Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports brings us another edition of Full Count. Here are some highlights..
- Prince Fielder is off to a great start and one GM predicts that he'll be one of the most interesting free agents of all-time. The GM says that Fielder runs hard and is more athletic than most people think. He's about to turn 27 years old which means that he's about four-and-a-half years younger than Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols. A team like the Cubs could use Fielder against Pujols, saying that if he doesn't meet their price, they could sign Fielder instead.
- The Marlins are second in the National League in ERA and first in bullpen ERA by a wide margin. Theyr'e going to have to keep winning with pitching as Hanley Ramirez is off to a slow start, Logan Morrison is out with an injured foot and Mike Stanton still hasn't found his form since coming back from a hamstring strain. Last week, Rosenthal pointed out the potential availability of Mark DeRosa and this week he says that the veteran would be a perfect fit in Florida.
- The Yankees will soon face some decisions regarding their rotation. Kevin Millwood has an out in his contract if he's not in the majors by May 1st. The club might have better options such as Adam Warren and possibly Hector Noesi or David Phelps. In addition to those prospects, Carlos Silva is working his way back into shape and Phil Hughes is about to start a rehab assignment this week.
- Miguel Tejada is off to a rough start in 2011 as he looks less-than-sharp in the field and is hitting just .209/.239/.328. The Giants don't have any great internal options at shortstop, so Rosenthal says to keep an eye on Jose Reyes, Marco Scutaro, J.J. Hardy as possible trade targets.
What a weak compliment by that GM there, considering if Prince Fielder was slower than what most people think then he wouldn’t actually be in motion.
Lol, if Pujols does end up going to Free Agency that whole ‘we’ll just sign Fielder instead’ thing won’t work. I say this because Pujols probably won’t want to be screwed around with, so he’ll just walk away and whatever team says that will likely lose their chance to sign him.
Exactly. The Cubs would have no leverage with a stupid statement like that, Pujols probably would be so offended at being compared to Fielder he would end all discussions, and what makes everyone think that the Cubs would get either of those two players? If anything the Cubs are the last place I would imagine those guys, Pujols first will give the Cards a legitimate chance to sign him, and if he becomes a FA I can think of 5 teams (Not Boston or New York) that would sign him over the Cubs, first would be the Angels as Kendrys Morales has had a rough time getting his leg to heal from jumping too hard, Seattle because Smoak is still a question mark and they want to build around Felix with offense, The Orioles because they will understand they are really falling behind the AL east and are a few pieces off, Atlanta because they are always a perfect dark horse team and Colorado because he could get maybe 40 home runs just at Coors.
The Brewers could Trade Fielder at Deadline if they are out it to get something back.
Really? Wow. I had absolutely no idea they could do that. You might be ahead of all of us with your baseball knowledge.
^sarcasm.
Do the marlins have any young middle infielders that the giants could trade derosa for? Giants do need another starting pitcher with zito out and mad bum struggling
The Marlins farm is pretty dead.
TRADE DEROSA AND ZITO FOR JOSE REYES!!!!
And NY would do that why? I would love to see it but it would never happen.
They’ll throw in Rowand too!!!
Ok but the Met’s will only throw in $40 000 000 to make it even.
It is now obvious that Score Keepers and Umpires HATE the Detroit Tigers. Will we ever get a no hitter?
Verlander threw one a few years ago.
In 2007 I think.
I know but last year with Galarraga and now with Penny. It’s getting ridiculous.
it was the 6th inning. penny has only pitched 4 complete games in his career. he hit 94 pitches in the 7th inning. no way in hell he was going to throw 9 innings.
Gallarraga’s perfecto still pisses me off, how cool would it of been to have three perfect games in a year? Jim Joyce and his stupid mustache blew the call and I hate how I know his name.
Even with Jed Lowrie’s hot start i don’t see the red sox trading Scutaro unless they have a player of equal ability in line to replace him.
Jed Lowrie: “But they do have a player of equal ability in line to replace him. Me.”
A back up infielder who can play 2B-SS-3B at the same level as Scutaro, Im implying Lowrie is the starting SS not the back up.
Considering Scutaro’s production wouldn’t be that hard replace they have several options. Yamaico Navarro and Jose Iglesias are capable of handling the back-up role or taking over starting if need be (in case Jed gets injured). Also Pedroia could potentially go back to ss for a bit if absolutely necessary. There are plenty of ss and 2nd basemen who can be had for cheap with similar production to Scutaro, especially once certain teams come back down to earth.
It’s hard to say for sure because he barely got a taste of the majors last year, but Navarro looks like he could potentially be a superior player to Scutaro.
Oscar Tejada didn’t look too far off from the majors and I forget if Linares was an infielder or an outfielder but he was good too.
Linares is an outfielder, but yeah he looks like a pretty good player. Tejeda has looked good so far this year, and he started showing good stuff last year, but he’s just started playing 2B and is only 21 in his first taste of AA, so I doubt he gets called up anytime before September, if even then. They are also not quite sold yet on his defense, so there is talk that he may end up in the outfield.
Agreed. I think if Scutaro is traded, Navarro will get the job. He plenty good enough for a major league utility role. I’d like to see Iglasias continue to work on his hitting at Pawtucket for now.
Yeah I’d much rather see Iglesias stay in AAA for the year, and then maybe get called up in September. But if he needs to be called up, you don’t have to twist my arm on it. He couldn’t do any worse than what Scutaro is doing so far offensively while playing much superior defense.
Navarro can play all three positions, and likely hit better than Scutaro.
“And they have a guy that can replace Jed, its me Jose Iglesias, don’t tell me you forgot about me.”
I’ve been saying for a while that Prince will go to the Cubs. He’d be a monster in that park and the fans would love him. As an added bonus, he’d face off the the Brewers every year. Marketing gold.
He’d face the Brewers every year if he signed with any NL team, as long as he’s healthy.
I think he meant head to head competition. Since the Cubs and Brewers are in the same Division.
They’re going to have to “keep winning with pitching”? Hanley Ramirez is *never* going to hit? Ever? Never ever? Really?
With his value at an all time low, I wonder if Theo has been calling the Marlins about his availability…..
The Marlins farm is not known for it’s top talent…..
Right now it’s more the fact that they’ve graduated all their stars to the big club. They scout too well to not reload the system soon, but for the time being, that’s one barren system
DeRosa a perfect fit? May I remind everyone that Rosenthal isn’t a GM for a reason.
He isn’t? Paint me surprised, next you will tell me he is a terrible talent analyst and his trade proposals and rumors are ridiculous……
One barren system. Agreed.