Links for Wednesday, after a roller coaster win by Joey Votto and the Reds…
- GM Doug Melvin told MLB.com's Adam McCalvy that the Brewers won't discuss an extension with Rickie Weeks until the season's over. Weeks, who will hit free agency after 2011, recently switched agents.
- Scott Downs, Jason Frasor, Shawn Camp, Kevin Gregg and John Buck all hit waivers, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). There's no indication that the Blue Jays intend on moving any of their players this month.
- Over at RotoAuthority, Tim Dierkes analyzes the seasons some top second basemen are having.
- Number 18 is an 'ace number' in Japan, so Daisuke Matsuzaka has a clause in his contract ensuring that he gets to wear it. Matsuzaka explained to Alex Speier of WEEI.com that a childhood idol of his, Masumi Kuwata, wore the number for the Yomiuri Giants.
- Ben Kabak of River Ave. Blues calls the Javier Vazquez trade a "true disappointment," but hesitates to label it a "true bust."
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post argues that the Mets should make decisions with the future of the organization in mind, instead of "letting a lame-duck manager make choices" to win as much as possible.
- Manny Ramirez isn't the only Dodger on waivers. As Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times notes (on Twitter), Casey Blake, Jay Gibbons and Scott Podsednik also hit the waiver wire today.
Infield Fly
If Jerry Manuel is making “choices to win as much as possible,” looks like he forgot the “winning” part.
Potrzeba
Trade dice-k.
airohpue13
Good luck. He’s not worth the 20 mil left on his contract for ’11 and ’12.
jwredsox
How about full no trade clause. Money isn’t a problem with him. He is worth 10mil a year
jwredsox
No reason to. Guy is putting up a solid ERA and has an ERA of 3.36 outside of his first 4 starts of the season plus going over an average 6.1 innings in those starts. Plus he is pretty cheap. Fans hate him but he isn’t a bad pitcher.
ugotrpk3113
Does Daisuke also have a clause in his contract that requires him to throw 100 pitches before the fifth inning? Maybe another clause that requires a full minute before he throws the next pitch?
jwredsox
In fairness he has been going 6 innings per start.
John LeClair
Okay, Seriously lets be honest Dice K isn’t the phenomenon we thought he was going to be when he first came over from Japan in 2007. He was Decent in 2007, Great in 2008, Sucked in 09, and Decent again in 2010. But realistically what did you think we were getting when we signed him? I was expecting what we have gotten out of him except for last year. I wasn’t excepting a Ace out of this guy. I really didn’t want to sign him, but once we did, I said okay, he’ll be pretty good I guess, and that is what he has been. Is he worth 10 Million a year? Ehh you could argue a pretty solid point either way, but guess what, we have him and he isn’t going anywhere. So lets make the best of him? Shall we? I Mean come on We have Beckett, Lester, Lackey and Bucholz.. so technically Daisuke is a extremely good number 4 or 5 guy. On a lot of teams he probably would be the number 2 Guy. Maybe Number 1 on teams like Pittsburgh and stuff.
ugotrpk3113
Fourth or Fifth starters should not be making 10 million a year. Ever.
jwredsox
He should in the Red Sox’s deep rotation. If he finishes the season being pretty good he will be worth 10mil according to WAR.
ugotrpk3113
Ill take a pitcher with similar WAR who makes 5-6 million less. That extra money would be nice to put into our lineup…..
Patrick Newman
18 is _the_ ace number in Japan. Hideaki Wakui wears 18 now for Daisuke’s old team, Seibu, but didn’t take the number right away and even then did so with Daisuke’s blessing.
CitizenSnips
That’d be fine and dandy, Sherman, but Jerry refuses to use the same lineup more than once.
dusto
How about Dice’k for Manny?
jwredsox
I would go out on a limb and say that is a bad trade for the Sox.
whitesoxfan424
Casey Blake to the ChiSox… let’s get some more defense at 3B.
the_show
lol Vizquel is doing just fine
bleachercreature
I wouldn’t call the Vasquez trade a bust, even if he contributes nothing for the rest of the season. A disappointment yes, but I would look at the trade as getting a better Cano because I think getting rid of Melky was a huge part of Cano having such a breakout year.
Henry Castellanos
And I was worried Cano wouldn’t have a good season because of melky leaving. Looks like Melky was a distraction
Zack23
So Melky leaving helped Cano double his BB% and increase his power? Yeah, stop making assumptions
bleachercreature
no i think Melky leaving changed his attitude as a whole. About a year or two ago Cano got benched because he didn’t run for a ball, now he’s becoming the heart and sole of the team. This is the first season where Cano has stepped out of that young player, immense potential and into the prime player mvp candidate. Whatever Melky’s influence was, Cano has changed himself around entirely since he left.
jwredsox
His attitude was bad when Melky was on the team. Must’ve been Melky’s fault!
David
or johnny damon, or hideki matsui? maybe it was ian kennedy’s fault.
Henry Castellanos
Joeseph Daniel Votto 2010 National League Most Valueable Player
ellisburks
Go Canada!
BaseballFanatic0707
Will happen only if Pujols doesn’t win the Triple Crown.
Henry Castellanos
Are you aware that Joey Votto is also In that Triple Crown race? And judging by his game yesterday his foot is sleeping on the gas
HummBaby
Perhaps a better tagline would be, “As the Reds find themselves leading after giving up 27 runs in the first 2 games of the series”.
TheReturnOfMrBlanks
Poor Scotty Pods might be on 3 teams in 1 year
jwsox
it would be kind of funny if the whitesox got manny and also got scotty pods back as a 4th outfielder for the play offs
johnsilver
Even funnier if Williams is actually stupid enough to both pay what is left on Ramirez’s 2010 contract AND give the Dodgers and thing back to boot. Like Rios all over again, only at least not a 40M ball and chain tied to this piece of dead weight.
jwsox
rios all over again? you realize he is one of if not the best player on the whitesox roster right there with paul konerko this season..
ZeroZeroZero
If anybody should wearing an ace number its Matsuzaka. When I think of ace, I think of Matsuzaka. Yup. Oh, wait, you said ACE..
jwredsox
I don’t get this joke.
moonraker45
swing and a miss
drumzalicious
the Braves need one of those relievers and could definitely use Pods in the outfield.