A handful of odds and ends as Friday night winds down …
- Joe Frisaro of MLB.com has the breakdown on Heath Bell's and Jose Reyes' respective contracts with the Marlins. Bell's 2015 club option for $9MM will vest if he finishes 55 games in 2014 or 100 games in 2013-14. Reyes will earn a $1MM bonus if he wins a World Series MVP.
- D'Backs GM Kevin Towers told reporters, including Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, that he's looking to fortify his bullpen and perhaps add another starting pitcher (Twitter link).
- The Rockies are looking for a short-term answer at third base so as not to block the path of prospect Nolan Arenado, tweets Troy Renck of the Denver Post.
- Phillies GM Ruben Amaro will meet with shortstop Jimmy Rollins' agent, Dan Lozano, on Saturday, tweets Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com.
- Brewers shortstop Alex Gonzalez told Spanish-language sports talk radio show Los Cronistas in Venezuela that he had offers from the Giants and the Mets but that he chose to sign with Milwaukee because he wanted to be a starter (Twitter links). Thanks to MLBTR's Nick Collias for the translation.
Chone Figgins is just the man the Rockies are looking for. You guys can have him.
We can take Seth Smith for Figgins and his contract, I like it!
I still think Phillies will send Polanco to Rockies for a couple million in salary relief to free up money to sign ARam and JRoll.
That’s not what I want a Phillies fan, but Ruben seems to like his players in the young 30’s and signing them to 3-4 year deals.
i kinda think polanco is done for , not sure he bounces back after this years ,elbow and hernia issues , if they want polanco they can have him if that means phillies can sign rollins for 3 and aram for the 3 years , im down
Kevin towers is making the dbacks a world series contender
I’m not sold on the fact that Cahill will have a better year than Parker even this year. Cahill walks to many batters (3.5/9) and gives up too many hits (1.42 WHIP). I really like Cahill, but I think they were better off with what they had (especially in the long run). Not to mention he is going from a pitcher friendly park to a hitter friendly park. He will most likely see a rise in his HR rate.
The DBacks were already WS Contenders in my mind, but this move in my opinion did not make them that much better.
What the Dbacks got was a replacement for Saunders, a solid #3 that will eat up 200 IP and have flashes of brilliance for half of what Saunders would cost the Dbacks the next two years.
Parker may very well have an even better year than Cahill, especially with OAK being a pitcher’s park and AZ a launching pad, but what OAK is almost certain to NOT get is more than 150-160 IP out of Parker. It will be his first full season in the bigs and it is going to take time for him to figure out the AL enough to limit his pitches and go deeper into games. He does get the advantage of the DH to keep him from getting pulled for a bat, but the disadvantage for his pitch counts and IPs will be that he has to pitch to nine batters in every lineup.
Kennedy-Hudson-Cahill-Collmenter-Bauer-Skaggs-Miley-Corbin.
Tons of depth in their rotation.
Upton-Montero-Goldschmidt-Young-Drew-Hill-Roberts-Parra, very nice offense.
Putz-Hernandez-Ziegler-Shaw-Paterson-Breslow-? Bullpen needs one more peice.
Madson?
that piece could be Owings or Miley.
Their rule v pick has an insane k:bb ratio and could be the long man.
KT isnt done yet! Add Kuroda and another solid reliever please!!
If we got kuroda we would have one of the best rotations in the league
keep dreaming
It might not be a dream for long, Kuroda likes and wants to play in Arizona, the only thing holding him back is that KT doesn’t want to offer him a 2nd year.
keep dreaming
id like to trade kyle mcclellan to arizona. He can be good in the pen and emergency starter. I’d like to retain him but there really isn’t enough space, Lynn is going to be better in both of those roles, not to mention Sanchez coming back(though that just replaces Dotel).
Reyes is trying to figure out a way he can pull himself out of a game and still get that WS MVP
he’ll only do that in his last game with the team.
If O’Dowd is just looking for a one-year placeholder at 3B to keep things warm for Arenado then why not just keep Stewart and see if he could bounce back?
for the Rox third base situation, I think thats what they have been talking about all offseason, little late there Renck.
I’m not sure what’s keeping the Rockies from improving on many fronts.
From my understanding they’ve essentially freed themselves of around $20 mil in contracts.
They’ve declined the Aaron Cook option saving them $10.5 mil with the buyout.
The Huston Street trade where they will cover about $7 mil of the $8 mil this year.
The trade of Wigginton to the Phillies saving half of his contract (about $2mil).
Trading Iannetta and signing Hernandez to comparable contract.
This translates to approx. 21.5 Mil saved.
Let’s pair this with the increased ticket prices, and it really makes me wonder why a bigger splash hasn’t been made yet.
I know it’s improbable, but I wonder if the Rockies were the “Mystery Team” that bid on Pujols. That team wanted to remain anonymous. If it were a team like the Rockies that seems to be shedding players and salaries, then I can understand why they would want to keep it on the hush. There would be such backlash from the fan base for not making other significant moves to make the team much more competitive.
I’ve enjoyed a number of rumors and reports posted here recently and I could see a number of them still happening provided the Rockies front office is willing to match what they spent on the 2011 team.
With the few big name free agent pitchers still available on the market,
I agree that the Rockies need to explore a trade or 2 for quality starting pitchers.
I’m part of the camp that is still very disappointed in the Jimenez trade. I just don’t see the prospects received reaching the level of accomplishments that Jimenez had at Coors Field. The FO gave up on him too soon.
Since we can’t turn back time, I would like to see a trade for a Jair Jurrjens and/or Edison Volquez. They are expected to received $5-6 mil, and $2-3mil, respectively next season and would cost the Rockies any combination of maybe Seth Smith,Spilly, EYjr, Jason Hammels and/or a number of prospects and cash considerations.
Even if both players could be had, that would only add $7-9mil to the payroll, leaving room for a signing like Michael Cuddyer or Josh Willingham who made $6mil last season and probably will command a bit more for his services.
Plus the Rox could use more right hand bats in the lineup.
Trading for one of those pitchers and signing Kuroda would be nice as well.
I really believe that proven quality starting pitching is essential to The Rockies success this coming year and they need 2 front end pitchers, not just 1. (and no offense to Kevin Slowey, but he is not the answer)
I am trying to keep this fairly realistic and expect none of this to happen…I, as I’m sure many other Rockies fans out there, would love to see some really good moves that vastly improve the team for Christmas. I’m not holding my breathe though..Maybe if we’re all good it would be more likely that Santa will bring us the trades and free agent signings that we all hope & wish for!
Part of me is hopeful that O’Dowd has something cooking with the Braves. Adding Tyler Colvin might create a comfort level for DOD to finally include Blackmon or Wheeler as part of a package with Smith for Prado. Maybe they can add a couple of more pieces and get Prado and Jurrjens both, though the Braves would probably want Arenado in such a deal and that isn’t happening.
I could also see him signing both Kuroda and Willingham (or Cuddyer) with the $20-odd million that you referenced. That’s roughly what it’s going to take to get those two, if not slightly more.
Rangers should sign Rollins and use Elvis as trade bait for pitchers