Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports has his latest Full Count video up, so let's dive in:
- Mets assistant general manager John Ricco won't replace Omar Minaya as general manager if Minaya is removed from the position. The Mets feel that Ricco is not yet ready for that role.
- Padres owner Jeff Moorad told Rosenthal concretely that the Padres will not trade Adrian Gonzalez this winter. He could, of course, still be moved during the season if things don't go well for San Diego.
- The Pads would be willing to give Gonzalez a three-year deal beyond 2011, but the slugger can certainly do better than that on the free agent market. The Padres won't be able to stay in talks if Gonzalez pursues a deal similar to Mark Teixeira's eight-year, $180MM deal.
- The Tigers will have the money to pursue one or more of the market's top free agents, such as Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford, Adam Dunn, and Jayson Werth. They can also afford to take on a great deal of salary in trades should they choose to go down that road.
- The A's still don't know if they'll end up in San Jose, which makes their financial future difficult to predict.
- Oakland's difficulty in luring free agent position players leads Rosenthal to suggest a trade of Vin Mazzaro in order to acquire the talent they're seeking.
so glad the truth is being exposed on the mets ownership/management day-to-day operations. no point in switching the GM when the owner’s son is pulling all the strings. a bunch of clueless real-estate folks and a former minor-league catcher ( jeff wilpon ) who have no clue how to run a team and are using the mets as some sort of sick on the job training exercise.
Oh yeah, except that in many ways this is “news” that isn’t very new. Much of this organizational issue has been exposed on a number of occasions in the past year, but has been disregarded as an inconvenient truth that many fans just don’t want to face. For some it’s more satisfying to blame these internal problems on the usual suspects, instead of facing the fact that the organizational dysfunction starts right at the top.
that might be the best comment u have ever made
Kevin Towers please.
Kthanxbai
Woah. Trading Vin Mazzaro? That might be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard. The A’s rotation is shaping up to be one of the best young rotations in Baseball. Vin Mazzaro is a huge part of their future…Keep Mazzaro and the rest of the rotation because the A’s have some really good young hitters in the minors that will be able to contribute by 2012…
Chris Carter
Rashun Dixon
Jeremy Barfield
Stephen Parker
Grant Green
Michael Choice
Yordy Cabrera
Max Stassi
Michael Taylor
Jemile Weeks
and Adrian Cardenas
Plus, the A’s could continue to sign players such as Carlos Pena or someone like that and try to compete, or trade them mid-season. Trading Vin Mazzaro though is completey and utterely something that they should not do and will not happen.
I think the point was trading Mazzaro for a good hitter with MLB at-bats to his name–not a “prospect.”
So like Colby Rasmus for example? Yonder Alonso?
Rasmus could make some sense.
Or Vin Mazzaro straight up for Domonic Brown?
Sarcasm?
I don’t know. I guess.
jemile weeks is their 2b of the future. That boy can mash.
sorry to vent this..but after looking at the lineups day in and day out and hearing officials and fans complain about lineup depth..shouldnt a mets line up take advantage of a catcher who can get on base close to 40 percent of the time and put the ball in play and has shown the ability to hold a batting average over .300 … hearing these complaints and envisioning a lineup of thole batting below the 5 spot in the lineup just doesnt make sense and makes more sense in the 2 or 3 spot (if worried about speed)
dont think it’s impossible to feature a lineup of reyes pagan thole wright beltran bay davis 2B next year and it seems like it would solve the problem of lineup depth with a 20 homerun 1B coming out of the 7 hole
If Thole’s numbers were sustainable, sure, bat him second. But he’s not going to be a .400 OBP guy. A 160 PA sample size isn’t much to work with.
agree with you..but looking at his performances at AA and above over the course of the last 2-3 years since he changed his plate approach..theres nothing that seems to prove that this isnt the type of hitter he is..he sees pitches..tough to strike out..puts the ball in play and more often than not will at least make a pitcher work..and differing from castillo..can at least hit a doublethe sample size is small..but this is the type of the hitter that the mets simply have failed to produce or had outside of an aging luis castilllo or a LoDuca in 2006…he was hitting into tough luck earlier in AAA but still was able to go on a tear and bring his numbers up to a respectable level and it looks like the peripherals are something that have shown what he can do as an overall hitter
burying him in the lineup is just something that doesnt make sense on a team that has failed to have any consistent hitter in the lineup over the last 2 years
The good thing about Thole though is he is young, a decent hitter, and plays a good defensive catcher…He doesn’t need to have a .400 OBP to be successfull.
By the way MorneauVP, I have to tell you something. I did some research to back up my Espinosa point that I told you about him being the next Pedroia…Well I was right but the thing is, the comparison’s were because he is the same kind of player in the sense that he is a gritter, plays hard like Pedroia, a catylyst, that kind of stuff like Pedroia. He also has the same batting stance from the right side but I guess I didn’t mean he would be Pedroia in terms of as good of a hitter…But from what we’ve seen over the last week…Maybe he will be right?
Glad to hear SD is committed to keeping A Gone for another season.
Sad to realize even though SD plans on keeping him we still will be assaulted with Bowden, Doubront, Tazawa, Reddick and Lars for A Gone posts all off season long.
Thanks you thank you thank you I was just going to say the exact same thing!!!! But you made it more priceless Dicky…
But I just remember last year from early october to mid-january, 80% of MLBTR posts were Bowden, Doubront, Reddick, Lars, and Tazawa as you said. But like Joe Mauer staying in Minnesota, A-Gon staying in SD means a lot to Baseball fans such as myself and the Petco Faithful
I agree. I love Gonzalez and he is a good fit in SD.
He has been one of the most underrated players for a few years and I hope San Diego gives him the pay day he deserves.
We seem to never agree on anything on these forums, but this is one. probably because Boston is the only viable option however that can afford him with a need and would be willing to meet both monetary and prospect price to either trade during the season, or wait him out via FA when he becomes available.
It would be nice for a change to see a home town player of such super star status either stay there, even if it took a tad less in Gonzalez case. This kind of thing rarely happens in the game anymore like it did a few decades back on occasion. Tex some thought might come “home” to Baltimore, but that would have meant enduring losing for season after season, so nobody could have really blamed him for passing there, but Gonzo is playing for a team in a division that is mostly wide open and has teams that are mostly in turmoil from season to season with no clear cut top dog every year and good organizational leadership.
I for one hope he stays.
I think if San Diego ever threw him an 8 years for 150 million offer in the off season, he would take it. He’d get the guaranteed money before playing out the current contract so he needn’t worry about injury next year hurting his free agent prospects. He’d get to stay in his hometown. Not to mention be compensated highly.
If he’s dead set on Texeira money, then he has to go free agent and get Boston, The Mets (who will be in on him despite Ike), the Dodger (who should have ownership fixed by then), the White Sox, the Cubs, the Rangers (who no longer have Smoak in waiting & new owners) etc. The Braves also will be looking for a franchise player 1b to replace Chipper and pair up with Heyward.
It’s only a foregone conclusion he’ll be going to Boston to Boston’s fans.
ranges have moreland and braves have freeman
Please,no Papi next year. For about 2 million they could bring in more productive hitter in Jim Thome. Thome would rattle balls around Fenway as he is willing to go the other way. Ortiz is selfish by not hitting the other way. He and Drew should never hit agains’t lefties but Tito is afraid to platoon them.
I never thought about Thome is boston, but I like the idea.
It gets him out of the Central and he could have a 35 hr season there…you should call theo
Who have you been watching? Not saying your point on getting Thome is bad (though I say no because betting on a player after having a renaissance at 40 is not a good idea) but Ortiz uses the opposite field pretty often. But you can’t do it all the time because not every pitch can be taken the other way. To say he is selfish about it is not too smart. A Thome is hitting only .237 against lefties. Not sure on the massive you’d get improvement there if he can somehow sustain a .2780 average with 25+ HRs at (like I said) 40. 40!! And David Ortiz has 37 hits to left field in 127 games while Thome has 20 in 93 games. So your point is not a very good one.
Vin Mazzaro shall not be traded… If it’s anyone that should he traded it’s Kouzmanoff as a good defender with a decent bat… This is a guy that hit 24 HR playing 81 games at Petco, AND he’s driven in 80+ RBI’s the past 3 seasons… He might not reach that this year but he will hit 20+ HR in a good hitters park.
What type of value could Vin Mazzaro have? Granted he is 23 (24 later this month) but he has had 200 innings in the majors, a sub 6 K/9, a BB/9 over 3.5, and a FIP over 5. Unless he makes significant strides I don’t see him becoming any better than a 4-5 guy. Feel free to disagree I haven’t watched him play nor looked at scouting reports just going by my first glance at his numbers.
Call up Towers, give him as much as he wants, get him in NY.
Adrian Gonzalez is going to the Orioles in 2012 as a free agent,because the Padres don’t want to pay to Adrian,by the time Red Sox going to have first base from the minors.
Many other teams can get Gonzalez who don’t have any good 1st Baseman. The Blue Jays, for example, would want him.