Rumors, deals, newsworthy/noteworthy items...... Just a little over 3 months until pitchers and catchers report. Lance Berkman with sketchy knee injury, out 5-6 months Question is, was he playing basketball or doing wheelies on his motorcycle down Scottsdale road? Or "washing his truck?"
Re: The Hot Stove Thread Maybe he was just trying to open up a dvd with his pocket knife and accidentally stabbed himself in his ACL.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread I'm going to go with "got his leg caught in an empty pizza box on the way to the icebox."
Re: The Hot Stove Thread Wally Backman, 4 days after getting the D-Backs manager job has been fired for his past history. A misdemeanor, DUI, and financial problems led to the firing. Interesting that the D-Backs didn't know about this before hand. I wonder if this would've changed anything in the Mets manager hunt. Backman was considered for the Mets job. Mets fans will remember him being part of the "Wild Boys" with Lenny Dykstra for his hard nosed play. D-Backs hired Melvin who managed the Mariners for the past 2 seasons. Do you think that his past history should've led to his firing? I honestly don't see what his past history has to do with how he manages a ball club but that's just me.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread Jerry Colangelo had established strong precedents with both the Suns and Diamondbacks that if you run afoul of the law, you are gone. Doesn't matter if you're a journeyman bullpen guy like Bobby Chiounard or the best point guard in the NBA like Jason Kidd. What I don't understand is why they weren't aware of this since he'd already been working in the organization! I'm no big fan of Colangelo. I think he fleeced the tax payers of Arizona to fund his stadiums and make himself a lot of money, but I strongly respected the fact that he insisted his players keep their noses clean. No exceptions. I'm also glad to see that the current management has chosen to continue this no tolerance policy after they forced Colangelo out.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread Yeah, I'm totally cool with the policy as long as its been enforced and respect that. But like you mentioned, I have no clue how they failed to have known this. Hell he was on the '86 Mets, he had to have done something wrong! I totally hated Colangelo too, but only because he forced games 1 and 2 of the '99 Division Series to be shown primtime at 8pm......Arizona time. Of course having had to get up for school didn't allow me to watch a game at 11pm.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread LA and CHI to discuss Green for Sosa at GM meetings I'd heard a rumor of this a couple of weeks ago with some other players involved. This is a slam dunk if you're Chicago.
That's why I've been banging my head against the wall since this rumor surfaced. The thing is, it sounds so stupid, LA will do it. Throw in a pitcher with arm problems and it's a done deal.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread How so? Green doesn't put up the offensive numbers Sosa does. Granted you get rid of a sore spot and save a few bucks but offensively you loose something.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread .266 28HR 86RBI .811OPS .253 35HR 80RBI .849OPS There are the lines. Sosa is also 4 years older than Green. Sammy is nowhere near what he was (nor is Green), but you're not saving a few bucks, you're saving 19 million of them. That's a huge chunk of payroll flexibility to have next year.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread Yes this years numbers were bad for Sammy, but if Sammy were to stay healthy next season he could very well put up another 100 + RBI season. And I think Sean Green had that one really good year and people keep expecting him to do that again. I just think he's not enough in trade. As a Cub fan that if is hard to let go.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread Green doesn't have the HOF #'s Sosa does, but he has more than 1 good year. He was over 40 homers once in Toronto and twice in LA with 42 and 49 consecutively. If you listen to the optimists, Green started to show signs toward the end of last year that his shoulder had finally started recovering from the injury he had. If you listen to the pessimists, he's just not as good as he was for a couple of years. Green's far better defensively than Sosa and he can play 1B should anything happend to Derek Lee. Sosa, on the other hand, is on a 3 year decline. He's closer to 40 than 30. And that's all aside from the personality issues. I'm a Dodger fan and I don't think much of Green, but I'd much rather have him for 1 more year than 2 years of Sosa.
Re: The Hot Stove Thread Shawn Green/Mike Piazza rumor Will Green be mentioned in any rumors for anyone who's not washed up?
Re: The Hot Stove Thread Apparent rumor of Cliff Floyd for Sammy Sosa and cash for the Mets. http://nypost.com/sports/mets/33961.htm The article also mentions a possible Soriano deal for Jose Reyes but says it's unlikely since the Mets don't want to trade Reyes. Then there's the talk of resigning pitcher Kris Benson. I think GM Omar Minaya should work into his contract somewhere that his wife has to take her shirt off.
Interesting column from the WaPo about the free agent season... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43901-2004Nov11.html "Winter after winter, we see the same basic old-fashioned baseball truism played out time and again. Yet few seem to learn. Adding pitching, especially great pitching, always matters. Adding more hitting, even great hitting, seldom closes the deal. Last year Boston added Schilling and Keith Foulke and won. The Yankees added Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield, but neglected their rotation, and didn't. The Yankee goats? Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez, the replacement starters who failed. The Astros, who added Roger Clemens, missed the Series by one game. With a healthy Andy Pettitte, who knows? Just watch. The free agency bell has barely rung and everybody is already chasing exactly the wrong players. No better example could exist than Beltran, the current object of obsession. If baseball is lucky, the Yankees will fixate on Beltran, sign him for between $150 million and $200 million and find out, too late, that he is exactly the player they don't need -- a flashy five-tool switch-hitting centerfielder coming off a spectacular October hot streak who, in cold statistical reality, is as good an offensive player as Boston journeyman Kevin Millar. That got your attention. Beltran has played six full seasons. They've been virtual duplicates. Five times he's had between 100 and 108 RBI, including 104 in '04. But Manny Ramirez once had 165. In the age of "Moneyball," head straight to composite offensive stats. Start with OPS (on-base-percentage-plus-slugging-percentage) as a decent approximation of offensive ability. Beltran's career OPS is .843. That would rank him eighth on the current Yankees roster. Yes, eighth. Rodriguez, Sheffield and Jason Giambi are all between .927 and .955 -- a world away from .843, which is 14 points below Millar's career mark. Beltran hit .267 last year, seldom walks much and has only hit 30 homers once, aided by the Astros' bandbox. Those who aren't in love with Beltran adore Beltre. Good luck to them, too. In his first five full seasons, his OPS only once climbed over .800. Last season, it jumped to 1.017. Was it a breakout season at 25 or a career year? Tough choice. Instead of shopping for such one-year flashes whose price is at the top of the market, teams should be shopping for truly great players -- like Schilling last year or Johnson now. Or they should look for slightly tarnished high quality goods. Last year, Vlad Guerrero had his normal numbers when he played, but had back problems. The Angels took a minor chance on him and almost ended up with the AL MVP. This year, there's no Guerrero, but both Ordoñez and Glaus are prime sluggers, coming off injuries, who have been just as good offensive players throughout their careers -- not as pretty to watch but just as good -- as Beltran. The steal of the winter will be closer Benitez, 32. After a career of trying to strike out every hitter, he finally put control before "K's" last season in Florida. Not only did both his walks and strikeouts drop, but he suddenly became almost untouchable, allowing 36 hits in 69 2/3 innings with a 1.29 ERA. What Foulke did to stabilize the entire Red Sox bullpen, Benitez may do for an '05 pennant winner. Benitez has had his postseason embarrassments. But his turn in an October mosh pit will come."
Visquel signs w/ SF Interesting. 3 year deal for a 37 year old guy. But seems like the Giants always get the most out of veteran guys. What does this mean for Boston now? Visquel was widely rumored to end up there.
Well, they're still open to the possibility of bringing Cabrera back, depending on the market for him. The idea has been to have bring Hanley Ramirez up in '06, and having a stopgap guy for this year. But they could find ways to tweak things, maybe moving Ramirez to 2b when he comes up, for example.
I'm surprised they didn't sign Rich Aurillia again. He was pretty good with the Padres and now has more experience at 3rd.
I have to disagree with that assessment. The Yankees didn't neglect their rotation at all, their stars happened to fizzle out. Furthermore, considering how close the ALCS was, it's a bit silly to have this discussion to begin with. As to the main point, Beltran. He's been over a .900 OPS the last three seasons at a position where good hitters are scarce. He's the best fielding CF in baseball. He's a total HOFer. I hope he doesn't go to New York.
Potential disaster if they're thinking of starting Barry Larkin, who would be the worst fielding SS in the AL. The guy is too old for SS. Re-sign Pokey and have Larkin as a back up/pinch hitter. Better yet, re-sign Cabrera and worry about H. Ramirez when the time comes.
Here's one guy's assessment of the situation w/ Hanley Ramirez: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=1919174