Twins Rumors

Stark’s Latest: Manny, Fuentes, Livan, Dunn

By Tim Dierkes | August 14, 2008 at 2:30pm CDT

ESPN’s Jayson Stark has a new Rumblings and Grumblings column up.

Some teams won’t go anywhere near Manny Ramirez given the way he exited Boston. Opinions range on whether he’ll get two, three, or four years this winter. Will he turn it off again after signing a long-term deal? And will other players use the same strategy to escape their contracts?
The Rays are likely to stand pat, despite recent injuries.
Rockies players haven’t hit the waiver wire yet; Dan O’Dowd plans to wait until month’s end. Stark wonders whether the Cards could win a claim on Brian Fuentes. Not likely, given the contenders in front of them in waiver order.
All kinds of near-deals in the final minutes on deadline day – John Grabow to the Phillies, Ian Snell to the Rockies, and Jason Bay to the Rays.
Livan Hernandez’s incentives get expensive in a hurry once he hits 160 innings, and the Twins are on the hook for those.
Stark talked to officials from two teams who didn’t think the Reds would’ve offered Adam Dunn arbitration.

Odds and Ends: Heyman, Vidro, Glavine, Falkenborg

By Tim Dierkes | August 14, 2008 at 12:18pm CDT

Let’s round up today’s links.

Great interview with SI.com’s Jon Heyman at The Big Lead. He talks about scoops, Buster Olney, and his wife helping him do his job, among other things.
Aaron Gleeman doesn’t understand why the Twins claimed Alan Embree but not Chad Bradford.
Unsurprisingly, the Mariners weren’t able to find a trade partner for Jose Vidro.
Richard Justice on what he’d have done as Astros GM.
Tom Glavine’s next six weeks will determine whether he’ll pitch in ’09.
The Padres claimed reliever Brian Falkenborg from the Dodgers. Paul DePodesta likes his stuff.
Danny Knobler writes about the Tigers’ numerous offseason needs.
Tim Marchman doesn’t think the Yankees will have the money for multiple big-time free agent signings.
The White Sox have signed seventh round OF Jordan Danks, brother of lefty pitcher John. Jordan hit .321/.444/.564 for the Texas Longhorns this year. The bonus is reportedly just north of $500K.

Odds and Ends: Lowell, Carroll, Saltalamacchia

By Tim Dierkes | August 13, 2008 at 2:26pm CDT

Time to gather up today’s links.

With Mike Lowell headed to the DL, Jeff Horrigan wonders if a waiver trade for an infielder could be in order.
ESPN’s Buster Olney mentioned the Indians’ Jamey Carroll as a possibility for the D’Backs on Monday, though he noted the two teams have not talked.
Evan Grant suggests the Rangers trade Engel Beltre or Elvis Andrus for pitching this winter. Additionally, he thinks the Rangers might end up trading Jarrod Saltalamacchia rather than Gerald Laird.
Aaron Gleeman revisits the ’03 trade of Bobby Kielty for Shannon Stewart.
Patrick Newman runs down some lesser-known Japanese free agents.
Rany Jazayerli has an interesting post about Royals first base prospect Kila Kaaihue.
Jeff Passan’s list of this year’s 25 most improbable success stories is a good read.
MLB.com’s Justice B. Hill has a story about a kid who had Tommy John surgery at age 14.
ESPN did a bunch of mini-features about this year’s hired guns for their magazine.

Embree Claimed By Twins, Pulled Back

By Tim Dierkes | August 13, 2008 at 10:49am CDT

According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Twins claimed Oakland lefty Alan Embree off waivers, but the A’s pulled him back. He can no longer be traded this season.

Embree is having a poor season with a 5.40 ERA, but the Twins were still willing to take on the $815K still owed to him this year. Apparently the A’s wanted more than salary relief for Embree.

Odds and Ends: Kielty, Ellis, Bonds, Poreda

By Tim Dierkes | August 11, 2008 at 11:40am CDT

Time to for today’s link collection.

The Twins signed Bobby Kielty to a minor league deal. The former Twin was released by the Red Sox in July. When he’s going good, he can hit lefties pretty well.
Peter Magowan is glad the Giants didn’t successfully pull off an attempted trade for Manny Ramirez before the ’07 season. However, as Henry Schulman notes, that might’ve prevented the Barry Zito contract.
The Reds haven’t talked to the agents for any of their potential free agents, and no decision has been made on Adam Dunn.
Susan Slusser wonders if the D’Backs will try to acquire second baseman Mark Ellis in the wake of Orlando Hudson’s season-ending injury, though manager Bob Melvin does not expect an acquisition.
It’s a moot point since they’re not interested, but Astros manager Cecil Cooper would quit if the team signed Barry Bonds.
Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune notes that the Rockies asked for ’07 first-rounder Aaron Poreda for Brian Fuentes. Instead, Rogers believes he could get a big-league look.
Ken Davidoff talks to agent Joe Bick about how Brian Giles went about choosing the teams on his no-trade list.
The Rangers made their first Korean amateur signing, inking a high school righty named Tae-kyeong Ahn. They also signed Dominican outfielder Esdras Abreu, among others.

Perrotto’s Latest: Waivers, Extensions, Garcia, Braves

By Steve Adams | August 10, 2008 at 2:46pm CDT

John Perrotto over at Baseball Prospectus has his Every Given Sunday column up:

Perrotto lists off several people which he believes are the most likely to be made available if and when they clear waivers. While the list is comprised of a lot of the usual suspects this August (Greg Maddux, Jarrod Washburn, Paul Byrd, Randy Winn), Perrotto lists some other names that we haven’t seen as much: Francisco Cordero, Tyler Walker, Todd Jones, Jose Bautista, and Doug Mientkiewicz. Perrotto also says that he feels Aubrey Huff has the best chance to be traded of any impact bat available.
Perrotto states that the Rockies would like to sign both Garrett Atkins and Matt Holliday long-term. If unsuccessful, they will both be on the trading block this offseason.
The Pirates would like to sign Nate McLouth and Ryan Doumit long-term as well, buying out their arbitration years.
Perrotto lists the Yankees as the front-runners to sign Freddy Garcia. The Mets and Rays are also suitors for Garcia, though I personally don’t think Garcia makes sense for the Rays.
The Yankees have "little interest" in pursuing Manny Ramirez this offseason, despite possible reports that Manny would like to play for them.
The Twins would still like to add a late-inning reliever this season to boost their bullpen as the AL Central race winds down.
The Braves’ top priority this offseason is pursuing a front-line starter, Perrotto says. He lists possible candidates as: C.C. Sabathia, Ben Sheets, Ryan Dempster, Derek Lowe, and Jon Garland. Seems a bit odd to consider the last three "front-line," though Dempster has certainly been impressive this season.

Rockies Acquire Livan Hernandez

By Tim Dierkes | August 6, 2008 at 9:52pm CDT

9:52pm: ESPN’s Peter Gammons has a blog post contradicting a piece of info from Ringolsby. Gammons says the Mets did not put in a waiver claim on Hernandez. They prefer in-house options.

4:04pm: Ken Rosenthal says Livan is now officially a Rockie. The Rockies will pay the rest of his contract. August is a fine time for teams to unload millions owed to mediocre veteran pitchers.

WEDNESDAY, 9:52am: Some additional information from Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News: the Rockies will make a waiver claim on Josh Fogg in the unlikely event the Twins pull Hernandez back. The Twins might be trying to wrangle a player out of the Rockies in addition to the salary relief.

Ringoslby says the Mets and possibly the Cardinals also made claims on Hernandez.

TUESDAY: According to Ken Rosenthal, the Rockies won their waiver claim on Livan Hernandez. Apparently the Rox beat out another NL team with a better record. Apparently no American League team put in a claim.

At the least, the Twins will dump off Hernandez just to be free of his contract. At most, they might be able to snag some kind of fringe prospect. Hernandez is owed another $1.5MM, plus incentives.

Odds and Ends: Livan, Maddux, Meredith, Fielder

By Tim Dierkes | August 5, 2008 at 10:12am CDT

Here are today’s links.

Live chat today here at 2pm CST.
MiLB.com is holding a charity auction with all kinds of memorabilia. Check it out.
NPB Tracker takes a look at Japanese closer Hitoki Iwase, who should draw plenty of interest from MLB teams this winter.
Trading Greg Maddux to the Dodgers is still possible, though unlikely. There’s also word that the Padres "tested the trade value" of Cla Meredith last week.
Livan Hernandez is expected to clear waivers today. We know the Rockies have discussed him internally, and Buster Olney speculates the Mets might be interested. The D’Backs are not likely to bring him back.
The Tigers reportedly asked for Matt Lindstrom from the Marlins for Ivan Rodriguez.
I did a Q&A with Philly Sports 101.
Tom Haudricourt has details on Prince Fielder’s dugout shoves of teammate Manny Parra.
Joba Chamberlain is experiencing shoulder stiffness and will probably end up on the DL. It appears his labrum and rotator cuff are OK, at least.

Livan Hernandez To Be Designated

By Tim Dierkes | August 1, 2008 at 3:25pm CDT

3:25pm: Joe Christensen says both Hernandez and Craig Monroe will likely be DFA’d today. Both were questionable acquisitions from Day 1. Francisco Liriano and Randy Ruiz will join the Twins.

8:23am: According to La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Twins are expected to designate Livan Hernandez for assignment today to make room for Francisco Liriano. The Twins are prepared to eat the remaining $1.66MM on Hernandez’s contract.

It’s the right move, just several weeks too late. Hernandez turned into a pumpkin in late May, while Liriano has been on a tear for about a month.

It seems that the Twins may have been looking to trade Boof Bonser to clear a spot for Liriano. Talks with the Giants and Rangers did not pan out however.

Twins Rumors: Bonser, Beltre, Roberts, Monroe

By Tim Dierkes | July 31, 2008 at 11:07am CDT

La Velle E. Neal III and Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune have the latest Twins buzz.

The Twins would like to trade Boof Bonser to make room for Francisco Liriano. The Giants and Rangers might be interested.
Targets for the Twins: relief help, third base, and second base.
Talks for Adrian Beltre are not dead. The Mariners are eyeing Nick Blackburn, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins, and Denard Span. The Twins aren’t biting. Sounds like the Mariners want a premium arm for Beltre from the Twins or Giants, but those teams see it as more of a salary dump.
The Twins asked about Brian Roberts but couldn’t get anywhere.
The Rays might be looking at Craig Monroe as a bench option.

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