The Yankees agreed to re-sign Andruw Jones and the Blue Jays agreed to sign Darren Oliver earlier today, and now let's round up some more news from the AL East…
- “There’s obviously room to improve the team,” said Yankees team president Randy Levine to Mark Hale of The New York Post. “I don’t like to get into the amounts, but obviously there’s room to improve the team." Recent reports indicated that the Yankees don't have enough room in the budget to add a starter like Hiroki Kuroda. "After [CC Sabathia], as far as large contracts, we haven’t done anything," added Levine. "But that’s really our choice."
- The Red Sox will continue to explore the market to see if there's an affordable outfield upgrade available, writes WEEI.com's Alex Speier. That could be a right-handed platoon bat to partner with Ryan Sweeney, or someone who deserves a larger role.
- Speier reports (on Twitter) that Rich Hill will make $725K prorated in the majors next season. The Red Sox re-signed Hill to a minor league deal earlier today.
- Tommy Rancel of ESPN Florida wonders if the Rays could be a fit for Ryan Madson on a short-term contract if his market doesn't start to pick up. Just under 6.5% of the readers we polled yesterday believe Madson will end up with Tampa Bay.
- Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com wonders if the Orioles have a trade involving a starter in the works. They are reportedly pursuing Joe Saunders and Wei-Yi Chen, and already have Jeremy Guthrie, Tsuyoshi Wada, Zach Britton, Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta, Tommy Hunter, Chris Tillman, Dana Eveland, and Brad Bergesen on the 40-man roster.
If the Orioles do have a trade in the works, trading for one starting pitcher is not going to really do all that much for the cause. The Orioles are going to have to do more! A lot More!
Lefty, I think the innuendo is that they may be trading away some starting pitching, not trading for it. They have right around 10 guys with shots at the rotation.
I will go thru the list and give a brief summary
Jeremy Guthrie, has no real trade value. I thought maybe we could have gotten Volquez straight up but that notion seems ridiculous now
Tsuyoshi Wada not going to be traded
Zach Britton not going to be traded or at least he better not be on the block!
Brian Matusz could be traded, but what’s his value? Zero at this point
Jake Arrieta could be traded, but unsure of his value, plus with elbow surgery (minor).
Tommy Hunter, ok, but not great… no trade value
Chris Tillman, I don’t want him traded and has no real trade value
Dana Eveland – I am still unusre why he’s here. Duquette said he has value and blah, blah,blah. However, I am unconvinced!
Brad Bergesen, I think he’s a very good athlete. As a pitcher, it’s a shame he has spiraled downward the way he has. Plus, he has no trade value.
The one trade, I would do it Guthrie for Balfour. That’s the only reasonable thing, I can come up with for now.
There you go for all of those that doubted the Yankees were strapped on cash.
Anybody who thinks the Yankees don’t have the money to sign anybody they want is kidding themselves.
Yeah I tend to agree. The Yankees process significantly more revenue than any other team.
I’ve been hearing many Sox fans say that they don’t have $ either. To think that either of these 2 teams don’t have money is nonsense.
Like the Red Sox, they are only limited by choice.
There is absolutely zero possibility that the Rays sign Ryan Madson. No way they are going to pay a closer 8-10 million for one year. Farnsworth did almost as good last year for 25% the cost.
plus he can do this!
Eh, we did have Soriano for 7.25 mil a few years back, although we got him in a trade.
Yeah, and that was the same year we had a 70+ million payroll. Now that we are in the 40-49 million range I don’t think it will ever happen. Madson is okay but I am satisfied with our bullpen (if we would just dump JP Howell). We just need a bat at 1B and DH now. I bet Derrick Lee can be had for a reasonable price and resign Damon for DH.
Again, I’m not dreaming of the possibility this time, I am calling it, Madson will go to the Rays for 1 year where this is no pressure, he will do awesome and re try the market next year.
Guthrie is one of the few tradeable players the Orioles have. It doesn’t make sense to add another starter (Chen, Saunders, EJax) without creating space for him. The team has serious issues, but many of those issues would be resolved if Arrieta, Britton, Matusz, and Hunter pitch to their potential. They may or may not have issues at 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, and DH depending on how much faith you have in Roberts to be healthy and Reimold, Davis, and Reynolds playing to their potential. So do you trade Guthrie to fix an issue that may or may not exist, or do you trade him to help the farm system get better (say, to San Diego in a deal that includes Rizzo)?
At this point as a long-suffering O’s fan, I’m torn. I’ve watched him Guthrie be very good, but I’ve watched him be just good enough to lose competitively for five seasons. I’ve watched consistently get terrible run support, but I’ve watched him have a first-inning ERA over 5, and if there was a way to prove it I’d believe he was one of the worst in baseball if you compared his first inning ERA to his rest-of-the-game ERA. He’s averaged over 200 IP over the past four seasons, while no one else on the team seems to be able to make it out of the 6th inning. I don’t know. He’s very frustrating.
Happy the Sox got Rich Hill back on a minor league deal. He was lights out in the few games he played for us before the injury. His delivery is soooo deceptive. He could be a dominant lefty out of the pen if he can stay healthy.
His delivery is soooo deceptive. How can you say this? He didn’t fool anyone when he was an Oriole. Now that he’s older and injury prone, who does he fool exactly?
Also, rather than to comment again on your above comment about Madson. I think he’d be a great fit with the Orioles. The problem is I haven’t heard Angelos giving the “Green Light” to Duquette to spend.
Its deceptive because its a bizzaro submarine delivery. Its just weird looking. And having watched him play on the Sox until the injury I can tell you he was dominant in those nine games. He never gave up a run and had a huge strikeout rate. I am not saying he will be Marshall or even replicate that successful. I am saying he could be. He was good stuff.
Madson could go to anybody. If I had to guess it would be Texas. They were in on Bailey all the way so if they could get him on a one year deal I think they will do it.
With the money they have to pay Darvish, there on and off interest in Fielder and Ogando (probably, Adams and Nathan at the back end of the pen, does Madson make sense for them?
Not saying its in stone, but if they were willing to go after Bailey despite all of that then yeah I would assume a quick 10M would be ideal for them. I think Ogando is a lock for the rotation no matter what, he showed a lot last year and they are gonna need him.
I like Madson to the Angels, he would be tough on those big bats in Texas.
I should probably know this, but what do the Sox think about Kalish? I’m just not too thrilled with Sweeney patrolling RF regularly. He’s certainly a nice piece, but I just don’t expect much from him.
Also, never really thought about it, but glad the trade for Bailey assures that the Sox will not have Madson.
Kalish will be out for the begining of the season, and even when he comes back he’d probably be a DH for a while
Not DH on the Red Sawks…except during ST…he will DH in Pawtucket until he is healthy enough to play the OF and produce then will transition to the Red Sawks in the OF is what I think you meant….
What about Byrd to the Sox…he would be a huge upgrade in Right and has the ability to cover CF when someone gets injured
Here’s the thing.
You absolutely trade Guthrie and yes, he does have value. Here is a guy that can pitch in the AL East, posts a low 4 ERA, gives you 200 innings, and on a good team would win a lot more games.
He’s only under O’s control until the end of 2012, then he is a free agent. The Orioles are not going to resign him and there is a chance that he doesn’t qualify as a type A, thus the Orioles get no compensation for him at all. They are better off trying to swing a deal and getting some prospects in return for him.
If Koji Uehara can get two major league level players, even though they might not be all that great like Hunter and Davis, then Guthrie should be able to get you something valuable. Some major league player and maybe a decent prospect and a fringe prospect. Or perhaps a AAAA guy and then a couple of good prospects. That’s my opinion anyway.
If they don’t trade Guthrie, that leaves you with only one pitcher on the staff that has actually pitched 200 innings in a season. Everyone else either hasn’t done it at this level or has been hurt. This is why you add an arm like Joe Saunders or trade for somebody that can hurl 180+ innings. I firmly believe that if the Orioles can at least have an average major league pitching staff, they could be a .500 team. Their offense is flawed, but does score runs. You certainly can’t win with the worst pitching in the game and an average offense. Being average at both could really turn this team around.
I’d definitely take Guthrie only if the asking price isn’t very high (two low level prospects). He’s averaged a 3.56 WAR since joining the O’s and had a 4.3 and 2.9 the last two seasons. He’d make a good number 4/5 for the sox or yanks because like you said he’d eat up 200 innings and probably win 10+ games a year keeping that era around 4.
The Indians have the money to spend big dollars on a closer don’t they?
Nelson? Is it really you?
Because he just had neck surgery and shoulder surgery (on his throwing arm), so he will be able to hit well before he is able to play in the field. They’ve already said they hope he can get some playing time in spring training and that it would be as a DH if he did, so it would stand to reason that he would play some DH at the beginning of the year (in AAA that is).
He did face other team besides the NLE you know?
The neck is already healed and the shoulder is the same thing Gonzalez had done before last year (at essentially the same point in the off-season too), only Gonzalez’s wasn’t on his throwing shoulder. If Gonzalez’s surgery had been on his throwing shoulder he wouldn’t have been able to play defense the first month or so of the season, but he was able to hit fine and it never hurt him to. Same basic situation with Kalish, only he wont be able to throw at full strength for the first part of the season.
With Reddick being traded and Cuddyer and Beltran off the market I really have no clue what’s going on in right. My completely wild guess on Cespedes is any bid the Red Sox make for him will be more to raise the price tag than to acquire him. I think they’ll be gun shy on major international players. Also I think Cherington will be far more cautious over the next couple of years.
The more I read about Sweeney the more I’m fairly convinced that the Sox see him as at least a platoon partner in right because he’s considered an above average defender. Add to that a .340 OPB… I’ve heard of worse hitters to plug up the #9 hole in a lineup.
Gut the Team LOL.. they aren’t going to do that.
Unless Peter Angelos sells the team, they will never gut the team. Look at what they did with the Front Office, instead of firing everone, they just reassigned them.
Spliffy got banned? He was the most amusing Mariners fan on this board. There was another amusing Mariners fan on this site… a few years back there was a guy on this board, I think the word “guru” in his name, an M’s fan.
Very amusing not for what he wrote but because he wrote very long unintelligible rants about how the Mariners would easily win the West every year because of Bavarsi’s brilliance. Damn I miss the laughter I got from that.
Agreed. I wonder if they actually sit down at the conclusion of each season and evaluate team performance. Wonder how that meeting goes…
A Sweeney/McDonald platoon really wouldn’t be terrible offensively. Sweeney, being a lefty, naturally hits righties a lot better than lefties and McDonald actually has pretty extreme splits for a righty. Sweeney’s wOBA against righties is .330 and McDonald’s wOBA against lefties is .350, and given that about 75% of pitchers are right handed you would, in theory, end up with a wOBA around .335; that’s not great, but it’s in the BJ Upton, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis territory.