Cody Ross was a walkoff hero for the Red Sox tonight, slugging a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off White Sox closer Addison Reed to give Boston a 3-1 win in the Battle Of The Sox. Here are some links from around the majors as we wrap up a busy Thursday of trade rumors…
- The Nationals have decided on to shut down Stephen Strasburg at some point this season though it may not be at the 160-inning limit, GM Mike Rizzo tells ESPN's Pedro Gomez. "There is no magic number," Rizzo said. "It will be the eye test. (Manager) Davey (Johnson) won't decide and ownership won't decide. It will be the general manager, and that's me."
- The Rangers have "a very small list" of pitchers on their wish list and may be out of the pitching market entirely if Cole Hamels signs an extension with the Phillies, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney.
- If Torii Hunter is really willing to take a big discount to re-sign with the Angels, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal speculates that the Halos could save money by keeping Hunter and Peter Bourjos at low costs and then non-tender or trade Kendrys Morales to free up more money to pursue pitching.
- The Cubs are unlikely to make a major free agent signing this winter, as Theo Epstein tells CSN Chicago's Patrick Mooney that the team isn't far enough along in its rebuilding process. “Free agency’s definitely a nice way to add talent to an organization without giving up talent," Epstein said. "But you cannot make an organization that way. And we have a lot of steps ahead of us that we need to take care of before we’re in a position to add a finishing piece or two through free agency.”
- Beyond their big-name talent, the Cubs are also getting calls about right-handed hitting bench players Jeff Baker and Reed Johnson, reports Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link).
- The Twins led all teams in draft spending this year, as Baseball America's Jim Callis breaks down how much each club spent on their draft picks.
- Matt Eddy of Baseball America recaps the week's minor league transactions.
- Dodgers president Stan Kasten hinted that his team isn't likely to splurge in a blockbuster trade deadline deal, saying any trade the Dodgers make will "have to be governed by reason" and "make sense long term," he tells Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.
- Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest told reporters (including MLB.com's Joe Frisaro) that his team is running out of time to prove they're contenders before the Fish could be forced to sell some pieces at the deadline. “In terms of decision making, I don’t how that’s going to go,” Beinfest said. “I really don’t. We need to win games here to make sure we’re on the periphery of even thinking about getting into things….You believe in your talent and hope we get hot. I think that’s where we are right now. But every day that goes by, it gets tougher and tougher to do that.”
Twins SHOULD have led all teams in spending.. Their cap was 1.2m higher than the 2nd highest team (Houston) and 2.5m more than the 3rd highest…
Edit:
question for Jays fans.. I have the Jays pre penalty slotted at: $8,830,800 and they spent 10,486,000 according to BA.. That is lose draft pick territory… Which figure is wrong since am sure AA wouldn’t have gone that far.. Would he??
Not a Jays fan but the bonus spent total you have there is wrong. Should be 9,272,000 which results in a monetary penalty but not a draft pick penalty.
Thanks. That is what was after 🙂
Kasten wants to make longterm sense? Who does he think he is, trying to create a dynasty instead of a one-year wonder.. Jeez
Boo! I like kendry. Gotta give him at least another year to see if he can be the same
I agree. Let him have 1 offseason to get in shape and gather his power and eye back by putting him in winter ball. Non tender him and possibly shop him if scouts say his skills have diminished.
He was very good in 2009 and 2010. While he isn’t nearly as good this year I don’t think heis quite a a nontender canidate. He hasn’t been awful, just not a slugger.
If the Nats keep 1st place in the east, you can’t just shut Strasburg down. They will need him in the post-season. They don’t have a chance without Strasburg.
Honestly what they should do is call up lannan or trade for a back of the rotation guy, and got to a 6 man, but not a traditional 6 man rotation, skip every other Stras start and let Lannan or new guy pitch those days, that way they can keep Stras fresh for the post season, match him up in key win games, while keeping him rested
See, that makes more sense than saying he will eventually be shut down. They really need Strasburg.
The big picture kinda comes down to this: gamble on Strasburg’s health or gamble on the season? Here’s a few things to take into calculation:
-Before this year Strasburg has never thrown more than 90 innings in a season. He’s currently averaging about 6 innings per start so assuming 12 more starts he’ll have about 180 innings pre-playoffs.
-Strasburg already has had one major surgery.
-Even without Strasburg the Nats still have arguably the best rotation in the game right now.
Shutting down Strasburg will hurt little, however I think it’s outweighed by losing him for longer. He’s going to be a major reason why the Nats could be a long term contender in the NL.
If you look at total innings, he threw 123 1/3 Minor and Major League innings combined in 2010 before he needed TJ.
He’s made 18 starts and pitched 105 innings to this point. Nats are 90 games in and if they’d use a 5 man rotation, he’s scheduled for another 14 starts. Perhaps every 3rd or 4th time through the rotation, they can start skipping him to try and get him down to 10 of those 14 slotted starts. Averaging 6 IP per start, that would leave him at 165 prior to the playoffs, which I think would be a pretty reasonable workload for him.
Honestly what they should do is call up lannan…
Lannan is already set to start for the Nats this Saturday.
I’m a huge fan of what Rizzo has done since taking over as GM, and I’m sure getting asked about Strasburg continuously after saying over and over he’s getting shut down despite the Nationals spot in the standings is tiresome, but does he always have to sound so “gruff?”
You make us Nats fans look bad.
Rizzo kind of lucked out with the recent drafts…he picked twice with number 1 picks that were cant miss prospects, had a number 3 pick (Rendon) fall to him and in the recent draft had a top 5 pick fall a couple slots to him as well. It will be interesting next year when they pick in the mid 20s.
Sale turned out really good for the sox. He is having a much better season than harper, imagine a rotation of Sale, Strasburg, Gio, Zimmerman, and Detwiler. There would be no stopping that.
Yes that would be great, but I’m sure you don’t think Sale is going to be a better ML player than Harper. Harper is going to play everyday and contribute on a daily basis.
Agreed, only time will tell though. I just like to point that there are often times surprises in the draft even 2 years down the road. Harper is still 3 years younger than sale. But 11 teams passed on him after harper. and it has only been 2 years.
I don’t think he needs to have an innings limit per se, but be used wisely. Maybe a 6 man rotation or have him skip every 3rd start. Also, be smart with pitch counts. Don’t trot him out there after he’s thrown 105 pitches, try to limit him to 90 to 100.
He’s a great talent, but for the Nats to have a realistic shot at the whole thing, he needs to be pitching in the playoffs.
To me it matters more on the number of pitches and the stressful innings that they have. If he can get through 6 innings with 90 pitches that is way different than 5 innings and 100 pitches.
The only thing the Nats can do is go to a 6 man rotation and limit Strasburg to 6 innings a start with 85 pitches.
Cody Ross keeps on showing why Boston should approach him before the season ends with a 2 year deal. Ross said he wants to stay and Boston has nobody really ready especially who is RH and can protect the heavy LH tilt the lineup has.
forget team “policy”. Ross can probably be had now in the 2-10/14m range.. Let him continue the carnage he is wrecking on the league and the price and years will go up, or they just might not be able to keep him and get stuck with another useless Darnell McDonald type.
if Ross keeps up his monster season, he’s probably (IMO) looking at a good bit more than 2/14. it wouldn’t be a good idea for whoever signs it, but power is scarce and there isn’t another power hitting corner OF on the FA market besides Quentin (who has defense and injury concerns).
“It will be the eye test” = When Steven’s arm completely falls off his body.
Theo doesn’t want to sign any free agents this year? Why not, he signed so many great ones in Boston.
Cubs should trade everyone on the team over 30
Why stop there? They should trade everyone under 30 except castro and rizzo.