Here's a look at today's links as players settle in for Spring Training..
- Athletics skipper Bob Melvin expects to see roster additions on pitching and position player sides before the full camp opens, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter).
- The Phillies were exploring a three-way trade to land A.J. Burnett, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. A third team would have been brought in to allow the club to unload Joe Blanton.
- The Diamondbacks might have to find a more permanent solution at shortstop if Stephen Drew doesn't fully recover from his ankle injury, writes Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Arizona holds a $10MM mutual option on Drew for 2013.
- Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter) be surprised to see the Angels make two trades before the end of Spring Training due to the amount of redundancy on their roster.
- Manny Ramirez worked out for the Athletics and the club could sign the slugger within the next week, writes Jane Lee of MLB.com.
Burnett throwing at Philly not sure would have worked out that well, even facing NL lineups and a pitcher, rather than a DH and yeah.. bringing in a 3rd team would have been a MUST regardless.. Who would want Joe Blanton? If Lackey/Burnett were making the same salary..Would take either over Blanton.. Classic pitcher with nothing in his arsenal.. He will end up with a minor league deal, or forced retirement when 2012 is finished and his outrageous 3/24 contract runs out.
I have no idea what Amaro is thinking. I mean considering that Burnett makes 2x’s as much as Blanton, chances are the end result would have had the Phillies adding a little salary no matter what.
If you are going to take on salary, just go sign Oswalt and call it a day. Don’t get cute Rube.
Gavin Floyd for trumbo. Helps Boths teams. Gives the angles a mid rotation starter to pitch as their 5th giving them probably the strongest top to bottom rotation in the al maybe the entire MLB. Trumbo can sit in AAA to take over for konerko next season. Or trade konerko to a contender. Anyone that legit thinks turbo can play 3rd is crazy.
Floyd for Trumbo really doesn’t help the White Sox. Floyd can net more than a sub-.300 OBP 1B.
he is still young and can improve that
Probably not, though. He only even put up a decent OBP in the minors when he was 24 and playing in a great hitters park.
Here’s how the Burnett/Phillies story will be interpreted by a lot of people in Pittsburgh:
“Nutting and Huntington leaked that story just to make us think that a team as good as Philly also had interest in that washed up bum that we just got fleeced on. They’re trying to dupe us all!”
I wonder if there’s any way that the Nationals would do a Gerrardo Parra decent but not elite prospects for Desmond. That would give the Nats their CF and the Dbacks their SS of the future.
That would actually be a pretty good trade, but not sure Arizona would do it. Desmond is ok but I don’t really see the big deal about him. Average shortstops don’t grow on trees, though.
But then who do the Nats plug in at shortstop? As much as I like Parra, they’d be better off hanging on to Desmond, and making a play at Michael Bourn next year.
Lombozardi would be their SS.
The Nationals have a better all around shortstop playing second base right now.
Not bad, but Desmond is a horrible defensive SS according to the fielding metrics on fangraphs, and doesn’t hit for average, and doesn’t hit for power. I think Parra is worth more at the moment.
Maybe so, but the Dbacks have a plethora of outfielders and only Drew isn’t healthy and is only signed for this year. Desmond offers speed and decent hitting ability for a SS. They have plenty of minor league outfielders who could take Parra’s spot as 4th outfielder. Moreover, maybe the Nats could throw in a decent minor league catcher to address their need for catching depth.
Intriguing, but not likely – especially since the Dbacks managed well without Drew last season. Bloomquist began to tire out, and it showed. But once they brought in McDonald to spell him for a few days and then to give him time off once a week, Bloomquist returned to form.
There was already strong speculation that Drew would be traded or allowed to walk this year. Defensively (before his injury) he was a top 2/3 SS in the NL. Offensively, he was inconsistant at best, lazy at worst.
Solid SS do not grow on trees, but $10MM is a hefty chunk for a team to pay out when they still have three other even bigger needs that they need to address in Montero, Kennedy, and Hudson. They can put the two pitchers off for a short while, but not long. Arbitration will jack up their value and the closer they get to FA, the harder they will be to lock up long-term. (Especially Kennedy who is a Boras client)
Why would the Phillies go for pitching when hitting is where they need to focus in? They already have a good rotation.
Yeah, you’re the same guy that last year said signing Lee was a terrible move and they should have spent the money on Werth.
No, I wasn’t. Then again, the Phillies needed to trade even more of the farm for Pence just to get better offensively. Why would you get another pitcher that is shaky in his starts because he couldn’t handle it mentally when you already have 3 aces. Worley and Blanton can easily fill in for the back of the rotation and you don’t need to give up even more prospects for a need that doesn’t need to be filled. You can easily use whatever prospects that you would have used on Burnett to fill in the holes that the Phillies currently have. If I was the GM, I’d rather get another bat to help offensively that can maybe fill as a back up if one of the starters get injured. Especially when they are older.
Listen, you can’t just sign anybody you want, you need the money, which they claim not to have, and the roster spot. So who are you going to drop/move? If they’re gonna carry 13 players on the roster, that leaves you with 5 backups. Schneider, Thome, Nix, Martinez, Pierre/Podsednik. And remember, one of those guys has to go in May/June when Howard comes back. So, 4 of those guys just signed this year, and Martinez is the only guy who can play 2b/ss. So where does this magic extra bat come from and where does he go?Plus where do you get the money to sign him? If you move blanton, you only have 5 capable starters, but they haven’t been able to move him. If you move Polanco you need a 3b guy, but they haven’t been able to move him either.
Now, I’m not suggesting the Nix/Thome/other bench moves have been great, or but they’re done, they can’t be undone. What’s the magic answer?
Also, what holes are you talking about offensively? They only had two starters last year with an ops+ under 100, and finished with the best record in baseball. One of those two starters is gone (Ibanez) and replaced with Mayberry who (in limited action) had a 130 ops+. The other is Polanco, who they’ve been trying to move.
Don’t act all silly and overreact because they haven’t won a World Series in 4 years, they need to get to the playoffs and, as we saw last year, anything can happen. This team is definitely good enough to get to the playoffs.
Because they don’t need any more offense. The offense went cold for a week after being among highest scoring offense in the game in the 2nd half.
Besides, there’s nowhere to improve the offense other than third base and there aren’t a lot of third basemen out there… The only way they can improve the offense is if Domonic Brown comes up mid season as advertised.
Game 5 NLDS: 1-0 St. Louis.
1 HR in the entire Series, and it was a PH HR by a guy who has since been traded.
Yea, no problem there.
Ryan Howard’s bomb in game 1? Ooops!
Though I am not a Phillies fan by any stretch of the imagination, that game is a horrible example. Between Halladay and Carpenter, that game was a veritable clinic of why pitching will always be king in the playoffs. Murderers Row wasn’t going to score in that game.
The Phillies have a plenty prolific offense. What they sometimes lack, is a timely one.
Yup because 1 week > 3 months.
What are the Phillies doing? Just… what are the Phillies doing? What is going on with this team? Where are they going? In five years they’re going to be worse than the Mets. When people talked about there being a mystery team for the A.J. trade, I proposed the Phillies were that team. I meant it ironically. Because, you know, it would be perfect. Papelbon. Pierre. Burnett. What an offseason! Making great strides toward victory. But then it actually turned out that I was right. What is going on with that club, man.
Wish Manny the best of luck in his comeback. Last year was hard for him. If he does ink a deal in Oakland hopefully he can rebuild his legacy some. Manny coming back full force after his 50 game suspension would be GREAT to see. A potent Cespedes-Manny 3/4 combo is definitely something people would want to go to the Ballpark to see. Never put anything past Billy Beane, he’s a great GM.
I’m sure Manny, with his 2 roid busts, is sure to be a fan favorite. He just needs to go away once and for all. Plus I have one change to make in your last point- Billy Beane is a pretty solid GM who owes a lot of his early success in Oakland to Sandy Alderson (who was way more successful as the A’s GM)
If A.J. Burnett was traded to Philadelphia, Phillies fans would have taken up long-tossing regimens, just so they’d be able to pelt him with batteries all the way from the outfield seats.
Burnett Pitched good in Toronto when he was with Doc .So maybe Doc could bring him out of His rut
Contract years bring him out of his rut. In Toronto, he was solid when he pitched, but he only made enough starts to earn his money in the year he could opt out.
Jon Paul Morosi be surprised.
Dear Jean-Paul Merosi I loved you in the Candian hit The Trailer Park Boys, but I think 1 trade would suffice. Who is looking for an aging Lefty DH type? Baltimore I’m looking at you with all those starters and only 5 spots in the rotation…
Manny really makes no sense for the A’s, and it has nothing to do with the PEDs. He’s probably got plenty left in the tank, but he needs to be on a contender and not blocking young guys.
i’ve given up on talking about how little he makes sense, it’s almost inevitable that manny’ll be an A within 10 days, ugh…
i’ll be happy if they make that trade for uehara though
Who, exactly, would he be blocking?
By my estimation, a handful of guys who are at least 25 years old and have done nothing to show that they’re more than Quad A chumps.
The A’s, who are the only team still in on Manny, will probably sign him to some kind of conditional deal with a Spring Training invite. If they like what they see in the Spring, they’ll keep him around, doing whatever he can do during the suspension. If not, they cut him lose.
Also in the Spring, they’ll take a long look at Daric Barton, Chris Carter, Kila Ka’aihue and Brandon Allen. Out of those four, two will make the team as the first baseman and DH. I’m going with Carter and Kila at this point, with Barton starting the year at AAA and Allen getting traded or released.
So Carter and Kila, who haven’t proven a thing in the majors, get two months to show their mettle. If one of them fails, hopefully you’ll have Barton or Manny ready to go. If both of them fail, hopefully you’ll have Barton and Manny ready to go.
I’m not saying this is the best plan ever. But it does make some sense.
Also, considering the collection of first basemen and outfielders the A’s have accumulated and the sad state of their starting pitching depth chart, I wouldn’t be surprised if a handful of 1B’s and OF’s are moved sometime during the spring.
1- Barton was a top 5 AL 1B just two years ago, and there isn’t much evidence that he was a fluke (you don’t un-learn how to take walks, and he was a high-OBP player in the minors as well). He dealt with injuries in 2011. He might not be as good as 2010, but if he’s even remotely close to that level, he’s an above average major leaguer and an upper-level 1B.
2- The others:
Allen: 387 career MLB PA (spread out over 3 years)
Carter: 124 career MLB PA (spread out over 2 years)
Kila: 326 career MLB PA (spread out over 4 years)
None of these guys have had any semblance of full-time MLB exposure. None have had more than 210 MLB PA in one season. Allen and Carter were top prospects at one point. All of them have mashed in the minors.
The odds of 2 of the A’s in-house options being average-or-better major leaguers are pretty high. 3 of them being average (or decent trade chips) carries decent odds. When you’re not making the playoffs anyway, you take those odds all day.
Fair points all.
But all the more reason that adding Manny isn’t that bad of an idea.
Sure, Allen, Carter and Kila have all mashed in the minors, but there are no guarantees that any of them will mash, or even be productive at all, in the majors.
Why not have a safety net so the DH position isn’t a complete embarrassment if none of those three can hack it?
RE: Barton—that was TWO years ago. Now, he’s a failed player who must reestablish himself. Pitchers have long-since figured out that Derek is positively obsessed with walks to boost his OPS and they pitch to him accordingly.
Allen, kila, Taylor and Carter are nothing more than AAAA roster-filler who will ride the shuttle back and for to Sacramento when injuries occur.
He’s not blocking young guys who have a future on the A’s. Don’t know why this is so hard for some fans to understand. The AAAA players will be competing with Barton for the 1B job: Allen, Kila, Carter. Barton, himself, is probably gone after this season, if not sooner. Players who troll for walks and don’t report injuries are a dime a dozen.
To help the confused A’s fans—Manny is there to help Cepedes and provide a little pop. He’s signing for the minimum. Gomes and Smith will split the DH duties until then. Barton, Kila, Allen and Carter will compete for the 1B job.
Cepedes is a great signing. Please celebrate that instead of complaining ad nauseum about the AAAA stiffs.