Links for Friday, before the Giants and Padres continue an immensely important series…
- MLB.com's Barry Bloom reports that former Diamondbacks' manager A.J. Hinch is close to joining the Padres to work in their scouting department.
- David Ortiz suggested to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports that Rafael Soriano deserves a five-year deal. The Rays closer is having a fantastic season, but he's not going to see a five-year offer this winter.
- Mark Ellis told Joe Stiglich of the San Jose Mercury News that he wants to stay in Oakland next year. The A’s have a $6MM option for 2011 with a $500K buyout.
- At SI.com, Bud Black of the Padres tops Jon Heyman's list of the year's most impressive managers.
- Bob Young of the Arizona Republic argues that the D'Backs will have a hard time finding a better manager-GM combination than Kirk Gibson and Jerry Dipoto.
- Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explains that the Pirates have a lot of promising young pitching in the minor leagues. Take a look at the team's projected 2011 rotation here.
- I didn't consider Phil Coke when previewing the Tigers' 2011 rotation, but manager Jim Leyland told Perry A. Farrell of the Detroit Free Press that the Tigers will at least consider the lefty.
- Cardinals manager Tony La Russa defended the team's decision to trade Ryan Ludwick, as Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explains.
Ortiz is just commenting on everyone and their contract situations lately, huh?
I Am beginning to think that Ortiz is some kind of a busy body, always sticking his nose into other people’s affairs.. He would be much better off focusing on left handed batters who have talent hitting left handed pitching. He might learn a trick of two…
Ortiz has become the Tony Dungy of MLB.
Kovacevic said something good about the Pirates? Oh man, his rabid Pirate organization hating fanbase is not going to like that.
Soriano should get paid but there is no way you give him even more than 2-3 years given his history of random injury problems.
He could take less money and more security and depending on GM, it could happen. I’d say it’s unlikely but Soriano is going to get a good paycheck no matter how many years it is.
We can all only pray that Ortiz at some point becomes a GM of your most hated rival.
The fact that Cito Gaston is not on that Managers list means its terrible, I mean come on a lot of the media picked the jays to finish near the bottom of the AL.
He’s also batted Travis Snider lead off on several occasions… cito gaston is a good hitting coach, not a good manager
Oh come on, how can you forget the recent AAA line-up he put out by throwing McCoy (lead-off, yes lead-off!), Molina and Haffpauir while sitting Arencibia and Snider. Speaking of Arencibia, during that time Buck was injured, Arencibia started what? like 4 times at catcher? Cito choose to give Molina most of the starting time and even in September, the kid has yet to start a game at catcher.
Because Aaron Cibia is terrible at game calling, in addition to being overmatched at the plate, and this season is just as much about developing pitchers as it is about developing hitters. You can ask Cecil/Marcum/Morrow/Romero if they’d rather have Molina or Aaron Cibia calling games for them.
So explain to me when Jp Arencibia will get acclamated to the big leagues? He’s not terrible at game calling, there is a learning curve and an adjustment period. He doesnt know the batters yet and doesn’t know the pitchers all that well either. If he is in their long term plans, now would have been the best time to give him some games, when they mean nothing.. why have the grace period next year when the games could potentially mean something..
and if you think there is no grace period for catchers, just take a look at john bucks start to his blue jay career.
Ah yes, the classic “good/bad gamecaller.” Very quantifiable stat. That’s just an excuse for managers to play veterans over rookies and for agents to try to bargain with their 38-year-old scrap heap junk.
Then again, Jason Kendall and his agent swindled Dayton Moore into a two-year deal based on it, and you’re citing it now, so clearly some people buy it.
Coke shouldn’t be any where near the conversation for a starter. First off, he has been Steller out of the pen so why mess that up. Secondly, the tigers have enough money to buy the top TWO starters on the market so why not just go buy the sure thing in lee and/or go trade for greinke. Don’t take a great lefty reliever out of the bullpen on a pipedream that he can be a starter.
coke is a good long reliever / person to come in to get leftys out/ 8th inning guy so i agree with u
Just because they have the money, doesn’t mean they will get them.. Emptying out the farm for Grienke doesn’t sound too logical either..
and fyi a good starter is worth way more then a good reliever. a starter will give you 180+ innings, while a reliever, 60-70 depending. So even if Coke isn’t as good as he has been in the pen, he still would be worth much more then as a reliever
The tigers farm system is so deep in pitching that it would barely dent the system to get grienke–and even if you had to empty it a 26 year old cy young winner would be worth it. Prospects are just that—prospects. So trading 3 or 4 maybes for a sure thing is well worth it(I.e. the Cabrera trade)And I disagree–bullpen depth has always been an issue for Detroit. Like I said–they are LOADED with young starters. Coke out of our pen has been a godsend and I really don’t understand why they would want to remove him from a spot that he is awesome at when so many others couldn’t hold a lead in late innings
even if you have a valid arguement about the Tigers being able to put a good package for Grienke, it ain’t happening. Interdivision trades for aces are extremely rare unless one side is blown away by the offer(for example, cliff lee to rangers).
According to what I’ve read it nearly happened at the trade deadline(that was dd’s ‘secret’ deal) and I think you underestimate te stupidity of the royals front office. According to their owner and gm they were supposed to be ‘serious contenders’ this year Trust me–If dombrowski wants him, dombrowski will get him and he’s made no secret that the tigers have been eyeballing that kid. The winter meetings will be interesting fr Detroit……again.
even if you have a valid arguement about the Tigers being able to put a good package for Grienke, it ain’t happening. Interdivision trades for aces are extremely rare unless one side is blown away by the offer(for example, cliff lee to rangers).
your posts are littered with inconsistancy. On one hand you say why make coke a starter when you can sign lee and trade for grienke.. but then you go on to say that tigers are LOADED with young starters.. yet they need to add 2 aces to their rotation?
No–I said why bother moving coke when you are loaded with free agent money and prospects to go get big guns. It makes no sense to take a guy out of his niche when you have talent and money to fill the spot. And the tigers are notorious for dealing can’t miss prospects for proven big leaguers—which is what I am sure they will do. Illitch wants a title now, not in 5 years.
No–I said why bother moving coke when you are loaded with free agent money and prospects to go get big guns. It makes no sense to take a guy out of his niche when you have talent and money to fill the spot. And the tigers are notorious for dealing can’t miss prospects for proven big leaguers—which is what I am sure they will do. Illitch wants a title now, not in 5 years.
your posts are littered with inconsistancy. On one hand you say why make coke a starter when you can sign lee and trade for grienke.. but then you go on to say that tigers are LOADED with young starters.. yet they need to add 2 aces to their rotation?
The tigers farm system is so deep in pitching that it would barely dent the system to get grienke–and even if you had to empty it a 26 year old cy young winner would be worth it. Prospects are just that—prospects. So trading 3 or 4 maybes for a sure thing is well worth it(I.e. the Cabrera trade)And I disagree–bullpen depth has always been an issue for Detroit. Like I said–they are LOADED with young starters. Coke out of our pen has been a godsend and I really don’t understand why they would want to remove him from a spot that he is awesome at when so many others couldn’t hold a lead in late innings
Ortiz is a great hitter. If he starts selling anything after a life of baseball, however, look out.
With all due respect to Big Papi, I’m glad the guy is voicing his opinion, but it’s obvious he is paid for his braun, and not his brains, when it comes to the business side of baseball.
Kind of funny almost everyone was calling the Alderson for Freddy Sanchez trade a fleecing by PIT. Sanchez (after signing an extension) is leading the Giants to the playoffs. Kind of funny how people are so hurry to inflate prospects and deflate the value a true big leaguer has to a contending team
1. Sanchez is hardly “leading San Fran to the playoffs.” Aubrey Huff, Andres Torres, Buster Posey, and that pitching staff are handling that. Sanchez missed a third of the season and has an OPS+ of 90.2. Sanchez could be a Giant without that trade. He could’ve signed the same deal in free agency.
You watch the Giants the last 3 weeks? As they have closed the gap Sanchez is hitting close to 450.
Sanchez wasn’t a free agent at the end of last season, he had a club option that they re-worked into a two year deal that actually saves the Giants money.
I stand by the statement that they got an above Avg MLB second baseman for a kid that will probably never contribute above Triple A.
That’s not the point- Sanchez on the Pirates does nothing for that organization, they needed to rebuild. Rebuilding involves trading veterans for prospects, which they did.
Ortiz should just shush it and mind his won personal contract situation. If he believes he deserves a multi-year deal, I can see how he thinks Soriano will get 5 years.
David Ortiz needs to shut his trap
People are way too sensitive…Ortiz is saying his friend deserves a monster deal. What is he supposed to say? Say his friend should sign another one year deal? Obviously he isn’t getting five years, but I don’t know why people think Ortiz should calculate a fair market value deal and consult fangraphs.
People are way too sensitive…Ortiz is saying his friend deserves a monster deal. What is he supposed to say? Say his friend should sign another one year deal? Obviously he isn’t getting five years, but I don’t know why people think Ortiz should calculate a fair market value deal and consult fangraphs.
That would be the second worse deal to a Soriano.
I hope Hinch gets another job, and I think that he will. And personally, I hope the DBacks hold onto Gibson, I like his approach.
People, it’s not like David Ortiz hunted down a reporter, tied him to a chair and said, “This is a list of potential free agents and this is what I think they deserve to be signed for: A, Aronsen: $50mil.”
Some reporter, who knew the two of them are friends, probably came up to Ortiz and asked him what Soriano should get as a deal. Ortiz then gave his answer hoping for the best for his friend. The reporter then thinking it was a story wrote it. I would doubt Big Pappi put much thought in his answer and probably forgot about it right after.
I know the Angels are having a down year, but what about Mike Scioscia? His Angels teams have been the most consistent since he got there, and one down year after losing their best offensive player early does not mean he isn’t a good manager.