Some links from around the majors as the market for Vladimir Guerrero becomes a little clearer…
- When I looked at possible destinations for Guerrero last week, I listed the Rangers, Angels, Orioles and Blue Jays. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports hears that the Rays are not in on Guerrero, which makes sense, since they already added Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez (Twitter link).
- The Braves would like to trade Kenshin Kawakami this spring, according to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (on Twitter). The Braves have a number of starting pitching options without Kawakami, especially now that they've signed Rodrigo Lopez.
- D'Backs GM Kevin Towers told MLB.com's Steve Gilbert that he considers Kelly Johnson's arbitration case a tough one, but hopes to "create some dialogue" before the sides go to a hearing. As our Arb Tracker shows, Johnson asked for $6.5MM while the D'Backs countered with a $4.7MM offer.
- Longtime Astros right-hander Brandon Backe, who last pitched in the majors in June of 2009 and is recovering from a pair of shoulder operations, told Stephen Goff of the Houston Examiner that he is working toward a possible comeback.
- The Dodgers signed right-hander Merkin Valdez to a minor league deal, according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America. The 29-year-old appeared in two games for the Blue Jays last year after spending parts of three seasons with the Giants.
Merkin? Sounds like a Brian Wilson alias.
Ha. Great name, lousy pitcher. To think, the Dodgers could have had Cla Meredith instead, another lousy pitcher with a great name. Vin used to have a lot of fun with Meredith when he was with San Diego.
Angels will sign Pods, not Vlad. I think it’s 80% Baltimore, 20% Toronto.
I saw Backe Saturday night at a fund-raiser in Pearland, Texas …..looked like he was more interested in drinking and hitting on chicks. He’s done…..and so is his bar he owns.
An athlete drinking and hitting on chicks in the offseason!!!??? DFA immediately
Vladimir is not going back to Texas.
Obviously the Braves have tried to trade KK, they have been working on that all summer, and Lopez, was signed for AAA depth, he is behind a long list of young, talented SP’s for the #5 spot. The only way his signing affects KK, is if some team wants to take a huge chance, and one of their guys they want to catch lightning in the bottle with is gone, so they have to go to plan B. Which I would hate to be plan B to Lopez, as bad as he pitched in 2010
Still pitched 200 innings last year. His rate stats were better than his ERA may suggest, so I say good signing by the Braves getting him on a minor league contract.
Gee…. As a Braves fan, I say get rid of em’ both!
No reason to get rid of Lopez. Of course getting rid of KK’s salary is a priority. If someone puts up 2 million or more they should run with it.
Lopez was a better value than most people think, despite not being a terribly good pitcher. Stolen from FanGraphs:
Player A: 215 IP, 2.46 BB/9, 5.05 K/9, 43.4% GB%, 4.60 xFIP, 88.0 MPH FBv
Player B: 200 IP, 2.52 BB/9, 5.22 K/9, 37.6% GB%, 4.70 xFIP, 88.2 MPH FBv
Player A is Bronson Arroyo, who costs $35MM over 3 years.
Player B is Rodrigo Lopez, who signed a non-guaranteed minor league contract with a ST invite. Sure, there’s more to it than the stats listed above and Arroyo is the better pitcher of the two, but Lopez is basically Arroyo-Lite and costs essentially nothing while Arroyo himself costs as much as Paul Konerko.
Yeah yeah we all saw that article at fangraphs.
Hence the “stolen from FanGraphs,” but… yeah.
Vlad’s 8 million is either for 2 years or in Japan. No major league team is going 8 million per for a DH. Nice try Mr. Agent.
It is possible he got an offer of something like $1M guaranteed and another $7M spread out in incentives based on plate appearances and games started. Other than that it sounds like a bad bluff.
Os should just give Vlad the 8. Atkins was 4.5 and if Vlad hits 2 HRs this season he doubles Atkins production. Thats a good investment by my completely skewed mathematical standards.