Here’s the latest out of the National League:
- The Dodgers could potentially look to acquire Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon, according to a tweet from Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com. A source tells Saxon that he expects Los Angeles to pursue the 33-year-old righty, who is carrying a 1.21 ERA with 8.0 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9 in his third year in Philly. Long considered one of the worst contracts in baseball, Papelbon’s deal is actually looking less onerous as he continues to produce results and its timeline shortens. On top of his $13MM salary this season, Papelbon is owed $13MM next year and comes with a vesting option at that same rate for 2016. The option would become guaranteed if he finishes 55 games next year or 100 total between 2014-15. He has topped 50 games finished in each of the last seven years and is on pace to do so once again.
- Did the Mets waste star third baseman David Wright’s best years? That is the question posed by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, who notes that the 31-year-old has battled injuries and is hitting well off of his career pace even after a hot streak. Though the club’s young talent has real promise of delivering a rebound for the franchise, Sherman wonders if everything will congeal while Wright is still a top-end contributor.
- For that reason and many others, Mets GM Sandy Alderson finds himself in something of a delicate position heading out of the All-Star break, as David Lennon of Newsday writes. While the club has pulled itself into shouting distance of the post-season picture, neither does it look like a prime time to buy. Selling players like Daniel Murphy and Bartolo Colon would not only run some public relations and attendance risks, but could lessen the club’s chances in 2015. On the other hand, standing pat might mean foregoing an opportunity to bolster the team’s talent base and opening payroll space for the coming offseason.
- While the Cubs appear to have a surplus of top position prospects, along with a few talented younger bats at the MLB level, that does not mean that there is any rush to move pieces around, writes Dave Cameron of Fangraphs. Not all prospects transition to the big leagues, of course, and in any event most of the team’s better pre-major league pieces appear to offer sufficient positional flexibility that Chicago will have plenty of options in the unlikely event that they all pan out.
Pass.
With Baez, Bryant, Russell, and Soler, you are talking ELITE,ELITE talent. Stats say maybe one of the 3 will be a MLB contributor, but as a realist, I have no qualms thinking 3 of the 4 will be above MLB talents and mainstays for the big club, barring trades for pitching. Of the 4, I say Soler will make the biggest impact, and that’s SCARY.
For all the public relations “gaffes” Papelbon makes, his fellow BP arms in Philly have nothing but good things to say about his mentoring and leadership. He says stupid things to the media, but that’s as much persona as anything, and it appears he’s much better when he’s dealing with actual teammates.
The Mets would’ve had the opportunity to draft Buxton or Correa in 2012 if they finished with somewhere close to 100 losses.
Nowhere did I say he was worth 12 wins. I explicitly said he was worth 7 and 5.8.
They won 74 games and lost 88 in both of those. Toss out Wright’s 7 wins in 2012 and you’re at 67-95, which is pushing 100 losses as I stated.
Also, I indeed do have some idea of what the attendance would be. Their last year at Shea–coincidentally their last year with a winning record–they led the NL in attendance. With each passing losing season, the attendance and their rank within the NL has dropped, bottoming out at last year’s 13th out of 15 teams. Removing Wright makes them a markedly worse team in 2012 and 2013. The attendance would have been atrocious. Nowhere am I assuming that ‘people want to see stars’. I’m saying that people–Mets fans very much in particular–want to see a winner. Removing Wright makes them worse, ergo there would be far fewer people coming to games.
Mets should trade for Cargo or Tulo….say they give up Murphy,Lugeres and Montero
The Dodgers wouldn’t trade for him if he wasn’t willing to become the setup man. They told Brian Wilson he had to earn a seventh inning role before signing him last year. They’re really not interested in moving a guy with 14.4 K/9 from the closer spot. Kenley is one of the better closers in the NL if not MLB.
He does have a no-trade clause. The reason I don’t think he would go if he isn’t the closer is last season he made the comment that he finds it hard to get up for an appearance when the game isn’t on the line, if it wasn’t a save situation. If that is the way he thinks, how is he going to get up for being an 8th inning guy? Don’t see it happening
Agreed, when you can’t even agree on how to calculate these stats like WAR, it’s time to pause and come up with something every website can agree on. Batting average is hits divided by at-bats, but WAR? Good luck finding one formula to calculate that.
That’s the end of his prime, which is 27-31.
Trading Murphy would be a bad idea, especially now. I see no reason they can’t sell Colon with a mid-level prospect for a major league player. He has another year of Control, so is not a half year rental and can help depth next year somewhere.
I think The Cardinals may want to help their back-end and may be willing to give up Craig in a move like this (Mets could put him in LF). If Craig can find his form of the past few years, this could be a big win on both sides.
If The Mariners really want another Starting pitcher for their back-end and depth and are willing to part with the scarcely used, 26 year old Morrison i would make that move too. Colon would give them consistency and would pitch in his familiar AL West. The Mets would get Morrison for LF and gain some youth and power potential. Even in his limited role, he is hitting a HR every 5 games on average in a place that is impossible to hit in. Morrison in Seattle is obviously not working for either side.