Well, here you go. Cirillo himself is confirming the deal… the M’s and Padres are just waiting for official MLB approval, as there’s more than $1M changing hands in this trade.
The ‘net seems slow tonight. Must be all this cold weather.
Not to sound redundant, but I agree with Dave 100%. Nunez is a guy who could pan out nicely, but if not, no big deal. You do have to wonder if he’ll ever be fully healthy, though. Not only did he miss the entire 2002 season, but he only worked about 20 minor league innings in 2003. Basically, he’s missed two full years. Perhaps he’s on the Gil Meche plan.
In other news, we’ve heard this before, but it has surfaced again — Jeff Cirillo to the Padres. This time Jerry Crasnick is reporting that the deal will be Cirillo and Brian Sweeney for catcher Wiki Gonzalez, right Kevin Jarvis, pinch-hitter Dave Hansen and a minor leaguer. As you might imagine, the M’s will be sending the Padres enough cash to even things up on the financial side.
Dave has discussed Gonzalez and Jarvis at length… basically, they’re both crap. Hansen is sort of a Dave Magadan-type left-handed bat off the bench, except not quite as good. At age 35, his best skill is getting on base by drawing a pinch-hit walk… he brings very little to the table, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t actually make the Opening Day roster. As for the minor leaguer, who knows. More than likely AA or AAA roster filler as opposed to a prospect.
Stop the presses! Gillvasi makes a move that I like. I’m actually not sure what to do, as this offseason has set our analytical mode to “permantently criticize”, and I’m having problems remembering how to say good things about a transaction.
The M’s inked LHP Jose Antonio Nunez to a minor league contract and assigned him to Tacoma. Nunez, originally with the Mets organization, was a Rule 5 pick by the Dodgers during the 2000-2001 offseason. He was placed on waivers after the season began, then claimed by San Diego, where he became their best left-handed reliever. Nothing wrong with a 3.31 ERA and a 20/49 BB/K for the league minimum. Nunez missed all of 2002 after arm surgery, but if he can regain previous form, the M’s may have another candidate for the bullpen lefty without spending any money. This is exactly the kind of no-cost/some upside move that good teams make. It might not work out, and Nunez may never throw an inning in Safeco Field, but its still a good transaction. A hearty “way to go” to all involved. Nice move.
We reported that Rose had a deal in place to be removed from baseball’s permanently ineligible list, which would allow him to return to baseball (and be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame under that independent institution’s rules), and the agreement had three parts: that Rose would be reinstated, he wouldn’t have to admit guilt, and that there would be conditions placed on the jobs he could take in the first year after reinstatement.
I don’t see vindication yet. That will come when he’s reinstated.
Now, about my pieces before the reinstatement story on Rose, betting, and the Dowd Report: I feel good, not because this validates any of it, but because I hope that this means we can finally stop arguing about the betting and get back to talking about baseball.
If Rose is truly contrite, he should settle the record and offer new answers to the questions Dowd asked him way back when, and particularly Rose should apologize for some of the more heinous things he’s said about the guys who ran bets for him, et cetera. I don’t see that he’s motivated to do so, though, since he’s only fessing up now to sell books and advance his agenda at an opportune moment.
Anyway.
Seriously, I really dislike the Pete Rose story, and wish it would never get brought up again. But I’m going to be hypocritical and bring it up myself. Rose is a scumbag lying weasel who has spent the past 10 years assailing the character of men who were telling the truth. Now, when it interests him financially and potentially leads to reinstatement, he’s willing to say he was lying for the past decade and hope that we don’t mind. There’s absolutely no reason to put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame, and I hope he never gets to enter Cooperstown, even if he tries to buy a ticket from a scalper.
Also, it’d be nice if someone would remember that Derek and Will Carroll broke this story back on August 12th. Big props to Derek for putting his reputation on the line, getting his character attacked and slandered by losers like Bob DuPuy and Rich Levin, and then simply waiting until he was proven to be correct. Journalistically irresponsible, indeed. What’s journalistically irresponsible are these news agencies ignoring the fact that Baseball Prospectus nailed this story 5 months ago.
You the man, Derek.