Odds & Ends: Bonds, Armas, Strasburg
Links for Wednesday…
- MLB.com's Joe Frisaro says the Royals received righty Eric Basurto as the player to be named later in the Ross Gload trade.
- Tom Glavine hopes to pitch in the Majors this month, according to MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
- Back on May 3rd, Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times wrote about the possibility of Barry Bonds signing with the independent league Long Beach Armada (the team already employs Hideki Irabu and Jose Lima). But Bonds' agent Jeff Borris said, "He's not going to do that."
- It appears that Tony Armas Jr. signed a minor league deal with the Braves after the Mets released him.
- Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News says Padres beat writer Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune will be out of a job come August. Sorry to hear it; Krasovic does excellent work.
- MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo talked to Tony Gwynn about Stephen Strasburg.
- Johnny Damon talked about his future again, this time with MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.
- Jim Thome would like to return to the White Sox next year, based on his comments to MLB.com's Scott Merkin.
Odds & Ends: Proctor, Dunn, Contreras
Links for Tuesday…
- According to Juan C. Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Marlins reliever Scott Proctor is out for the season with Tommy John surgery. So that's $750K down the tubes, though Rodriguez wonders if they might re-sign him to an incentive-laden deal after the season.
- New blog post at Live to Play, Play to Live chronicling Miguel Angel Sano's 16th birthday party. His day began with a tryout for the Giants.
- Sports Illustrated names the game's best and worst owners.
- WEEI's Alex Speier says that if Daniel Bard never returns to the minors, he'll eventually be the second player to achieve Super Two status under Theo Epstein.
- Sam Miller of the OC Register asks who hangs up on a Jonathan Sanchez for Brandon Wood swap.
- I noticed that Preston Wilson surfaced with the Long Island Ducks. Brad Halsey, Dan Miceli, Ken Ray, and Lew Ford are also on the team, which is managed by Gary Carter.
- Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle has a bunch of new info on the Moneyball movie, which comes out in 2011.
- Adam Dunn told John Shea of the Chronicle that he was open to signing with the Giants but did not hear from them.
- Jose Contreras cleared waivers, which is not a surprise given the $8MM+ left on his contract.
Rosenthal On Ortiz, Braves, White Sox
The latest from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports…
- Rosenthal notes how easy it would be for the Red Sox to find a left-handed hitter to top David Ortiz's 2009 production – many such bats are impending free agents and could be available in July. A shortstop and young catcher also remain on Boston's wish list. Unfortunately, with no-trade protection and about $22.5MM remaining on his contract, Ortiz is pretty much immovable.
- Former D'Backs pitching coach Bryan Price resigned in part due to reservations about working for new manager A.J. Hinch.
- Rosenthal notes the Braves' surplus of quality minor league arms, and suggests they're well-equipped to trade for a bat. The Braves rank 11th in the NL with 4.41 runs scored per game.
- The White Sox's rotation is looking a bit shaky given the ineffectiveness of Jose Contreras. Rosenthal says "the team eventually figures to be in the market for a starter." The Sox are hanging in there at 3.5 games out with a 14-17 record.
- Aside from Cliff Lee, Rosenthal believes Indians infielder Mark DeRosa could draw attention closer to the trade deadline.
Contreras Sent To Minors
2:54pm: Scot Gregor informs us that White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said on the radio this morning that Contreras will be sent to the Triple-A Charlotte in order to regain his rhythm.
Contreras will have to clear waivers, but has accepted his demotion.
Gregor cites one Major League scout saying:
"I wouldn't say his career is over. His stuff looked fine to me. But you could tell he had no feel at all for his split-finger pitch."
Clayton Richard will replace Contreras in the Chicago rotation, and make the start Wednesday against Cleveland.
9:41am: The White Sox are expected to make a decision on what to do with Jose Contreras, says Chris De Luca of the Chicago Sun Times. Contreras, whose command has faltered, is 0-5 with a 8.19 ERA in six starts.
Contreras had a speedy recovery from a ruptured Achilles this offseason but has begun the season in ugly fashion, walking 16 and allowing 40 hits in 29.2 IP while striking out a mere 17. While strikeouts have not been a large part of Contreras' game since his years with the Yankees, control has. He was pulled from the rotation after Friday's loss to the Rangers.
A decision is expected following a bullpen session with Contreras this morning.
Odds And Ends: Bay, Boras, Danks
Links for Friday afternoon…
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports revisits last year's July 31st trade deadline and breaks down the decisions that sent Jason Bay to Boston instead of Tampa Bay.
- Michael O'Keeffe of the New York Daily News lists off a number of Scott Boras clients who have been linked to PEDs. To be fair, Boras has a lot of clients and baseball's had a lot of users so it would be a surprise if none of his clients had connections to PED use.
- John Danks told Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times that the extension he passed up hasn't affected his performance this season.
- MLB.com's Jim Banks compares Zack Greinke to Fernando Valenzuela and Walter Johnson. It's not often you see Ty Cobb quoted in 2009.
- Adam Rose of the LA Times asks whether the Dodgers should have signed Manny Ramirez in the first place and 62% of his readers say the deal was still worth it.
White Sox To Pass On Bonds, Pedro
6:22pm: Jon Heyman of SI.com chimes in via Twitter, saying he hears "no dice on Pedro and Chisox." Heyman does suggest some team should be interested in Pedro.
9:04am: Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times was wondering yesterday whether a couple of free agents might be able to help the White Sox.
DH Jim Thome has been bothered here and there by a heel injury, though he played in the last two games. Cowley asked GM Ken Williams if Barry Bonds would be Plan B if the heel injury worsened, and Williams emailed back, "No."
Cowley quizzed manager Ozzie Guillen about Pedro Martinez, who would conceivably become the team's fifth starter if Jose Contreras is booted. Ozzie's answer left the door just barely ajar:
"Pedro Martinez was mentioned in spring training, but just because a couple of his friends called me, and my job is to give Kenny the information. But that's it, no, Pedro, no, not right now. I don't know if we're going to because that's Kenny's decision, but right now that's not on my mind.''
According to Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, top pitching prospect Aaron Poreda is not an immediate candidate if Contreras falters Thursday.
Vazquez/Young Perception At The Time
ESPN's Rob Neyer recently posted a mailbag question about the Javier Vazquez–Chris Young trade between the White Sox and Diamondbacks. On December 14th, 2005, the White Sox sent Young and the unwanted salaries of Orlando Hernandez and Luis Vizcaino to Arizona for Vazquez and cash. Neyer's reader began his question with:
Kenny Williams was roundly criticized back in 2005 for trading highly regarded 5-tool uber-prospect Chris Young to D-backs for often underachieving Javier Vazquez.
Cue the sound of screeching brakes…was Williams really roundly criticized on December 14th, 2005? This is where the MLBTR archives come in handy. It's cool to see how we evaluated trades the day they were made. Here's the post. I liked the deal as a win-now move for the Sox. MLBTR was only a month and a half old, so the post only has 15 comments. But there was no criticism of Williams.
How about South Side Sox, which opened its doors in April of '05? They seemed in favor of the deal, as did Ken Rosenthal in an excerpt found here. Sox Machine also liked the trade, and both blogs noted that Vazquez was a bargain compared to A.J. Burnett's newly-signed five-year, $55MM deal. Let's get an opinion from the other side with AZ Snakepit, which also started in 2005. The post's author, Jim McLennan, was "both enthusiastic and somewhat concerned" about the trade.
It seems to me that this trade was mostly properly evaluated when it was made. The Sox would eventually miss Young, but not in 2006. I think Neyer's commenter's general point was that Young hasn't been quite as good as advertised, with a career OBP of .301 in two-plus seasons.
White Sox Sign Daryle Ward
According to Bobbie Dittmeier of MLB.com, the White Sox signed first baseman/outfielder Daryle Ward and assigned him to Triple A Charlotte. In fact, Ward already homered for the team yesterday. He had been playing in the Atlantic League after the Reds let him go.
Ward, 34 in June, hit .216./.319/.402 in 119 plate appearances for the Cubs last year.
Owens Opts For Free Agency
According to the Chicago Tribune, outfielder Jerry Owens has opted for free agency rather than accept an assignment to Triple-A Charlotte.
Odds & Ends: Bowden, Owens, Flores
Links for Thursday…
- MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo and ESPN's Jason Churchill say high school catcher Luke Bailey is having Tommy John surgery. He might fall out of the top 20 in the draft, says Churchill.
- Thom Loverro of The Washington Times transcribes all kinds of amusing comments made by former Nationals GM Jim Bowden earlier this month. Bowden touched upon Stephen Strasburg, Mark Teixeira, and Aaron Crow.
- Alex Speier of WEEI notes that free agency hasn't done much for the Red Sox recently, outside of the Tim Wakefield and David Ortiz bargain signings.
- ESPN's Jim Caple talked to pitcher Jeff Zimmerman, who is on the comeback trail with the Mariners.
- Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune notes that White Sox outfielder Jerry Owens may be on the way out. It sounds like Scott Podsednik is coming up, but there will be no roster move today.
- Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post says Rockies reliever Randy Flores, currently in Triple A, is debating whether to opt out of his contract.
- Zach Berman of the Washington Post gathered quotes on new Nationals pitcher Logan Kensing.
- Tonight at 10pm CST, Seth Stohs and Twins pitcher Glen Perkins will co-host the MN GameNight radio show.