Teams Willing To Give Meche Four Years
Four years of Gil Meche? Awww yeah, sign me up. What’s next, a brand newish 2005 Chevy Malibu??
Yahoo’s Tim Brown lists the Blue Jays, Cubs, Mariners, Orioles, and Giants as teams willing to take it to 2010 for Meche. The last three are news to me.
UPDATE: John Hickey of the Seattle P.I. names the White Sox and Mets as two other interested parties.
Cubs Looking At Meche
According to Bruce Levine of ESPN Radio 1000, the Cubs have inked backup catcher Henry Blanco to a two-year, $5MM deal. Gil Meche could be the next player the team signs.
I like Jim Hendry’s aggression…but is Larry Rothschild really the guy who’s going to fix Meche?
While I have you – Cubs fans may want to check out my Mark DeRosa projection over at AllCubs.com.
Wells, Meche Giving Home Team Consideration
It’s a common refrain among impending free agents: "I’ll give my current team every chance to re-sign me before hitting the open market." Recently, it’s been Vernon Wells and Gil Meche singing that particular tune.
Here’s the thing about Wells: he’s not an impending free agent. He’ll be a free agent after 2007; he’ll earn $5.6MM next year. The standard superstar practice is to start the contract negotiations a year early. Almost as if the Blue Jays owe Wells something because he’s playing at a below-market price in 2007. Which is silly, because it was the Jays taking on the risk of giving Wells a five-year, $14.7MM contract after one full season in the bigs.
Then there’s Gil Meche, whose career year should earn him the big bucks. Among free agent starters, Meche has had the 15th best overall season so far according to Baseball Prospectus. He owns the 7th best strikeout rate, 9th best ERA, and 13th best WHIP. It’s the solid K rate and the fact that he just turned 28 that places Meche among the cream of the free agent starter crop. The downside is that he’s yet to pitch 200 innings in a season.
In case you were curious, here are the top fifteen free agent starters ranked by 2006 VORP:
1. Jason Schmidt
2. Barry Zito
3. Mike Mussina
4. Roger Clemens
5. Tom Glavine
6. Andy Pettitte
7. Miguel Batista
8. Jamie Moyer
9. Vicente Padilla
10. Greg Maddux
11. Woody Williams
12. Ted Lilly
13. Brad Radke
14. Jeff Suppan
15. Gil Meche
Gil Meche Trade In The Works?
Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist and blogger John Hickey indicates that a trade could be brewing involving Mariners starter Gil Meche. Meche was scratched from his start against the Yankees tonight.
Meche turns 28 in a few weeks, and he’s a free agent after the season. He’s been mediocre or worse this season aside from a lights out June. Meche has been awful in August, allowing 12 earned runs in 11.1 innings in three starts. Often it’s said that his struggles are largely mental.
The skipped start could just be a demotion for the way Meche has been pitching, similar to what happened with Joel Pineiro. The Mets had expressed interest in Meche earlier this season.
Buzz Around The Game
Let’s see what we’ve got going on today in a potpourri-style format.
As predicted, Eric Byrnes was non-tendered last night. I can’t possibly think of a better way for the Cubs to turn the Jacque Jones signing into a positive. If you sum up Byrnes and Jones’ salaries, you’ll be getting solid stats from RF for the price. Assuming Dusty Baker understands what a platoon is and how all that works.
Of course, it’s probably one more roster spot than the Cubs wanted to use on this type of thing since they already have John Mabry. But Mabry can back up Aramis Ramirez, and the Cubs can carry one less pitcher and make it work. I put a word in to a Cubs source of mine, and he agreed that the idea makes sense (who wouldn’t agree) and mentioned that the Cubs have liked Byrnes in the past.
UPDATE: Just talked to a second Cubs source, and he echoed the sentiment held by many readers of the site: Hendry didn’t give Jones $16MM to platoon him. He’s a full-timer for the most part.
Kirby Arnold reports that the Mariners offered Gil Meche to the Cubs for Corey Patterson. At first, I said, "Sure, why not." But then I looked at Meche’s numbers, and I realized there’s no way he can help the ballclub. When a pitcher loses his ability to strike batters out, as Meche may have, he has to counter the increased hits he’s surrendering with good control. Or the ability to keep the ball in the park. Meche appears to have none of these traits, and would be a frustrating spot starter who would allow tons of baserunners. I might rather have Josh Fogg at this point. There’s got to be something slightly better out there for the Cubs.
Alfonso Soriano won’t move off second base for the Nationals and is pretty much raising a stink about being dealt to Washington. Let’s see here, are there any teams with GMs dumber than Jim Bowden who might make a trade for Sori? Dan O’Brien’s club doesn’t have a need for a 2B; Placido Polanco is firmly entrenched in Detroit…maybe Littlefield is interested?
Is Millwood really getting a five year deal from someone? Insane. Incredible timing to have your 2.86 ERA season. Best timing award for the NL: Todd Jones.
My Mets guy is saying the club is still talking to the Dodgers about Jeff Kent, but right now it’s a "pipe dream." Doesn’t seem like the two teams will agree on anything. The Mets still have some faith in Victor Zambrano (or maybe they’re just trying to save face), but Omar feels that after adding Julian Tavarez his bullpen will be pretty much set.
The Mariners seem desperate to get rid of Jeremy Reed after pushing hard to obtain him for Freddy Garcia. I guess they don’t understand that center fielders are hard to find and Reed will get better. After the masterstroke that was the Johjima signing, Bill Bavasi has taken a step backward with Jarrod Washburn.