Baseball Winter Meetings Happenings

[Espo]

Schmidt to LA?

According to MLB, Jason Schmidt is headed to Los Angeles to join all of Ned Colletti's other acquisitions. The deal is reported as 3 years, $47 million. Sounds like LA waited to make their final bid until they knew they were out of the running for Greg Maddux, who is close to a deal with the Padres.
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/...ontent_id=1752456&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp

 

[devilfan02]

Schmidt and the Dodgers are closing in on a 3 year, $47 million dolloar deal

@$!^ Schmidt owns us, I was praying he would leave the division

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2688596

 

[devilfan02]

The Dodgers appear to be in on both Mark Mulder and Jeff Suppan.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove06/news/story?id=2688380

CRAP! Not good for us, LA is close enough to his PHX home and could hurt our chances

 

[Espo]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove06/news/story?id=2688380

CRAP! Not good for us, LA is close enough to his PHX home and could hurt our chances

With the signing of Schmidt they are out of rotation spots. Unless they plan on going with a 7 man rotation i don't buy it and tend to think that they were in on them before the Schmidt thing

 

[devilfan02]

With the signing of Schmidt they are out of rotation spots. Unless they plan on going with a 7 man rotation i don't buy it and tend to think that they were in on them before the Schmidt thing

The Schmidt to LA is not a done deal yet (although he's saying he will sign). It's a longshot that they'd pass on Scmidt to sign Mulder and Suppan but crazier things have happened. We need to sign Mulder, if we don't there are few backup plans left (unless Byrnes pulls off another trade).

BTW, if Schmidt does sign with LA they have to be the favorite to win the NL West

 

[devilfan02]

Nevermind, just saw Schidt to LA is official. Is LA looking to further upgrade their staff? I highly doubt it as Wolf and Schmidt should fill out their rotation with Lowe, Billingsley, and Penny. They also have Hendrickson and Tomko. Man, their staff is deep.

 

[Espo]

Nevermind, just saw Schidt to LA is official. Is LA looking to further upgrade their staff? I highly doubt it as Wolf and Schmidt should fill out their rotation with Lowe, Billingsley, and Penny. They also have Hendrickson and Tomko. Man, their staff is deep.

I have a feeling they have a trade in the works. There is no way they keep all of those guys.

 

[devilfan02]

I have a feeling they have a trade in the works. There is no way they keep all of those guys.

When I looked up their staff, the first that came to mind was them dealing Penny along with prospects to Boston for Manny. I know Boston asked for Kemp and Penny and LA said no. With Schimdt they may say otherwise. Boston now has the most overrated player ever in Drew and may feel they can deal Manny now. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see LA pull off a trade for Manny involving Penny (highly doubt Boston is sticking to their expired deadline)

It won't happen but I would love for Byrnes to see what it would take to get Penny. LA wouldn't trade him inside the division but he'd be a great pickup

 

[Espo]

When I looked up their staff, the first that came to mind was them dealing Penny along with prospects to Boston for Manny. I know Boston asked for Kemp and Penny and LA said no. With Schimdt they may say otherwise. Boston now has the most overrated player ever in Drew and may feel they can deal Manny now. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see LA pull off a trade for Manny involving Penny (highly doubt Boston is sticking to their expired deadline)

Those deadlines are usually idle threats. I think that Manny could destroy any chemistry that the Dodgers hope to have. Although the Dodgers are making it very hard for the Dbacks to win the west at the rate they are picking up guys.

 

[devilfan02]

Dec. 6: The Mets have moved forward in their pursuit of Mulder, a former pupil of pitching coach Rick Peterson. Mulder's agent, Gregg Clifton, met with team officials on Tuesday, and while interest on both sides was described by Clifton as "very preliminary," it was mutual. Mets GM Omar Minaya was tight-lipped in regards to Mulder, confirming that he had met with other free-agent pitchers but stopping short of naming names. The East Valley Tribune reports the D-backs met again Tuesday with the representatives for Mulder, but their inability to include incentive clauses in any new contracts may put them at a competitive disadvantage against other suitors.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/...ontent_id=1736744&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp

 

[Espo]

Honestly I don't get how the Dbacks don't just break their self imposed rule on incentive based contracts. Ken Kendrick doesn't understand the business of sports if he is unwilling to do so. I can't imagine its Morad who is unwilling to provide an incentive based contract seeing as hes seen how it can benefit player and team.

 

[devilfan02]

Honestly I don't get how the Dbacks don't just break their self imposed rule on incentive based contracts. Ken Kendrick doesn't understand the business of sports if he is unwilling to do so. I can't imagine its Morad who is unwilling to provide an incentive based contract seeing as hes seen how it can benefit player and team.

It's def Kendrick. I've been trying hold back because calling out management opens a whole new can of worms.

Kendrick sucks, there's no way around it. I'm biased because I'm a Colangelo guy and the way Kendrick forced him out was garbage. I completely understand how screwed we are financially and I also understand why he's setting such strict budgets. However, calling out arguably the cities biggest sports icon (Gonzo) by suggesting he took steroids is as moronic as it gets. Going on local sports radio and refusing to apologize for those statements (and making other ludacris comments) was even more stupid.

Honestly, why not bend the rules for one player? Mulder was one of the best pitchers in baseball prior to his injury, he's still young, we need another starter (very few options left if we don't sign him), he's made it clear he wants to be a Dback, and he may damn well return to his dominant form. If he reaches his incentives, so be it. He'll be worth every penny and will likely mean we make the playoffs. It's easy for me to say this becasuse it's not my money but I don't get Kendrick. He needs to set the budget and get out of the picture.

 

[Espo]

I understand budgets for this organization and I understand no backloaded or differed payments but an incentive based contract seems to be a no brainer in sports. At worst you pay him what you wanted originally and he doesn't preform at best you pay market value for a top pitcher and you get a top pitcher. Seems like a win win but I think Kendrick likes to get himself in the news.

 

[Espo]

Rosenthal adds the Mariners to the Miguel Batista suitors. The Cards and Royals and also still in the mix.

 

[devilfan02]

I understand budgets for this organization and I understand no backloaded or differed payments but an incentive based contract seems to be a no brainer in sports. At worst you pay him what you wanted originally and he doesn't preform at best you pay market value for a top pitcher and you get a top pitcher. Seems like a win win but I think Kendrick likes to get himself in the news.

As you said, backloaded contracts and differed payments shouldn't be done and aren't for good reason. However, incentive laiden deals, in the right circumstance, seem to be a no brainer. The only thing that comes to mind is that Kendrick is so budget conscious that he doesn't want to flirt with Mulder achieving all his incentives and leaving the Dbacks stuck in the same boat. If Kendrick were to come up with a very specific and creative incentive contract then it would be a win win for him and the Dbacks. I guess it's not worth talking about but I don't understand why he won't bend a little (prob doesn't want to look like a hypocrite).

 

[devilfan02]

Rosenthal adds the Mariners to the Miguel Batista suitors. The Cards and Royals and also still in the mix.

He's definitely going to reject arbitration (good for us, get sandy pick). Good for him, looks like he'll get upwards of $10 mill per season. IMO, Batista is better then Meche and is Lillys equal. His age doesn't help but Batista is severly underrated

 

[Diamondback Jay]

ESPN reports the Cubs have signed Ted Lilly to a 4 year, 44 million dollar contract.

 

[devilfan02]

ESPN reports the Cubs have signed Ted Lilly to a 4 year, 44 million dollar contract.

This offseason is officially insane. All these clowns making excessive money is out of control. The Cubs aren't done, they may spend more then our 2007 payroll in this offseason.

So far, the cubs have spent $42.17 this offseason towards next years payroll ($232.5 million in total contracts this offseason1!)! They still need some bullpen help, craziness. The lowest signee...... Kerry Wood. Bet he wished he waited to sign, he could have at least got a little more money.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

To clear up a couple of misconceptions, the Diamondbacks do allow "incentives," just not tied to performance based stats. Arizona does allow contracts where the salary depends on how many days the player is on the active roster, such as they did with Jeff Davanon. This is probably the type of contract the Dbacks are looking at with Mulder.

Until recently, nobody knew just how bad the Dbacks finances were. The Dbacks still owe nearly $100 million, and their total debt stretches well into the nine figure range. Not only are the stars like Gonzo and Johnson owed money, guys like Bernard Gilkey, Brian Anderson, and Roberto Alomar are amazingly still getting routine checks from the team as well. Pretty easy to see why the wallet is pretty tight right now and why Kendrick wants to know exactly what he is spending. The current plan is for the team to pay roughly around $30M per year toward the deferred payments, and increase the budget about $5M per season for the next few years until the debt has been greatly reduced, at which time Kendrick said the budget would "significantly increase." That point in time coincides with the time most of our young stars would be in their prime. Seems like a pretty smart plan to me.

Kendrick never suggested that Gonzo took steroids, he said that there were whispers from other that he had. Thats a true statement, there were whispers floating around that he had. There is a huge distinction between the two. Kendrick needs to learn to watch what he says around columnists, but his comment was blown way out of proportion.

 

[Diamondback Jay]

The Phils acquire Freddy Garcia from Chicago for pitchers Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez.

 

[Diamondback Jay]

The Seattle Mariners traded Rafael Soriano to the Braves

The Braves traded Horacio Ramirez to go the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners found a way to prop up a pitching rotation in desperate need of help, agreeing to trade hard-throwing reliever Rafael Soriano to Atlanta for left-hander Horacio Ramirez, several media outlets reported Wednesday.


"There were physicals, but they're all done and it's going through,"

The 27-year-old Ramirez's ability to stay healthy has been an issue.

He won 12 games and had a 4.00 ERA as a rookie starter for Atlanta in 2003. Since then, he's been derailed by injuries. After winning 11 games in 2005, Ramirez was 5-5 with a 4.48 ERA during a 2006 season in which he had a hamstring problem, took a line drive off his head, and suffered a pulled tendon in his finger.

Soriano was 1-2 with a 2.25 ERA in 53 appearances last season
www.espn.com

 

[devilfan02]

Very shaky trade for the M's. Ramirez has constant arm issues and they don't seem to be going away. I wouldn't consider this a "rotation upgrade." To be honest, they would have been better off trading for Hendrickson.... and that's not saying much

 

[devilfan02]

It appears less likely Arizona will sign free agent left-hander Mark Mulder.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/...ontent_id=1752622&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp

I don't even know what to say. Byrnes better have a good backup plan cause there's thin pickings left

 

[overseascardfan]

The Phils acquire Freddy Garcia from Chicago for pitchers Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez.

Wow, I just read that on FSN. The Phillies gave two top pitching prospects for Garcia. Gonzalez was part of the Thome trade so its odd that the Phillies gave him back to the Sox.

I am hoping we can sign Mulder and trade for Penny to fill out or rotation. For those who feel the Dodgers won't deal with a division rival, their need for a bat and the fact that we've dealt with them before (Green, Finley) doesn't make it impossible.

 

[devilfan02]

Wow, I just read that on FSN. The Phillies gave two top pitching prospects for Garcia. Gonzalez was part of the Thome trade so its odd that the Phillies gave him back to the Sox.

I am hoping we can sign Mulder and trade for Penny to fill out or rotation. For those who feel the Dodgers won't deal with a division rival, their need for a bat and the fact that we've dealt with them before (Green, Finley) doesn't make it impossible.

We don't even have a bat, who do you suggest we give them?