Plenty of storylines in the AL East this year; here are a few…
- Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos talked to Jeff Blair on the Fan 590 yesterday, and Andrew Stoeten of Drunk Jays Fans has highlights. Anthopoulos talked about Aroldis Chapman, Frank Francisco, Brett Lawrie, and Juan Rivera among other things.
- Much has been written lately about Rays' manager Joe Maddon's attempt to handle Manny Ramirez. Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald has quotes from the manager today. ESPN's Jayson Stark tackled the Manny-Rays topic in depth yesterday, with one veteran big league coach and manager asserting, "I know one thing. It will end horribly."
- Despite being knocked around yesterday, Yankees pitcher Sergio Mitre told Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News, "That's one thing that never even crossed my mind – whether I'm making the team or not." Mitre seems to be battling Freddy Garcia for a long relief job.
- Yankees GM Brian Cashman talked about how Jesus Montero's defense seems to be slipping in tandem with his batting slump, in this article from Feinsand's colleague John Harper. Montero might be best served at Triple-A for development and trade value purposes.
- Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe has extensive quotes from Adrian Gonzalez's agent John Boggs, as the good vibes about an April extension continue. WEEI's Alex Speier explains that trading for Gonzalez rather than signing him as a free agent gives Boston a more desirable slice of the first baseman's career and also saves them perhaps $25MM or more. I think the value of the careers of the prospects given up easily surpasses that amount of savings, but that's slightly negated by the Sox not having to give up a draft pick to get Adrian.
- Orioles president Andy MacPhail admitted to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun that service time is a factor in their decision whether to have top prospect Zach Britton break camp with the team. At least he's being upfront about it. Britton has allowed one run in 14 innings this spring.
- Here's how the AL East stacks up in Baseball America's organizational talent rankings: the Rays are #2, the Blue Jays are #4, the Yankees are #5, the Red Sox are #17, and the Orioles are #21.
If the Orioles keep Britton Up and he makes the Major League Roster cant they just sign him after for a longer contract? If any One could tell me if they can or not would be helpful go O’s
Short, definitive answer: No because he’s a Boras client.
you mean Jesus Montero is no longer the favorite to win AL MVP this year???
The worst team in the division for the past few years also has the worst farm system amongst all the teams. Yikes.
At least you developed your point.
Well obviously in this case, there’s really no need to go into further detail. Not an AL East team, but I’m also surprised that the Marlins have one of the worst
They certainly have their place, and rankings can be very intelligent and correct, but they don’t always tell the whole story. The Os have totally failed in the international market, and very stupidly didn’t protect Beato and Egan in the rule 5 draft.
In the same vein, the organization has a lot of high slot bonus player depth. The big issue is that most of those players are at the lower levels of the organization, not at AAA and are 2-4 years away from ready. If the Os were to supplement that talent with some legit international signings the farm system would shoot up. We’ll see if they do (they prob wont).
A better analysis would note that most of the O’s talent (that put them in the top 5 over the past few years) have graduated to the majors. See Matt Wieters, Brian Matusz, Jake Arietta, Chris Tillman, Nolan Reimold, etc.
ESPN’s Jayson Stark tackled the Manny-Rays topic in depth yesterday, with one veteran big league coach and manager asserting, “I know one thing. It will end horribly.”
– Any guesses on who said this? I say Francona
No, Tito always seemed to like Manny. And thats just not a Tito statment.
It said 1 veteran big league coach and manager. Torre is no longer a coach/manager so it can’t be him when he managed him in LA, and the only other active coach to ever manage Manny is Charlie Manuel, and he only managed Manny for 1 year back in 2000. Perhaps he said it but don’t be surprised if it was Tito.
it doesn’t necessarily say it was someone that managed him. It might’ve been someone that coached him at one point or it could well be a different manager who’s just watched his career. Way more options like that. I’d be amazed if Francona said that to anyone, that would be about the opposite of the way he usually acts.
Good point. Tito is indeed a class act, and I always thought Torre was that is until his book came out. I didn’t expect Torre to say that.
You’re right it doesn’t say it was someone that managed him, but obviously the ones that have managed him know all about him. A guy who hasn’t managed him, even though we know the Manny being Manny drama, can’t exactly say it will end horribly. My only other guess then is Charlie Manuel, but who knows.
I would laugh if it was Tito though.
You’re forgetting the fact that Sox personnel tend to get spread around a lot. John Farrell and Brad Mills are veteran coaches who have experience with Manny.
Yes I did think of that after I posted above, but I forgot to edit it. You could be right too. So I suppose it could have been somebody in the Sox organization. However I can certainly say they have a very valid point. And I do hope they are right.
I think Manny in TO was a real possibility this offseason, so I doubt it was Farrell. Everything Farrell had to say about Manny was full of praise for his work ethic.
Just because the word veteran was thrown in there doesn’t disprove it wasn’t Joe Torre who said that, I really think the person that said that was from the L.A. Office because it ended bad and they paid him way too much.
I say Joe Torre.
Even though the Sox traded away 3 top prospects for A-Gon, I am still surprised that they are as low as #17. I would have thought that they would have been in the top 13 at least. Im surprised that the Yankees are as high as #5.
But everybody down in Tampa is loving Manny, but just like he did with the Sox, Dodgers, and the other Sox he is gonna get tired and the fans are gonna get tired of his antics quicker than normal. Because the Rays “fans”(the dozen or so that are out there when they are not in the running for a penant) and announcers are gonna need someone to complain about quickly.
Montero needs to wake up and smell the cappuccino… Keep it up and watch your opportunity to take over diminish! He will man-up and grab the bull by the horns though, I put that on Bald Vinnie…
I have to tell you that, after watching Montero for a while, the scout in the referenced article hit his defensive posture right on the head. He’s completely unnatural behind the plate. I don’t think there is a bull for him to grab by the horns. I think he is just flat placed out of position. He’s a very talented and athletic kid, so I’m not down on him becoming an MLB superstar some day. It is his bat that will get him there. I am close to certain, however, that he won’t be an MLB catcher.
I dont see anything wrong with the Orioles holding back a prospect from Opening Day. You’re exchanging 3 weeks this year, for an extra year of cheap service time later. Isn’t that what the Rays do all the time?
Agreed that the prospect values given up for AGonz exceed $25MM. However, Speier’s $25MM was extremely conservative:
Say we use Teixeira’s $180MM as a benchmark like Speier does. And let’s assume also that AGon signs for the reported $154 MM extension for 7 yrs.
$154 MM for 7 + $6 MM option for 2011 = $160 MM for 8 yrs. That’s 20 MM less than Teixeira’s $180 MM. This is pretty much a summary of Speier’s early calculations.
Here’s where Speier gets very conservative. He says by getting Agon 1 yr earlier, you’re paying for his 29-yr-old season instead of his 37-yr-old season. So he adds $5 MM to the $20 MM in savings which results in the $25 MM in savings. But according to Tango’s research, once players hit their prime, they decline on average at a rate of .5 WAR per year. So the difference between a 29-yr-old Agon and a 37-yr-old Agon is greater than a 3 WAR which is worth more than $15 MM in today’s market.
IOW, the savings for trading for AGon now instead of waiting to sign him as a free agent is more than $35 MM and that’s not counting inflation rates.
I still can’t wait to see how Kelly,Rizzo and at a little later time Fuentes develop in San Diego, Rizzo should be a 25 HR threat, and Kelly is awesome, this should go down as a great trade in the future, one we look back on similar to the Hanley, Anibal for Beckett and Lowell trade, where it just works out for both teams.
Organizational talent rankings, that rate the quality and quantity of one team’s farm system against another have to go deeper analytically to have real meaning. Only 8 players on each ML team, the regulars, if you will, matter in the final W-L column. So the team with aging veterans whose performances have plateaued or are on the wan, had better have a talented farm system capable of producing talented replacements or prime trade candidates on short notice. In the absence of same, those teams are, shall I say, “entering into a long term world of hurt”. Conversely, teams with a roster of emerging young stars, need not have a topflight farm system. What does it matter if team X has quality minor leaguers at positions a, b and c if the big team’s encumbants at positions a, b and c have 6, 7, or 8 productive seasons ahead of them? Trade bait? Maybe? But chances are those emerging minor leaguers will never see service time with the teams that signed and groomed them.