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Padres Rumors: Loretta, Iguchi, Peavy, Barrett

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Tom Krasovic fills us in on the latest with the Padres.

  • Kevin Towers is considering Mark Loretta and Tadahito Iguchi as second base options.  Loretta has expressed interest.  I wonder how this will make the Padres feel; his strong flirtations may turn them off.
  • Jake Peavy will get full no-trade protection for 2008-10, limited for 2011-12.
  • As reported yesterday Towers is in talks for Mark Prior and Josh Towers.  Towers said that himself?  Tampering!
  • The Padres still expect Michael Barrett to accept arby.  Krasovic mentions the Cubs actually considered having Barrett switch positions last year.  Yes!  Barrett should market himself as a third baseman and play the field.
  • The Padres recently talked about a multiyear (probably two year) deal with Mike Cameron.

Chronicle Rumors: Haren, Blanton, Lincecum

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Susan Slusser and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle have an extensive collection of A’s and Giants rumors from Monday’s Winter Meetings mayhem.

  • The asking price for Dan Haren is said to be massive, is in 3-4 blue chippers.  The Tigers might even be willing to part with both Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin for him – wow.  The D’Backs are a bit more gunshy about their top prospects, though most believe Carlos Gonzalez to be available.  I imagine Justin Upton is off limits.
  • The Dodgers are going the hardest after Joe Blanton, with the Mets trailing. 
  • Huston Street is likely to stay put and may even talk extension with the A’s.
  • The authors don’t expect Brian Sabean to get the Tim Lincecum offer he needs to pull the trigger.  But they suggest Sabean’s "interesting" offer could involve Jay Bruce, Edwin Encarnacion, or Alex Rios.

Jays In On Lincecum, Bedard, Bay

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UPDATE, 12-4-07 at 12:34am: Blair has updated his article to reflect the Jays’ interest in Cain and Lincecum.  He says the Giants spent much of the day watching tape of the two, trying to decide which they prefer.  Putting two and two together, maybe the "interesting offer" Brian Sabean spoke of today was Alex Rios?

FROM 12-3-07 at 8:46pm:

The Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair has several new rumors in his column tonight.

  • The Jays’ President, Paul Godfrey, is all about bringing in a big-name Canadian player.  Blair rattles off Jason Bay, Erik Bedard, Ryan Dempster, Rich Harden, and Eric Gagne as available Canada natives.  Of course, not all of those guys would be draws.
  • The Jays are indeed in on Bedard, which is a surprise since starting pitching is a strength of theirs.  This idea has been around since at least May though.  Blair talked to one exec who said the Jays are planning to get "aggressive and creative."  It had been previously thought the Jays would have a low-key winter.
  • Blair talks of somehow sending A.J. Burnett to Baltimore in a Bedard deal, which makes little sense for the O’s even if Burnett would like to play there.  In my estimation the O’s could ask for Alex Rios or Dustin McGowan for Bedard.  The Jays could try to push Adam Lind and Shaun Marcum instead but I don’t see that getting it done.  I could see the O’s asking about Travis Snider as well.
  • Blair says the Jays could get Matt Cain or Tim Lincecum "right away" if they’d offer Rios to the Giants.  Blair even says an expanded deal could send Lind and/or Troy Glaus over to San Francisco as well.  Hmmm.
  • Jordan Bastian of MLB.com isn’t hearing any of this stuff – but he did connect the Jays to…Paul Bako.  Blair and Bastian present two very different stories around the same ballclub.

Padres Working On Trade For A Starter

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The Padres have already signed Greg Maddux and Randy Wolf this winter, but GM Kevin Towers isn’t done.  He’s expecting to finish a trade before the Padres leave Nashville.  Tom Krasovic thinks it might be Mark Prior or Josh Towers.

Both are said to be non-tender candidates, but surely the Cubs and Jays can work out deals rather than lose the pitchers for nothing.  Prior is the high risk high reward guy, Towers is the opposite.

Blue Jays Like Lo Duca, Clement, Armas

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J.P. Ricciardi is going bargain-shopping this winter.  The Jays won’t be in on any big-name free agents.  Instead, names like Paul Lo Duca, Matt Clement, and Tony Armas are on Ricciardi’s shopping list.

The Jays like the idea of pairing Gregg Zaun with another veteran backstop, but don’t want to give out a deal greater than one year.  It doesn’t seem like Lo Duca would go for that, but sometimes the last catcher standing has to settle.  It happened to Bengie Molina in ’06 and he was coming off a decent year.  The Marlins could pluck one of Lo Duca or Michael Barrett and the other one could get screwed.

The Jays have good rotation depth: Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, Casey Janssen, and Gustavo Chacin.  That front three stacks up with anyone’s when healthy.  You can never have too much pitching, however, so projects like Clement and Armas are being considered.  Clement worked with Jays pitching coach Brad Arnsberg in Florida.  The Padres might be the favorite, but plenty of teams are interested.

Jays Likely To Offer Towers Arbitration

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Josh Towers has pretty much proven to be less than useful in the AL East.  However, his peripheral stats aren’t too shabby and most speculate a move to the easier league would turn him into a solid #4 starter.  J.P. Ricciardi knows this, and is likely to offer arbitration to Towers.

Towers is due for a bump from the $2.9MM he made in ’07.  I’ll guess he’ll land in the $3.5-4MM range.  Ricciardi is paying lip service to the idea of keeping Towers around, but he’ll surely explore the trade market for him.  He might be disappointed – no one thought highly enough of Towers to claim him on waivers last August.  Maybe that was related to his criticism of the Jays’ coaching staff a few weeks earlier.

Nonetheless, the Rockies, Padres, and Phillies have all expressed interest in Towers in the past.  Those three clubs are still hunting for pitching. 

Odds and Ends: Kendall, Crisp, Gagne

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I’m back in the swing of things, kind of.  We’re still living out of boxes, but I’ve got a laptop and I’m digging into all the rumors I missed.  Joe did a great job the last couple of days.  Be sure to visit his Yankees blog, River Ave. Blues.  On to today’s random rumors…

  • I’m hearing that Jason Kendall could be a fallback for the Mets if they can’t pry Ramon Hernandez loose from the Orioles.
  • The Blue Jays have about $4MM to spend, and J.P. Ricciardi likes the idea of Michael Barrett splitting time behind the plate with Gregg Zaun.  It seems unlikely, though, because the Padres would have to not offer arbitration to Barrett.  And Barrett would have to take a one-year, $4MM deal.
  • Jamey Newberg discusses the idea of a Coco Crisp for Gerald Laird swap.  He notes that the market for Laird should be picking up, but the Red Sox might prefer to wait to trade Crisp.
  • Haven’t heard this one much yet…how about Eric Gagne for the Houston closer vacancy?  Would Scott Boras present a problem?
  • David Wells could be an option for the Mets, if he doesn’t retire or end up on the West Coast.
  • One free agent from Japan who hasn’t gotten much press is Marc Kroon.  He didn’t catch on in MLB but has been doing well for Yokohama the past few years.  Kroon holds the record for the fastest pitch ever thrown in a Japanese game (161 km/h, which is about 100 mph).  You can see that in this video (the second pitch he throws, the crowd loves it).  Kroon is considering trying the Majors again; he says so on his website (note that his site plays music when you visit). 

Blue Jays, Nationals, Rays Notes

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We’ll start with the Blue Jays. Jordan Bastian has an article up on MLB.com reporting that the Jays have been in contact with Matt Clement. He says that the team has "always liked Matt,"  but added that he think "it depends on what Matt’s looking for a this point."

Indeed, Bastian opines that the club "would likely take a shot on Clement if the pitcher agreed to a Minor League contract with a chance at competing for a job with the Jays." With interest from a few other clubs, that seems unlikely. So this is likely one big non-rumor.

The article also quotes Ricciardi saying that Reed Johnson will be the team’s leadoff hitter in 2008, "for the most part." This would indicate that Matt Stairs is indeed a backup, and it certainly doesn’t bode well for Adam Lind. It surely fuels the speculation that Lind could be traded, as Keith Law noted yesterday.

Finally, the Jays are looking to bring back Sal Fasano to back up Gregg Zaun, though that might not happen until Fasano shops his services at the Winter Meetings, beginning December 3. Note that I am disappointed that Sal doesn’t have his own category here at MLBTR.

On the Rays end, we have reports that Nationals manager Many Acta has attended Elijah Dukes’s games in the Dominican this winter. Dukes’s team is managed by Tim Tolman, the Nats’ third base coach. 7dias.com reports that Dukes has said that "he desperately needs to leave Tampa Bay in order to resuscitate his career."

There’s a note on the Rays possibly being interested in Michael Barrett, but then mentions the forfeiture of the team’s second round pick as a deterrent. Indeed, Barrett may have few options beyond the Padres because of his free agent classification.

Speaking of catchers, if anyone was hoping that the Rays would leave catcher John Jaso (.316/.408/.484 at AA this year) off their 40-man roster, you’re going to be disappointed. The Rays plan to add him prior to Tuesday’s deadline for the Rule 5 draft.

Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues.

A’s Trade Scutaro To Jays

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Billy Beane made a deal with one of his former employees today, shipping utility infielder Marco Scutaro to the Blue Jays for a pair of minor league arms. We know that Billy often values certain players more than others, so let’s see what he got in return.

Kristian Bell, an 11th round pick in 2004, struggled in Advanced A ball this year, posting a 5.33 ERA in 77.2 innings. He struck out just 5.33 per nine, and didn’t even own a 2:1 K/BB ratio. This was the first year that his HR/9 rate climbed above 0.50 — all the way to 1.04. It would appear that he’s a sinkerballer, having a 1.85 groundout to flyout ratio.

The other player, Graham Godfrey, is another groundball guy, with a 1.97 groundout to flyout ratio. He strikes out guys at a slightly better clip than Bell, and kept his BB/9 under 3.00 (2.93) in 2007, his first year of professional ball.

I don’t have much further information on these two guys. Anyone who does, feel free to email me or leave it in the comments.

A final thought occurred to me: Could Scutaro and John McDonald be used in some kind of platoon setting? Scutaro was actually a lot better than Johnny at the plate last year, and isn’t lacking with the glove. Plus, they should make comparable salaries this year. McDonald will make $1.9 million in 2008 (and 2009), while Scutaro is due a raise over his $1.55 million 2007 salary.

Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues.

Odds and Ends: Fukumori, Rivera, Haerther, Walker

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Some small notes from various sources:

  • According to the North County Times, the Padres brought in Japanese righty reliever Kazuo Fukumori for a workout at Petco last week. The Padres haven’t yet been mentioned as suitors for Fukumori. The Rockies, Royals, Rays, and Red Sox have previously been linked to the free agent.
  • New York Daily News writers Bill Madden and Anthony McCarron spoke to sources close to Mariano Rivera, who reveal that the 38-year-old closer could accept the Yankees current offer of three years, $45 million as soon as this weekend. Rivera was seeking a fourth year guaranteed, citing the deal the Mets gave to Billy Wagner before 2006, and the contracts the Yankees are giving teammates Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez. Unfortunately, Rivera doesn’t compare well with any of those signings.
  • As mentioned in the comments, the Blue Jays have claimed former Cardinal Cody Haerther off waivers. Haerther, a left-handed leftfielder, hit .292/.385/.494 in 154 at bats in the minor last year, most of which was spent at AA. He seems to have no immediate spot with the Blue Jays. As we’ve mentioned, left field is pretty jammed, and it’s believed that Haerther can’t adequately handle any other position.
  • The Giants re-signed righty reliever Tyler Walker to a one-year, $750,000 deal. They had declined his $1 million team option before the re-signing. Walker posted a 1.26 ERA last season, striking out nine and walking four in 14.1 IP. He returned to the majors on August 29 last year, after undergoing Tommy John surgery in mid-2006.

    The Yanks fan in me also has to mention that the Giants hired Roberto Kelly as their first base coach.

Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues, a Yankees blog

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