We're less than six weeks away from the first regular season game of 2012, and less than one week away from Spring Training games. Let's take a look at some odds and ends from around the league…
- Phillies outfielder Juan Pierre can opt out of his minor league contract if he's not on the Major League roster on March 31, writes Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Pierre, however, is a leading candidate for a roster spot, notes Brookover.
- The Cubs will have to double down on Matt Garza or trade him for a haul of prospects to make the best of his acquisition last offseason, opines Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune.
- Dodgers reliever Todd Coffey took a circuitous route to the Majors, writes Tony Jackson of ESPNLA.com. Coffey was a 41st-round pick of the Reds under the now defunct draft-and-follow practice, but he instead accepted a nominal contract offer and began his professional career as a 17-year-old.
- New Astros owner Jim Crane is well on his way to showing that he's a good MLB owner, writes Danny Knobler of CBS Sports.
- It's time for the KBO to alter some of its policies, writes Allen Wolf of the Korea Times. Although this is an opinion piece, Wolf offers some interesting insights into the machinations of the KBO.
MLBTR's Dan Mennella contributed to this post.
No one will trade for Garza what the Cubs traded for Garza.
Can never say something like that for certain. There’s a chance that a contender could lose an ace and they’re desperate for the (potential) #1 pitcher on the market. (I say potential because we don’t know who’s going to be on the block).
They did give up a lot though.
They incredibly overpaid. He’s a good number 2, and a great number 3, but they paid for what could of fetched a top 20 starter IMO.
Oh I agree completely. I thought at the time it was a terrible trade for a team that should’ve been rebuilding.
I’m just saying that you never know how things will shake out. Some teams could get desperate, he might be the only quality pitcher on the market, things can happen that makes it a possibility that someone could over pay.
how exactly did they over pay? the only prospect of substance was the SS Hak Ju Lee other than that it was a bunch of filler and some old guys who are AAA players…garza may not be a true ACE but he is a very very very good pitcher just barley not great. He has experience in the hardest division in the entire MLB and he has a good track record there…they didnt over pay at all for him…none of the prospects they gave up we true blue chip, franchise changing prospects..
It was the trade of a desperate man trying vainly to save his career. It’s a shame, because Hendry was one of the best GM’s the Cubs have had in the past fifty years. Most of his trades were big wins for us. His signings on the other hand. . . :/
…..Hmm that sounds like Theo. Awesome trades and draft picks throughout, but not too many great signings post-2004.
I’d love to see the Phils give Juan Pierre about 500 PAs. Love it.
Phils would still win 100.
Pierre is a great fit for the Phillies
Right there it sounds like a loss. A potential HoF SS for a rebuilding team and a possible Cy Young winner in the works. All so that the Cubs could win a few more games, he only went 10-10, and Cubs still finished 20 below, so what was the point? The cubs are/should be rebuilding and trading away prospects for 1 person who is good now seems backwards.
Matt Garza trade should have only been made if the Cubs were in contention. Getting rid of more prospects to an already barren farm was the wrong thing to do when re-building. Of course, we’ll see how this trade turns out in 10 years.
Edit: Looking at the minor leaguers, the cubs should have never traded brandon Guyer, Hak-Ju Lee, and Chris Archer. Their stats are actually very good even though it’s just minor league stats. What the hell was Jim Hendry thinking. Those 3 could have easily help turn the cubs around in 3 years. Especially with Brett Jackson and Rizzo they could have essentially replaced the majority of their positions.
I don’t think the original poster was saying that was possible. I think s/he was saying that “anything could happen, such as…”