Sunday linkage..
- Heath Bell told Ephraim Fischbein of New York Baseball Digest that he's happy in San Diego, but would like to return to the Mets if the Padres decide to go in a different direction.
- Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News (via Twitter) applauds the Giants' signings of Juan Uribe and Aubrey Huff, who cost the club roughly $3MM each.
- Mark Tracy is excited to be a part of the Rockies along with his father, manager Jim Tracy, writes MLB.com's Thomas Harding. Colorado selected the skipper's son in the 22nd round of the 2010 Draft.
- Contrary to a report late last night, the Angels and Red Sox did not agree to a swap of Gary Matthews Jr. and Mike Lowell over the winter, a major league source told Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
- David Lennon of Newsday (via Twitter) writes that it's an 80% possibility that the Mets non-tender John Maine after this season.
- ESPN's Buster Olney says that the Indians are likely to move some veterans in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, but they could be a dangerous team to face until then because of Fausto Carmona, Justin Masterson, and Jake Westbrook (Insider req'd).
- MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch says to expect negotiations between the Pirates and their top draft picks Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie to go right down to the August 16th signing deadline.
- The Pirates had a long debate about who to take with the second overall pick in last week's draft according to Chuck Finder of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and it wasn't until last weekend that they decided on Jameson over Manny Machado.
- Meanwhile Rob Biertempfel of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says the Pirates won't rush their top prospects. Once those prospects are promoted to the big league team, their minor league roster spots will be filled by players currently on ML roster (after they're optioned down) or by "signing low-cost, minor league free agents."
- Paul Hoynes of The Cleveland Plain Dealer doesn't see the Indians offering anyone but Shin-Soo Choo a multi-year deal, including the resurgent Austin Kearns.
- Newsday's David Lennon thinks it might make sense for the Mets to "consider opening extension talks" with catcher Rod Barajas before the season ends and he hits the free agent market.
Does the Mets’ brass still view Thole as their future catcher? I’d personally take the potential draft picks, especially in a draft as strong as the 2011 class.
I’m not sure they’ve ever been totally confident in Thole as the answer, and he’s not hitting much now.
With all of the youth on the Indians, plus the injury to Sizemore, I see no reason not to keep Kearns around. If someone blows them away with an offer, I would trade him, but if not, I’d see if he wanted to stick around for next year.
Obviously it all depends on his asking price, but resigning Barajas is the total opposite of “buying low, selling high.” His SLG is 100 points higher than his career SLG, so when that evens out, he’s back to a ~.700 OPS player.
“Buy low, sign high, never sell.” The Omar Minaya way. The guy must be a nightmare at the craps table.
Alright, I know Strasburg has had now 2 awesome debuts, even counting that fact he’s now been up against 2 of the worst offenses in baseball. But has anyone else noticed how Storen has helped quietly turn the back end of the Nationals bullpen into something scary to face?
Technically speaking, it’s Clippard who solidified the back-end of the Nationals bullpen. Storen helped lighten the heavy workload on Clippard.
Like johnmiltonrocks, I think extending Kearns makes sense for the Indians. I think Westbrook is gone before the deadline, however. If the Reds are still in it at the break and Homer Bailey’s shoulder is shot, the sinkerballer Westbrook makes perfect sense for Great American Smallpark.
I agree that Westbrook would be a great fit for the Reds. The Reds have nice farm things too. And I hope the Indians are in no rush to let go of Kearns. Their minor league outfielders are just not far enough in their development and Grady is going to be a question mark until he turns up on the field again. They can always move him next season too.
But Kearns’ value might be lower next deadline.
signing huff and uribe was probably the best move this off season. it probably makes most people overlook the derosa signing.
yeah talk about steals of the year Uribe and Huff, especially Uribe have carried the offense on their back the whole season. We finally have something that resembles an offense with Torres,Sanchez,Sandoval,Huff,Uribe,Posey and now Burrell. The best part of our offense no more Rowand or Renteria.
Doesn’t Bell hate the Mets?
i was under the impression that everyone hated the mets.
Yea, so that whole Bell hating the Mets thing. Media made it bigger then it was, obviously.
I think Bell said the same thing like 1-2 years ago about returning to the Mets.
I would love to get him back, but I really oppose trading for relievers and I don’t think San Diego would deal him unless they received a useful piece in return (like a bat whose blocked in the system); the Mets don’t really have that, unless you count Chris Carter, though obviously that wouldn’t be enough to get Bell.
If the Padres were interested in trading Bell back to the Mets, maybe they could send Ben Johnson back to the Padres. If they can find him, that is.
I’m not going to get my hopes up that the Pirates will be able to sign both Taillon and Allie….but man, if they did. If they didn’t sign another pick after those two it would be a really good draft.
I enjoyed reading John Sickels’ analysis of their draft. Tons and tons of pitching, huge emphasis on upside.
Heath Bell would go back to the Mets?! and the Orioles are winning the AL East this year.
David Lennon of Newsday (via Twitter) writes that it’s an 80% possibility that the Mets non-tender John Maine after this season.
What do we need to do in order to improve those odds to 99%?
Anyone else think it’s odd that this story just very directly contradicted what seemed like Gospel here a few months back? The Lowell trade to Texas was never real?
doesn’t it just say the rumor of an Angels/Sox swap of overpaid players was untrue? I didn’t see anything about Texas.
doesn’t it just say the rumor of an Angels/Sox swap of overpaid players was untrue? I didn’t see anything about Texas.
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