The city of Montreal will pay tribute to former Expos great Gary Carter by naming a street or other public place in his honor, reports Linda Gyulai of the Montreal Gazette. City officials will consult with the Carter family to find an "appropriate" location to bear the Hall of Famer catcher's name. Carter passed away last Thursday after a lengthy battle with brain cancer.
Some news from around the majors….
- Jim Callis of Baseball America breaks down how much each team will have to spend in the first 10 rounds of the 2012 draft. The Twins top the list, able to spend as much as $12.37MM to sign their 13 picks over the initial 10 rounds, while the Angels ($1.645MM) have the least to spend on their eight picks over the same stretch.
- The draft pool totals will shift if Derrek Lee — the last free agent with compensation attached to him — signs a Major League deal with a new team. As Callis notes, however, it's pretty unlikely that Lee will find such a deal at this point.
- The Pirates and Phillies both passed on signing Dmitri Young after working him out in Florida this months, reports MLB.com's Matthew Leach. Even if Young's baseball comeback falls short, he says the real victory is his improved health, having lost over 70 pounds.
- Jair Jurrjens and Martin Prado are both pleased to still be Braves after a long winter of trade rumors surrounding both men, reports MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
- Ivan Rodriguez isn't prepared to retire and is keeping in shape for a possible job this season, he tells the Associated Press. "It has been a tough market for veterans," Rodriguez said. "There are a lot of guys who have won championships and have playoff experience to offer teams with no jobs. It's hard to believe.''
You’d think that the Blue Jays would pick up Pudge. He accrued 0.4 WAR in 44 games last season. Jeff Mathis has never amassed 0.4 WAR in a single season–or at all, as his career WAR is 1.8. While intangibles are vastly overrated, Pudge would be a good value signing on a contract for approximately $1 MM.
Could you clarify how Mathis has never accrued 0.4 WAR at all? Also, isn’t Mathis already signed at $1MM plus?
Mathis’ WAR (year, games, WAR)
2005: 5 games, 0.0 WAR
2006: 23 games, -0.3 WAR
2007: 59 games, 0.2 WAR
2008: 94 games, -0.3 WAR
2009: 84 games, 0.0 WAR
2010: 68 games, -0.5 WAR
2011: 93 games, -1.0 WAR
In total, he has accrued -1.8 WAR and been worth -7.7 MM. Even though he is owed $1.5 MM, cutting him and signing Rodriguez or replacing him with Brian Jeroloman while Travis d’Arnaud develops would be shrewd.
JJ and Prado- Wren, please sign them longterm. JJ can replace Huddy (I’d decline his option, Huddy’s awesome but he’s aging and you need to open up a spot for Delgado) as the staff vet, and Prado will solve a hole somewhere in the future- be it 1B, 2B, 3B, or LF, at a reasonable price.
Neither guy is a superstar, but they’re very good players, and great to have around.
Another option is to trade Jurrjens and pick up Hudson’s option. That gives them a likely rotation of Hudson, Hanson, Beachy, Teheran, Delgado in 2013. Hanson can be that ‘veteran’ guy, I’d trust him way more than Jurrjens.
Hanson and Jurrjens are Boras clients, so it’s automatically unlikely that the Braves extend either. I’d much rather lock up Hanson though, if they do decide to target one of them.
I think once Hanson proves his worthy of ace money, then we’d have a clearer picture. I don’t see ATL re-signing McCann, unless McCann is willing to leave quite a bit on the table, so they can use that to offer Hanson an extension. But, Hanson needs to show he’s worthy of that kind of investment over the next 2 years.
McCann will get what he wants. You don’t let HOFers go, even if you’re a mid-market team.
McCann isn’t a HOFer just yet. Yes, he’s a great hitter, but you let them go if the mid-market team cannot afford to pay them what he can get on the open market. Just look at fellow mid-market MIN, who paid C Joe Mauer, a paralyzing contract of 8 yrs/$184 million for 2011 to 2018. He’s from MIN, was the #1 draft pick, already a batting champion, but difference is that even though McCann is more durable than Mauer, MIN has the DH spot for the oft-injured Mauer. McCann is one of the worst defenders in the league, and we have his presumed replacement (Bethancourt) in the organization.
MIN traded Mauer’s replacement, Wilson Ramos (WSH), when they signed Mauer to an extension.
No, McCann won’t be looking for Mauer’s contract, but there’s precedence for an elite hitter at a premium position. That’s the scary part.
Though I love McCann and what he brings to the team, I’d love to allocate his presumed contract, figuring to be north of $100 million, to an area where we don’t have a future backstop who is already in the top 8 of catching prospects in MLB and he still hasn’t reached AA. There’s time to figure that out, but I’m not comfortable giving a catcher that kind of money, even if I were the Yankees – who has never paid a catcher a hundred-million dollar contract…for a reason. (NYY’s most expensive deal for a C was to Posada: 4 yrs/$52 million).
If Teheran and Beachy dominate this year we can trade JJ at deadline this year then Hanson in the off-season. Save some money and pick up a couple sick prospects. Rotation of Beachy, Teheran, Medlen, Minor, Delgado in 2014 could be really nasty if all goes well.
As much as I love Prado, I don’t see him fitting in long-term. He’s not a long-term solution because of his hitting. While he gets on-base, he lacks power and speed. You don’t need those, but his defense isn’t the best and though he has gotten on base a lot in his career, we need to see that again in 2012.
I hope ATL doesn’t sign Jurrjens to an extension – not that he’d do it anyway considering he’s a Boras client for a reason. Hudson, even in his age, provides stability. Jurrjens is anything but stable. He’s had only one 200+ IP season in his first 4 full seasons. This is an important season for Hudson. If he can comeback and pull up some decent numbers, I don’t see any reason not to sign a team-friendly 1-2 year deal. But, a lot of that depends on how far along the young arms come.
Hudson’s not going to be stable from now on, with injuries and age, combined with an atrocious infield D.
From now on? So, someone that has been dependable almost his his entire career isn’t going to continue to be because of a minor injury? He’s not that old – turns 36 in July – and is coming off two of his best seasons in ATL, not to mention a season where he had his best strikeout ratio since ’01. His ERA is still under his career average, and that’s with having a porous defense.
An “unstable” Hudson is still more reliable than Jurrjens, in my opinion, and Jurrjens is worth more on the open market. Hudson’s veteran leadership, hometown ties, team-friendly contract possibility, and durability make him the favorite to stick around longer than Jurrjens. I hope JJ has a great 1st half so we can trade him in July, personally.
So the team with the most to spend on their top 13 draft picks has less than $1 million per pick to work with? How in the world was Selig able to pull this off?
It’s going to be interesting to see the 180 on this in the next CBA, once agents and owners realize that enough of the more talented players are going to other sports…
Nats should sign Pudge as back up catcher and then let Flores play out spring training to show teams he is fully healthy, only to trade him in some package with Lannan at the end of spring.
Wikipedia already has the draft order for the 1st round. Both the Tigers and
Angels lack a 1st round and a supplemental pick and their spending limits are set at $2.1m and $1.6m respectively. The Diamondbacks have pick #26 for the 1st round, but no picks in the supplemental round, and they have $3.8m to spend on the draft.
Based on the data from Jim Callis (Baseball America link above), I am assuming that a draft pick nearing the end of the 1st round, perhaps picks #25 – 30, are valued at $1.8m. On the other hand, the #1 overall pick is worth $7.2m. That a lot of spread between the picks.
Now, the Blue Jays have picks #17, #22, #50, #57, #59 and have a spending limit of $8.8m for the first 10 rounds. That’s the fifth highest limit.
The CONCLUSION: 1st round draft picks and supplemental picks HEAVILY impact the total spending limit. The more 1st round and supplemental picks, the better (But I guess that’s an obvious statement).
As an aside, imagine if Kelly Johnson signed elsewhere. The Blue jays would then probably have pick #32 as well, pushing their spending limit above $10m. GM AA might not like the new system, but it looks like he knows how to manipulate it.
The only reason they have the extra first round pick though is because Beede didn’t sign last year.
Yep….the point being, even if the cap constrains your spending, you gained an advantage if it constrains your competitors even more significantly.
Does anyone notice that the author of this article put (1.645 mil) instead of 1.645mil. How do the Angles have a negative amount to spend?
Does anyone really expect poor mouthing/non Rule 4 spending teams like Houston, Oakland, twinkie Town and even to a degree.. St. Louie to all of a sudden double spending on the draft??
Not hardly.. It just means those same, non scouting teams can get/stay cheap with talent and the teams who take advantage are in the same miserable boat as they are.. Sound familiar to a failed plan another person was trying to apply on a grander scale and had no chance of working??
Wow..1.645 mill on 8 picks? That’s rougher than a rhino’s hide.
You do realize the Angels only begin to draft in the 3rd round?
– They lose their 1st round draft pick because of Pujols.
– They don’t gain any supplemental picks
– They lose their 2nd round draft picks because of CJ Wilson.
$1.645m for 3rd round and onwards is thin, but it’s not surprising.
If anything, I feel sorry for the Nats, Royals and Pirate.
Rays and D’backs get no pity because unlike 2011, they each have only one first round draft pick and supplemental pick.
A lot of those veterans without MLB jobs – like himself – that Rodriguez laments are no longer MLB caliber players. Their skills have eroded with age and they are just trying to hang on. Others at the end of the their careers still have outsized egos that want to be paid a good deal more than teams believe they are worth, while still others still insist that they are everyday players and don’t want to be back-ups.
With the drafting limits, doesn’t that just effectively push the big spending back until after the 10th round? I mean, the really talented prospects can either demand to get picked in the first round, or after the 10th. They’ll still get paid. If teams decide to draft them anyway, the players can sit out a year (a la JD Drew et al), go play in Japan or an independent league, or in the case of High School players, have more incentive to go to college (some would argue this isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
If Strausburg were to get drafted this year, he wouldn’t be the #1 overall draft pick. He’d be the first player drafted in the 11th round.
After the 10th round, if I read it correctly, the picks have a soft cap of $100,000. Anything over that counts against their original draft pool total.
I still don’t understand why the Tigers went with Laird instead of Pudge…
He was batting 243. He was given rest. His ba went to 267. He did not like it, so asked to be traded. His desire was granted and sent to the Yankees where he played even less. Why have a problem in the clubhouse again?he saw himself as a second manager. Laird knows the staff and is great in defense.
mmm….Not sure where you get that from. Pudge had a .295 BA in 82 games for the Tigers, but just a .219 for the Yankees in 33 games. Which totals 115 games, in which he had 429 PA. That is a 30 PA lower than the average four per game, but to say that he had playing time issues seems a bit odd.
Laird also didn’t leave quietly, claiming that he deserved a starting job before signing with St. Louis.Both are now back up catchers, where i have to say that Pudge’s defensive numbers seem a bit stronger, while equalling Laird offensively in similar amount of games last year. Then I would take Pudge because he is more experienced, which is what I would want from a backup.
I was in Montreal this past weekend and I saw a few people wearing Carter jerseys and t-shirts. It was a good thing. Glad to see that they remember him.
I would have much rather had Pudge than Laird. Pudge was a big part of the rebirth of the Tigers, and it’s only fair that he’s in the D when they win it all.
Can you please fix this article. It states that the Angels have a negative amount of money to spend. That clearly is incorrect. When a number is placed within ( ) this indicates a negative number…FYI
Not always, and not in this case. We’re not looking at financial books.
The parentheses are used in an editorial rather than financial manner, so it does not mean what you think it means.
-C
About the draft money and how much teams can spend on their picks. I don’t know if I’d trust that 1.6M for the Angels. This is the same organization that said they would only have 15-20M to spend this off season.