Bucs Not Ready To Release Morris
The Pirates aren’t ready to release beleaguered starter Matt Morris. However, the team’s president wouldn’t rule it out for the future.
Pirates fans are growing increasingly frustrated with Morris, but the team continues to wait it out. Given the upside of a 5.00 ERA, what’s the point? He wasn’t Neal Huntington’s acquisition; he should be able to deal with it rationally. I would be surprised if Morris is still with the Pirates on June 1st.
Odds And Ends: Crede, Morris, Thomas
Just a couple of lingering posts in my browser this morning.
- It looks like Joe Crede is sticking by Scott Boras’s side as he enters free agency after this season. I can’t blame him. It’s one thing for a superstar like A-Rod or an established veteran like Kenny Rogers to do what they want. But Crede certainly benefits from being repped by Boras.
- If Pirates GM Neal Huntington has plans to ditch Matt Morris, he’s not tipping his hand. The 33-year-old righty has been downright horrible since coming over to Pittsburgh, a gaffe made by who else by Dave Littlefield.
- While Tim mentioned yesterday that Jon Daniels is leaning away from Frank Thomas, Manager Ron Washington is enticed. "I’ll take him in a heartbeat. Once he reaches 100 at-bats, he really does start hacking."
Posted by Joe Pawlikowski.
Odds and Ends: Hatteberg, Colon, Longoria
And now for more Odds and Ends around the league:
- In his latest "Full Count" audio piece at Fox Sports, Ken Rosenthal expects the Reds to do some roster shuffling that could come down to trades. Scott Hatteberg has become "expendable" with the recent emergence of Joey Votto and by the fact that the Reds have too many lefty hitters.
- Cork Gaines latest Baseball Blogs Weigh In delved into the Evan Longoria signing. To add to that, Ken Rosenthal, also in his Full Count piece, notes favorably that Longoria has set himself for life without having to establish himself and that his payday will come at age 31, still in time for a 4-5 year deal.
- The Boston Herald’s reporting Bartolo Colon could opt to leave the Red Sox if he’s not in the bigs by May 1st. Manager Terry Francona hopes he will "forego the decision for a while (most likely until May 15)." With a recent setback being the reason he’s not in the majors, I don’t see him going anywhere just yet.
- An amusing quote from columnist John Mehno of the Beaver County Times on whether the Pirates can be expected to lock up any of its young talent: "Given the lack of can’t-miss prospects in the system, Pirates rookies intent on becoming instant millionaires should probably keep buying lottery tickets."
By Nat Boyle
Matt Morris Tough To Move
It’s no secret that the Pirates would love to trade starter Matt Morris. The Dave Littlefield acquisition remains perplexing. The "veteran leadership" angle doesn’t play well when his Pirates’ ERA is over 6.00 in 14 starts. This year, he’s not even getting groundballs.
Neal Huntington would love to see Morris show a hint of value, so that he can trade the 34 year-old and somehow avoid paying all of the $10.5MM still owed to him. How long until Huntington gives up on that idea and cuts Morris? Bryan Bullington and John Van Benschoten seem more deserving of starts.
A Lot Riding On Gorzelanny’s 2008 Performance
Dejan Kovacevic of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette concerns himself with one significant name missing from the Pirates’ recent contract extensions: Tom Gorzelanny.
Kovacevic reveals that Gorzelanny’s name came up when team officials discussed players who should get extensions, but because he won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2009 season, and because they wanted to see more of him, they decided to exclude him.
The feeling amongst management is that the lefty could become a premier pitcher, so they are looking for big growth this season. Things with Gorzelanny have been less than stellar thus far, so he’s not helping his case any. His most recent start lasted only 2.1 innings, as he gave up six hits and four walks. But looking beyond this year’s small sample size, Gorzelanny’s second half last year betrays the front office’s confidence. He walked 3.5 batters per nine, and had a solid but not-overwhelming 6.5 strikeouts per nine (for an underwhelming 1.9 command ratio).
The Pirates waiting to see more from Gorzelanny may not work in favor of his bank account.
Odds and Ends: Harden, Bonds, Ramon Hernandez
Time to round up today’s linkage.
- Susan Slusser believes Rich Harden and Joe Blanton will both be traded this season. She sees the Yankees and Mets as suitors for Harden, though he’s already having a start pushed back.
- Jim Caple recently made his case for the Mariners to sign Barry Bonds; his logic is sound.
- Our Brian Bannister Q&A got a mention in the KC Star. Nice!
- RotoAuthority has the fantasy take on K-Rod’s ailing ankles.
- Pure speculation, but Ken Rosenthal thinks Ramon Hernandez would be a good fit for the Reds. Not sure if the Reds were looking at Michael Barrett, but that option’s off the table now.
- Who said you can’t go home again? Craig Wilson is back with the Bucs.
- We’ll be doing our third MLBTR chat here at 2pm CST; don’t miss it!
Odds and Ends: Rauch, Fielder, Braun, Garcia
Some links for you to peruse…
- We suggested on Wednesday that Jon Rauch makes sense for Detroit. That same day, the Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga wrote that the Tigers "will watch Rauch very closely."
- You have to appreciate Matt Morris‘ candor regarding his salary.
- We learned on Saturday that the Brewers made offers to sluggers Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun. Today the team’s owner said talks with both are ongoing. Other multiyear offers have been made, though the players are not known. Tom Haudricourt speculates on Corey Hart, Yovani Gallardo, J.J. Hardy, and Rickie Weeks.
- Ken Rosenthal sees Freddy Garcia landing with the Mets later this summer. I’ll stick with the opinion that he’s a nonfactor this year.
Bucs Sign Capps Through ’09
According to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates signed closer Matt Capps through the 2009 season. They added $65K to his ’08 salary and gave him $2.35MM for ’09 (his first arb year). They also tossed in a $500K signing bonus. Previously, Kovacevic had said talks with Capps fizzled because of Manny Corpas‘ deal.
Corpas receives $2.75MM for his first arb year, so Capps gets about 85% of that. By that logic, perhaps the Pirates could buy out Capps’ last two arb years (2010-11) for a total of $8.3MM or so. Regardless, this is a nice little move for Neal Huntington. According to Capps, the Pirates made a four-year offer in December and remained persistent until now.
Odds and Ends: Alfonzo, Hill, Kline, Reitsma
Time for a link roundup.
- SI.com’s Jon Heyman says the Mets have talked with Edgardo Alfonzo. Alfonzo, 34, came up a Met and snagged MVP votes in 2000 with a .967 OPS.
- Seems like Aaron Hill‘s contract extension may wait until after the season, when his offensive value is more clearly established.
- No interest in Steve Kline yet…teams will probably wait the Giants out so they don’t have to pay his $1.75MM salary.
- If Chris Reitsma doesn’t make a decision soon about heading to Triple A, the Ms could place him on the restricted list.
- Dejan Kovacevic hasn’t heard anything about Adam LaRoche as a trade candidate, even though extension talks fizzled.
- Kevin Goldstein believes shortstop Tim Beckham is the "top talent in the draft."
Pirates Rumors: LaRoche, Duffy
Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the latest Pirates hot stove buzz.
- The Pirates and Adam LaRoche have reached an impasse in extension talks. LaRoche is set to reach free agency after the ’09 season; his free agency years have to be worth $10MM each. Kovacevic notes that the Pirates might be permanently done trying to sign LaRoche.
- Kovacevic reports "no recent movement" on a Matt Capps extension. Last time we checked, talks with Capps inexplicably fizzled after Manny Corpas signed a team-friendly deal with Colorado.
- Capps probably isn’t going anywhere, but LaRoche certainly could be traded. The presence of Major League-ready Steve Pearce may not be a factor since Pearce became a full-time outfielder this spring. Pearce is more likely to push Xavier Nady.
- In case you missed it, Kovacevic named his five Pirates most likely to be traded back on March 30th.
- Center fielder Chris Duffy didn’t make that list, but the Braves are still interested in him. He had surgery on his rotator cuff in August of last year and may be game-ready by month’s end.