One scout told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that the work of the Braves’ hitting instructors and the performance of Kris Medlen has made the difference for the team so far in 2012. Atlanta GM Frank Wren agrees with that assessment, according to Rosenthal, who offers notes and rumors from around the league in his latest column:
- The Cubs are more likely to trade Ryan Dempster if they sign Matt Garza to an extension. However, Dempster’s ten and five rights allow him to veto any trade, so he’ll have leverage if the Cubs look to make a move. It doesn’t seem likely that Dempster will sign a below-market extension to stay in Chicago, Rosenthal writes.
- The Cubs don’t have immediate plans to call up Anthony Rizzo, who figures to stay in the minor leagues until an opening emerges.
- Releasing Alfonso Soriano doesn’t appear to be an option; the outfielder has approximately $50MM remaining on his contract with the Cubs.
- General managers criticize the collective bargaining agreement, Rosenthal reports. Some low-revenue teams dislike spending restrictions on the draft, since they feel the limitations will drive up the price of MLB talent.
- Chien-Ming Wang, who is now rehabbing at Triple-A, could be valuable insurance for the Nationals, since they’ve decided to cap Stephen Strasburg’s innings.
- Brett Myers’ 2013 option likely vests with approximately 55 games finished, Rosenthal suggests. The right-hander will obtain a $500K bonus if the Astros trade him.
- One scout says Blue Jays catching prospect Travis D’Arnaud looks like Russell Martin did with the Dodgers.
In what way does D’Arnaud look like Martin? His all around skillset?
His potential to become a star? I don’t know much about what Martin looked like back then.
At age 24, just an all-star, silver slugger, and gold glove winner. No big deal.
I’m going out on a limb here, not saying I approve of this move, but I think it’s slightly possible that Strasburg becomes the Nats closer around August or so. Once he gets around 100-120 some innings and if they have Wang who can start for them, they can get him out of the rotation earlier but still use him down the stretch.
The only thing would be if they feel those short and frequent outings from the bullpen will have more stress on his arm than simply starting every 4 days. I think it’s something worth thinking about.
I say just let the guy pitch. If he’s clearly exhausted by August, yeah……shut him down.
didn’t ricketts previously state he was willing to eat any money it took to get rid of soriano if it meant improving the team? and i also think that was said within the context of a hypothetical release.
but who knows, maybe i just dreamt it… a beautiful beautiful dream..
hopefully moylan will be added to the pen mid season. giving the braves medlen and moylan instead of sherril and linebrink . those two should help save the back end of the pen
As long as Moylan isn’t allowed to face any left-handed hitters, he’ll be a nice addition.
even if he did he is still better option that linebrink,sherril, and lets not forget proctor. but i would imagine he would be a specialist and not have to worry about it
The Cobs are stuck with Soriano, the last of Jim Hendry’s awful signings. 8/$138 for a 31 year old one dinensional player is even worse than Crawfor in Boston and Zito/SF. Of course, Hendry was the guy who gave Milton Batty $33 million.
How is Crawford so bad? He has 1 bad season and all of a sudden he is getting thrown on a island with Zito and Soriano? Perhaps I should have looked at your spelling before questioning your baseball knowledge!
He is overpaid and he’s starting to look injury prone. He would have to really step it up to become worth all of that money…
Nats must think Wang will be to Yankees day self if they are this patient with him.
I rarely give hitting instructors credit, but this offense CLEARLY underperformed last season. Now they’re all(with the exception of McCann) hitting like they’re capable of. Bourn’s the only guy you can expect regression out of right now. The rest of the lineup is around their career norms. No real superstars, but a solid and deep lineup……