Blue Jays Rumors

Odds And Ends: Varitek, Pedro, Sheets

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | January 24, 2009 at 9:44am CDT

Links for Saturday morning…

Pedro Martinez isn’t worried that he hasn’t signed yet.
Jason Varitek says he’s still "exchanging offers" with the Red Sox. Scott Boras and Theo Epstein didn’t comment on the talks, which continue slowly.
Buster Olney takes a look at the market for Ben Sheets. He says whoever signs Sheets will get a bargain. Some GMs would be impressed if he gets $20MM over two years.
Nate McLouth isn’t optimistic about his chances of signing a multi-year deal with the Pirates.
Peter Schmuck thinks the O’s should find a way to sign Brian Roberts to a long term contract.
The Blue Jays fired assistant GM Bart Given.
Gordon Wittenmyer breaks down the Cubs’ chances of acquiring Jake Peavy now that the team’s about to change hands.
Richard Justice writes Randy Wolf should have accepted the Astros’ offer.

Odds and Ends: Fogg, Jays, Red Sox, White Sox

By Tim Dierkes | January 23, 2009 at 2:21pm CDT

Links for Friday…

Corey Brock talked to agent Barry Axelrod about the slow-moving free agent market.
The D’Backs still have Will Ohman and Joe Beimel on the radar, but Nick Piecoro believes they’d like to add a starter first.
Red Sox president/CEO Larry Lucchino doesn’t want the team’s dealings with Scott Boras for Mark Teixeira to affect other negotiations.
Josh Fogg hopes to sign soon; possibilities may include the Rockies, Orioles, and Nationals.
The Blue Jays are currently in talks with a Japanese pitcher.
Nolan Ryan comments on the free agent market.
Ed Wade explains his approach to waivers.
Tony Massarotti projects an Opening Day payroll around $135MM for the Red Sox. Michael Silverman examines Boston’s options behind the plate.
South Side Sox have the White Sox around $100MM for their Opening Day payroll.
RotoAuthority lists the hitters projected to earn at least $10 in fantasy value in 2009.

Jays Avoid Arb With Frasor, Bautista

By Tim Dierkes | January 20, 2009 at 2:55pm CDT

Add two more signings for the Jays: Jason Frasor ($1.45MM) and Jose Bautista ($2.4MM). We mentioned Jeremy Accardo ($900K plus incentives) earlier.

Eight More Avoid Arbitration

By Tim Dierkes | January 20, 2009 at 2:13pm CDT

SI.com’s Jon Heyman has seven more players who avoided arbitration today: Jeremy Accardo ($900K), Heath Bell ($1.225MM), Ryan Church ($2.8MM), Gerald Laird ($2.8MM), Javier Lopez ($1.35MM), Bobby Seay ($1.3MM), and Joel Zumaya ($735K). I think next year we’ll put all of these in one constantly-updated post.

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick says Angel Pagan signed for $575K.

Verducci On Hamels, Shields, Lowe, Manny

By Tim Dierkes | January 20, 2009 at 1:08pm CDT

Let’s take a look at the latest from SI.com’s Tom Verducci.

Interesting line: "One journeyman reliever, for instance, turned down a $2 million offer, saying he would retire before taking that kind of money." Many veterans will choose between swallowing their pride and retiring this spring.
Verducci makes a comparison between Cole Hamels and James Shields, who were called up 19 days apart. The extra service time for Hamels gave him Super Two status, meaning he became arbitration-eligible four times instead of three. That decision probably cost the Phillies more than $10MM.
The Mets were willing to give Derek Lowe $14MM per year.
The Giants don’t believe Manny Ramirez is anywhere near a decision right now. He’s a special case for them (they’re not in the market for an outfielder) but they won’t enter a bidding war.
The Blue Jays aren’t interested in Orlando Cabrera; they’re content with Marco Scutaro.

Blue Jays Avoid Arb With Brandon League

By Tim Dierkes | January 19, 2009 at 12:24pm CDT

According to Robert MacLeod of the Globe and Mail, the Blue Jays avoided arbitration with reliever Brandon League by signing him at $640K for ’09. Between injuries, the 25 year-old was solid this year. The strikeout/walk ratio wasn’t pretty, but he got tons of grounders.

Odds And Ends: Garland, Selig, Arbitration

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | January 15, 2009 at 9:38pm CDT

Links for Thursday night:

Nick Piecoro thinks the D’Backs could use Jon Garland to provide some solid innings, but their chances of acquiring him are much lower now that he’s rejected their offer.
Yahoo’s Tim Brown passes along a bizarre Scott Boras quote: "Baseball markets are like breakfast." More specifically, Boras called this market "an Aunt Jemima market."
Bud Selig talked economics with MLB owners and admitted that baseball’s not "recession proof."
Ryan Howard leads an impressive class of players who filed for arbitration.
Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi hasn’t gone to an arbitration hearing yet, and MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian doesn’t expect that streak to end soon.
Rob Neyer likes the depth in the Boston rotation, but he thinks the Mets still need another arm and maybe two.

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Jays, Mets, Red Sox, Nats, Yankees

By Cork Gaines | January 2, 2009 at 1:06pm CDT

On this date 32 years ago, commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended Braves owner Ted Turner for one year for tampering. Turner had announced publicly that the Braves would sign free agent-to-be Gary Matthews. Unfortunately, 30 years later, nobody was disciplined when the Angels signed free agent Gary Matthews Jr. to a $50MM contract. In the first two years of the deal, Matthews has been paid $15MM and his play has been worth -$600K (yes, that is negative) according to Fangraphs. With several big free agents still looking for new teams, will any of them be the next Matthews Jr? Only time will tell. In the meantime, let’s see what is being written in the Blogosphere…

The Eddie Kranepool Society is not worried about Derek Lowe, feeling the deal will get done once the Mets add a fourth option year and sweeten the pot just a tad. They are also putting the Mets front office on notice about the possibility of letting Manny Ramirez slip through their fingers.
Mets Geek feels the Mets still need to add one more piece to their revamped bullpen and suggest Wil Ohman or Joe Beimel are better options as a lefty specialist than what is already in-house.
The Southpaw takes a look at some young players the Jays should try to target in the trade market, with Chin-Lung Hu at the top of the list.
My Baseball Bias is not satisfied with just Mark Teixeira and wants to see the Yankees sign Manny Ramirez.
Fire Brand of the American League makes a case for three players to be the Red Sox fourth outfielder, including Rocco Baldelli, Brad Wilkerson and Eric Byrnes.
MLB Notebook takes a look at how the Nationals could spend the $20MM that would have gone to Mark Teixeira.
River Ave. Blues says this offseason is proving to be a test of just how good Scott Boras can be.
Sully Baseball is running a series of posts breaking down each team’s all-time home grown versus all-time acquired teams. Here he looks at the Astros.

Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com and can be reached here.

Odds and Ends: Bonds, Boras, Snell

By Tim Dierkes | January 1, 2009 at 10:06am CDT

Links for Thursday…

MLBTR had over 3,500 posts in 2008. Thanks for reading! In ’08 we added a Facebook page, a mobile site, and weekly chats while also redesigning the main site. It was my first year working full-time on MLBTR.
Barry Bonds had hip surgery with the intent of playing in 2009, according to John Shea.
The Rays re-signed catcher Michel Hernandez to a minor league deal.
Darren Rovell interviewed Scott Boras.
Ian Snell agrees with Jack Wilson – the Pirates need more players.
A discussion of power/speed players over at RotoAuthority.
The River Avenue Blues writers break down the Johnny Damon contract in a post on Peter Abraham’s blog. They argue that he’s been worth 13MM per year so far.
Mike Berardino expects the Marlins to remain quiet for now, but predicts that they’ll find a bargain or two before Spring Training.
The Toronto Star looks ahead towards a potentially tough year for Toronto sports fans, no thanks to the Blue Jays.
The recent merger of Aaron Miles and the Cubs isn’t well-received at FanGraphs.

Blue Jays Sign Mike Maroth

By Tim Dierkes | December 30, 2008 at 3:08pm CDT

Sportsnet.ca reports that (among others) the Blue Jays signed lefty Mike Maroth to a minor league deal. Maroth, 31, had shoulder surgery in June of 2008. He made 100 starts for the Tigers from 2003-05, but then the injuries began.

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