After suffering a concussion during a simulated game and missing three weeks, 2015 first overall draft pick Dansby Swanson is ready for his first professional game. MLB.com’s Chad Thornburg reports that Swanson will play tonight for the Diamondbacks’ Class-A affiliate in Hillsboro. Here’s some more from around the NL West…
- The Diamondbacks’ trades of Oliver Perez and Cliff Pennington both came together rather quickly, GM Dave Stewart told Zach Buchanan of AZCentral.com. Stewart hadn’t had any talks with the Astros or Blue Jays, respectively, about either player prior to the July 31 trade deadline. Stewart doesn’t expect to make any more deals in August, though “I didn’t think I was going to make those…. You never know.”
- Baseball America’s Jack Etkin spoke with Rockies director of player development Zach Wilson about the frightening early-season injury to top outfield prospect David Dahl and the decision Dahl made to have his spleen removed following an outfield collision (subscription required). “The best thing for David’s life was to get that spleen out of there,” said Wilson, who went on to add that the splenectomy has allowed Dahl to play without fear. Dahl, who lacerated his spleen and suffered a concussion in the collision, would have had to play the rest of his career with a protective covering and would have been at risk of rupturing the spleen in the event of another collision. As Etkin notes, that’s a frightening proposition for a “hellbent” player like Dahl, who does not shy away from the outfield wall when roaming the outfield. Dahl is hitting .284/.301/.432 in 86 plate appearances since rejoining the Rockies’ Double-A affiliate.
- The Padres will take a shot at re-signing Justin Upton this winter, GM A.J. Preller told MLB.com’s Barry Bloom. “He’s made a very positive impression here,” said Preller. “We’re going to sit down in the offseason and see what we can do with him.” As Bloom notes, though the Padres haven’t panned out as they’d hoped, the team still has a core in place which can be built upon in future seasons, and improved ticket sales could help boost the team’s payroll heading into a season in which the Padres are set to host the All-Star Game.
- The Dodgers’ July pitching acquisitions haven’t worked out whatsoever to this point, writes ESPN Los Angeles’ Mark Saxon. Though Luis Avilan has tossed four reasonably effective relief innings, Mat Latos and Alex Wood have both struggled, while Jim Johnson has reverted to his disastrous 2014 form. As Saxon points out, Johnson did have very strong numbers in Atlanta, so it’s tough to fault the team for targeting him. He also points out that Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi must be a fan of Johnson, as he’s now been part of two front offices that have traded for Johnson in two years.
J-Up: “Ok, thanks for scheduling this sit down, I want $200M.”
AJ: “Uhhhh, how about significantly less than that?”
J-Up: “Free agency here I come!”
AJ: “We sat down!”
Preller- here’s a QO.
Upton- cya San Diego I’m heading to somewhere paying me 200mill.
Preller- the extra first will come in handy. 4 picks before the 3rd round is one way to rebuild the farm.
Another way to build the farm is to trade away players on expiring contracts at the trade deadline when your team is far from contention though.
Oakland is currently closer to a postseason berth than SD is. Preller really blew it by not selling.
Yeah- cause what they would receive for Venable and Beniot was worth more than them playing. Actually it wasn’t, or else they’d be traded.
The only one they should have traded was Upton which they didn’t get the big league talent they wanted. They were offered pitchers. Like SD can’t find those. An extra 1st to draft a position player of need has more value than pitching does to SD.
You make it sound so simple, so why hasn’t SD done it? It’s tougher to find a position player that sticks than it is for a top arm that you can make use of whether in the ‘pen or rotation, especially if you have good development like STL, ATL, LAD, etc.
Literally ANYTHING they could have gotten for Venable or Benoit would have been worth more than them because those two are gone after this year and we’re not contending. Would you rather have someone with a small chance of helping us out somewhere down the road or someone with zero chance of helping us out down the road? Because Venable and Benoit aren’t going to help us out beyond this year and we are NOT making the playoffs this year.
SD actually cant find those this season, so…stop posting and take the L.
Cause low A ball players hitting under .230 and pitching over an ERA of 5 really scream future big leaguer
You don’t get much for a platoon outfielder (venable), a 37 year old reliever making 8 mill next year (beniot), and Kennedy who would have netted a double a player at most.
Keeping Upton says the talent offered for him didn’t out weight 1st round talent. For all the hype around Fulmer he just broke AA. The extra 1st from Upton at least gives them the option to sign a QO player and still have a 1st.
Who cares about proximity to the majors when the padres are 3 years away from competing. They needed young talent in the system.
I’d rather have a low A ball hitter than Venable because maybe that low A ball hitter will make it to the Majors someday and help us out. Venable isn’t going to help us beyond this year because he’ll be a free agent. You’re supposed to trade your expiring contracts when you aren’t contending, HELLO!
Stop being a homer and admit Preller messed up by not selling. You are arguing that your team is doing the right thing by not selling assets – and by the way, they absolutely could have gotten any teams #1 prospect, the A’s, Reds and Tigers did. #1 prospects were flying around at the deadline, keeping Upton was just a ridiculous decision, and everyone in baseball except homer SD fans agree.
Michael Fulmer is a pitching. SD has no issue finding pitching.
That extra 1st which could be used to draft a position of need has more value than pitching does to SD.
Really? The 2015 Padres were ruined by bad/underperforming pitching, they sure look like they needed pitching to me, and everyone else in MLB.
Wood has actually been fine, but Mark Saxon wants the entire staff to pitch like Kershaw and Greinke, apparently.
Exactly.. Having a #4 or #5 pitcher is unacceptable for him..
Edit: Johnson is in fact pitching worse than he did last year.. The guy just doesn’t change teams well..
This is the problem with always looking to the out-of-town media for opinions on West Coast teams. Most of them really don’t seem to know a lot about teams outside of their timezones.
Mark Saxon is based in Los Angels and has been for years.
Okay then, so what’s his excuse for grading all of these players on the basis of a few games? Not difficult for me to recall the national media writing off Kershaw in June, because that happened too.
Why not ask him?
Why not supply your own opinion, since I asked you?
Wood and Latos have been fine. Latos gave up a freak hr to a pitcher, but that wasn’t indicative of how he has pitched overall. I like those acquisitions. The problem for the Dodgers, as it has been for a long time, is Mattingly. He wasn’t responsible for the runs those SPs gave up, but he certainly makes it tough for the team to win, and in the playoffs, expect another early exit. It’s no accident that no bullpen succeeds with him. He shouldn’t be a manager.
I have watched every inning of every Dodgers game over the last three seasons (yes I know I have an unhealthy obsession) and I could not agree more about Mattingly. He seems to be a good “clubhouse manager”, dealing with egos and personalities, but he is a horrible in-game strategy manager, especially when it comes to pulling the starter and managing the bullpen. It’s hard to see the Dodgers advancing far in the playoffs with him making the strategic decisions in close playoff games.
Tim Wallach is his bench coach. He’s got as much responsibility for in-game decision making as Mattingly. But of course nobody will ever place the blame on Wallach.
BlueSkyLA, thank you for an intelligent comment. I’ll bet 90 percent of the moves Mattingly makes aren’t his.
Not his alone, anyway. Those who dislike Mattingly’s game management need to understand that game management would not change much if he was removed and Wallach put in charge. To really change the game management style, they’d have to replace Mattingly, Wallach and Honeycutt. Who thinks that’s going to happen? But it is so much easier to down vote that argument than to respond to it.
Wallach decides on pitchers moves? How about the pitching coach? Does he decide as well?
Both those assistants have input to the manager, and you can bet that Frienman and Zaidi do as well. The manager makes the decisions. That’s that.
According to Wallach himself, he is deeply involved with that part of the game. As you should remember, Wallach became the bench coach because Mattingly was supposedly weak on that part of the game. And yes, I know, the manager ends up wearing everything that doesn’t work, no matter what, but we should not be so simple that we don’t know who was involved with getting there.
You can’t really blame wallach about pitching since that not really his job. That the pitching coaches job. But everything else you can since he don right hand man when it comes to the bench. I wonder how much longer the Dodgers will put up with making the playoffs but no getting a ring. I would love to see what Wallace can do since he was the reason the triple a team was good for so many years
I realize a lot of Dodger fans are missing out on SNLA but for those who have and watch it, we got to see Wallach’s interview where he talked about his involvement with in-game strategy. We know the manager is always the guy with the target on his back, and he knows it too. But as fans we should be a little more wise to how things work in the dugout and not simply take it for granted that the Dodgers would automatically be a better team if Wallach was managing it. A lot of what we see now is Wallach. That is why he’s there. For the pitching part, Mattingly leans on Honeycutt, who isn’t one of the most respected pitching coaches in baseball for nothing. When something works or doesn’t work, all three are involved with that decision.
I thought the Rangers might have been interested in Oliver Perez.
The Padres will take a shot. A snowball’s shot on an El Centro sidewalk on an August afternoon. Justin Upton is going to ask for 175-200 million and the Padres have about $110 million committed for next year without resigning or replacing any of the 6 free agents they have.
I got news for upton, hes not getting that much. No big market teams are looking for a corner of dh type. And if they are they probably target heyward first. Hes looking at a hanley type deal.
I got news for you, yes he absolutely will. Please stop underestimating the market: you are going to have your mind blown at how much players are going to get this offseason.
No. You are seriously are overvaluing it because you think t.v deals directly effect players contracts. When in reality its still supply and demand. Name one team that has a need at corner of that is willing to spend that money. Ill give you a hint, theres the cardinals (if they dont believe in grichuk or piscotty) and then who? Cubs are going for pitching, yankees want judge in a corner, dbacks are deep in ofers. Mets have conforto as well as money tied up in granderson and cuddyer and already have a penchant for not spending. More money for the owners does not translate to more money for free agents. They are thinking about raising the league minimum.
Can you name any teams that have a better left fielder than Upton? Other than the Yankees,Indians, Diamondbacks and whomever Cespedes is playing for today, no other team has gotten more contribution from their LF this season than Upton has provided the Padres. You can talk about WAR or wRC or OPS or home runs and RBI if you don’t like advanced stats. No matter what stats you look at, there simply are not that many LF better than Upton. He ranks in the top 5-7 in all of them. Other than Cespedes, no other LF that are even close to his caliber or age will be on the free agent market. He is going to earn an AAV that is at or above $25 million for 7-8 seasons. That is not even a question. The only question is who is it that is going to pay it to him.
The royals with alex gordon, chris coghlan of the cubs has provided similar value to upton, not too mention kyle schwarber there 5 days a week mpving forward. Nelson cruz if the mariners put him in left where he should be, the point is lf and 1st base are the 2 easiest positions, so anyone that plays right can play left. Its not a pressing position for clubs. Add in the fact that he had problems with arizona management. A 20% better than league average hitter that can only play a corner with a q.o. attached to him isnt worth 25 mil a year to teams for maybe a 1 win upgrade. He has 1 peak season left and then you pay for decline years.
Today 3 different people on MLB Network and 2 different podcasts said that Upton was looking at a $175-200 million payday because he is 27 who is just coming into his prime and a power hitter. So, the question is do we believe former GMs and respected baseball writers or you?
Upton will not get a $200m contract. Price will be the only one getting that kind of money.. Cespedes will be the one that gets chased the hardest.. Upton might be a right handed power hitter but he is not an elite bat at all.. This whole age argument has gotten old.. Just because he is 2-3 years younger than most free agents doesn’t mean he is going to command elite money.. Upton might be looking for $200m but that doesn’t mean he is going to get it..
Edit: Porcello was also going to be 26 going into this offseason.. After the season he had last year people started saying that he was going to get a 10 year deal as well.. He signed an extension before the season began for 4 years..
At least 3 position players will get $25 million AAV deals this offseason. Upton will get an AAV of $25 million per season. Whether that is for 8 seasons is the question. Since he is going into his age 28 season it could be for more years like the Cano contract and for similar money. What isnt in question is how much the AAV will be. Every writer and baseball pundit, and I mean everyone, is saying his next contract will be around that figure.
Cano was a better hitter coming off 4 straight 5 war seasons. He also is a better defender at an up the middle position which is more valuable in itself. In addition everyone thought that was a huge overpay to begin with and the gm that gave it may very well be out of the job next year. You forget the big money teams are already set in the of. And no small market team is paying that dough to upton.
Players decline after turning 30. Its a fact of life. Its one of the most consistent things about the game. In fact of elite players, and Upton is elite, you can literally count on your fingers the number of players outside of the steroid era that have had a better season after turning 30 than before. Almost all career years are age 26-28 for position players. Cespedes turns 30 years old in October.
Pitchers rarely sign deals over 4-5 years and I cannot find a single article anywhere stating that Porcello was expected to get a deal like that. Going into the 2015 season, Rick Porcello didnt rank in the top 30 pitchers either of the past 2 seasons and he signed a deal for 4 years and $82.5 million.
Those mlb talking heads are always right. Harold reynolds is never wrong.
I feel bad for Jim Johnson after watching him pitch in that brutal inning against the Pirates. He wasn’t really pitching horribly, just couldn’t finish guys off and for whatever reason, Mattingly left him in way too long. One of the worst managing jobs I’ve seen in a long time leaving Howell in the pen when Walker and Polanco came up to bat.
You can’t use everyone in your bullpen every day. Johnson was taking one for the team in a lost cause.