Odds & Ends: Mets, Orioles, Cliff Lee
Links for Wednesday, as the Pirates' Brad Lincoln hopes to capture just a small slice of Stephen Strasburg's success in his MLB debut…
- Joseph Pawlikowski of River Ave. Blues is skeptical about today's rumors connecting the Yankees to Cliff Lee. Pawlikowski expects the Yanks to add complementary players this summer, rather than big names.
- Brewers catching prospect Angel Salome has requested a move to the outfield, reports Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
- The Mets appear interested in Kevin Millwood, Jeremy Guthrie, and Jake Westbrook, writes MetsBlog's Matthew Cerrone.
- Vladimir Guerrero, Troy Glaus, and Jon Garland head up Jon Heyman's list of the top free agent bargains for SI.com.
- 39th overall pick Anthony Ranaudo chatted with WEEI's Alex Speier, explaining that the plan is for him to pitch in the Cape Cod League and then begin negotiations with the Red Sox.
- Cliff Lee would prefer cooler temperatures than he'd find in Arlington if traded, reports ESPN's Richard Durrett, but the lefty knows it's out of his control. Lee told Durrett he's not worrying about the trade deadline.
- White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was disappointed to see the team draft his son Ozney way down in the 22nd round, reports MLB.com's Scott Merkin.
- Southpaw reliever George Sherrill would like to remain with the Dodgers beyond 2010, reports Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times. In my opinion, Sherrill will need to re-sign after being non-tendered for that to happen, much like Jonny Gomes did with the Reds.
Rangers Agree With First-Rounders Deglan, Skole
WEDNESDAY, 2:49pm: The Rangers agreed to terms with both Deglan and Skole, tweets Wilson. We learned earlier that Deglan's deal is worth $1MM, while MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo tweets that Skole agreed to a $1.557MM deal.
TUESDAY, 7:58am: ESPN's Richard Durrett confirmed the Rangers' agreement with Deglan last night. He also noted that the team's #15 pick, high school outfielder Jake Skole, is close to signing. Skole already told Georgia Tech he won't be attending, reports Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It's a pair of affordable first-rounders for Texas, though it should be noted that they had to be safe with #15 because they would not get a pick next year if the player doesn't sign.
MONDAY, 9:01pm: Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus hears that the Rangers have agreed to a $1MM deal with catcher Kellin Deglan (Twitter link). The Rangers selected the 18-year-old British Colombia native 22nd overall with their second pick of the first round.
LSU Coach Discusses Zach Lee
Louisiana State head football coach Les Miles seems to think the Dodgers will not be signing their first-round pick Zach Lee this year. In a statement on the LSU football website, Miles said:
"Zach wants to come to LSU, get a degree and play football and baseball for the Tigers. I met with Zach and his parents today and I think that they are looking at LSU as a great opportunity both academically and athletically. Zach is an outstanding student and he's excited about the college experience."
Lee begins summer classes today, though the Dodgers technically have until the August 16th deadline to sign him. Dodgers assistant GM Logan White told Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times on Monday that he's cautiously optimistic about signing Lee and the team did not purposely select an unsignable player to save money. ESPN's Keith Law wrote recently that the "rumor of the day had the kid saying $6 million wouldn't get him signed."
Mike Lamb Clears Waivers
Third baseman Mike Lamb has cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple A, tweets MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. Lamb was the casualty a few days ago when the Marlins called up top prospect Mike Stanton, who had three hits in his debut last night. Lamb's last extended Triple A stay last year in the Mets' organization produced a .261/.299/.370 line.
Potentially Available Power Bats
Several contenders could use a boost in the slugging department, especially the Padres and A's. Let's take a look at potentially available power bats for the trade deadline.
- Prince Fielder, Brewers. Fielder has shown less power than the others on this list, with a slugging percentage of just .437. Still, he gets on base and has slugged over .600 in multiple seasons. He has $6.7MM left on this year's contract and will get a raise in arbitration after the season. Fielder obviously won't come cheap, if he's even made available.
- Lance Berkman, Astros. He's not showing power yet this year and has $11.2MM left on his contract. And that's if he backs down from the idea of demanding his option be exercised upon a trade.
- Paul Konerko, White Sox. Konerko's .610 SLG ranks fourth in the American League, so in that regard he's the best available power bat. Obstacles: he's owed $7.6MM and has a full no-trade clause. With a surprising .583 SLG, Konerko's teammate Alex Rios is another consideration. Rios is having a fine year, even if U.S. Cellular is giving his bat a boost. His contract still has over $56MM through 2014, and he can block trades to six teams. Andruw Jones should be widely available, though he's fared poorly since May 1st.
- Corey Hart, Brewers. Hart somehow leads the NL with 15 home runs. Like Fielder, the Brewers might prefer to keep the arbitration-eligible outfielder around for 2011 if they want to contend.
- Kelly Johnson, Diamondbacks. Arizona's second baseman is also arbitration-eligible after the season. He's plenty valuable, but keep in mind he's hitting a more reasonable .254/.361/.429 since May 1st. Johnson's teammate Adam LaRoche should be attainable, though he's down to .250/.344/.443.
- Luke Scott and Ty Wigginton, Orioles. Both players are slugging over .500 and should be available. Scott is under team control through 2012, but he's already earning $4.05MM. Wiggy is owed $2.2MM through the rest of this season.
- Jose Guillen, Royals. He's hitting just .213/.322/.394 since May 1st. Guillen is owed the same amount as Konerko, but could probably be had for just a slight amount of salary relief. More interesting is Guillen's teammate David DeJesus, who's hitting .306/.378/.461 on the season. He can be controlled through next year, so the Royals should get something useful in return.
- Austin Kearns, Indians. Kearns is a cheap rental with less than $500K remaining, and he's hitting .306/.380/.482. Kearns' teammate Russell Branyan has a .463 SLG, if you prefer 1B/DH power.
- Ryan Doumit, Pirates. The Bucs' backstop is at .281/.366/.461 on the season. He's got about $7.8MM left through 2011.
- Others with pop: Jim Edmonds, Hunter Pence, Rickie Weeks, Garrett Jones, Ryan Raburn, Carlos Lee, Mike Lowell, Travis Hafner, Lyle Overbay, Jose Lopez, and Miguel Tejada. For now we've left the Blue Jays, Nationals, and Cubs off the list, but that could change.
Phillies Agree With First-Round Pick Biddle
The Phillies' deal with first-round pick Jesse Biddle is done, tweets Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Gelb notes that the deal can't be made official until after Biddle graduates high school Friday. Once signed the local lefty will join the rookie league GCL Phillies.
The Phillies drafted Biddle 27th overall, with scouting director Marti Wolever comparing him to Clayton Kershaw. MLB.com's Todd Zolecki notes that the Mariners signed the #27 pick last year for $1.28MM, which is around slot. Baseball America ranked Biddle 116th overall, while ESPN's Keith Law had him at 90.
How To Use MLBTR
An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:
- If the main site doesn't load perfectly on your cell phone, try the more mobile-friendly mlbtraderumors.mobi. It's a simple page that shows you just the headlines and lets you click through to what you want to read.
- If you want only the hard news in the form of transactions, our transactions page is the ticket. You can also get only the transactions via Twitter or RSS.
- To return to the main page at any time, just click on the title or the Home button on the navigation bar below the title.
- The navigation bar will cover many of your needs. Use the About dropdown to learn about this site or any of its writers.
- The Contact button takes you to a page where you can write an email message to the MLBTR writers. If you have a link to a rumor we've missed, please send it in through the Contact page! Also use the Contact page to inquire about advertising on MLBTR.
- The Archives dropdown shows you 15 months worth. If you need to go back further, click on Site Map at the very bottom of the page. Site Map also lists out every MLBTR post category, including players, teams, and features.
- The Widget button takes you here, where website owners can easily add a constantly-updated box to their site with all of MLBTR's headlines.
- The Forums button takes you here, to a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 5,500 members. You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
- Feeds By Team is a very useful dropdown. Hover over it to see all 30 teams. Click on the team name to bring up a page of every post containing information about that team, with the latest on top. These are the same pages you'll find if you go to the Rumors By Team section on the sidebar and select A's Rumors, Angels Rumors, etc. Also under the Feeds By Team dropdown, you'll find RSS and Twitter buttons. Those links allow you to follow a single team's rumors via RSS or Twitter. Did you know we have a separate Twitter account for each of the 30 teams? For example you can follow @mlbtrtigers, where you would've been the first to know about the team's director of player development stepping down yesterday.
- On the far right of the Navigation bar, you'll see buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and RSS. MLBTR has almost 30,000 Twitter followers, over 18,000 Facebook fans, and over 26,000 RSS subscribers. Sign up for these and you'll be the first to receive all of our posts.
- On to the sidebar. It begins with a list of our Top Stories, which our writers update any time major hard news occurs. Go here for a quick update on the most important stories. Below that is the site's Search Box, where you can type in any player's name and get the latest on him.
- MLBTR Features has all kinds of goodies, including our free agent lists, list of Scott Boras clients, latest Elias Rankings, GM-related stuff, and list of first-round draft picks to sign. Many of the MLBTR Features are constantly updated by our writers, so be assured that our free agent lists are always fresh. The Elias Rankings have been reverse-engineered for MLBTR by Eddie Bajek, and you won't find that info anywhere else.
- Below Features you've got headlines for all the Recent Posts, in case you'd rather not scroll to see all the headlines. Then there's a box for our Mailing List, where you can sign up to receive a daily email containing MLBTR's posts. Use this option if you don't need the news as soon as possible.
- Next we have Featured Posts, where you'll find original work from MLBTR writers we consider noteworthy. For example, Ben Nicholson-Smith spoke to multiple scouting directors for his post, The Growing Role Of Video For MLB Scouts.
2005 Draft Throwdown
While dreams are coming true for hundreds of high school and college players this week, let's compare the paths of some 2005 first round draft picks. Nothing is more interesting than seeing how teams did choosing players at the same position. In a draft, it is the closest teams come to the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. Meanwhile, those lists haunt fans' memories for years to come.
- Ryan Zimmerman (Nationals) vs. Ryan Braun (Brewers): This battle between Zimmerman, picked fourth, and Braun, picked fifth, was to be a test of hot corner prowess. But while Zimmerman has excelled at the position, winning a Gold Glove in 2009 and grading well under more advanced defensive metrics, Braun settled in left field after proving to be a disastrous fielder at third base. So far, Braun has a .931 to .836 edge in OPS, but with Zimmerman putting up an .888 in 2009 and at .986 so far in 2010, that gap may well have disappeared. Moving forward, the edge goes to Zimmerman, a terrific hitter, though a notch below Braun, but a far more valuable defensive player. Both teams won here, though.
- Cameron Maybin (Tigers) vs. Andrew McCutchen (Pirates): These high school center fielders went back-to-back, with Maybin going tenth and McCutchen going 11th. The early returns suggest that the Tigers made a poor choice here, though they ultimately packaged Maybin in a deal for Miguel Cabrera, so they're not exactly complaining. McCutchen has hit since he arrived in Pittsburgh last season, and a 23-year-old with an .847 OPS in his first 733 major league plate appearances stands an awfully good chance of being an elite player for years to come. Maybin is still immensely talented, and could turn into a star- but McCutchen already is one. Pirates win- how often do you get to read that?
- Craig Hansen (Red Sox) vs. Joey Devine (Braves): This throwdown is a lesson in the perils of college pitchers. They seem like sure things, compared to high schoolers, and from the start, the Red Sox and Braves thought they had their ninth-innings mapped out for years to come. Hansen, drafted 26th out of St. John's, has yet to find command at the major league level, with 63 walks against 70 strikeouts in 93.2 innings. The right-hander was one of the moving parts in the three-team deal that sent Manny Ramirez to Los Angeles. Hansen's troubles were baffling, until the discovery of a degenerative nerve condition that has his career in doubt. Devine, chosen 27th, got traded to Oakland for Mark Kotsay, so Atlanta didn't benefit much from choosing him, either. The Athletics got a fantastic 2008 out of Devine- a 0.59 ERA in 45.2 innings with 49 strikeouts. Tommy John surgery kept him out for 2009, but he is currently on track to return to Oakland by the end of June. Winner here? Clearly, the Athletics.
List Of 2010 First Rounders To Sign
Between now and August 16th, most of the players below will reach agreements with their teams. Some, like Drew Storen in 2009, will sign almost immediately and begin their pro careers. Others, like Stephen Strasburg in 2009, will sign seconds before the deadline. Here's where we'll keep track of the bonuses that first rounders, supplemental rounders and other noteworthy picks obtain. From now on, you'll be able to find this post on the right side of the site, under MLBTR Features.
Updated 8-16-10
- Nationals – Bryce Harper – Signed for $9.9MM
- Pirates – Jameson Taillon - Signed for $6.5MM
- Orioles – Manny Machado - Signed for $5.25MM
- Royals – Christian Colon - Agreed to sign for $2.75MM
- Indians – Drew Pomeranz - Agreed to sign for $2.65MM
- Diamondbacks – Barret Loux - Did not sign
- Mets – Matt Harvey - Signed for $2.525MM
- Astros – Delino DeShields Jr. - Agreed to sign for $2.15MM
- Padres – Karsten Whitson - Did not sign
- Athletics – Michael Choice - Agreed to sign for $2MM
- Blue Jays – Deck McGuire - Signed for $2MM
- Reds – Yasmani Grandal - Will sign for about $3MM
- White Sox – Chris Sale – Agreed to sign for $1.656MM
- Brewers – Dylan Covey – Did not sign
- Rangers – Jake Skole - Agreed to sign for $1.557MM
- Cubs – Hayden Simpson - Signed $1.06MM
- Rays – Josh Sale - Signed for $1.62MM
- Angels – Kaleb Cowart - Signed for $2.3MM
- Astros – Michael Foltynewicz - Signed for $1.305MM
- Red Sox – Kolbrin Vitek - Agreed to sign for $1.359MM
- Twins – Alex Wimmers - Signed for $1.332MM
- Rangers – Kellin Deglan - Agreed to sign for $1MM
- Marlins – Christian Yelich - Signed for $1.7MM
- Giants – Gary Brown - Agreed to sign for about $1.3MM
- Cardinals – Zack Cox - Signed for $3.2MM
- Rockies – Kyle Parker - Signed for $1.4MM
- Phillies – Jesse Biddle - Agreed to sign for $1.16MM
- Dodgers – Zach Lee - Signed for $5.25MM
- Angels – Cam Bedrosian - Signed for $1.116MM
- Angels – Chevez Clarke - Signed for $1.089MM
- Rays – Justin O'Conner - Signed for $1.025MM
- Yankees – Cito Culver - Signed for $954K
Supplemental Round Selections:
- Astros – Michael Kvasnicka - Signed for $936K
- Blue Jays – Aaron Sanchez – Signed for $775K
- Braves – Matthew Lipka - Signed for $800K
- Red Sox – Bryce Brentz - Signed for $889K
- Angels – Taylor Lindsey - Agreed to sign for $873K
- Blue Jays – Noah Syndergaard - Signed for $600K
- Red Sox – Anthony Ranaudo - Signed for $2.55MM
- Angels – Ryan Bolden - Signed for $830K
- Blue Jays – Asher Wojciechowski – Signed for $815K
- Rays – Drew Vettleson - Signed for $845K
- Mariners – Taijuan Walker - Agreed to sign for $800K
- Tigers – Nick Castellanos - Signed for $3.45MM
- Rangers – Luke Jackson - Agreed to sign for $1.545MM
- Cardinals – Seth Blair - Signed for $751,500
- Rockies – Peter Tago - Signed for $983K
- Tigers – Chance Ruffin - Signed for $1.15MM
- Rangers – Mike Olt - Signed for $717K
- Cardinals – Tyrell Jenkins - Agreed to sign for $1.3MM
Odds & Ends: Brewers, Orioles, Werth, Weathers
Some links after an astounding debut from Stephen Strasburg…
- Brewers owner Mark Attanasio tells MLB.com's Adam McCalvy that the Brewers could hypothetically add payroll if the team starts contending soon.
- Jayson Werth had a team spokesman tell Todd Zolecki and Zach Schonbrun of MLB.com that his impending free agency isn't distracting him at the plate.
- Phillies manager Charlie Manuel thinks Werth is putting extra pressure on himself to play well in his contract year, according to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter).
- The Orioles will interview Bobby Valentine for their managerial opening, according to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun. Andy MacPhail called former Indians manager Eric Wedge to gauge his interest in the position.
- David Weathers told John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he would be willing to come back and pitch for the Reds. The 40-year-old righty pitched 62.0 innings of 3.92 ERA ball for the Reds and Brewers last year.
- MLB has accepted the Mets' decision to place Oliver Perez on the DL, reports Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com.