Odds and Ends: Burrell, Pedro, Fukudome
Today’s link collection.
- Jon Heyman notes that Pat Burrell only wanted to go to the Yankees or Red Sox when the Phillies tried to trade him a few years ago. They’re not great fits, but perhaps Burrell will have those two clubs at the top of his list when he hits free agency.
- Ross Newhan looks at the Dodgers’ trade of Pedro Martinez for Delino DeShields. He rates it the worst in franchise history. He also names the Brad Penny acquisition as the fourth-worst.
- Josh Kalk takes a look at Kosuke Fukudome‘s hot start for RotoAuthority.
- The Dodgers and Juan Castro have mutual interest.
Gammons’ Latest: Crisp, Piazza, Wells
ESPN’s Peter Gammons has a new blog post up.
- Peter Angelos might put the kibosh on any Brian Roberts trade.
- The Red Sox apparently wouldn’t mind shipping Coco Crisp to the Cubs for Sean Gallagher and another prospect. The Sox might hope Crisp is the Cubs’ backup plan to Roberts.
- Gammons says Tommy Lasorda suggested the Dodgers consider Mike Piazza as a backup catcher; they are not interested. It would’ve been fun to see Piazza finish his career in L.A.
- Another free agent, David Wells, "hasn’t gotten a sniff from any team." It’s only April 23rd, so desperation hasn’t quite sunk in.
Questions For Fred Claire?
Former Dodgers GM Fred Claire has agreed to answer some questions from MLBTR readers. I’ll choose the best ones from the comments. Fred was the team’s GM for about a decade, and also served in other capacities in the front office before that.
Fred is keeping busy these days with an MLB.com column, radio show appearances, consulting, and civic involvement.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Furcal, Tejada
Ken Rosenthal did an Inside Pitch video yesterday; let’s discuss.
- Rosenthal says Rafael Furcal and the Dodgers are open to discussing an extension during the season. Furcal makes $13MM this year and would be a hot commodity on the free agent market. If the Dodgers re-sign him, shortstop Chin-Lung Hu becomes valuable trade bait.
- Rosenthal notes that the biggest downside to Miguel Tejada‘s age revelation is his reduced trade value. It’s possible the ‘Stros could look to clean house in July or after the season.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Derek Lowe
I was skeptical when the Dodgers signed Scott Boras client Derek Lowe to a four-year, $36MM deal in January of ’05 following an awful season for Boston. Lowe proved his detractors wrong by demonstrating durability and effectiveness over his first three Dodger seasons. He’s off to a nice start in this year as well.
Since the beginning of the ’05 season, Lowe’s 3.64 ERA ranks 11th among all starters with 600 innings. He doesn’t get enough credit – he’s been a legitimate #1 starter during this contract.
Lowe will sign his next deal as a 35 year-old (he hasn’t had any extension talks with the Dodgers). Despite Lowe’s age, I have a hunch Boras can squeeze at least three years out of some team. PECOTA wouldn’t pay more than $20MM for his 2009-11 seasons, though his market price should be twice that. Other top free agent pitchers next winter include Oliver Perez, C.C. Sabathia, Ben Sheets, and possibly A.J. Burnett. Lowe is likely to require the shortest term.
Odds and Ends: Schilling, Piazza, Howard
Tax day roundup…
- Some mild drama over whether Curt Schilling would consider pitching for the Yankees next year. He reiterated that he won’t. It takes two to tango, anyway.
- Pedro Martinez may be out until June. Nelson Figueroa‘s chance continues, with Claudio Vargas as the backup plan. The Mets still have a solid rotation without Pedro.
- Mark Healey has heard rumblings that the Reds and Yankees are looking at Mike Piazza.
- Phillies Nation on why they would trade Ryan Howard.
- Bill Barnwell looks at the four trades Randy Johnson trades. I thought the Unit looked respectable last night, though it’s hard to gauge against the Giants.
- Susan Slusser believes a recent roster move indicates that the A’s are playing to win in ’08. They’re in first place at the moment.
- The Dodgers rolled out the red carpet for bloggers.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Roberts, Jones
Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com has his latest video "Rosenthal’s Full Count" up and running.
- First, Rosenthal calls Andruw Jones the "early candidate for worst free agent signing" noting that Jones is now batting 7th. Rosenthal goes so far as to say that the Dodgers’ best outfield right now includes Juan Pierre and does not include Jones…The Dodgers are truly lucky to have Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp on the cheap right now ($840K combined), because Jones ($14.1M) and Pierre ($8M) are a lot of dead contract weight for one outfield.
- And we can thank Rosenthal for keeping Brian Roberts in our lives…Rosenthal notes that as the O’s start coming back to earth after their hot start, they can start thinking once again about their July fire sale. The big name is obviously Roberts and Rosenthal says that the Cubs still want the second baseman. He says the Rockies are also likely to be interested. However, the Indians, who tried to put a package together for Roberts this past off-season, will not be one of the bidders as it would require position shuffling, something not likely to occur in-season…Then again, Peter Angelos may just keep dangling Roberts into next off-season. Once Roberts is traded, Angelos may be worried that there won’t be much reason to talk about the O’s. You guys would miss all the Roberts rumors, wouldn’t you?
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
Stark’s Latest: Roberts, Crisp, Loretta
ESPN’s Jayson Stark has a new Rumblings and Grumblings column up. Let’s examine some of the hot stove material.
- There’s nothing cooking with the Cubs and Brian Roberts. The O’s still intend to trade Roberts this year, along with pretty much all of their other veterans. Their hot start is unlikely to halt the farm sale.
- The Red Sox don’t want to eat any of the $11MM owed to Coco Crisp over the next two years, and for now there are no trades in the works. Roberts, Crisp, and Joe Crede were three trades we all expected to go down.
- Once Kaz Matsui and Ty Wigginton are fully healthy, the Astros will look to trade Mark Loretta. He makes $2.75MM this year, a bit much for a utility guy. Stark says the Dodgers and Giants don’t appear interested at present, so there’s no obvious suitor. The Orioles could re-engage if they trade Roberts and don’t get a second baseman back.
Red Sox Acquire Eric Hull
The Red Sox and Dodgers made a deal last night. The Sox acquired 28 year-old righty pitcher Eric Hull for 23 year-old shortstop Christian Lara.
Lara was once Boston’s top shortstop prospect, but he’s been passed by Jed Lowrie and several others. A couple years ago Baseball America wrote that Lara had "a chance to be a plus defender." They weren’t impressed with his bat. The Sox challenged him by putting him at Double A in 2005-06, but he was demoted to High A for ’07.
Hull seems like an organizational arm, though he did intrigue last year with an 11.1 K/9 in Triple A as a reliever. Doesn’t help that he’s just 5’11" though. The Dodgers needed roster space and designated him for assignment on March 31st.
Dodgers Almost Sign Marcus Giles
THURSDAY, 1:45pm: Not so fast. Miller has an update to his initial report below, which came from Marcus’ brother Brian. Marcus’ agent is now saying that Brian was misinformed – they never finalized anything with the Dodgers and he’s not playing for them, after all.
THURSDAY, 8:14am: Scott Miller says Giles will report to Triple A for the Dodgers, after all. The Dodgers still seem to have some interest in Wes Helms though.
TUESDAY: Tony Jackson of the L.A. Daily News chronicles the odd tale of the Dodgers’ near-signing of infielder Marcus Giles. Apparently an agreement was reached but Giles changed his mind on the drive over to Cashman Field in Las Vegas. He was to re-acquaint himself with third base at Triple A before joining the Dodgers.
Jackson notes that this Giles debacle caused Ned Colletti to miss out on two available role players, one of which was Alex Cintron. A commenter on Jackson’s blog suggested Scott Spiezio was the other; not a bad guess. Seems possible that Giles might retire; he turns 30 in May.