Stark’s Latest: Holliday, Lofton, Hudson, Greinke
Time to delve into Jayson Stark’s latest column for ESPN.
- The Rockies are 9.5 games out, and if they slip further over the next month they may trade Matt Holliday or Garrett Atkins (not both). If so, they’d be flexible on the number and ages of the players they’d want in return. Aaron Cook will not be traded.
- Stark talked to one team official who speculated the Pirates could keep their outfield intact in the name of a run at .500. Presumably they’d be doing this for the fans, but diehards would probably prefer a sweet bounty of young players and a better ’09 draft pick.
- As we’ve discussed here, the Mariners don’t have much to trade. Raul Ibanez has decent value, but Erik Bedard will probably stay put unless a new GM is installed.
- The White Sox "made the most serious run yet" at Kenny Lofton, but he they balked at his $2.5-3MM asking price. Kenny…c’mon. We want to see you in baseball this year.
- Orlando Hudson might’ve signed below-market to play in New York, but the Mets signed Luis Castillo through 2011. How about the other New York team, in the event of a Robinson Cano trade?
- One AL exec believes the Royals would be best served to trade Zack Greinke now, and get an influx of even younger talent.
Odds and Ends: Lane, K-Rod, Adam LaRoche
Random linkage…
- Jason Lane has agreed to remain a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankee.
- Francisco Rodriguez would like to play nine more seasons. Four or five or those might come with his next contract, which may set a record for a reliever.
- Pirates prospect Steve Pearce is getting some time at first base in Triple A. Despite that development, Dejan Kovacevic says there is no Adam LaRoche trade chatter yet. LaRoche followed up his standard awful April with an .804 OPS in May.
- RotoAuthority looks at the fantasy studs of May.
- SI.com’s Jon Heyman speculates that it’d require at least two of a team’s best young players to get Matt Holliday.
The Holliday Situation
Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post talks about how opposing executives are waiting to see if the Rockies will make Matt Holliday available. The Rockies have talked with Scott Boras about extending their slugger past ’09, but both sides are mum on the state of those discussions. Presumably, the Rockies would exhaust that avenue before putting Holliday on the market.
ESPN’s Buster Olney lays out the options for Dan O’Dowd: shop Holliday this summer and aim for a Teixeira-like bounty, sign Holliday to a staggering extension now, or let him play out the string while hoping he finds the free agent market disappointing. Olney opines that Holliday "is worth more to the Rockies than he is to any other team."
Teams are always going to be wary of trading for a Colorado slugger. If I was in charge, I’d deal Holliday for 75% of the Teixeira return. What would you do?
Should Rockies Deal Holliday?
The Denver Post has split opinions on whether or not the Rockies should deal Matt Holliday this season. Columnist Troy E. Renck says the Rockies have been bad "from top to bottom." He cites the rotation, situational hitting, leaky bullpen, and dealing with pressure as problem spots and that they would need to go "70-36 in their final 106 games" to be in contention.
As MLBTR has covered here, Woody Paige reports that the Rockies can’t tie up $40MM in three position players and that Scott Boras won’t accept a hometown discount. Paige proposes:
Holliday would be a significant addition for Cleveland, and the Rockies also could send best friend Garrett Atkins or Brad Hawpe… [for] starting pitcher Cliff Lee (8-1, 1.88 ERA and four superb pitches), a middle reliever and an outfield prospect. The Rox, depending on the second player in the deal, play Ian Stewart at third or in left, and Ryan Spilborghs becomes a full-time starting outfielder who could be the next Holliday.
Alternatively, Mark Kiszla believes trading him would not bring enough back to justify not re-signing him and that trading him would send the wrong message to players and fans. Instead, they should actively work to re-sign the slugger through negotiations. Kiszla’s argument:
"When the Texas Rangers decided it could not pay to keep powerful young first baseman Mark Teixeira a year ago, the offer the Rangers finally accepted from Atlanta was for a rookie catcher and four minor-league prospects."
Interestingly, Jon Heyman thinks the Rockies won’t be able to get as good a deal as the Rangers got for Teixeira, a deal that’s not good enough for Mark Kiszla.
By Nat Boyle
Heyman On the Rockies and Holliday
The idea of the Rockies trading Matt Holliday this summer is not a new one. Ken Rosenthal speculated on the possibility two weeks ago. Today, Jon Heyman goes a little deeper. While he feels trading Holliday is certainly possible, there are at least a couple of executives who think it is unlikely. To sum up:
- The Rockies are tied for the worst record in baseball and several executives are now wondering if they will be willing to trade Garrett Atkins and/or Holliday.
- Willy Taveras and Brian Fuentes will almost certainly be made available.
- One GM thinks that last year’s mid-season turnaround may make Dan O’Dowd less likely to pull the trigger on a trade.
- One exec said that the Rockies will have a tough time matching the deals that the Indians received for Bartolo Colon in ’03 and the Rangers received for Mark Teixera last year, as those were highly specialized situations.
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
Perrotto’s Latest: Atkins, Holliday, Howard
Baseball Prospectus’ John Perrotto has a new column up; let’s discuss the hot stove tidbits.
- Perrotto wouldn’t be surprised to see Clay Buchholz rejoin the Red Sox as a reliever, though some have suggested he’ll just remain in Pawtucket. The Red Sox have an embarrassment of starting pitching right now.
- The Indians are "bringing up Garrett Atkins and Matt Holliday in trade talks." Holliday just hit the DL, but there’s plenty of time before the deadline.
- Perrotto’s sources suggest the Phillies may deal Ryan Howard before the ’09 season, to avoid his probable large salary. Can you think of any reasonable fits for him?
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.
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.
Rockies Could Trade Holliday
In Ken Rosenthal’s latest column, he sees Matt Holliday as a prime candidate to be traded this summer. Rosenthal notes that the Rockies are already ten games back and have very little chance of signing Holliday to an extension. Holliday is signed through ’09 with $13MM due next season.
Previously, Rosenthal speculated that the Rockies might be willing to go to six years and $96MM to keep last year’s NL MVP runner-up. However, all we know of Holliday’s demands are that he wants more than a four-year deal. Rosenthal sees the Indians, Cardinals, Yankees, A’s, Tigers, Blue Jays, Mariners, and Mets as potential suitors. This should provide an interesting new storyline for July.
Rosenthal thinks that the Rockies could also seek to move Brian Fuentes and Garrett Atkins. Fuentes is eligible for free agency after this season and Atkins will be in his second year of arbitration eligibility and is not eligible for free agency until after next season.
Rosenthal also suggests that the Rockies may be willing to accept low-level, high-ceiling prospects in return as they are deep in prospects at Double and Triple A.
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
Blocked Prospects: Joe Koshansky
25 year-old first baseman Joe Koshansky played for the same University of Virginia team as Ryan Zimmerman and Mark Reynolds. Like Reynolds he was drafted in 2004, falling (to the surprise of some) to the sixth round (pick 190).
He’s moved steadily through the Rockies system and in 2005 was named Baseball America’s Rockies Minor League Player of the Year after hitting .291/.373/.603 with 36 home runs in 453 A ball at bats. He’s maintained similar averages at Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Colorado Springs, although his power has steadily declined. On top of that, Koshansky plays at the highest elevation of any pro park in the country.
He’s also a bit of a stikeout artist — once every four plate appearances through his minor league career. In this sense he’s the antithesis of Todd Helton, the guy currently occupying first for the Rockies. Unless Helton (signed through 2011 for a mountain of money) goes into severe mid-30s decline or is injured Koshansky is officially blocked at first.
Koshansky has said he’s open to moving to a corner outfield position, but with Brad Hawpe having signed an extension, and ongoing talks to sign Matt Holliday long term, a switch to the outfield is even less likely than getting past Helton. For the time being he’s stuck in Colorado Springs where he’s currently leading the team in both HRs and total bases to go along with a .441 OBP.
Time to cast this line out and see who’s biting. With Franklin Morales off to a terrible start and Mark Redman being Mark Redman, one would think the Rockies might be on the lookout for a starter come July. Flipping Koshansky could be the ticket. The Rox were able to snag a couple of live arms back in ’06 when they traded Ryan Shealy to KC.
Aaron Shinsano writes for East Windup Chronicle.