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Rockies Designate Randy Flores For Assignment

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The Rockies designated left-hander Randy Flores for assignment to make room for Jonathan Herrera, according to Troy Renck of the Denver Post. The Rockies’ bullpen is now thin, so the club could call on left-handed reliever Franklin Morales. 

Now that Herrera is up again, the club could put Clint Barmes on waivers to determine interest. Renck reports that the Cardinals and Braves are among the teams waiting for the Rockies to put Barmes on waivers.

Flores, meanwhile, should draw interest. The 35-year-old has a 2.96 ERA with 5.9 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 in 27.1 innings for the Rockies. He earns a total of $650K this year and hits free agency after the season.

Rockies Designate Brad Hawpe For Assignment

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THURSDAY, 7:54pm: Hawpe has been designated for assignment by the Rockies, rather than released outright, tweets Renck.  Colorado now has 10 days to trade him which makes Renck think there's "a chance" of a deal in the works, though Renck doesn't think the club would hurt Hawpe's chances of signing with another club by making him wait the full 10 days while they explore trades.  The DFA move is "a formality" and come Tuesday, Hawpe is free to sign with anyone (all Twitter links). 

Renck (also via Twitter) hears from a source that the Giants, Rangers, Rays, Red Sox, White Sox all have "potential interest" in Hawpe.

WEDNESDAY, 8:51pm: The Rockies will release Hawpe after tonight's game, making him a free agent, tweets Renck.

WEDNESDAY, 7:15pm: Hawpe appears likely to be either traded or released within the next 24 hours, according to Troy Renck of the Denver Post. If and when the Rockies make a roster move, the Rangers are one team that would have interest in acquiring Hawpe.

WEDNESDAY, 3:03pm: Brad Hawpe cleared waivers today, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and Troy Renck of the Denver Post (Twitter links). The Rockies can now trade the 31-year-old to any team. Hawpe has spent most of his career in right field, where his UZR numbers have been below-average, and he has appeared in six games at first base this season. His home run total (7) has dipped for a third consecutive year, but his batting line is about average: .252/.341/.430.

Hawpe projects to be a Type A free agent, but draft pick compensation isn't necessarily a factor, since the Rockies would have to offer arbitration to get any picks. Just under $2MM of Hawpe's $7.5MM salary remains this year and there's a $500K buyout for the team's $10.15MM option for next season. 

The Rockies could take on salary in a potential deal and, as MLBTR's Tim Dierkes pointed out, Hawpe could draw interest from a number of teams because he has hit well in recent years. The Red Sox, White Sox and Rays are potential fits, but that's speculation at this point.

Here is MLBTR's complete list of players to clear waivers.

Pirates Sign Luis Heredia For $2.6MM

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The Pirates officially signed Mexican pitching prospect Luis Heredia for $2.6MM, according to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It’s the biggest bonus the Pirates have ever given an international amateur. 

Heredia’s former team, Veracruz, will keep 75% of the bonus ($1.95MM) and Heredia will keep 25% ($650K). The 16-year-old right-hander already passed a physical and completed the agreement with the Pirates, though the sides have not yet officially signed the deal.

Many teams were interested in Heredia and it appeared in July that the Blue Jays had offered him $2.8MM. However, the Pirates' offer was competitive and Pittsburgh has long-standing connections to Veracruz and Heredia himself. It's been a breakthrough week for the Pirates, who signed right-handers Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie before Monday night's deadline to come to terms with picks.

The Phillies’ 2011 Rotation

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The Phillies' 2011 rotation won't be hard to assemble, will be expensive and should be effective. The combination of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton will cost the Phillies $56MM next season – more than the Padres, Pirates or Marlins will spend on their entire teams this year. That's an expensive front four, but the group should also be durable and effective. 

Halladay is arguably the best pitcher in the game and Oswalt and Hamels are in the midst of characteristically strong seasons. That trio is tough to beat, even if Blanton doesn't rebound from his career high 5.54 ERA. 

This year, Charlie Manuel has called on Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick to fill out the rotation. Moyer, a free agent this offseason, is out indefinitely with a left elbow injury, but Kendrick has been effective in spite of his low strikeout rate (4.5 K/9). He has a 4.45 ERA thanks to his ability to limit walks (2.4 BB/9) and induce enough ground balls (44% ground ball rate).

Should the Phillies need to call on a minor leaguer next year, they'll have a few options. Right-handers Drew Carpenter and Vance Worley have been effective in the upper minors this year and both have pitched in the majors. Worley, still just 22, could become a back-of-the-rotation starter, according to pre-season analysis from Baseball America. Carpenter, who is two and a half years older than Worley, is now putting together his second consecutive solid season at Triple A Lehigh Valley, so he provides Philadelphia with another option.

The Phillies can bring their entire rotation back for 2011 and they have minor leaguers who are ready to contribute if called upon. They don't need to pursue Moyer or other free agent pitchers this winter and they already have about $144MM committed to next year's payroll, so they wouldn't have much to spend on pitching if they wanted to.

Philadelphia traded talented players away to acquire the rotation they now have. It cost Kyle Drabek, J.A. Happ and then some to acquire Halladay and Oswalt. The result is a more predictable, more expensive rotation that could easily be one of the league's best. 

Odds & Ends: Aramis, Podsednik, Huff, Hawpe

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Links for Thursday, exactly two years after the Padres traded Greg Maddux to the Dodgers…

Phillies Could Pursue Hawpe; Red Sox Unlikely

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The Phillies could have interest in Brad Hawpe when he clears release waivers, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links).  A club official told Rosenthal that the Phillies will be a “maybe” on Monday or Tuesday once he can sign with any team.

The Red Sox, who were looking for a left-handed hitting first baseman before we learned that Mike Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury were out for the season, will not likely pursue Hawpe, according to Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. Hawpe has spent most of his career in right field, but has appeared in a handful of games at first base this year. He hasn't hit like a first baseman, as his .255/.343/.432 line shows.

MLBTR's Tim Dierkes suggested the White Sox and Rays could also have interest, before the Rockies released Hawpe.

Stark On Zambrano, Beltran, Keppinger, Torre

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Owners want a rigid slotting system like the ones in the NFL and the NBA, but ESPN.com's Jayson Stark finds it hard to believe that the MLBPA would agree to hard slotting, since it has traditionally avoided caps of any kind. One National League executive compared baseball's current slotting system to “traffic lights in the Dominican,” since he doesn’t know “what they're even there for." A hard slotting system would give teams the certainty of pre-determined bonuses, but the MLBPA wouldn't like it. Here are the rest of Stark's rumors:

  • One executive believes the Cubs could find a taker for Carlos Zambrano this winter as long as they take on most of the big righty's salary, but another executive says there's no way the Cubs could trade Big Z.
  • Executives are similarly divided on Carlos Beltran. One says trading him is "impossible," but another would take a flier on Beltran, partly because he's headed into a contract year.
  • Jeff Keppinger was claimed on waivers, so the Astros cannot trade him this month.
  • A longtime acquaintance of Joe Torre's expects the manager to sign with the Mets this winter.

Padres To Sign Jody Gerut

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The Padres will sign Jody Gerut to a minor league deal, according to Tom Krasovic of AOL FanHouse (on Twitter). The Brewers, who released Gerut earlier in the month, are about to face off against the Padres. Oddly enough, the Brewers acquired Gerut from the Padres last year for Tony Gwynn Jr., who happened to hit the disabled list today. 

Gerut, 32, has not played in a major league game since May 22nd. He posted a .197/.230/.366 line with two homers in 74 plate appearances this year, before he missed two months with a heel injury.

Cardinals Acquire Pedro Feliz

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The Cardinals acquired Pedro Feliz and cash from the Astros for pitcher David Carpenter, according to Astros director of social media Alyson Footer (on Twitter). Feliz, 35, has a .221/.243/.311 line this season with four homers in 304 plate appearances. He hasn't hit much in recent years, but has a reputation as a strong defender. UZR suggests that Feliz's defense has been excellent throughout his career (though he has a -7.9 rating in 530 innings so far in 2010).

The Cardinals acquired Feliz to help out at third base, since an injury to David Freese and a Felipe Lopez slump have left St. Louis thin at the hot corner. The Cardinals intensified their search for infielders this week, showing interest in multiple third basemen. Feliz makes a total of $4.5MM in 2010 (he has yet to receive about $1.1MM of that) before becoming a free agent this winter. 

Carpenter, 25, was the closer for the Cards' Florida State League (High A) affiliate. He has 20 saves this year with a 2.36 ERA, 8.4 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9. The Cards drafted Carpenter in the 12th round of the 2006 draft as a catcher. Astros GM Ed Wade describes the right-hander as a "power arm" who could become a major league contributor. 

Josh Hamilton & Kevin Youkilis

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Rangers GM Jon Daniels said earlier in the season that he'd be open to extending Josh Hamilton. Now that the Rangers are under stable ownership and Hamilton is having an MVP-type season, an extension seems like a real possibility. In fact, Tom Verducci of SI.com reported this week that Rangers owner Chuck Greenberg would "love" to sign Hamilton to an extension that buys out at least one season of free agency.

Hamilton, now 29, is under team control through 2012, so he isn't scheduled to hit free agency until he's 31. Contracts in baseball are often about precedent, but it's virtually impossible to find comparable players to Hamilton, a first-overall draft choice who struggled with off-field issues and injuries before breaking out as an elite player in his late twenties. But as Verducci points out, Kevin Youkilis' extension could become something of a model for a possible Hamilton deal.

The comparison is far from perfect, of course. Hamilton plays in the outfield, whereas Youkilis is a corner infielder. Hamilton has a spottier injury history, walks less frequently and steals bases more efficiently, but the two players do have much in common.

Both are skilled defenders, late bloomers and power hitters. As the chart below shows, Youkilis had similar numbers through 2008 to the ones Hamilton has now. Youkilis, who finished third in the 2008 MVP voting then had two years remaining before free agency, just like Hamilton will after the 2010 season.

Hamilton & Youk

Though MLBTR generally ignores players' RBI and runs totals, those stats can figure into arbitration hearings, so we've included them here.

Hamilton still has two months to add to his numbers before he goes to arbitration or talks extension with the Rangers, but Youkilis turned his numbers into a four-year $41.125MM deal. Ryan Howard (2006 MVP) and Tim Lincecum (2008-09 Cy Young) turned major awards into record-setting salaries through arbitration, so Hamilton could look for a massive raise through arbitration this winter. But if he and the Rangers talk extension instead of going to arbitration, Hamilton can point to his 2010 season and Youkilis' extension and ask for more than $41.25MM over four years.

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