Rosenthal’s Latest: Gross, Weaver, Encarnacion
Ken Rosenthal is on the scene with some new rumors.
- Astros president Tal Smith arguing other teams’ arbitration cases. Rosenthal finds it a bit awkward, while Keith Law finds it to be a hilarious conflict of interest.
- Possible trades of Matt Murton to the Padres or Rangers seem to have fizzled. The Padres may turn to the Brewers’ Gabe Gross, a player who previously caught the eye of the A’s, Indians, and Braves. Our good friend PECOTA sees a .267/.366/.467 line from Gross this year. With Gross and various veteran starters, the Brewers have some surpluses to work with.
- Rosenthal believes the Cardinals’ interest in Jeff Weaver to be not especially serious. They’ve got in-house candidates to start, and Matt Clement needing some time is not a revelation.
- We’ve read about extension possibilities for Matt Capps and Alex Rios. To that mix, Rosenthal adds Edwin Encarnacion. The Reds might want to do it now; he seems primed for a big year.
Cards Eyeing Weaver, Colon
With the price of free agent starting pitching dropping by the day and Matt Clement looking questionable, it’s only natural that the Cardinals would explore the market. Indeed, John Mozeliak is looking at Jeff Weaver and Bartolo Colon. Seems that Impacto Deportivo may have been misinformed on the whole Colon-to-Chicago thing.
Weaver seems the smarter option for a team looking for healthy innings. If nothing else, Weaver can provide that. Something tells me he’s not getting $8MM this time around. His most recent success was in St. Louis, so maybe Dave Duncan can guide him to a league average season.
Colon is a wild card. Even if his stuff isn’t there, if he can take the ball he has value. He’ll obviously find the NL more to his liking.
Another possibility for the Cards is David Wells, according to Peter Gammons. Gammons says Boomer "would like to come back for 20-something starts."
Cards Eyeing Weaver, Colon
With the price of free agent starting pitching dropping by the day and Matt Clement looking questionable, it’s only natural that the Cardinals would explore the market. Indeed, John Mozeliak is looking at Jeff Weaver and Bartolo Colon. Seems that Impacto Deportivo may have been misinformed on the whole Colon-to-Chicago thing.
Weaver seems the smarter option for a team looking for healthy innings. If nothing else, Weaver can provide that. Something tells me he’s not getting $8MM this time around. His most recent success was in St. Louis, so maybe Dave Duncan can guide him to a league average season.
Colon is a wild card. Even if his stuff isn’t there, if he can take the ball he has value. He’ll obviously find the NL more to his liking.
Another possibility for the Cards is David Wells, according to Peter Gammons. Gammons says Boomer "would like to come back for 20-something starts."
Odds and Ends: Adam Jones, Weaver, Jocketty
You know how it works…random rumors and links to clear out my inbox.
- Adam Jones left winter ball early, perhaps as a prelude to a trade.
- The Cardinals’ interest in Jeff Weaver is "at best, tepid" according to Derrick Goold. However, Goold thinks they should bring him back.
- Walt Jocketty said on XM Radio: "I don’t want to be a GM again." I guess that settles that, Wayne Krivsky can rest easy.
- This is kind of funny. Mark Teahen on meeting Jose Guillen: "For the most part he didn’t rub me the wrong way – he seemed like a good guy." Hmmm….for the most part?
Odds and Ends: Tavarez, Lieber, Stewart
Another collection…
- A few notes from Brian Cashman…the Yanks have talked to Luis Vizcaino‘s agent about bringing him back. Also, they’ve yet to inquire on any free agent center fielders.
- Miguel Cabrera has been talking to Ozzie Guillen daily since the season ended. The article makes Cabrera sound like a big kid.
- The Red Sox have had a couple of inquiries on Julian Tavarez.
- Five or six teams have inquired on Shannon Stewart, who wants a two-year pact apparently.
- The Phillies, contrary to previous reports, are not interested in re-signing Jon Lieber.
- On a scale of 1 to 10, the chances of the Astros trading for a Miguel Tejada were rated a 2. The ‘Stros don’t want to give up the farm. That’s also why Joe Nathan is unlikely for Houston.
- Scott Boras recently called Ed Wade to sell him on Eric Gagne, Jeff Weaver, and Rodrigo Lopez. Wade seemed unimpressed.
- Nothing much new on the Padres front – still interested in Kosuke Fukudome, Geoff Jenkins, Jim Edmonds, Darin Erstad, and Mark Prior.
- Brian Cashman’s phone has been ringing off the hook about Melky Cabrera.
Article On Boras
Came across an article on Scott Boras, via Will Caroll. One quote from Boras struck me:
The Cardinals not signing Jeff Weaver is how you don’t win divisions, and my prediction is the St. Louis Cardinals won’t win their division this year.
I can see the Cards missing the playoffs, sure, but not signing Jeff Weaver for $8 million won’t be the reason. Now if you want to argue that if the Cardinals had signed Weaver, they’d be in last place instead of fourth and in line for a better draft pick in ’08, I can buy that. Boras should’ve went with that.
Another interesting section is the last page, where Boras proposes replacing the World Series with a nine game series in a different city each year. Cities would compete for the right to host it. That’s kind of cool.
Cards Won’t Reacquire Weaver
While previous reports indicated the Cardinals had interest in Mariners starter Jeff Weaver, Cards GM Walt Jocketty firmly debunked the rumor when asked by Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times. Jocketty seems mildly bitter about Weaver’s decision, and won’t give him a second chance.
Weaver currently sports a 14.32 ERA in six starts for the Mariners, and he’s on the DL for shoulder tendinitis. That’s historically bad. Worst ever performance (six start minimum) belongs to Jaret Wright in 2002 (15.71 ERA). Hayden Penn comes next with a 15.10 ERA in six starts last year, and then Weaver’s ’07. Worst performance with a ten start minimum: Roy Halladay in 2000 with a 10.64 ERA in 13 starts.
Cards Interested In Weaver?
According to Viva El Birdos, Walt Jocketty called Bill Bavasi yesterday, willing to take Jeff Weaver off the Ms’ hands for salary relief. Yahoo’s Tim Brown believes the Cards would only have to pick up about $2MM of Weaver’s $8MM salary in a deal. However, Weaver later landed on the DL with shoulder tendinitis. Weaver had made six starts for the Mariners, losing all of them and allowing at least seven hits in each.
Previous speculation had involved the Mariners releasing Weaver. The Cardinals offered Weaver $6MM over two years plus incentives, and the Pirates were also interested last winter.
Speaking of Viva El Birdos, Larry has a great idea to "evoke Josh Hancock‘s memory and his tragic mistake," an idea far better than banning alcohol in clubhouses. Check it out.
Mariners To Release Jeff Weaver?
According to John Perrotto of Baseball Prospectus:
"Speculation is mounting that Seattle is ready to swallow hard and release right-hander Jeff Weaver after his going 0-5 with a 15.35 ERA after five starts."
The handiwork of Scott Boras, an inflated pitching market, and playoff heroics earned Weaver the same one-year, $8.325MM deal he got from the Angels the previous offseason. At when the Angels signed him, he was coming off a solid 14 win season. The Ms signed him after he posted a 5.76 ERA in 31 starts.
I’d be surprised to see the Ms release Weaver. Couldn’t they pay $6MM of his salary and virtually give him away to some NL team? Even that would be better than releasing him. Maybe the Padres would take a chance on him if the salary risk was minimal.
Tim Brown’s Latest
I hadn’t really noticed the MLB Experts Blog from Tim Brown and Jeff Passan until recently. Yahoo’s main baseball guys have some quality rumors, and I’ve been missing out. Let’s catch up by digging through some recent posts:
- Seems like mostly educated speculation, but Brown named Shawn Green as a player the Angels might be able to acquire to fill the void with Howie Kendrick out. However, Lastings Milledge will miss most of May, so that Green may no longer be available.
- The Tigers, worried about their fourth and fifth starters, are already on the lookout for starting pitching help.
- The Indians are looking to acquire a closer, though I think they have some decent internal options. The Tribe isn’t looking to spend big bucks so it would have to be a bargain type guy.
- If Jeff Weaver continues to bomb, could the Mariners trade him back to St. Louis?