Olney: Tribe A Serious Player For Mulder
According to Buster Olney in his blog for ESPN, "Cleveland has become a very serious player for Mark Mulder." Olney notes that the Indians would have four southpaws in the rotation if Mulder joins up. He considers Paul Byrd to be the probable odd man out. Of course, the Indians could always look to trade impending free agent Jake Westbrook if Mulder is healthy and effective.
Mulder is chilling on a beach somewhere on his honeymoon, but plenty of teams are talking about him. Lately the Rangers and Mets have been in the rumor mill. A billion other teams have been named in the past. Mulder wants a two-year contract.
People talk about how Jeff Suppan wouldn’t survive back in the AL…looking at the numbers, shouldn’t we have the same sentiment about Mulder?
UPDATE: There is an article here from the Dallas Morning News that mentions the Cards and D’Backs as well.
Eric Gagne To Sign Today?
Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe reports that Eric Gagne should decide whether to become a Red Sox, Indian, or Ranger today.
Edes says the odds favor the Indians and Rangers, who seem more willing to guarantee Gagne $5MM. Balking at such a request is understandable given how little Gagne pitched during the 2005-06 seasons. The Dodgers paid him $18MM for 15.1 Major League innings over that period.
Indians Sign Joe Borowski
Baseball Digest Daily is reporting that the Indians have signed reliever Joe Borowski to a one-year deal with an option for ’08. Fantasy leaguers, take note – he’ll remain a closer.
Looks like the Tribe has changed their bullpen philosophy after last year’s disaster.
Indians Sign Roberto Hernandez, Aaron Fultz
The Tribe signed a pair of relievers today, Roberto Hernandez and Aaron Fultz.
Hernandez turned 42 last month. He posted a 2.93 ERA last year, but the 1.63 WHIP and 1.38 K/BB ratio are less than inspiring.
Fultz, a southpaw, turned 33 in September. After posting a sparkling 2.24 ERA in 2005, he regressed to a 4.54 mark this year. Fultz’s control slipped a bit, but the main difference was his hits per nine innings moving from a miniscule 5.9 to a batting practice-like 10.1. I suppose we could partially blame his BABIP shooting from .212 to .349.
Lots of signings
Adam Eaton is going to the Phillies for $24M over three years. It’s an interesting harbinger of the contracts to come–that isn’t far out of line of all the $21/3 contracts that have been signed in the last couple of years. Eaton is a bit of an injury risk, I suppose, but there’s nothing else keeping his value down. Aside from the obvious cases–Barry Zito, Andy Pettitte, and Jason Schmidt–the only pitchers on the market who may get bigger deals that Eaton are Gil Meche and Ted Lilly. It would be fascinating if the market for pitching remained as people predicted, while the market for hitters exploded.
David Dellucci signed a similarly sane deal to go to Cleveland: he’s getting $11.5M over three years. Given Casey Blake‘s versatility, Eric Wedge can play the hot hand with a number of players, including Dellucci, Blake, Jason Michaels, Shin-Soo Choo, and Ryan Garko.
It looks like it’ll be Gregg Zaun, and not Rod Barajas, who serves as the Blue Jays catcher next year. Apparently the Barajas talks hit a snag, and Zaun stepped right back in. That means Barajas may be headed to one of Zaun’s earlier targets: San Francisco, or a backup job in New York or Boston.
Speaking of catchers, I’m sure you’re all relieved to know that Chad Moeller found a job for 2007. He got a major-league deal to join the Cincinnati Reds, which is Wayne Krivsky’s way of saying, "Jason LaRue, you suck!" Interesting how Brewers backup catchers stick around in the division: if Gary Bennett stays with the Cardinals, two of the worst backup catchers in baseball will be former Brewers in the NL Central.
By Jeff Sackmann
Kei Igawa Has Been Posted
Rotoworld lists the potential suitors for Kei Igawa as the "Padres, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Yankees, Braves, Mets, Cubs and Indians." They rule out the Red Sox and Mariners, though this Tacoma News-Tribune article says the M’s are "likely" to bid. That same article predicts that the posting fee will be about "two-thirds less" than Daisuke Matsuzaka‘s $51.1M: $17M.
That seems high for a guy who David Wright isn’t convinced has MLB-quality stuff. Personally, I wouldn’t want my team spending more than $10M for his rights, but with all those teams involved, $17M seems plausible.
UPDATE: An alert e-mailer points out this article on the Braves official site. According to club officials, Atlanta won’t be involved in this one.
By Jeff Sackmann
Jays Considering Barajas, Mulder
Here are notes from the blog of Paul Hoynes, Indians beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. These were posted yesterday.
Hoynes says the Blue Jays are talking to Rod Barajas and have some interest in Mark Mulder. Even if they signed both, the Jays would still need to come up with a shortstop and one decent starter.
The Tribe is expected to bid on lefty Kei Igawa, who will be posted next week. If they win, the Indians, like the White Sox, would be six deep in their starting rotation. A good kind of problem.
Cubs Info From Bruce Levine
Bruce Levine of ESPN 1000 has some new Cubs info for us. He reports that the Cubs have asked the Indians about a possible deal involving Cliff Lee or Jake Westbrook in exchange for relief pitching.
In addition, the Cubs may consider Ray Durham as a source of power for second base.
Padres Trade Barfield To Indians For Kouzmanoff
Very interesting trade just went down: the Padres sent second baseman Josh Barfield to the Indians for third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and reliever Andrew Brown.
Side effects: the Padres now have an opening at second if they want to trade for Marcus Giles, and they probably won't make a bid for Akinori Iwamura. Kevin Towers found a creative way to acquire a third baseman without spending money. Kouzmanoff, 25, did nothing but hit in the high minors this season. Baseball Prospectus's Kevin Goldstein ranked him the tenth best third base prospect in the game despite his age and health concerns.
Barfield had an OK rookie season, with a scorching July skewing the numbers a bit. He'll be just 24 next year, so there's room for improvement.
Phillies, Indians Interested In Akinori Iwamura
27 year-old Japanese third baseman Akinori Iwamura is being pursued by both the Phillies and the Indians.
Pat Gillick mentioned today that he has a lot of interest in Iwamura to play third for the Phils. You may recall that Gillick imported Ichiro back when he was GM of the Mariners. Another convenient factor is that manager Charlie Manuel has played in Japan before.
The Tribe is showing interest as well, but are committed to Andy Marte at third base. They would ask Iwamura to convert to second base.