The Red Sox traded Coco Crisp to the Royals for Ramon Ramirez three years ago today, and four years prior to that the Nationals traded Maicer Izturis and Juan Rivera to the Angels for Jose Guillen. Here's the latest from baseball's two East divisions…
- Infielder Matt Antonelli will undergo a physical on Monday to finalize his major league deal with the Orioles, tweets Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun.
- Orioles GM Dan Duquette didn't sound terribly interested in signing a high-priced DH such as David Ortiz during an interview on WEEI (audio link, 9:00 mark).
- If Liberty Media decided to sell the Braves, Mark Cuban wouldn't pursue the franchise, tweets David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A recent AJC poll showed 95% of readers would like Cuban to buy the team but the eccentric owner told O'Brien that he would prefer to buy a team that is in need of a lot of help. Liberty Media has the right to sell the team after the current CBA expires on December 11th, but there's no evidence that a sale is imminent.
- The Marlins have already scouted Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler, reports MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. The 19-year-old has been working out for teams in the Dominican Republic, and yesterday we heard that the Rangers have scouted him as well.
- The Indians and Grady Sizemore are in "serious discussions" about a reunion, but the Phillies had interest in the outfielder according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter link). Current GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and former GM Pat Gillick visited Sizemore in Arizona on the first day of free agency.
- “The free agent guys haven’t made me any offers,” said Yankees GM Brian Cashman to Dan Martin of The New York Post. “The free agent [market] is moving at a glacial speed. And the category I’m shopping in, I don’t believe guys are jumping off the board this week. The players I’m interested in won’t be coming off the board anytime soon."
Nice to know God has approved of Bell.
Then shouldn’t your name be AdrianGonzalezIsGod?
Heath Bell to the Redsox. Anytime now.
the apparent removal of type A compensation makes that a bit more likely now i think. i still wouldn’t be in favor, though
If he weren’t adamant about closing and could be had on a 2 year deal (maybe 3 if the dollars are right) I would be okay with it, but I don’t really see either one of those things happening.
Although it’s almost certain to happen, I really don’t want it to unless the dollars are low.
Didn’t you guys just sign like 10 closers in the past 2 seasons?
No?
I was over-exaggerating in reference to when they signed Wheeler/Jenks in addition to having Papelbon and Bard.
Speaking of Bard, I’d put him at closer and nab some other late inning relief, but thats just my two cents.
I agree completely. Bring in a bunch low money arms to fight for the rest of the BP spots.
Wheeler/Jenks = 1 closer. Papelbon/Bard = 1 closer.
Yea but you got to know how to pick the right one. Not just go out and spend big money for the sake of spending.
Bell is old and since papelbon has set the price range for closers he more then likely will be looking close to it prob at 40 million. i would just stick with bard as the closer. and sign a couple RP’s who you can get at like 8 or 9 million over 3 years. doesnt matter though the redsox have been moving in the wrong direction since signing crawford anyway. the guy has always been a star on his team and now hes on a team with tons of publicity and that already had stars on their team. and now even the drama that they stirred up just in the month of september and then the alcoholics come out and put their issues out there lol. theo left at the right possible time and ran to a team who hasnt won a series in over 100 years lol. Cubs will win one now before the sox win another.
Red Sox need to make a trade like J. Frasor and Thorton from the White Sox for Crawford and Bowden. Make the money even. That would make the R. Sox better quickly. Jenks could close. Thorton – 7th Bard – 8th Jenks -9th
I can’t fathom how unrealistic and cartoonish that suggestion is.
Matt Thornton would fit in well with the Red Sox, though, but I don’t know if the White Sox would trade him just because of how solid a lefty reliever he is.
It’s easy. Just pretend Tony Reagins is the White Sox GM.
This is wrong in so many ways.
…
Did you know that jenks is BAD
Make the money even? So….
Thorton and Frasor for Crawford, Bowden and $113 mil. Still think that’s realistic? Crawford is going to make more than the entire contracts for both of those guys just in 2012. Certainly you don’t think any team values Crawford now the same way Boston did last year?
From your avatar I’m going to make the safe bet that you don’t like the Red Sox so I’m not inclined to take any criticism you have about the Red Sox seriously.
Typical sox fans. Nobody darn bad mouth the sainted sox. Truth hurts.
ohhh. so thats why the yanks have so many bloated contracts… they let the FA’s go out and shop around for the highest bidder and then they come back to the Yanks and make an offer to Cashman for more than anyone else was willing to spend and Cashman simply signs on the dotted line… now i get it.
Actually, no, that’s not why. But you wouldn’t understand, and I don’t want to waste my time explaining.
And for the record, many teams have bloated contracts. Your beef is with MLB, and the free agent system, not the Yankees. Wells, Zito, Soriano, Zambrano, Howard, etc. etc.
I don’t even like the Yankees and I think this is preposterous.
“In a chat with readers, Bill Center of The San Diego Union-Tribune says Adrian Gonzalez is pushing the Red Sox to look at a several members of the Padres, including strength and conditioning coach Tom Malone and Heath Bell.”
I don’t mean to be critical, but it’s Jim Malone. Not Tom.
Please reconsider purchasing the Braves Mr. Cuban. I promise I will pretend to care about the NBA if you do.
I doubt Cuban wants to put up $500 + mil for a teams with apathetic fan support. In the WC race through game 162 and draws 137,000 fewer fans than last year. A $90 mil payroll is what the fans will support. Team drew 200,000 more than SD and has a payroll $45 mil higher. Liberty’s been pretty good….
You wanna know why no one comes to our games? Our stadium is in the middle of the ghetto. If our stadium was in northern Atlanta instead of the west/southside more people would come to the games because there wouldn’t be a fear of getting killed.
Unless new owners decided to build their own stadium in a better part of town, the Braves are going to be stuck in Turner Field for a long time to come. I can’t imagine there’s any local will to put up the public money to build a new stadium with tax dollars.
Exactly. And that wont happen
People act like we have no fanbase, when were actually one of the most popular teams. Our fans aren’t going to go to a regular season game, and everyone can see that. But when were in the playoffs, it’s a full house. Sorta like the last game of the year against Philly, we sold out. If there is a good reason to go, people forget about the ghetto. And if it wasn’t in the ghetto, it would be packed all year long. But we will never get a new stadium, so it doesn’t even matter.
Isn’t it always full when a team is in the playoffs? except for tampa of course..
Then it’s not a Liberty problem. It’s a stadium problem. The ownership and payroll are fine…
Idk if I’d say our ownership is fine. There OK at best. But I would love a upgrade.
What the heck were they thinking when they originally built Olympic Stadium there then?
you can read anywhere you want about the corruption that engulfed ACOG. the whole organization was a complete and utter disgrace of stupidity and bribery.
It would be nice to actually have a MARTA, which is the subway in ATL, that actually stopped by the baseball stadium. But no they decide to put the stadium south of downtown with no rail connector. It’s a nightmare getting to and from a Braves game at Turner Field.
I wonder if Liberty Media knows how much Braves fans dissaprove of the way they operate when it comes to the team…
blaming liberty sure beats blaming cox and/or gm’s for putting together teams that ‘win’ in the clubhouse but not when it matters, eh?
At least Cox got us to the playoffs.
At Cespedes’ price tag I’d rather target Soler at a much lesser price.
I don’t see how the “Cespedes price tage” is all that bad. Chapman signed a 6 year 30 million dollar deal, even if Cespedes signs a 6 year 40 million dollar deal it’s still less than 7 million a season. For the Yankees that really limits nothing.
The difference between the two is age. If you want a player to start in the next 2 years Soler doesn’t fit that mold at just 19, but if you are willing to wait a while he would be the way to go. The Yankees though are probably looking for someone to take over RF in 2013, so Cespedes probably fits their needs better.
Um, Cashman, aren’t YOU supposed to make the offers to the free agents, not the other way around?
I think Cashman is pretty well vetted on the process. My guess, is that the agents let the teams know the parameters of the deal they are seeking. Why bother making a 4 year offer if management is going to demand a minimum of 7 or 8 (just as an example)?
Not to bash Duquette this early in the game but he doesn’t seem “terribly interested” in doing anything so far.
Go ahead, I give you permission to bash him since he probably won’t do much to help this franchise.
Curious as to why?
I’m just foreshadowing. Over the past decade or so the Orioles have been performing poorly both on the field and off. I just don’t believe that Duquette is the right guy. With the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays having a tight grip on this division I don’t see any room for the Orioles to “take-off”,at least not yet.
How can you say the Rays have a tight grip on the division. When you got a team that can only spend 20% of the yanks and 25% of the sox and has to retool every year because other teams buy their players by overpaying. And speaking of bad stadium situations. the location of the trop is the pits. Can’t get there no easy way and it isn’t that safe going to car. And with all the retired people in Fl there isn’t much handicap parking. Maybe mlb should help build stadiums like the nfl instead of the millionaires and billionaires of baseball pocketing it all.
i like the antonelli signing, could be nothing, but could be more to that team than someone like david ortiz. im no o’s fan, just seemed like a nice move.
Agreed. In most of his interviews so far he has basically said he is going to sit on his hands during free agency and make the team more exciting for next season while not trading our core players.
A lot of contradiction.
I have no idea as to what Duquette is trying to do none whatsoever.
His strengths as the Expos and Red Sox GM were good sound trades and free agent pick ups. Now he wants to build the bench and build from within? Our bench hasn’t been the problem our starting nine has. What also has me ticked, we are heading into the heart of hot stove season, and he’s worried about the draft? I think he has his seasons mixed up, that 10 year layoff has effected his brain!
I think you are looking way too far into him building the bench.
Exactly. I’m not an Orioles fan, but he’s saying all the right things around building from within/the draft.
Clearly something has gone wrong with the player development side. For guys like Matusz, Arrietta, Hobgood, and Tillman to ALL fail to develop has to be a systematic issue. Hopefully that’s something that Duquette recognizes.
Part of it, is that the Coaching stinks.
Another part is Matusz is a pansy.
Arrieta is ok, the Orioles shut him down in 2010 because of a bone spur in his elbow and he didn’t get that same bone spur removed until 2011.
Hobgood, I hear so many complain about him, but I don’t know too much about him myself. As for Tillman, I don’t think he reacted well to Kranitz, he was doing better under Connor and then Connor abrubtly resigned and down went Tillman again.
The merry go round of pitching coaches has to stop. Hiring inept coaches has to stop. Getting rid of that whole entire front office is a must sans Duquette. Angelos sells the team is a must. The strange thing about all this, I just don’t see Duquette as being the guy to build this team through the draft. There have been too many inept attempts at doing that in the past and Duquette’s strengths do not include strong drafts. As for your earlier comment about Antonelli, maybe Duquette think he’s the Jayson Werth of the infield. Gillick picked up Werth and everyone was scratching their heads as to why and then Werth finally bloomed as a player. Problem with that is the Orioles don’t have a coach like Davey Lopes. He helped Werth and he helped Kemp.
He’s saying the right things about international talent and the draft, but I am an Orioles fan, and until he proves me otherwise I live with the presumption that he’s going to fail.
Well not every team can be like bos, nyy, and philly and buy a playoff team. He’s going the way of the bucs, rays, pads. brewers and other small market teams. Build a good teams and compete for a few years until the big bullies come along and buy away all the good players. O’s fan enjoy the rise up of your team but know that the bottom will fall out after awhile and back to the bottom again. How excited was everybody about Pitts still in it at the beginning of August.
I’m starting to like Brian Cashman. I think i’m going to take a week away from New York ya know hit the beach check out the clubs do some real relaxing and when I come back everyones pretty much going to be where they are now and when I check my inbox Prince Fielder or C.J. Wilson will have offers for me to consider signing. I like that!
On Dan Duquette he was brought in to bring in talented international players to that organization. If he is realistic with where that franchise is right now he will do nothing this off season look to build though the trade and try to aquire prospects. It isnt like the O’s havent been used to losing the last 5-10 years or so.
Trust me, no one is signing anything until they engage the Yanks IF they feel the Yanks are interested in their client. I don’t think Fielder fits into that category though my guess is they would love to float the idea that the Yanks want him.
Re: Fielder:
Can he pitch?
– Cash
Any respectful agent would want to flash the idea that the Yankees are interested in their client, the yankees being their will drive up the price. Based on what I have seen from the yankees, if they want the player they will get him. Anything else is usually smoke and mirrors.
A recent AJC poll showed 95% of readers would like Cuban to buy the team but the eccentric owner told O’Brien that he would prefer to buy a team that is in need of a lot of help. Mayday Mayday Mayday (Orioles)! A lot of help is a huge understatement! Maybe, the Orioles could use Mike and the Mechanics an a minority owner, because what the Orioles need is a Miracle. Seriously, though I could deal with Cuban as an owner and maybe get Pat Sajak involved since he is a season ticket holder. I could go for that.
I’ve been to about 10 games and never been stabbed. I actually enjoyed the experience very much.
Matt Antonelli got a major league deal? Pretty shocking considering he hasn’t seen MLB at-bats since 2008 and also has just 500 minor league at-bats over the past three years.
he would have been eligible for the rule 5 draft if he signed a minor league one…had to get put onto the 40 man roster….would likely have been selected
Ortiz should sign a 2 year-16m deal with the Jays with an option for a 3rd year at 9.5m
I can’t wait to watch the Red Sox wallow in last place all season.
Coco would of been a much better and alot cheaper player than the money they wasted on Crawford