December 01, 2008
The latest Wikio Sports Blog rankings are coming out, and Baseball Musings moved into the top ten. Here's a preview of the top 20.
Ian Kennedy and Robinson Cano continue to perform well in winter ball.
Dan Turkenkopf takes the data from the PMR's look at defense behind the pitcher to see how many runs defense added to or removed from a pitcher's record per nine innings.
Today (Monday) is the day teams decide which free agent players get offered arbitration. Some decisions are fairly easy, as Sox Machine describes. The toughest ones are for a veteran player who is likely to make less if he goes to free agency, but will still deliver a draft pick if another team signs him. That's the Andy Pettitte situation right now. In fact, it also might be the Abreu and Giambi situations as well. The Angels are in a similar situation, but as Halos Heaven points out having arbitration accepted by any of those players won't hurt the club much.
I wonder, in what may be a down year for free agents due to the economy, if we see more accept arbitration this season. Most would make at least what they made in 2008, probably more. It would give them a year to see how things go, and maybe make a killing next winter.
Of course, it would also increase the number of free agents available for 2010, and increased supply tends to put a damper on salaries paid to these players as well. There's a lot of strategy to think about for both sides this off season.
Tony Massarotti reports the Red Sox and Junichi Tazawa agreed to a three-year, $3 million contract.
Though Tazawa was courted by several teams and offered more money by at least one - the Texas Rangers - the pitcher reportedly was interested in pitching for the Sox. Team officials have been scouting Tazawa for more than a year after having made major inroads in the Japan talent pool with the signings of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima during the 2006-07 offseason.
Despite his having no professional experience in Japan, Tazawa's deal is a major league contract, meaning he will occupy a spot on Boston's 40-man roster. Nonetheless, Tazawa is expected to begin his career in the minor leagues, though his ascension to the majors could come rapidly.
That bell you hear ringing is the death-knell of the Japanese Major Leagues. I wonder if the Japanese will change the way they run things, scraping their draft and going after amateur free agents all over the world. I'd like to see them sign a highly ranked US player before he's drafted just to force the issue.
November 30, 2008
Peter Abraham examines why the hot stove is so cold. Unlike last year, we don't have the drama of the A-Rod opt-out upstaging the World Series to keep us entertained until the winter meetings start.
November 29, 2008
A fight between the Yankees and the mayors office led to a free suite but also a loss of revenue.
Peter Abraham lists Ian Kennedy's stats in the Puerto Rican Winter League. They're mostly good, but the nine walks in 19 2/3 innings bothers me. He's wild and tough to hit, something that doesn't work for most major league pitchers.
Correction: Fixed the title.
The Nationals' leader in wins, Tim Redding, underwent foot surgery on Friday and should be ready for spring training. Redding is a low strikeout pitcher who does okay in years he keeps his walks low.
I don't usually blog about football players, but having read this story, I think this picture pretty much explains
Plaxico Burress's season.
Billfer tries to explain the poor defense behind Nate Robertson and decides that batters were just very good at hitting balls in holes against the Tigers pitcher.
Bruce Markusen explores John Ellis's 1972 In Action card. Ellis shares the card with Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew. The card looked familar, and 1972 was one of the few years I bought cards. I looked through the pile, and sure enough there's not only the In Action card, but John Ellis's regular card as well. Thanks for the memory!
November 28, 2008
River Ave. Blues notes that Andy Pettitte talking to the Dodgers complicated the Yankees decision to offer the left-hander arbitration:
Monday, you see, is MLB's arbitration deadline. By the end of the day, the Yanks must decide whether or not to offer arbitration to Andy Pettitte. This is a rather complicated decision, and it could play itself out in a variety of scenarios.
The easiest option -- and perhaps the most beneficial to the Yanks -- would be to offer arbitration to Andy Pettitte and hope that he heads to Los Angeles. As Mike noted earlier this week, the Yanks would land the 17th slot in the draft and a supplemental pick as well. But because the Dodgers would be giving up a fairly coveted spot, they may not be so keen to sign Pettitte if the Yanks offer arbitration.
Of course, if the Yankees do offer Andy arbitration, he may accept the offer, and New York ends up spending more than they wanted on Andy.
In general, it was a very good move for Pettitte to at least speak with the Dodgers. He held no leverage against New York until he did so.
Neal Huntington speaks on the way the Pirates are approaching the off-season:
"We are not throwing 2009 to the wind and saying, 'Well, we'll win again sometime in the future.' We know we need to win, and sooner rather than later, and we're going to show up, work hard, prepare, teach and go out to win every game" Huntington said. "But, if we can trade a veteran player and it brings us 12-18 years of control instead of one or two, and we don't take that large of a step backward, that's just good business."
And that is why, according to multiple sources, no fewer than of the Pirates' five veterans -- shortstop Jack Wilson, second baseman Freddy Sanchez, first baseman Adam LaRoche, reliever John Grabow and catcher Ronny Paulino -- already have been part of trade talks, to some degree or other.
To me, this is an approach to keep payroll low. I'd rather see the Pirates pick their weak link position and improve it as much as possible. Looking at the team stats by position, they can pick third base, shortstop or second base as their area of improvement for this season. Even just bringing one of those position above league average will help them score more runs. Given that the Pirates have such a log way to go, addressing two of those is probably needed. Just trading veterans to get more years of control, however, is not the way to build a winner unless the players acquired are good, too. Jack Wilson isn't going to bring much.
Freddy Garcia suffered an injury in the Venezuelan Winter League.
Baseball will reveal the number of players who tested positive for amphetamines for the first time in 2008. I suspect the number will be low. Players who tested positive in 2007 won't be included, and are likely not to be using with the threat of suspension hanging over them. It would be nice if they included the number already at the suspension testing level entering 2008.
Update: MLB reversed itself on this.
November 27, 2008
Bleed Cubbie Blue does not believe Jake Peavy will land with the Cubs, because Lou Piniella is happy with his starting pitching.
Thank you to all the readers of Baseball Musings. The site is seven seasons old, and would not have last this long without your support. Thanks for your donations, your comments and your emails. Best wishes for a wonderful day with your family and friends!
November 26, 2008
The Oakland Athletics appear to have an interest in Nick Johnson. Do they reall want both corner infielders constantly on the disabled list?
Nick and Nick wonder why Justin Morneau gets so much more MVP respect than Joe Mauer.
It looks like Boston won the Junichi Tazawa sweepstakes.
Boston already has veteran Japanese pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima on its roster, and Tazawa reportedly has expressed a desire to be a teammate of Matsuzaka. The two attended different high schools in Yokohama.
Will this open the floodgates? If Tazawa becomes a successful major league pitcher, MLB teams will step up their wooing of Japanese amateur free agents. I hope some agreement is reached that prevents this from causing the downfall of the Japanese major leagues.
I hope everyone traveling on this busy holiday has a safe trip and spends many wonderful hours with family and friends! I brought my daughter home yesterday, and the drive took only twice as long as usual.
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