Uncategorized

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports published a bunch of predictions for 2009.  The column is a good conversation-starter.  Rosenthal sees Jake Peavy and Roy Halladay being traded this year.  He also expects the Nationals to draft and sign Stephen Strasburg.  Consider this thread the place to preserve your 2009 predictions for posterity.

Baseball America’s Matt Eddy has the latest minor league signings.  A few of note:

• White Sox signed Tim Raines Jr.
• Rockies signed Damian Moss
• Marlins signed Levale Speigner

Barry Bloom reports that Donald Fehr met with the media today and the head of the Player’s Association offered his thoughts on the potential of baseball instituting a salary cap.

"We’ve been down this road before and we saw where this led us," Fehr said during a 25-minute interview with about a half-dozen members of the media. "We spent an awful lot of time after the strike and again in 2002 and 2006, tying revenue sharing to the competitive balance tax and the free-agency system…It’s difficult for me to envision a situation where we’d make a wholesale change in the system. It’s nearly impossible for me believe that the players would be in favor of a salary cap."

These comments come only a few weeks after John Henry and Larry Luccino of the Red Sox made it known that they favor a salary cap in baseball.

Recently, Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said he expects baseball to institute a "much broader salary structure," but that he doesn’t necessarily favor a salary cap, noting that if it comes with a minimum (salary floor) he "can’t afford to run [his] business."

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

The latest minor league signings, courtesy of Matt Eddy of Baseball America.

I wrote an article about the ten best remaining free agents over at Spring Training ’09.  Check it out.

In a blog post this morning, ESPN’s Peter Gammons wrote:

Major League Baseball has warned club business people that attendance is expected to be down 17-20 percent in 2009, and it could be worse, especially with franchises like the Padres, Blue Jays, Tigers, Indians, Astros, Rockies and others that could be seriously impacted by the recession.

MLB’s attendance stayed remarkably steady from 2007 to 2008 – 32,785 per game in ’07 vs. 32,543 per game in ’08.  With the average ticket price at $25.40 in ’08, that game could see a total dropoff of around $400MM in ticket revenue.

I am very curious to see how the 2009-10 free agent market shapes up once this lower attendance has been realized.

FRIDAY: More pre-arb signings from Sherman, including Franklin Gutierrez and Hong-Chih Kuo.

THURSDAY: A handful of pre-arbitration signings from Joel Sherman of the New York Post, all at $465K or less, include Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, Chris Iannetta, Howie Kendrick, and Hunter Pence.

There’s been lots of talk about the tough market for free agents this offseason, but some players managed to sign big contracts regardless. Here’s a list of the offseason’s 20 biggest free agent deals (in order of total value):

• $180MM (8 years):Mark Teixeira signed the biggest deal of the offseason with the Yankees.
• $161MM (7 years): C.C. Sabathia signed with the Yanks too, passing on a 5 year $100MM offer from the Brewers. He can opt out after three years, at which point he’ll have $92MM remaining if he chooses to take it.
• $82.5MM (5 years): A.J. Burnett signed with the Yankees after opting out of his deal with the Jays.
• $60MM (4 years): Derek Lowe signed with the Braves after negotiations with the Mets.
• $52MM (4 years): Ryan Dempster signed with the Cubs way back in November.
• $45MM (2 years): Manny Ramirez signed with the Dodgers just this afternoon.
• $37MM (3 years): Francisco Rodriguez signed with the Mets, who added J.J. Putz the next day.
• $36MM (3 years): Oliver Perez chose this deal over a longer term option that averaged a lower salary.
• $31.5MM (3 years): Raul Ibanez signed early on with the Phillies, a move he’s surely happy with.
• $30MM (3 years):Rafael Furcal signed with the Dodgers, but not before infuriating the Braves.
• $30MM (3 years): Milton Bradley signed with the Cubs for up to three years, but some language in the contract protects the Cubs in case Bradley misses considerable time with injuries.
• $23MM (3 years): Kenshin Kawakami signed with the Braves.
• $20.5MM (2 years): Kerry Wood signed with the Indians for two years with a vesting option for a third year.
• $20MM (2 years): Adam Dunn signed with the Nats after some suggested he might only make $5MM.
• 18.5MM (2 years): Edgar Renteria signed a deal that’s been criticized by many, but the Giants can buy him out for $500K after this season if they choose not to pick up his $9.5MM option.
• 17.5MM (2 years): Brian Fuentes signed for at least two years with the Angels.
• 17.5MM (3 years): Casey Blake signed a deal that could keep him in LA for four years.
• $16MM (2 years): Jamie Moyer re-signed with the Phillies for a lot, especially considering he’ll turn 48 just weeks after the deal’s up.
• $16MM (2 years): Pat Burrell signed with the Rays for the essentially the same amount as his former teammate. The difference? Moyer’s 14 years his senior.
• 12.75MM (3 years): Juan Rivera re-signed with the Angels.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post has several more signings of pre-arb players, including Jesse Litsch, Brandon Morrow, and Edinson Volquez.  Most are under $450K.  And another from Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel – Yovani Gallardo signed.  The Royals finished up by signing Billy Butler and Mike Aviles.  The D’Backs are done, with Mark Reynolds being renewed and 21 guys signed.

In a post for the Spring Training ’09 site, I went team by team and assembled a list of the 45 worst contracts in baseball.  Check it out and let me know what you think.