Odds and Ends: Kelly Johnson, Nathan, Crede
Time for some early Monday odds and ends.
- Remember how White Sox GM Ron Schueler embarrassed Cubs GM Ed Lynch in 1998 by acquiring Jon Garland for Matt Karchner? Rany Jazayerli sees a parallel to that heist with the Royals’ acquisition of Daniel Cortes as part of the July ’06 Mike MacDougal trade.
- Mike Berardino’s blog continues to entertain; this time with a Dan Miceli story. Ah, knife fights with siblings. Who among us can say they haven’t had one or two?
- Buster Olney learned from Braves GM Frank Wren that Kelly Johnson has been the team’s most asked-for player in trade talks this winter.
- The look on Kyle Kendrick‘s face is priceless.
- Extension talks with the Twins and Joe Nathan have gone dormant. Nathan still thinks the gap can be bridged but wants it done before the season begins.
- Andy Marte and Shin-Soo Choo are both out of options; when Choo comes back from elbow surgery a month into the season one of them could be traded.
- Henry Schulman says the White Sox may accept prospects from the Giants for Joe Crede.
- Derek Lowe is entering his walk year, and he hasn’t had any extension talks with the Dodgers yet.
White Sox Never Offered Crede Multiyear Deal?
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times has received conflicting reports from Joe Crede and the White Sox. It seems that Sox GM Kenny Williams claims multiyear overtures were made to Scott Boras regarding Crede, while the player says nothing was ever offered.
Additionally, Crede implied that he never spoke to Aaron Rowand about being traded to the Giants. I find this a little hard to believe; it would be kind of weird for the topic not to come up. Crede’s mindset right now is that he’s a member of the White Sox, though a trade before Opening Day seems inevitable.
Crede will earn $5.1MM in ’08. He won’t find much competition among free agent third basemen next year – Casey Blake, Nomar Garciaparra, and Wes Helms comprise the others.
White Sox, Angels Express Interest In Carl Everett
Found via South Side Sox: MLB.com’s Jim Street reports that the White Sox and Angels have expressed interest in Carl Everett. Presumably that would be minor league deal type interest.
What’s Carl been up to? The 36 year-old DH posted a .657 OPS for the ’06 Mariners, his last appearance in the bigs. Last year he put up an MVP-caliber season…with the Long Island Ducks. Jeff Pearlman informed us last June that "In eight seasons of Ducks baseball, a mere four players — Carlos Baerga, Pedro Borbon Jr., Bill Pulsipher and Ken Ray — have gone from Long Island to the majors."
David Aardsma Traded To Red Sox
According to the Boston Globe, the Red Sox acquired reliever David Aardsma today from the White Sox for minor league pitchers Willy Mota and Miguel Socolovich.
Aardsma, 26, was a first-round pick of the Giants in ’03. He started a bit in the minors in ’03 but has mostly pitched as a reliever. If nothing else, Aardsma still throws hard. Maybe John Farrell can fix him up.
Odds and Ends: Colon, Koskie, Atkins
We take a break from your regularly scheduled Erik Bedard drama to bring you some random links.
- The White Sox made an incentive-laden offer to Bartolo Colon, but Colon apparently physically disappeared at the thought of it. There’s a joke here, somewhere. Kenny Williams also almost kind of hinted at implying that he made some kind of effort to acquire Bedard.
- A brief note from the Sun-Times – outfielder Brian Anderson may be traded to an NL team (Marlins?).
- It’s possible that Corey Koskie makes another comeback attempt. He’s gone through a postconcussion syndrome nightmare.
- The Denver Post’s Troy Renck is always going over to Rockies players’ houses and chilling in their living rooms. This time, it was Garrett Atkins. Atkins says the Rox made a multiyear offer to him a year ago more similar to Jeff Francis‘ (4/13.25) than that of Aaron Cook (3/30) or Troy Tulowitzki (6/31). That offer was to cover Atkins’ three arbitration years and have a club option for his first of free agency.
- I recently did a Q&A with Science Fiction Baseball.
- Website note: I am leaning toward doing a full redesign. New logo, widen this baby, brighten her up, increase the font size, and yes, do away with the white on black type. Lots of room for improvement with this clunky old design, we all know it.
White Sox Considering Jenks, Cabrera Extensions
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times says the White Sox "began preliminary talks last month on a contract extension" for closer Bobby Jenks. GM Kenny Williams also hopes to extend new shortstop Orlando Cabrera before the season begins.
Jenks, 27 in March, has a 3.26 career ERA with 87 saves in 174 innings. Last year he traded some missed bats for improved command, while also maintaining a strong groundball rate. By my count he is eligible for arbitration after the ’08 season and free agency after 2011.
Cabrera, 33, hit .301/.345/.397 for the Angels in ’07. Bill James’ panel of ten experts ranked his defense 11th among shortstops. He makes $9MM in ’08, though the Angels are paying $1.5MM of it.
Odds and Ends: Velocity, Santana, Teixeira
Make sure to check out these links.
- Baseball America admits that fastball velocity is important, and does a Where Are They Now with all those who had reached 98 mph from the ’02 prospect handbook. The success rate was solid. They have an even bigger list of guys who topped 98 from their upcoming ’08 handbook, some of whom will be aces one day. Did you know Felipe Paulino reached 102? Hat tip to Depressed Fan on the link.
- Joe Posnanski writes about how the Royals are leading the Johan Santana race. Funny stuff. Would be refreshing to see the Royals in there.
- White Sox outfielder Brian Anderson busts out the ol’ "best shape of my life" cliche. He’s trying to ditch the negative attitude, but still wants out of Chicago so he can have a shot at a full-time role.
- Not sure what to make of this…did Mark Teixeira buy a house in north suburban Atlanta? If so does it mean anything? Hat tip to Braves Love for the discovery.
Giants Considering Ensberg, Crede
We learned earlier today that Pedro Feliz rejected the Giants two-year offer. The team plans to look internally for a solution at third base. Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News comes in with the possible leading candidate: Kevin Frandsen.
He hasn’t manned the hot corner regularly since college, but his performance in just under 300 plate appearances last year has earned him a legitimate shot at the starting gig. He played third base for 55 innings last year. Most of his time was spent at second base, which figures to be occupied by Ray Durham in 2008.
Frandsen is a better option than Feliz, but the Giants still might bring in veteran competition in the form of Morgan Ensberg or Joe Crede. Baggarly’s club source said there’s a "good chance" of acquiring Crede if his back is healthy this spring. Noah Lowry would be too much; Brad Hennessey maybe?
Joe would like to remind you, just this once, that he writes for River Ave. Blues, a Peter Gammons-approved Yanks blog. Tim also contributed to this post.
Odds and Ends: Foulke, Ordonez, Feliz, Phillips
All sorts of odds and ends to discuss this morning.
- I will be appearing on Rutgers Student Radio this morning at 8:40am CST. You can go here and click the "listen" link to hear it live.
- Keith Foulke threw for the majority of teams in baseball last week, topping out around 84. The D’Backs may make an offer. I don’t believe they have signed a free agent yet.
- The New York Times says Jose Canseco has apparently dragged Magglio Ordonez into the steroid mess, with the FBI getting involved on possible extortion. I have to admit, I am going to read Canseco’s new book. The first one was interesting but poorly written.
- The Giants’ two-year offer to Pedro Feliz was rejected, and they seem inclined to fill third base internally. Joe Crede is not out of the question though.
- Seems that the Reds might be talking about a long-term deal with Brandon Phillips.
- Rewriting history: the Padres almost acquired Mark McGwire in 1995. Speaking of Kevin Towers, here’s a quick look at his trading record. It’s good.
- Team payroll data for ’07 is out; it’s not terribly surprising.
Odds and Ends: Cano, Colon, Lowry
Here are some links I’ve rounded up this morning.
- In theory, Robinson Cano would be open to a long-term deal. River Ave. Blues recently took a look at how historically good Cano has been so far, and suggest the Yankees lowballed him with their arbitration submission.
- Baseball Prospectus’ Derek Jacques saw Bartolo Colon pitch in the Dominican League Finals, and lends his evaluation. Colon was not impressive, but not terrible. It doesn’t seem like he will get the two-year deal he wants.
- The Brewers will bring Abraham Nunez to camp. Versatile, but a drain on offense.
- Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune notes that the White Sox aren’t done yet. The Joe Crede situation should linger into spring. Gonzales also mentions that the Giants are "listening to offers for Noah Lowry."
- A factual look at whether Omar Minaya really stockpiles Latin American players.
- The Astros can’t settle their gaps with Mark Loretta or Jose Valverde, and Ed Wade expects the team to go to its first arbitration hearings in over a decade. Wade has set a deadline of this afternoon and will go to hearings otherwise. Loretta asking for $4.9MM seems particularly off.
- Matthew Cerrone takes an educated guess on the current Johan Santana situation.
- Some interesting quotes from XM Radio from Michael Cuddyer and Scott Boras, separately.