Official 2009-10 MLB HOT STOVE UPDATES

Having the 3 J's (more like 3 Aces - hahaha see what I did there! ) at the top of the rotation and DiceK as 4th is solid for sure. Your D should improve; and if you get AG thats a significant add. You may have a few holes offensively depending on order and who protects who, etc.

Question: If Jacoby goes to LF, when was the last time a LEFTY played LF for Sox???

 

??? nuff said....

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According to ESPN.com's Buster Olney, Roy Halladay's negotiations with the Phillies "are complete" and he's taking a physical Tuesday.

Let's recap this three-team blockbuster trade once again: The Phillies will get Halladay from Toronto and two or three prospects from Seattle (possibly RHP Phillippe Aumont, RHP Juan Ramirez and OF Tyson Gilles); the Blue Jays will get outfielder Michael Taylor, catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud and pitcher Kyle Drabek from the Phillies; Seattle will receive Cliff Lee. Halladay will then ink a three-year, $60 million extension with Philadelphia. Stay tuned as this all gets sorted out and the exact money exchanged is revealed.

 

According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, the White Sox have acquired outfielder Juan Pierre from the Dodgers for two minor league pitchers.

The Dodgers will take care of about half of the $18.5 million remaining on Pierre's current contract, according to Brown's sources. The 32-year-old outfielder hit .308/.365/.392 this past season with 16 doubles, eight triples, 30 steals and 31 RBI in 380 at-bats for Los Angeles.

 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cardinals have offered Matt Holliday an eight-year contract worth about $16 million per year.

We doubt an eight-year, $128 million contract was what Scott Boras had in mind for the winter's top free agent, but Holliday himself might appreciate the security of knowing he could spend the rest of his career in St. Louis. Plus, there don't appear to be any of the expected $20 million-per-year offers on the table right now.

 

This Lee-Halliday deal is still shaking out...but seems interesting and I like ESPN's Jayson Stark's latest views as he has some new twists in the Roy Halladay deal, and they seem to clearly favor the Mariners.

Last Night according to Stark:
Phillies acquire Roy Halladay, Mariners prospect, Mariners prospect
Mariners acquire Cliff Lee
Blue Jays acquire Phillippe Aumont, Travis d'Arnaud, Phillies prospect (likely OF Michael Taylor)

However, the current deal has no one going from Seattle to Toronto.

Instead, the Mariners are set to acquire Lee from the Phillies for Aumont, a 20-year-old right-handed reliever, and 21-year-old outfielder Tyson Gillies. The Philies will simultaneously acquire Halladay from the Jays for three of their own youngsters: RHP Kyle Drabek, Taylor and D'Arnaud.

Stark said 2009 rookie J.A. Happ was a possibility to be included in Drabek's place, but Drabek is the much more popular name elsewhere.

So, if this is the deal, then it'd be a stellar move for Seattle. Aumont could well turn into a closer and Gillies is pretty interesting, but to get one of the game's top five pitchers for those two would be a flat-out steal and it's incredible that the Phillies couldn't do better elsewhere.

Things also look a better for the Blue Jays. Drabek isn't without risk, but he's one of the game's top-10 pitching prospects. With his legitimate No. 1 or No. 2 starter potential, he's a big upgrade from Aumont.

As for the Phillies, well, the price for Halladay is certainly fair, but they're not getting nearly enough in return for Lee. That's quite a bit of talent they're bleeding for what should be a very modest upgrade in 2010. They definitely have their eyes on 2011 here, as Halladay's extension will be quite a bit more reasonable than what Lee was requesting. Still, I don't think it was worth sacrificing Drabek's potential to get the swap done. There should have been a more reasonable deal available if they had let the league know that Lee was up for grabs.

 

I think trading draft picks in MLB would make the game much more enjoyble for small and large market teams....here is pretty good pros & cons perspective.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091215&content_id=7811316&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

 

This smells more like due diligence than real interest, but John Tomase and Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald report that the Yankees are "lurking in the weeds" and have expressed their interest in Jason Bay.

At the very least this returns some pressure to Johnny Damon after a day in which some of it was taken off due to Matsui's departure. And heck, maybe Bay freaks out a day after the Sox signed Mike Cameron and, with a bleak future with the Mets staring him in the face, finds himself suddenly receptive to a reasonable offer from a winning team.

 

ESPN's Jorge Arangure tweets that, while nothing is imminent, the Mets, Phillies and Orioles are "in on" Fernando Rodney.

Rodney likely wants to close as opposed to serving as someone's setup man, which makes Baltimore and Philly better options than New York, where K-Rod has the gig. Of course, if he thinks of himself as a Closer with a capital "C" he likely wants more money than a team like Baltimore should be paying for any single bullpen arm. As for Philly: haven't their fans had enough bullpen-induced heart attacks already? Sure, Rodney did well last year, but he continued to be all over the place control-wise. If a butterfly flaps his wings in South America, Rodney could go from the single blown save he had last year to numbers that are positively Lidgean.

 

ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports that the Phillies are planning on trading outfielder Michael Taylor to the A's for Brett Wallace.

It has been a crazy couple of days. Taylor was linked to the three-team blockbuster involving Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, but is apparently involved in a totally separate deal. The big 23-year-old hit .282/.359/.491 this past season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Wallace, 23, batted .302/.365/.505 in 182 at-bats with Triple-A Sacramento after being acquired from the Cardinals.

 

According to FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal, the Yankees are "very interested" in Ben Sheets but believe he is in no rush to sign.

Sheets is reportedly seeking up to $12 million annually, which is quite the demand for a guy who hasn't pitched in a major league game since September of 2008. That said, he does offer a 3.72 career ERA and 1.20 career WHIP, and was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball only a few years ago

 

Around 12 teams have contacted Matt Capps' agent, Paul Kinzer, to discuss contract parameters, according to an ESPNChicago.com report.

Interested parties include the Cubs, Yankees, Orioles, Nationals, Marlins and Rangers. "Matt has interest in the Cubs," Kinzer said. "We know they like him, but we'll be proactive in this market. You can' t just wait for one team." He could be utilized in Chicago as a setup man for closer Carlos Marmol. The 26-year-old Capps had a poor 5.80 ERA in 2009, but he boasts a 3.61 career ERA and has issued only 50 walks in 271 2/3 career innings. He's looking for a multi-year deal.

 

To each their own....

I'd rate them: Drabek, Taylor, Aumont, Gillies, D'Arnaud.

A top 100 list "prospects this upcoming year".....ummmm, I'd probably have Drabek near #20, Taylor say near #40 and Aumont near #60. Neither of the other two would be very close to making it.

Drabek is the better prospect on most folks board...just is.

 

This is getting crazier and crazier....

As if the massive three-team trade wasn't intriguing enough already, ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports that the Blue Jays are acquiring prospect Michael Taylor from the Phillies in order to flip him to the A's for fellow prospect Brett Wallace. Seriously.

Betting on Wallace or Taylor is a very interesting and not-so-little "challenge trade" piggy-backing onto what is essentially the gigantic challenge trade of Philadelphia choosing Roy Halladay over Cliff Lee. And this three-team (or maybe four-team now) trade has officially reached "insane" status.

 

That was last year....

 

Late last night Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the Cards had offered Matt Holliday an eight year deal at $16 million a year. This afternoon ESPN's Buster Olney is saying uh-uh, it's only five years. Buster makes mention of Strauss' report, but doesn't characterize it as bogus or anything, so maybe there's some vesting/option element to the Cards' five year offer that could make it into an eight-year deal if everything went right.

Either way, Buster reports that Holliday is not jumping at the offer and the Cards are acting like a team that made its last offer and is ready to move on, suggesting that it's not quite the blockbuster offer that Strauss suggested last night.

 

I must concur.....pretty fair assessment of all the parts and totals.

 

David Waldstein of the New York Times reports that the Mets are close to signing Japanese pitcher Ryota Igarashi to a two-year contract.
Igarashi is a 30-year-old right-handed reliever who has pitched for the Yakult Swallows since 1999. He saved 37 games in 2004, but has primarily been a setup man since, posting a 2.87 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 97.1 innings over the past two seasons after missing all of 2007 following Tommy John surgery.

Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker put together a detailed scouting report on Igarashi, including the fact that he's one of Japan's hardest throwers with a fastball that reaches the upper-90s. According to Newman he also features a hard splitter with the occasional slider, but has spotty control. No word yet on the monetary details, but based on his track record, stuff, and the two-year deal it looks like the Mets view Igarashi as a late-inning setup option in front of closer Francisco Rodriguez.

 

Aroldis Chapman had his big workout this morning. Scouts from 15 teams showed up to watch him pitch two five-minute bullpen sessions. According to Jorge Arangure, he threw in the 92-93 mph range for the most part and and topped out at 96.
The Twittersphere is complaining about his velocity this afternoon, but it's probably worth noting that (a) the much repeated "100 mph" stuff about Chapman is based on a single radar reading from the WBC and could have been a fluke; (b) Chapman is still a lanky 21, and could easily add some velocity once he is farther into a workout regime superior to that he saw in Cuba; and (c) even if he tops out at 96 mph for the rest of his career, that would make him the hardest throwing lefty starter in the majors.

No, the real question isn't the gun, it's the control. No word from Arangure about that, though it's probably hard to really gauge control in a bullpen session. He's being referred to this afternoon as "a tremendous talent." Someone in that same article compared him to Brien Taylor. I think it was meant as a compliment, but jeez, Brien Taylor? FanHouse's Ed Price heard from someone who was there who said "he's got the package." I'm not sure what that means and wonder if the person who said that really does either. Everyone talked about his arm, but we all knew he had a good arm. The question is whether he can pitch.

The next question is if any of the teams in attendance -- which included the Yankees, Orioles, Reds, Nats, Royals, Phillies, Cubs, Rangers, Mariners, Red Sox, Astros, Angels, Marlins and Pirates -- are going to top the Sox' offer of $15.5 million.

 

Replay at the top of folks minds....

Bud Selig is a big fan of using self-selected committees and task forces to (a) make findings that he'll later tout as gospel as he tries to achieve his own ends; and (b) give him political cover on tough issues. He did it with economics. He did it with steroids. He's doing it with Oakland. Now he's doing it with rules, scheduling and pace-of-game issues. I'm guessing it's because he wants to either do something truly radical or absolutely nothing at all.

In any event, they should put a conference room table on Selig's Hall of Fame plaque.