Here's a look at some items out of the AL and NL East..
- The Cubs aren't going to stop their rebuilding process with their trade of Sean Marshall to the Reds, writes Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune. The next move for Theo Epstein & Co. might be to flip Matt Garza if he doesn't sign a contract before free agency but yesterday the Cubs GM said that he's exactly the type of pitcher he wants to build around.
- The Mets worry MLB enough to be seen as a troubled franchise on a short tether, writes Richard Sandomir of the New York Times. Mets officials declined to speak about the team's debt but Sandomir talks with to a number of people familiar with the Mets' financial situation including Howard Megdal.
- A reader asked Keith Law of ESPN.com (via Twitter) if the recently DFA'd Jai Miller would be a good fit for the Pirates. The Athletics designated the 27-year-old for assignment last night to bring their 40-man roster back to the limit.
- New Red Sox pitching coach Bob McClure has a special familiarity with his toughest task this year, writes Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal. Like Alfredo Aceves and Daniel Bard, McClure also made the jump from reliever to starter during his playing days with the Brewers.
- Baseball was lucky to have former Astros owner Drayton McLane involved in the sport for as long as they did, writes MLB.com's Richard Justice.
Please force the Wilpons to sell.
You know, I wrote to Santa about that…again…
On a more serious note, if Selig weren’t such a myopic old boy favoritist, it might’ve happened already.
I can’t tell you how MUCH I would love for Cuban to buy the Mets.
With Selig still in charge, he probably wouldn’t even be allowed to bid
He got to bid on the Rangers so you never know
Theres a term for guys who strike out 179 times in 110 games at AAA.
Its called “AAAA”.
People criticized Selig being being tough on the Dodgers and lax on the Mets but the former is in better shape because of it. MLB isn’t going to get that $25M back if the Mets have to get another $40M loan. So if they want it back, it’s time to force out the Wilpons.
For Selig, all thoughts about the “good of the League” seem to go right out the window where it comes to his old boy buddy Fred Wilpon and his finance$. The irony, of course, is that his blatant double standard isn’t doing the franchise much good…much less the fans…
I wonder if the Sox try to stretch out Aceves into a starter. He’s a very underrated pitcher. I loved him when he was with the Yanks. I wish him the best of luck, but I hope he blows every game.
They’ve told Aceves to come to spring training prepared to be a starter; same story with Bard (my guess is only one of them actually ends up starting though).
I’d go with Aceves. I think Bard will be better in the bullpen where he has been very good. The Yankees ruined Joba like that, the Red Sox should keep him where he is.
Keeping Bard in the ‘pen is definitely the safe bet, but he has a ton of upside as a starter (a lot more than Aceves).
That he does, but is it really worth the risk? I wouldn’t try it. They are risking ruining his career if they handle it wrong, just like Joba.
I’d say it’s worth the risk, the best relievers in baseball are only worth ~ 2 WAR, and the only way it could “ruin” Bard is if he gets injured. They had Papelbon come to spring training stretched out to start in ’07(?) and when it was determined that they were going to keep him in the ‘pen as the closer he moved back there with no issues. The plan is to treat Bard the same way they did with Pap.
Papelbon worked out great. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start, but right now I’d bet on him staying in the bullpen.
Yeah, my bet is he ends up back in the ‘pen too, but I’m not at all against giving him a shot at starting.
It’s a big risk, but with their rotation troubles, it might be worth it.
I honestly don’t see the risk in it. A starters workload for the length of spring training isn’t going to do anything to him.
It probably won’t. It just depends on how they handle him. Joba’s problem wasn’t the workload, it was how they pitched him. 3 innings one start, 2 the next, then 7. It messed him up.
It could, but that would be bad management, not the act of converting him to a starter. And he could just as easily be managed poorly in the ‘pen to screw up his arm.
Joba should’ve remained a starter from 2008 on. That’s what he had always been.
I think it makes more sense to keep Bard in the pen since that’s what he’s done for the last 4 years or so of his career. Aceves has the rare ability to go back and forth and it probably would be less of an issue for him to return to starting.
It’s a shame what happened to Joba, he had infinite talent it seemed, and just this year he was starting to look good, then Tommy John.
If I had to put money down I’d bet Bard ends up back in the ‘pen by opening day, but I’m not against trying him as a starter. If he can start he has a fairly high ceiling there.
Aceves has done it as recently as last year, but he outperformed his peripheral stats by a ton and I don’t think he could be expected to be anything more than an OK 5th starter, and it’s not there isn’t a decent chance he can’t stick as a starter either.
More to lose if Bard is a fail with starting. Early season arm injury, turns into another Chamberlain, where loses 5-6mph from his FB, then not only does he not get it back after moving back to the pen, but it takes months more to even regain the form he once had and then an injury that *could* have been from more innings piled on with his SP failure attempt.
He could blow out his arm as a reliever too, it’s not a reason not to see if he can handle starting. In fact, you could argue that he might be more likely to injure himself pitching almost every day and warming up to pitch without actually coming in several more times in between.
Was why wrote “could” have been use as a starter and change over what Chamberlain had been doing over the last 2-3 years.
Way see it with Bard, is just don’t see a 98mph Fb staying up to the 6th inning. We have talked about this already a few weeks back, others also and not looking to go over all that again. Aceves? Sure thing, he has shown can start and do a very good job of it, even throw into the 7th inning with good stuff.
If they need their “man” to move, that’s the guy, a Bobby Stanley, rubber arm type if they have had one of late outside of Masterson.
Even though Bard throws hard he has a very ‘easy’ delivery, so while his velocity will certainly drop some as a starter I don’t see any reason why it wont sit around 96mph.
Aceves has gotten good results in several small samples as a starter, but he has way outperformed his peripheral stats; there’s not reason to believe he can be anything more than an OK 5th starter. And just as with Bard, there is a chance Aceves doesn’t even stick as a starter.
Still prefer to see them pick up the “collection” of winter time castoffs and bring them into camp to compete for that 5th spot.
Who knows.. Wake might even be in that bunch if he thinks wants to have another go and the FO will give him a minor league deal, just to bring him to ST only.
Regardless of which pitcher the Sox put in as a starter, you are looking at a strict pitch count. Either Aceves or Bard’s year will end in August and they will be shut down, because you can’t take a 60 innings a year pitcher and throw them to the wolves at 200 innings. That is stupidity and leads to injury. Teams have tried it many times and the result is always the same. Teams stretch starters out at roughly 20 percent increased workload per season. That puts both Bard and Aceves at 80 innings in 2012, regardless if they are starters or relievers.
Not to turn this into a Joba thing but I never viewed him as a failure as a starter. Just the expectations of him after that incredible Sept 2007 callup were unrealistic.
Still….@ ages 22 and 23.
4.10 ERA, 4.27 FIP, 4.17 xFIP w/ 8.4 K/9 in 221 IP screams we were impatient with him.
Agreed; if he hadn’t had TJ I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees were having the same discussions about him as the Sox are about Bard. At least I would think they should be.
Oh yeah.. Maybe not out right failure, but he had lost his confidence out there and velocity some you have to admit.. Now… Was there some arm issues in play there already building up at the cause of the velocity? I dunno, you might be more in tune with that part, but he was not as effective as he was in 2008, let alone the 2007 as you mentioned.
also some of my “let well enough alone” in play here also. The team had/has a very good reliever and don’t like seeing something messed with, or possibly destroying it by moving it. Risky, regardless of the potential reward and same with moving Bard. someone like Aceves is a different matter. His ceiling as a potential closer is not as high as that of a Chamberlain/Bard.
I know how W/L record means absolutely nothing, but Aceves’ record is awesome to me. Very lucky for him.
I think win-loss is more important than people say. He wins a lot of games, it says something about him.
Yeah it says that he has great teammates that score a lot of runs and play very good defense.
Or that he is good at keeping his team in games when they need him the most.
In agreement with Dave and MaineSox.
The W/L is definitely impressive, but honestly moving him to the rotation would worry me; he has outperformed his peripheral stats by a lot.
I have some info for you whenever someone continues to bring up W-L and how important they are.
As much of a “eyes on” person I am and think you know that by now over a lot of “new phandangled” stats..
Look up old Sox Lefty Roger Moret from the ’75 season especially so and his 14-3 season.. then look over his WHIP, BB/9, H/9 and see how awful they were..
One would think it was John lackey from 2011 and Moret did nearly the same in ’73 when he went 13-2.
As recall.. The man never met a runner on base when he came in a game he wouldn’t let score…
Like you said… Using W-L is a terrible way to judge a record, especially with a middle reliever/swing man.
Aceves was a very durable starter in México before the Yankees converted him to long reliever. He even ended the streak of consecutive strikeout ‘crowns’ one of the best pitchers in México had (Francisco Campos, who was never given a real opportunity by the ChiSox when he was in his prime), when Aceves had the highest amount of K’s that season (5 years ago). Campos by the way seems he’ll win it again this year, with ex-Yankee Randy Keisler being a good contender for that title.
I find it hard to fathom that the baseball team in Kansas City is in better shape financially and talent-wise than one of the teams in New York.
As a Mets fan, this obviously bums me out, but as a baseball fan, it somewhat pleases me. Teams shouldn’t ever be handicapped away from contention because of the unavoidable pratfall of being a “small market” team. Having Cincinnati and Kansas City be the powerhouses again will be a good thing, and Boston, NY and Philadelphia fans don’t deserve a better baseball team solely on the basis that there are more of them.
I still find it very, very odd how the Royals somehow became this poor, low revenue team out in the sticks. They were this big, rich AL powerhouse under the Kaufman family.
If memory serves, the Royals were among the more notorious franchises for pocketing revenue instead of putting it back into the team.
Is it just me or is the jai miller topic kind of strange to be included in a post on mlbtr?
Hey, it’s a slow, slow day.
Give it a rest, Justice. He played propaganda minister for Uncle Drayton when he worked for the Chronicle…he’s gone, dude…and he isn’t missed in Houston.
Justice isn’t missed either.
I understand that you coud get a good group of prospects for Garza, but he’s 28 why the heck not build around him. Give him 4 or 5 year contract and go from there. They will regretting rid of him if they trade him.
It depends on what you get for him. He might not want to sign a contract. Look at two teams with rotation troubles: Yankees and Red Sox. Both would probably outbid the Cubs for him if they want him. And both are better teams, now and for years to come.
Because if you ever want to become a good team, you need to trade your top players for top prospects. And they way the market is set up right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Garza brought in two top 50 prospects.
It seems like Jai has all of the talent, but over the years has gotten worse and worse in his strikeout total. If the Pirates didn’t get McClouth, he might have been a good 5th outfielder or option at first. He is a Jack Cust or Rob Deer with speed.
However, I think the Pirates should be turning their heads to another player the A’s just designated for assignment. Landon Powell calls a good game and has some pop in the bat, not a bad person to add to a 40-man roster. At that point, you would have a choice whether to have Mike McKenry or Powell break camp.
Dear Santa…..
To the Cubbies…….Youkilis, Jenks, Anderson, MacDonald and Epstein (already sent)
To the Red Sox…… Garza, Soriano…
Thank you.
Even Santa doesn’t believe in Christmas Miracles that far fetched…
Garza’s going to take at least one real prospect, and the Sox have pretty much already gotten all their compensation for Epstein.
You think we will get the Theo compensation done before spring training? Flip Garza to the Sox
I doubt the Cubs do that. Garza is their best chance at getting top prospects to rebuild with. They wouldn’t waste that comping for Theo.
Unless Theo hit his head really hard on something. . .no. Where do you people come up with such asinine ideas? Is there a thought process or are we just blurting things out as they occur to us?
It is possible that Theo could TRADE Garza to BOS. Though would take a pretty significant package of prospects coming back in order to get the job done. With Theo knowing that system backwards, forwards and upside down he would be able to get the most value from them in my opinion. There will be no giving Garza as compensation. He is a tremendous trade chip and the best pitcher on the market right now.
I expect the Cubs to get quite a haul for him if he is traded. If they are not offered a package of their liking they can easily just keep him and build around him. I expect a team to come in and knock their socks off with an offer though. And I can’t wait to see Theo and Co. pillage a teams farm system for him.