Rangers cast net, reel in haul
Alfonso Soriano to the Nationals for:
– Brad Wilkerson
– Terrmel Sledge
– minor leaguer to be named
Soriano can contribute with the bat, no doubt, but as a fielder he largely erases that value. To get Wilkerson and Sledge… the Rangers just got stronger, and that makes the path to a division title next year even steeper.
M’s re-sign Moyer
1 year, $5 million.
It’s a good deal for both.
Pierre to Cubs, Villone to … ?
Saints be praised, the Mariners missed out on the Juan Pierre “sweepstakes.” He’s been traded to the Cubs for young pitchers.
Also in the article: Ron Villone might well be the next to be traded, with the Mariners and Yankees (!) considered the top destination candidates.
Site outage looms
We’re having hosting issues and things may get hairy here shortly.
On the bright side, we still haven’t ever run an ad.
Update: turns out that was fairly prophetic, as the site immediately started to crash. If you’re reading this, you may be really lucky or we’re back up for everyone.
Update: looks like we’re up. Go about your rumor mongering and topic hijacking as normal.
Stone on Winter Meetings
Larry Stone’s full of tidbits.
For one thing, the Mariners are expected to make a formal offer to Jacque Jones today, something that will make Eddie Guardado happy, and probably bring smiles to the collective face of USSM as well.
In other “reasons to smile” news, Stone says no deal with Carl Everett is imminent.
Buried near the bottom of the story — probably because most discussions don’t get past the inquiry stage — is this:
On the trade front, there was word the Mariners had at least inquired into Boston’s Trot Nixon (and possibly pitcher Matt Clement) and Milwaukee’s Lyle Overbay.
Immediate impressions: I would have liked the idea of Trot Nixon’s swing in Safeco a lot better a few years ago, pre-back problems; I love the idea of Clement, but think there’s no way the Red Sox would trade him for anything the M’s would give up; and am underwhelmed by Lyle Overbay in general, even if there weren’t the problem of where to put him.
M’s deny Millwood 4/$44 offer
Short version: teams says they haven’t even talked seriously yet, much less gotten all the way to sliding a piece of paper across the table.
Almost as interesting was this, though:
Bavasi said that the Mariners had merely inquired about A.J. Burnett, who inked a five-year, $55 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, and that they had shown interest in the other three starters who have signed in recent days: Byrd, Loaiza and Hector Carrasco.
In characterizing the club’s interest in the four, Bavasi said, “One a ton, one a medium amount, one a little and one an inquiry.”
Niehaus makes Frick Award finals
Dave’s one of 10 finalists, one of three voted in by Internet balloting, and one of only two active broadcasters on the list.
Good luck to him, and good for all y’all that voted.
Carl Everett answers no questions worth asking
Largely on the basis of one report in USA Today, Seattle’s abuzz with rumors that the Mariners are reportedly close to signing Carl Everett. Without further confirmation, I’d say I think this has a slim chance of being true.
I desperately don’t want it to be true. While I think, in general, I’m a lot more tolerant of players who don’t fit into some team’s clubhouse (after all, David Ortiz got released from the Twins in part because a huge, slow slugger didn’t fit in with what they wanted from their players) there are a few players that, for whatever reason, I would not under any circumstances sign for any positional need, ever, and if I went the rest of my life knowing I lost the World Series because I didn’t sign that guy, I’d be okay with it.
Meet Carl Everett!
But we’ve seen the management, so concerned with the public image of the team, bring in Al Martin (and Ben Christensen!) so it’s not impossible that the team would bring in a guy with child-beating problems (this might deserve a longer timeline, but it’s really scummy and suspicious). Who fights with teammates. And coaches. And reporters. And managers. And umpires. Who doesn’t like homosexuals, or fans.
While it might be possible they’re willing to sign players with issues who (like Al Martin) are hard-working guys well-liked by their teammates, consider that Everett’s never spent more than two full seasons with any team in his career (though he’s spent parts of three with the White Sox). Organizations sour on him quickly.
So ignore that for a second. Pretend he’s as nice as Willie. It’s still a bad business signing. He’ll be 35 next year, which isn’t by itself disastrous, but his stats have taken a huge dive these last couple of years, and injuries have limited his playing time severely. The best you could reasonably expect from Everett is he’ll get into 140 games, maybe play some outfield corners, and hit .270/.350/.450 which doesn’t help you much compared to an average DH/LF.
Everett’s a switch-hitter, but with this lineup we can fairly assume he’ll be used as the left-handed sock the team’s wringing their hands over. v RHP:
2003: .299/.382/.557
2004: .272/.332/.450
2005: .246/.317/.441
Which about mimics his general collapse. It’s not as if his offensive decline’s due entirely to an increasing inability to hit lefties which you could try and compensate for a little by platooning him.
Plus, then he gets in a fight with me over something, like my inevitable constant stream of criticism of his poor play, runs me over with a car, and then there’s no one to pay the bandwith bill when everyone rushes to reload the site when they hear “Everett hits baseball writer with SUV, man’s life only spared by high ground clearance” and USSM goes down until I can get someone to get a new server with the money I’ll get burying Everett in lawsuits (which will have the fortunate side effect of keeping him in court and off the field)… so actually, I guess that works out okay for all of you.
Too many J’s
Does this whole Blue Jays thing have anyone else a bit weirded out? First B.J. Next, A.J. Now they’ve re-upped with J.P. Maybe it wouldn’t be so strange if, say, the Red Sox or Phillies has signed these guys. But the Blue Jays? C’mon. Maybe it’s just me, though.
(Cue Twilight Zone theme)
Yankees lost money
In possibly the funniest story so far this off-season, the Yankees are pushing a story that they lost money last season. It has to be true. Why would they lie? Sadly, they’re even getting people to bite on this hook and then write about it.