2009/2010 HOT STOVE

singings, re-singings, deals, steals, chemical peels...

Giambi wants to stay in Colorado. It's great he loves the club, and he's certainly made a good impression (if you can conveniently forget *stuff*). But his mini-renaissance surely screams DH, no? He can't want to finish his career as a pinch hitter when there's more in the tank? Maybe there isn't any more in the tank.

Hoffman is going to come back to Milwuakee and has an option for 2011.

He only had 20 AB in September, and Helton isn't going anywhere. Seems like a weird fit.

But he hit the cover off the ball as a Rockie, so maybe being a pinch hitter is a good role for him at this stage in his career. Like Matt Stairs or something.

These threads are not permitted during the postseason.

-Bud Selig

Uh yeah anyways, Freddy Garcia was resigned by Chicago today.

last week from Perrotto:

An interesting piece of trade speculation that keeps coming up is that the Cubs will send Milton Bradley to the Rays for Pat Burrell in a swap of disappointing free-agent outfielders, with Chicago picking up the $15 million difference in what is left on the players' contracts. The Padres, Giants, and Athletics are also possible destinations for Bradley if the Cubs put a large sum of a cash in a deal

Burrell would play RF in Chicago?

That would be one ugly fielding outfield - Soriano, Fukudome, & Burrell.

I cant believe the Mariners got out of that Johjima contract.. Pretty good news for them.

Rick (Jacket) Peterson is the new Milwaukee pitching coach

sounds like Jed Hoyer is gonna be the new GM of the Padres.

should i know the name?

AGM of the Sox

bobby v interviewing w/ clevo tomorrow

Rockies have resigned GM Dan O'Dowd. Everyone's pretty happy with that.

How about re-signing Tracy?

I think that's a fait accompli. Not sure I want him to get a multi-year deal, because I think much of his success was based on inheriting an incredibly stable line-up. When things became less stable - roster expansion, injuries, pressure - he became the micro-manager of reputation and while some of his decisions were good, he over-thought to the point of playing far from the best team against the Phillies because of their lefty starters.

Next season I will be amazed if the Rox don't regress in some areas - Cargo, De La Rosa, Tulo will be hard pressed to perform as well as they did this season, we're bound to have more first choices out through injury, and we're likely to shift a few players who've been key parts in recent success (Hawpe, Atkins (RIP), Marquis). However, I think we're a good unit and with a bit of luck as well as good training and management, we could be knocking on the door of 90 wins next season. What could prevent that is an improvement in our NL West rivals - the Dodgers may also regress but the Pads and the Dbacks can only get stronger and if SF sorts out its offence they'll be a danger.

I see Tracy's success just being a product of his teams talent and Hurdle finding a way to fuck it up. I had to endure the 2005 Dodgers under Tracy so I kinda hate his damn guts. I like the Rox more if they start Ianetta, Smith and Stewart regularly. Is Hawpe still under contract? Could they ship him out for some rotation insurance?

tracy was KILLED, totally killed, when the bucs fired him iirc. mark c otm about him inheriting a good situation.

Was Tracy manager when DePodesta was GM? I remember that being the front lines of the Moneyball debate iirc.

Yeah he was. Granted the main debate for the 05 Dodgers was whether to start Antonio Perez (traded to A's, proceeded to hit .100 and disappear from baseball) and Hee Seop Choi (rip) over Jason Phillips and Oscar Robles but goddamn what a miserable season.

Sample late 2005 lineup:

Jayson Werth (lol)
Oscar Robles
Jeff Kent
Jason Phillips/Olmedo Saenz
Jose Cruz Jr
Edwards (?)
Dioner Navarro
Jason Repko
Brad Penny

Hee Seop in your perfume!

haha mindmeld on this thread and the revived DePo lolstalgia thread.

joakimsoria off season is good but sometimes is boring

Acta to be an Indian and now it's a...

glad he ended up there and not in houston who wont be much better than the nats pretty soon

Pat Lackey informs us that a Cardinals source confirmed to Fanhouse's Ed Price that Mark McGwire has been hired to replace Hal McRae as the St. Louis hitting coach.

no wai

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/10/bad-contract-swap-meet.html

I wonder where Bradley will end up.

brad mills (redsox bench coach) to manage astros from what i hear

The Cubs have a headache in Milton Bradley. The Blue Jays have a burdensome contract that belongs to Vernon Wells. With that in mind, the Toronto Sun reports the two teams are talking a trade that would amount to an exchange of each other's problems.

"It's early on, but we think this one has some legs," a Cubs official told the Sun.

lolcubs

this is a no-win situation for both teams

from MLBTR:

... a Cubs source "quickly responded to the report by saying the rumor has 'no legs at all,' adding the team has not discussed the possibility of bringing Wells to the North Side."

i also saw something that should delight Barry - Cito is going to step down as the Js coach after 2010.

this is a no-win situation for both teams

I think you mean AWESOME SITUATION FOR THE JAYS.

Can you imagine Soriano and Wells in the same outfield? The most LOLarific contracts standing next to each other every night?

Counting the days until Cito is gone ... after 2010? Why not can his ass right now? I guess the new GM doesn't want to make a bunch of drastic moves right away.

not sure if you'll like where he's headed tho...

i guess the cubs outfield where be pretty loriffic if that were to happen. you could spend an entire game sitting in left field listing off nations with gdps less than the Cubbies outfield!

if the cubs do that trade, they can fuck right off imo. i would rather have bradley any day of the week.

Enough of this celebration bullshit.

Kenny Williams, what are you on?

kotsay!

AND Teahen for Getz and Fields.

wait what.

plz provide details or links

I was going by the Sun-Times, but there's this now:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091105&content_id=7626428

Angels gave Abreu 2 years with option for 2012. Terms not yet available.

http://twitter.com/ed_price/status/5458707361

Teahen knew nothing about it Thursday morning as he headed to work out at the Royals' complex in Surprise, Ariz.

SURPRISE!

marlins trade hermida to the sox for two minor league LHP

When asked about Hawk/AJ playing golf with Damon, Dombrowski joked, "Maybe that helped us. I don't know."

http://twitter.com/beckjason/status/9339361723

PLEASE END THIS SOMEHOW

PLEASE

Damon to DET 1/7.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3076/2692296114_e6c02db6e1.jpg?v=0

someone is gonna have to keep a running tally of fly balls that damon hits to right-center in comerica that the center fielder is able to camp under and whether or not that ball would've flown out of new yankee

Make that 1/8.

On the bright side, that lineup will REALLY need the OBP.

yea u need 2 update ur opening day box vs greinke

how LOL is it that Damon turned down $14M/2yrs with the Yankees back in December?

cuz guess what? he's not gonna be making $6M next year...

wotta greedy douchebag. fuk im and boras.

no offense to tigers fans, just not a fan of this guy.

boras guys getting played has been the best thing about this offseason

None taken. Not a fan, either.

SS finds players "greedy," imagine he's happy Marvin Miller will never get in the HOF.

Go back to reading your fascinating analysis of how Billy Beane was the GM of the century or whatever.

lol, why don't you cite the flaws in their methodology, crankypants?

lol @ you ever calling anyone else that name

Rod (.284 career OBP) Barajas to Mets

where u been at, dr.

lol at Morbius defending Scott Boras

also lol at a major league center fielder not being able to throw farther than me

From twitter re Khalil Greene

Options on Greene could include restricted list and voiding contract. Greene was in AZ this week but felt uncomfortable about playing.

What the fuck is wrong with this dude? Other than looking like a muppet.

he's depressed

he should just hang it up or go play for the river city rascals for a year.

Too much tuna 'n' crackers IMO.

Get well, Khalil.

His rap career never took off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDTnzx01NtA

simple, effective

Mauer, Twins agree to 8-year, $184M extension

great news

Well deserved, but that's a ton of coin for such a small market team

w/ a new cold-weather ballpark

Never a bad idea to lock up the loyalty of a generation of Midwesterners. Dude is the face of the franchise, now and forever. Hope he doesn't pull a Tiger Woods, b/c he is 100% the person all teams would like to build around in all ways.

Plus he has a home studio in which he records his raps.

are you being serious? i can't tell.

he also has awesome sideburns. good to see MN keep the hometown hero.

Yeah, how could anyone not root for Mauer to stay with the Twins (unless you're a Yankees fan who thought you were going to sign him next year).

Mauer's best rap is with a bat

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-mauer070109

w/ a new cold-weather ballpark

Not that I've thought much about it (or have read anything on it), but I'd much rather catch a few 35-45-degree games than have my home field in Arlington, Atlanta, CA, etc. I caught a game while it was snowing and it wasn't nearly as taxing as doing the same in 90-degree heat.

Catching a pitch in your palm when it's cold is no joke, though.

mlbtraderumors
Olney: Jarrod Washburn turned down a $5MM offer from the Brewers at one point. http://bit.ly/c82VSc

...

Hope he doesn't pull a Tiger Woods

Didn't he show up to Spring Training with a herpes outbreak?

he's always trying to outdo Jeter.

The Baltimore Orioles acquired infielder Julio Lugo and an undisclosed amount of cash from the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday for a player to be named later or cash.

Report: Joba To Be Traded Within Next Week
Well, this one is a doozy. There's a report that Yankee brass thinks Joba needs a change of scenery. Apparently, he did not react well to losing out on the 5th spot, and the Yanks feel it's time to move on. There are whispers that the Bombers could get Andrew Mccutchen back from the Pirates. Looks like the Joba era is ending soon.

Reports on April 1 always being possibly b.s.

There are whispers that the Bombers could get Andrew Mccutchen back from the Pirates.

hahahaha yankees rumors are always the most deliciously delusional

There are whispers that the Bombers could get back Jason Heyward and Tommy Hansen

The Dodgers released Jason Repko, but didn’t tell him about it.

yall

that is an april fools joke

lol

there is no "Joba era"

and to make the joke work you need to work in a realistic owner like Dayton Moore

the good ol days

The former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling told WEEI, a Boston radio station, in September that the team should select Bay over Holliday because he is the proven commodity. Holliday initially struggled in Oakland, a milquetoast market.

“You take the thing you know,” Schilling said.