2006-07 MLB Offseason Thread

[Guest]

Soriano or Lee. No on Nomar, and Kent may retire. Soriano's steals really appeal to me if Lofton were to be brought back, nobody would want to face Furcal, Lofton and Soriano to lead off the game.

 

I really want Matsuzaka, but it won't happen. There are a lot of prospects that could be dangled as trade bait, but I don't see too much on the market so far.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

C: Russell Martin

1B: James Loney

2B: Jeff Kent

SS: Rafael Furcal

3B: Andy Laroche

LF: Andre Ethier

CF: ?

RF: Matt Kemp

 

SP: Brad Penny

SP: Derek Lowe

SP: Chad Billingsley

SP: Mark Hendrickson

SP:

CL: Takashi Saito

 

The Dodgers have a good bullpen with Saito, Jon Broxton and Joe Beimel. Their big needs would appear to be a center fielder and starting pitching. Dave Roberts or Jay Payton could be options, or they could get into the Alfonso Soriano war and shift him to center. The Dodgers are in a great spot right now given that they have a lot of money and a lot of farm kids filling up key roles.

[The Man in Blak 0]

Al, you think LaRoche completely supplants Betemit next season at 3B?

 

As for J.D. Drew hitting free agency, that should be a big red flag as to how this year's market is going to play out. Drew instantly becomes the No. 2 outfielder on the market behind Soriano and could probably pull something like 3/40 (even with his injury history) in a market that looks set to have a substantial jump in contract dollar values.

 

The bad news for the Dodgers is that he would represent a significant (and very plausible) upgrade for teams in their division, specifically the Padres and the Diamondbacks. I could also see Boston jumping in as a suitor, with Trot Nixon gone and Wily Mo Pena currently looking at everyday duty in right field.

[Brett Favre 0]

The Dodgers should go after Vernon Wells.

[Brett Favre 0]

Yankees turned down Sheffield for Linebrink, and are negotiating with the Tigers. Omar Infante, and Humberto Sanchez have been thrown out as names.

[CanadianChris 0]

The Dodgers should go after Vernon Wells.

Wells isn't going anywhere. Not this offseason, anyway. And definitely not to the Dodgers, who don't really have anyone the Jays would consider equal value for Wells in a trade that they would be willing to give up.

[Guest Smues]

Really, what's so bad about JD Drew? Is he like..."Bobby Abreu" bad, meaning that he's actually really good, but for some reason there's this thing going on that he's not a good player...or is it something else? Just the injury thing? I don't see what's so bad about a career .286 hitter with a career OPS of over .900.

 

I don't even know what to say about JD Drew.

 

The stats say that he's an elite player.

 

As someone who has watched nearly every game he played the past two seasons, he is so fuckin' NOT an elite player.

 

A true enigma, but I guarentee you'll despise him if your team signs him, then at the end of the year you'll be like, "how did he get those stats? he didn't do shit this year"

 

Actually at the end of his year with Atlanta I was like "Damn he helped anchor this young team this year and win us the division. I hope we can re-sign him."

 

Of course I soured on him quickly the way he handled the off-season, but for purely on the field stuff I'd want JD Drew on my team.

[Guest NYankees]

Buster Olney on the Steven Smith Espn radio show is saying that the Red Sox probably won the bidding.

[Brett Favre 0]

He said they probably bid around 45 million. I didn't think they had the "resources".

 

This whole shit is stupid (in terms of finding out who won the bid). What are these people in Japan doing?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

We should all know by now that Buster Olney is full of shit, especially when it comes to Red Sox news. The guy is just a Yankees homer, and doesn't seem to be well-sourced at all. Remember the Lowell for Peavy trade that was going to happen? Exactly.

 

Peter Gammons, who is still the most credible source out there, says that there have been zero leaks and any guess you've heard is just that, a guess. He believes the Yankees, Mets, Sox, Rnagers, Cubs, Diamondbacks, and Indians made bids (might have been others, but I'm doing this off what I can remember from the interview).

 

As far why Seibu hasn't accepted the bid yet, it comes down to a couple of possibilities. For one, the team is in dire financial straits. If they feel the bid won't justify how much revenue they'll lose with Matsuzaka gone, they might be considering declining. Also, from what I understand about Japanese business culture, every person gets their chance to speak before any decision making takes place. Lastly, the meeting was at 2PM Friday, Japanese time. If they didn't come to an agreement before 5, they'd likely hold off the announcement until Monday.

[The Man in Blak 0]

Since the posting fee doesn't factor into the luxury tax -- which, in my opinion is as ridiculous a loophole as you'll ever see in baseball -- the Red Sox may have been able to stretch out their wallet a little more in this case.

[Guest NYankees]

Mike and the Mad Dog are now reporting Olneys rumor. Olney is quoting MLB executives that the Red Sox might have bid the highest with a rumored amount between 38 to 45 million dollars. If this is true, Red Sox fans can never EVER bitch about the Yankees payroll when they might have spent 40 million on a posting fee just to talk to a player.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I don't think I can wait a whole weekend to know who won the bidding. This has the potential to be the most important free agent signing for the next five years.

 

Dan Patrick and espn.com have both picked up on the Olney story. Olney originally reported it as speculation, but the news services are presenting it as fact. Have they misinterpreted the original tidbit, or have their fact checkers cued into the Red Sox bid? Doesn't seem like they'd go full steam ahead with the story, especially one from the notoriously bad Olney, unless there was some sort of substantiation behind it.

[UZI Suicide 0]

I think the Dodgers have to keep Nomar now. Give him a two year deal and keep him at first, because Loney can play RF. Kemp isn't ready to start yet.

[Guest Felonies!]

It gets harder and harder to have the Red Sox as my American League half-assed rooting interest.

[vivalaultra 0]

So, is the winning Matsuzake bid going to be paid in American dollars or in Yen? How much Yen is like...$45 million? Anybody know?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

The free agent market may be even crazier than we are all expecting. Adding to the Drew thing, Keith Foulke declined his $3.75 million option to remain with the Red Sox. The guy has barely pitched the past two years (and when he has he's been ineffective) and was contemplating retirement as late as a month ago because of his bad knees. I couldn't imagine someone giving him $4 or $5 million to pitch, but he must know something that we don't.

[KingPK 0]

So, is the winning Matsuzake bid going to be paid in American dollars or in Yen? How much Yen is like...$45 million? Anybody know?

 

The current exchange rate is 1 US dollar = 117.47JPY, so it would be 5,286,150,000 yen.

 

But remember that 1 yen = about 0.009 US dollars and 45 million Yen amounts to about 383K in US dollars.

Edited November 10, 2006 by KingPK

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Al, you think LaRoche completely supplants Betemit next season at 3B?

 

I give it a 50/50 shot. The nice thing is that Betemit can either play third or second (if Kent does retire, which I doubt). He's a great insurance policy.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

To add on JD Drew. Using my sabermetric encylopedia, I drew up a list of the top 50 players in runs created/game over the last three seasons (min. 1000 PA). Drew ranks ninth, the most potent offensive player on the market. Gary Sheffield ranks 26th. Aramis Ramirez ranks 34th, Carlos Lee ranks 46th, and David Dellucci (wow) ranks 48th.

[Brett Favre 0]

Sheffield traded for Humberto Sanchez and two other pitchers, not sure who they are.

 

EDIT: The other two are Kevin Whalen and Anthony Claggett.

[Guest Felonies!]

So this is gonna be Detroit's "ramp up the spending but miss the playoffs" year.

[Brett Favre 0]

Sheffield also got a 2 year extension. Our farm system is looking better each day.

[devo 0]

I'm waiting with baited breath for Sheffield's reaction.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Sheffield traded for Humberto Sanchez and two other pitchers, not sure who they are.

 

EDIT: The other two are Kevin Whalen and Anthony Claggett.

Source?

 

If that's true, it's a good deal for the Yankees.

[Brett Favre 0]

It was just reported on the Dan Patrick Show.

[devo 0]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2656847

[Guest NYankees]

Mike and the MadDog just reported the trade as well.

[Brett Favre 0]

Geez, I turned to Mike and the Mad Dog just now, and they know nothing about anything.

 

"Is Sanchez a reliever or a starter?"

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Man, I really don't like the fact that Cashman has free reign over the Yankees' decisions now. First he rapes the Phillies for Abreu, then trades the far inferior Sheffield for some good pitching prospects. With the Yankees spending money AND developing the farm, it will be near impossible for the Red Sox or any other team to supplant them in the east.

 

Second, can we get some baseball coverage that doesn't suck? I know that you can't expect analysts to keep up on every prospect out there, but you would think that we could get better analysis than "Sheffield traded for three minor leaguers." I don't even follow the Tigers and I know how good Sanchez is supposed to be. BPro has him as the 11th best right hand pitching prospect in baseball.