On this date in 1990, the Dodgers signed Miguel Cairo as an amateur free agent. These days, Cairo's playing all around the diamond for the Reds, as they approach their first playoff berth since 1995. Here are today's links…
- Pirates president Frank Coonelly has “veto authority, but he most definitely does not do any of the day-to-day GM work,” according to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported earlier in the day that some baseball people see Coonelly as the team’s de facto GM.
- Ted Lilly and the Dodgers have an understanding that they'll talk about a new deal after the season, when Lilly hits free agency, according to ESPN.com's Buster Olney (on Twitter).
- The D'Backs appear to want a GM whose forte is scouting and player development, according to Olney (on Twitter).
- Houston native Carl Crawford told Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports that he likes Houston and has nothing against the Astros. Crawford, who hits free agency this winter, says his friends see him playing for a winner. Despite their strong second half, the Astros are five games below .500.
- Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos told MLB.com's Jordan Bastian that the Blue Jays are being "incredibly open-minded" as they search for their next field manager.
Considering the Astros were on a 1962 Mets pace for losses early in the season, 5 games under .500 is a remarkable achievement. They’ll still need to upgrade that farm system dramatically though to show continued improvement.
actually, their farm system has really, really improved and now it is top 10 in Baseball i’d say.
Jordan Lyles
J.D. Martinez
Jack Schuck
Jay Austin
Delino DeShields Jr.
Albert Cartright
Austin Wates
Vincent Velasquez
Mike Foltynewicz
Ross Seaton
Angel Gonzalez
Jonathan Villar
Chia Jen Lo
Jimmy Paredes
and Jonathan Gaston
Thats a pretty good farm system if you ask me. And they have a very good young mix of players such as Wallace, Castro, Johnson, Happ, Lopez, Norris (who has some of the best stuff in Baseball and isn’t having as bad of a season as his ERA suggests), Bourn and Pence. Pretty good team for the future I think. We;ll see.
Better than before (how couldn’t they be?), but still not likely to be out of the bottom 10 when the offseason hypothetical rankings come out. They’ve stockpiled quite a few young finesse-control arms and speedy hitters/defenders, but are still extremely lacking in power arms and power bats (as are many organizations).
Draft Dante Bichette Jr. next year and they will prob be top 10 in farm systems. I just hope my Yanks draft him though. But Houston is actually good without the power bats because they are stockpiling on young pitchers.
I believe the Astros are either going to trade Carlos Lee or move him to first base. they will take on at least half his salarie to do that or more. If they don’t want him the astros taking on money will not be a problem. i still don’t think they will go after carl crawford but I do think they will kick the tires on all yhe possibilities….I actually think there will be alot of teams looking at Carlos Lee just to see what the Astros will be willing to do with him…
Then what are they going to do with Brett Wallace? He seems pretty comfortable over at first. Can’t seem the stros moving him or sending him down. I’d say 1st base is occupied for years to come in Houston.
I’m sure Wallace can go back to 3B or move to LF.
He is really one dimential. One of the most overrated prospect when he was in the minors and really isn’t that special of a hitter either.
Exactly what I think. He’s overrated, and isn’t good defensively.
Wasn’t he moved to 1B because he couldn’t handle 3B defensively, though?
Brett Wallace at this stage of his career simply cannot hit an inside fastball, and in truth I’m using “hit” as a euphemism for “make contact with” there. He’s by no means done as a power prospect, but he is destined to open 2011 at the Astros new AAA affiliate in Oklahoma City (Wallace was at some slight risk of winding up back in Las Vegas until the Astros finalized their contract with OKC).
This is actually a blessing in disguise for the Astros as it allows them to move the untradeable (at least until late 2011) Carlos Lee to 1st base, which is a better case scenario for the team defense (esp. pitching) as Lee simply can no longer play LF anywhere but in Minute Maid Park (and Fenway). Ideally, they’d go after an OF on the free agent market or via trade in the offseason. Crawford makes sense from a hometown standpoint, but he’s stated he wants to play for titles and wouldn’t solve the club’s two biggest offensive needs: HRs and BBs. If they can’t get an OF, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for them to move Chris Johnson to LF (in a Ryan Braun type move), and try to add a bat at 3B instead (Johnson has struggled mightily at 3rd defensively).
(I think you got a bonus like when I mis-clicked in an attempt to reply, stl_cards16)
Firefox is telling me this is an “Attack Site.” Weird. (I clicked the link through twitter.)
Chrome is also detecting Malware on this site now. :
I also got that message on Chrome.
So run NoScript.
Shorty Rosenthal should cite his sources when he “reports” that Coonelly is the de facto GM of the Pirates. Reporters with unnamed sources have little credibility as far as I’m concerned. Could the Pirates be better managed? Without a doubt. But I don’t think Coonelly is the man pulling Neal Huntington’s puppet strings.
Actually, Neil H. has had John Russell attached to puppet strings all year long. I mean, who in their sane mind starts Ryan Doumit at RF? Russel has had something like 120 different lineups over the last 2 years. Maybe Frank is telling Neil to get off John’s back.
I hope this is just tabloid trash and not true at all!!
Don’t be surprised if Mr. Burns gets interviewed for the Blue Jays managerial position.
“You, Strawberry! Hit a home run!”
“OK skip!”
*hits home run*
“Muahahahaha I told him to do that!”
Mattingly, I thought i told you to trim those sideburns!!
You damned hypnotist! You turned my starting pitcher into a chicken!
Love the Jays,love the rebuild and i love the direction they are going in.Hated seeing Don Baylor as a name being tossed around.Nothing against the guy but this is a young and rising team and i think we should hire the same in a new manager.Scour the bench coaches of the best teams (yanks,Tampa and phills..ect) and get a list going.Do the interviews and get the right man.