It's Groundhog Day, where is Phil Connors? All of baseball is focused on the trade and contract extension of Johan Santana. The Mets and the 2-time Cy Young Award winner agreed in principal to a record-breaking contract on Friday night to complete the trade with the Minnesota Twins. Santana agreed to a 6-year extension with the Mets that will pay him $137.5 million starting in 2009....the total value of the package including his $13.25 million dollar salary for 2008 is $150.75 million, an average annual salary of a little more than $21.5 million.
The Erik Bedard deal appeared to be making progress on Friday, but both camps are remaining very quiet this time. Several reports indicated the Mariners and Orioles are close on announcing the deal, but as everyone has learned, nothing is imminent that involves Peter Angelos.
Here is the latest from the mill and a few notes from the North Side....
Brian Roberts and Erik Bedard
Roch Kubatko reported in the Baltimore Sun on Friday night that the Mariners and Orioles deal for Erik Bedard "will get done pretty soon."
According to a report from Ken Rosenthal, Jason Marquis could be included in a package for Brian Roberts if the Orioles deal Erik Bedard. The Orioles are looking for an innings eater and Rosenthal said if the Orioles are willing to take Marquis it "could enable them to demand better prospects from Chicago." Marquis is owed $6.375 million in 2008 and $9.875 million in 2009.
One of the few sources remaining that believes the Cubs are still trying to trade for both Roberts and Bedard is Yahoo Sports. In a recent report Yahoo stated talks have "cooled down" with the Orioles for both players, if the two sides were to pick up talks again it would likely take a 7-for-2 deal to pull off the trade.
The Cubs
Baseball Prospectus released their Top 100 Prospects list for 2008 on Thursday. Jay Bruce of the Reds topped Kevin Goldstein's list. Clay Buchholz, Evan Langoria, Joba Chamberlain and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers rounded out the Top 5. There were only two Cubs in the Top 100.... #37, Geovany Soto and #45, Josh Vitters.
Yahoo Sports mentioned the Cubs are looking at free agents Marlon Byrd, Shannon Stewart and Kenny Lofton. Like the Roberts-Bedard report, this is the only source still reporting the Cubs interest in these players.
Tim Brown from Yahoo Sports recently toured the NL Central. Brown broke down each team in the "weak" division and stated the biggest competition in Spring Training for the Cubs will be the backend of the rotation....between Jason Marquis, Ryan Dempster, Jon Lieber and Sean Marshall. "The time is now" for Felix Pie according to Brown but Sam Fuld will provide competition in Mesa.
Rob Neyer ranked the best centerfielders in the game....number 8, Felix Pie.
Tracy Ringolsby brought up all of the questions in the National League in a report in the Rocky Mountain News. The question for the Cubs.... Can Geovany Soto keep up the offensive production he displayed last September for an entire season?
Cubs.com looked at the Cubs starting rotation candidates this past week. The last sentence...."It will be an interesting spring." Yes, it will.
From Around the League
150 players are still looking for a job for the upcoming season with Spring Training right around the corner according to Jayson Stark.
Sean Casey's name was removed from Stark's count at the last moment. 'The Mayor' signed a 1-year deal with the Boston Red Sox worth $700,000 on Friday.
Ken Rosenthal reported the Padres are expecting Mark Prior to "throw off a mound within the next week." They are wanting Prior to start a rehab assignment in April in order to be able to pitch in early May. Prior's agent does not agree with the timeframe and wants a "more cautious approach."
Prior's agent said he hoped they would not be in a position in which Prior was "rushed into duty." The Padres told Prior he would not be rushed back but apparently San Diego has changed their mind. A little advice to the Padres, beware of the 'Employee'.
Finally.... One of the Best Teams on Paper in February, the Chicago Cubs.
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Hey Padres,
Welcome to the wonderful world of Mark Prior, I hope you like frustration.
Sincerely,
The Faithful
Scott:
Well said.
Tis better to forget the past. I'm thinking that Cleveland is the place for JH to be doing his (ice) fishing. Both teams' needs and urgency for fielding stronger teams to win the LCS's ought to make good trading partners.
One combination or another involving some of our players: DeRosa, Murton, Gallagher, Ceda, Dempster and Ascaino. Helpful Cleveland players of interest: Peralta, Michaels, Laffey, Lofgren, Mills and Francisco.
If we don't get Roberts, I would be happy with the high OPS and good fielding Peralta at short with Theriot moving to second. (Even a Peralta and a Roberts might be workable, but probably it's one or the other. I'm leaning toward a Peralta deal) Cleveland would play DeRosa at third where they lack a dependable player and Murton in left where they have no one likely able to hit .285 with 15 to 20 HR.
Cleveland is not comfortable with their right handed pitching, and we can use a lefty like Laffey who is described as a ground ball machine. One or more of the Cleveland prospects like Beau Mills or Ben Francisco would bolster our future.
Peralta would add a 20-25 homer guy up our projected light hitting middle, and we would still have an excellent double play combination. Michaels is a solid pro, and a .280 hitter who can play all of the outfield positions.
JimK - excellent idea and good analysis.... but unfortunately never going to happen. Peralta's signed through 2010 with a $7 mil club option for 2011 (that I couldn't imagine them not picking up as long as injuries don't crop up between then and now). He's good - he's cheap - he's staying.
The Indians interest in the O's players that was reported shows that they think of themselves as buyers, not sellers.
I agree with you that Peralta would be a wonderful fit in Cubbie blue - but I just don't see it in the cards.
...and how jaded am I that $7 mil is cheap
Gary J...I agree Peralta could be a very long shot. But an Indians' analyst a few weeks ago said some things that propmted my thinking. One was that Byrd and Borowshi are 37 this season, and Byrd's HGH saga has yet to play out. Another was that the Indians have a power outage in the outfield corners. And for some reason, he said that Cabrera was a better shortstop than Peralta--it must either be range or attitude or perhaps Peralta's 140 strikeouts.
The Indians have also struggled at third--although Blake, a right fielder/first baseman most of his career is OK there. Thus the question--Would the Indians trade Peralta for DeRosa--maybe an all around more accomplished player--plus a right handed starter, a reliever and a better bat for left field. If Blake, a pretty good power guy goes back to right, DeRosa could play 3rd. Otherwise DeRo plays second. The Indians might then be better as they need to be with what the Tigers have done.
I didn't mean to leave out additional players coming our way to get Lou his versatile outfielder and some lefty pitcing help. Any more, $7 mil is chump change. As we both agree, JH still has some work to do.
I promise to quit with this. Take DeRo and Peralta out of the players listed and there's still likely a trade that helps both teams.
JimK - The good news here is that the Indians are out there and inquiring... so they're likely open to working out a deal. Without someone like Peralta in the deal though addressing a specific need for the Cubs, any trade would just be tweaking and not a real impact deal.
I'm all for tweaking though :-) It's a game of inches and even small improvements are still improvements.
I wouldn't get overly excited about Peralta: Although he has some power, he has a low OBP (the last two years .323 and .341 respectively). As a point of comparison, Theriot, who has taken a lot of heat for not getting on base enough, had a .326 OBP. Also, Peralta is a strikeout machine, having whiffed 146 times last year and 152 years the previous year. In short, Peralta resembles too many players already on our roster: batters with some pop but who display little patience at the plate and an overall inability to put the ball in play.
Anyone watching the Caribbean Series? If anyone who is, can send me some details, please do. I'm gonna watch the replays each night on ESPNDeportes. Unfortunately I havent seen much of the Winter Leagues and I dont know much about Licey, Aguilas, Obregon and Aragua. Also I cant speak spanish so I cant understand the details. Would someone who wouldnt mind teaching me tell me what I need to know by mailin me some pointers @ punkbrokenlove@aol.com or by replying here? Thanks.
Matt, how are you pal? I'll keep you posted on the Series. Doesn't the cable company have a 'Swap' botton the other way around???LOL! I'll post some news later on tonight.
Here is a little history-imput on the Caribbean Series for those interested. Keep in mind the strong influence North Americans have had in the Caribbean since 1898. Unlike South America and Europe, who patronize Soccer, in the Caribbean baseball is the national sport. I you are born and raised in Puerto Rico you do so watching winter pro-ball in the park and listening to games from MLB in their dead season which is pretty long.
The “Serie del Caribe†is played between the champions of each country’s winter league. Each “Champion†is allowed to reload or add the best players from the other teams on their respective leagues that did not won. The four active teams are; Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Venezuela. [Due to a dumb baseball strike, there was no winter ball played this year in P.R. for the first time since1938 causing many of its players flee to the Dominican and Venezuela leagues]
The first Caribean Series was held in Feb. 1949 in Habana, Cuba before the Fidel Castro days that prohibited pro sports in the island. The first 12 editions were played between Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Panama. Notables…Cuba dominated 7 Series becoming a baseball power, Puerto Rico won 4 and Panama one.
Without Cuba being allowed to attend because of Castros’ new rule, the confederation decided that it would be a waste of time to play just between three teams and there was a 10 year absence of the Series. [1960-1970]
In 1970 the Series was back on with only three teams [Venezuela, Dominican and P.R. and was a total failure. The following year Mexico was invited and introduced to make the series competitive again and the four teams have met ever since. Notable…Since P.R. is not playing this year…the Dominicans, who are this year’s host, have two teams to keep the balance! LOL! That is 50% chance of the championship without throwing a strike!
Teams
1-Tigres del Licey [Dominican runner up]
2-Republica Dominicana
3-Venezuela
4-Mexico
Matt…the present Series report will come shortly after the games end today. And yes, Ronnie Cedeno has been a stud in Venezuela winter league this season and the most valuable shared with Miguel Cabrera.[serious] In the Dominican Marmol has been….well…Carlos Marmol himself! El senor nasty is ready.
_Reportando desde la Republica Dominicana, les informo Agustin Rexach “el fanatico de los Cachorros de Chicagoâ€
Well, Tinley Park is in the news. Some Maniac shot at and killed 5 Women shopping at a strip mall which is oh, about two miles from my house today. I was at that mall 2 two days ago. Anyway, that was a solid report about the Caribbean Series Augustin.
That would be awesome to see that. When I need a baseball fix I am able to catch a baseball game on ESPN Classic. Forget the Superbowl, I would rather see a replay of a Cubs game.