Links for Thursday, before the Rangers try to even out the World Series…
- The Cubs would welcome Kerry Wood back to Chicago if they have enough money, according to Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.com. The Yankees declined Wood's 2011 option yesterday, so he'll be free to sign with the team of his choice soon after the World Series.
- Nationals manager Jim Riggleman says he wants Adam Dunn to re-sign in Washington, but points out that "there's going to be some pretty good talent out there" if Dunn leaves, according to Ben Goessling of MASNSports (on Twitter).
- Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel hears that the Brewers are open to hiring managerial candidates Bob Melvin and Joey Cora, though they’ll likely talk to Bobby Valentine about a potential deal (Twitter link).
- The Phillies outrighted Paul Hoover off of their 40-man roster.
- Former Braves and Orioles pitching coach Leo Mazzone told Gary Williams and Steve Phillips of SIRIUS XM radio that he’d have interest in becoming the pitching coach for the Yankees or Mets.
It’d be pretty weird watching Leo Mazzone rocking back in forth in the Mets dugout (or in the bullpen) for 3 hours…like a human, um, tomahawk… I guess I could used to it – if he still has the “chops” to really handle a pitching staff :p
I see what you did there.
[Chuckle]….yeah, well after I saw what they did to @andropofvenom over “Maine” last night I figured I better have a little pre-emptive strike built in! 🙂
No disrespect to Leo Mazzone, but doesn’t anyone ever question how great a pitching coach he really was? As a Braves fan sometimes I wonder if Leo was really that talented or was his staff just really that talented? Granted the Braves never really had a great bullpen during the run from 1991-2005, but the staff was always Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and insert either Avery, Neagle, Millwood, Burkett, etc. In 04-05 the pitching staff in Atlanta consisted of Russ Ortiz, Mike Hampton, Smoltz, Jorge Sosa, Horacio Ramirez, Tim Hudson for 2005 at least, and Kyle Davies. Those were probably his best years of actually getting the most out of his staff. It would be interesting to see him back in the dugout, his stint with the Orioles wasn’t necessarily a success. I’ll stop my rambling now…
I’ve wondered that about him too, especially after he went to Baltimore and didn’t turn that staff around. Maddux was already great before going to Atlanta and I have to think Smoltz and Glavine would have been just fine with almost any other pitching coach. Perhaps Avery as well though guys like Millwood, Neagle and Burkett probably did benefit from Mazzone (if he was as good as people think). I don’t believe Atlanta’s pitching fell off much with Roger McDowell and Baltimore’s didn’t get better with Mazzone so it’s tough to say that he’s really as good as imagined.
No, that’s a fair point. I’ve always kind of wondered that too. But I think of you attribute most of his success in Atlanta to how good those pitchers were, then it’s only fair to attribute some of the failings of his staffs in Baltimore to the lack of talent there as well. I mean they had talent…but he wasn’t the only pitching coach who failed to get the likes of Daniel Cabrera to locate his stuff better.
I think it evens out somewhere. He may not be the genius he was hailed to be in Atlanta, but he’s no dummy either. I don’t know what other options are out there, but it doesn’t really seem like he’d be a bad pickup for either team if they’re hard up for other options
I don’t think a pitching coach is going to be able to take a bad pitcher and turn them in a good one. If anything, their job is to observe the good and bad habits of a pitcher and keep them on course. AJ Burnett might be a great example. A pitcher with great stuff who struggles because of wildness. If he can point out those flaws and if AJ can keep to the advice then he’s done his job. If AJ goes against the grain then that falls on AJ for the most part. Sergio Mitre is another example. Mitre will never be a great pitcher but he is a sinker baller. If Leo were to fix his mechanics and get him to throw that sinker corrcetly then Mitre will be what Mitre was meant to be. A decent, if unspectacular, sinker ball pitcher. But only God could possibly turn Mitre into more than what his talent will allow him to be.
The same thing is true of a hitting instructor. A little change here and there and keeping a guy in a good groove makes a big difference. Mazzone has that rep, and if the Yankees sign him, I hope we have the pitching equivalent of Kevin Long.
Kevin hasn’t made every hitter better, but he’s helped some of our guys improve. That’s all you can ask of a coach.
The Kerry Wood story is really a non-story, of course the Cubs would welcome him back if they have the money. Kerry was well liked by the fans and management and his time in Chicago ended well. He’s still a good pitcher and the Cubs could use a good late inning reliever to help Marshall setup Marmol so it’s kind of an obvious fit to anyone paying attention.
Riggleman might be laying the groundwork for the Nationals losing Dunn. I have to think that if they were going to resign him it would have happened by now with all the talk and effort they’ve put into it. I think Dunn has his mind set on leaving, or testing the free agent market, probably with hopes of landing on the north side of Chicago. Maybe he just doesn’t like what the Nat’s are offering but either way I don’t think he goes back. Riggleman and management probably know this by now so maybe they’re doing some early damage control, preparing the fan base for his loss.
Hendry always seems to overpay the injury risk players. I think Wood will be a Cub in 2011, but I don’t think it is a smart signing. He had a good run last season, but he is an injury risk and Hendry will definitely over pay him. I would rather that Hendry looked at other options.
Dunn seems like a quick fix on Hendry’s resume. I think he knows he is on thin ice, and he needs to sign a big name, but what he really needs to do is rebuild. He needs to get some young pitching (via trade) and set a goal for 2013/2014 to be in contention.
I don’t think there’s any reason to assume Hendry would even offer, and there’s no reason to assume he’s on thin ice.
I always really liked Leo as a person, liked him when he was in Atlanta, missed him when he was in Baltimore, enjoy him on the radio, even bought his book, but I have to think he’s not getting hired. Especially with teams like New York, who invest so heavily in their pitchers, hiring a guy who still is a staunch proponent of the 4-Man Rotation and pitchers working out and pitching between starts has to feel a bit too worrisome to entrust your 70 million dollar rotation to him. Heck though, how much more injured could the Mets get? Maybe it’s worth a dice roll.
Sure hope the Brewers go with a young up and coming manager instead of B. Valentine. I wouldn’t be totally upset with Valentine, but I think the team they have now would relate better to J. Cora or Roenicke. I will be happy with any of those three, but please not B. Melvin. All we need is another Melvin running this team. One Melvin has already screwed this team up bad enough.
I’d like to see the Yankees re-sign Wood to stay in the set-up role for $5-6MM with a club option for a similar amount. 2 years/$11MM would suit him just fine.
Nnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooo. Check his BB/9
check his K/9 while your at it and his career BB/9
I always wondered why Dunn never made his way to Wrigley. This guy is NOTHING if not an absolute LH hitting exact duplicate of Kong Kingman and am sure old time Cubbie fans remember what he did the 1st 2 years Kong played at Wrigley.
Dunn could/probably would easily surpass 40HR a year he was generally putting up from ’05-’08 and he is certainly a better buy than whatever FA he has his eye on going from his track record.
Please somebody in the Cubs hierarchy, either dump Hendry outright, or try and get Dunn for the 12-14m over 3 years or so that is all that it will probably take and watch those balls fly, he’s already better than everyone else currently on the roster and not saying that to be hateful, just trying to get some excitement back on this team again.
Adam just came off 2 consistent years that paid him 10 million per. What in the world makes you think he’ll take 14 million or less for 3 years service?
Dunn will either walk, homer or strike out. I don’t care either way if he’s a Cub or not – I’d like to see Berkman signed for way less and give the Cubs some time to compete again, personally – but if you think Chicago’s going to get him for less than 3 years 33 million or so, you’re crazy.
That is how the Cubs ended up with a roster full of..140M players.. resurrection projects, such as Grabow. Cubs need someone to produce, not another bounce back candidate they already are filled up to the top with as it is.
What are you talking about? I’m just stating what you’d have to expect to pay to add Dunn.
Is Leo Mazzone a good pitching coach?? I remember he was in ATL… but I don’t give pitching coaches credit when you have a staff of Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz.
Isn’t that sort of like saying Kevin Long isn’t that big of a deal because he has a team of professional star hitters on the team. I’m sure there were other pitchers Mazzone worked with that were great while with the Braves and then not so great later. I think Russ Ortiz and Jaret Wright are a couple of guys that come to mine. Unfortunately the Yanks signed both as free agents coming from the Braves and they both made Vanessa Del Rio proud. I’m sure he also helped keep the big three running smooth as well as even stars might go thru flaws in their delivery. He certainly wouldn’t hurt as a pitching coach and might be able to help a guy like AJ and bring the best out of Hughes, Joba and other young guys.
Vanessa Del Rio…That one name I thought I would never see on a sport blog.
Bring Kerry Wood back I miss that goatee. Plus, our bullpen is bad and his line with the Yankees was phenomenal. 24 games, 2-0, 0.69 ERA 31 SO.
I agree that the Yanks should try and bring him back, preferably on a 1 year deal w/ an option. However, Wood was lucky to an extent as he had an incredibly high amount of walks (I think 18) in only 26 IP or so. He was lucky to strand those runners as well. He also had an unusually low hit per inning rate that was way below his career norm. Shouldn’t expect him to be the same exact guy next year. However, he still is probably best to serve the roll that we need him to play. We need a 8th inning guy and back up closer w/ some heat.
he had a high k/9 rate. i wouldnt call that lucky.
The Nats had better sign Adam Dunn, since they screwed the pooch at the F/A Deadline. They aren’t going to get anything for him now, so throw some more money at it and see if it heals itself.
As long as the Nats offer Dunn arbitration, they’ll get 2 draft picks, so, they’ll at least get “something” for him.But I agree, the Nats brass screwed this up. They should have re-signed him earlier for whatever he asked for. For now, I’ve read that they’ve made him a lowball offer (presumably so they can say that they offered him a 3 yr deal). At this point, I’d be floored if he came back to the Nats; there’s no chance that the Nats offer him the most years and most money.