Tuesday night linkage..
- Free agent reliever Michael Wuertz says his tryout will be early next week with plans to be finalized in the next day, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Minneapolis. The Twins are expected to attend.
- Signing closer Joe Nathan allowed the Rangers to move Neftali Feliz into the rotation while keeping skipper Ron Washington comfortable by continuing to have an established closer, writes Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com. Nathan inked a two-year, $14.75MM deal with Texas last November, though the club typically doesn't give multi-year deals to relievers.
- There were at least 40 scouts on hand to watch the Orioles today, tweets Eduardo A. Encina of The Baltimore Sun.
- The Mariners reported a financial loss for a fiscal year with a $7.3MM deficit for 2011, writes Greg Johns of MLB.com. This marks just the second time since the opening of Safeco Field that the M's find themselves in the red.
- The bidding groups for the Dodgers appear to have been whittled down to five from seven tonight, a person familiar with the meetings tells Mike Ozanian of Forbes.com. The highest bid was $1.6 billion from Magic Johnson and former baseball exec Stan Kasten, whose purchase would be partially financed by private equity. The lowest bid from the five groups was $1.3 billion.
- Looking at at future payroll commitments, major league assets, farm systems, ownership status, and front office strategies, ESPN.com's Keith Law (Insider sub. req'd) tries to hash out when clubs such as the Mets, Cubs, and Astros will be able to contend.
- The biggest area of uncertainty for the Nationals, outside of their surplus of starting pitchers, seems to be their bench, writes Amanda Comak of The Washington Times.
- Free agent Sergio Mitre will work out for teams in March or April and expects to play in the majors this year, according to Tim (via Twitter).
Why are people bidding so much when McCourt has his hands tied?
Because he doesn’t have his hands tied. In fact his hands are less tied than any other team owner in recent history.
His hands are so untied that he MUST sell… If that’s not having your hands tied, I don’t know what it is then.
Then you don’t know. McCourt was cut a special deal by the bankruptcy court, which is why he’s going to get probably $500m more for the team then he would have if it was sold through the normal MLB process. If that hurts Frank’s feelings then he can always rub some of that money on it and I’m sure he’ll feel much better.
because baseball teams rarely come up for sale, teams like the Dodgers sell for a premium because of their history, the size of the market and the size of the fanbase, and because Mccourt has to sell and everybody knows it, everyone who’s ever wanted a team is throwing wads of cash at his and thus driving up the ultimate selling price.
Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi expect Sergio Mitre to play in the majors too…
Does anyone with the full access want to give the jist of his Mets contention analysis? I’m sure it’s not good but I’m a glutton for punishment and I’m always curious about everything Mets…. even if I don’t think Laws opinion is worth paying for. Apparently, he thinks Royals fans shouldn’t have to pay him for his write ups anyway.
In my opinion, the mets have a decent team. They are scrappy,young players with talent. Hey anything can happen, its baseball!
Don’t have access either but saw this synopsis on another mets blog (Not sure this is allowed here but here goes):
So according to Keith, our New York Mets fit that criteria of being a
bottom feeder and he doesn’t feel they can contend until 2016:
The good news for Mets fans is that the $43 million rathole known
as Santana Bay will close after 2013 with a couple of option buyouts,
after which, assuming that David Wright has sailed for non-bankrupt
shores, they’ll have no significant long-term commitments.
The bad news, aside from the running farce in the ownership suite
is that the new front-office regime’s turnaround hasn’t had enough time
to do more than make sure the ship is facing the right direction. There
are a few potential stars in the system in right-handers Zack Wheeler
and Matt Harvey, both of whom could debut this year if the rotation has
room for them, and outfielder Brandon Nimmo, who’s probably a good four
years off even if the knee trouble is completely behind him, but those
three aren’t enough to be the core of a championship club. And,
unfortunately, they don’t have great assets on the major league roster
to trade for prospects.
New ownership would help, but otherwise the Mets will have to
build through the draft and international markets, which will take
several years unless they get an infusion of cash.
If only certain people would read this (Wilpons, that would be you)…
Keith Law’s insight: first round draft pick: good, everything else: bad
Wheeler has not made it past A+, and Harvey just got a taste of AA…I wouldn’t be making plans to seem them in the Majors this year
you’re probably not missing anything worth reading anyway. I never put any stock into what Law writes. It’s usually nonsense.
O’s better make a trade, this team just isn’t going to win a lot of games this year and we have too many players for too few spots. Either go for the future or the present, but don’t sit on your hands and do nothing.
O’s rotation will be better this year.
Twins have always coveted Wuertz. I believe he’s a hometown kid, too. I hope the tryout goes well, with Zumaya lost he would be a good sign.
Wuertz grew up in Austin MN, so yes he is a hometown “kid.”
I was hopeful for Zumaya, but the final outcome was not unexpected. We really don’t have a “strike out” pitcher other than Perkins, and I do believe that Perkins can sustain a K/9 close to his 9.5 from 2011. Wuertz had down numbers in 2011 (8.6), but has a career K/9 of 9.6.
Interesting fact: If Perkins and Wuertz could sustain a K/9 of 9.0 for 100 innings as a Twin, they would rank behind only Joe Nathan (10.9), Pat Neshek (10.5) and Johan Santana on the All-Time Twins Leader board. Just shows you how the organization feels about strikeouts.
If the Twins had a K pitcher, they wouldn’t know how to react.. They seem to draft, covet and fill the staff up with rubbish throwers every season and even sign that type via FA when they have a choice between fireballers and burned out starters, as was Pavano.
I would like to see them return to the days of getting people who can at least put something behind a pitch, even Blyleven type something, who could at least throw low 90’s with one of the best curves ever seen.