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Marlins Seek Left-Handed Relievers

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Any team that plays in the same division as Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Adam Dunn could use a reliable left-hander or two. The Marlins are no exception, and since Taylor Tankersley is the lone southpaw in their bullpen, they are looking for a dependable left-handed reliever, according to MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. If Dontrelle Willis continues to struggle and the D'Backs make him available, the Marlins would likely have renewed interest in him, according to Frisaro. 

Tankersley, the only left-handed reliever currently on the team, has appeared in just three big league games since the Marlins recalled him from the minor leagues. Left-hander Dan Meyer is just a call away at Triple A New Orleans, where lefty Hunter Jones has spent most of the season, so the Marlins do have some depth in the minors. Before he hit the disabled list, Renyel Pinto appeared in 19 games, posting a 2.30 ERA and twice as many strikeouts as walks.

Over the weekend, the Miami Herald named Will Ohman and Matt Thornton as potential fits for the team. It's not hard to imagine Tim Byrdak (Astros), Javier Lopez (Pirates) and Bruce Chen (Royals) becoming available within a few weeks and others could be had in trades. The Marlins could go after former Red Sox Alan Embree and Scott Schoeneweis if they choose to pursue free agents.

When To Expect Top Prospects

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From now on, teams that call prospects up to make their major league debuts no longer have to worry that those players will go to arbitration an extra time. It's now June and prospects that debut from this point on will not pick up more than 124 days of MLB service time this year. There's almost no chance that that would be enough for super two status after 2012. We all know when to expect Stephen Strasburg, but let's take a look around the majors and anticipate the arrivals of some more top prospects:

  • Mike Stanton – You thought Jose Bautista had a lot of homers? Stanton hit his 19th and 20th of the season tonight at AA in front of Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest. The 20-year-old Stanton, ranked by Baseball America as the Marlins' best prospect this offseason, entered today's action with 39 walks and 50 strikeouts. Juan C. Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun Sentinel says it may not be long before Stanton is playing in the majors.
  • Carlos Santana – The 24-year-old catcher began the season as one of the best prospects in baseball and he has lived up to expectations so far in 2010. Santana has hit .315/.450/.565 at Triple A with ten homers and more strikeouts than walks. Lou Marson, who is actually younger than Santana, struggled early on for the Indians, but has impressed Indians manager Manny Acta lately. Still, Marson has a .216/.270/.276 line this season, so Santana appears to have more offensive potential.
  • Pedro Alvarez – The Pirates, who have scored the second-fewest runs in the National League, might be tempted by the .261/.349/.511 line Alvarez has posted in Triple A. No Pirate has a slugging percentage as high as the one Alvarez has posted in the minors and just Ryan Doumit and Andrew McCutchen have been getting on base as much. 

Stanton, Santana and Alvarez have played well, but they aren't the only ones who could arrive in the majors before long. Desmond Jennings, Jeremy Hellickson, Aroldis Chapman and Brett Wallace could conceivably get the call within a few weeks.

Brewers Sign Brian Bruney

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The Brewers signed Brian Bruney to a minor league deal, according to Jen Royle of MASN.com (via Twitter). The deal has an opt-out in a month, so Bruney could be a free agent again before long. The Brewers seemed like a natural landing spot for Bruney when the Nationals released him last week. The righty refused a minor league assignment after being designated for assignment. 

Bruney, 28, walked more than a batter per inning in 19 appearances for the Nationals this year. Though he has never been a control pitcher, he had an acceptable walk rate as recently as 2008, when he posted a sub-2.00 ERA for the Yankees. For what it's worth, Bruney's fastball hasn't had as much pep as usual this year; he's averaging 92 mph, down from 94 mph last year.

Odds & Ends: Trembley, Konerko, Oswalt, Athletics

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Links for Tuesday, as Scott Rolen's big season continues…

Dan Lozano Leaves Beverly Hills Sports Council

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TUESDAY, June 1st: Crasnick reports that Lozano officially announced his departure from Beverly Hills Sports Council. Lozano will still represent all of his clients, including Pujols, Rollins, Young, Cabrera, Joey Votto, Dallas Braden and J.C. Romero. Agent Dan Horwits is not leaving BHSC (Twitter links).

THURSDAY, May 27th: Crasnick hears that Lozano is taking several employees with him. Partner Dan Horwits, who represents Kurt Suzuki, Mike Leake and Kevin Gregg, may also leave Beverly Hills Sports Council (Twitter links).

WEDNESDAY, May 26th: Agent Dan Lozano has left the Beverly Hills Sports Council, reports ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.  SI's Jon Heyman tweets that Lozano will take at least three big clients with him in his solo venture: Albert Pujols, Jimmy Rollins, and Michael Young.  Felipe Lopez, Russell Branyan, and Orlando Cabrera have also been reported as clients of Lozano in recent years, but it's not known whether he retained them.

By our count BHSC had the seventh-biggest offseason, brokering $132.92MM worth of contracts.  Their business takes a hit with the loss of Pujols, who is likely headed for a contract in excess of $200MM.  They've still got Mark Reynolds, Tommy Hanson, Brad Hawpe, Aaron Hill, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Ludwick, Hunter Pence, Ryan Theriot, Dan Uggla, Jayson Werth, and Brian Wilson, among others.

Melvin On The Brewers’ Search For Pitching

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Brewers GM Doug Melvin told reporters that he asked his staff about Dontrelle Willis, but did not pursue the lefty, who the Tigers just sent to Arizona. Left-handers Chris Narveson, Chris Capuano and Randy Wolf make up three fifths of the team's rotation, so the club had minimal interest in Willis, according to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy.

The Brewers are looking for pitching, however. McCalvy suggests Brian Bruney, who is now a free agent, could be an option for the club. The Brewers spent big on Doug Davis, Randy Wolf, Trevor Hoffman and LaTroy Hawkins last winter, but they still don't have enough pitching. Melvin told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he believes the team's signings can only be evaluated in context.

"What people don't understand is you have to look at availability," he said. "Not everybody wants to come here. Some players have no-trade clauses."

The Brewers contacted a number of teams about Claudio Vargas after designating him for assignment over the weekend, but have yet to receive trade offers for him, according to Haudricourt.

Oswalt Would Consider A Trade To Washington

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Roy Oswalt would consider waiving his no-trade clause to play for the Nationals, according to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post. Oswalt explained that the team's offense and the upcoming promotion of Stephen Strasburg make the Nats appealing. The 26-26 Nationals began the day in a three-way tie for third in the NL East.

Since Oswalt has $29MM remaining on his contract and the Astros are not obliged to deal him, there's no guarantee he is actually traded. Oswalt says he would play "anywhere" he can contend, but has as many questions about his future as everybody else.

"I don't know who's interested," he said. "They haven't really approached me about anybody yet."

Last week, one official told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that the Nationals may be the one team that could afford to take on Oswalt's salary. 

D’Backs Acquire Dontrelle Willis For Billy Buckner

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It’s a new beginning for Dontrelle Willis, who returns to the league he once thrived in.  And it’s an attempt to restore order by the Diamondbacks, who have allowed more runs than any NL team and are in the midst of an eight-game losing streak. Today the D’Backs announced that they have acquired Willis and cash from the Tigers for Billy Buckner.

There's about $8MM remaining on Willis' salary and the Tigers will pay all of it, except the pro-rated portion of the major league minimum. Buckner, a 26-year-old righty who started three games for Arizona this year, will begin his Tigers career in Triple A, according to the team. Buckner allowed 26 hits in 13 big league innings this year, striking out 11 and walking five. The former second rounder pitched better in Triple A, posting a 3.53 ERA with 5.6 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9.

Ed Price of AOL FanHouse first reported the deal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports confirmed it (via Twitter). Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported that Buckner was in the deal (via Twitter) and Jon Heyman of SI.com reported how much cash was changing hands (via Twitter).

As many as four teams had some interest in the 28-year-old Willis, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post. The Tigers designated Willis for assignment Saturday.

Bryce Harper Links

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Assorted links about baseball's most popular 17-year-old, Bryce Harper…

  • Harper tops Keith Law's updated list of the top 100 prospects in this year's draft (ESPN insider link). Manny Machado, Jameson Taillon and Drew Pomeranz aren't far behind.
  • MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo explains that few hitters after Harper are considered safe bets this year.
  • Harper's advisor Scott Boras told SI's Tom Verducci, "No baseball person in his right mind will have the guy catch."  Baseball America's Jim Callis sees the Nationals moving Harper to a corner outfield position, allowing him to reach the Majors in September of 2012 at the earliest.  Also in that piece, Callis compares Pomeranz to other recent college lefties.
  • Yahoo's Tim Brown wonders what it's like to be Harper.
  • Joe Posnanski cautions that unlike Stephen Strasburg, Harper is a long way from being big-league ready.  A lot can go wrong in that time.

2006 Draft Throwdown

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There is little that is more dismaying than looking back at old draft lists, with the benefit of hindsight, and seeing which players your favorite team missed out on while settling for players who either failed to make much of an impact, or who never even reached the major leagues. Think Reggie Jackson and Steve Chilcott, Robin Yount and David Clyde, Dwight Gooden and Bryan Oelkers. Often, this is driven less by player talent, and more by positional need.

But even more fascinating is to look at some recent draft picks and some of their immediate counterparts, to see how teams fared picking players, one over another, who played the same position. In other words, straight-up scouting choices led to these decisions. Let's take a look at how those worked out in 2006.

  • LHP Andrew Miller (Tigers) vs. Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers): This one is more complicated than it might seem at first. Clearly, Miller, drafted sixth overall, has not been nearly as effective as Kershaw, drafted seventh overall. Miller has a 5.50 ERA in 261 2/3 major league innings, and is currently having trouble throwing strikes in the minor leagues, with an astonishing 30 walks in 28 innings. Kershaw has a 3.28 ERA in 342 major league innings, and shows signs of being a good deal better than that moving forward. But Miller isn't with the Tigers; Detroit dealt him in the move that brought Miguel Cabrera to Detroit. Still, advantage has to go to Kershaw on this one, and the Dodgers as well.
  • RHP Tim Lincecum (Giants) vs. Max Scherzer (Diamondbacks): Is this one about to turn? Obviously, as of this date, Lincecum, drafted tenth, has worked out as well as one could hope any draft pick could, while Scherzer, drafted eleventh, is still a work-in-progress who has already been traded once. But Lincecum has had uncharacteristic struggles with his control lately, even though his season ERA (3.14) and strikeout rate (10.4/9 innings) are not far off of his career marks. And Scherzer is coming off of a 14-strikeout performance, though four walks meant that he did so in just 5 2/3 innings. For now, though, a big edge to Lincecum, the two-time Cy Young Award winner.
  • OF Tyler Colvin (Cubs) vs. Travis Snider (Blue Jays): Based on 2010 season line alone, this battle of the lefty-hitting outfielders would have to go to Colvin, drafted thirteenth, over Snider, drafted fourteenth. After all, Colvin has an OPS of .991 in 83 plate appearances this season, while Snider's stands at .806. But overall, it seems clear that the Blue Jays did better here. Snider came out of high school, while Colvin was a collegiate player. Yet Snider posted significantly better offensive numbers than Colvin as each player climbed their respective system ladders- a .916 to .785 edge in minor league OPS. Snider was holding down a regular job at age 22 before he hit the DL, while Colvin is struggling for a regular spot as his 25th birthday approaches. This one is debatable, but the smart money gives Toronto and Snider the edge.

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