Here's a round-up of a few news items floating around the baseball world tonight….
- MLB.com's Jason Beck reports that Detroit might sit out the bidding for the few remaining closers on the market and instead hope that youngsters Ryan Perry, Daniel Schlereth or a healthy Joel Zumaya are able to pick up some saves.
- Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated reports (via Twitter) that the Mets "have debated" the merits of offering Joel Pineiro a two-year contract, but Pineiro wants a deal akin to the three-year, $29.75MM contract that Randy Wolf signed with Milwaukee.
- Corey Brock of MLB.com reports that the Padres will sign an experienced backup catcher "within a few weeks."
- Dave Cameron of the U.S.S. Mariner blog isn't a big fan of Seattle's trade for Casey Kotchman.
- The apparent lack of interest in free agent Jason Giambi means that there's a greater chance he ends up back in Colorado, reports MLB.com's Thomas Harding.
- With Boston's signing of Adrian Beltre, Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas thinks that the Rangers might have leverage to get a more favorable trade for Mike Lowell, should Texas still be interested.
Daniel Schlereth should get the job. Zumaya has had health issues in the past and it just seems that Schlereth, who was picked in the first round of the 08 draft should have some ability to close games. The Mets really need to kick the tires on Piniero.
I agree with Schlereth..and Perry is being groomed to be a closer. I’d often wondered why they don’t try Miner closing. I know he is valuable because he can spot start, or go 5 innings of relief if he has to…but he just isn’t quite good enough to be a full time starter, reminds me a bit of Park. But he has a good out pitch, and is dirt cheap, and does well when he dosen’t inherit any base runners.
Smart Move by the Tigers
is it just me or does the situaion the cardinals are in remind you guys of the phillies? they were also a 88-95 ish payroll team until they began fielding a regular winner when they upped things up to 125MM+.
The Cardinals have been the most regular winning team in the NL the whole decade. Not to mention their 04-05 teams were better than the current Phillies IMO. Philly is a much larger market and had room to grow if they were winning but Stl has been winning for years now and that’s why their payroll is around 100 each year when similar sized cities are closer to 60-70mil. I believe they will bring it up to $110-115 when they extend Pujols to take opportunity of this once in a lifetime player’s prime but they already have a big payroll for the size of the market
Don’t like your website on this one. Tim’s never allowed it.
whoever wrote this article and wrote about securing carpenter long term needs to check his sources..he will be well on the wrong side of the 30 hill and will be a ton cheaper to get him for a few more years after his contract is up.
I know I don’t even live close to St. Louis and I know that Carp is locked up for 3 more years w/ options and Wainwright is locked up for 4 more seasons w/ options. You don’t think about extending players that are under contract for 3-4 more seasons especially pitchers. Not to mention one like Carp who has barely stayed healthy in his career which is a shame because he would definitly be a HOF pitcher if he managed to stay healty for the past few years. If Carps healthy Cards win bottom line. But it really bugs me how many sports writers that are paid to know this stuff have written so many articles about this point w/ locking up Carpenter and Wainwright when each is signed for 3-4 more years and given Carps injury history. You don’t say let’s not sign a FA because we have our ace ONLY signed for 3 more seasons and he has missed more time than he’s played in his current contract and will be 37 when his contract expires. Sports writers regarding this have been completely clueless and it makes me not trust articles about teams I don’t know as much about.
Does anyone know how to stay signed in on Disqus? It’s really starting to bug me everytime I refresh or go to the next rumor it logs me out.
I guess the Dodges will not be picking up Pineiro, they didn’t offer arb. to Wolf or Hudson, maybe they will pick Wang or Sheets and hopefully they stay heathy.
I’m figuring Garland. There is too much risk with Wang (who will not pitch until June anyway) and Sheets wants too much money.
In a few years the Cards will not be looking good. BUT for the next 2-3 they will be fine. Pujols and Carp might become to expensive for future years since that money will be tied up to Holliday.
Carpenter,wainwright,pujols,holliday,molina= core
thats 15+4+15+17+4=38 million for the Core for the next 2 years..not to shabby. by the time albert’s payday comes, they can choose to excercise or deny Carpenter’s 15million option and use money towards albert, so the core value wont exceed 50million. enough with this “the cards will be in trouble for years to come” crap.
not to mention they still have about another 8million dollars in their pockets from money that came off the books in 09′( im including the signing of penny+arb cases).
granted molina’s gonna get his payday as well, it wont be till i believe 2012 and he probably will get in the neighborhood of 10million, likewise with wainwright probably getting what his counterpart Carpenter got, 5 year 63.5miliion.
that still keeps the core under 80million for years to come. im pretty sure with over half of the positions needed..we could field a winning team with a 110M payroll.
Why would Texas offer MORE now for Lowell? He now has a public injury he has to still recover from and he’s still virtually useless to the Red Sox. Just because they have a slightly higher use for him as a backup first baseman (even though he has barely if ever played there before) doesn’t mean Texas now needs him MORE.
Reread what it says, it states the Rangers now have leverage, not that the Rangers would offer more.
Why would they even deal with Boston after they tried to rip them off?
Me fail English. That’s unpossible.
“Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas thinks that the Rangers might have leverage to get a more favorable trade for Mike Lowell”
Durrett is wrong. With the BoSox dealing Kotchman to the M’s, the Sox will demand the same or more from Texas. Otherwise, we’ll just platoon Lowell at DH with Ortiz. In fact, you can expect the Sox to have moved on from the defensively challenged and weak- wristed catching prospect the Rangers previously offered.
wow Tigers are really taking some gambles this offseason. I’m thinking they would be lucky to have similar production out of what they gained from what they lost. I don’t see the moves being disasterous for Detroit but I also don’t think they have bettered their position in the AL Central. I feel the WHITE SOX have improved the most, TWINS a slight improvement, TIGERS stayed even with risk, INDIANS will be down next year (losing Lee hurts) and the ROYALS will again struggle.
Imagine that.. Keith Law dissing the cardinals.. WTF is that guy’s probably with St. Louis? Hey Keith Law, you’re a moron. I’m sure the Cardinals have thought about their future payroll restrictions and plans a little more thoroughly than you my friend. Wainwright and Carp are locked in for 3 or 4 years, and after that Carp’s gonna be in his late 30s so I doubt he’s going to play a factor in our payroll. Sorry pal but you lost all credibility when it comes to talking Cardinal baseball when you failed to vote for Chris Carpenter for Cy Young.
This guy is always after St. Louis and attack at the smallest mistakes
I’m on the fence about Pineiro. He’s a calculated risk. The problem is, Randy Wolf, arguably an equal or lesser pitcher got paid too much by the Brewers. You can say that both pitchers had career years, but I think the difference is that Piniero perfected a new pitch while Wolf had a lucky BABIP. The questions is, can Piniero carry over that sinker to a new ballclub?
On one hand, I’m not sure I want the Mets to be the team to take that chance. On the other, there’s not much of a market out there.
I’d rather see them be overstocked on high upside talent with an acquisition of Ben Sheets. That way, while you do have a lot of question marks an injury risks, there’s a decent chance you’ll be able to get 5 good starters out of these guys:
Santana
Sheets
Pelfrey
Perez
Maine
Neise
Nieve
The Tigers have made some bold moves to clear some much needed space salary wise but not signing one of the remaining closers on the market is not one of them. They have several options in their pen to close out games and if anything they have a surplus of possible closers. Also, while they have not made many huge splashes for the 2010 season, they are set up perfectly for 2011 when they have MILLIONS coming off the books and will be in great shape to re-sign Verlander long term and build with him, Porcello, Cabrera and cast.