As the Phillie Phanatic hangs out with Tina Fey and the gang on 30 Rock, here's the latest from the NL East…
- Nationals GM Mike Rizzo told media (including Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post) that the Nats are still "not done with our bullpen," even after signing Brad Lidge. Rizzo said he is still looking to improve the rotation if possible but said the Nationals will stick with internal options for the center field job.
- ESPN New York's Adam Rubin looks at the difficulties facing the Wilpon family as they try to keep ownership of the Mets.
- The Mets could have the biggest one-year payroll drop in baseball history, reports Rubin.
- Signing Yoenis Cespedes would be a "big risk" for the Marlins, opined outfielder Logan Morrison while appearing on Sirius XM Radio's First Pitch yesterday (passed on by the Miami Herald's Clark Spencer). Morrison thinks the club should try to sign him, but in reference to Cespedes' athletic feats in his famous YouTube intro clip, Morrison said "…you don't need to catch balls behind your back in games, and you don't need to jump 100 feet in the air and leg press 20,000 pounds, or whatever the heck he's doing. It's all about playing the game the right way and applying your skills to the game. And if he can do that, then he'll be very, very dangerous."
- The Phillies' payroll and its proximity to the luxury tax threshold is examined by Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
At somewhere between $5.0 and $5.7 M how valuable a trade piece is Lannan?
The Nats CF options? On the roster/in camp, they’ll have Mike Cameron and Roger Bernadina. Non-roster invites went out to Brett Carroll, Jason Michaels, Xavier Paul.
I don’t see a CF candidate in there. If the plan is to slide over Werth. Than you have a corner OF slot open – assuming Mike Morse has the other one.
And the remaining players on the roster for a corner OF spot are no better – unless they plan on handing that spot over to Bryce Harper early in the season….