On this date in 1974, the Yankees and Giants swapped Bobby Bonds and Bobby Murcer in one of the many deals that had Bonds packing his bags. Now, the Yankees and Giants are preoccupied with something else entirely: trying to reach the World Series. Here are today's links…
- Dodgers assistant GM Logan White isn’t going anywhere. He was a candidate to become the Mets’ next GM, but he’ll be staying with the Dodgers, according to MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick (on Twitter).
- Brandon Inge, who just signed an extension that will keep him in Detroit through 2012, says he hopes to stay there until the Tigers kick him out, according to Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press.
- Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com wonders if the Orioles should make a play for Mark Reynolds. The D'Backs third baseman would instantly become Baltimore's most powerful hitter.
- MLB.com’s Lyle Spencer suggests the Angels rank the best free agent hitters in this order: Carl Crawford, Adrian Beltre, Jayson Werth and Adam Dunn.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post wonders if the Cubs and Angels will pursue Cliff Lee this winter and suggests the lefty has set himself up for a six-year $150MM deal.
How can Sabathia get $161 million, but Lee will only get $150? I think Lee can become the first pitcher to ever average $27+ million in a season.
Which is a ridiculous overpayment especially for a guy that’s already 31 years old at 6yr/150 mil much less 27 million. I can only see Yankees being the only team to bid that much but even then, that’s a huge chunk of payroll he is eating up and you can’t really expect him to pitch how he is pitching right now to the age of 37.
CC got that contract when he was what? 27? They are paying him through 27-33 which are considered prime years.
FYI, Cliff Lee is actually 32 already
Haha even worse but thanks for the correction.
Watch as Lee becomes one of the worst contracts in the league soon.
Pretty simple really. Sabathia was three years younger than Lee will be this offseason when both became free agents. Plus, the “only” $150 million would be $2 million more per season than Sabathia received.
If Lee gets $27M a season it will be the worst contract in baseball history.
He’ll be 38 at the end of a 6 year deal.
At the end of his 7 year deal CC will only be 35.
HUUUUUUUGE difference because Lee is 4 years older than what CC was when he signed his deal (Lee is 32, CC was 28).
Also, CC has had a better track record with injuries…and his overall career.
Lee has been on the DL 3 of the last 5 years. CC went on the DL once in cleveland.
Don’t worry Brandon, they will kick you out when Nick C is ready.
We’re still waiting for Cale Iorg to be ready…
But Iorg isn’t a can’t miss hitter like Castellanos has the potential to become.
Wait what?
“Iorg isn’t a can’t miss hitter like Castellanos has the potential to become” ???
Um….ok? You just said Castellanos has the potential to become a can’t miss hitter.
So do TONS of young players. Andy Marte was a can’t miss hitting prospect at one time
While I do think Castellanos is a better prespect than Iorg, the point that Civilization made is very valid.
Castellanos is just a high school draftee. Could be 4 years before you see him at the hot corner.
I am beyond intrigued by what Nick C can potentially give to the Tigers when he’s ready, which is why I’m strangely content with Brandon Inge being signed for two years. I think they’ll buy him out and give Nick the third base job in two years, but that all depends on his development I guess.
While anything is possible….I think 2 years is very, very optimistic on Castellanos being in Detroit. He fell in the draft not just cause of his high bonus demand, but because he’s not a truely elite prospect.
By saying in 2 years he’ll be in Detroit…..you’re basically saying he’ll be up as quick as Jason Heyward. He’s not in that class of player….not even close.
Mark Reynolds for the O’s…. Because the Garrett Atkins move worked out so well fort them….
Awesome, it means Clay Buchholz will bring his strikeout numbers up.
Here I thought his changeup was good enough to bring his strikeout total up…
Exactly. Declining numbers in the NL West…
As cool as it would be to see the angels get cliff lee…sorry there is no way that is going to happen…
as far as the 4 players mentioned…there still more then likley going to pursue crawford..I dont see them landing Dunn or Werth
As an Angels fan, I say hell no to Lee. If there is one free agent going after this offseason aggressively, its Crawford; and THAT may be a stretch depending on the contract length he’s given.
How about Mark Reynolds to the Braves for Brandon Beachy, Hicks and Stephen Marek.
I think in reality Chipper will only be able to play ~100 games and Reynolds could split 1st with Freeman the remainder of the time.
I don’t have Insider, but apparently there was a rumor the other day on ESPN’s Rumor Mill that Cliff would take a pay cut to play for the Phillies, if they could make room for his salary (IE. Moving Joe Blanton.) Jason Churchill isn’t exactly the most reliable of sources though. Just thought it was interesting with all of these “he’ll go to whoever pays him the most” rumors flying around.
I’m pretty sure that’s BS.
Lee was very ticked the Phillies traded him. My guess is he’d rather play for the Nats than Phillies so he can pitch against them 5 times a year.
Lee is not signing with Philly.
He was annoyed that the Phillies traded him. Who wouldn’t be? I’m sure it wasn’t that they traded him, but that they traded him to the Mariners, who in all honesty, were never in a good position to contend, despite people punching their playoff tickets because of the offseason they had. Cliff has answered to reporters several times that he would come back to play in Philadelphia. If anything, they both have reasons to be ticked at each other. The Phillies offered him an extension, he said no, they restocked the farm system. It’s a part of baseball, and he understands that.
I’m not saying that it’s likely, but the rumor makes sense to me. You can assume whatever you want, but Cliff has stated several times that he’d play for the Phillies again. He’s never across as the type of guy that wants to stuff his pockets, but as the type of guy that wants to win. You’d figure that if they could make room for him, and trade a guy like Joe Blanton, they’d make him an offer for at least 16MM a year, and he may be inclined to accept.
He’d realize as much as the next guy that a rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels would be one of the most feared rotations of all time, and would give him the best chance to win, and make money. The notion that he is “ticked” with the Phillies trading him is not true. Not to the point that he wouldn’t resign with them.
There is no way in hell that he signs a $16M per year deal. Even if you have a sentimental attachment to the Phillies, which I doubt, you don’t leave tens of millions of dollars on the table. He has made like a TOTAL of $17.5 over the past 3 years despite being worth $90M (Fangraphs). He deserves to cash out and he definitely will.
Any team that signs him is going to be a serious contender so he can both stuff his pockets and win.
It boggles my mind how everyone speaks like they know Cliff Lee. I’ll counter that bit of illogical falacy with this: Cliff Lee is a simple guy from Arkansas. 16MM a year to him is like striking gold, and he’d be satisfied with that deal. In all seriousness, I don’t think it’s so ridiculous for a player to take a pay cut to sign with a team. Of course, that was a number I threw off the top of my head.
If it boggles your mind how everyone is speaking like Lee is their buddy let me ask you this. Why did you just do it too?
he was joking… when you follow a sentence with “in all seriousness”, that implies the previous sentence wasn’t serious… maybe Cliff Lee doesn’t have buddies like you because he likes people who can read :-). in all seriousness, I think Lee, like pretty much any player, would take a pay cut (not a huge one, but a couple million dollars a year and maybe a year or two less on the contract) to play for a top contender, as opposed to a wild card contender or worse. see: Beltre (had a better offer from the Athletics at least), Teixeira (Orioles), a few years ago Paul Konerko (also Orioles)… I mean heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Orioles made a big offer to Beltre and/or Lee this offseason, just as a formality.
Apparently, you don’t understand phrases like “illogical fallacy” and “in all seriousness.” It’s okay though, I don’t hate. I think ugen64 summed up my thoughts nicely.
I don’t know what it is about Cliff Lee, but seasons stats don’t match up with his post season stats.
The past 2 years of regular season have been pretty great. Before that… horrible. And we’re looking at 5 postseason outings. If it was 5 regular season starts with a sub-2 ERA, nobody would give it any statistical significance.
Lee could continue to be great. But he also appears to have an ability to be painfully average, and it wouldn’t be a statistical oddity, given his small sample size of success.
In fairness to Lee….he developed his cutter late in during the 2008 offseason….and he’s taken off since.
So while he was kind of average (and sometimes terrible) before 2008….not sure it holds a lot of weight.
Think you mean 3 years…remind us who won the AL Cy Young in 08.
it’s because he doesn’t have to face the Orioles in the postseason. this season they accounted for 31% of his earned runs.
Cliff Lee wont go back to the Phillies, they gave him away to the Mariners in a trade that made absolutely no sense, it would be one thing for a guy to know they made a move to better their team, but with what the Phillies took for Lee should of been illegal, he has a better chance of going back to Seattle than Philly and it still sucks they didnt even attempt to sign him long term, he said that surprised him most about Seattle…they didnt even try. Enjoy Justin Smoak though Seattle, still came out on top given you gave up Aumont and some other garbage for essentially him.
Lee = Most over-rated pitcher in baseball.
He’s only had a sub-4 ERA the past two years. He has 5 great postseason outings – when someone strings together 5 great regular season outings, they’re not in line to be the highest paid pitcher in the game.
This is a guy who could easily become a 4.00 ERA pitcher next year, and it wouldn’t be a statistical surprise. In fact, it’d look alot more like his career average.
He doesn’t deserve to be paid anywhere near CC money. Given his age, he deserves something similar to Doc money – and even then, Doc has a MUCH longer track record of success. Lee *deserves* about $50M/4YR, but the fact he’ll get closer to double that just shows the market irrationality. Short memory spans and the false notion of “clutch” performance.
Past 3 years his ERA has been under 4. 2008, 2009, and 2010……counting is tough isn’t it? lol
Again, he developed that cutter and he has been at a whole new level ever since.
I do agree, IMO he deserves clsoer to Halladay money than CC….but he’s going to get closer to CC money.
Though easily can say he deserves everything that Santana and Zito got…..
I think 5yr/$110M is what he should get…..definitely getting more though.
BTW, Halladay easily could have gotten more but he’s not a guy that’s all about money like Lee is. He just wants to win but if he hit that market, he would easily get a 3-4/25mil per type deal.
The Angels need to get themselves a leadoff hitter before they go splurging on someone like Adam Dunn.
With a good table setting, Dunn can generate a LOT of runs. He is guaranteed 100 or more RBI, and with his OBP, he creates a lot of RBI opportunities for players hitting behind him.
This is a big reason why I think re-signing Vladimir Guerrero would not have meant much. His OBP was about .345, and without Chone Figgins and Bobby Abreu creating runs at the top of that lineup, the middle of that order is dead in the water.
Even Kendry Morales’ OBP is a little low for a middle of the order power hitter.
I agree with you. A high OBP leadoff guy is what the Angels need. CC should be the only big name guy that they go after this offseason. Werth and Dunn would not be as much help as one might think because with guys like Aybar, Izturis, and whoever else at the top of the order arent getting on as much as they should.
However if CC gets too expensive, and he very well could. A cheap option at least for the year might be a combo of Johnny Damon and Ty Wigginton.
Damon cant play LF everyday but can play it some. And who knows how much Morales will be able to play at 1B at least at the start of the year.
So giving Scoscia some options and shuffling 4 guys between LF, 1B, and DH those 4 guys being Damon, Wigginton, Bourjos, and Morales.
Damon still hits for a good average, and has been a high OBP guy over his career.
He wont steal as much but can still get on base. Hit .271 which was down just a bit but still had a .355 OBP and he is durable especially if he DH’s some of the time.
Thoughts?
What the Angels need to do is teach Bourjos to bat leadoff ( = get rid of Mickey Hatcher)
i still say that you could stick morales at 3rd, and shop for the big batt first baseman..
you could lead off with bourjos aybar or izturis…(carl crawford too if they land him as well)
either way it would be a speedy 1-2 in the lineup…
then you would have some good power hitters to get the runs across the plate..
waldon is a great bring up as well and will help the pen next year..
still that #5 spot in the rotation is questionable…(be it kazmir or bell) as is the depth in the pen..
its going to require some strategic thinking for the management…they should hire me 🙂
Just because Reynolds had one bad year but still hit 32 homers dosn’t mean he is declining. He is still young and would become the orioles best power hitter. I think we should offer some of our young pitching for him. Not Matusz maybe Tillman. Atkins only hit like 9 homers the year before we signed him. Reynolds is not like Atkins.