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Archives for May 2012

Red Sox, Cubs Complete Marlon Byrd Trade

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The Red Sox and Cubs completed the trade that sent Marlon Byrd to Boston, Alex Speier of WEEI.com tweets. The Red Sox are sending left-hander Hunter Cervenka to the Cubs to complete the April 21st trade that sent Byrd and cash to Boston for Michael Bowden and a player to be named.

Cervenka, 22, started the 2012 season with Class A Greenville, where he has an 8.04 ERA with 13.8 K/9 and 6.9 BB/9 in 15 2/3 innings. The 2008 27th round selection has a 5.97 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 7.2 BB/9 in four professional seasons.

Athletics Claim Travis Blackley

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The Athletics announced that they claimed left-hander Travis Blackley off of waivers from the Giants. The A's moved Joey Devine to the 60-day disabled list to free up a 40-man roster spot in a corresponding move. The team will announce a corresponding 25-man roster move once Blackley reports to his new club.

Blackley, 29, allowed seven hits and five earned runs in five innings for the Giants before getting designated for assignment two days ago. He has a 3.98 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in ten minor league seasons.

This marks the third time this year the Athletics have claimed an Australian-born player, as MLBTR's Transaction Tracker shows. They claimed Rich Thompson from the Angels and Luke Hughes from the Twins back in April.

Catching Rumors: Shoppach, Nationals

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MLB catchers have combined for a .244/.316/.388 line this year and they're preventing 30% of stolen base attempts. Here are some catching rumors from around baseball…

  • Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com suggests Kelly Shoppach of the Red Sox is likely popular in trade talks right now (Twitter link). The Angels and Nationals are among the clubs with possible interest in catching depth and Jarrod Saltalamacchia's emergence may make Shoppach expendable. The Red Sox could call Ryan Lavarnway up if necessary.
  • The Nationals don’t sound overly interested in trading for a catcher, according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). Sandy Leon and Wilson Ramos are on the disabled list, so the Nats are relying on Jesus Flores and Carlos Maldonado for now.

White Sox Designate Eric Stults For Assignment

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The White Sox announced that they designated left-hander Eric Stults for assignment. They reinstated right-hander Jesse Crain from the disabled list in a corresponding move.

Stults, 32, had appeared in two games for the White Sox, allowing two earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. He signed a minor league deal with the White Sox this past offseason after spending most of the 2011 season as a reliever for the Rockies' Triple-A affiliate. Stults also appeared in six games for last year's Rockies team.

Cubs Sign Mike MacDougal

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The Cubs have signed Mike MacDougal to a minor league deal, Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune tweets. The Dodgers released the right-hander after designating him for assignment earlier this month.

MacDougal, 35, struggled through seven appearances with the Dodgers this year, allowing nine hits, six walks and five earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. He had signed a one-year, $1MM deal in January after spending the 2011 season with the Dodgers. He posted a 2.05 ERA with 6.5 K/9, 4.5 BB/9 and a 60.9% ground ball rate in 57 innings last year, when he ranked tenth among MLB pitchers in ground ball rate (minimum 50 innings). 

How To Use MLBTR

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An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:

  • If the main site doesn't load perfectly on your cell phone, try the more mobile-friendly mlbtraderumors.mobi.  It's a simple page that shows you just the headlines and lets you click through to what you want to read.
  • If you're an iPhone user, be sure to pick up our app for the latest news and rumors. MLBTR just introduced an Android app as well.
  • If you want only the hard news in the form of transactions, our transactions page is the ticket.  You can also get only the transactions via Twitter or RSS. 
  • To return to the main page at any time, just click on the title or the Home button on the navigation bar below the title. 
  • The navigation bar will cover many of your needs.  Use the About dropdown to learn about this site or any of its writers. 
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  • The Archives dropdown shows you 15 months worth.  If you need to go back further, click on Site Map at the very bottom of the page.  Site Map also lists out every MLBTR post category, including players, teams, and features.
  • The Tools dropdown takes you to a number of different places. The MLBTR Widget allows website owners to easily add a constantly updated box with all of MLBTR's headlines to their sites.
  • Also under the tools tab is our Transaction Tracker, which enables you to search about anything and everything to do with baseball trades, signings and extensions. 
  • Under the tools tab, you'll find a link to our Forums, a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 9,100 members.  You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
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  • Feeds By Team is a very useful dropdown.  Hover over it to see all 30 teams.  Click on the team name to bring up a page of every post containing information about that team, with the latest on top.  These are the same pages you'll find if you go to the Rumors By Team section on the sidebar and select A's Rumors, Angels Rumors, etc.  
  • Also under the Feeds By Team dropdown, you'll find RSS and Twitter buttons.  Those links allow you to follow a single team's rumors via RSS or Twitter.  Did you know we have a separate Twitter account for each of the 30 teams?  For example you can follow @mlbtrtigers, where you would get the latest Tigers updates.
  • You can also follow Tim Dierkes and Ben Nicholson-Smith on Twitter for more MLBTR content.
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  • Be sure to check out your favorite team's MLBTR page on Facebook so you can receive and comment on the latest rumors.
  • On to the sidebar.  It begins with a list of our Top Stories, which our writers update any time major hard news occurs.  Go here for a quick update on the most important stories.  Below that is the site's Search Box, where you can type in any player's name and get the latest on him. 
  • MLBTR Features has all kinds of goodies, including our free agent lists, non-tender candidate and projected arbitration salaries.  Many of the MLBTR Features are constantly updated by our writers, so be assured that our free agent lists are always fresh. 
  • Below Features you've got headlines for all the Recent Posts, in case you'd rather not scroll to see all the headlines.  Then there's a box for our Mailing List, where you can sign up to receive a daily email containing MLBTR's posts.  Use this option if you don't need the news as soon as possible.
  • Next we have Featured Posts, where you'll find original work from MLBTR writers we consider noteworthy.  For example, read about the service time breakdown for top prospects.

2013 Contract Issues: Milwaukee Brewers

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The Brewers are next in MLBTR’s 2013 Contract Issues series:

Eligible For Free Agency (4)

  • Zack Greinke - It looks like Greinke will be one of the offseason's top free agents. Assuming he spends the entire season in Milwaukee without signing an extension, I expect the Brewers will make him a one-year qualifying offer this fall to be eligible for draft pick compensation. Greinke will presumably decline the offer in search of a multiyear deal.
  • Shaun Marcum - It'll be interesting to see if the Brewers make Marcum a qualifying offer when he files for free agency. Qualifying offers project to be worth $12.5MM or so this offseason, a considerable jump from Marcum's current $7.725MM salary.
  • Cesar Izturis - While Izturis could be back in 2013, he doesn't appear to have a place in the Brewers' long-term plans.
  • Francisco Rodriguez - Rodriguez, 30, is off to a relatively slow start for the Brewers. He won't obtain a qualifying offer from the team this offseason.

Contract Options (2)

  • Randy Wolf: $10MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout. The 35-year-old left-hander hasn't looked like a $10MM pitcher so far this year, but the Brewers may pick up the option if he pitches 200-plus innings with an ERA around 4.00, as he did in 2010-11.
  • Alex Gonzalez: $4MM vesting option become guaranteed with 525 plate appearances. Gonzalez will miss the remainder of the season after tearing his ACL, so there's no chance this option will vest.

Arbitration Eligible (12)

The Brewers will have a large class of arb eligible players this offseason. Axford's case might be the most interesting one facing Gord Ash, Teddy Werner and others in the Brewers front office. This class includes some non-tender candidates (Chulk, Ishikawa, Conrad, Veras and even Morgan), so there's a good chance the Brewers will have fewer than 12 cases to resolve next offseason.

2013 Payroll Obligation

The Brewers have committed approximately $52MM to next year's payroll, according to Cot's Baseball Contracts. The team's payroll has risen to $98MM under Mark Attanasio's ownership, so GM Doug Melvin will have some money to spend this offseason. He'll need it, with two of his top starters hitting free agency and uncertainty on the infield.

Giants Open To In-Season Contract Talks For Cabrera

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Melky Cabrera is on track to hit free agency following the 2012 season, but there’s a chance the Giants will keep him off of the open market altogether. GM Brian Sabean told Gwen Knapp of the San Francisco Chronicle that Cabrera’s play and work ethic have impressed him so far this year. This means the Giants won’t necessarily postpone contract talks until the offseason.

"I think it's different with a transitional player, depending on who the agent is or the appetite of the player,” Sabean said. “So I wouldn't say that's an absolute."

Cabrera, an ACES client, will earn $6MM in 2012. The 27-year-old is hitting .338/.386/.490 in San Francisco, an indication that last year's breakout may be sustainable. So far in 2012 Cabrera has played left and right field, positions which suit his skillset, according to The Fielding Bible Volume III.

Cabrera’s hot start should give him enough leverage to demand a multiyear deal in talks with Sabean and the team's front office. The Giants could lose Cabrera and Angel Pagan to free agency this offseason, as I explained last week.

Quick Hits: Hamilton, Pettitte, Cardinals, Romero

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Bad news for the Royals tonight as they learned that left-hander Danny Duffy is likely out for the year with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. The 23-year-old is the second Royals hurler sidelined for the year following Joakim Soria's season-ending injury. Tonight's links..

Minor Moves: Johnson, Mahay, Thurston, Bates, Garko

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Tonight's minor moves..

  • The Rockies signed former Cardinals left-hander Tyler Johnson to a minor league deal, according to the CBSSports.com transactions page.  Johnson, who won a ring with the Cards in 2006, has been out of affiliated baseball since 2009.
  • The Reds released left-hander Ron Mahay, according to the International League transactions page.  The 40-year-old signed a minor league deal with the club in January and appeared in 14 games for their Triple-A affiliate this season.  The veteran last pitched in the majors for the Twins in 2010 and was signed and released by the Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Cardinals in 2011.
  • The Twins have released infielder Joe Thurston and first baseman Aaron Bates, according to Dustin Morse of the Twins (via Twitter).  Thurston, 32, hooked on with Minnesota in late April after being cut by the Phillies.  Once considered a top asset in the Dodgers' farm system, Thurston has yet to see significant time in the majors outside of his 124 game 2009 campaign with the Cardinals.
  • The Rays signed former major-leaguer Ryan Garko to a minor league deal, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter).  The first baseman spent time in Korea last year.
  • Orioles infielder Zelous Wheeler has cleared waivers and been assigned to Double-A Bowie.  Wheeler was DFA'd by Baltimore on Friday.

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