Friday Night Links..
- There doesn't seem to be any natural fit for Bobby Abreu now that the Indians have Johnny Damon, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Scouts don't think that the veteran can play in the outfield anymore and might have to start out in Triple-A.
- Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter) says that Abreu would not fit with the Dodgers or any other National League team except as a pinch hitter and he can't play defense regularly.
- The O’Malley group has signed documents to gain access to the Padres' financial information and apparently has raised sufficient equity to buy the club, sources tell Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. It appears that the group values the club at less than half of the Dodgers’ $2.15 billion sale price, and perhaps significantly less.
- The Nationals' promotion of Bryce Harper looks like a panic move to Keith Law of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req'd) rather than a well thought-out developmental plan.
14-5 panic move.
Nationals are panicking because they’re never been in first place, not sure how to handle it.
perfect.
Lunchbox45 called me perfect. *swoon*
Don’t mind him, KLaw is just trolling again …
Insider is required, so when people here these mindless ramblings, they’ll assume he has some deep meaning and explanation that you have to pay to understand.
Genius marketing technique.
(don’t have an insider)
i don’t know if this is a panic move, but i don’t think now is the right time to bring up harper. he’s putting up great numbers for a 19 year old in AAA, but that doesn’t mean he’s putting up good enough numbers to make the jump to the bigs. his tools are obviously outstanding, but they should let him hone them a little bit more before letting him make the jump. i agree with people in the other harper thread saying that moore should’ve been the one called up, he has nothing left to prove
A .250 batting average in AAA is hardly “great”
He has a .953 fielding percentage as an outfielder. Nationals pitchers beware.
Woops.
Well they need another outfielder, he is definetely an upgrade over bernadinha, and ankiel will probably lose time too when morse gets back. The Nats are doing good and they want to continue this streak.
Retirement seems like a pretty natural fit for Abreu.
I don’t know, the mystery team has been short of outfielders this offseason.
i swear every single thing i have read from law about the nats has been negative. the only thing positive i remember reading was a month or so ago when he said how he thinks harper will be a good major leaguer (goin out on a limb there, eh?). Literally everything else has always been negative. Nothing new here.
A Panic Move by a FIRST place team with best record in the league coming into today? Is he for real? And he is supposed to be an expert? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. What a joke.
the tigers were expected to be top of the central even before the fielder signing, yet that has “panic move” sentiment, so yes, a top team is able to make panic moves too.
They have a terrible offense. The pitching can only carry that team for so long, so in essence it might be a panic move.
first place after three weeks. any team can play better-than-their-division ball for three weeks and it not be a big deal. Nats just did it at the beginning of the season.
but with Morse out and Zim heading on the DL, the offense is bleak. so yes, a panic move for a front office who is seeing fans in DC excited about this team for the first time in a long time and can’t afford to lose the first place mojo. not a joke.
Morse is out, Zimmerman has a bad shoulder. The middle of the lineup except for LaRoche is not producing. It’s easy to rip Keith Law but you need to look beyond the standings before doing so.
The Padres being bought by the O’Malley family is very very good news for the Sandiegans, they won’t allow the Padres to have losing season after losing season just to rake in revenue share money (in the past 6 years they’ve been the most lucrative team, pocketing 25-30 millions per year).
The Nationals’ promotion of Bryce Harper looks like a panic move to Keith Law of ESPN (Insider sub. req’d – a shakedown if you will! :p) rather than a well thought-out developmental plan. Bobby Abreau was released by the Angels in favor of Mike Trout. Does Keith Law have the right team here? The Angels smell to high heaven this season and now they are eating 9 million big ones by releasing Bobby A. The Nats on the other hand are bringing up a well touted prospect and not losing 9 million big ones to do so. I think Keith Law is losing it, although I could also say, he never had it to begin!
Yes. Trout is clearly ready to play in the bigs after crushing AAA for an extended period of time. Abreu was awful, it makes sense they’d release him.
The Nationals, on the the other hand, while they are in first place are doing it with pitching, as some others have already mentioned. Combine that with the fact that Zimmerman just went to the DL, and the fact that Harper finally looks average somewhere and it looks like a panic move.
/This comes from a Nationals fan.
Pack it in, Bobby, it was a nice career. Enjoy a pleasant retirement from baseball as you earned it.
Retire at 38.
Abreu is living my dream
Abreu couldn’t play RF 5 years ago!
Abreu seems like a good fit for Detroit in light of Delmon Young being place on the restricted list.
Why they have several better options.
It is win-win for Nats to bring up Harper now. The Nats have kept him in the minors long enough to delay his FA for a year, and beyond that are probably hoping Harper puts up the kind of numbers to make them pay out the nose in arbitration. Looking at Bryce’s attitude, he will not only test Free Agency as soon as possible but accept no offers from cities with less than million+ population figures. The kid had to be told to stop wearing Yankees caps to Nationals events. If anything, it’s best to bring him up ASAP and let him develop into a Major Leaguer as quickly as possible. It’s win-win because even a struggling Harper is liable to at least match the production of the DeRosa/Bernadina/Nady LF platoon, which can’t break the Mendoza line and has no potential for power. Now that the front office knows the pitching staff is elite, they’re going all-in on offense. The FA market is dry mid-season, and the OF trade market is a seller’s market just now. People will criticize this move because they dislike Harper, or because it wouldn’t be wise for most other teams, but it’s what’s right for the Nationals now.
The panic should be with the Angels (my fav team btw). No relief pitching and no hitting as of yet. Sad state of affairs in Anaheim right now. The Trout call up is logical but I question it unless he is going to see quite a few AB’s. He needs to play not ride the bench. The Harper call up is more logical as he will get playing time as the Nats do not have the outfield log jam like the Angels have. Hope both youngsters can succeed as I will be rooting for both. Personally Keith Law knows squat about baseball. Most of the fans on here know more than he does.