AL MVP runner-up Jacoby Ellsbury sublexed his shoulder in yesterday's game and there is no timetable for his return (Twitter link). The Red Sox will call up Che-Hsuan Lin to take his roster spot. Here's the latest from baseball's two East divisions…
- Scott Podsednik could be an option for the Red Sox following Ellsbury's injury, says Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). The Phillies would let Podsednik out of his minor league deal for a big league job, and Rosenthal says they could also trade for a Marlon Byrd or Coco Crisp type later in the season.
- With some help from a reader, Rosenthal speculates that the recently DFA'd Brett Carroll and Clete Thomas could also be fits for the Red Sox following Ellsbury's injury (Twitter links).
- "I’m still thankful they gave me the chance," said Angels reliever Jason Isringhausen to Dan Martin of The New York Post, referring to his time with the Mets last season. Izzy said he spoke to the Mets about a return this offseason.
- Alex Rodriguez hit his 630th career home run yesterday, tying him with Ken Griffey Jr. for fifth on the all-time list. Joel Sherman of The New York Post says his homer bonuses will become an issue for the Yankees if they intend to get under the $189MM luxury tax threshold by 2014. A-Rod will get $6MM each for his 660th, 714th, 755th, 762nd, and 763rd career homers.
No Pods please.. Give Lin is chance after finally getting a callup and his defense and speed will be at least as good as the 35YO+ Pods.
Crawford will be back in 2-3 weeks and they can do without Ells for a few eeks, it’s not make or break, just sit down McDonald and let Sweeney, Ross and Lin play until CC returns.
Lin will give them a terrific glove and arm in CF at least.
My guess is they will use Lin as the 4th outfielder/late inning defensive replacement. I’m personally hoping they at least give him a couple of starts though, I’ve always like his particular skill-set for some reason.
Doubt he will get much game time either and will be the rarely used backup. His superb defense and cannon arm would probably make him a natural to take over CF short term. McDonald is brutal there and from someone who watched Ross play there for years with the Marlins? Yes.. he *can* play it, but it’s his worst OF position and only played it because they had defensively challenged Willingham and Hermidia surrounding him at the corners. Ross is a FAR better corner OF.
Sweeney, or Lin seem to be the best fits at CF and just hope they keep McDonald as far from CF as possible judging from what saw him do there the last 2 years.
Sweeney and McDonald are both weak offensive player, and Lin would be a step down even from either of them offensively, but I wonder (assuming he can walk enough to have an OBP of ~.320, and I think he could; he has unbelievable plate discipline) if he wouldn’t be at least a wash replacing one of them when you consider his stellar defense.
“Sweeney and McDonald are both weak offensive player”
Agreed. McDonald is weak defensively also where Sweeney is much stronger at the corner positions and McDonald doesn’t exactly have base burner speed.
Think you are pretty much right there with Lin and Hassan could be more of the same in another year as far as plate patience part goes, just not defensively and a bit more offensive upside over Lin.
Ross may have some troubles making reads and F-back at CF. Doubt that has improved much with his past couple years in SF. CC may not be much for the idea when he gets back, but I am of the mind he is probably the best fit at the position they have if the team isn’t willing to stick with Lin at the position and his offensive short comings.
I actually like the idea of Crawford in CF when he gets back. He’s definitely the best defensive player on the team (besides Lin), and after signing with Boston he essentially said he wouldn’t be against playing there.
I always wanted to see that. His performance in LF in the past (Rays) always made me wonder why he played a corner when he seemingly had so much range, not to mention speed. Of course he would need to adjust to the new conditions (i.e.: how the ball looks coming off the bat, and to actually being the “chief” out there) but it would be great to see, even as an experiment.
And with Crawford still a couple weeks away, and Ellsbury presumed 6-8 weeks at this point, it wouldn’t need to be for more than a month or so. I actually wouldn’t be all that surprised to see it happen.
The only thing I wonder about is, with Crawford having a terrible year last year, coming in without any real spring training, and trying to get him back to the player he can be, will they want to add the additional stress and expectations of learning/playing a new position?
That leaves the team the choice of acquiring someone as a stop gap type, who in all probability would be little to no better than what they currently have on the roster and cost prospects. Let Lin play superb defense, which the team was nealry willing to do with Iglesias at SS anyhow.. Or Go ahead and have CC play CF regardless.. The needs of the team for a month (to me) are more than whatever issues he can have trying to fight his own demons, whether real or not.
It’s not so much about Crawford’s “demons” as it is about what’s best for the team. What’s best for the team is for Crawford to go back to playing the way we all know he can, and if that requires him being in a familiar position on the field I’d play him there and live with the weaker defense in CF for an extra month.
I also think the idea of playing Iglesias at SS was a possibility partially because of Ellsbury’s offense from CF. With Ellsbury out you already have a weaker offense, and playing Lin makes it even weaker; I think the team probably has enough offense still on it to live with Lin in CF, but it’s not as easy an option as Iglesias would have been.
Also, Ross is apparently in CF today.
So now we have a new “Linsanity”?
See what tacko wrote below (he beat you to it).
Thanks. Sorry @tacko:disqus , I missed yours
It’s cool.
I’m actually a big fan of Che-Hsuan (probably bigger than his skills warrant), but if I have to hear about “Linsanity” all the time, I hope they flat out release him.
Jason Isringhausen is a class act. He has said on more than one occasion that he was grateful for the Mets giving him a chance last season.
I’m rooting for him to have a good season-I’m always in on players that keep plugging away.
Sox hoping for some Lin-Sanity in Beantown.
Sherman has that situation wrong.. That contract was an issue ever since they bid against themselves after Rodriquez chose to opt out after the 1st and NY/Steinbrenner kept on and on offering up more money, when nobody else was willing to go 5 years..
They asked for it and they got it.. It sure wasn’t a Toyota either, but a salary cap busting ARod and the base salary AVG was enough. Add those ludicrous HR bonuses and it’s not just an Albatross, but a dead Albatross, or in Sailors folklore.. An omen of terrible things to come. I wonder how many times Cashman is sending notes to Hank &Hal now after Rodriquez reaches each new level, making it harder and harder, thanking them both for meddling in his affair.
It is what it is. Yankee fans knew it was a bad extension; many of us were silently rooting for Steinbrenner to let A-Rod shop his talents elsewhere, notwithstanding what we thought (pre-hip) his production would be. The bonuses are silly, but at the time no one could have expected the new CBA, s I can’t fault them too much for that. Seriously, though, there are a large number of very bad contracts out there, and the owners keep giving them out. The fans are complicit as well-they are excited to get the new players, but no-one is superman, and sooner or later production declines and fan animosity increases.
Wouldn’t go that far that *all* the fans are complicit.. I pretty much look at these huge deals and see down the road at how much they will hand cuff the team with salary cap and even when that 2nd Arod deal was given out, there was a salary cap with penalties.
The CC deal was a brutal one, it’s not like way back when George could go out and sign anybody he wanted with impunity and no salary cap to ever worry about anymore. Each and every LT mega deal given out carries huge repercussions.
Teams over this past winter/recently to Pujols, Votto are ones not yest used to going up against salary caps and will be dealing with those caps in a hard way in a few seasons, much like Philly is getting acquainted with it right now. Anaheim is going to figure it out really soon, or in 3-4 years, just like NY and Boston have been dealing with it about as long as the cap has existed.
It’s like teams don’t think the cap is a problem, then go out and give these weird, exorbitant contracts to people like Fielder, Votto, Pujols never even thinking about how there is no way these people are going to help the team, if they even will be even in the game the last third of the contracts, just dragging down payroll.
Sometimes you just have to wonder how these people made billions in the dog eat dog world of business the way they make horrible business decisions in this game.
The change in the CBA gives teams-particularly the Yankees, a huge incentive to get under the cap-even if it’s once. I’m not a fan of the CC deal either. But these guys are smart-look at the price McCourt gets for the Dodgers after running them into the ground. Regional TV markets plus myriad revenue streams build franchise value, as do taxpayer financed freebies and infrastructure. It’s good to be an owner.
” I’m not a fan of the CC deal either.”
Actually meant that towards Carl Crawford, but yeah.. The Sabathia is a biggie also and will be a problem towards the cap and penalty for nearly as long.
”
Sometimes you just have to wonder how these people made billions in the dog eat dog world of business the way they make horrible business decisions in this game.”
Um, because this is a hobby for them.
Ok. I’ve read this, and Clete Thomas and Brett Carroll and Scott Podsednik AREN’T options for the Red Sox. There’s a reason why players keep getting released. The way ownership has micromanaged the smallest amount of money as if the Red Sox were a small market team is absurd. I’d rather see the team have to manufacture small ball and play Sweeney, D-Mac, and Ross than see the above mentioned names thank you. Any Sox fan who agrees with me “like’ this if you don’t want to see AAA or AAAA players signed to fill Ells’ spot.
I’m not convinced that any of those guys are better than what they have out there already anyway. And the Byrd and Crisp “later in the year” types don’t really matter at this point because Ellsbury is expected back in 6-8 weeks or so (at least that’s a fair expectation unless/until they decide he needs surgery).
I dislike posts requesting likes if people like their posts.
Follow me on tweetter!! Oh wait its twitter but you dont twit on it…
Umm, this may sound like a silly question, but since when do player bonuses get added to a team’s overall payroll? Since always?
Can’t believe how dumb Hank was to give him $6 million for each time he passes Mays, Ruth, Aaron and Bonds. The only one that makes any logical sense is 763
And there’s a chance he even may make $12 million in 1 game in 2 AB’s ($6 mill for 762 and $6 mill for 763)
They get added to the luxury tax number since always, yes. Basically any money a team gets related to a player on their 40 man roster does, including any bonuses a player earns and any money a team receives in a trade. The luxury tax is deliberately hard to get around.
What I’m not sure about is if the bonuses will count against the luxury tax based on the entire length of the deal or the length of the deal remaining when they’re earned. That would obviously make a huge difference in later years. $6MM amortized over a 10 year contract is $600k; that hurts, but much less than $6MM amortized over six years (and five, and four…)
It wasn’t dumb. It was a smart way of possibly saving some money by making the contract incentive laden, instead of up front 30m a year.
I think MB923 was arguing more that the Yankees are paying for all these milestones that frankly, don’t mean a lot for anyone. I mean, tying Griffey at 630 was barely noteworthy news in NY.
The only historic milestones that people will actually care about and draw fans are the 762 and 763 marks, which will actually bring extra revenue to the team (albeit not $12 million extra) and a record to baseball history books.
Otherwise, the Yanks are paying $18 million (and luxury tax fees) for three milestones that, while impressive, don’t matter much.
1st it’s a shame about Ellsbury.
Second, I hope you Red Sox types will fully appreciate Cody Ross now.
Because, if my beloved O’s had listened to me and signed Cody Ross, the Red Sox would really be up the creek, especially with Crawford still injured.
Maybe, the Red Sox somehow make a trade with the Cubbies and obtain Soriano instead of the names suggested by this article. The owners said they wanted to spend and now here’s an opportunity to do so! ;)p
How is another DH going to help?
“Red Sox types will fully appreciate Cody Ross now”
Have always wanted Boston to get Ross and was saying that especially this past off season.
As a huge Sox AND marlins fan.. It has been really sweet the last 7-10 years with the amount of deals and players going back n forth between the 2 teams.. Beckett, Ramirez, Ross, Hermida, Ross, Lowell, Sanchez..
What would like to see over the coming winter of 2012/13 is for Anibel Sanchez to come back “home” and sign with Boston..
I think the Yankees are hoping gets 660 this year.
you can have alex rios….
And Juan Pierre, please….