Rosenthal’s Latest Videos: Teixeira, Dye, Garland
Ken Rosenthal has a couple of recent videos up at FOXSports. Check ’em out. Some highlights:
- The Mark Teixeira talks are at a standstill; the Braves and Angels are reluctant to improve their offers. The Dodgers are said to be out of the picture. Daniels, Schuerholz, Stoneman – which one blinks first? I’ll say Daniels; he’ll go with Atlanta’s best offer.
- Jermaine Dye is Plan B for the Angels, but as you know the Red Sox still have interest.
- Jon Garland can be had, but Kenny Williams’ price is sky-high. The Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Mets, and Braves all have interest. The Braves had offered not only Edgar Renteria but a top pitching prospect, and still were rejected. Rosenthal expects Garland to stay put because as the asking price is not met.
- The Dodgers are still the leaders on Octavio Dotel, but the Tribe could jump in if they part with Ben Francisco. Would Francisco really be missed?
- The Cubs are looking at role players like Jay Payton and Jeff Conine. Many Cubs fans have written me looking for some good rumors – anything I would hear would go on the site. My gut feeling is that they do nothing major.
- The Orioles asked about Kei Igawa, but were told he’s not available.
- Rosenthal can see Adam Dunn and Eric Gagne staying put at the deadline. The need to deal Gagne is a bit more pressing, in my opinion.
Padres Trade For Scott Hairston
In a nice little move, the Padres sent 26 year-old Triple A reliever Leo Rosales to the Diamondbacks for 27 year-old outfielder Scott Hairston.
I’ve always wanted to see what Hairston could do with a healthy 500 ABs, but he’s run into bad luck at the worst times. He was once very highly regarded; you can read a post I wrote on his history here. Hairston’s only played outfield this year, but he broke in as a second baseman so he might be able to fill in for Marcus Giles if the Padres can put up with subpar defense. Otherwise he can help out at either outfield corner, especially against lefties. Hairston has proven himself time and again in Triple A; I think he can succeed at the big league level. He’s also under control for quite some time in the event that he does hit for the Padres.
This looks like another smooth move by Kevin Towers – he bought low on Hairston and didn’t give up much.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Dunn, Wheeler, Izzy
Ken Rosenthal posted a new column last night, and has updated it very recently. I’ve already spoken about the Teixeira stuff, but there’s other good material in there too.
- Some of the wilder speculation out there has been that the Twins might trade Torii Hunter or Johan Santana if they decide they’re out of it. Various Baseball Prospectus reports put the Twins’ playoff chances between 5-10%. Rosenthal debunks the idea that Minnesota would shop Hunter without first making him an offer, and keeping Santana for at least 2008 makes sense. Plus, Santana has a no-trade clause.
- Rosenthal does have some Twins for us who might be traded: Luis Castillo and Carlos Silva. Castillo has already been connected to the Mets in rumors, though Silva is a new one. One could definitely envision Silva’s style working in the National League (I know, I say that a lot). There was a recent Silva to Atlanta rumor, though Silva’s agent seems to have debunked it.
- Rosenthal says Dontrelle Willis is not available. Perhaps he and Tim Brown will engage in fisticuffs over this disagreement.
- The Diamondbacks have kicked the tires on Adam Dunn. He might make sense as a rental – the D’Backs playoff changes sit between 16-27%, worth fighting for. No doubt they’ve got a stable of young players to offer.
- Rosenthal says the Astros have yet to receive interest on the Lidge/Wheeler/Qualls troika, while Jayson Stark said yesterday that the Astros hadn’t opened shop on them. Thunderdome match #2, Rosenthal vs. Stark. Assuming Ken survives Tim Brown. Anyway, word is that the Rockies have their eye on Wheeler.
- Parties interested in Zack Greinke: Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Braves, and Cubs. This gels with Dan Graziano’s findings. Of course, trading a player like Greinke requires an equally talented youngster in return.
- The Royals may not be able to do better than Cleveland’s Ben Francisco as a bounty for Octavio Dotel. More on him in a separate post.
- Trades of Joe Blanton and Huston Street are "highly unlikely." So you’re saying there’s a chance?
- The chances of the Cardinals trading Jason Isringhausen are described as "remote." The Cards would have a hard time replacing him next year; he’s got a reasonable $8MM option. He also has no-trade protection, so he’d probably want a better extension if he was to accept a trade.
Mariners Watching Starters
UPDATE: Hickey writes that the Mariners have also scouted Kyle Lohse, Matt Morris, Jason Johnson (thought he went to Japan), and Octavio Dotel. However, a deal seems unlikely because none of those players are worth top Mariner prospects.
According to Jim Hickey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Mariners have been scouting all kinds of available and not-so-available starters lately.
- The Mariners have been scouting the White Sox "religiously" lately. If they saw Javier Vazquez beat the Tigers on Tuesday, they came away impressed. (However, Vazquez can and probably would veto a trade to the AL or NL West). They were on hand to watch Jose Contreras tonight; the Tigers had batting practice with him and his ERA is up to 6.22. Did you hear that? That was the sound of Contreras’ remaining ounce of trade value evaporating.
- As you know, the Ms watched Dontrelle Willis on Monday. Compared to Contreras, Willis pitched well – four earned runs, nearly seven innings.
- The Ms also had a scout on hand to see Livan Hernandez twirl a gem over the Marlins on Tuesday. Hey, at least he takes the ball every fifth day. That has to be worth something.
- Hickey says Seattle has also been monitoring the Astros, perhaps in hope of acquiring Dan Wheeler or Chad Qualls. He speculates that Wandy Rodriguez would be a coup for the Mariners. Wand-Rod has thrown up stinkers in his last two outings but tossed a complete game shutout over the Mets in the game prior. He’s inconsistent like that. The Astros’ #2 starter for 2008 wouldn’t come cheap.
Molony On Jennings, Slowey
Jim Molony’s column today at MLB.com has many good trade rumors that I haven’t seen elsewhere. Let’s discuss.
- Molony says at least a dozen scouts watched Jason Jennings toss a quality start last night. He needed it; I was beginning to think he wasn’t right. Still, the performance probably isn’t enough to cause some team to offer a package for Jennings superior to two draft picks.
- The Diamondbacks and Pirates had a scouting presence at the Astros-Dodgers game. Interesting players appearing in the contest included James Loney, Andre Ethier, Wilson Betemit, Mark Loretta, Morgan Ensberg, Jason Lane, Chad Qualls, Dan Wheeler, and Brad Lidge. You connect the dots, I have no idea.
- The Red Sox suggested sending Joel Pineiro to the A’s for Bobby Kielty in a swap of unwanteds; they were rebuffed.
- The Phillies and Braves watched Matt Morris allow four runs in six innings on Tuesday. They also may have been monitoring Steve Kline, who also pitched.
- A Devil Rays scout watched the Twins in Toronto on Tuesday. Ty Wigginton is thought to be a target for Minnesota. Perhaps the Rays’ scout fancied Scott Baker, who started for the Twins and went seven innings. Baker would be a stupendous return for Wiggy, in my opinion.
- The Phillies had their assistant GM scouting Kevin Slowey‘s start on Saturday. Molony suggests Minnesota might want Pat Burrell. That would involve a ridiculous amount of salary relief and a lack of Slowey. Slowey allowed one run in six innings in the game.
- UPDATE: Just realized that the above pair of bullets seem to have originated from La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The scout watching the Twins on Tuesday was Lee Elia. Not sure why Molony didn’t cite this source, but I suppose he may have come across the info independently.
Graziano’s Latest: Livan, Wily Mo
Dan Graziano at the Newark Star-Ledger has really stepped up in recent days with a lot of insider trade talk. Let’s see what he has in store for us this morning.
- Apparently Josh Byrnes is calling around, actively shopping Livan Hernandez. According to Graziano, the Mets, Braves, and Mariners have expressed interest. To the contrary, Ken Rosenthal wrote last night that the Mets and Braves are not interested. Who to believe? Hopefully the Mariners do better than Livan if they make a move for a starter. To hear Nick Piecoro tell it, the Diamondbacks are more likely to just opt for the draft picks they’ll get if they let Hernandez leave via free agency.
- The Yankees are in a quandary when it comes to dealing Scott Proctor or Kyle Farnsworth. For Proctor, they want more than just a role player like Ty Wigginton. They want a reliever back, which begs the question – why not just keep Proctor? With Farnsy, the Yanks are reluctant to pay a big chunk of his $5.5 salary for ’08. They should toss in $2MM and see if that’s enough to get Wiggy.
- If the Red Sox can snag Bobby Kielty, they might turn around and trade Wily Mo Pena to the White Sox. Wily Mo in that ballpark with 600 plate appearances? 40 home runs. Might make Theo look bad. Dejan Kovacevic mentions that Epstein is "actively shopping" Pena, and seems to like the idea of the Bucs sending Salomon Torres to Boston for him.
- The Brewers, Phillies, and Dodgers are looking at Oakland lefty and impending free agent Joe Kennedy. Kennedy is only 28 and he has had National League success as a starter.
Olney: D’Backs Could Trade Livan Hernandez
ESPN’s Buster Olney brings up one available starting pitcher we haven’t mentioned here anytime recently: Livan Hernandez. It hadn’t really occurred to me that the Diamondbacks could be sellers. But according to various playoff odds reports, their chances of making the playoffs have slipped to 3-8%. Our good friend Jeff Sackmann took a look at teams on the bubble in a recent column at Hardball Times and recommended the Diamondbacks sell off players such as Hernandez, Eric Byrnes, and Orlando Hudson.
Hernandez reaches free agency after this season, and it seems likely the D’Backs would let him leave. Trading him now could make some sense. He’s got about $2.7MM left on his contract this year. As Olney says, Hernandez’s main virtue is durability. He will take the ball every fifth day and give you six innings. He’s no longer the seven inning per start horse he was from 1998-2005; his average is now around 6.3 innings per start.
As far as playoff experience…would a team like the Mets really want to give him a playoff start? I wouldn’t think so. No doubt the NLCS MVP version we saw in ’97 is a distant memory, and even his work for the Giants in ’02 is five years removed.
Olney believes strong offensive NL teams like the Braves, Mets, or Phillies could take a look at Livan. The Brewers, Dodgers, and Padres may also be looking to add a starter.
Graziano On Greinke, Pettitte
Good stuff today from Dan Graziano of the Newark Star-Ledger. Here’s my summary:
- Beyond the Cubs, Graziano lists the Braves, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks as teams interested in pitcher Zack Greinke. If the initial asking price for Octavio Dotel was as high as reported, I can’t imagine what Dayton Moore would want for Greinke.
- Graziano’s Dotel suitors: Cubs, Dodgers, and Brewers. The Red Sox, Rockies, and Indians have been mentioned by other sources. Quite a market for this guy.
- David Weathers is seen as the poor man’s Dotel/Gagne. Let’s see if Wayne Krivsky can get something useful for him. Stormy makes another $2.75MM in ’08 before his contract is up.
- The Mets are mostly focused on a power relief arm, as Roy Oswalt and Dontrelle Willis are said to be unavailable. I have no idea why Willis keeps getting lumped in with Oswalt; they are nowhere near equal. Graziano says the Mets still like Javier Vazquez but the White Sox keep trying to pawn off Jose Contreras instead.
- The Braves are trying to deal for southpaw reliever C.J. Wilson of the Rangers. The 26 year-old has an undeserved 2.81 ERA right now. His control has been worse this year, so he’d have to remain unhittable to be effective.
- The Mariners inquired on Andy Pettitte, but the Yankees aren’t giving up yet.
Byrnes Extension Seems Unlikely
It seems unlikely that the Diamondbacks will sign 31 year-old outfielder Eric Byrnes to a contract extension. According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, the team won’t even approach Juan Pierre‘s five-year, $45MM deal. And Juan Pierre isn’t good.
It’s just the business reality – the Diamondbacks have way too much outfield talent in their system to give Byrnes anything near what he’s worth. He’d probably have to take something like two years, $20MM to remain in Arizona. Earlier I said 4/32 might do it but now I’m thinking even that wouldn’t work. I still like him as a possible White Sox next year.
Piecoro also mentioned that Josh Byrnes inquired on Bobby Abreu and Jermaine Dye, but is backing off because Carlos Gonzalez was requested. Buster Olney proposes Shannon Stewart as a lower-cost alternative.
Update On Conor Jackson Showcase
According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, yesterday’s rumor about the Diamondbacks showcasing Conor Jackson in left field for the White Sox is false. Piecoro quotes a sarcastic email between a couple of Sox and Diamondback execs:
"Let us know next time you’re showcasing someone for us."
The rumor seemed logical, as both teams have something the other needs and the GMs have made many deals before.