Links for Sunday afternoon..
- ESPN's Jerry Crasnick says (via Stephen Goff of Examiner.com) it's unlikely the Astros will attend Doug Davis' upcoming workout. Zachary Levine of the Houston Chronicle reported earlier that the race for Houston's fifth starter was down to Jordan Lyles and Nelson Figueroa, with Ryan Rowland-Smith now vying for a bullpen job.
- Kelsie Smith of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets that the Twins aren't adding anyone to their 40-man roster in light of San Diego's claim of Pat Neshek, suggesting that the team was clearly trying to trade the right-hander but failed.
- David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News writes that the Phillies may not be able to add to their $165MM payroll but believes that they could make personnel moves to create payroll flexibility.
- The White Sox have informed rookie Brent Morel that he's won the starting job at third base, according to Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). This means less playing time for Mark Teahen, whom the club is open to trading.
This makes the Teahen extension even more confusing.
Linebrink bad.
not sure what linebrink has to do with this inexplicably extending teahen.
the thing that’s most confusing about the extension is, even if you accept the assumption of his offense ramping up to him having a bust out year in a hitter’s park, his defense, particularly at third, is unacceptable. he might possibly be an average corner outfielder, and that’s a big might.
as for third, you don’t even need “advanced” defensive metrics to see how bad he sucks there. it’s just obvious he has no business trying to field there.
if you really think about it, it is not that confusing, bad yes consufing no. Kenny extended him to avoid arb(possibly save some money) and buy a few FA years. With the assumption that teahan would finally figure it out knowing he had a full time position and in more of a hitters park. At the time of the extension people thought morell would not be in the bigs yet. but morell excelled through the minors last season while teahan was either hurt or playing horrible defense. When the sox were finally out of it morell was brough up due to his amazing minor league stats to get a look at him. He impressed enough to steal the job away. It happens all the time. Now yes his bat is not 100% MLB ready but his glvoe is and defense wins championships. Teahan will now either be traded(while the whitesox eat a good chunk of his deal possibly to the phillies, marlins, any team looking at young but not willing to take that contract) or he will go into a role he is porbably best suited for which is super sub. He can play 1st,3rd,RF,LF, DH probably 2nd,ss, and Cf in a pinch and he has shown this spring his bat is coming alive.
I love paragraphs.
Congrats Brent Morel. You sure earned it.
Phillies, if your really want to get better, Trade Joe Blanton, lose his 20 mil hes owed, and use whatever you save to fill a gap. 2nd rate pitching comes easy, and with Worley, Kendrick, Bastardo…etc etc, THEY ALL can throw 5 inns and a 5.00 era, some will do better, AND DO IT FOR 440k!!!! Compared to Joe Blantons 9-10 mil. Seriously, hes paid almost as much as an ace, more than Hamels, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? More than Rollins, Polanco etc and took the Phils to arbitration because he thought he was worth 10.2 mil compared to the 7-8 the Phils offered? Stop it, Blanton gets more Love in philly than he deserves. hes OK, not great, and not worth the money hes fleecing the Phils for. There are more pressing needs than the 5th starter on a team with 4 bonifide number 1’s pitching ahead of Joe, while decent pitchers wait behind for a lot less money. Go PHILLIES
That cocaine’s a hell of a drug.
First off, Kendrick isn’t earning the minimum.
Secondly, if they trade Blanton fans won’t get to boast about having ‘the best 5th starter in baseball.’ That’s pretty important man, even though one of Bumgarner/Zito/Minor will probably out-produce him out of the 5th spot anyway.
he isnt paid as much as an ace…if an “ace” signed a 10 mill per season contract that would be a longoria style team friendly deal. And he is paid more than hammels because hammels has less service time and is still going through ARB and has a shaky track record.
Blanton is a very good pitcher with a solid track record. I’m sorry not every pitcher can be a true ace on your staff like two of them. Blaonton would be a #3 on every single other team. But as you well know the phills have the one true Ace in halladay, a very good second #1, a past his prime semi over paid #2 in oswalt and a shaky #3 who has a very very bright future in hammels. What the phillies need is someone like blanton who can throw 200 ish innings and save the pen with how unsturdy that pen is with lidge back there.
Also if it were not for the phillies pulling off the trade to get oswalt(this year will prove if it was worth it to trade a solid young cheap arm for an old expensive one) and them coming out of “no where” even though lee knew about them but some how no one else did. Then Blanton would be a middle of the rotation guy which is what he was signed for and what he is paid for its because of the two older guys that he is now the 5th starter.
also you call for the cheaper guys to throw 5 innings and a 5.00 ERA , blanton last seoans averaged 6 1/3rd innings at a 4.8 ERA so losing an inning per game and going up .2 in ERA is not something most if any team would be willing to do. And now with utley being hurt for possibly the entire season. Polanco being hurt which might change his game all season. Lidge being lidge(old and over worked) no real right fielder. and an again team(suck it lee) the phillies need all the stability in the rotation(thier only real strength if utley misses even half the season) they can get. Also no tema is going to just take blanton off the phillies hands. they would have to either do a bad contract for bad contract move(could hurt them worse than keeping blanton) or they would have to eat at worst half and at best 1/3rd of his contract which kind of does not make sense for them to do. Why pay to have a guy leave when he is better than what you have waiting as of right now
Innings pitched is managerial decision. I wouldn’t use it to judge a pitcher, but that’s just my take.
am i missing the thing about castillo?
I’m assuming he’s mentioned in the link regarding the Phillies personnel moves.
The Astros should already give Figueroa the 5th starter job. If you called up central casting and requested a fifth starter, they’d send you Nelson Figueroa. He was made for that job, and no one has ever given it to him. He’s 37 now. It’s time. Houston, it’s your call.