Gammons On Available Pitchers
ESPN’s Peter Gammons names ten starting pitchers who could be available in the coming months. We’ll try to devise a comprehensive list when we get to the position in our Trade Market series.
Gammons’ trade possibilities: Paul Byrd, Jeremy Sowers, Derek Lowe, Rich Harden, Odalis Perez, Brett Tomko, Jarrod Washburn, Zach Duke, Vicente Padilla, and Kevin Millwood. Byrd, Lowe, Perez, and Tomko will be free agents after the season. Sowers and Duke are the kids. Harden is the oft-injured ace. Washburn, Padilla, and Millwood bring burdensome contracts.
Gammons also five "unlikely, but not impossible" scenarios. He suggests A.J. Burnett, Bartolo Colon, Joe Blanton, Greg Maddux, and Ben Sheets could be moved under the right circumstances.
Odds and Ends: Ivan Rodriguez, Hall, Street
Time for today’s link roundup.
- MLBTR live chat here at 2pm CST, don’t miss it!
- Ivan Rodriguez expects to play ball beyond this season.
- Bill Hall isn’t happy with the Brewers’ callup of Russell Branyan. Hall is hitting .220/.292/.418 in 196 plate appearances. He’s signed through 2010.
- Susan Slusser ponders the future of A’s relievers Huston Street, Alan Embree, Santiago Casilla, and Joey Devine. Might be tough to deal anyone unless the team drops out of contention.
- Part 2 of AN’s Billy Beane interview.
Julian Tavarez To Sign With Brewers
MONDAY: Tom Haudricourt reports that the Brewers are set to sign Tavarez for bullpen depth.
SUNDAY: The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo writes that Bartolo Colon, a close friend of Julian Tavarez, said Tavarez told him that he would prefer to pitch for the New York Mets. Tavarez was recently DFA’d by the Red Sox and elected free agency rather than accepting an assignment to Triple A Pawtucket.
Tavarez could make sense for the Mets in many roles. Jason Vargas and Matt Wise have been ineffective in limited use, while Mike Pelfrey has been very inconsistent over the first two months of the season. The Mets, however, have yet to indicate whether they have interest in the veteran right-hander. Baseball Prospectus’ John Perrotto has the Orioles and Brewers as the top suitors; I hadn’t heard Baltimore in the mix until now.
Weaver Staying? Turnbow Not Going Anywhere.
Tom Haudricout of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Jeff Weaver has a 6.52 ERA in 29 innings in Triple-A Nashville and can ask for his release next Sunday if he doesn’t see an opportunity with the Brewers as realistic. Weaver had no spring training, so he’s still in rough form. Whether or not that form improves has yet to be determined. The Brewers currently have two struggling starters in Dave Bush and Seth McClung who just replaced Carlos Villanueva in the rotation.
In that same piece, we find that Derrick Turnbow has "suffered a near-total command meltdown" in Nashville. In 6 outings, he has pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowed five hits, seven earned runs, and a jaw-dropping 15 walks! Still, there’s no plans for his release. Writes Haudricourt,
"’As long as we’re paying him what we’re paying him, there’s no sense in doing that,’ [Brewers GM Doug] Melvin said. "It’s not like he’s taking somebody’s job.’"
Turnbow is owed $3.2MM.
By Nat Boyle
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.
Rosenthal’s Latest: Victorino, Hatteberg, Paul Byrd
The Padres stuff got its own post; let’s see what else Ken Rosenthal has for us today.
- Rosenthal thinks it makes sense for the Phillies to shop Shane Victorino for pitching, since Jayson Werth is playing well. That’d increase reliance on Geoff Jenkins, though. The Marlins expressed some interest in Victorino last year.
- Rosenthal expects the Reds to move Scott Hatteberg and a catcher before they get down to the more serious business of mullling offers for Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr.
- Trading Paul Byrd would make sense for the Indians. Rosenthal says the Brewers, Braves, and Astros "likely would show interest." Byrd sports a 3.61 ERA and 4.4 K/BB.
Odds and Ends: Wilder, Vlad, Jose Reyes
Time to round up some links.
- The White Sox fired scouting director David Wilder and two scouts. Investigators are trying to determine if they skimmed bonuses designated for Latin American prospects.
- I did a Q&A recently. I forgot, at the time, that Albert Pujols is actually younger than Chase Utley.
- Imagine if Vladimir Guerrero had been paired with Barry Bonds.
- Joel Sherman points out that Jose Reyes will be just 28 when his contract is up.
- Roto Professor chats with prospect guy Jonathan Mayo.
- Extension talks with Corey Hart have fizzled.
Ryan Braun Contract Details
Tom Haudricourt has the details on Ryan Braun‘s new extension. It’s a tricky one, because it’s not yet known whether Braun will be arbitration-eligible after the 2009 season. It won’t be known for sure until November of ’09. If he is arb-eligible at that time he’ll make an extra $6MM.
It’s looking like Braun will earn $4.5MM (including a signing bonus) for his three pre-arb years. Then he’ll get $18.5MM for his three arb years (less than 80% of what Hanley Ramirez will get for the same slice of his career). After that Braun gave up his first two free agent years for $22MM. That’s also significantly less than Ramirez will receive his first two years of free agent eligibility.
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.
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.