Links for Tuesday, as we wait for David Price to throw the first pitch of the All-Star Game to Hanley Ramirez…
- For the second time this month, Torii Hunter lobbied for the Angels to acquire Adam Dunn (MLB.com's Bill Ladson reporting). Hunter's willingness to weigh in on personnel decisions should come as no surprise, given his desire to be a GM one day.
- Adrian Beltre was close to accepting a multiyear offer from the Athletics in the offseason, but he told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle that he felt the Red Sox gave him a better chance to win. Beltre has not had any talks with the Sox about an extension, reports WEEI's Rob Bradford.
- Cliff Lee doesn't know whether proximity to his Arkansas home will impact where he signs, reports ESPN's Richard Durrett.
- MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince responds strongly to C.C. Sabathia's comments made to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Asked about the breakup of the Indians, Sabathia said, "That wasn't our fault. They traded us. That's on them."
- It appears that the Hanshin Tigers will retain Matt Murton for 2011, according to a Sanspo report relayed by NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman.
Torii Hunter as a GM? Oh lord. Guess we don’t have to worry about his team signing any dime a dozen “fake black players”…
Atta Boy, Murton! Love Matt Murton Updates
Well, just to respond to part of Anthony’s article, The Indians finished .500 in 2008 while being 7 out (not including the playoff between the Twins and White Sox). If they had kept CC, chances are they would have made the race interesting as he was starting to pick up steam before that trade.Also, that entire article sounds more like a bitter fan complaining about his team failing than it does an analysis of CC’s comments. Why should CC take ALL the blame, which is what he’s basically implying, for them not making it to the World Series in ’07? There are 25 guys on the team. Heck, the Indians were up 3-1. And CC did not pitch badly in Game 5-6 innings of 4 run ball isn’t anything to write home about, but he didn’t pitch as bad as he did in Game 1.
Also, I kinda laugh at the proximity-to-home-factor playing into where Cliff signs.
Yeah, I remember the “CC wants to play on the west coast near home and CC likes to hit, so he’ll stay in the NL” type of stuff prior to him signing with the Yankees. I would assume the same will be true with Lee.
Didn’t the Yankees outbid the nearest other offer by $60Mil to help extinguish any thoughts of playing near home?
No. They outbid themselves by a year and 40 million or something like that.
The Angels offered nearly the same deal we did to him (a little less money if i recall). The Yanks blinked and offered extra when it may have no been necessary.
Funny what money will do, huh? I think I’d go live at the Gaza strip for the cash CC got (obviously I’m kidding for the folks who take everything on here literally).
Clearly you’re kidding, but I’m in Israel right now studying abroad for the summer, and man, that ain’t a joke around here. I talked to my parents the other day and told them I miss my girlfriend, my dog, and baseball the most.
I’m sorry dude, really. No harm meant friend. It was really the only comparison I could think of. In hindsight, it was insensitive. I live in Canada and can’t imagine what people have to go through in some parts of the world, It makes me feel lucky. You are a much braver person than I. Good luck and best wishes with your studies.
oh, no problem dude. no offense taken. it’s a wild though, being 40 minutes from a war zone, ya know? i see the aid trucks go by every morning. Israel is beautiful, though, definitely worth a visit. Only problem – no baseball. On the other hand, I was here for the entirety of the World Cup, which was pretty sick.
It’s a shame the fighting that goes on in the world. I think I would go nuts without baseball… can you get MLB tv there? What are you studying, if you don’t mind my asking?
yeah, but the games are all when i’m in class or when i’m asleep – 8 hour time difference means i can only occasionally catch a day game if i’m lucky. I’m studying political science – one class on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and another on Islam, Politics, and Terror in the Middle East. Not half bad for a kid from Chicago, ya know?
Good for you man. I guess I forgot about the time difference! Again, good luck, best wishes, and most of all, stay safe!
Worst MLBTradeRumors conversation ever!
Most ignorant MLBTradeRumors post ever!
Lol. I don’t know, I thought it was cool. Not to compare baseball to war but Cub fans kind of know what a war zone is like just because of the crap they take on sites like this just for being Cub fans, ya know? We’re a loyal bunch no matter what.
You say it may not have been necessary, but Cashman spoke about this previously. He said if you want a guy, you can’t top another guy bid by just 1m, that’s not how things work, and you risk losing a guy. You have to give that extra year to guys you want/need.
After 2008 Yankees needed a true ace, if the Angels were going to match the Yankees original 6yr/140m offer, then Cashman wasn’t going to offer 6yrs/145m, he had to go that extra year.
It was mostly scare tactics, however, as I don’t know if the Angels ever made a formal offer.
The Angels offered 140 million over six years. One year and 20 million was the final number the Yankees outbid the field by, and with reason considering NY taxes, and Sabathia’s desire to be on the west coast.
The Angels offered 140 million over six years. One year and 20 million was the final number the Yankees outbid the field by, and with reason considering NY taxes, and Sabathia’s desire to be on the west coast.
Castrovince didn’t say CC should take all the blame. He said he should have taken the brunt of the blame for their failure in 2007 which is accurate as he pitched like crap against the Red Sox.
From a Sox fan perspective, CC deserves minimal blame. He was matched up against Beckett while the guy was positively on fire. Even a quality start doesn’t get them the win in either of his outings.
If you’re going to blame someone for that series, blame the Cleveland offense, the Cleveland bullpen, Joel Skinner and Fausto Carmona. As much as people complain about Sabathia’s performance in the ALCS, Carmona’s game 6 implosion was the final nail in the coffin for the ’07 Indians. Sabathia’s close to the middle of the pack (Somewhere between Carmona on the crap end and Westbrook on the quality end) in terms of people who should be blamed for the ’07 Indians’ collapse.
They had absolutely no shot at retaining him, so they shouldn’t have held on to him when they could have traded him at his highest value. The Indians were under .500 until after the all-star break, so it’s remarkable where they finished that year.
You’re right that he didn’t pitch absolutely terrible in game 5, but overall, CC had a 10.45 ERA in the ALCS. Your Cy Young shouldn’t post those poor of numbers in the ALCS. He deserves most of the blame.
Also, Castrovince isn’t bitter, he is just being defensive to the management, who handled the situation well. He isn’t mad at CC for getting his money. Just defending management because CC basically forced them to trade him, they didn’t just do that on their own, like CC was saying.
Yeah, CC’s comments represent the typical disingenuous Yankees/New York kind of double talk.
Wait, what do you mean “forced them to trade him?” Did he literally ask to get traded? I don’t remember that… but I could be wrong.
No, you’re right. Bad phrasing on my part. What I meant was that he essentially said that they couldn’t afford him. So he kind of backed them into a corner of getting nothing for him. So they were basically forced to trade him to get something in return.
No, you’re right. Bad phrasing on my part. What I meant was that he essentially said that they couldn’t afford him. So he kind of backed them into a corner of getting nothing for him. So they were basically forced to trade him to get something in return.
The problem is that they only ended that far back because they played better in the second half. They were in a hole when they dealt C.C., partly because he was awful for the first six weeks of the season. The Tribe had to deal them because they weren’t competing, and they weren’t competing because C.C. carried over his performance in the ALCS into the following season. He should take SOME blame.
Torii Hunter needs to see a doctor about his verbal diarrhea.
He should give Boras a call and get the name of his doctor.
Why would he do that? Scott Boras’ doctor clearly hasn’t been able to help.
Matt Murton LOL
Matt Murton rules. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
It is sort of unfortunate every championship comes via a great Cleveland player. The Red Sox would still have the curse hanging over their head if they didn’t steal away the Tribe’s superstar Manny Ramirez
I was unaware that 8/160M and 2 20M options way back in 2000 was stealing a player away from anybody, in fact, was over paying in most peoples books because Boston put Ramirez on waivers one time for the waiver fee when he was producing and -0- teams grabbed him. That shows you how much other teams though of that bloated salary and fat mouth/attitude of his,regardless of how well he produced back then.
I think all of this comes from the still raw emotions of the Lebron James situation. The big differnece is this. Lebron James walked away from the Cavs for less money ($30 mil). CC was traded because the Indians couldn’t afford to pay him his worth and he wasn’t willing to take a home discount of about $60 mil. I think the Indians offer was something like 5/90 ($18 mil per). Meanwhile precedent was set by Zito @ 7/$126 and Santana @ 6/$138 w/ an option for another $20 mil if they pick up the option. That coupled with the FACT that the Indians only have a finite amount of money to spend on the other 24 players, why would CC accept less money and accept the fact that his deal might prevent them from paying Lee, Hafner, Martinez, Sizemore, etc their just due when it’s time for their deals to end? So fans can get mad but the reality is that CC would’ve settle for a lot less cash and probably would’ve had a small window of opportunity to compete before the Indians would sell off other pieces of the team and relegate him to being the best pitcer on a mediocre/poor team for the better parts of his career.
I think that in addition to the modern ballplayer wanting to “get their’s” they also want to know that “getting their’s” won’t intefere, or preclude, the team from giving to others and keeping/maintaining a teams collective competetiveness. Imagine if CC stayed. The Indians would be a .500 at best team w/o having Lee and V. Mart beside him. Right after they traded CC, they also sent Blake, Garko and others packing too.
They wouldn’t have traded Lee, Martinez, Blake, or Garko, so they would have had a chance to be above a .500 team, especially with some other pieces on their roster. Quite frankly, if they are slightly above .500 even, that’s all it would take to win the A.L. Central nowadays, and maybe they could have made a run in the playoffs again.
I think that in addition to the modern ballplayer wanting to “get their’s” they also want to know that “getting their’s” won’t intefere, or preclude, the team from giving to others and keeping/maintaining a teams collective competetiveness. Imagine if CC stayed. The Indians would be a .500 at best team w/o having Lee and V. Mart beside him. Right after they traded CC, they also sent Blake, Garko and others packing too.
The Angels need to acquire Carl Crawford in the offseason to play LF. Look to trade Juan Rivera, Scott Kasmir, and a top prospect to the D’backs for Dan Haren by the trade deadline. Also dump Matsui after the season and sign Manny Ramirez to play DH for two years at $10 million a year. 2011 lineup would be sick.
1-Crawford LF
2-Kendrick 2B
3-Abreu-RF
4-Ramirez-DH
5-Morales-1B
6-Hunter-CF
7-Napoli-C
8-Izturis-3B
9-Aybar-SS
Starting pitchers-Weaver, Haren, Santana, Piniero, Saunders
i kind of like what you are going for, but the only problem is that first off, the angels would have to pay ALOT of Kazmir’s salary that is left, and even then im not sure that would get them Haren. and second, its already basically known that the angels do not want manny, they already went through this last year