Links for Sunday, as Chris Volstad goes for his fifth win vs. the Nationals this season….
- The Mariners "quietly have interest" in Ryne Sandberg, writes Troy E. Renck of The Denver Post.
- Jayson Werth is looking for an agency willing to charge a lower commission than the usual 5%, reports Ken Davidoff of Newsday. Davidoff provides an update on Werth's search for representation and examines the chances of the Yankees pursuing the outfielder this offseason.
- In a separate piece, Davidoff looks at some options for the Mets' next manager and GM.
- There are hints that Tony La Russa is leaning toward managing the Cardinals in 2011, as Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes.
- The Blue Jays will call up top prospect Kyle Drabek to make his major league debut Wednesday in Baltimore, according to the team (Twitter link).
- Ronny Cedeno is on his way to locking up the Pirates' 2011 shortstop job, according to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
- Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas points out that Darren Oliver needs to make just one more appearance to guarantee his option for next season.
- Nationals GM Mike Rizzo tells MASN (Twitter link) that the team is still "in conversations" to keep Adam Dunn in Washington.
My Boy Kyle is making his debut wednesday!!!!!!! I can’t wait!!!!!! I’m going to Baltimore!!!!!!!!!
For your sake, he better not walk people! 😛
So pumped about it! And it’s the Orioles too, although they’ve been pretty good with their new manager.
Yeah I forgot to tell you earlier that it couldn’t be more ironic becaause of our conversation yesterday!!!
Can’t wait!!!!! It’s going to be awesome!! And your right about the Orioles…But it’s also a fine place to make your MLB debut, Camden Yards.
It’ll be interesting to see if he makes more than 1… hopefully he does.
It seems Romero and Cecil are getting very tired as shown by their last start. It would say it’s possible they may get shutdown if they have another horrible start.
I think Stewart may get a start in as well or at least some innings as a reliever.
Hate September when your team isn’t going to the playoffs but seeing your top prospects makes it worth while.
I hear ya. I’m 99.9% sure Drabek will remain in the rotation the whole season according to John Lott. Going to be awesome.
I read that Drabek will start against Seattle too.
im sure the pirate fans are pleased with that
Why would the Yankees commit big money to Werth or Crawford when they already have three quality outfielders…just because they have the money doesn’t mean they need to spend it. Is Werth or Crawford such an upgrade over Gardner that they’re worth an additional $15-20m per allocated to LF? I think not.
Because they are the Yankees and they like Monopolizing.
Haha like I haven’t heard that on before. I would like Werth but, we do already have 3 quality outfielders, and Jayson Werth is a walking strikeout with men on base. No thanks
you’re in denial.
Hey, another good outfielder on the market that will cost many years and many dollars to lock up. Wouldn’t want to pass up on that right? 😛
Not when you already have quality outfielders.
I think he was being sarcastic.
If the Yanks get Crawford or Werth they must trade Gardner, Granderson or Swisher…not saying they wont do that but where are articles on the potential trade destinations for one of those 3?
Swisher shall not be traded… CG’s value is low… And BG is our LF and catslyst. He takes way too many pitches, takes too many walks, steals too many bases(though I think he can steal more with training), and has too high of an OBP to be traded.
The Yankees are already set on the OF for 2011.
LF Brett Gardner
CF Curtis Granderson
RF Nick Swisher
Two of those guys can hit 20+ HR.
Two of those guys can steal 20+ bases.
All three of them can hit for a good batting average.
All three of them can play good defense.
I think the Yankees are all set.
Edit: The only changes the Yanks will be making is in the pitching staff, bench players, and bringing up this young guy called Jesus Montero wether it is to DH, or to catch some days.
I completely agree. All of this talk on them needing an OF confuses me. They seem pretty set.
What FA isn’t linked to the Yankees though? It gets old after awhile; agents do it because they think that increases their clients’ exposure and/or price tag, and media members add the “you can never count out the Yankees” just to cover their “prediction” on where a player might go.
Well, most of those FA don’t make sense. The Yanks just go about their business, and never tell the media what they’re gonna do. They just speculate. Like us.
So? The media will just blame their “anonymous sources”
All three of them can hit for a good batting average.
Nick Swisher is a career .252 hitter. To his credit though he does have a career .358 OBP. His BABIP is 50 points above his career norm too.
Aside from that, you are correct.
Nick Swisher has a .289 Batting Average this year. He’s made strides to improve on his batting average and showed up to camp in the best shape of his life. All three can hit for a good average.
Like the post before you said, he has a BABIP 50 points higher than normal, and his LD% is pretty much in line with his career average too, which means his BABIP is not-normal.
We hear the whole “best shape of his life” line- remember when Tigers fans told everyone that Brennan Boesch was really a .320 hitter? Yeah look at him now.
And there’s nothing wrong with Swisher hitting .260/.370/.460, that’s great production.
regardless of what they have, the question is, do they see something in crawford or werth that they consider to be an upgrade? while they may not see werth as being a significant upgrade, its absurd to think that if CC comes out and says he wants to be a yankee and is willing to sign a 5 year, 75 mil contract that the yanks won’t jump at the chance, he’s an upgrade in every sense of the word to what they have now, move swisher to Dh or trade gardner/granderson.
regardless of what they have, the question is, do they see something in crawford or werth that they consider to be an upgrade? while they may not see werth as being a significant upgrade, its absurd to think that if CC comes out and says he wants to be a yankee and is willing to sign a 5 year, 75 mil contract that the yanks won’t jump at the chance, he’s an upgrade in every sense of the word to what they have now, move swisher to Dh or trade gardner/granderson.
…The new manager is more likely to be someone with Mets ties. Think Wally Backman or yes, even Bobby Valentine.
Sweetest words I’ve heard this week!!!….even if it does sound like Mets ownership is letting the fan base make the decisions to a large degree.
Wally Backman is someone they need. He would be willing to work with younger players the Mets need and should get by trading some veterans.
Damn straight….only with the inmates running the asylum I’m not sure we can count on the right acquisitions. The decision-making “software” for the entire organization is seriously whacked.
Yeah, anything regarding the Mets and the words “new manager” at this point is sure to make Mets fans flip.
Backman would be a disaster. There’ll be a mutiny by the veterans come August.
As a Cub fan I’d love to see Sandberg get his feet wet with another organization. If that’s the direction the Mariners want to go good luck to then and Ryno. He can come home, if he turns out to be a good manager, in four years after the next guy gets chewed up and spit out.
The Yankees might want to pass on Werth/Crawford and focus on the rotation and bench, as well as starting the search for Jeter and Rivera’s eventual replacements. Joba may be the heir apparent to Rivera but there isn’t anyone obvious who’s going to replace Jeter. Not to mention that Jeter should probably switch positions sooner rather than later. Switch to where is another story but they certainly should be in the market for a good young shortstop.
When you find that good young SS who’s available, please let us all know
Sorry but Joba Chamberlain isn’t Rivera’s heir.
And the Yankees are perfectly able to fill Jeter’s position internally. They have been mostly drafting Catchers the past few years in order to decide on Posada’s heir. They drafted Cito Culver this year in the first round, though I wasn’t so happy about that. That probably shows a change for the next few years, as well as more pitchers, and third baseman, and Outfielders, Please! Eduardo Nuñez can also take the position. I love to watch that kid play, he plays great defense, hits well, and runs well. He develops some power, we got our SS, or at least a candidate.
I seem to remember Wally Backman having the D-Backs managerial job locked up about a decade ago but then something happened. Does anyone remember? I might be wrong, but I seem to recall it was a substance abuse related issue.
Also, as an aside, I just don’t get the love for Curtis Granderson. The dude is vastly overrated. He may have a decent speed/power package but he’s unreliable in the BA, OBP departments and my lowly Royals exploited his atrocious throwing arm in a game last year. I’d take Crawford or Werth over him anyday.
Which may be why the Yanks are looking at Werth. Granderson seems to wow a lot of people and the Yanks might get a decent return for him in a trade. (A SP, perhaps?)
“I’d take Crawford or Werth over him anyday.”
That’s not really the point. Trade Granderson when his value is low, you get nothing back, and then you go sign a guy to a 6 year contract @15m+? Those aren’t good business moves.
Trading Granderson while his value is really low right now would get you not much of a return. And if they do that, sign Werth or CC to a 15$ per year deal? Those are stupid descisions. Besides what got Granderson is his injury. He was hitting .312 with 7 HR while playing sterling defense, and then got injured. If he can stay healthy, he will produce for the Yanks.
Well…this explains a lot about Granderson…if this is the case…then…the case to sign Crawford isn’t as compelling as many people believe
Well…this explains a lot about Granderson…if this is the case…then…the case to sign Crawford isn’t as compelling as many people believe
Watching the Phillies / Mets game on FOX yesterday, the broadcasting crew all seemed to have Carl Crawford to the Yankees as a foregone conclusion. I just think it’s interesting that they’d be willing to sit Brett Gardner for Carl Crawford, who they’ll grossly overpay. Gardner walks a lot more than Crawford, and has a better OBP. So unless they’re thinking of having Nick Swisher move to the DH slot full time, signing a premium talent outfielder doesn’t make sense to me, especially when he’s not that much of an upgrade.
Brett Gardner is really awesome at baseball. It would be insulting to make him a 4th OF.
Uh, from exactly where are you getting the idea that the Yanks would be willing to sit BG in favor of Crawford? Who is someone they probably won’t even get?
What are you talking about man? Most of the baseball world expects the Yankees to sign one of Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth, and I was just speculating that Crawford was more likely, since he’s a left fielder by trade, and the Yankees are already settled in centerfield (with Curtis Granderson) and rightfield (with Nick Swisher). Brett Gardner has played well, but if the Yankees signed one of the top two free agent outfielders, he’d be the most likely scapegoat, unless of course, Swisher moved to a full time DH role.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they would roll something into the next CBA regarding agents commissions? If Werth thinks the 5% fee is outrageous, others must also and seems many charge the same thing.. Schilling, Wakefield among 2 that did their own because they they think/thought the fees being charged amounted to nothing more than gouging for little done.
Why not ownership and the players get together (without greedy agents) and put them on the spot at say.. 2-3% in the next CBA. These glorified trial lawyers can either continue at that rate, or go and gouge basketball and football players, unless they smarten up also. Somebody has to put a stop to this.
I don’t get how that’s even possible.
Commission is between the agents and the players, that should have nothing to do with the CBA. Why don’t they just add tickets prices into the CBA too?
I don’t get how that’s even possible.
Commission is between the agents and the players, that should have nothing to do with the CBA. Why don’t they just add tickets prices into the CBA too?
http://projectprospect. com/article/2010/03/20/kyle-drabek-scouting-report
Just wanted to post that this is a good scouting report for Drabek. It was written before the season (but after Spring Training) so it might not be 100% accurate but it is good.
Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas points out that Darren Oliver needs to make just one more appearance to guarantee his option for next season.
Which definitely would not displease the club, what with Oliver having a banner year (lowest ERA of his career, lowest WHIP of his career [min. IP=3.2], highest K/IP ratio of his career [min. IP=3.2], best K/BB ratio of his career, lowest H/IP ratio since his rookie season back in 1947, etc.) and all. I’m sure the Rangers are quite happy to control him for another year at $2.75M over buyout cost.
Now, all they need do is convince him to pitch next year…