Mike Axisa | MLB Trade Rumors

Poll: Milton Bradley’s Future

By Mike Axisa | May 14, 2011 at 11:04am CDT

Milton Bradley’s tenure with the Mariners came to an unceremonious end last week when he was designated for assignment. “We felt Milton was not part of our future and not part of our present,” said GM Jack Zduriencik. “Therefore, the move was made.”

Bradley, 33, was hitting just .218/.313/.356 at the time of move, which actually raised his overall batting line with the Mariners to .209/.298/.351 in 393 plate appearances. He was in the final year of the three-year, $30MM contract he signed with the Cubs, and Seattle is still on the hook for his $12MM salary this season.

At least five executives doubt that Bradley will get another chance in the big leagues, citing his declining performance and behavioral issues. The Padres are unlikely to bring him back despite what might be the league’s worst offense. Teams have shown that they’re willing to put up with distractions as long as the player produces, which can’t be said about Bradley right now.

Will Milton Bradley get another chance with an MLB team?

No 71.44% (5,586 votes)

Yes 28.56% (2,233 votes)

Total Votes: 7,819

Nationals Designate Brian Broderick For Assignment

By Mike Axisa | May 14, 2011 at 9:34am CDT

The Nationals have designated Brian Broderick for assignment according to the team's Twitter feed. The move clears a roster spot for Cole Kimball, who was called up from Triple-A.

Broderick, 24, was a Rule 5 Draft pick from the Cardinals this past offseason. He appeared in 11 games for the Nats, pitching to a 6.57 ERA in 12 1/3 relief innings. He allowed 16 hits, walked three and struck out just four, though his 60% ground ball rate is impressive. As a Rule 5 pick, Broderick must first clear waivers and be offered back to St. Louis before Washington could send him to the minors.

Kimball, 25, was rated as the Nats' seventh best prospect by Baseball America thanks to his "heavy fastball," splitter, curveball, and "fierce mound presence." They project him to be a set-up man in the future. Kimball did not allow a run in 13 2/3 innings in Triple-A this year, striking out 14 but walking eight.

Draft Links: Mock Draft, Hultzen, Slotting System

By Mike Axisa | May 14, 2011 at 8:56am CDT

The amateur draft is now three weeks and two days away, and we're going to start hearing some more rumblings about teams targetting maybe not specific players, but a group of three or four players. Here's the latest…

Baseball America's Jim Callis posted his first mock draft, and has the Pirates taking UCLA RHP Gerrit Cole first overall. That link is free for all, but subscribers can see an in-depth analysis of each pick.
Rob Biertempfel of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports (on Twitter) that Pirates' GM Neil Huntingon was on hand to scout Virginia RHP Danny Hultzen last night. Click here for Ben Nicholson-Smith's interview with Hultzen, and here for a little more about the team's draft strategy.
ESPN's Keith Law says (on Twitter) that Diamondbacks senior vice president of scouting and player development Jerry Dipoto was scouting Hultzen as well. The D'Backs hold the third and seventh overall picks. Click here for the full draft order.
Sources tell Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports that an international draft "remains extremely unlikely for the next collective-bargaining agreement," but a hard slotting system that assigns fixed bonuses to each pick is something "MLB will not concede without a fight."

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Mets, Blanco, Pavano, Latos

By Mike Axisa | May 13, 2011 at 12:30pm CDT

On this date in 2008, the Rays took control of sole possession of first place in the AL East for the first time in franchise history. It took an extra innings walk-off win against the Yankees coupled with a Red Sox loss to the Orioles. The win also marked the first time Tampa Bay was seven games over .500 in a season. They, of course, went on to their first AL pennant and World Series appearance later that season.

Here are this week's batch of links, which break franchise records in their own individual ways…

Sodo Mojo wrote at length about the Mariners and their strategy for next month's amateur draft.
Brotherly Glove tackled the idea of a contract extension for Cole Hamels.
Amazin' Avenue broke down the Mets' 2012 payroll obligations with respect to Jose Reyes.
Wahoo Blues, meanwhile, explored the possibility of the Indians trading for Reyes.
Motor City Bengals explained why David Wright will not be traded to the Tigers.
Rising Apple called Taylor Buchholz an unlikely trade chip.
The Shea Faithful obsessed over the Mets' last roster spot, saying it's time they part ways with Chin-lung Hu.
NatsGM says the Gregor Blanco trade likely won't have much of an impact, but was a solid depth move for the Nationals nonetheless.
Bay City Ball tries to figure out who should get playing time in the Giants' outfield.
FanSpeak thinks it's time for Bryce Harper to move up a level in the minor leagues.
True Grich says that even though Kendrys Morales is out for the year, it's Jeff Mathis that really has to go.
Twins Territory Talk wonders if Carl Pavano was a bad investment.
Capitol Avenue Club details Jair Jurrjens' new approach.
Through The Fence Baseball is looking for the real Mat Latos.
Royals Review came up with a way to quantify the Royals' grit.
The Outside Corner takes a look at Raul Ibanez's continued decline.
Fenway Faithful Report wonders if Jose Iglesias is the next Rey Ordonez.
Cubbies Crib says the Cubs have reasons to be concerned about Tyler Colvin.
Bronx Bombers Report wonders if the Yankees and White Sox match up for a trade involving a starting pitcher.
Replacement Level Baseball scouts the Pirates' broadcasters.

If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here. Only one email per week, please.

Padres Unlikely To Pursue Milton Bradley

By Mike Axisa | May 12, 2011 at 11:56am CDT

The Padres have what is arguably the worst offense in the game, hitting .230/.306/.337 with the third fewest runs (127) and most strikeouts (307) in baseball. And that's after yesterday's 13-run, 23-hit outburst. Despite the struggles, GM Jed Hoyer told Darren Smith of XX1090 Sports Radio that he "[doesn't] think it's likely" they'll pursue the recently designated for assignment Milton Bradley. Gaslamp Ball provides a link to the mp3 as well as a roundup of the entire interview.

Hoyer indicated that Bradley has supporters in the Padres' clubhouse, including manager Bud Black. The outfielder spent part of the 2007 season in San Diego, hitting .313/.414/.590 with 11 homers in 42 games before a knee injury ended his year. Over the last two seasons though, Bradley has hit just .209/.298/.351 in 393 plate appearances with the Mariners. Yesterday we heard that at least one executive believes his career is over, though several others think he'll get another chance.

New York Notes: Mateo, Russo, Jeter

By Mike Axisa | May 11, 2011 at 6:29pm CDT

Some links from the Big Apple, 21 years to the day after the Yankees traded Hall of Famer Dave Winfield to the Angels for All-Star Mike Witt…

The Mets have agreed to sign 21-year-old Dominican right-hander Luis Mateo for $150K, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America. Mateo had previous agreed to deals with the Giants ($625K) and Padres ($300K), but neither deal became official due to injury and identity verification issues.
The Yankees announced that infielder Kevin Russo has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A on their Twitter feed. Russo was designated for assignment last week.
Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York asked Yankees manager Joe Girardi about Derek Jeter's season, which has gone from down (.221/.289/.235 in his first 17 games) to up (.356/.391/.492 in 14 games since). "I think when guys are cold or guys are really hot, they are usually somewhere in-between and that is what you have to think you are probably going to get," said the skipper.

Quick Hits: Barnes, Chavez, Kasten, Simon, Berkman

By Mike Axisa | May 7, 2011 at 10:15pm CDT

Congrats to Justin Verlander. The Tigers' ace threw a no-hitter against the Blue Jays this afternoon, the second of his career. He's now one of only 28 men to throw multiple no-hitters in the big leagues. Here are Saturday's links…

Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was personally scouting UConn RHP Matt Barnes tonight, reports Dom Amore of The Hartford Courant (on Twitter). Barnes is expected to go in the first round this year, in which the Red Sox have two picks.
Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reports that the Rangers called up Craig Gentry to replace Nelson Cruz, who was placed on the disabled list (Twitter links). He notes that one possible reason why they didn't call up Endy Chavez is because they'd have to place him on waivers once Cruz was healthy.
In a guest post for Through The Fence Baseball, MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith took stock of the winter's biggest offseason deals.
Bill Madden of The New York Daily News wrote about the numerous big-money players that are struggling this year, including Derek Jeter and Hanley Ramirez.
Stan Kasten confirmed to Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post that he sold his ownership stake in the Nationals this March. Kasten stepped down as team president late last year, but it's unclear what he'll do next. He was mentioned as possibly trustee when MLB took over the Dodgers' financial operations.
Alfredo Simon was in the Orioles' clubhouse today, and will continue working his way back with a minor league appearance next week according to Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun. Connolly says the team will have to recall, waive, or release Simon by "roughy May 22" after he spent two months in a Dominican Republic prison and being placed on the restricted list.
Bernie Miklasz of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch spoke to Cardinals GM John Mozeliak about the resurgent Lance Berkman. "We did a lot of due diligence," said the GM. "We truly believed he could have a bounce-back year. When we looked at it, we knew he was working extremely hard on his conditioning, was getting the knee healthy, was getting himself in tremendous shape, and that he'd be a lot stronger. That was a big thing. We knew that he still had an eye for hitting, and he would work the count and take walks. The question was, how would he be physically. And once we knew how much he was putting into his training, it gave us confidence."

Free Agents Who Are Costing Their Team Money

By Mike Axisa | May 7, 2011 at 8:32pm CDT

That headline is probably a little misleading since technically every player costs their team money, but I'm talking in terms of performance dollars. Earlier this afternoon we listed the free agents from this past offseason that are already providing their team surplus value, but now let's turn the tables and list the guys that have been so bad that they're costing their team.

We're essentially talking about players below "replacement" level, which is defined as freely available talent. A replacement level player is one of those AAAA type of guys, someone easy to find (on waivers, etc.) and available only for the league minimum. Here's the free agents performing at a level below that…

Position Players

Carl Crawford, Red Sox – $14MM salary, -$2.6MM value ($16.6MM deficit)
Aubrey Huff, Giants – $10MM salary, -$4.5MM value ($14.5MM deficit)
Adam Dunn, White Sox – $12MM salary, -$1.5MM value ($13.5MM deficit)
Carlos Pena, Cubs – $10MM salary, -$1.5MM value ($10.5MM deficit)
Miguel Tejada, Giants – $6.5MM salary, -$2.8MM value ($9.3MM deficit)
Vladimir Guerrero, Orioles – $8MM salary, -$400K value ($8.4MM deficit)
Lyle Overbay, Pirates – $5MM salary, -$1.8MM value ($6.8MM deficit)
Bill Hall, Astros – $3MM salary, -$3MM value ($6MM deficit)
Hideki Matsui, Athletics – $4.25MM salary, -$200K value ($4.45MM deficit)
Miguel Olivo, Mariners – $2.25MM salary, -$1.9MM value ($4.15MM deficit)
A.J. Pierzynski, White Sox – $2MM salary, -$400K value ($2.4MM deficit)
Jack Cust, Mariners – $2.5MM salary, -$200K value ($2.7MM deficit)

Pitchers

Rafael Soriano, Yankees – $10MM salary, -$500K value ($10.5MM deficit)
Javier Vazquez, Marlins – $7MM salary, -$700K value ($7.7MM deficit)
Hisanori Takahashi, Angels – $3.8MM salary, -$2MM value ($5.8MM deficit)
Joaquin Benoit, Tigers – $5.5MM salary, -$200K value ($5.7MM deficit)
Jon Rauch, Blue Jays – $3.75MM salary, -$1.6MM value ($5.35MM deficit)
Dan Wheeler, Red Sox – $3MM salary, -$800K value ($3.8MM deficit)
Koji Uehara, Orioles – $3MM salary, -$400K value ($3.4MM deficit)
Jeremy Accardo, Orioles – $1.08MM salary, -$900K value ($1.98MM deficit)
Chad Durbin, Indians – $800K salary, -$600K value ($1.4MM deficit)
Mike MacDougal, Dodgers – $500K salary, -$400K value ($900K deficit)
Alfredo Aceves, Red Sox – $650K salary, -$200K value ($850K deficit)

The performances of Orlando Cabrera, Todd Coffey, and Kevin Gregg are valued at exactly $0, so they aren't costing their teams just yet. Derek Jeter and Derrek Lee (both at $200K) aren't that far off from making the list. Obviously this does not mean that these players will contribute to be negative performers all season, just that they have been to date.

Thanks to FanGraphs and Cot's Baseball Contracts for the info used in this post.

White Sox Not Ready To Make Major Changes

By Mike Axisa | May 7, 2011 at 7:41pm CDT

The White Sox are off to an 11-22 start and are already 11 games back of the Indians in the AL Central, but the team isn't ready to start making major changes just yet. ESPN's Buster Olney reports (on Twitter) that the club's decision makers will give the team time to turn things around before making adjustments.

Ozzie Guillen's squad has a bottom five ERA in the AL as both starters (4.08) and relievers (5.27), and their .667 team OPS is fourth worst in the league. To make matters worse, their team -10.1 UZR is second worst in the AL. That's a lot to turn around, though it's still plenty early in the season. Earlier today we heard from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that Edwin Jackson, Mark Buehrle, John Danks, and Carlos Quentin are all candidates to be moved, should the team decide to sell.

Todd Wellemeyer Retires

By Mike Axisa | May 7, 2011 at 4:32pm CDT

Todd Wellemeyer has announced his retirement from baseball effective immediately, reports MLB.com's Carrie Muskat (on Twitter). He had signed a one-year, non-guaranteed deal with the Cubs this past winter.

Wellemeyer, 32, had been slowed by a hip injury this spring, though he made his first start with the Cubs' Triple-A affiliate earlier this week (eight hit and four runs in 3 2/3 innings). He pitched for the Giants last season, but was released after posting a 5.68 ERA in 58 2/3 innings. Wellemeyer was originally drafted by the Cubs back in 2000, and retires with a 4.83 career ERA in parts of eight seasons with five teams. Baseball-Reference.com lists his career earnings at $7.67MM.

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