Uncategorized News & Rumors

There are a host of smaller stories floating around, so I will mention them in one post.

Trading Todd Helton seems to be a touchy subject in Denver.  But I don’t think that since Dan O’Dowd made this bed, he has to lie in it.  Yes, the insane contract was his mistake, but if he can do something to improve the team’s outlook and give them the payroll flexibility to compete for the rest of the decade, he has to do it.  Baseball is a business, even if Helton is well-liked and wants to stay in Colorado.  Seems that he might veto any trade though.

Didn’t realize Shawn Chacon‘s contract can be bought out for less than a million in spring training.  I think the Pirates should do this and bring in a decent starter.  Maybe not Tony Armas Jr., but Jon Lieber would be cool if the Phils ate some salary.  If the Bucs can get a little defense going on they could almost contend in the NL Central.  They shouldn’t waste 100 innings on Chacon.

Paul Lo Duca is a free agent after ’07 and wants to talk contract extension. The Mets seem a little reluctant.

Would it make sense to trade Adam Dunn for Brad Penny?

How cool would it be to have the Marlins’ manager on your jury?  AND John Schuerholz in the jury pool for the same case?

Buster Olney reports that the Phils and Padres are kicking around an Aaron Rowand trade.  San Diego would send a reliever for him.

RotoAuthority projects Scott Kazmir for ’07.

This might be a little harder to find than an Excel expert, but it’s worth a shot.  I need to integrate Google Adwords Conversion Tracking with Google Checkout, which is much more difficult than it should be.  Similarly I need to set up Yahoo Conversion Tracking with Checkout.

What’s more, I want to set up Google Analytics to analyze conversions from all sources.

If that was all Greek to you, no worries.  But if that made perfect sense to you and you do this stuff in your sleep, drop me a line at mlbtraderumors@gmail.com.  I’ll pay a flat fee for the project.  Thanks.

Head over to Bucco Blog to read Jake’s interview with the man himself, Bill James.  Interestingly, James calls Freddy Sanchez a "legitimate .330 hitter."

Am I allowed to recommend music here?  I think I am.  This is a good listen.

I’ve got some Nick Markakis projections over at RotoAuthority.  Don’t forget to pick up a copy of my fantasy guide for only $9.99.

Fire Joe Morgan skewers a recent Bill Conlin column.

Sam Mellinger followed Billy Butler around for a day, and it was kind of interesting.

Just received my copy of Graphical Player 2007, and I couldn’t put it down.  It’s a must-have if you have any kind of interest in interpreting baseball stats, and a worthy component of any fantasy baseball arsenal.  Flipping to a random page in this thing might be daunting at first, but the player graphs are pretty straightforward.  It’s cool to watch a player’s midseason progression, especially the young guys.  You’ll see when a pitcher started to trim his walk rate or get more groundballs.  Or when Nick Markakis started cutting down on strikeouts.  Plus the player comments are priceless and often hilarious.  Well worth your $15.  Did I mention that friends of MLBTradeRumors Jeff Sackmann and Craig Brown contributed?

While I am hawking things, I’d like to invite you once again to check out my 2007 player projections.  It’s got numbers, player comments, fantasy baseball tools, and frequent free updates for only $9.99.  

Let’s see what we’ve got today.

The Padres made David Wells a one-year offer, and would like an answer by week’s end.  They’ve also got an offer out to Brian Lawrence.  Should they snag both, that would be some nice depth.

Speaking of Lawrence, the Mariners might be the favorite for his services.  Clever Bill Bavasi…building the world’s most groundballingest pitching staff.  Will it work?  Now to acquire Jake Westbrook somehow. 

The Pirates and Rockies are still involved on Lawrence as well.  The Rox might go after Ramon Ortiz or Bruce Chen if Lawrence doesn’t sign with them.  Colorado would also like to sign Rudy Seanez for the pen.

The Rockies lost Chin-Hui Tsao to the Dodgers.  The once highly regarded Tsao is trying to come back from a torn labrum.

The Giants might consider bailing on Barry Bonds.  They’d have to cook up a reason aside from his amphetamine test.  Buster Olney thinks his knees would be a sufficient excuse, and that the Barry Zito signing and preseason ticket sales free the Giants from a reliance on Bonds.

I’d write about the Nats signing Tony Womack, but c’mon now.  Tony Womack?

Final results of my "expert" fantasy baseball mock draft last night can be found here.  How’d I do? I can’t believe I missed out on Rich Hill.

Joe Hamrahi sat down recently with Twins GM Terry Ryan and snagged an interview for his website, Baseball Digest Daily.  Check it out.

Drays Bay speaks to Rays.com beat writer Bill Chastain.

The Rangers will try defensive whiz Joaquin Arias as a center fielder.

Buster Olney mentions that the A’s and Giants may have interest in free agent reliever Dustin Hermanson.  Here’s a list of the remaining free agent relievers.

The bad boys of…San Diego?

Over at Baseball Prospectus, Nate Silver has a bonus ’07 projection for Sammy Sosa as a Ranger.  Outlook: not so good.

Richard Justice’s educated guess is that Morgan Ensberg will be traded for pitching. While a nasty shoulder bruise sapped his power in ’06, Ensberg still had a Bondsian 20% walk rate.

Also, check out my 2007 projections and fantasy baseball tool, on sale here for $9.99.  At the least you should download and play around with the sample – it contains all projections for the Cubs, White Sox, and Cards.

Here’s what’s been going on around baseball recently.

According to his agent, Antonio Alfonseca signed with the Phils for one year and up to $1.1MM. Elbow woes derailed his 2006 with Texas, but he’s lost some weight and is ready to go.  He still dominates the league in one category.  Philly is a good place to slip into some save opps.

The Pirates have upped their offer to Brian Lawrence.  It’s apparently a Major League deal.  Dejan Kovacevic still thinks the Rockies are the favorite. Colorado is quietly stockpiling useful pitchers.

The Devil Rays could bring back Victor Zambrano, an amusing idea.  Zambrano, 31, hopes to be ready in April following TJ and a flexor muscle tear.

I think I reported the near signing but not the signing – the Mets now have Jorge Sosa.  He’ll turn 29 next spring and at least made some progress with his control in ’06. 

I’ll call them third tier options, because these pitchers probably don’t belong in the Weaver/Ohka class.  The Mets aren’t likely to sign either of those two, so Ken Rosenthal says they’re looking at Jorge Sosa, Ramon Ortiz, and Aaron Sele.  Sosa at least has a decent arm, so he might be the best of the trio.  According to the New York Post, Sosa is close to signing with the Mets.

Rosenthal also mentions that the Padres have some other options aside from David Wells.  They could snag Brian Lawrence, Chan Ho Park, or Jeff Weaver instead.  They’ve also got some interest in trading for Geoff Jenkins to play left.

Some center field options for the Fish include David Murphy, Franklin Gutierrez, B.J. Upton, and Elijah Dukes.  Fantasy leaguers hope it’s Upton.

Ken Rosenthal burst back onto the scene with a slew of new trade and signing rumors for us to mull over.  A summary:

The Cubs are still looking to trade Jacque Jones, who carries a reasonable price tag. Rosenthal says a Cliff Floyd signing is likely, though the Chicago papers reported nothing new on that front earlier this week.  As expected, the Cubs would like a veteran to bridge the gap to center fielder of the future Felix Pie.  Ryan Church, Steve Finley, or Darin Erstad could be that guy.  Bernie Williams is a long shot, though the Cubs do have a good relationship with Scott Boras.

Kevin Towers will speak with David Wells tomorrow.

The D’Backs entertained the notion of trading Chad Tracy for Mike Gonzalez and then acquiring Morgan Ensberg. They couldn’t get a deal done with Pittsburgh, however.  The Bucs refuse to include Chris Duffy in any deal; the Braves wanted him for Gonzalez.  I think Ensberg is primed for a major comeback in 2007. I don’t see how the Astros think they can afford to lose him.

Seems likely Tomo Ohka‘s two offers are from the Nats and Mets.  We know that the Pirates are in there too. The Bucs could end up with Brian Lawrence instead though.

The Astros could put Chad Qualls in the rotation if they are short on starters.  Qualls last started at Triple A in ’04, and it didn’t go well. Relievers converting back to starting seems all the rage this year with the inflated market for starting pitchers.

The Rockies still have interest in Rodrigo Lopez, and they like Ramon Ortiz as well.

Armando Benitez will likely need to prove himself in spring before any team acquires him.

I’m happy to announce that I have chosen a guy named Greg Chandler to help with my fantasy baseball Excel project.  Greg will be helping me re-design the RotoAuthority Fantasy Baseball Guide with the goal of having the product hit the market in a week or so.  I’ve already started posting position rankings on RotoAuthority.com as a sneak peek.  The Guide will cost just $9.99.

Many sincere thanks to all who wrote in with interest in the project.  I believe there were upwards of 60 inquiries from qualified Excel gurus.  Just sifting through all the talent was a project in itself.