Lots to get to as Monday starts to wind down:
- Frankie Piliere of AOL Fanhouse weighs in with his top 100 prospects of 2010. The Top 25 can be found here, while 26-100 are available here.
- In addition to weighing in on Jim Thome, MLB.com's Kelly Thesier reports that the Twins would likely be looking to begin any contract extension with Joe Mauer in 2011, rather than re-work his 2010 deal.
- MLB.com's Lyle Spencer doesn't think the Angels are doing anything else significant this offseason.
- T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com says that the Rangers haven't ruled Ben Sheets out completely, but that the player movement is likely finished in Arlington as well.
- Add MLB.com's Marty Noble to the list of people who don't understand why the Mets acquired Gary Matthews Jr.
- Michael DiRocco of the Florida Times-Union reports that Texas Rangers' draft pick and Florida wide receiver Riley Cooper, practicing this week at the Senior Bowl, has chosen football over baseball.
- The Royals announced infielder Mario Lisson was designated for assignment to clear room on the 40-man roster for Rick Ankiel.
Why don’t the Twins just get over with? They don’t want the contract extension idea on Mauer’s mind throughout the 2010 season…The Twins NEED to lock this guy up now…Before opening day.
I know people will jump all over me because I’m saying this… but I have to wonder if the Twins management has gotten signals from Mauer and his agent that they want to see what the field offers. If Mauer is available the Red Sox will be one of the first in line with a contract offer, the yanks will probably make a competitive offer (Posada will have one year left but he and Mauer could siwtch off catching and DH), if the Mets have money they’ll make an offer, etc.
At this point I think if Mauer signs an extension it’ll be around the all star break or trade deadline. At the deadline, regardless of their position in the playoff race, if the Twins haven’t extended Mauer then they’ll get at least 2 or 3 potentially serious offers for Mauer. At that point the Twins will have to get serious if they want to retain Mauer.
Mauer has also gone on record as saying that he’s pretty much letting the Twins wrap up their offseason spending before he gets into serious talks.
What you’re saying could very well be possible, Purple (I disagree, but hey, I’m biased, haha), but I think negotiations will heat up more as Spring Training approaches.
Damn Twins fans and their bias! Heh
I’m more just throwing a theory out there. I know the Twins have always had the money, the owners have always been a little unwilling to spend it. And from what I’ve seen from Cot’s Contracts, it looks like next year their set to spend a franchise record amount of money. However, they don’t have anything big coming off the books in 2011, they have a lot of guys starting arbitration, and Mauer could easily demand a $20M+ a year contract. So I gotta wonder if Mauer and his agent see the money is outside of Minnesota.
Coming off the Twins’ books next year:
Pavano: $7MM
Punto: $4MM
Rauch: $2.9MM
Crain: $2MM
Condrey: $900K (minimal I know, but a million is a million)
$16.8MM coming off the books, assuming Punto’s atrocious option isn’t picked up. Cuddyer will be receiving a guaranteed $2MM raise, Kubel (assuming his cheap option IS picked up) will get $1.15MM more, and Baker is in line for a $2MM raise.
That leaves $11.65MM coming off the books, assuming no one is traded, non-tendered, etc.
There’s room for a Mauer extension, especially if ownership continues to increase payroll slightly with the advent of Target Field.
Not including arbitration raises or money that will need to be spent to replace outgoing players …
There is just no way to keep Mauer in the fold unless ownership is willing to really blow their budget. I know, new stadium … rich owner … the fact remains the Twins are a wildcard when it comes to future spending. I would hope (for the sake of Twins fans) that ownership does step up and do the right thing. They screwed up on Johan but could really make people forget that with a Mauer signing. I don’t want him to be a Red Sox, Yankee or Met. Minnesota needs the guy.
I forgot about Matt Guerrier and his $3.15MM as well, though I could see him sticking around if he has another good year.
I really hope he signs with the twins and this is coming from a yankee fan. Boston would probably sign him. Then they’d get Adrian Gonzales, it would be bad for the yanks haha. The yankees have #5 prospect Jesus Montero coming up, and he’d probably be ready by then. So the yankees would need to give him a shot. It’s also god for baseball if he resigns with the twins.
Did you read the article?
Kelly is talking about the Twins wanting an extension to be EFFECTIVE in 2011 and beyond. They want his $12.5m owed for 2010 to remain intact. It says nothing about the Twins waiting until 2011 to enact an extension.
Plus, Kelly Theiser is well known to be a twit. So take her reporting with a metric ton of salt.
Who does understand the GMJ to the Mets deal? Seriously. The only defense I’ve heard to that is “the Mets are only paying him $2M in 2 years.” So what… assuming no injuries the Mets have Beltran, Bay, and Francoeur with Martinez probably starting in the minors and Angel Pagan who did a great job off the bench last year. So a fifth outfielder for $2M for 2 years for a guy who’s been an average reliever…
while I agree with your thought, no injuries for the Mets? c’mon
A typical Angel Pagan season is right in line with an expected GMJ type year. GMJ can go 260/340/420. They are similar players and both wildcards.
I don’t think it’s as bad of a trade as everyone else.
Why don’t we just add “most of the known universe” to the “list of people who don’t understand why the Mets acquired Gary Matthews, Jr.?” It probably wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration.
Interesting list of the Top 100 prospects by Piliere. In the top 5, I think I would’ve put Heyward, Strasburg, Jennings, then Stanton, with Montero staying at 5th. From what I’ve read, it seems Stanton COULD turn into that Winfield-esque player but he still has some holes in his swing and needs to bounce back from his mediocre overall 2009 campaign (although his power was impressive).
I’m not gona lie, i was excited to see montero was #5, but upset at the same time, i was hoping he’d be before Stanton.
I’m a Yankee fan, so of course excited for Montero as well, but Stanton is a fantastic defender along with his bat. I can understand why he got the nod. Does anyone know Baseball America’s top 5 prospects for comparison?
They had a link from a different website a couple weeks ago, it might not have been baseball america though.
I don’t see how he could justify Stanton being #2 when his argument is that he’s a future five tool superstar. Jennings and Heyward fit that mold a lot more than Stanton does. The only thing Stanton has over those 2 is power, with the rest of the “tools” all being much more in Heyward and Jennings’s favor.
I agree, that is why I said Heyward and Jennings should have been above Stanton. Not to say he can’t develop into a 5-tool player, but like you said excluding power, Heyward and Jennings are more advanced than Stanton is.
agreed
Didn’t expect to see BOTH Aumont and Gillies in the Top 50…while none of the four the Phils sent to Cleveland make the Top 100.
Highway robbery.
On the prospect list-Bias says yay for Montero and Romine and Betances and McAllister. Knowledge asks why weren’t Heyward and Jennings above Stanton?On Mauer-Twins ownership has the money. Time to spend it.On GMJ-It’s the Wilpons and Omar. For every one good move they make, you’ll get about 5 bad moves. And, even at that, the ‘good move’ (Bay) this year comes with some risk. Regression due to a pitcher’s park, injury, horrid fielding without a giant monstrosity to mask his inability to defend behind him.
Yes, I agree that prospect list was…er, not very good.
What I can’t understand is why so many people think Desmond Jennings should be ranked higher than Mike Stanton, though. Jason Heyward should definitely be in the Top 3-5 of every Top 100 prospect list, but Jennings is more of a 15-20 range guy.
Stanton is the tougher guy to figure out, but based on a)His performance thus far and b)his potential ceiling–I can easily see him cracking the Top 10 of most Top 100 lists as they come out over the next month or so. I think the only reason to possibly rank Jennings higher than Stanton is that Jennings is closer to MLB ready and closer to his ceiling, whereas Stanton still has room to grow.
Having said that, Stanton also has the higher potential to bust, whereas Jennings will be a safer bet going forward due to defense and speed.
That’s my 2.5 cents at least(and this is my first post since the new comment system took effect a few weeks ago–I was ‘StarryEyed’ on Typepad before the new comment system took effect.) 😉
It’s just a lousy prospect list. Friedrich is a nice prospect, but to be that high is ridiculous. He just doesn’t have the upside. Either he’s trying too hard to be different (and putting Heyward outside the top two REEKS of that) or he just has strange values.