Orioles Zeroing In On Showalter
The Orioles are zeroing in on Buck Showalter as their choice for manager, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Showalter, who last managed the Texas Rangers from 2002 through 2006, spoke with the O's today.
Over the weekend, it was reported that Showalter and former Indians manager Eric Wedge were the leading candidates for the position. Wedge was called in for a second interview on Friday.
Showalter, 54, has a track record of improving the fortunes of young clubs including the aforementioned Rangers, Yankees, and Diamondbacks. Bobby Valentine was also in the mix at one point, but opted to withdraw his name from consideration once the Florida job became available.
Mariners Sign Mark Worrell
The Mariners signed right-handed reliever Mark Worrell, the team confirmed to MLBTR. The 27-year-old appeared in four games for the 2008 Cardinals and was sent to San Diego along with Luke Gregerson in the Khalil Greene trade. Gregerson has since become one of the best relievers in the league, but Worrell has yet to establish himself in the majors.
Worrell had Tommy John surgery in March of 2009 and missed the entire season. The Padres non-tendered him last winter, before re-signing him to a minor league deal. But after Worrell posted a 5.45 ERA in 25 Triple A appearances, the Padres released him last month. Worrell posted 9.3 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in Triple A Portland this year, so he may have re-discovered his pre-Tommy John form. Worrell's minor league resume includes a career 3.21 ERA and three times as many strikeouts as walks. He began his Mariners career by pitching a scoreless inning for Triple A Tacoma.
Geoff Jenkins To Retire As A Brewer
Geoff Jenkins will officially announce his retirement this Friday, according to a Brewers press release. Jenkins, who spent a decade of his playing career in Milwaukee, will retire as a Brewer before Friday's game at Miller Park. The 35-year-old asked the Brewers if they would let him retire as a member of the organization that drafted and developed him. GM Doug Melvin says he was happy to oblige.
"As far as we’re concerned, Geoff will always be a part of the organization and we look forward to welcoming him home,” Melvin said.
Jenkins is among the Brewers' all-time leaders in home runs (2nd with 212), slugging percentage (2nd with .496), RBI (4th with 704) and OBP (6th with .347).
The 1995 first rounder debuted with the Brewers in 1998 and played in Milwaukee until 2007. He signed with the Phillies before 2008 and has not played in the majors since that season. He earned $5MM with the Phillies, but the rest of his $46MM in career earnings came as a Brewer.
A’s Likely To Keep Mark Ellis
There's just a 40% chance the A's make Mark Ellis available, a source tells Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter link). The A's, who already traded infielder Eric Patterson, will choose between Ellis' $6MM option for 2011 and a $500K buyout if he's still in Oakland at the end of the season.
Ellis would probably draw interest if GM Billy Beane made him available. The 33-year-old is hitting .288/.355/.374 this year, and has been an average defender at second base over the course of the past two seasons (according to UZR/150).
The Red Sox and Phillies have injured second basemen and could have interest in Ellis, who missed time with a hamstring injury early in the year. The Yankees are looking for bench help, but Ellis has $2.75MM remaining on this year's contract and that's a lot of money to spend on a reserve.
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Scott Downs’ Trade Value
There's always demand for quality left handers at the trade deadline, but this year, they're in short supply. Bruce Chen, Will Ohman and Javier Lopez could probably be acquired and Alan Embree and Scott Schoeneweis could be signed as free agents. There are not many left-handers to choose from, and that only increases Scott Downs' trade value.
The Blue Jays, below .500 after a June-long slump, would presumably listen on Downs, who hits free agency after the season. The 34-year-old lefty has an affordable $4MM salary and some impressive stats. In 35.1 innings, he has a 2.80 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9. He is allowing less than one hit per inning pitched and boasts a characteristically high 55% ground ball rate. He's arguably the best left-handed reliever available this summer.
The Blue Jays have no reason to settle for anything less than a highly-touted prospect. Not only is Downs pitching well, he now ranks as a Type A free agent in the latest Elias rankings. That means the Jays can obtain two high picks in next year's draft if Downs turns down an offer of arbitration to sign elsewhere. We can't assume that the Blue Jays are willing to offer Downs arbitration, but they have just $39MM committed to next year's payroll, so paying Downs $5MM or so in 2011 appears possible under the team's budget.
Essentially, the Blue Jays can't lose as long as Downs stays healthy and continues pitching well enough to maintain his Type A status. Either someone offers a compelling package and the Blue Jays get talent now, or they keep Downs and offer arbitration. If he accepts the offer, the Jays have a quality reliever on a one-year deal. If he declines and signs elsewhere, they have two top picks in next year's draft.
2010 All-Star Bonuses
There's more at stake than a player's legacy when it comes to All-Star selections. Depending on a player's contract, a place on the All-Star team can be worth thousands of dollars. Here is a list of the 2010 All-Stars who will receive bonuses for their place on this year's teams, from contract information on Cot's Baseball Contracts:
$100K Bonuses:
- Tim Lincecum, Giants
- Torii Hunter, Angels
- Cliff Lee, Mariners
$50K Bonuses:
- Yadier Molina, Cardinals
- Albert Pujols, Cardinals
- Chris Carpenter, Cardinals
- Matt Capps, Nationals – According to MLB.com's Bill Ladson
- Chase Utley, Phillies
- Hanley Ramirez, Marlins
- Josh Johnson, Marlins
- David Wright, Mets
- Jose Reyes, Mets
- Ryan Braun, Brewers
- Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners
- Evan Longoria, Rays
- Carl Crawford, Rays
- Ian Kinsler, Rangers
- Jon Lester, Red Sox
- Victor Martinez, Red Sox
- Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox
- Adrian Beltre, Red Sox - According to WEEI
- David Ortiz, Red Sox
- Joakim Soria, Royals
$25K Bonuses:
- Adrian Gonzalez, Padres
- Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies
- Ubaldo Jimenez, Rockies
- Scott Rolen, Reds
- Matt Holliday, Cardinals
- Joe Mauer, Twins
- Justin Morneau, Twins
Unknown Bonuses:
- Brian McCann, Braves
This list may be incomplete, since not all contract details are publicly available.
Poll: Which Of These Teams Will Become A Seller?
Now that the July 31st trade deadline is less than a month away, we have a pretty good sense of which teams will be buyers and which ones will be sellers. But a team or two may surprise us within a few weeks. One streak can transform buyers into sellers and sellers into buyers, so tell us what you think:
Which of these teams is most likely to become a seller this summer?
Click here to take the survey and here to view the results.
Remembering the 1994 Trade Deadline
When picturing the 1994 Trade Deadline, it is appropriate to see increasing cloudiness, feel the air become thick with storm, and hear thunder in the distance.
Deadline deals were fewer in 1994, with a strike looming that many felt- correctly, it turned out- would make acquiring players with the postseason in mind an utterly futile exercise. That uncertainty is reflected in the choices teams made.
But with a season on, and no precedent whatsoever for the cancellation of the World Series, there were some low-risk moves that were obviously made with a playoff run in mind. Let's take a look at what might have been:
- The Dodgers released Darryl Strawberry, who failed to live up to the free agent contract he signed after the 1990 season. The Giants signed the 32-year-old on June 19, hoping he had something left. Strawberry hit .239/.363/.424 for the Giants, and in fact, his stats from the moment he signed with San Francisco to the end of his career included four more seasons of part-time work with an OPS above .800.
- Two days later, the Cincinnati Reds signed Ron Gant, who had celebrated the signing of a multi-year deal by breaking his leg in an ATV accident. Gant didn't play in 1994, but in 1995, hit .276/.386/.554 for the Reds with 29 home runs.
- And in the third of the trio of once-great signings, the Phillies picked up Fernando Valenzuela on June 24. He pitched 45 innings of 3.00 ERA baseball, walking just seven and striking out 19 despite the handicap of not looking at the catcher when he pitched.
- The first significant 1994-based trade occurred on July 1, when Boston sent struggling reliever Jeff Russell to Cleveland for pitchers Chris Nabholz and Steve Farr. None of the three pitchers contributed much in 1994. Russell failed to rediscover the form that allowed him to pitch to a 2.70 ERA in 1993- his mark was 5.14 in Boston in 1994, 4.97 in Cleveland. Meanwhile, Nabholz was finished as a useful pitcher and Farr had just 13 innings of 6.23 ERA pitching left.
- Why, you might ask, did the 1994 Seattle Mariners, who finished 49-63, make a July 21 trade to shore up their bullpen? Easy: they acquired Shawn Boskie from the Philadelphia Phillies for minor leaguer Fred McNair because 49-63 meant they were just two games off the lead in the American League West.
- If Matt Williams and Tony Gwynn think the 1994 strike came at an inopportune time, their gripe pales next to Brian R. Hunter, who was traded from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati on July 27 for minor league slugger Micah Franklin. Hunter promptly became one of the best deadline acquisitions ever, hitting .304/.346/.870 with four home runs in 26 at-bats… only to see the strike interrupt his season. Williams and Gwynn had more moments of glory, but Hunter never again approached a 1.216 OPS.
- Finally, on July 31, just one trade occurred. The Phillies traded outfielder Milt Thompson to the Astros for reliever Tom Edens. Both were briefly helpful for their new teams in 1994, but never again. Truly, the strike also deprived both Edens and Thompson of their last hurrahs.
Baseball fans still remember 1994 as the year America was deprived of pennant races, and the Expos were kept from their destiny: finally winning a World Series. (There's a reason Youppi still cries when the strike is brought up.) And for secondary characters throughout baseball, 1994 was a year of 'what could have been.'
Odds & Ends: Texeira, Orioles, Willis, Fielder, Giants
Links for Sunday, as the baseball world attempts to come to terms with Omar Infante's All-Star nod….
- Kyle Drabek, who was a part of the Roy Halladay deal, threw a no-hitter for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. This was the first nine inning no-hitter in the history of Toronto's Double-A affiliate, writes Alex Raskin for MLB.com.
- Rob Neyer of ESPN (via Twitter) says that he's usually hyper-critical of the Royals organization, but applauds their pickup of Kanekoa Texeira. The Royals claimed the pitcher off of waivers from the M's early last month.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter) suggests that Mike Lowell could be an option for the Phillies if he gets healthy. He points out that the Phils went hard after him last time he was a free agent.
- The Orioles have made 46 personnel moves since Opening Day, writes Peter Schmuck of The Baltimore Sun.
- The Marlins had interest in Dontrelle Willis before he was dealt to Arizona, tweets Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. Frisaro hears that the lefty will take his time before deciding his next move.
- Kyle Parker, the Rockies' first-round draft pick, visited Coors Field, according to MLB.com's Thomas Harding and Joey Nowak. Colorado hopes to sign the Clemson quarterback, who has three years of football eligibility remaining.
- SI.com's Jon Heyman tweets that the Astros have been telling teams they're willing to absorb some salary in a potential Roy Oswalt trade. We heard a couple weeks ago that Houston was entertaining this possibility if it meant landing better prospects.
- Heyman and ESPN.com's Buster Olney (both Twitter links) place their bets on the Orioles' managerial search.
- Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says not to be surprised if the White Sox make a play for Prince Fielder.
- The Giants aren't expected to make a splash on the international free agent market, writes Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News.
- Domonic Brown deserves to be labeled "untouchable" by the Phillies, according to this piece at Philly.com.