Draft Rumors: Pirates, Bundy, Royals, D’Backs
MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo posted his first mock draft today, and within it he provides some info about what players are being targeted by what teams…
- The Pirates are still looking at Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, Danny Hultzen, Dylan Bundy, Bubba Starling, and perhaps even Archie Bradley.
- Most believe that Bundy wants to turn pro despite his reported six-year, $30MM contract demand.
- The Royals continue to look hard at college arms, but "there's a lot of chatter" about Starling, a semi-local kid.
- The Diamondbacks will get a "bounty of college pitching" with the third and seventh overall picks.
- The Cubs would love Starling if he is still on the board when their ninth overall pick comes around.
- It's unclear if the Astros are leaning towards a college or high school player, but Texas native Taylor Jungmann could be too good for them to pass up at pick number 11.
Keith Law’s First Mock Draft
There is still a lot that can and will change between now and the amateur draft in three weeks, but that didn't stop ESPN's Keith Law from posting his first mock draft today. It's an Insider-only piece, but here are the important points…
- The Pirates are considering Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rendon, and have "done their due diligence" on Dylan Bundy. Law notes that "under Neal Huntington the Pirates have long considered value relative to cost in their drafts, sometimes preferring to spend less in the first round when they see opportunities to spend their savings on other appealing prospects in later rounds." He has them taking Danny Hultzen first overall.
- Everyone Law has spoken to says the Mariners will take Rendon as long as the medicals check out, and he hears from the very good source that there is nothing structural wrong with the Rice third baseman's shoulder.
- The Diamondbacks will take Hultzen third overall if he's available, and they're hoping for Bundy or Trevor Bauer with the seventh overall pick. That pick is compensation for failing to sign Barret Loux last year.
- The Orioles have interest in Bundy, Bauer, and Jed Bradley with the fourth pick. Law emphasizes that everyone has told him the Royals want a college pitcher with the fifth pick. The Indians have their eyes on Bauer for eighth overall.
- High school outfielder Brandon Nimmo is looking for $2MM, and Law has him going to the Rays with the 32nd pick.
MLBTR Originals: 5/8/11 – 5/15/11
Let's recap all of the original content we provided here at MLBTR over the last seven days…
- Tim Dierkes listed some potentially available relievers as well as players that could be on the market if the Twins decide to become sellers. He also published a list of 2012 free agents, arbitration records for position players, and each agency's contract haul from this winter.
- Ben Nicholson-Smith spoke to Brandon Inge about his tenure with the Tigers, as well as Alex Avila and GM Dave Dombrowski about the team's catching depth. He also looked back at all of the relievers the Rays lost this past offseason.
- Steve Adams looked back at Jose Bautista's contract extension just three months after it was signed. Bautista was also the focus of Howard Megdal's latest Jack Of All Trades post.
- Mark Polishuk evaluated the Twins' rebuilt bullpen while Ben did the same for the Padres, Rays, and Diamondbacks. Dan Mennella looked at Heath Bell as a trade candidate and I went back and re-lived the first Mike Piazza trade.
- The 2012 Contract Issues series continued with the Rockies, Athletics, Phillies, and Royals.
- This week's poll question asked about Milton Bradley's future.
- I dug up the best the blogosphere had to offer in Baseball Blogs Weigh In.
- This week's chat transcript can be found here.
- Here's a list of MLBTR's regular features.
- We're looking for help with @closernews.
Randy Flores Opts Out Of Contract
Randy Flores has opted out of his minor league contract with the Padres according to Sarah Trotto of The Arizona Star Daily (on Twitter). The lefty reliever had a clause in his contract that allowed him to do so if he was not added to the Major League roster by Sunday.
Flores, 36, struck out 19 and walked six in 18 2/3 innings with San Diego's Triple-A affiliate this year. Left-handed batters had eight hits and two walks against him in 11 1/3 innings. Flores is left-handed and breathing, so there's likely to be a market for his services. He's held same-side batters to a .275/.345/.435 batting line in a big league career that has spanned eight seasons and four different teams.
Twins Designate Steve Holm For Assignment
The Twins designated catcher Steve Holm for assignment in order to add lefty Phil Dumatrait to the 40-man roster according to a team press release. Dumatrait was recalled along with Anthony Swarzak, while Jose Mijares hit the DL and Jim Hoey was optioned to Triple-A Rochester.
Holm, 31, had just two hits in 18 plate appearances with the Twins this season. He was recalled after Joe Mauer hit the disabled list, and produced a .231/.400/.269 batting line with Minnesota's Triple-A affiliate this year. MLBTR's Mark Polishuk took a look at Minnesota's bullpen woes last week.
This Date In Transactions History: Mike Piazza
With the amateur draft coming up in just over three weeks, we've spent most of our time here at MLBTR covering the first round. Quality players come from every round though, and there's perhaps no more famous example of a late-round pick turning into gold than Mike Piazza. The Dodgers selected him in the 62nd round of the 1988 draft as a favor to Tommy Lasorda, who was a friend of the Piazza family and godfather to Mike's brother Tommy.
Piazza moved from first base to catcher in the minor leagues at Lasorda's behest, and he hit his way to the big leagues less than four years later. After a brief cup of coffee in 1992, Piazza opened the 1993 season as the Dodgers' starting catcher, and hit a robust .318/.370/.561 with 35 homers as a 24-year-old. He won the Rookie of the Year award unanimously, and finished ninth in the MVP voting.
Over the next four seasons, Piazza hit .342/.409/.590 with an average of 33 homers per year, being named to the All-Star team and winning the Silver Slugger Award each year. He never finished lower than sixth in the MVP voting during that time, finishing as the runner up in 1996 (Ken Caminiti) and 1997 (Larry Walker). Piazza was a star of the first order, but contractual issues began to surface.
Scheduled to become a free agent after the 1998 season, talks about a contract extension between Piazza and the Dodgers went nowhere. Furthermore, Peter O'Malley and Terry Seidler were in the process of selling the team to FOX. Afraid that they were going to lose their star to free agency and not have anything to show for it, Los Angeles took a drastic step.
Thirteen years ago today, the Marlins and Dodgers pulled off a seven-player swap that sent Piazza and Todd Zeile to Florida in exchange for Gary Sheffield, Charles Johnson, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich, and Manuel Barrios. To say the trade wasn't well-received in Southern California would be an understatement.
Piazza's time with the Marlins as short lived, very short lived in fact. He had five hits in five games with them before being traded to the Mets for Preston Wilson, Ed Yarnall, and Geoff Goetz. Piazza spent parts of eight years with the Mets before moving to the Padres and Athletics late in his career. He retired as a .308/.377/.545 career hitter with 427 home runs to his credit, unquestionably the best hitting catcher in baseball history (min. 1,000 games caught).
We see players traded right before reached free agency every season, but it's not often a player of Piazza's caliber is involved, and he was traded twice in one week.
Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.
Pirates Release Scott Olsen
The Pirates have released Scott Olsen according to Colin Dunlap of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (on Twitter). He has not pitched this year due to a hamstring injury.
Olsen, 27, signed a one-year worth just $500K this winter, though he could have earned another $3MM through incentives. GM Neal Huntington told Dunlap: "We believed we were not going to have a good opportunity for Scott and made this move to allow him to find a better situation."
Jorge Posada May Be In Breach Of Contract
8:17pm: Rosenthal tweets that Posada sat out with back stiffness tonight, which contradicts what Cashman said on the air, that this was not injury related.
7:31pm: Mired in a season-long slump, Jorge Posada pulled himself from tonight's lineup according to Yankees GM Brian Cashman on the FOX Saturday Night broadcast. Posada had been penciled into the ninth spot in the order for the first time in 12 years, and ESPN's Buster Olney says (on Twitter) that he refused to play for that reason. He has given no indication that he's retiring.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and Joel Sherman of The New York Post note that Posada may be in breach of his contract, and that the team could dock him pay (all Twitter links). The Yankees could also attempt to terminate his contract, which has approximately $11MM left on it this season. That will be met with reaction from the union, however.
Posada, 39, is in his first season as a full-time DH. He is hitting .165/.272/.349 with six homers in 125 plate appearances, primarily batting seventh.
Rosenthal’s Full Count Video: Astros, Twins, Braves
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports has a new Full Count Video up, so let's recap…
- Hunter Pence is getting expensive – he'll earn $6.9MM this year with two more arbitration years ahead of him – but Astros GM Ed Wade said that he wants to build around his young players, namely Pence, Brett Wallace, J.A. Happ, and Bud Norris. As much as they need to rebuild, it's unlikely that new owner Jim Crane will want to blow up the nucleus as his first act.
- If things don't turn around for the Twins, this could be the year that they become sellers. Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, Jim Thome, Matt Capps, and Joe Nathan are all among the team's upcoming free agents, though some in the organization would like to see them re-sign Capps.
- The Braves' starting pitching depth could give them an advantage at the trade deadline. They could move a veteran like Derek Lowe or a younger starter because they have more arms on the way. Lowe is the perfect piece to dangle to a contender such as the Yankees, but Atlanta doesn't have an obvious need right now.
- Starting pitching depth is the Red Sox's one glaring weakness, and Rosenthal says an injury to one of their top five starters would leave the team "seriously unsettled."
NL East Links: Lopez, Beltran, Baez, Braves
Six years ago today, two NL East clubs pulled off a rare intra-division trade when the Phillies sent Marlon Byrd to the Nationals for Endy Chavez. Byrd hit .245/.318/.366 in 471 plate appearances with the Nats before signing with Texas as a free agent while Chavez hit .215/.243/.299 in 118 plate appearances with Philadelphia. He moved on to the Mets as a free agent after the season.
Let's check in on the latest news from the only division with three 21+ win teams…
- Because Rodrigo Lopez would earn a $1MM salary upon reaching the majors, Julio Teheran and Mike Minor seemingly stand as the more likely candidates to step into the Braves rotation, writes Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
- Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post wonders if the Mets would be willing to trade Carlos Beltran to the Yankees given the potential fan backlash if he performs well in the Bronx.
- MLB.com's Todd Zolecki says that Phillies' reliever Danys Baez could be in trouble if he's not pitching well when Brad Lidge and Jose Contreras come off the disabled list.
- The Braves are likely to wait until tomorrow to put Brandon Beachy on the disabled list after he left yesterday's start with a strained oblique according to Dave O'Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter links). He says they'll add Scott Proctor to the bullpen, who will fill the final spot on the 40-man roster, then possibly use Mike Minor in Beachy's place since Rodrigo Lopez would require a 40-man move. Julio Teheran is another 40-man roster option as well, says MLB.com's Mark Bowman.