As Tommy John's long-lost brother Elton once said, Saturday night's alright for fighting…and also for posting news links.
- The Tribe's quiet offseason is recapped by Paul Hoynes of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, who also looks at how busy the other AL Central teams have been in comparison.
- MLB.com's Marty Noble outlines how he would have handled the Mets' offseason if he had been the GM, both if the team's goal was to contend or to rebuild (Noble's preference).
- Steve Kornacki of MLive.com thinks Justin Verlander's reported five-year, $75MM offer from the Tigers "is too sweet a contract for Verlander to pass on," even without the sixth year that the pitcher wants.
- Mark Sheldon of MLB.com passes along some tidbits from Dusty Baker on the Reds Winter Caravan. Baker said that reliever Mike Lincoln (who last started a major league game in 2000) was a contender for the No. 5 spot in the Reds' rotation, and that the club had considered moving top prospect Yonder Alonso to catcher. John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer sums these ideas up as candidates for the "sometimes-managers-say-the-darnedest-things file."
- MLB.com's Bryan Hoch believes the Yankees have finished their roster tinkering before spring training, and talks to Yankees manager Joe Girardi about New York's offseason moves.
- Chuck Greenberg, the incoming general managing partner of the Texas Rangers, is profiled by Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News.
- MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch was all over the Q&A sessions with Pirates management during the team's PirateFest event. Here is her latest transcript of a similar sessions with various Pittsburgh players.
- Jon Heyman of SI.com tweets his guesses about the destinations of some of the free agent infielders left on the market. He sees Orlando Hudson in Washington, Orlando Cabrera in Cincinnati and Felipe Lopez in St. Louis.
- Count the White Sox out of the running for Johnny Damon or Hank Blalock, says Scott Merkin of MLB.com, since both are too costly for the limited space left in the team's budget. When asked about the possibility of Damon in Chicago, Sox GM Kenny Williams rhetorically asked, "Who is his agent?"
I had that song in my head just before I read this post! Mike Lincoln should not at all be in the running for the 5th spot. Not at all. Yonder Alonso is going to be a great hitter but there is no place for him in the lineup. Instead of packaging Juan Francisco and Yonder Alonso in a trade they should convert him to a catcher this spring and see what happens.
Hank Blalock to the Tigers
Johnny Damon to the Blue Jays are my picks for the two.
What makes you think Alonso can play catcher, though?
Only thing I can think of is that fact that Alonso was a catcher growing up and was drafted there by the Twins before deciding to continue his career at Miami. If he can become at the least serviceable I think they try it, if not find somewhere else for him to play. I do not want to trade a bat like that
Have you gotten to see him much? He’s a really big, thick guy without the athleticism to even play left. He may have been drafted out of high school as a catcher, but Pedro Alvarez was drafted out of high school as a shortstop, and he won’t even stay at third very long. And given how close his bat is to the majors, it would probably slow him down by at least a year and a half to get him ready to play catcher at the big league level, and that’s assuming it was even considered possible. Not crapping on your idealism. I just think it’s a bit like when the Brewers had LaPorta coming up behind Fielder. But hey, they traded LaPorta for a great run of Sabathia.
For once, heyman is right. Those predictions actually seem accurate but with a 70:30 toss up with lopez going to stl or twins.
Heyman is almost always right…Ferrariman I meant to ask you a question actually…Have you and I ever agreed on anything? Seriously…
il concede he is right, but i just dont like him because of his bias nature towards the red sox whom i hate more then the yankees.
no i dont think we have lol..not lately anyways.
I thinks it’s the other way around with it being a 70 percent chance the twins will sign him
Right now, Shapiro should pounce on the FA market and pick thru some of the remaing players left for good bargains. I would sign….
a) Erik Bedard to settle a very young staff @ 1/$5 mil w/ incentives. Maybe they get lucky and he has a year similar to that of Milwood when he signed a 1 year deal with them coming off of an inury and then proceeded to lead the AL in ERA and used that to get a 3 year deal out of Texas.
b) Johnny Damon to play LF and leadoff allowing Sizemore to slip down into the 4 spot @ 1/$4 mil w/ incentives. A 1-5 of Damon, Cabrera, Choo, Sizemore and Hafner could be pretty good.
c) Jose Molina to mentor a very young staff and to back up Santana/Marson @ 1/$1 mil. They’ll get nothing at all offensively but he’s a great defender and calls a good fame. At worst he can be a good mentor to the young catchers and pitchers.
The Indians already signed Mike Redmond to back up Lou Marson. Carlos Santana should start the year in the Majors. The Indians aren’t going anywhere and have nothing to lose.
Have nothing to lose? They can lose a year of control on Santana…
All they have to do is add him to the 40-man. If they are afraid of arbatration they can wait. Evan Longoria and Matt Weiters had the same thing done.
What I was saying is that if he’s promoted to the majors, his service time starts. Why start the service time clock if they aren’t going to be contenders? If they wait until later in the year, they can have him until 2016 because he won’t have a full 6 years under his belt after 2015. However, if they start him in the majors this year, they’ll only have him through 2015, because he’ll hit 6.000 years on the dot.
I disagree, I think Hudson will be either a Twin or a Rockie, and that the Nats are going to sign Adam Kennedy to be honest. They’re very, very far apart on the dollars in the deal and I believe they’re completely content to sign someone who they think be at a better value than Hudson.
the nationals have just as much, if not more money to spend right now as the twins and the rox. If they ( nats ) turn down hudson (or vice versa), why would the rox or twins pay him his 9MM?
yonder alonso as a catcher? thats just dreaming.
i agree verlander is out of his mind to not take 5/75 if he can’t get his 6th year. hopefully that offer doesn’t come off the table.
Did he play catcher in college at all? But yeah it does sound a little odd
I say twins or nats for Hudson, stl or mn for lopez, and the indians or nats will get Kennedy
“When asked about the possibility of Damon in Chicago, Sox GM Kenny Williams rhetorically asked, “Who is his agent?”
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LOL, this is what Damon gets for not taking things into his own hands, because Boras got him that 4 year – 52 million dollar deal with the Yankees 4 years ago he thought Boras could do something like that again.
Damon just doesn’t get it, we all know Boras never does, but watch Damon sign a 1 year 4.5 or 5 million dollar deal this month. How bout dem apples.
Paul Hoynes is a complete utter moron.. He’s been spewing the same vitriole in 23 of his last 25 stories on the Indians. The Indians didn’t committ $ 423 MM in salary during this offseason.. so they must be happy with the team.. or, if they don’t spend money on a marginal 32 year old free agent second baseman, they’re cheap. It never changes with this guy… When the Indians win..it’s pure luck.. when the Indians lose:1. The owner is cheap2. The GM is a dunce3. The Manager needs fired..T W E N T Y T H R E E O F T H EL A S TT W E N T Y F I V E C O L U M N S ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !with the same message. Why anyone would buy a Cleveland Plain Duller newspaper is beyond this author…. STOP THE INSANITY.. stop buying that rag…
One of the worse opening lines for news links I have ever read.
kennedy will never ever be a cardinals again
I know that Hudson was asking for a lot more that people were willing to give, bit has Felipe Lopez said anything about the amount he’s after?
Jim Hendry can kill two birds with one stone by signing Lopez to play 2nd base for the Cubs.
Reason #1 The Cubs need a 2nd baseman like a fish needs water.
Reason #2 By keeping him out of St.Louis, the Cardinals would have to scramble a bit to fill their void at 2nd base.
Jim, please bust out the checkbook on more time for somebody your team needs.
The Cards already have a 2nd baseman with Skip Schmacher…the only reason they want Felipe is to get him to play 3rd because they aren’t sure if they trust Freese to be an everyday player yet. Personally if they Cards get Felipe, they will be stacked top to bottom.