FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal has a new, lengthy notes column in which he begins by examining the early scrutiny of MLB's new instant replay system. He points to a pair of blatantly missed calls on Saturday in which conclusive evidence was seen on TV broadcasts of the games but apparently not by the umpires at MLB's Replay Operations Center in New York. An MLB spokesperson confirmed to Rosenthal that one of those calls was blown and added that the system would continue to work on improvement. Rosenthal reminds that John Schuerholz, one of the architects of the system, said it would be a three-year roll out. However, he adds that MLB can't expect any patience from fans, players or managers when home viewers are able to make better judgments than the umpires at the Relay Operations Center.
Here are some more highlights from his article, which also contains notes on Jose Abreu, struggling offenses around the league and the Dodgers' interleague schedule…
- Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson is the early front-runner for "first manager to get fired" due to the team's 4-11 start, but Rosenthal wonders what more Gibson can do with the pitching talent (or lack thereof) he has been given. GM Kevin Towers thinned out the rotation depth by trading Tyler Skaggs and David Holmberg this offseason, and the loss of Patrick Corbin compounded those moves. Rosenthal wonders how long the Snakes can wait before recalling Archie Bradley.
- One executive said to Rosenthal that any American League team with a need in the infield will have added incentive to work out a deal with Stephen Drew in order to prevent the Tigers from signing him. The AL Central powerhouse is currently going with Alex Gonzalez at short, and the results have been less than stellar.
- Yankees right-hander Hiroki Kuroda told Rosenthal (through his interpreter) that he's never considered retirement as heavily as he did this offseason. The most difficult factor for Kuroda wasn't the separation from his L.A.-based family — they come live with him in the summer when his daughters are out of school — but rather that he simply loves and misses Japan. Kuroda again left open the possibility of finishing his career back in Japan.
- Both the Angels and Twins have a need in the outfield with the likes of Josh Hamilton, Oswaldo Arcia and Josh Willingham on the disabled list, and both teams were interested in the recently DFA'ed Sam Fuld this offseason before he signed with the Athletics. Rosenthal reports that the A's will gauge trade possibilities for Fuld and wonders if the Halos and Twins could have interest.
- After signing a minor league deal in the 2012-13 offseason, Blue Jays right-hander Neil Wagner earned the pro-rated portion that deal's $525K salary while in the Majors last season. However, Toronto's pre-arbitration pay scale called for just a $506,250 salary in 2014, as it is based on service time rather than performance. Agent Jim Munsey and Wagner refused the deal, giving Toronto the freedom to renew Wagner's contract at $500K if they wished, which the team did. Said Munsey of the ordeal: "It's, obviously, disappointing that they cut Neil's pay after such a good season last year. And when we didn't agree to the pay cut, they cut it further in renewing him. Hard to cheer for that. … The rules allow the Jays to reduce his pay. They also allow us to talk about that at arbitration." MLBTR's Zach Links recently looked at teams' calculation of pre-arbitration salaries.
- Though the Rays' rotation has been ravaged by injuries to Jeremy Hellickson, Matt Moore and Alex Cobb, the team is planning on using internal options rather than pursuing outside help.
Kind of a shame that Sam Fuld was released while the awful Daric Barton remains firmly planted on the A’s 25 and 40-man rosters. Fuld was a difference maker and spark in his short time in Oakland filling in for the fragile Coco Crisp, while Barton continues his walk-trawling ways—2-20 (.100 hitter and OBP well below .300 and lots of K’s.) A better move would have been to DFA Barton (who passed through waivers TWICE last year) and let Moss, Collaspo and Jaso share the 1B duties. Oh, well.
That’s Billy beanes one flaw. His love for Barton
Please, for the love of the man in the clouds himself DD, sign Drew, hes already said hes open to a 1 year pact to cover Iglesias’ injury.
The Gonzalez/Romine platoon just isnt getting it done and wont get it done long term.
Chuck $8m/$9m at Drew and get it done.
Please be realistic. Yes, he’s open for a 1 year deal but he’s never going to sign a 1 year deal at 8/9m more like 14/15m.
Nah, times moved on, supply and demand dictates prices, and if Drew actually wants to play before June then he has to be realistic. He turned down a $14.2m QO so divide that by 6 months and thats $2.36m monthly, so even on that basis, if he didnt sign until the end of April start of May hes looking at approx $11.8m, and thats assuming someone is willing to shell that money out for him, which clearly no one has been so far.
Beggars cant be choosers, and in this case, playing for an October contender on a 1 year pact from $8/$9m will probably be the best he can hope for.
Its not March any longer, most teams have moved on from having Drew as even a consideration.
If you reasonably assume that the draft pick is worth $4MM on its own…. Drew’s value RIGHT NOW is $7MM if he is worth $12MM without the draft pick (he would also miss 1/12 of the season if he started next week, saving the Tigers another $1M).
If the Tigers wait until June, then Drew’s value is the exact same $7MM because of proration of his salary.
He is better taking that than sitting out the whole year. If he signs he won’t have the draft pick attached to him next winter as it is.
I’m all for the Tigers signing Drew, if for no other reason to keep the Yankees from being tempted. The cost for Drew to a team over the luxury tax level (as the Yankees are) plus the pick is prohibitive. Plus, with the Tigers, he’s at least playing a position he knows. With the Yankees he’s going to need time to get in game shape, and time with a different position. It’s just not a good match right now for them. But with Drew, you get Boras, and that means an above market contract with all types of bells and whistles.
With regards to Neil Wagner, consider the perspective of the team. The player is constantly trying to maximize their salary in every situation, so why shouldn’t the team try to maximize the value they get?
Players won’t let up in the draft, arbitration, and free agency, so the team might as well get what they can as well.
It sure looks like the expected outcome. It’s business and the natural course was for the Jays to pay as little as possible. Wagner and his agent were silly to reject the initial pay cut unless they think the end result will yield higher pay down the line – which I doubt.
Wagner probably didn’t actually take a pay cut, since he made the *pro-rated* portion of $525K last year. Probably works out to less than the $500K this year.
Maybe the Angels or Twins can take Jose Tabata. A change of scenery might to him well. He just looks to uninterested in Pittsburgh anymore.
Angels might take him but they have almost nothing to offer in a trade.
At his point, they should just be willing to give him away if someone is willing to take on his contract. When Polanco comes up, Travis Snider is better suited for the 4th OF job. Plus Andrew Lambo, Jaff Decker and Chris Dickerson at AAA serve as enough depth.
I agree with you; a change of scenery might kickstart Tabata. I’d like to see him in a Twins uni, but the Pirates aren’t going to give him away. They’ll want something significant in return.
Right now, the Twins just need a temporary replacement for their two injured corner outfielders. If they find one, it’s going to be a cheap, expendable one, like Sam Fuld.
Tabata should be a starter. He has a great bat with a tradable contract and plus defense.
I’ve never understood Tabata. The guy has talent but he just seems like he doesn’t enjoy playing baseball. His conditioning (or lack thereof) and his attitude are like quicksand when he is out there. At this point, I just want him off the Bucs. Maybe if he goes somewhere where he can play everyday he will come around.
The Rays are probably glad they didn’t trade Price but on the other hand if they aren’t competitive this year they might decide to trade him anyway.
The Angels really aren’t short on OF’ers. Even with Hamilton out LAA has: Trout, Calhoun. Shuck, Cowgill and Long (AAA) available now. Pitching, both BP and starting depth, is a much greater need.
Agreed. Just seems stupid to say the Angels need outfield help. They are stacked there, especially compared to every other spot on the roster.
Towers should be fired before Gibby.
Tomorrow: fire Towers.
Wednesday: fire Gibson.
“Rosenthal reports that the A’s will gauge trade possibilities for Fuld and wonders if the Halos and Twins could have interest.”
I’m not sure why Rosenthal thinks this is possible with the high level Shucks and Cowgill have been performing since Hamilton went down. The platooning has been producing better results than Fuld has for the last few seasons.
Minnesota could be of interest. I can see them Giving diamond because of kazmir and the other injuries.
Not only did Towers trade away those pitchers, he also dealt top prospect Matt Davidson for closer Addison Reed. Granted, Davidson is still in the ChiSox minor league system, but there’s no point having a closer if the team isn’t going to win any games.
Kevin Towers should be gone. He is the one that built this team into the scrapheap it is now.
I rather Tigers go with Defense at SS and that for me spell Romine. If he can hit 230 and play great D then that is good until after draft. Then sign Drew, if possible.
The metrics will tell you Drew is as good as if not slightly better in the field than Romine anyway, so when you add in Drews massively better bat, its a no brainer.
Gonzalez was an odd move which was never likely to work, we would have been far better off giving Danny Worth an extended shot.
“Drew’s massively better bat”? He is a lifetime .264 hitter. He hit just .223 as recently as 2012.
Gonzalez is a .246 lifetime hitter.
Perhaps we are talking about 1 hit every 30 at bat difference. (.033 difference in batting average).
Is a huge free agent paycheck and a draft pick loss worth one hit every 30 at bats?
I was referring to Drew vs Romine…but yes, Drew vs Gonzalez is still a no brainer,
If Drew signed tomorrow(April 15), how long will it take him to get into game-playing shape. I know he has been working out but really hasn’t faced any “real pitching”. My guess is 10-14 days in AAA as a hurry-up Spring Training. Any thoughts?
Most hitters tell you they only need around two weeks of Spring Training to be regular season ready.
The reason the Spring is so long is only for the pitchers really.
Have also heard he has Freddy throwing to him and Morales. He doesn’t have great velocity, but he has been around. He knows how to pitch.
2012 was the year he came back from a broken ankle.
I do agree with you but I don’t have a lot of faith in metrics until there is an improvement. I wonder why they don’t weight, like xFIP, for WHIP, DRS or UFR.
So people are whining that MLB can’t yet get all the call right. We have been tolerating wrong calls for years now. I have seen an improvement, they are still learning, but they are getting more calls right than before.
Agreed. Folks need to ask themselves, “Are the odds of getting the call correct better or worse than they were before instant replay.”
While it may not be ideal YET, it’s certainly an improvement.
Right. Watching the games this weekend I saw 2 wrong calls that went to replay. One of them got overturned, for a rate of 50%. That is a major improvement over the 0% that got overturned prior. For this year at least anything over what the call made on the field is an improvement, as long as they don’t overturn any correct calls.
Quite true. As long as there are more calls being called correctly, this is a vast improvement over the former situation.
Tabta’s deal is the type of deal the Twin would be very interested in. Tabata’s deal is team friendly and has several years remaining. That is exactly what a rebuilding team needs. PIT asking price is probably too high for the Twins but MIN current OF situation would not prevent them from acquiring Tabata,
The problem is, IF things go well (big if), the Twins OF next year will be Hicks-Buxton-Arcia. No room for Tabata. Too early to put Arcia at DH.
He would probably help in the immediate, but I’m not sure he’d do much more than that.
Please fire the entire Diamondbacks organization and bring back Colangelo.
Why is it that the media is trying to shove Drew down the Tigers’ throat? Dombrowski doesn’t want him, and he doesn’t need him as badly as the press keeps telling us. Why pay five times what we’re paying our one-year platoon while giving up a pretty decent draft slot? DD was already content to go into the year with a weak-hitting slick-fielding SS with a cheap price tag. Iglesias gets hurt so we need to throw 8 figures at a weak-hitting slick-fielding SS? Not going to happen, even after the MLB draft. Tiger fans: get used to the Gonzalez/Romine platoon, it’s here to stay (at least for 2014).
When the review teams starts blowing important calls in more important games — and it will happen — baseball’s going to have a tougher time explaining it away.
A game result decided outside the field of play is the very definition of fraud.
Don’t think I’d understand getting Fuld with Mastro back on the 40 man. One would have to be DFA’d, so seems kind of pointless.