2005-06 MLB Offseason Thread

[2GOLD 0]

Why do the Padres want David Wells back? I really don't understand that one at all.

[Failed Bridge 0]

They say that they missed his leadership and guidance with the young rotation they have.

[2GOLD 0]

They say that they missed his leadership and guidance with the young rotation they have.

 

So how long has the Padres GM been snorting coke?

Edited December 23, 2005 by 2GOLD

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The Padres' rotation was dreadful last year. Brian Lawrence posted a 4.83 ERA in 33 starts. Woody Williams had a 4.85 ERA in 28 starts. Tim Stauffer had a 5.33 ERA in 14 starts. Darrell May had a 5.61 ERA in 8 starts. Chan Ho Park had a 5.91 ERA in 9 starts. Tim Redding had a 9.10 ERA in 6 starts. That's in Petco Park. A 4.83 ERA there is equivilent to a 5.50 ERA in any other park.

 

David Wells hasn't had a bad year since 1996. He walks few batters and he performed well in San Diego in 2004. They need to shore up that rotation and he's solid.

[Failed Bridge 0]

They could use him too after seeing the starters they have. After Jake Peavy you've got...

 

Chan Ho Park

Chris Young

Woody Williams (unless they excersised the buyout)

Tim Stauffer (who really should have one more year in the minors)

 

They're very thin in the rotation.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Chris Young's perfectly fine. He's a reasonable bet to post a sub-4.00 ERA.

[Failed Bridge 0]

They don't have depth though and what depth they do have isn't all that great is what I'm saying.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

They don't have depth though and what depth they do have isn't all that great is what I'm saying.

That's true. The only fortunate thing for the Padres is that they play in a division where the other teams have similar problems.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I want to see if the Cardinal magic works with Juan Encarnacion. They've got three years to find out.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Anyone watching the press conference? Damon's wife is SLAMMIN'

[Boon 0]

That press conference made me want to vomit.

[Brett Favre 0]

He said he's going to be that hustling short-haired guy.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Damon needs to take some public speaking classes.

[NYU 0]

There's really no polite or classy way to put this, so I think I'm just going to come right out and say it.

 

Without the long hair and scruffy beard, Johnny Damon looks really gay.

[The Man in Blak 0]

Lots of St. Louis moves to catch up on.

 

I'm a little torn on the Encarnacion signing. I mentioned him as a good candidate for the RF spot, but that was under the assumption that he would be an "inexpensive" acquisition for the outfield. 3/15 doesn't really strike me as a palatable expenditure, especially when you consider that Reggie Sanders signed for the same money per year at Kansas City. Sanders is older, but he has a much stronger track record and seems poised to outperform Encarnacion for the next two years.

 

That being said, Encarnacion does improve the outfield situation and, if motivated, could potentially put up .280/.340/.440 with double digit home runs. He probably won't steal as much, since the Cardinals are very finicky about giving players their own green light, but that's probably to his benefit, given his CS rate over the years.

 

Cardinals also picked up Junior Spivey today off of the non-tender scrap heap. Spivey seems to be another data point in the Age-27 Theory, so I wouldn't expect 2002 to come roaring back again, but he already looks like an upgrade over Deivi Cruz and Aaron Miles. The key to his success for 2006 will not involve his plate judgment but, rather, actually making contact with the ball; Spivey saw a little over four pitches per plate appearance (a very respectable number), but he struck out 83 times in 259 at bats, which was the worst strikeout rate of his career. If Hal McRae can straighten him out, Spivey could be the real Comeback Player of the Year candidate in this bunch.

 

Spivey's acquisition means that one of the potential Cardinal second basemen will be voted off the island in spring training as well. Luna is a lock, given that he's played virtually everywhere in the field, which leaves Spivey, Cruz, or Miles under the guillotine. My money would be on Miles, personally, but stranger things have happened.

 

And then there's Sidney Ponson. Duncan and LaRussa have worked miracles with washed up arms in the past (Cal Eldred is a great recent example), but the best benefit they offer to Ponson is a stable clubhouse and organization infrastructure. Baltimore fans can make all the jokes they want, but it seemed like Angelos and the rest of the Oriole organization was working harder on getting their money back, rather than trying to actually get Ponson to clean up his act.

 

Despite a strikeout rate that seems to be crashing like the Hindenburg, there are elements in Ponson's recent performance to be optimistic about. For one, Ponson has consistently been a strong ground ball pitcher, which means that Pujols and Rolen especially will have a positive effect on his 2005 performance. Also, Ponson had an eye-popping BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) of .358 last year, in coordination with only a 20.0 LD%. For those wondering what these strange acronyms mean, the LD% is a rudimentary measure of how many "ropes" or line drives hitters get whenever they make contact against this pitcher; in Ponson's case, 20% of the time that somebody made contact on him, it was a firm line drive, a legitimate hit. This isn't a bad rate by any means - Freddy Garcia had a LD% of 20.3 last year, for example - and when you compare it against Ponson's BABIP, one could hope that Ponson probably won't be giving up twelve hits per nine innings in 2006.

 

Obviously, I doubt that Ponson would be a Cy Young contender, but he may not be a bad gamble as a sixth starter / swingman. Though Anthony Reyes is probably a better pitcher than Ponson right now, he's also had injury problems in the past and if Ponson can provide 15 starts of league average performance next year and ease the transition to Reyes, the Cardinals will be the better for it in 2006 and beyond.

[Precious Roy 0]

It looks like the Blue Jays are about to acquire Troy Glaus in exchange for Miguel Batista and Orlando Hudson. Seems like a fair trade for both clubs. Jays didn't necessarily need Batista anymore, they lose Hudson's great D, but they get the big bat they needed. Arizona gets a versatile pitcher, a great defensive 2B, and they've got other guys they can put at third. Plus they rid themselves of a big contract.

 

The only thing that puzzles me is that Toronto now has 5 guys (Glaus, Hillenbrand, Overbay, Koskie, Hinske) for 3 spots. They have to be looking to make another deal.

 

The Twins picked up Rondell White, 3.25mil for 1 year. Good move, he's in the Jones/Encarnacion/Sanders class but came a little cheaper.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Troy Glaus just seems too overrated to me. Guy's always hurt and now you take him out of a good hitter's ballpark and place him in a considerably less hitter-friendly home field. On the flipside, the Jays aren't giving up a ton for him.

[The Man in Blak 0]

Couple things about the Glaus trade to consider.

 

For one, though Orlando Hudson is probably the best defensive second baseman in the league, his departure is not as likely to affect the Jays pitching staff; Towers, Chacin, and Lilly are all very strong flyball pitchers, Halladay's going to be outstanding regarding of who's manning the keystone, and Burnett's high groundball rate in 2005 seems aberrant from the rest of his career. Aaron Hill is rumored to be the 2B replacement and, offensively, he'll probably offer whatever O-Dawg would bring to the table in 2006.

 

Secondly, the Blue Jays needed a big bat to complement Vernon Wells and Glaus is certainly their huckleberry, as he slugged .522 and hit 37 home runs in a year where he was rumored to not be at 100% physically. The problem is that Glaus is never healthy and, as mentioned before, the Jays are running out of places to play him; Overbay and Koskie are presumably at the corners, leaving Glaus at DH. Hillenbrand and Hinske are awfully expensive insurance for Glaus, so one of them would be traded, but at a lower value, since everybody knows that the Jays have a corner infield crisis on their hands.

 

Unless, of course, they leave the wrapping on Glaus and ship him and some spare parts to Boston for Manny Ramirez.

[Precious Roy 0]

It does seem like he's always injured, but it was really just 03 and 04 where he missed significant time. I'd be wary, but if you're a team like Toronto that can probably contend for a playoff spot if you get put some run production together it's worth the risk.

[treble 0]

I don't have any numbers in front of me to prove this, and I'm not sure he had enough time at the position, but based on my memory from the few times he played there (towards the end of the season after Hudson hurt his ankle and didn't play for the last few weeks) Hill seemed pretty capable at 2nd. Not as good as Hudson, but he made some nice plays.

 

I figured Hudson would be traded for some offensive help and his value is pretty high coming off of the Gold Glove and Glaus is a pretty good hitter.

 

I'm guessing Hillenbrand will be shipped out now, since he can fetch more than Hinske and I've heard that Hinske will be used mostly in a DH platoon against righties, pretty expensive for that, though.

[Fartsauce 0]

ccording to ESPN's Peter Gammons, the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays are on the verge of completing a trade that would send Troy Glaus and a prospect to Toronto in exchange for pitcher Miguel Batista and second baseman Orlando Hudson.

 

But late Thursday night, Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi insisted to the Toronto Star that Glaus was not coming to Toronto.

 

"We had interest in him at one time, but nothing's going to happen with that now," Ricciardi told the newspaper. "It's not going to happen with us."

[randomguy 0]

Why *wouldn't* a team want Wells? He had ok numbers and if you factor out his injury numbers (right before and after he was on the DL) he had pretty good numbers. Plus he's cheap.

[Guest]

But late Thursday night, Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi insisted to the Toronto Star that Glaus was not coming to Toronto.

 

"We had interest in him at one time, but nothing's going to happen with that now," Ricciardi told the newspaper. "It's not going to happen with us."

That means Glaus is on his way.

[Failed Bridge 0]

Red Sox better do something soon. They're falling way behind doing a whole lot of nothing since the Beckett deal.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Well, what else do they need to do?

[Failed Bridge 0]

Considering the team has nobody to play SS or CF along with no leadoff hitter...well I think they have quite a bit to do. David Wells and Manny demanding trades with Wells threatening to retire and Manny threatening to no-show doesn't make it easier.

[MikeJordan23 0]

Well, what else do they need to do?

 

 

Get a centerfielder.

 

I guess Jeremy Reed is where they are leaning towards, which would be a good pick up, depending on what they give up. He has a lot of upside.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Damon's signing, as overpriced as it was, still did damage to the Red Sox. Still, I can't help but think they set themselves up for all of their current problems.

 

With the contract demands Damon was making, it never seemed likely he'd stay with Boston, so they should've been trying to secure a centerfielder long ago. And as smart of a trade as the Renteria deal was, they still should've had an idea of who was going to take his place once he was moved.

 

The Beckett and Lorretta deals were real big, but if those hadn't been done, Boston would be in the lead for the worst offseason thus far. Speaking of Lorretta, why isn't he being mentioned as a possible leadoff man candidate? The guy posts a nice OBP each season and I thought we were all past the notion that all leadoff men have to be speedy. The idea is to get on base regularly, not necessarily have the fastest guy leading off. Corey Patterson's one of the fastest guys around, but he's an embarrassment as a leadoff hitter.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The Red Sox offseason hasn't been bad at all this offseason. They acquired Josh Beckett for a handful of prospects, and flipped their average, overpaid shortstop for one of the top prospects in baseball.

 

Losing Damon hurts, but let's be honest. $13 Million is a huge chunk of change for a batter who hit 10 home runs last season. The Red Sox still have Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon. Even if the Sox were to place a scrub in Damon's place, they would still score a ton of runs. And the bullpen should be much improved. I can't say they'll win the division, but they are certainly in the chase, and could easily win.

[Failed Bridge 0]

Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal is reporting that the Braves could be shipping Ryan Langerhagen(I believe that's how its spelled) to Cleveland for most likely a bullpen arm. That would put the wheels in motion to send Coco Crisp to Boston who would be their new CFer.

 

Rumor has it that Crisp would cost Marte and I don't like that at all. I'd be all for giving Marte up if it was Grady Sizemore but Crisp just isn't worth a player that could potentially put up the kind of numbers Miguel Cabrera does.

 

Ease my mind Mr. Keiper...tell me it will be ok...