La Russa “Almost Certain” To Return To Cardinals
SUNDAY, 9:13am: La Russa's return to St. Louis is "almost certain" at this point, according to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As Saturday's AP story suggested, it's still unclear whether or not La Russa's entire coaching staff will be retained, but a source tells Strauss that he'd be "very surprised" if the long-time Cardinals skipper didn't return for 2011.
SATURDAY, 11:43am: Free agency will forever be dominated by the players, but managers are going to get a big piece of the action this winter. Arguably the biggest free agent manager is Tony La Russa of the Cardinals, but the AP (via The Boston Herald) reports that the two sides are talking daily, and that a deal could be reached soon. One of the sticking points involves the security of La Russa's coaching staff, who he presumably wants to return intact.
La Russa has been managing the Cardinals since 1996, leading them to seven division titles, eight playoff berths, and two National League pennants, including a 2006 World Series victory. Overall, St. Louis is 1,318-1,110 under his watch. It's worth noting that La Russa has had his fair share of run-ins with players throughout the years, with Colby Rasmus joining the likes of Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen this year.
At over $4MM annually, La Russa's previous contract made him one of the highest paid managers in baseball. There's no reason to expect that to change if and when a new deal is a reached.
Amateur Signing Bonuses: Red Sox
Next up in our series looking at the largest signing bonuses given to amateur players: the Red Sox…
- Jose Iglesias, $6.25MM (2009)
- Casey Kelly, $3MM (2008)
- Anthony Ranaudo, $2.55MM (2010)
- Ryan Westmoreland, $2MM (2008)
- Jose Vinicio, $1.95MM (2009)
Given their revenue streams, it should be no surprise that the Red Sox spend big. Iglesias signed after defecting from Cuban and is widely considered to be the best defensive shortstop in minor league baseball. His bat was better than expected this season, as he hit .295/.339/.379 in 284 plate appearances. A broken finger robbed him of more than two months of the season, however.
Kelly is the team's best prospect at the moment, now that he's no longer dabbling at shortstop and is focused exclusively on pitching. He reached Double-A at age-20 this year, and owns a 3.69 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 190 minor league innings. Ranaudo was arguably the best pitching prospect available in the 2010 draft but he fell to the 39th overall pick because of injury concerns. The Red Sox spent the money and took the risk as they tend to do, and they'll eagerly await his professional debut next season.
Westmoreland was an elite level talent that fell to the fifth round of the 2008 draft due to contract demands, and he was the team's top prospect before a "cavernous malformation of the brain" got in the way. He missed the entire 2010 season after having brain surgery and is recovering well, even starting to perform baseball activities within the last month or so. Vinicio was a high profile signing out of the Dominican Republic last summer. The 17-year-old shortstop hit .253/.290/.373 in 170 plate appearances for Boston's rookie level affiliate this year.
It's worth noting that Daisuke Matsuzaka received a $2MM bonus as part of his six-year, $52MM contract. He had zero MLB experience at the time of the contract, but he was certainly no amateur given all of the time he spent pitching in Japan.
Amateur Signing Bonuses: Orioles
Let's continue our look at the five largest bonuses each team has given to amateur players with the Orioles…
- Matt Wieters, $6MM (2007)
- Manny Machado, $5.25MM (2010)
- Adam Loewen, $3.2MM (2002)
- Brian Matusz, $3.2MM (2008)
- Matt Hobgood, $2.422MM (2009)
Wieters was the fifth overall pick in the 2007 draft but was arguably the top talent available along with David Price. He destroyed the minors (.343/.438/.576) before making his big league debut last May. Wieters hasn't had the immediate impact the O's hoped for, but perspective is important here. There's nothing wrong with a 24-year-old catcher hitting .266/.328/.393 in his first 887 plate appearances while throwing out 27.6% of attempted basestealers in the AL East.
Another one of the talented young players on Baltimore's big league roster right now is Matusz. He was the fourth overall pick in 2008 and like Wieters he crushed the minors (1.91 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 2.5 BB/9) before debuting in the show. After an eight start cameo in 2009, Matusz's coming out party in 2010 was rock solid for a 23-year-old lefty in that division. His overall numbers won't wow you – 4.30 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 in 175.2 innings – but he was superb down the stretch, posting a 1.57 ERA with a .178/.237/.282 batting line against in his final eight starts. Matusz and Wieters are two biggest pieces in the Orioles' rebuilding effort.
Machado was the third overall pick this past June and didn't sign until the August 16th deadline. He hit .306/.359/.472 in just 39 plate appearances this year, his pro debut. Hobgood was the fifth overall pick last year and has been good but not great so far: 4.48 ERA with 5.6 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 120.2 innings. He just turned 20 in August.
Loewen was the product of the now defunct draft-and-follow process. The O's took him fourth overall in 2002 but didn't sign until a year later, after he spent a season with Chipola College, a two-year school. Loewen cruised through the minors and debuted with Baltimore in 2006. He threw 164 innings with the O's over the next two seasons (5.38 ERA, 7.4 K/9, 5.8 BB/9) but his pitching career was derailed by chronic elbow issues. Loewen went the Rick Ankiel route and transitioned to an outfielder, and he's now working his way back to the big leagues in the Blue Jays system.
The Orioles have never been a big time player on the Latin American free agent market, but they opened a state-of-the-art academy in the Dominican within the last few years. Expect their presence in the international market to jump significantly in the coming years.
Poll: Who Will Win The NLCS?
The ALCS started off with a bang last night, just a few hours after MLBTR readers voted to almost a 50-50 split about who they thought would win the series. The NLCS kicks off later tonight with a pitching matchup that's as good as it gets: Tim Lincecum vs. Roy Halladay. If that's not enough, we'll get Jonathan Sanchez vs. Roy Oswalt in Game Two, and then Matt Cain vs. Cole Hamels in Game Three. What more could baseball fans ask for?
The Phillies certainly have the advantage on paper, but anything can happen in short series.
Who will win the NLCS?
Click here to vote, and here to see the results.
Wilpon: Mets GM Hire Could Take “Weeks”
The Mets have formally interviewed five candidates for their vacant GM position – Sandy Alderson, Rick Hahn, Allard Baird, Logan White, and Josh Byrnes – so far, but COO Jeff Wilpon indicated that a hire wasn't imminent according to Dan Martin of The New York Post. Here's what Wilpon said yesterday in a letter to fans…
"[The GM candidates] are intelligent, creative and passionate about winning … They conveyed their honest assessment of our franchise and discussed how we can move forward on our pledge to give our fans the winner that they deserve. We are continuing our search and expect to hire our new GM in the next few weeks."
ESPN's Buster Olney (Insider req'd) hears that team president Saul Katz is urging the Wilpons to hire someone with "experience and stature" to help restore faith in the team's fanbase. Alderson, who Ben Nicholson-Smith profiled yesterday, certainly fits that criteria. He has been considered the favorite for the job since it opened.
Royals Intend To Listen To Offers For Greinke
The Royals boast baseball's best farm system, deep with impact bats and power arms, but the timetable for those prospects might not match up with their best player, starter Zack Greinke. Because of that, ESPN's Buster Olney reports (Insider req'd) that the team intends to listen to "any and all" offers for the righthander, who has two years and $27MM left on his contract before free agency.
Five days away from his 27th birthday, Greinke would instantly become the best available starter on the trade market this offseason and the second best available pitcher overall behind free agent-to-be Cliff Lee. The 2009 Cy Young Award winner posted a 4.17 ERA in 2010, but his peripherals were still excellent (7.4 K/9, 2.3 BB/9) and his fastball was as lively as ever. The high ERA is the result of a 65.3% left-on-base rate, well below the 72.2% league average. Kansas City's porous defense (-44.5 UZR, third worst in MLB) had a hand in that.
Olney notes that because Greinke is under contract for two more years, they don't have to trade him just yet. They could wait until the deadline or next offseason to get the offer they want, and there's always the possibility of an extension assuming Greinke likes what he sees as far as the rebuilding process. He sounded pessimistic about those efforts back in August, though.
Greinke does have a limited no-trade clause in his contract for this season according to Cot's, though the extent of his veto power is unknown.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Dodgers, Nationals, Rasmus
On this date back in 1988, a hobbling Kirk Gibson pinch hit for reliever Alejandro Pena with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Dodgers down by one to the Athletics in Game One of the World Series. Dennis Eckersley, who finished second in the Cy Young voting that year, recorded two quick outs before walking the light hitting Mike Davis (.196/.260/.270 that year) in front of Gibson. You all know what happened next. Gibson battled Eck for six pitches before the Oakland reliever finally hung a slider, a pitch that resulted in one of the most famous home runs in World Series history.
Injuries limited Gibson to just that one plate appearance in the Fall Classic, which the Dodgers went on to win four games to one. Joe Posnanski ranked Jack Buck's and Vin Scully's call of the play the fifth greatest in sports history. These links might not be all-time greats, but they're still the best from the past week of the internet…
- DRays Bay interviewed a young third baseman by the name of Evan Longoria.
- SPANdemonium interviewed Shawon Dunston … Jr.
- Sabernomics said goodbye and thank you to Bobby Cox.
- Meanwhile, Capitol Avenue Club thinks the Fredi Gonzalez hire is a huge mistake.
- Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness offers up their offseason plan for the Dodgers (part one, part two).
- Fan Speak does the same, except for the Nationals (part one, part two).
- Lookout Landing summarizes the candidates for the Mariners managerial job.
- The Process Report takes on Joe Maddon's gut check.
- Pine Tar And Pocket Protectors examines Colby Rasmus' trade value.
- Red Sox Beacon re-lives a decade of awful Boston shortstops.
- Baseball Analysts found that Long Beach State produced the most big leaguers in 2010, led by Longoria and Troy Tulowitzki.
- The 5th Starter digs deep in the Blue Jays' finances.
- Bleacher GM took a look at umpire bias.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here.
Odds & Ends: Rothschild, Listach, Wallach, Alderson
Some links to check out as the Reds try to extend their season…
- Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune reminds us that Cubs' pitching coach Larry Rothschild has until tomorrow to pick up his option for 2011. Rothschild has worked closely with Carlos Zambrano over the last several years, watching over him like a "substitute teacher," to use Sullivan's words.
- Meanwhile, MLB.com's Bill Ladson reports that Nationals third base coach Pat Listach is no longer a candidate to manage the Cubs.
- Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports that Tim Wallach will serve as either the Dodgers bench or third base coach next season unless another team hires him to be their manager.
- Sandy Alderson asked and received permission from Bud Selig to interview with the Mets for the GM vacancy next Thursday or Friday, and The New York Post's Joel Sherman says that's an indication that Alderson wants the job badly.
- Paul Hoynes of The Cleveland Plain Dealer ranks everyone on the Indians 40-man roster based on what they did in 2010 and what they're expected to contribute in 2011.
- In a mailbag piece, Hoynes says that insurance would cover some of the $28.75MM left on Travis Hafner's contract if he lands on the disabled list with a right shoulder issue. Pronk has been battling injuries to the shoulder since 2008.
- John Tomase of The Boston Herald looks at all of the non-closer relievers who signed a multi-year deal worth at least $5MM over the last four seasons. In summary, it's not pretty. Not at all.
Amateur Signing Bonuses: Braves
Let's continue our look at each team's amateur spending with the Atlanta Braves. Here are the five largest signing bonuses they've paid out…
- Mike Minor, $2.42MM (2009)
- Jeff Francoeur, $2.2MM (2002)
- Matt Belisle, $1.75MM (1998)
- Jason Heyward, $1.7MM (2007)
- Edward Salcedo, $1.6MM (2010)
The seventh overall pick in 2009, Minor shot through the minors this season and made eight starts (and one relief appearance) for the Braves. His 5.98 ERA in 40.2 innings was ugly but the peripherals were excellent: 9.5 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. He figures to get a much longer look next season.
Francoeur, the 23rd overall pick in 2002, burst onto the scene with a .300/.336/.549 effort in his 2005 rookie campaign, but struggled thereafter. He hit just .266/.308/.424 with the Braves before being traded to the Mets for Ryan Church a few weeks before the 2009 trade deadline. Belisle was the 52nd overall pick in 1998, but he never appeared in a game for Atlanta. He pitched well in the minor leagues before missing the entire 2001 season due to injury, and the Braves eventually shipped him to the Reds as a player to be named later in a 2003 deal for Kent Mercker.
Heyward somehow lasted until the 14th overall pick of the 2007, and he just wrapped up a tremendously successful rookie campaign: .277/.393/.456 in 623 plate appearances. He should receive plenty of Rookie of the Year votes, if not in the award outright. Salcedo turned pro just this summer, and hit .225/.307/.333 in 304 A-ball plate appearances. He is arguably the team's best position player prospect due to his talent level and physical gifts.
Kenshin Kawakami was a long-time veteran of the Japanese leagues, but if we relax our criteria a bit to include players with zero MLB experience, his $2MM signing bonus would slot in at number three.
MLBTR Originals: 10/3/2010 – 10/10/2010
There wasn't much in the way of rumors or transactions this week, but that's understandable. Everyone is focused on the postseason, including players, team executives, and agents. Here's a look at the original content we provided over the last seven days…
- Now that the regular season is over, Eddie Bajek was able to finalize his reverse-engineered Elias rankings. Here's a list of all the Type-A and Type-B free agents, and also the 2011 draft order.
- Tim Dierkes looked at Mike Napoli's arbitration case, and he listed some free agent groundballers and innings eaters. Scott Boras is well-positioned for the offseason.
- Ben Nicholson-Smith dug up some third base options for the Indians, and we also looked at the free agent market for first basemen and the trade market for catchers.
- The Arbitration Eligibles series continued with the Reds, the Cubs, the Nationals, the Phillies, and the Mets.
- Ben looked back at what was being said when active GM's were hired, covering the AL East, AL Central, and AL West.
- We examined the stock of several pending free agents, including A.J. Pierzynski of the White Sox, Gerald Laird of the Tigers, Ramon Hernandez of the Reds, Cliff Lee of the Rangers, and Aaron Harang of the Reds. We also looked at Brian Bannister's case for being non-tendered, and discussed Ryan Ludwick's future.
- This week's polls featured questions about which player will improve his free agent stock the most during the postseason, which team will win the World Series, and also whether or not the Blue Jays will re-sign John Buck.
- I kicked off a series looking at the largest bonuses each team has given to amateur players, starting with the Diamondbacks. I also rounded up the best links in this week's edition of Baseball Blogs Weigh In.
- Howard Megdal's latest Jack Of All Trades pieces featured old-timer Bobby Bonds and the active Jose Guillen.
- Ben's chat transcript can be found here.
- Make sure you visit MLBTR's forums.