its true that hes is great but just a prospect, and the best prospect was Jose Iglesias.so i dont know why this people start talking crap on his articles, when have not even watch the guy, and they have no info about cuban baseball, and something more, there was an article saying that he could be reaching the double A by the end of the year and the 25 man roster on 2013, pretty stupid at least from my point of view since cuban baseball has the same level or even better than triple A
so,you say that cuban baseball its better than tripleA?WHY?
well, defense is better all the way, sometimes i hate watching mlb because the defense in the outfield and shortstop is awful compared to the defense in cuba, where a player with 2 errors and less 995 fld% is considered a bad defensive player, we have just two weak positions, catcher, and first base.offensively we have a lot of power and contact hitters, but is hard to find more than 4 pitchers with a 90mph fastball in a team.thats why cuba wins every tournament against usa professional players(minor leaguers and some Major leagues Backups),the last time we won something was in 2005, we are struggling a little bit,but still a second place is not bad.
I hope Mientkiewicz goes into managing, his fire and attitude would be good for a young team. I hope that he comes back to Pittsburgh some time.