Perrotto’s Latest: Atkins, Holliday, Howard
Baseball Prospectus’ John Perrotto has a new column up; let’s discuss the hot stove tidbits.
- Perrotto wouldn’t be surprised to see Clay Buchholz rejoin the Red Sox as a reliever, though some have suggested he’ll just remain in Pawtucket. The Red Sox have an embarrassment of starting pitching right now.
- The Indians are "bringing up Garrett Atkins and Matt Holliday in trade talks." Holliday just hit the DL, but there’s plenty of time before the deadline.
- Perrotto’s sources suggest the Phillies may deal Ryan Howard before the ’09 season, to avoid his probable large salary. Can you think of any reasonable fits for him?
Odds and Ends: Kershaw, Medders, Tavarez
Hopefully they’ll let you leave work early today in anticipation of the holiday weekend. Before you go, here are some random links.
- RotoAuthority takes a look at Clayton Kershaw, who may be called up soon.
- Brandon Medders was DFA’d to make room for Doug Davis. Not to be mean, but the 28 year-old reliever doesn’t do anything particularly well.
- The Glendon Rusch signing takes the Rockies out of the Julian Tavarez sweepstakes. Jayson Stark said the Brewers made a run at Tavarez a week ago.
- Paul Sullivan suggests that Jim Edmonds may be on a short leash in Chicago.
- Jon Heyman grades last winter’s trades.
- We’ve filled the Sunday afternoon writing gig…many thanks to all who applied.
Stark’s Latest: Young Players, Giles, DeJesus
Jayson Stark’s latest Rumblings and Grumblings column is chock full of information.
- Stark rattles off Dan Uggla, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, B.J. Upton, Justin Upton, Russell Martin, Zack Greinke, Prince Fielder, Felix Hernandez, Jeff Francoeur, Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia as youngsters who do not have long-term deals in the works. With Uggla and Greinke, the opposition seems more on the team’s side. With Hamels and Howard neither side wants a long-term deal. With the rest, the player is resisting.
- The Padres’ top trading chip is probably Brian Giles, though a deal would further deplete a weak offense.
- The A’s are willing to deal, with pitching considered the surplus. Billy Beane might be able to snag one good prospect for Rich Harden.
- There’s some doubt as to whether the Rockies will make Matt Holliday this year’s Mark Teixeira as we approach the deadline.
- Teams other than the Royals are speculating that center fielder David DeJesus might be available.
- The Marlins and Hanley Ramirez battled over a no-trade clause…and the Fish won. He has none.
Odds and Ends: Royals, Cashman, Tavarez
4:45pm: Updating the Tavarez item – the Boston Herald reports that he’s accepted a minor league assignment in order to buy the Red Sox more time in trading him.
10:38am: Here’s today’s link collection.
- MLB.com’s Dick Kaegel hears the Royals are leaning toward an impact bat in the June draft. Baseball America predicted catcher Buster Posey, while Jonathan Mayo went with first baseman Eric Hosmer. First baseman Justin Smoak is another possibility.
- Paul DePodesta tells a story about the gamesmanship of the draft.
- Hank Steinbrenner says there’s a chance Brian Cashman will be the Yankees’ GM next year, if he wants to be. He might be able to find a better situation. If there’s a new GM, his first task might be negotiating with Scott Boras for Mark Teixeira.
- The Rockies still might have mild interest in Julian Tavarez, who will become a free agent today.
- The Marlins, Rockies, and Rangers were the three clubs interested in Edinson Volquez when he was a kid in the Dominican.
Rockies Sign Glendon Rusch
Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post reports that the Rockies have signed lefty Glendon Rusch to a minor league deal. Rusch missed all of the 2007 season due to a blood clot in his lung. He struggled with his control in 19.2 innings with the Padres this year.
Rusch joins some familiar names in the Sky Sox (Triple A) rotation: John Koronka, Josh Towers, Valerio De Los Santos, and Franklin Morales. It looks like Cedrick Bowers has replaced Victor Zambrano in that rotation.
Renck also wonders whether the Rockies and Blue Jays could be a match given Colorado’s outfield depth.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Braun, Holliday, Kouzmanoff, Greene, Sabean
Let’s take a look at what is being said about some recent rumors, trades and signings in the Blogosphere…
- Right Field Bleachers sees the signing of Ryan Braun and Corey Hart to long-term deals as a "must" for the Brewers.
- Brewers Nation sees the Braun deal as evidence that Prince Fielder will not sign an extension even if the two situations are very different.
- Oleanders and Morning Glories thinks that if Nats’ management was hoping to sign Ryan Zimmerman to a Troy Tulowitzki-type deal, Braun’s deal may have raised the bar.
- Squawking Baseball sees the recent trend in giving long-term deals to young stars and wonders if the absence of top-level free agents in a few years will drive up free agency prices. If that happens, players may stop signing these extensions and the market will correct itself…The point is valid, but these players will still become free agents eventually. The difference is only that they will be free agents in their age 30 season (approximately) instead of their age 28 season. If there is a correction, it will only be minimal and would only last a year or two.
- The Tribe Time Report explains why Matt Holliday would be a perfect fit for the Indians even if it is only for a season and a half.
- Friar Forum does not seem surprised about the notion of the Padres selling off pieces sooner, rather than later. However, they would be surprised to see Kevin Kouzmanoff moved, noting that it is much more likely that the slew of free agents-to-be will be shipped to other clubs.
- The Southpaw would love to see the Jays make a push for Khalil Greene, but their scenario is contingent on the Padres also dealing Kouzmanoff.
- Sorry we missed this before, but in light of Brian Sabean’s recent comments, I felt it was worth noting that Bucs Dugout has been running a series of polls to determine the worst GM in baseball. The finals featured Sabean easily out-distancing his opponent, Ed Wade of the Astros.
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
Rockies Could Trade Holliday
In Ken Rosenthal’s latest column, he sees Matt Holliday as a prime candidate to be traded this summer. Rosenthal notes that the Rockies are already ten games back and have very little chance of signing Holliday to an extension. Holliday is signed through ’09 with $13MM due next season.
Previously, Rosenthal speculated that the Rockies might be willing to go to six years and $96MM to keep last year’s NL MVP runner-up. However, all we know of Holliday’s demands are that he wants more than a four-year deal. Rosenthal sees the Indians, Cardinals, Yankees, A’s, Tigers, Blue Jays, Mariners, and Mets as potential suitors. This should provide an interesting new storyline for July.
Rosenthal thinks that the Rockies could also seek to move Brian Fuentes and Garrett Atkins. Fuentes is eligible for free agency after this season and Atkins will be in his second year of arbitration eligibility and is not eligible for free agency until after next season.
Rosenthal also suggests that the Rockies may be willing to accept low-level, high-ceiling prospects in return as they are deep in prospects at Double and Triple A.
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
Odds And Ends: Rusch, Griffey, Myers, Brewers
A few more notes for your ogling…
- This morning we told you that Glendon Rusch declined his assignment to AAA and chose to become a free agent. Troy E. Renck says that the Rockies are already expressing interest in the lefty.
- Brewers owner Mark Attanasio has given Doug Melvin permission to trade for a starting pitcher noting that there is enough flexibility in the payroll to take on another contract. However, Attanasio also indicated that it was too early to explore those possibilities.
- The Delaware News Journal takes a look at this past offseason’s crop of free agent starting pitchers and how they are performing so far in ’08. They wonder if any of those arms would have been a better option for the Phillies rotation than moving Brett Myers back from the bullpen.
- Doug Harris says that the smart move for the Reds is trading Ken Griffey Jr, noting that if they are waiting for him to hit his 600th home run, they could be in for a long wait.
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
Odds and Ends: Jacque, Lee Hak-ju, Tavarez
Here’s today’s collection of links.
- The Tigers weren’t able to trade Jacque Jones; he’ll become a free agent tomorrow. The Marlins are expected to make an offer.
- The Cubs signed a Korean high school shortstop named Lee Hak-ju. Aaron Shinsano, who works for the Cubs as a scout, says the team believes he’d have been a first round pick in the states.
- Giants owner Peter Magowan is expected to step down Friday.
- Troy Renck says the Rox still want Julian Tavarez but won’t give up pitching prospect Brandon Hynick. Baseball America ranked Hynick eighth among Rockies prospects, they describe him as a command guy with a decent splitter. The Sox are talking to two or three teams about Tavarez.
- Not a surprise, but Jon Garland isn’t likely to sign back with the White Sox.
Julian Tavarez Designated
8:12pm: The Rockies have strong interest in Tavarez, and Troy Renck thinks a deal could be reached within a couple of days. The Red Sox are just trying to get some kind of prospect out of it.
2:07pm: The Red Sox have designated Tavarez for assignment. Nick Cafardo says trade talks with the Rockies and at least two other teams didn’t lead anywhere, even when the Sox offered to eat most of the contract. The Red Sox asked for a pitching prospect from the Rockies but couldn’t get it.
MONDAY, 9:57am: Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post says the Rockies’ talks for Tavarez are dead. His guess is that the Rockies will end up with Josh Fogg and won’t have to give up anyone.
SUNDAY: On May 8th, Rob Bradford of the Boston Herald reported that the Rockies remained interested in trading for Julian Tavarez, but no advancements had been made in the talks. On May 9th, Rockies owner Dick Monfort said the team had no plans to acquire a fifth starter. First, the Rox wanted to try 22 year-old rookie Greg Reynolds. Today in his big league debut Reynolds allowed four runs in 5.2 innings to the woeful San Diego offense. Franklin Morales could return to the team in a couple of weeks; he tossed five no-hit innings in Triple A today.
This evening, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe learned that the Rockies’ talks for Tavarez are ongoing. The Red Sox already traded Bryan Corey; Tavarez could be next. Bartolo Colon could join Boston’s rotation before month’s end.
Tavarez, 35, pitched in 51 games for the Rockies in 2000. He set a career high with 11 wins that year. His groundballing style sounds like a decent fit in Coors. He has about $2.9MM left on his contract this year.