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Edwin Encarnacion

Giants Rumors: Burrell, Turnbow, Sanchez

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9:22pm: Baggarly says Brian Sabean touched base with 25 teams today.  Baggarly does not buy recent rumors connecting the Giants to Cantu, Encarnacion, and Hank Blalock.

6:08pm: Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News provides the Giants rumors…

  • Pat Burrell would love to play for the Giants, but he’s far down on the team’s list due to defensive concerns.
  • The Giants offered Derrick Turnbow a non-guaranteed contract.  The Pirates are another team eyeing Turnbow.
  • Jonathan Sanchez is a popular name in trade talks.  Baggarly doesn’t foresee a Sanchez for Edwin Encarnacion or Jorge Cantu straight up type deal.

Giants Interested In Encarnacion

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According to John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Giants are interested in Reds third baseman Edwin Encarnacion.  Fay considers EE the most likely Red to be traded, with Homer Bailey second on that list.  Encarnacion, 26 in January, hit .251/.340/.466 in 582 plate appearances while playing poor defense.  He’s arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter, so he’s under team control for three more seasons.

Fay also notes that Walt Jocketty and Jim Bowden haven’t matched up on a trade in over ten years, and Joey Votto isn’t going anywhere.  Yesterday ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick said the Nationals explored trading for Votto (among others).

One more note: David Weathers is negotiating with several teams, Reds included.  Nothing is close.

Jocketty Names Five Untouchable Reds

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Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch relays a Walt Jocketty radio show appearance.  Jocketty reportedly named five untouchable Reds players: Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, and Edwin Encarnacion.  Hunter is surprised to see Encarnacion labeled off-limits.  The 25 year-old third baseman has a career line of .268/.344/.450 in 396 games.  With several .900+ OPS months on his resume, EE has shown flashes of star potential offensively.

Veterans Francisco Cordero, Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, and Brandon Phillips apparently did not make the list.  Only Arroyo has been mentioned in trade rumors this year; the rest seem unlikely to go anywhere.  But it should be noted that Jocketty wasn’t with the organization when the Cordero, Harang, and Arroyo contracts were signed and might be more willing to move them.

Rosenthal’s Latest: Gross, Weaver, Encarnacion

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Ken Rosenthal is on the scene with some new rumors.

  • Astros president Tal Smith arguing other teams’ arbitration cases.   Rosenthal finds it a bit awkward, while Keith Law finds it to be a hilarious conflict of interest.
  • Possible trades of Matt Murton to the Padres or Rangers seem to have fizzled.  The Padres may turn to the Brewers’ Gabe Gross, a player who previously caught the eye of the A’s, Indians, and Braves.  Our good friend PECOTA sees a .267/.366/.467 line from Gross this year.  With Gross and various veteran starters, the Brewers have some surpluses to work with.
  • Rosenthal believes the Cardinals’ interest in Jeff Weaver to be not especially serious.  They’ve got in-house candidates to start, and Matt Clement needing some time is not a revelation.
  • We’ve read about extension possibilities for Matt Capps and Alex Rios.  To that mix, Rosenthal adds Edwin Encarnacion.  The Reds might want to do it now; he seems primed for a big year.

Erik Bedard Mariners/Reds Rumors

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UPDATE, 1-10-08 at 5:38pm: Churchill has further updated his right-hand sidebar referencing the Reds possibility.  He says the O’s want Bailey, Votto, Cueto, and Edwin Encarnacion.  This is particularly lopsided, and pushing Melvin Mora back to Cincy wouldn’t make it any less so.  Mora may have negative value at this point.  Meanwhile John Fay says nothing new has happened on the Reds/Bedard front.

UPDATE, 1-09-08 at 9:07pm:  Rosenthal checks in with an update.  If the Mariners would give up Chris Tillman, they could have a done deal.  Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein ranks the 19 year-old righty as Seattle’s second best prospect, giving him a number two starter ceiling.  Rosenthal confirms that Jones is the centerpiece, while George Sherrill and Carlos Triunfel are in play.

Meanwhile, Jason Churchill of Prospect Insider says on the right-hand sidebar of this page that the Reds might step up their offer in an attempt to make a late play.  He thinks they could give up Homer Bailey, Joey Votto, Johnny Cueto, and a fourth player, which would be absurd.

FROM 1-09-08 at 9:03am:

On Tuesday, both Ken Rosenthal and Jason Churchill carefully stated that the Orioles and Mariners were making progress on an Erik Bedard trade.  The deal would center around Adam Jones but include other good young players as well.  The Reds and Indians were named as other lingering Bedard suitors.

Larry Stone of the Seattle Times checked in on the Bedard situation today.  His MLB source agreed that talks between the Mariners and Orioles have heated up.  Andy MacPhail, however, would not use the words "heating up."  Stone goes on to mention that the Mets "could be players" for Bedard in addition to the Ohio teams.  Contrary to earlier reports, Stone was able to extract a quote from Ms GM Bill Bavasi that indicated Brandon Morrow was not off limits.

John Hickey admits that the rumors won’t die but doesn’t think the Mariners have made any actual progress on a deal.  He agrees that Morrow seems a bit more available than he did before.  Hickey suggests Josh Fogg could be a backup plan to Bedard for Seattle, noting that Fogg likes the idea of pitching in Safeco.  The Reds are also believed to have interest in Fogg.

Chronicle Rumors: Haren, Blanton, Lincecum

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Susan Slusser and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle have an extensive collection of A’s and Giants rumors from Monday’s Winter Meetings mayhem.

  • The asking price for Dan Haren is said to be massive, is in 3-4 blue chippers.  The Tigers might even be willing to part with both Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin for him – wow.  The D’Backs are a bit more gunshy about their top prospects, though most believe Carlos Gonzalez to be available.  I imagine Justin Upton is off limits.
  • The Dodgers are going the hardest after Joe Blanton, with the Mets trailing. 
  • Huston Street is likely to stay put and may even talk extension with the A’s.
  • The authors don’t expect Brian Sabean to get the Tim Lincecum offer he needs to pull the trigger.  But they suggest Sabean’s "interesting" offer could involve Jay Bruce, Edwin Encarnacion, or Alex Rios.

Crasnick’s Latest: Encarnacion, Hamilton, Jenkins

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ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick has been working hard all day to get us some good rumors.  Here’s the latest.

  • The Reds want to acquire a starter, but they spent all their money on Francisco Cordero.  The plan is to trade a young player for a cheap starter.  Joey Votto and especially Jay Bruce would be near impossible to acquire.  However the Reds will listen on Josh Hamilton and Edwin Encarnacion.  They never seemed to like Encarnacion.  Crasnick thinks the Cubs could work for Hamilton but they’d need to pony up more than Sean Marshall.  Would Rich Hill be too much?  It’s been said in the past that the Rangers inquired on Hamilton.  The Giants, meanwhile, would love to pry Encarnacion loose – Noah Lowry anyone? 
  • The Phillies and Rays spoke to Geoff Jenkins’ agent today, and the Padres and Rangers have their eye on him as well.  A poor free agent market for corner outfielders may result in a two or even a three-year deal for Jenkins.

Homer Bailey Coming Soon?

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The Reds aren’t sure who will start in Eric Milton’s place on Sunday; phenom Homer Bailey is in the running.  RotoAuthority has the fantasy take.

Speaking of the Reds, they just demoted third baseman Edwin Encarnacion.  He’s had an awful start both offensively and defensively, but did hit .276/.359/.473 as a 23 year-old.  I can see some Aramis Ramirez parallells, though Ramirez doesn’t make EE’s top 20 comps at Baseball Prospectus.  He does have some big names on there, like Ron Gant, Steve Garvey, Ron Santo, and Adrian Beltre.  A team like the Twins would do well to buy low on him if possible.  He’s a known name on the Angels’ list.

Angels Interested In Garrett Atkins

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Last year, Rockies third baseman Garrett Atkins was the second-best hitter at his position, behind only Miguel Cabrera.  Atkins isn’t set to reach free agency until 2011, making him a very valuable commodity.  The Rockies had talks with him this offseason about a deal covering his arbitration years and first year of free agency, but no agreement could be reached.

Now, both the Denver Post and L.A. Times are reporting that the Angels are interested in trading for Atkins.  Troy E. Renck of the Post says Atkins’s name first came up during the Winter Meetings when the two clubs were discussing a Todd Helton deal.  Renck writes that Ervin Santana would be a must in any trade and that the Angels also have interest in Brad Hawpe and Jeff Baker.  He also says Atkins is still considered a core member of the team, so a deal is unlikely.  I wonder if Bill Stoneman is trying to take advantage of a subpar start for Atkins – his defense hasn’t been pretty and his power has been MIA.

From the L.A. side, Mike DiGiovanna adds several players on the Halos’ radar:  Kevin Mench, Jacque Jones, Pat Burrell, Emil Brown, Morgan Ensberg, and Edwin Encarnacion.  DiGiovanna agrees that Santana is the top trading chip.  Santana could really blossom in the National League.  With Freddy Garcia and Adam Eaton struggling and Brett Myers in the pen, the Phillies probably have the strongest need.  Starters Joe Saunders and Dustin Moseley could be used if the Angels want to make a smaller deal.

As long as the Angels are making an all-out blitz for a third baseman, let’s speculate on some other possibilities.  Mike Lowell, Chad Tracy, Hank Blalock have all been rumored in the past; the Rangers clearly have the biggest need for a starter.  Santana, however, could be Brandon McCarthy all over again with his flyball tendencies.

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