A few notes from around the majors to end the work week….
- Tom Krasovic of the Inside The Padres blog passes along word (via Twitter) from Scott Boras that Jarrod Washburn has "turned down offers from multiple clubs" and the money isn't the top issue for the veteran left-hander. We've heard about the Mariners, Royals, Diamondbacks and Indians all having some degree of interest in Washburn.
- Scott Miller of CBSSports.com reports that the Twins "had what they viewed as a workable deal" for Heath Bell in March, but backed off due to worries about Bell's "character issues."
- In response to a reader's mailbag question about whether Jon Garland or Chris Young is more likely to be dealt this summer, MLB.com's Corey Brock instead said (unsurprisingly) that San Diego will get the most calls about Bell if teams want a Padre pitcher. In regards to the Garland/Young choice, you'd have to think that Garland would be the preferred choice of teams looking for a starter. Garland has been a proven innings-eater for a decade, whereas Young has battled injuries for the last two seasons and is currently on San Diego's DL.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports thinks the Angels might have a tough time sustaining their domination of the AL West. Should the club win the division again, Rosenthal says "it’s difficult to imagine them advancing in the playoffs unless they make a trade or two." He notes the Halos might need a right-handed reliever or a slugging third baseman if Scot Shields and/or Brandon Wood, respectively, continue to struggle.
- R.J. Anderson of Fangraphs can't figure out why the Royals released Juan Cruz.
Yeah, Chin or Thompson isn’t an upgrade over Cruz, who was off to a nice start.
5.1 IP, 2 ER, 6 Inherited Runners allowed to score – that’s 8 Runs crossing the plate in just 5.1 IP, or 13.5 runs/9.
To make it worse, he was only brought in one time while the club had the lead. Came in with the bases loaded and 2 out. He promptly walks his first hitter before allowing a two run double.
Bad pitcher
R.J. Anderson of Fangraphs can’t figure out why the Royals released Juan Cruz. – – – This is one of the few moves they’ve done that makes sense, he’s failing so they are trying out other options, makes sense to me
Juan Cruz is hopefully on the first plane to Chicago. The Cubs could use a power veteran arm that knows what to expect in Wrigley. Too many young players in the bullpen. Thoughts?
Maybe I’m in the dark about this, but what character issues does Bell have? I know he can be a loud mouth in the clubhouse, but does anyone know of any specifics? He can’t be worse than Torii Hunter.
Yes, Torii is loud, but he is very, very far from being a player with a character detrimental to the team.
I don’t know, ask Justin Morneau what he thought of sharing a clubhouse with Torii when they got into a fight in 2005 (encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-137047839.html). I didn’t say anything about Torii being a Milton Bradley type. I gave an example of Bell being a loudmouth and said that he can’t be worse than Torii. It’s a fair comparison as the Twins let Hunter go only because they could not afford him, not because of his mouth – so I didn’t know of any other reason not to trade for Bell (so I thought there must be something else). So Hunter wasn’t the worst example I could have used.
Yeah, that Morneau fight was a good point. That surprised me at the time, but not everybody gets along. Aside from that, Torii was often given credit for being a clubhouse stabilizer and keeping a positive attitude in the clubhouses of some mediocre Twins teams over the years.
Yeah, that Morneau fight was a good point. That surprised me at the time, but not everybody gets along. Aside from that, Torii was often given credit for being a clubhouse stabilizer and keeping a positive attitude in the clubhouses of some mediocre Twins teams over the years.
I bet the trade would have included Ben Revere. I’m so glad they didn’t do it.
Where’s he gonna play with the Twins?
Span plays every day and will be for years, Cuddyer is an anchor in the lineup and RF, Delmon has 10x the upside of Revere and is still only 24, and Kubel has quietly become a very decent outfielder and not just a DH. The Twins still have their top prospect OF Aaron Hicks, too, who is only a year or two away from the bigs.
That would be keeping a 5th outfielder on the bench rather than trade him for a stud closer rental.
Bell’s character is great! I would take his confidence and clubhouse comments any day.
Yeah, I hadn’t heard of any “character” issues with Heath Bell either. Maybe they are referring to his struggles to keep his weight under control? That’s the only mark against him I’ve ever heard-from anyone.
I haven’t heard a word about those character issues, but GM Bill Smith, Gardy & Co. has a record of issuing bad attitude players their walking papers, sometimes in error. For example, Garza, Bartlett, and Lohse got on the coaches bad sides, and they were quickly dispatched, which has hurt the Twins in the case of those Rays players. I’m a big fan of Gardenhire, and he clearly runs a tight ship, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s hard not to occasionally second guess how much he sometimes values character over pure baseball skill when choosing players like Punto and now Heath Bell.
In this case, I won’t be surprised if the Twins view of Bell’s character does a quick 180 if Rauch starts getting hammered.
Describe “bad attitude” and how that relates to Heath Bell. Because I have never heard him say or do anything that makes me think he has a bad attitude. I’ve never heard anyone else say it except the Twins.
Does “bad attitude” mean that “Gardenhire doesn’t like him?” If that’s it, the Twins are clearly in the wrong-because it simply means that Gardenhire doesn’t like him, and has nothing to do with Bell’s allegedly “bad attitude”.
I’m not claiming he has a bad attitude, nor am I claiming the Twins are in the right with this stance. I want the Twins to pull the trigger on this one tomorrow.
I know you’re not. I’m blowing steam because things like this get said, and all of sudden Joe Morgan is talking about how there is a question about his character on Sunday Night Baseball. The character issues seems to be Gardenhire doesn’t like him because he’s loud. Ask him to lower his voice, why don’t you, oh, great manager.
Bell doesn’t deserve that label (the bad attitude) being placed on him by the Twins. They don’t have to trade for him if they don’t want him. So don’t trade for him then-but you don’t need to smear him either-see, it’s HIS fault that we just can’t have him on this team!
You have probably guessed I like Bell a heck of a lot more than I like Gardenhire.
Let’s not forget it was Scott Miller and CBS Sports that broke the news on this one, not the Twins.
Good point.
Ah, yes, it’s the reporters fault for reporting it. But someone from the Twins said it to him. Do you think Scott Miller and CBS Sports made this up?
Did I say that, troll?
We all know Morgan can get a bit inventive, shall we say (see his phantom presence in a no hitter). But you do make a good point; many reporters read this site (as they should) and an errant comment can be taken and extrapolated so as it becomes part of the lexicon.
I know you’re not. I’m blowing steam because things like this get said, and all of sudden Joe Morgan is talking about how there is a question about his character on Sunday Night Baseball. The character issues seems to be Gardenhire doesn’t like him because he’s loud. Ask him to lower his voice, why don’t you, oh, great manager.
Bell doesn’t deserve that label (the bad attitude) being placed on him by the Twins. They don’t have to trade for him if they don’t want him. So don’t trade for him then-but you don’t need to smear him either-see, it’s HIS fault that we just can’t have him on this team!
You have probably guessed I like Bell a heck of a lot more than I like Gardenhire.
I’m not claiming he has a bad attitude, nor am I claiming the Twins are in the right with this stance. I want the Twins to pull the trigger on this one tomorrow.
What do you think the Cubs could net from the Angels (or Twins for that matter) for Aramis Ramirez? Brandon Wood and what else?
I don’t think you would get much for Ramirez. Here’s why:
— He’s posted an OPS of 490 so far this year.
— He’s coming off a year where he only played 82 games.
— He’s earning a ton of money ($16m)
— With his options you either have him for 1 more year at $16.6m (player option + buyout) OR you have him for 2/$30m. Unless he just goes crazy I can’t see any way he turns down his player option.
Ramirez is now a negative equity player. There is NO way that he is a 2/$32 or 3/$46 player in today’s market. If the Cub’s move him it will be for salary relief. Finally, if I’m running the Angels I take my chances on Wood rebounding (he’s had less than 50 PA’s) or Izturis stepping in and taking over the 3B duties. While neither possess the upside of Ramirez, they cost a fraction of what A-Ram does. The Angels can spend their money elsewhere to make necessary changes.
crap – meant to reply to nefiisgreat
I’ll agree that he most likely won’t perform up to the value of the options left on his contract, but I think he’ll come close. He has always hit, and we will hit again this season. I don’t have much faith that the Angels will have patience with Wood, they never have in the past, and he’s looked even worse than Ramirez so far. Izturis is a viable option for sure, but the Angels are a team that could handle Ramirez’s contract, and I think that they will look into making an upgrade at some point.
Do you think the Twins would be able to make a bid for Aramis? I imagine they have little payroll flexibility left after the Mauer signing. Do they have any larger contracts they could send back to make the money match up better?
We are two weeks into the season and Rosenthal is predicting that the Angels will have a hard time making it through the playoffs? What?
The Angels are 9-9 so far. having gone 7-2 against the Tigers, Jays and Yankees in their most recent 9 games.
Last year through 18 games the team was 7-11. The team was in shambles after the death of Adenhart and with 3 of their other projected 5 starters on the DL (Lackey, Santana, and Escobar). They had lost Teixeira and K-Rod to FA and were going with unproven starters at 1B (Morales) and SS (Aybar). Aybar had posted an OPS of 573 while Morales had just cracked the 700 mark the game before. That team was a mess.
Of course, that’s not how the season turned out. Aybar and Morales put up huge years. The Angels ended up winning 97 games, sweeping the Red Sox (outscoring them by a margin of 16 to 7) and then hung tough against the World Champs. Arguably, the Angels were the 2nd best team in baseball last year.
My point is, predicting how well teams might do in the post-season after 18 games of baseball is about the dumbest thing ever. There is SOOOO much time left in the season that literally anything can happen. While I do agree that Angel fans should be worried about the lack of production out of Wood and Shields, it’s way too early for any team to go chicken little.
The Red Sox are probably the best example. If anyone thinks this is a team that can’t win 90+ games they are crazy. Bad start + injuries does not equal a team that is doomed. Sure, they may not be good this year, but writing them off this early (as Morosi did last week) is idiotic.
predicting how well any team does in the postseason is stupid. might as well draw names out of a hat for playoff winners. 06cardinals anyone? 08 rays? 07 rockies? its pointless in predicting that sort of stuff. you can make educated guesses on division winners/WC berths but thats about it.
predicting how well any team does in the postseason is stupid. might as well draw names out of a hat for playoff winners. 06cardinals anyone? 08 rays? 07 rockies? its pointless in predicting that sort of stuff. you can make educated guesses on division winners/WC berths but thats about it.
I’m not a fan of Rosenthal at all! I know I am biased because I am an Angel fan, but that guys seems to always have it out for the team. He cuts them down a lot – I used to think it was the East Coast bias, but the EC bias mostly just pays attention to the EC teams and doesn’t single out the Angels or other teams. Rosenthal seems to do that. He is on the local radio and regional team shows and he is always snarky and has an air about himself. I find him to be one of the least reliable sources as far as this stuff goes….But, enough of my biased opinion, I couldn’t agree more that predicting the Angels will flop without huge contributions from Wood and Shields will be their doom. WRONG…Shields wasn’t around at all last year and the bullpen still held up. The Angels haven’t put all thier faith in Shields to carry the load…they went out and got Rodney and have Fuentes to shore up the back end. The thing the Angels success will ride on as far as the bullpen is concerned is the continued “lights out” performance by the young stud, Kevin Jepsen….Jepsen will soon enough find himself as the dominant closer in baseball – if he has the same kind of year as last year (the latter half of the year – he had some problems early on) the Angels bullpen will continue to be very strong. If the starting pitching pans out and the bullpen stays strong, with or without Shields, the Angels could very well go deep into the playoffs and perhaps the series. Remember, they lost in 6 games in the ALCS last year…not bad…I’ll take at least that again this year!
I’m not a fan of Rosenthal at all! I know I am biased because I am an Angel fan, but that guys seems to always have it out for the team. He cuts them down a lot – I used to think it was the East Coast bias, but the EC bias mostly just pays attention to the EC teams and doesn’t single out the Angels or other teams. Rosenthal seems to do that. He is on the local radio and regional team shows and he is always snarky and has an air about himself. I find him to be one of the least reliable sources as far as this stuff goes….But, enough of my biased opinion, I couldn’t agree more that predicting the Angels will flop without huge contributions from Wood and Shields will be their doom. WRONG…Shields wasn’t around at all last year and the bullpen still held up. The Angels haven’t put all thier faith in Shields to carry the load…they went out and got Rodney and have Fuentes to shore up the back end. The thing the Angels success will ride on as far as the bullpen is concerned is the continued “lights out” performance by the young stud, Kevin Jepsen….Jepsen will soon enough find himself as the dominant closer in baseball – if he has the same kind of year as last year (the latter half of the year – he had some problems early on) the Angels bullpen will continue to be very strong. If the starting pitching pans out and the bullpen stays strong, with or without Shields, the Angels could very well go deep into the playoffs and perhaps the series. Remember, they lost in 6 games in the ALCS last year…not bad…I’ll take at least that again this year!
WASHBURN is a joke, its about the money. go away already nobody wants you.
WASHBURN is a joke, its about the money. go away already nobody wants you.
Any team that thinks Heath Bell has “character issues” most likely do not know their butt holes from their elbows. Just saying.
Any team that thinks Heath Bell has “character issues” most likely do not know their butt holes from their elbows. Just saying.
The only character issue there is about Bell would be his maturity. I love Bell, he’s just a goofy big kid. I guess the twins want 24/7 serious players?