(1) Clayton Kershaw suspended, then appeals suspension.
(2) Brett Myers, 20 starts, 20 outings of at least six innings.
(3) Jose Bautista, David DeJesus, Jayson Werth, Prince Fielder, Jorge Cantu, Adam LaRoche rumors heating up.
(4) Mets looking to bolster bullpen.
(5) Pedro Martinez will not pitch in 2010.
(6) Scott Sizemore to play third base for Tigers.
(7) Carl Crawford doesn’t wear a cup.
By Ray Flowers
(1) Jake Peavy has an arm issue. Does that mean Daniel Hudson is close to be recalled?
(2) Tim Lincecum takes a liner off his shoulder – appears to be OK.
(3) Carlos Ruiz slumping, missing time with injury for the Phillies.
(4) Alex Rodriguez back from hip injury after missing about a week.
(5) Giants still hoping to get Pablo Sandoval to lose weight.
(6) Conor Jackson to play everyday in LF for the Athletics.
By Ray Flowers
(1) Orlando Hudson reportedly agreed to a 1-year deal with the Minnesota Twins. (2) Carlos Marmol agrees to 1-year deal to avoid arbitration with Cubs. (3) Nomar Garciaparra aims to keep on playing. (4) Russell Branyan still a free agent, wanted outlandish money at one point. (5) Erik Bedard looking more and more like he will return to the Mariners.
You can also read more of my thoughts on Carlos Marmol in my Breaking Down piece on him.
Oh, and that bikini picture below? There is no reason for it to be there other than I figured you might like to look at their fine feminine form more than my ugly mug.
By Ray Flowers
In my look around baseball today I’ll discuss a myriad of topics that are in the news. (1) Who will Johnny Damon signs with? (2) Matt Kemp/Chad Billingsley agree to deals with Dodgers. (3) Adam LaRoche officially signs with D’backs at the expense of Eric Byrnes. (4) Orlando Hudson still teamless. (5) Ben Sheets and Derrick Turnbow try to convince teams they are worth signing. (6) Does Carlos Delgado have anything left? (7) Indians catching situation.
By Ray Flowers
Today, I’ll take a look around MLB. (1) The latest on Carlos Beltran’s knee surgery. (2) Brad Lidge has second surgery this off-season. (3) Adam LaRoche signs with D’backs. (4) Josh Johnson wants 4 years. Will he get it? (5) Johnny Damon to Braves? (6) Joel Zumaya agrees to deal. (7) Jermaine Dye to Cubs? (8) Dodgers need starting pitching.
By Ray Flowers
Troy Glaus is the newest member of the Atlanta Braves after signing an incentive laden one year deal with the club ending his tenure with the Cardinals (early estimates place the deal at $2 million plus whatever incentives he reaches). Does the former slugger have any juice left?
A first round pick, third overall in 1997, Glaus broke in with the Angels and in his first full season he socked 29 long balls. Over the next three years (2000-02) he socked 47, 41 and 30 taters, each year also knocking in over 100-runs, before injuries began to strike. In 2003 he was limited to 91 games, and the following year things were even worse with a mere 58 games played. In 2005, his only year with the D’backs, he re-established himself as a power force with 37 HR and 97 RBI, totals just under what he produced in his first season in Toronto (38, 104). His second season in Toronto (’07) was once again filled with injury as he was limited to 115 games. He again rebounded in his first year in St. Louis hitting 27 homers with 99 RBI before a completely wasted 2009 season that saw him take the field only 14 times.
Why did he play a career-low 14 games? His shoulder, operated on in January, simply never came around to the point where he could make the throw across the diamond from third base. The Cards tried him in the outfield for a while thinking it would be less strenuous on his arm making the odd throw from the outfield, but that idea was eventually scrapped. Given the deterioration of his wing, Glaus has pretty much been pigeonholed as either a first baseman or a DH, and given that St. Louis has a pretty fair option at first in Albert Pujols, he really had no place in St. Louis. Hence the move to Atlanta makes sense as he will be asked to play first base after the Braves decided to let Adam LaRoche walk.
At this point what does Glaus have left? Honestly, that is anyone’s guess. A shoulder is so vital to a players swing that an issue in the joint could easily sap the power from a player’s swing by hindering his ability to whip the bat through the strike zone. Given my personal fondness for Glaus, unintentionally my swing was basically a mirror image of his (or was his a copy of mine, I mean I am three years older), I wish the man luck. However, this is a tenuous situation. The Braves reportedly went over every scrap of medical data they could get their hands on and they were apparently assured that Glaus would be able to physically hold up to the rigors of the season. While I have a hard time believing Glaus will be able to suit up for 140 games and match the production that LaRoche would have offered, the club did save millions of dollars that they can allocate for other needs. And heck, what if Glaus rebounds to the hitter he once was? After all, he has been pretty darn good in his career.
* Glaus has won two Silver Slugger Awards.
* Glaus has made four All-Star teams.
* Glaus has four seasons of at least 37 homers. By the way, there are only two third basemen who have ever lived that have more 37 homer seasons (Mike Schmidt had seven, Eddie Matthews had six, and Harmon Killebrew also had four). Moreover, every season of his career in which he has accrued 500-ABs (there have been seven), Glaus has hit at least 27 bombs
* Glaus has six seasons of at least 97 RBI.
IF Glaus is healthy, and I put that “if” in caps for a reason, the Braves may have rostered a nice power bat on the cheap. However, if I was the Braves I’d have a Plan B at the ready because I’m far from convinced that Glaus will be able to return to the heights he has previously flashed.
A RECAP OF THE DEAL
By Ray Flowers
Normally on Monday I spend most of the day going over what just occurred on the football field on Sunday. I like football, but everyone knows my passion is baseball. To that end this was no mere Monday of twiddling my thumbs as it was the first day of the Winter Meetings, and with it a torrent of rumors were flying about all day about the men on the diamond (for updates on all that is baseball – including potential player movement – check in with the BaseballGuys Twitter Page). Here are some of my thoughts on the highlights of the day.
Either the Mets or Yankees have seemingly been involved in every rumor, though as of this writing the only official move either team has made is the Yankees decision to trade Brian Bruney to the Nationals for a player to be named later (you’ll be able to read my thoughts on the deal at Fanball.com on Tuesday, so look for the piece then)
The Denver Post is reporting that the Rockies have offered a multi-year deal to infielder Clint Barmes (they also offered long-term deals to Chris Iannetta and Huston Street). I guess the Rockies didn’t read my review of Barmes in a recent Five Questions piece.
Ryan Doumit has had his name in the news of late as a handful of teams are interested in trading for the catcher. Given that he is owned about $8.5 million the next two years it’s no surprise that team’s are interested in acquiring his services giving his ability to be a difference maker on offense.
Edwin Jackson continues to have his name bandied about as a potential mover at the meetings. By the time you read this he might already be on the move. The latest rumor has both the D’backs and the Mariners as his most ardent pursuers. You can my thoughts about the hurler in Breaking Down: Edwin Jackson.
This is one rumor that I haven’t seen floated, but it makes total sense to me. The Giants, in desperate need of some pop, could target Adam LaRoche who wasn’t offered arbitration by the Braves making him a free agent. LaRoche would be able to provide his 25-HR pop while playing strong defense at first which would allow Pablo Sandoval to shift back to third base, the clubs desired location for him. LaRoche could likely be had at a reasonable price, and he likely wouldn’t have much problem lofting balls into SF Bay – do you think?
Reports suggest that Rafael Soriano might accept the Braves offer of arbitration. First, I think this is complete malarkey. Why would Soriano want to go to arbitration and sign a one year deal with his history of arm troubles? He’d be wise to sign a multi-year deal. Personally, I think this is just a negotiating ploy to scare teams into offering him more money. Second, the Braves would be extremely unhappy if Soriano accepted arbitration because (1) they wouldn’t receive draft picks to replace those they lost when they signed Billy Wager and (2) they didn’t give Wagner $7 million to split the ninth inning with Soriano. For more on Wagner give Breaking Down: Billy Wagner a read.
In closing, I’d like to invite everyone to join my Twitter following (you can access it above). While I resisted the whole Twitter phenomena for a while, I’m now posting a plenty. However, this immediate gratification cycle we are all living on now has led to some problems in accuracy. As an example, Edwin Jackson was traded to the Mets midday on Monday, that is until the reports came out that the original report had no basis in reality. Technology is fantastic, and who doesn’t want to know about your teams latest move a minute after it’s done, but the environment today is one in which everyone is pushing to break the stories, and as such there are occasions when inaccurate information is promulgated across the web (a shock I know). Don’t believe everything you read the minute you read it, and in fact, you might take up the old adage of needing two sources before blindly accepting any reported deal. Either that or just grab on to a source you trust like BaseballGuys for your baseball information.
By Ray Flowers
I’m tired. I had a long day filled with lots of work from writing, editing and posting of football, baseball and hockey stories, including a bunch of rather fantastic hockey articles at Fanball as well. And yes, before you ask, some of them were written by yours truly.
Joey Votto continues to bash pitchers with alacrity over the final month of the season. Votto went 4-for-5 on Wednesday night as he pushed his average up to almost .370 on the month. Votto is now hitting .308 with 22 homers and 74 RBI in a mere 433 ABs on the season. If we push those numbers out to 550 ABs we end up with a .308-28-94 line, and that would obviously suggest that a potential .300-30-100 season could be in the way in 2010 from this sweet swinging lefty.
Votto’s teammate, Homer Bailey, seems to have finally, f-i-n-a-l-l-y figured things out at the big league level. Though he has a 5.02 ERA on the year, he has finally started to throw strikes and the results have been pretty striking. After allowing two runs in six innings against the Pirates Bailey has now allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his last seven starts while posting a 1.99 ERA. It’s a small sample size for sure, but keep his name in mind in the late rounds in 2010 as a selection of Bailey could result in a nice return.
Welcome back to hitting right-handed Carlos Guillen. Guillen went deep from both sides of the plate on Wednesday night in just his second game since returning to action from that injured shoulder, and this was just the second game that he has even attempted to hit right-handed in. This was the fourth time in his career that he had gone deep from both sides of the dish in the same game.
What is it about the second half and Adam LaRoche? You think it’s frustrating as a fantasy owner – can you just imagine just how hard it is on LaRoche when he knows, he literally knows, he is gonna stink for about two plus months before turning into a dominating force at the dish. LaRoche is hitting .355 with 36 RBI in 47 games since returning to Atlanta. Any doubt where he wants to sign when his contract is up after the season? Jeez, this is another first baseman isn’t it? I’m telling you, they are just everywhere
Another youngster, Bud Norris, has looked pretty solid this season for the Astros even if it hasn’t always been a smooth ride. He tossed six scoreless innings at the Cards on Wednesday to lower his ERA to just barely over 1.50 in his last four starts. With 54 Ks in 55.2 innings he has shown the ability to put hitters away, and as they say, you can’t teach stuff, and he’s got that in spades. A bright future this kid has (channeling my inner Yoda).
I thought that David Ortiz was washed up? He may be hitting only .234 but he has 25 homers and 88 RBI, so he has still been fairly productive despite an OPS below .800. OK, he is only sort of washed up.
Nick Punto hitting .327 in September as the Twins try and clay there way to the playoffs. Just saying.
How stupid do the Red Sox feel right now? John Smoltz worked another night of magic for the Redbirds allowing just two runs over six innings against the Astros. In six starts with Cardinals his ERA is 3.18 and his WHIP 1.00. With the Red Sox try on an 8.32 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP. Guess he was tipping those pitches eh? Either that or he and/or Dave Duncan made a deal with Lucifer that involved someone giving over their soul.
We got ourselves quite the race for the NL RBI crown. Here is how things stand after action on Wednesday night:
Prince Fielder – 131
Ryan Howard – 130
Albert Pujols – 129
They all play first base by the way, further proof of just how loaded that position is in the game today. No idea how the situation resolves itself, but can you really bet against Mr. Pujols when it has anything to do with baseball?
By Ray Flowers
With the season nearing it’s conclusion, at least from a fantasy perspective, I thought I would look forward to the 2010 season, something that Mike Sheets in Under the Tag, and Ted Carlson in Five Tool Blog have started to do. I’ll take a bit of a different take not listing my top-10’s or top-30 overall but instead I’ll hit on a some of the free agents out there that could be plying their trade for a new team come next season.
Carlos Delgado: Looks like his ‘09 season might end with a mere 94 at-bats on the back of his ball card do to that right hip surgery. He hit 38 homers with 115 RBI last season but he will be 38 next year and hit just 24 home runs while batting .258 in 2007. He’ll have to sign an incentive laden deal, perhaps to DH.
Adam LaRoche: Again one of the hottest hitters in the game in the second half (.314-9-24 with a .919 OPS in 44 games). Maybe he should start training really hard in January so that he could hit like this in the first half. No reason the Braves don’t bring him back.
Placido Polanco: Anyone out there looking for the prototypical #2 hitter? His average has slipped this season (.277 versus a career .303 mark), but he is on the cusp of a career-high in RBI (just four short with 63) while producing another excellent contact rate (0.93 do to only 35 strikeouts on the year). This is likely as good as it gets at this point, but that isn’t all that bad is it?
Miguel Tejada: A huge question mark this coming offseason. Is Tejada the man who hit .329 with a .830 OPS in the first half of the aging/slowing veteran who has hit just .255 with a .645 OPS since the All-Star break? Might end up at third base wherever he signs.
Adrian Beltre: Wear a cup Adrian. That’s all I have to say.
Chone Figgins: Not the prototypical corner infielder since he has an almost total lack of pop. Still, don’t know of many teams that would turn away a .300 hitting, 40 steal, 100 run option at the top of their lineup.
Melvin Mora: Trying to prove that he still has some game left in that soon to be 38 year old body of his. After a pathetic first half (.259/.326/.335) he has been pretty solid the past two weeks (.405-3-7 in 11 games).
Jason Bay: The Sox won’t let him go, not after another big-time offensive season (.261-31-98-87-12 in just 456 ABs).
Johnny Damon: Will he remain with the Yankees? Since he scores 90 runs every year and will be coming off the best power season of his career he will likely get one more major dollar deal. Still, he is likely best suited for DH at this stage of his career. My brother’s 16 month old daughter almost throws as well.
Matt Holliday: A Scott Boras client, Holliday has hit like Stan Musial since joining the Birds (.378-11-39-31 with a 1.125 OPS in 156 ABs). Don’t know the last time you checked, but in case you hadn’t heard, Boras is the biggest pain in the a – - in the universe, that is if you are a team trying to sign a player. Boras/Holliday won’t be giving the Red Birds a discount, and Boras will get his man the money he “deserves” on the market. Still, the Cardinals simply can’t let him go can they?
Jermaine Dye: Five straight years of at least 25 homers and 75 RBI (once he knocks in three more runs this year), Dye is as consistent a run producing right fielder as there is in the game. He will be 36 in June but he should still have a few productive years left despite his profound struggles of late (.184 in his last 185 ABs).
Vlad Guerrero: Injured to start the year Vlad has been, well Vlad, hitting .298 with a .904 OPS since the All-Star break. He may be limited to DH duties the rest of his career but the man can still hit .300 with 25 home runs if healthy.
Aubrey Huff: Hasn’t lived up to last season’s huge effort (.304-32-108-96) and has looked lost at the plate of late (he has hit just .215 over his last 44 games and .210 since the start of August). He’ll be hard pressed to sign a deal that exceeds a couple of years at anything remotely approaching his current level of pay ($8 million).
By Ray Flowers
I’m toast, and no I didn’t spend all day on the beach or at the local tanning salon. From the moment I woke up this morning it’s been all baseball. First I did the Fanball Podcast with Kyle Elrink which you can listen to every Monday-Friday from 8-9 AM, and after that I did my yearly deadline day dairy detailing all the trades of the day.
To read the entirety of my commentary on every move of the day you can visit my Trade Day Dairy. Here are some of the noteworthy highlights of that piece.
PEAVY TO WHITE SOX
White Sox Receive: Jake Peavy
Padres Receive: Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Adam Russell and Dexter Carter
“A Cy Young award winner was moved today, but it wasn’t the one everyone expected it would be (Roy Halladay appears to have made it through the deadline without being moved). Jake Peavy is now a White Sox… At this point it would seem like a fair bet that we won’t see him on the hill for the club until at least September.”
MARTINEZ TO RED SOX
Red Sox Receive: Victor Martinez
Indians Receive: Justin Masterson, Nick Hagadone and Bryan Price
“Does this deal increase Martinez’s value? Do you go to a bar on Friday night hoping to find a warm body to spend some time with? Of course it helps V-Mart’s value. A switch hitter, Martinez will likely smack balls of the Green Monster with great frequency (he has hit .313 with a .913 OPS in 67 career at-bats at Fenway).”
WASHBURN TO TIGERS
Tigers Receive: Jarrod Washburn
Mariners Receive: Luke French and Mauricio Robles
“The Tigers receive the man with the third best ERA in the AL at 2.64 and the second best WHIP in the junior circuit at 1.07… Dating back to the start of June, Washburn is only 5-3, but his ERA is 2.02 and his WHIP has been 0.98. Yeah, he has been damn good. Still, the free agent to be has a few concerns.”
ROLEN TO REDS
Reds Receive: Scott Rolen
Blue Jays Receive: Edwin Encarnacion, Zach Stewart and Josh Roenicke
“Rolen will be 35 years old next season and one with an $11 million price tag, but after watching the Reds’ third baseman hit .213 this season apparently the Reds felt it was worth it to add the gamer to their club. Time will tell…Rolen has been able to provide a lot of value at the dish this season, though all those shoulder injuries have pretty much robbed him of the ability to drive the ball deep.”
Edwin Encarnacion was once thought of as a potential all-star with 30 homer power…This might be an example of a change of scenery really helping to boost a player’s value.”
JOHNSON TO MARLINS
Marlins Receive: Nick Johnson and $1.8 million (to pay his salary)
Nationals Receive: Aaron Thompson
“The Marlins added a plus defender and a solid hitter to take over at first base which should allow them to move Jorge Cantu back to third forcing Emilio Bonifacio to a reserve role where he belongs…This is another professional bat for the Marlins who are only six games behind the Phillies and three games out of the Wild Card.”
CABRERA TO TWINS
Twins Receive: Orlando Cabrera
A’s Receive: Tyler Ladendorf
“Cabrera has been on fire hitting .373 with nine steals in July helping to erase a putrid start to the season. An established veteran who brings a nice skill set as a middle infield option in mixed leagues.”
LAROCHE TO BRAVES
Braves Receive: Adam LaRoche
Red Sox Receive: Casey Kotchman
“LaRoche returns to ATL where he enjoyed a nice start to his career. In his last two seasons with the club (2005 and 2006) he hit .259 with 20 homers and .285 with 32 bombs, solid numbers without setting the world on fire…No reason to think that with everyday work that LaRoche won’t be able to be what he has always been – a fine corner infield option in mixed leagues.”
To read the entirety of my thoughts on every more of the day, hopefully they are coherent, feel free to give my Trade Day Dairy a thorough read.
By Ray Flowers
This is the only source you will need for your fantasy sports knowledge! OK, you might need other sources, but BaseballGuys should still be on your daily list of must reads for the insights and analysis that you will find here.
The Managing Editor of Fanball, Ray Flowers has spent years squirreled away studying the inner workings of the fantasy game to the detriment of his personal life (yep ladies, that means he is still single if you are interested). Specializing in baseball and hockey where some consider him an expert, Ray also dabbles in the NFL and the NBA with enough knowledge in those areas to get himself into considerable trouble. Ray loves the S.F. Giants, has a man-crush on the Sharks, and fancies himself quite the chef with an extensive collection of microwave cookbooks.
You can contact Ray through e-mail at RFlowers@fanball(dot)com or on Twitter.
