Uncategorized News & Rumors

If you follow @mlbtraderumors on Twitter, then you may have seen today that the Indians announced via @tribeinsider: "Shapiro stated this am that Eric Wedge and his staff will remain in their positions the rest of this season".

Anthony Castrovince suggested they may stick around beyond 2009, adding that "Shapiro said today's announcement is … the next step in a continuing conversation with ownership about the direction of the club. All parties involved felt it important to remove all clouds of doubt about Wedge's security and make the most of the second half, from a player development standpoint." Wedge is signed through 2010.

It's a slow night in Rumorville, so let's go a little off-base and talk about players we'd like to see in this year's All Star Game. No, we're not going to bother talking about position players since fans are allowed to vote for those guys, instead let's talk about which pitchers we think should start the game.

Here's some of the deserving candidates from the American League:

• Zack Greinke: 2.00 ERA in 121.1 IP, both tops in the bigs
• Roy Halladay: 2.79 ERA and tied for the league lead with 10 wins
• Justin Verlander: leads the AL with 130 K and the majors with 10.70 K/9

And now, the senior circuit:

• Dan Haren: 113-15 K/BB ratio & 0.81 WHIP are by far the best in baseball, second to Greinke with a 2.19 ERA
• Josh Johnson: 7-1 record with a 2.76 ERA
• Tim Lincecum: leads the majors with 141 K, holding opponents to a .218 AVG

I've only picked a select few, so don't get upset if I'd didn't list the pitchers you think should start the game above. If it was up to me, I'd go with Greinke and Haren. What about you guys?

The NL East is baseball's tightest division, with four teams no more than two games out of first place. One of those teams is the 39-40 Atlanta Braves, who wouldn't mind adding a bat even after acquiring Nate McLouth. We've seen Javier Vazquez and Yunel Escobar mentioned as possible trade bait, both of whom could bring back a significant piece or two.

What do you guys think, should the Braves trade for a big bat (Matt Holliday?) and try to make a run for the division crown, or should they sit back and try to compete with what they have while looking towards the future?

Last offseason we watched as many established veterans, some former All-Stars, settled for one year contracts in the tough economic climate. Some players were just holding on for one last year, others were looking to earn themselves a multi-year deal after proving their worth in 2009.

Let's discuss how these players have performed, and whether or not they've put themselves in position to land that big contract after the season. Here's some players who fit the bill:

• Bobby Abreu: .299-.399-.441 in 308 plate appearances. The Angels are paying him just $5MM this year, but he'll turn 36 in Spring Training.
• Rocco Baldelli: .289-.349-.487 in just 83 plate appearances. Still just 27, Rocco's guaranteed only $500k but has an incentive laden contract.
• Jon Garland: 4.81 ERA in 16 starts. After making $7.25MM this year he has a mutual option worth $10MM in the offseason. He'll turn 30 in September.
• Orlando Hudson: .294-.362-.425 in 357 plate appearances. He's making $3.38MM this year with bonuses, and will turn 32 in the offseason.
• Felipe Lopez: .303-.359-.411 in 326 plate appearances. He'll earn $3.5MM in 2009, and is still just 29 years old.
• Carl Pavano: 5.56 ERA in 16 starts. He's guaranteed $1.5M but has over $5MM in incentives in his contract. He'll turn 34 this winter.
• Brad Penny: 4.79 ERA in 15 starts.At age 31, he's making $5MM.

So what do you guys think, have any of these players earned themselves a multi-year contract?

Ben Badler, who's done an excellent job covering the first day of the international free agent signing period, now has a recap of the day's transactions up on Baseball America's website. 

For MLBTR's list of today's signings, check here.  We'll keep tabs as they continue to pour in over the next few weeks.  Keep in mind that Miguel Angel Sano has yet to sign.

Lots of prospects are signing as we kick off the international signing period and we'll keep track of today's deals right here:

Baseball America's Ben Badler predicts which players will receive the biggest bonuses once the international signing period begins tomorrow. As he says, the players are ranked by how much they'll likely receive, not by their talent.

Tomorrow marks the start of the international signing period and ESPN.com's Jorge Arangure Jr. has the latest with just hours to go:

Buster Olney's latest blog post is up:

• Mark DeRosa is "a perfect fit for the Cardinals" and the Indians "got exactly what they wanted" in Chris Perez says Olney.
• Olney says the expectation is that a flurry of signings will occur in final 3 days leading up to the August 17 deadline due to "enormous pressure on teams to stay within the slotting recommendations set by the commissioners office." Here's a quick explanation of slot recommendations.
• In response to the Nyjer Morgan/Lastings Milledge rumors, Olney says Washington is determined to purge their system of dysfunctional players.
• Olney suggests Jason Bay is on pace to land a 4 year, $60MM or 5 year, $70MM contract.

Former Yankee Andy Phillips signed a one-year deal worth $400k to play for the Hiroshima Carp, according to an AP report on ESPN.com. We heard rumblings about the move earlier in the week, but it's now official.