Links for Tuesday, as the National League wins an All-Star Game for the first time since Fred McGriff was their cleanup hitter…
- The Pirates signed 16-year-old Belarusian right-hander Aleksey Lukashevich, according to Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. As Finder explains, the Pirates have gone all over the world to sign international free agents recently.
- MLBPA executive director Michael Weiner told Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the players' association will consider changes to the revenue sharing process when the current collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2011 season.
- Brewers GM Doug Melvin told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he isn't actively shopping his players and won't dismiss manager Ken Macha tomorrow.
- Bryce Harper won the Golden Spikes award as the country's top amateur player, writes MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo.
- David Ortiz told Rob Bradford of WEEI.com that he expects to return to Boston next year. The Red Sox have a $12.5MM option for the Home Run Derby champion, but we know that Big Papi would like to sign a multi-year deal.
- Not only does Torii Hunter want a power bat, he is gently encouraging Carl Crawford to sign in Anaheim after the season, according to Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times.
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs continues ranking baseball's best trade chips, including Miguel Montero (found among the 41st-45th most valuable players) and Josh Hamilton (found among the 36th-40th most valuable players).
Easy sales pitch from Hunter: “Hey Carl! Come out to Anaheim. They vastly overpay outfielders for their 30s and you’ll never lead the team in putting your foot in your mouth!”
Tommy Emanski videos are endorsed by Fred mcGriff…Back to back to Back AAU national champions
I like how sometimes teams think firing a manager is the magic solution to all their problems.
Ortiz ….18/57/.263 after 87 games in 2010.
If, after the regular season is over Ortiz’s stats are 40/120/.275…Theo should offer david the club’s 2011 option plus one additional year guaranteed and a club option for 2013… but,
If. after the regular season ends, Papi, is closer to a line of 30/100/.260 Theo may want to renegotiate 2011 to the $8M or $16M for 2011 and 2012…with a club option for 2013..
Why would the Red Sox give Ortiz an extra year guaranteed and a club option for nothing? If the Red Sox exercise his option, that should be enough “respect” shown to Ortiz, because he isn’t worth 12.5 million a year. If he isn’t satisfied with that and promises to be a distraction (which I can’t imagine him doing), you let him go. I would not exercise the option no matter what he does the rest of the way out, but I understand if they want to keep him they probably need to pick up his option..its similar to the Yankees needing to overpay Derek Jeter this offseason (not saying Ortiz is Jeter so don’t catch feelings, just that Ortiz has built a legacy in Boston that makes the situation unique).
This finishes my opinion on Melvin. I believe he is an idiot, Macha should have been fired by now. For the love of God make Randolph the skipper
Hope there is press conference Wednesday in Milwaukee saying they have fired M@M and bring in Dan Jennings of Tampa to be the new GM.
That Belarusian kid will never do anything. Are you kidding me Pirates?
What exactly do they lose by trying? Everyone wants to be leaders in the next big talent pool. The Twins have gotten great marks on their young German prospect so far.
Shame on the Pirates for signing a guy for basically nothing. What were they thinking??
Congrats to the National League! Man, it’s been a long time!
Man. The Nats are proof that if you suck crap hard enough, you can get amazing players out of college ball.
Man Josh Hamilton is exactly what the Braves need.
They already have a power hitting lefty with a bit of speed… isnt that Heyward? They have another lefty in McCann… Chipper’s a switch hitter and they have a couple lefty’s on the bench in Hinske and Blanco (for now)… It would be good if they could get Hamilton on the cheap (which definetly wont happen).. but what they need is a power hitting right handed outfielder… they have virtually NO power from the right side of the plate… Glaus is the best option there… makes you dream of a world series when a washed up Troy Glaus is your best right handed power hitter doesnt it?
why would the Rangers trade Josh Hamilton? He’s having an MVP-type year
Yep. Also a good scouting dept., good ML infrastructure all the way through. There are a few other LT losing organizations that could take a cue from both (and Marlins) that always stink year in and out that seem to have -0- clue past a easy to pick top 10 choice and then bungle the rest of the draft every year.
Why some organizations won’t spend 10-12M on the draft, but will gladly waste 10M on crappy veteran FA is beyond me.
Other than Longoria, what college hitter has Tampa ever drafted with a top ten pick?
My larger point is that they’ve gotten surprisingly little from their huge number of top five picks over the years. Obviously, Longoria and Price are awesome, and Niemann is very valuable. But a ton of their best players have come through trades, cheap signings, and later round picks. They’ve gotten much more out of, say, Crawford and Shields than they got out of Josh Hamilton, Dewon Brazelton, Wade Townsend, Delmon Young (who they traded at the perfect time), and the list goes on. Heck, they could have Smoak, Alvarez, Posey, or Matusz right now instead of a struggling minor league shortstop.