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Archives for August 2012

Mets Designate Garrett Olson For Assignment

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The Mets announced that they have designated left-hander Garrett Olson for assignment.  The move will allow the Mets to re-activate Johan Santana from the disabled list.

Olson, 28, saw just one-third of an inning with the Mets this year when he pitched against the Marlins in a blowout loss on Wednesday.  In 104 career big league appearances, Olson has a 6.26 ERA with 6.0 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9.

D’Backs Designate Mike Zagurski For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks announced that they have designated pitcher Mike Zagurski for assignment.  The left-hander was the last southpaw in the Arizona bullpen after trading Craig Breslow to the Red Sox.

Zagurski had a 6.18 ERA with 8.5 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9 in 27.2 innings of work this season.  The 29-year-old has 69 career big league games to his credit and 111 Triple-A outings.  At the Triple-A level, Zagurski owns a 2.82 ERA with 11.0 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9.

Outrighted To Triple-A: Brian Bixler

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Today’s outright assignments..

  • Brian Bixler has been outrighted to Triple-A Oklahoma City after clearing waivers, tweets Brian McTaggart of MLB.com.  Bixler, DFA’d by Houston on Thursday, appeared in 36 games this yea and saw time at second, third, shortstop, and both corner outfield positions.  The 29-year-old has a .267/.349/.366 slash line in 229 Triple-A plate appearances.

2013 Vesting Options Update

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With a little less than one-third of the season left to go, let's check in on the various vesting option situations from around the league…

  • Jason Bartlett, Padres — $5.5MM option vests with 432 plate appearances. Bartlett came to the plate just 98 times before being placed on the disabled list with a knee injury. He won't return to the lineup anytime soon, so this option will not vest.
  • Kevin Gregg, Orioles — $6MM option vests with 50 games finished. Gregg has finished just 12 of the team's 113 games, so this one is very unlikely even though it's still mathematically possible.
  • Brett Myers, White Sox — $10MM option vests with 45 games finished or based on a points system. Myers has finished 33 games this season, and he has finished four of the ten games he's appeared in with Chicago despite not being the closer. This is one worth monitoring.

Chipper Jones has an option worth $9MM+ that will vest with 123 games played, but he's already rendered the option moot by announcing his plans to retire after the season. He recently said that he won't change his mind about retirement despite his strong play as well. Chipper has played in 71 of the Braves' first 112 games.

Alex Gonzalez has an option worth $4MM that will vest with 525 plate appearances, but he is expected to miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Gonzalez came to the plate just 89 times before the injury, so the Brewers do not have to worry about this one kicking in.

Poll: How Will The Athletics Finish?

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The Athletics have not qualified for the postseason since 2006, the year Frank Thomas went from DH flier to MVP candidate by hitting .270/.381/.545 with 39 homers. Oakland comes into today in a virtual four-way tie for one of the two AL Wild Card spots, and they’ve won 34 of 51 games (.667) over the last two calendar months. They lead the league with 13 walk-off wins.

GM Billy Beane swung two of the best trades of the offseason by acquiring Josh Reddick (for Andrew Bailey) and Jarrod Parker (for Trevor Cahill). Reddick is hitting .257/.330/.510 with 25 homers while Parker has pitched to a 3.55 ERA in 19 starts. Tommy Milone, who came over in the Gio Gonzalez trade, has a 3.91 ERA in 22 starts. Add in a strong performance from bargain signing Bartolo Colon (3.38 ERA in 22 starts) and big performance from big money signing Yoenis Cespedes (.307/.368/.515 with 14 homers), and you have arguably the best Athletics team in the last six years.

The A’s are currently in second place in the AL West but sit just a half-game ahead of the Angels. They’re 5.5 back of the Rangers. To finish with their first winning season since 2006, they’ll need to win at least 22 of their final 50 games. That seems like the easy part considering the tough competition for a playoff berth.

Quick Hits: Padres, Cubs, Bourn, Sheets, Braves

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Earlier today, the Indians released right-hander Derek Lowe after designating him for assignment earlier this month.  The veteran is willing to start or relieve and there's reportedly a sense that he'll return to the National League.  While we keep an eye on where the veteran might land, here's tonight's look around baseball..

  • As first reported by Jim Callis of Baseball America, Padres scouting director Jaron Madison is leaving the organization to join the Cubs.  The 36-year-old will take over as Chicago's scouting director while Tim Wilken has been reassigned to the role of Special Assistant to president Theo Epstein, the team announced.
  • One Braves official believes that if Michael Bourn had an agent other than Scott Boras he might already have a new contract with the club, writes Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com.  People who know Nationals GM Mike Rizzo believe that Bourn has always been at the top of his wish list and the Phillies, Reds, and Marlins are also potential suitors this winter.
  • Ben Sheets wasn't entirely confident about his return to the big leagues, but the veteran has looked tremendous so far, Knobler writes.  The 34-year-old isn't sure how long he'll continue pitching but he says that he wants to leave on his own terms as opposed to being forced out by injury.

Poll: How Will The Dodgers Finish?

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The Dodgers’ new ownership group has made it clear that they are committed to winning once again in Los Angeles and they spared no expense prior to the trade deadline to try and make that happen.  Inside of a week, General Manager Ned Colletti was given the greenlight to acquire shortstop Hanley Ramirez, outfielder Shane Victorino, and right-hander Brandon League.  The Dodgers’ deadline potentially could have been even more wallet-busting had the Phillies agreed to part with Cliff Lee and the roughly $95MM owed to him through the rest of his contract.

Since acquiring Ramirez in late July and putting him into action on the 25th, the Dodgers are 7-7 in 14 games.  The enigmatic star is now making his homecoming tonight in Miami as the Dodgers sport a 60-52 record.  Los Angeles sits just one game behind the Giants for first place in the NL West and 3.5 games back of the Pirates for the second wild card slot.

Will their recent offensive infusion help them get over the hump and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2009?  For the Dodgers to wind up below the .500 mark, they’d have to finish 20-30 or worse.  To win 90 games, they’d have to go 30-20.  There are 50 games remaining, how do you see it playing out?

Yankees Release Russell Branyan

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The Yankees have released Russell Branyan, according to Donnie Collins of the Scranton Times-Tribune (via Twitter).  The veteran was with the club's Triple-A affiliate for the bulk of the year.

Branyan, 36, missed considerable time with back issues this season.  The slugger played in just 33 games for Scranton Wilkes-Barre but posted an impressive .309/.438/.655 slash line with eleven homers. Branyan has not played in a game since July 6, when ESPN.com's Buster Olney suggested that he might have played his way into drawing trade interest.

Quick Hits: Vizquel, Chavez, Hafner

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There are currently 52 starting pitchers on the disabled list, and it’s costing teams money as well as production, Yahoo's Jeff Passan reports (Twitter links). Executives estimate teams will spend $500MM on injured players this year, so let’s hope they took out some insurance. Here are today’s links…

  • Blue Jays infielder Omar Vizquel wants to manage at the MLB level next year, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports. The 45-year-old 11-time Gold Glove winner said he'd like to manager close to his Seattle area home or for a team with which he has pre-existing ties. As Morosi points out, Mike Matheny and Robin Ventura are doing just fine this year despite their relative inexperience managing professionally.
  • Orioles outfielder Endy Chavez will report to Triple-A early next week, according to MLB.com’s Brittany Ghiroli (Twitter links). Chavez decided to stay in the organization instead of electing free agency, and the Orioles expect him to be back with the MLB team by the time rosters expand in September.
  • ESPN.com’s Buster Olney wonders if Travis Hafner’s tenure with the Indians could be over now that he’s on the disabled list and his contract is about to expire.

Mets Sign Drew Carpenter

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The Mets announced that they signed right-hander Andrew Carpenter to a minor league contract and assigned him to Double-A Binghamton (Twitter link). Carpenter elected free agency this week after the Blue Jays designated him for assignment.

Carpenter appeared in six games for the Blue Jays last month, allowing seven hits and six walks in nine innings, while striking out nine. The 27-year-old spent most of the season at Triple-A Las Vegas, where he posted a 3.38 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 74 2/3 innings as a starter and reliever.

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