As is the case every season, the official announcement of the rosters for the All-Star game has created some controversy.
The fans and players votes have been tallied and some glaring omissions need to be mentioned.
So without further adieu, let’s take a look at the five biggest All-Star game snubs of 2009.
See the five biggest snubs at BleacherReport.
Buy low and sell high.
This may be the oldest cliché when it comes to investments, but it is also one of the most accurate.
The Minnesota Twins missed that memo when they bought high by trading for Delmon Young following the 2007 season.
Young was the runner-up to Dustin Pedroia in the American League Rookie of the Year voting after hitting .288 with 13 homers and 93 runs batted in.
His attitude, however, didn’t fit with the “future vision” of the rechristened Rays and they were looking to swap the youngster. With Torii Hunter departing for Los Angeles, the Twins were looking to improve their suddenly depleted outfield and Young seemed to be the answer.
Read the rest at BleacherReport.
The Minnesota Twins have spent most of June slowly gaining ground on the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central.
Early next month, the Twins could quickly gain ground on the rest of the Major League Baseball when it comes to high-profile international signings.
The Twins are one of a small handful of teams reported to be very interested in making a play for Dominican slugger, Miguel Angel Sano when the international signing period opens on July 2.
Sano is a 6-foot-3 slugging shortstop from the Dominican Republic who has been compared to everyone from Hanley Ramirez to Alex Rodriguez. Oh yeah, and he recently turned 16, the magical age that makes international players eligible to sign with a Major League club.
Reports say he has great raw power to all fields and only figures to get better and stronger as he fills out. Although currently a strong-armed shortstop, most scouts assume he’ll transition to third base as he grows into his body.
As one might expect, teams all over the league are drooling over the prospect of signing such a commodity, but only a few are seriously considering investing the money it would take to land Sano.
Reports vary from one source to another but it’s believed that Sano is seeking a signing bonus comparable to the $4.25 million the Oakland Athletics gave Michel Inoa a year ago.
The Twins, despite their usually frugal ways, are heavily in the mix for Sano’s services and have had scouts monitoring him frequently in recent weeks. The two other leading suitors are rumored to be the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles.
The Twins went as far as to initiate an investigation to ensure that Sano is actually 16-years old, a move that was promptly piggy-backed by MLB as it launched a similar investigation.
Given the intense scrutiny many international signings have come under in recent years it seems like a wise move for both the Twins and MLB to have all their bases covered before any record-breaking deals are inked.
Although only 16, Sano would almost-immediately become the top prospect in the Twins farm system, especially given the lack of top-tier talent at shortstop and third base.
Scouts have said they believe Sano could ascend through the minors in much the same fashion as Miguel Cabrera did with the Florida Marlins after he was signed in 1999. Cabrera spent three and a half seasons in the minors before he cracked the big league roster in 2003 at age 20 and never looked back.
The Cabrera comparison is intriguing because the Twins once had Miguel Cabrera in their Venezuelan academy and it was believed to be a sure thing that he would end up signing with the team. In the end, the Marlins offered a $1 million signing bonus—which was four times what the Twins had offered—and the Twins lost out on a franchise talent.
Signing Sano would be a huge investment and a big gamble for a club known for pinching pennies, but the potential reward could be worth every one of those pennies if Sano can live up to the hype the scouts have created.
Imagine if the Twins had paid the price to land Cabrera a decade ago. The Twins would be a very different team today. Here’s hoping Twins fans don’t have to look back in ten years and think the same thing about Miguel Angel Sano.
Super prospect—and by “prospect,” I mean “teenager”—Bryce Harper has officially stated that he plans to forgo his final two years of high school so that he can enter next year’s amateur draft.
Harper, just 16-years old, has decided to pass up two more years of proms and homecomings and will instead get his GED and enroll at the College of Southern Nevada this fall.
For those who haven’t heard of Bryce Harper yet, rest assured, you will. Take one part Stephen Strasburg and dash of LeBron James. Mix them both together and you get the hype and hysteria that figures to accompany Harper in the year leading up to the 2010 draft.
He has already been anointed as “Baseball’s Chosen One” by Sports Illustrated. The following excerpt from that Sports Illustrated story paints a picture of the ultimate baseball prototype:
“Harper stands 6’3″, weighs 205 pounds, has faster bat speed than Mark McGwire in his prime and runs so fast that he scored on wild pitches six times this season from second base. As a catcher, he picks off runners from his knees, and when he pitches, he throws a fastball that has been clocked at 96 mph. He also does volunteer work, holds down a 3.5 grade point average, and attends religious education classes nearly every morning before school.”
Harper, barring an injury, figures to be the most sought-after player in next year’s draft despite his relative inexperience against top-tier talent. The Washington Nationals, barring an act of divine intervention, figure to have the first pick, again.
For the Nationals, this creates a scenario in which both Strasburg and Harper could serve as battery mates and saviors of an otherwise lackluster franchise for years to come.
Granted, for that to happen, the Nats would have to be willing to shell out major bucks in back-to-back seasons for Scott Boras clients, a proposition that no team would deem desirable.
Yet, for players like Strasburg and a once-in-a-generation gem like Harper, how could the Nationals not go all in?
Francisco Liriano has served many roles in the eyes of Twins fans.
In 2006, he was the second-coming of Johan Santana and part of a vicious one-two punch that would lead the Twins to the Promised Land.
In 2007, he was the missing piece on a team that failed to meet expectations.
In 2008, he was an early season bust who returned in August to help propel the Twins within one game of a division championship.
In 2009, he has been…well…maddeningly inconsistent and the villagers have stormed the castle with pitchforks and torches in hand.
Okay, the last one is a bit of exaggeration, but fans have definitely been calling for Liriano to be demoted to Rochester to work on his mechanics or to be jettisoned to the bullpen to work through his inconsistencies on the mound in big league situations.
In my opinion, we’ve got nothing to worry about.
Continue Reading at BleacherReport.
Prince Fielder has looked downright kingly this year.
The 25-year old is hitting for average and power while playing top-notch defense at first base. Without a question, he is in the midst of a great season and makes a lethal one-two punch alongside slugging outfielder, Ryan Braun.
Fielder is currently on pace to set career highs in numerous statistical categories such as runs batted in (157), batting average (.295), on-base percentage (.421), hits (167) and walks (122). He is also on pace to finish with 41 homers, a number that would fall nine shy of his career high set in 2007, but would eclipse last year’s somewhat disappointing total of 34.
Despite all that, it would be in the Brewers best interest to trade Fielder now.
Keep Reading at BleacherReport.
Yesterday I took a look at five players the Twins could logically target in trade talks. Today it is time to look at some of the remaining free agent options still on the market that could help the Twins reach the postseason.
With the amateur draft now in the rearview mirror, all free agents who were offered arbitration can be signed without resulting in a forfeited draft pick by the signing team. As a result, expect a flurry of action regarding free agents in the coming days and weeks.
The following is a list of five current free agents that could help put the Twins over the top in their quest to win the American League Central.
Read the rest at BleacherReport.
Today is the annual Major League Baseball amateur draft, an event which gives struggling franchises a glimmer of hope for the future.
Unfortunately for teams on the cusp of contention, like the Minnesota Twins, the players taken today won’t have an impact on this season’s playoff races. That’s what the trading deadline is for.
With that thought in mind here are five players the Twins could logically look to add before the July 31 deadline.
Continue Reading at BleacherReport.
The month of June has just started, but by the time it ends the Minnesota Twins could know whether or not they’ll be in the mix for the postseason.
Following last night’s win against the Seattle Mariners, the Twins are only 7-16 on the road, a far cry from the 21-12 record they hold in the cozy, teflon confines of the Metrodome.
The Twins have 23 games left to play this month and 17 of them are on the road.
The Twins start with a west coast swing against the aforementioned Mariners and then head south to battle the struggling Oakland Athletics, before returning to the Midwest for an interleague battle with the Chicago Cubs.
Following the road trip the Twins get six games on friendly ground against the woeful Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros, before heading back out to tangle with regional foes the Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals.
Although the thought of two lengthy road trips could be very daunting for a team that has struggled so much when sitting in the visitor’s dugout, the Twins still have a lot going for them.
Entering play on June 6th, the Twins currently sit at .500 with a 28-28 record and trail the division-leading Detroit Tigers by a mere game and a half in the standings.
Additionally, the Twins opponents for the rest of the month—even with the red-hot Brewers and Cardinals factored in—are a combined 10 games under .500 on the season.
If that isn’t enough to keep Twins fans and players confident, there is the simple fact that the Twins simply haven’t been playing nearly as bad as their road record would indicate; nine of the club’s last 10 losses on the road have been by three runs or fewer.
With the same level of play and perhaps a little bit more luck the Twins could very well have won any of those games and could be looking down on the rest of the division.
No doubt, the month of June will be a tough test for the Twins, but this team has the pitching and the bats to make serious waves in the still very wide-open American League Central before it’s all said and done.
It could be that a long road trip is all it takes to bring it all together.
Future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine was released by the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday.
This shocking move came just days after Glavine had thrown six scoreless innings in his latest rehab start. The Braves claim they released Glavine because his velocity was down, but skeptics believe the move was spurred by financial concerns.
Glavine was to be paid $1 million for his first day on the active roster, $1.25 million for 30 days on the roster, and another $1.25 million for 90 days on the roster, bringing the total possible value of the deal to $4.5 million.
The Braves didn’t feel they could get $4.5 million worth of production out of Glavine at this stage in his career, and they opted to release the 305-game winner and call up super-prospect Tommy Hanson instead.
The question now becomes, where does Tom Glavine go next?
The way I see it, there are three logical options for Glavine at this point in his career.
…to continue reading visit BleacherReport.com…
Tonight Randy Johnson will attempt to make history…yet again.
Tonight, at 45 years old, “The Big Unit” will attempt to have his cake and eat it too…yet again.
Tonight the San Francisco Giants southpaw makes his first bid for career win number 300.
With a twist of irony, Johnson’s 300th could come against the very franchise that drafted him and for whom he recorded his very first win, way back in 1988, the Washington Nationals (then the Montreal Expos).
Much has been made about the magical milestone of 300 wins since Tom Glavine accomplished the feat back in late 2007. Many wondered if anyone else would ever reach the mark again. At the time Johnson’s own ability to do so was in question following another career-threatening back surgery.
Less than two years later, Johnson—fully-recovered from back surgery—is a member of the Giants and far removed from his glory days with the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks, yet he sits on the precipice of history as all of the prognosticators now claim that Johnson, not Glavine, will be the final member of the 300 win club, ever. The finality of that prediction is weighty, but logically, not out of the realm of possibility.
The list of active pitchers with 200 wins is a short one that contains just three names: Jamie Moyer with 250, Andy Pettitte with 220 and John Smoltz with 210. None of the three figure to pitch long enough to reach 300 and with declining pitch-counts and deeper bullpens the odds of any current (or future) pitcher reaching the milestone continue to get slimmer.
If Randy Johnson has an opinion about his potential status as “Baseball’s Last 300 Game Winner,” he isn’t letting on, one way or another.
“I’m not going to talk about this stuff. OK, I got to go,” he said during an ‘interview’ earlier this week. “I get distracted. I just try not to talk at all.”
It seems that Johnson is simply taking things one game at a time until he snares win number 300. That one game at a time approach leads him first to the lowly Nationals who sit on the chopping block waiting for “The Big Unit” to add yet another line to his sure-fire Hall of Fame resume.
Johnson (4-4, 5.71 ERA) already owns a World Series ring and co-MVP honors to go along with five Cy Young awards. He is a 10-time All-Star who has tossed two no-hitters (including the majors’ last perfect game in 2004) and ranks second on the career strikeout list with 4,843.
At this point earning win number 300 is just icing on the cake. But honestly, isn’t the icing the best part?!
That didn’t take long.
Terrell Owens—released by the Dallas Cowboys last Thursday—has signed a one-year deal worth $6.5 million with the Buffalo Bills.
The move came quickly and didn’t involve any of the major players rumored to be interested in Owens, most notably the Oakland Raiders, Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins.
Owens will instantly improve a Bills squad that has struggled to compete in one of the NFL’s toughest divisions. Buffalo hasn’t made the playoffs since 1999 and the offense has been a perennial problem. It has ranked 25th or lower in each of the past six seasons.
The pairing of Owens with incumbent wide-receiver, Lee Evans, should drastically improve the passing game and make life easier on the rest of the offense as a whole. Evans will receive fewer double-teams. Running back Marshawn Lynch won’t be forced to carry such a large load on offense.
The biggest benefactor of the Owens’ signing, however, will be quarterback Trent Edwards.
Edwards has shown glimpses of brilliance in his brief tenure in the NFL. He possess a very accurate arm and is a great student of the game who can read defenses very well. There is no doubt that adding a receiver the caliber of Owens will only make Edwards exponentially better.
The high upside to adding a difference-maker like Owens is counterbalanced by the risk that he could become a big distraction in a city not prone to dealing with big egos. Currently the biggest distraction in Buffalo is figuring out what to do with all of the snow.
For that very reason, Buffalo could be the perfect place for Owens. Sure he’ll get some high-profile match-ups with New England and New York, but for the most part things in Buffalo are pretty tame. There are no high-profile teammates to feud with and the media contingent is paltry when compared to his stints in San Francisco, Philadelphia and Dallas.
This could be the best situation for Owens to have a big season, stay under the radar (as much as he can), help out an underachieving franchise and prove he’s not a team cancer.
If he is able to do all of that this coming season, he will probably be able to snag one last fat contract with a contender in an attempt to win a Super Bowl to pad his Hall of Fame stats.
Personally, I think this signing is a win-win for both sides. Owens needs a fresh-start and the Bills need some offensive fire power to help return them to relevancy in the AFC.
It’s about damn time.
After sitting idle for most of the offseason, the Minnesota Twins finally addressed the most glaring hole on the team’s roster by inking former White Sox third baseman Joe Crede to an incentive-laden, one-year contract.
According to Twins official website, the deal is worth $2.5 million and includes incentives that could push the final value of the deal to $7 million. There is no doubt that if Crede, an All-Star in 2008, can stay healthy and reach those incentives he will be worth every penny.
The signing comes as a surprise to many after the Twins ended negotiations with Crede’s agent, Scott Boras, earlier this month. Boras—up to his usual tactics—kept raising his request for a base salary, going from a reasonable $5 million to $7 million, despite a barren market for Crede’s services.
Never a team to get suckered into outbidding themselves—or often bidding at all—the Twins walked away.
As the Twins reported to Fort Myers this week, it seemed that a reprise of last year’s unexpectedly productive Brendan Harris/Brian Buscher platoon at third base was a lock.
On Friday night, however, talks between Boras and the Twins heated up again and a deal was struck rather quickly. Apparently sitting at home during Spring Training makes some ballplayers a little uncomfortable.
If Crede can stay healthy this season, he will fill a major need for the Twins as a power-hitting third baseman. His right-handed bat will fit nicely in the heart of the order to break-up the club’s trio of lefties Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, and Jason Kubel.
Unfortunately, despite his power, Crede doesn’t offer much in the way of batting average or on-base skills. This comes through in his .257/.306/.447 career line which is boosted a bit thanks to playing the bulk of his games in Chicago’s bandbox stadium.
If there is a silver-lining, it’s that he did improve both his walk and strikeout percentages last year, posting career-bests in both. This could be a sign that he’s maturing as a hitter and gaining better command of the plate or it could have been a fluke due to a less-aggressive approach at the plate while dealing with a back injury. Only time will tell which is the true story behind last year’s improvements.
Making up for his short-comings on offense is the fact that Crede—again, if healthy—will prove even more valuable on defense. Throughout his career Crede has earned a reputation as an elite defender at the hot corner, and as advanced statistics continue to improve our ability to objectively evaluate a player’s defensive contributions, Crede’s defensive value has grown increasingly more apparent and quantifiable. Needless to say, improved defense at the hot corner is something the Twins’ pitching staff will appreciate.
All of Crede’s upside is counterbalanced by his recent injury woes. Crede has had two major back surgeries in the last two seasons. He hit .248/.314/.460 with 17 homers and 55 RBIs last season for the White Sox. But the All-Star played sparingly in the second half because of recurring back trouble, which also limited him to just 47 games in 2007.
In short, he’s a great defender and he’s got some serious pop. This is good. On the flip-side, he doesn’t hit for average, get on base at a good clip, and he’s missed 177 games in the last two seasons.
On paper this is a good, safe signing for the Twins with the potential for some serious upside. Admittedly, that comes with the caveat that Crede must prove he is 100% healthy in spring training and stay that way to have a major impact. If he is unable to avoid the injury bug the team is only out his $2.5 million base salary and can roll with the surprisingly effective Harris/Buscher platoon who combined to hit .274 with 11 home runs and 96 RBIs last season.
The team would undoubtedly prefer Crede stay healthy all year, play incredible defense at the hot corner, post offensive numbers similar to his career best 2006, and solidify third base in a way the club hasn’t seen since Corey Koskie departed after the 2004 campaign.
All that’s left to do now is sit back and see if Crede’s back is up to the task.
On Friday the Milwaukee Brewers announced that third baseman Bill Hall has a partial tear in his left calf and will be sidelined for four to six weeks.
Four to six weeks would cover the majority of Spring Training, putting Hall behind schedule to start the season with the big club.
Four to six weeks would also be a lot of time for the Brewers’ latest super-prospect, Mat Gamel, to impress the coaching staff and cement his position as the team’s everyday third baseman.
The left-handed hitting Gamel is a tremendous pure hitter who destroyed Double-A pitching last season, hitting .329 with 19 home runs in just over 500 at bats. To really grasp what a great season Gamel had, one needs to look at his full body of work. Gamel led the Southern League in RBIs, total bases and extra-base hits. He finished second in average, fourth in OPS and fifth in slugging.
The biggest detractor to his success will be whether or not he can improve his defense. Gamel has committed 123 errors in 360 minor league games, a number far too high to survive as a third baseman at the major league level.
If Gamel can’t improve his defense, his options become very limited. The Brewers already moved their last error-prone third baseman, Ryan Braun, to left field and have Corey Hart and Mike Cameron entrenched in the other two outfield slots. Prince Fielder, barring a trade, is locked in at first base and Rickie Weeks—if healthy—figures to get most of the starts at second base.
Gamel needs to use this spring as his coming out party to the Brewers brass if he is going to establish himself with the big club. As the Brewers proved last season when they traded Matt LaPorta to Cleveland in the CC Sabathia deal, they are not afraid to move top prospects to improve the club in the here and now.
Get ready Gamel, you’ve got four to six weeks.
Step one: end negotiations with Manny Ramirez.
Step two: sign Orlando Hudson and before the ink has even dried on that contract, sign an outfielder with some pop, perhaps Ken Griffey or Garret Anderson.
The Dodgers’ offseason has been, for the most part, a disappointment.
For a team that was three wins away from the World Series a few short months ago it is amazing how little progress has been made to improve the team heading into 2009.
Thus far all the Dodgers have done is re-sign Casey Blake and Rafael Furcal to keep the left side of the infield intact and just last week the team brought back Randy Wolf to help round out a rotation that was depleted with the offseason losses of Brad Penny, Derek Lowe and Greg Maddux.
The biggest reason the Dodgers haven’t accomplished much is due to management’s obsession with bringing back Manny Ramirez with a “deal that makes sense.”
Sorry to break the news to the boys in the front-office, but you aren’t going to sign Manny Ramirez to any sort of deal that makes sense. The dude has already turned down a two-year $45 million deal and a one-year $25 million deal.
And when did he turn down those deals? He turned them down in a market where Bobby Abreu—he of the career .300 average—is forced to sign for $5 million plus incentives. The really scary part, Abreu’s deal was with a big market club with lots of financial resources.
The Dodgers have already blown their chance to sign an Abreu or another bopper like Adam Dunn. They’ve done nothing but alienate themselves from the rest of the free-agent market by pandering to Scott Boras and Manny Ramirez for the past three months. They’ve offered respectable deals and been turned down.
Logically, the Dodgers should have taken the hint early on and gone after Abreu or Dunn as neither was offered arbitration and were clearly both willing to sign for less money and less years, two sticking points that the Dodgers can’t get past with Manny and Boras.
Right now the remaining boppers on the market are Griffey, Anderson and Joe Crede who only makes sense if the team wants to move Blake to left field, a position Blake has never played as a pro. He has, however, played 278 games in right field with a career fielding percentage of .979 (note: Manny’s career fielding percentage: .978).
Right now the Dodgers are headed into Spring Training with a much weaker outfield than they had last season, no set starter at second base as well as a depleted bullpen. The starting rotation has some major question marks and the bench is filled with solid defensive replacements, but not much offense.
With the Giants and Diamondbacks both improving this offseason, the Dodgers will not have an easy road back to the playoffs and they have no one to blame but themselves.
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