John Raynor Returned To Marlins
MAY 4th: Raynor was returned to the Marlins, tweets MLB.com's Joe Frisaro.
APRIL 27th: The Pirates designated outfielder John Raynor for assignment to make room for Jeff Karstens, reports Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Raynor is a Rule 5 pick from the Marlins, and GM Neal Huntington told Kovacevic he hopes to work out a trade to keep the outfielder in the organization. As it is, Raynor will be placed on waivers, and any team that claims him will remain subject to the Rule 5 restriction of keeping him on the 25-man roster all season.
Raynor didn't have a chance to prove himself, with just 11 big league plate appearances. As Kovacevic says, he was a casualty of the Pirates' "epic pitching problems." Raynor, 26, hit .257/.327/.360 in Triple A last year. Baseball America noted that Raynor has the speed to play center but his arm may keep him in left.
Odds & Ends: Harper, Escobar, Vazquez, Gordon
Links for Monday, as Joe Blanton makes his 2010 debut…
- Washington GM Mike Rizzo scouted Bryce Harper in person for the first time, and he and scouting director Kris Kline came away confident in Harper's makeup, according to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post.
- Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com takes an in-depth look at the Pirates' arms throughout the organization.
- The Chicago Tribune's Mark Gonzales writes that GM Ken Williams is exercising patience when it comes to trading, despite the White Sox' slow start.
- Kelvim Escobar will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn capsule in the front of his right shoulder, tweets MLB.com's Anthony DiComo. Escobar signed a one-year deal with the Mets this winter for $1.25MM.
- Joe Pawlikowski of River Ave. Blues looks at the pitchers the Yankees were considering over Javier Vazquez, noting that they've all had concerns as well. The Yankees will delay Vazquez's sixth start until a week from today against the Tigers. John Harper of the New York Daily News wonders if the Yanks should ship Vazquez to the Mets.
- Joe Posnanski questions the Royals' decision to demote Alex Gordon. Gordon will play left field and first base in the minors, tweets Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports points out the Tigers' collection of young talent.
- Steve Dilbeck of the L.A. Times wonders what's happened to George Sherrill. The 33-year-old lefty has allowed 12 hits and 11 walks in nine innings so far. Given his $4.5MM salary this year, Sherrill is a prime candidate to be non-tendered after the season.
- RotoAuthority notes that while Vazquez and Ben Sheets have been brutal so far, they could still have fantasy value this year.
Odds & Ends: Rangers, Chapman, Capps, Choo
Links for Thursday, as Kelly Johnson and Paul Konerko jockey for the MLB home run lead…
- Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas takes a look at what the Rangers could do with their roster once Ian Kinsler returns from the disabled list tomorrow.
- Reds' GM Walt Jocketty said that the team doesn't have a timetable for Aroldis Chapman's arrival in the Majors, says John Fay of The Cincinnati Enquirer.
- Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wonders why the Pirates didn't retain Matt Capps in hopes that he'd rebuild value. Capps is generating attention as MLB's saves (and save opportunity) leader. The righty told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times it was a pretty close competition between the Cubs and Nationals for his services, once he was non-tendered.
- Yahoo's Tim Brown profiles Shin-Soo Choo, who his agent Scott Boras feels "has a chance to be the best Pacific Rim player ever over the course of his career."
- SI's Ann Killion writes about Barry Zito's apparent redemption. Zito is rocking a 1.32 ERA, an improved groundball rate, and an unsustainable .203 batting average on balls in play through four starts. If Zito can continue to keep the walks down, he could have his best year as a Giant. Of course, he flashed a similar walk rate in July and August of last year.
- Matt Kemp's agent Dave Stewart discussed Ned Colletti's recent comments on ESPN's Mason & Ireland show, saying the public criticism "should never have happened."
- Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times notes that the Mariners made the right call in not signing Jarrod Washburn.
- Baseball Prospectus' Kevin Goldstein does a mock draft of the first ten picks this year.
- Mark Zuckerman talked to a high-ranking Nationals official who finds Goldstein's criticism of Bryce Harper's makeup "way overblown." Meanwhile, Byron Kerr of MASNSports.com spoke to Harper's college coach about those same makeup concerns.
2011 Contract Issues: Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates face one contractual option after the season. For closer Octavio Dotel, they can choose a $4.5MM salary or a $500K buyout. Dotel's strikeout and walk rates have been typical so far, but he's allowed 15 hits and three home runs in 9.3 innings.
Akinori Iwamura, Brendan Donnelly, and Bobby Crosby will also be eligible for free agency after the season. They're earning a total of $7.2MM this year. If Dotel's option is declined, the Pirates will have $11.2MM coming off the books.
Increases to players under contract are light, with a total of $2.8MM. The Pirates have a big arbitration class though. First-time candidates include Joel Hanrahan, Lastings Milledge, Andy LaRoche, Delwyn Young, and possibly Ross Ohlendorf. D.J. Carrasco and Jack Taschner could be second-timers. Zach Duke and Ronny Cedeno are third-time candidates, while Ryan Church and Javier Lopez fit into the fourth-time class. There will be non-tenders in the mix, but it appears that the Pirates will have to raise payroll to retain all their key players. That shouldn't be a problem, since their Opening Day payroll was only $39MM.
Thanks to Cot's Baseball Contracts for the info.
Brandon Jones Clears Waivers
WEDNESDAY, 2:39pm: Jones cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple A, tweets MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch.
SUNDAY, 11:42am: The Pirates have designated Brandon Jones for assignment, according to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (via Twitter). The move was one of many for the Pirates, who also optioned Daniel McCutchen to the minors and placed Chris Jakubauskas on the 15-day DL to make room for Brian Burres and Brian Bass. Jones' DFA was necessary to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Bass.
The Pirates added Jones to their roster earlier this year, when they claimed him off waivers from the Braves. The 26-year-old outfielder had a .257/.313/.365 slash line in 166 career plate appearances for Atlanta, but has yet to appear in the majors this season. Prior to the 2008 season, Baseball America ranked Jones as baseball's 70th-best prospect, but his stock has taken a bit of a hit since then, given his inability to stick on a big league roster.
GM Initiation: Neal Huntington
Neal Huntington took over as GM of the Pirates on September 25th, 2007. He was active on the waiver wire out of the gate, but his first trade didn't come until December 7th. Huntington struck a deal with the Brewers, sending reliever Salomon Torres to Milwaukee for pitching prospects Marino Salas and Kevin Roberts.
Huntington kindly answered a few questions for MLBTR about his first trade.
MLB Trade Rumors: Torres dropped his grievance before you took over as Pirates GM. Did his request to be traded still stand? If so, did it limit your leverage?
Neal Huntington: The reality was that we had very little to no leverage because we had a disgruntled 36-year-old relief pitcher coming off an injury-plagued and disappointing performance season that was due to make over $3MM. Despite acknowledging the lack of leverage and lack of quality market, we made the decision it was time to move beyond the player, work to re-allocate the dollars and get the best return we could for him. Obviously we dealt from weakness and it did not turn out the way we would have preferred.
MLBTR: What kind of relationship did you have with Brewers GM Doug Melvin prior to the deal?
Huntington: I knew Doug through baseball circles but did not have much of a relationship with him beyond a cursory level.
MLBTR: Torres considered retirement after learning he was traded to the Brewers. Had he retired, would you have considered reversing the trade or compensating the Brewers somehow?
Huntington: Fortunately we did not have to work through an alternative scenario, but ethically we would have been compelled to consider alternatives.
MLBTR: What did you see in Salas and Roberts, the two relief prospects acquired for Torres? In hindsight, were better players available?
Huntington: The scouting reports indicated both pitchers had good arms with potential major league caliber breaking balls but both were on the small side of ideal and had some command issues. A quick review of the list of players available at the time confirms that despite our efforts to ask for more, it was a limited selection pool due to the issues surrounding the player and our lack of leverage.
MLBTR: In your two full seasons as Pirates' GM, the team's relief ERAs have been at or near the bottom of the NL. Revamping the pen by bringing in veteran free agents Octavio Dotel, Brendan Donnelly, D.J. Carrasco, Javier Lopez, and others this winter – did that represent a change in bullpen-building philosophy for you?
Huntington: The philosophy remained the basically the same but we had fewer internal options with which to build the 2010 bullpen. We believe building a bullpen is the most unpredictable and the most difficult part of a ball club to put in place. The inconsistency in the year to year performance of the large percentage of major league relievers makes it difficult to for a club with our resources to invest significant dollars or years into relievers. As a result, we look for subjective and objective indicators of potential bounce-back candidates and/or look to provide ourselves with different complimentary attributes (power arm (K’s) / ground ball guys / arm slots / etc.) to provide numerous options for our manager to utilize in the various leverage situations.
In 2008 we had a solid back end with Capps, Grabow, Marte and Yates but our middle relievers really struggled. In 2009 we had a few solid pieces but we had our struggles throughout all portions of the game. As we prepared for 2010 we wanted to add depth and complimentary options. We felt that Dotel could give us similar performance level for similar dollars and contractual control as Capps (despite the age difference). We liked what each of the free agents brought to the table as we constructed our bullpen and we felt that the addition of some veterans in the bullpen would help our young relievers mature into reliable high leverage relievers as well as provide us with much needed depth.
Thanks to Neal Huntington for his time. Be sure to check out the other entries on the GM Initiation series: Jon Daniels and Josh Byrnes.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Garza, Pierzynski, Padres
Eleven years ago today, Fernando Tatis became the first and only player in baseball history to hit two grand slams in one inning. Amazingly, both came off Chan Ho Park, who allowed 11 runs while recording eight outs. Tatis went on to hit .298/.404/.553 with 34 homeruns for the Cardinals that season, easily the best of the big league career.
Here are a handful of links from around the blogosphere…
- Maddon's Mission wonders if the Rays' handling of Matt Garza tells us about their plans for him in the future.
- The Pale Hose Pariah concludes that A.J. Pierzynski is worth a grade-B position player prospect for a couple of grade-C pitching prospects in a trade.
- Pittsburgh Lumber Co. notes that Lastings Milledge has shown improved on-field maturity since joining the Pirates.
- The Friarhood says the Padres recent winning streak puts any trade talks on hold.
- And Counting makes the case for Carlos Zambrano and Alfonso Soriano being underpaid.
- Capitol Avenue Club visualizes the Braves' proverbial five-year plan.
- Around The Basepath thinks an worldwide draft is a great idea.
- Crashburn Alley takes stock of the Phillies' roster.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here.
Pirates Not Looking To Trade For Pitching
Following a historic loss against the Brewers yesterday, the Pirates are still not looking to trade for starting rotation help, according to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Although the team acknowledged that the rotation needs to be upgraded, they have no plans to look outside the organization to do so.
The Pirates' 7.23 ERA ranks last in all of baseball, and the starting rotation has played a significant part in the club's struggles. Daniel McCutchen and Charlie Morton have been extremely ineffective in three starts each, combining to allow 37 earned runs in just 21.1 innings.
Nonetheless, GM Neal Huntington says a trade is unlikely, despite the team being a prime candidate to make a move. For now, the Pirates will recall Kevin Hart, wait for Ross Ohlendorf to get healthy, and hope Morton can straighten things out. The club also has top prospect Brad Lincoln waiting in the wings in Triple-A Indianapolis, but is unconvinced that he's quite ready to be promoted to the majors.
Earlier in the week, we outlined some potentially available starting pitchers, which the Pirates could look into if they changed their stance on a trade. Of course, given the team's usual place in the NL Central standings, they're probably more likely to be sellers than buyers.
Odds & Ends: Bell, Dye, Ortiz, Davis, Strasburg
Links for Monday…
- The MLBTR Forums are rocking with over 3,600 members. Join the discussion today! Just added a prospects section; we've also got areas to discuss trade rumors, free agents, the draft, general baseball, fantasy baseball, and every team.
- Tom Krasovic tweets that the Twins have a scout at tonight's Padres-Giants game, but it's just a routine visit. He adds that Heath Bell remains on Minnesota's radar, but the two sides haven't talked since Spring Training.
- The Giants have no interest in Jermaine Dye, tweets Henry Schulman of The San Francisco Chronicle. The reasons are the same as they've been all winter: defense and asking price.
- More changes could be coming to the Dodgers' bullpen, says Dylan Hernandez of The Los Angeles Times. Russ Ortiz was designated for assignment yesterday, and Hernandez thinks Ramon Ortiz could be next.
- Talking to MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith, I learned that teams can now safely promote minor leaguers for their MLB debuts with no chance of the player amassing 172 days of service in 2010. By promoting '08 first-rounder Ike Davis today, the Mets ensured that he will be under team control through 2016 instead of 2015. In contrast, the Braves have Jason Heyward through '15.
- On that same topic, agent Scott Boras told MLB.com's Peter Gammons that Stephen Strasburg starting in the minors "had nothing to do with money."
- Joe Posnanski digs into Forbes' team revenue numbers, noting that the Yankees made $173MM more than any other team.
- MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch tells us Hayden Penn has accepted the Pirates' Triple A assignment in lieu of electing free agency.
- In a statement, Cal Ripken said he looks forward to continued talks with the Orioles about a position in the organization.
Odds & Ends: Davis, Cano, Athletics, Pirates
As today's games try to top Ubaldo Jimenez's no-hitter and the Mets' marathon victory, let's browse a few links….
- The Astros will likely make a roster room to clear the way for Lance Berkman's return, tweets Alyson Footer of MLB.com.
- A Mets official told Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated that the club has to "win now" (link goes to Twitter). Earlier today, Mike Jacobs was DFA'd in a move that could clear space for Ike Davis.
- Benjamin Kabak at River Ave. Blues looks back at the Alfonso Soriano–for-Alex Rodriguez trade, and how the Rangers had the opportunity to select Robinson Cano as a second player in the deal. Instead, they chose Joaquin Arias. Think they regret that one?
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post lists ten players and managers who are on the hot seat two weeks into the 2010 season, with Jerry Manuel and Dave Trembley earning the top two spots. Mike Puma of the New York Post writes that Mets' players have jumped to Manuel's defense, while Bill Madden of the New York Daily News thinks that Orioles' players have given up on Trembley.
- With Michael Wuertz nearly ready to come off the DL, the Athletics will have to clear a roster spot for him. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle runs down a few of the players whose status could be in jeopary, including the recently acquired Edwar Ramirez and the out-of-options Chad Gaudin.
- The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Dejan Kovacevic examines the Pirates' organization in search of pitchers with ace potential.
- In a mailbag, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer defends the Indians' signings of supposed "marginal, aging players." He also notes that if the Indians end up losing the Cliff Lee deal, they have no one to blame but themselves, since they scouted many of the same Phillies prospects when they discussed a potential CC Sabathia trade in 2008.
- Fantasy baseball season is in full swing, and saves are at a premium as always. Don't forget to follow @closernews to keep up with the ever-changing late-inning scenarios in Major League Baseball!