Mike Hegan, a longtime former player and broadcaster, passed away on Wednesday at age 71. Hegan posted a .712 OPS in 2452 PA over 12 seasons with the Yankees, Brewers and Athletics from 1964-77, picking up a spot on the 1969 AL All-Star team as a Seattle Pilot (before the franchise moved to Milwaukee) and earning a World Series ring with the A's in 1972. After retirement, Hegan moved to the broadcast booth and spent 12 seasons as a Brewers TV broadcaster before moving to his hometown of Cleveland in 1989 and spending 23 seasons calling Indians games on both TV and radio. The MLBTR staff sends our condolences to Hegan's family and friends.
Here's the latest from around the majors…
- Masahiro Tanaka's posting period opened this morning and the Yankees have already contacted Tanaka's agent Casey Close, Newsday's Marc Carig reports. Earlier today on MLBTR, we collected more Tanaka-related news, and I opined that Tanaka's market may be larger than expected.
- The Mariners will also be "a factor" for Tanaka, a baseball official tells Roger Rubin of the New York Daily News. “They have a following in Japan. They enjoyed what they had when Ichiro (Suzuki) was on the team. They want the chance for moves like getting [Robinson] Cano to pay off. And they envision [Felix] Hernandez paired with Tanaka at the top of the rotation," the official said.
- The White Sox are confident that the torn left UCL that sidelined Adam Eaton for half of the 2013 season is no longer a problem, GM Rick Hahn told CSN Chicago's Dan Hayes. “The elbow injury wasn't something we felt, and our medical people felt, would be a long‑term issue….We certainly paid attention to what he looked like coming back from that injury, but it was the kind of thing that shouldn't be a lingering issue," Hahn said. Hayes also talks to Eaton himself about his recovery from the injury. Chicago acquired Eaton as part of the three-team trade with the D'Backs and Angels that sent Mark Trumbo to Arizona and Tyler Skaggs/Hector Santiago to L.A.
- The Cardinals' low-profile additions of Peter Bourjos and Mark Ellis could pay big dividends and make the team better in 2014, MLB.com's Lyle Spencer opines.
- The Reds' window for making a big trade "may be closing," MLB.com's Mark Sheldon writes. The team should make a few moves in January, however, and could add a free agent bat if a discount price can be found.
- Former Mariners GM Bill Bavasi contacted SB Nation's Rob Neyer about Bavasi's trade of Shin-Soo Choo to the Indians in 2006. While Bavasi said he was under pressure from Seattle's upper management to improve the club, he doesn't excuse himself for moves that backfired, saying "the Choo and [Asdrubal] Cabrera trades were a product of my own stupidity and good work by the Indians."
- Sportsnet.ca's Ben Nicholson-Smith lists three potential suitors for 10 of the top remaining free agents.
- Finally, it was on this day in 1919 that arguably the most important trade in baseball history was agreed upon — Red Sox owner Harry Frazee's deal to sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees. CBS Sports' Dayn Perry has some of the history behind the infamous sale, and MLB FanCave tweeted a picture of the actual transfer contract.
Felix, Kuma , Tanaka , Walker, Paxton #unreal seriously would there be any other rotation better?
Since three of those options are unknown, yes there are better rotations. It certainly has an opportunity to be special.
Nationals: Strasburg, Zimmerman, Gio, Fister, Roark/Detwiler
Reds: Cueto, Latos, Bailey, Leake, Cingrani
Dodger: Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, Haren, Billingsley/Beckett
Cardinals: Wainwright, Wacha, Lynn, Miller, Kelly/Garcia
Those all are more proven with just as much upside if you take your fan goggles off
That Reds rotation isn’t better, actually.
Felix and Kuma are already number 1’s and it is very likely that Tanaka and Walker can be as well. Also pitching in the AL. This rotation can be better than any of the ones you’ve listed.
Do NOT expect Kuma to come close to how he performed last year. His peripheral stats show his low numbers were a product of good luck (low percent of BABIP). He is not the ace most mariners fans make him out to be- a solid #3 starter, but not an ace.
good luck? How about a damn good Splitter?
he said proven -.-
Dodgers if they trade for Scherzer
It will be fun following the rumors. We have a Tanaka to Mariners rumor.
Woohoo Finally!
Potentially it could be great but you never know with prospects!
it defiantly gives them a chance to win every night and a rotation that could do some real damage in the playoffs and for years to come
There is a better chance that Walker and Paxton will both be busts, than of either one even being able to average 1.5 fWAR/season. Tanaka has never thrown an MLB pitch and Kuma has had 1 season of success and will be 33.
With a lot of luck and some good breaks, it could be a very good rotation. More than likely, it will be one star, two good SP and two very inconsistent SP.
the last time 5 years top starting pitchers in minors Kershaw, David Price, Strasburg, Matt moore, Shelby Miller, Dylan Bundy, Gerrit cole
doesn’t look like better chance of bust
Here are some others that also were top SP prospects during this time. Dice-K, Phil Hughes, Andrew Miller, Franklin Morales, Joba Chamberlain, Neftali Feliz, Brett Anderson, Tommy Hanson, Brian Matusz and Jeremy Hellickson. These are all SP who were ranked in the top 10 overall prospects between 2007-2012.
Other top SP prospects in this time have been Homer Bailey, who struggled mightily for his first 3+ seasons, Clay Buchholz, who has made 20+ starts only twice in five seasons and Aroldis Chapman who is a reliever. It’s too early to throw in the towel on prospects such as Trevor Bauer, who struggled at AAA last year, but he was also a top prospect during this time.
I said top 5 bro not top 15
I was looking at top 10 guys and got a little confused because Kershaw, Miller and Cole were never BA top 5 prospects. Dice-K, Hughes, Chamberlain, Hanson, Matusz, Buchholz and Bailey all were top 5 prospects though.
At first I couldn’t believe that BA could miss that badly on Kershaw since he was the top HS arm in the 2006 draft, but you’re right. Kershaw was #24 in BA’s 2007 list, then #7 in 2008, and he would’ve risen higher if he wasn’t fast-tracked.
but whatever
Scott McKinney wrote a very good piece on this subject for a Royal’s site. If you look up, success and failure rates of top prospects, you should be able to find it easily. He looked at 14 years of top prospect data and I feel like the results are a little bit eye opening. It’s a great read for us baseball fans that like this site and prospects in general.
It’s easy for all of us to get hooked on the hype of our team’s next great savior. The player who will be a perennial all star and win multiple MVP and Cy Young awards and we will chant his name as he leads us to the promised land. Unfortunately, it rarely happens. Most of the time, they struggle to be even average players. Sometimes it’s because of injury, sometimes they lose their skills or aren’t as good as everyone thought. A lot of times, it’s some combination of all three. Unfortunately, this is the good battle that we all fight as baseball fans.
It will be one of the better rotations. I like the Nationals rotation a lot
Man that Angels/Dbacks/Sox trade was good for everyone involved except Arizona.
Not really, Skaggs gets replaced by aj shugel he can possibly be a John lackey type pitcher.but I do agree they gave up alot to ad Santiago and eaton on the deal
Rest in peace, Mike Hegan. It was a pleasure listening to your Indians broadcasts throughout the years.
Yankees don’t learn, japense pitchers NEVER work out for them. Except Kuroda. Maybe I’m wrong ?
The sting of the Igawa signing seemingly kept them away from Darvish. They’d be foolish to never sign another Japanese player just because they failed once in the past
Tanaka is in a different league compared to those other guys.
It’s true, Tanaka is currently still in the NPB, whereas he’s talkin about players in the MLB! Totally different leagues!
…I’ll show myself out now.
Yu Darvish would like a word with you.
Iwakuma and is CYA-3 award does too.
The guy said “Yankees don’t learn, japense pitchers NEVER work out for them” keyword “Yankees”
So simply because he is Japanese that would mean he would not work? Can’t say that I agree with this line of thinking whatsoever.
Wang was pretty good for them too.. but i think he was from Taiwan or Korea or something ….
Sometimes the best moves are not making those big stupid moves and overpaying for marginal talent especially on a small market team . .
You know Morale’s market is thin when one of the top 3 suitors has a .00000001% chance of signing him. The Brewers are not giving up that draft pick and its been well documented. To be honest I doubt they would be interested if he didn’t have that draft pick compensation.
Merry Christmas Cub fAns. The Ricketts family.
Ever since they signed Cano, Seattle has seemed like a serious player for Tanaka. Depending on Tanaka’s level of sentimentality, the Mariners can offer him a lot of comfort on a competitive deal, considering the team’s Japanese ownership (while Nintendo of America now owns the team, Satoru Iwata is still ultimately the CEO) and good relations with Japanese players and staff.
Not to mention, the Mariners still don’t look like a top 2 team in their own division even after Cano, so they need to make another big move, and Tanaka (compared to Price) lets them keep Walker as well.
I would put the Yankees and Mariners as slight favorites, followed by the Dodgers and Angels, then teams like the Diamondbacks, Cubs, Orioles, Blue Jays etc. as darkhorses.
I think the market will be a lot deeper than people think and that at least 7-8 teams will post. Tanaka is a risky commodity at this point but pitching has never been valuable and teams may consider him undervalued,, especially since Darvish.
Tanaka and Iwakuma were teammates in Japan also, that might play into his thinking too. I would love to see him come here, and if the 5 mentioned above do well, the team could be pretty good. It is time for the young guys to step up and play to the level they should. If Cano can be the leader he was in the WBC, that should help them to improve. This team can make a big turn IF they can make the jump, they need one more move in the OF, and some help in the pen, along with signing Tanaka.
i can’t be the only one who thinks Tanaka will be overpaid/overrated?
Bill Bavasi left quite a mess in Seattle, but from the sound of it, the current regime could have learned a thing or two about integrity from him.
The current regime needs to own up to their mistakes, but I don’t think they’ve been as bad as Bavasi. Jack Z has long struggled to make up for Bavasi’s mess. Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln are more to blame for the state of the team than anyone, mostly because of the pressure they’ve applied to both Bavasi and Jack.
Matsuzaka went 17-5 with a 2.13 ERA
Yu Darvish went 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA
Tanaka went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA not to mention Tanaka has twice posted a 1.27 ERA as well as a 1.87 ERA in his last three seasons, going 53-9 in that span.
#LetsGoYankees!
Darvish has a nasty breaking ball though while Tanaka’s best pitch is his splitter. Curveball>Splitter imo