Baseball Trade Rumors and Notes for Feb 8th

    1. Rays still have shot at Damon

   2. Bedard considered rejoining O's

   3. Phillies deny signing Japanese relievers

   4. Desmond may play utility role for Nats

   5. Is Tom Ricketts Laying the Foundation for Jim Hendry’s Dismissal?

   6. Takahashi Rejects Some Offers

   7. Fernando Martinez Named MVP Of Caribbean Series

   8. The trade that never happened

1. Rays still have shot at Damon

   The St. Petersburg Times is reporting It remains a long shot with Detroit more likely, but free agent Johnny Damon said Friday that the Rays are still a possible destination.

   To read more..
   http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/comeback-for-pat-burrell-may-be-key-to-tampa-bay-rays-season/1071359

   2. Bedard considered rejoining O's

   The Baltimore Sun is reporting As Erik Bedard passed his physical and finalized an incentive-laden, one-year deal with the Seattle Mariners on Saturday, his agent confirmed that the left-handed pitcher gave plenty of thought about a reunion with the Orioles. "He was seriously considering it," Mark Pieper said. "Baltimore is one of the teams that we went pretty far in our discussions with. They were one of the finalists."

   TO read more..

   http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bal-sp.osbedard07feb07,0,5880095.story

   3. Phillies deny signing Japanese relievers

   PHilly.com is reporting "The Phillies are denying a report that they have signed two Japanese lefthanded relievers to minor league contracts. Japan's Daily Sports Online had reported that the Phillies announced the signings this week with Shigetoshi Yamakita and Naoyo Okamoto, and that they would report to spring training next month in Clearwater, Fla. "The reports online that the Phillies have signed two Japanese pitchers are not accurate," the team said in a statement. "The Phillies have not recently signed any pitchers or position players from Japan.""

   To read more..
   http://www.philly.com/dailynews/sports/phillies/20100208_Phillies_deny_signing_Japanese_relievers.html

   4. Desmond may play utility role for Nats

   mlb is reporting "With Cristian Guzman remaining at shortstop, it is assumed the Nationals will send shortstop Ian Desmond to Triple-A Syracuse to start the 2010 season. Not so fast, according to Nationals manager Jim Riggleman. Washington is thinking about making Desmond an all-purpose utility man -- playing all three outfield positions, shortstop and second base. Riggleman, however, wants to make sure that Guzman is healthy before putting Desmond in a utility role. Guzman is coming off right shoulder surgery and foot problems. "It will be determined in Spring Training," Riggleman said Saturday. "We have to check out the health of Guzman. ... We anticipate that he will be our shortstop. "Ian is such a good ..."

   To read more..
   http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100206&content_id=8034702&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

   5. Is Tom Ricketts Laying the Foundation for Jim Hendry’s Dismissal?

   The Bleacher Nation is reporting One of the most heavily debated topics in the Chicago Cubs’ space for the last two years is how effective general manager Jim Hendry has been. I will not go off on a rant in this particular article, but suffice it to say: his decisions the last two or three years have left me disappointed.

When mostly-owner (together with his family) and team Chairman Tom Ricketts took over control after the 2009 season, we all wondered how much of a leash he would give Hendry. He repeatedly offered a vote of confidence, and seemed to suggest he was behind Hendry all the way. But recently, he has intimated - if not suggested - that if Hendry doesn’t win soon with the team he’s put together, he won’t be around for much longer.

    Yet the lack of big-name acquisitions has left some wondering whether new ownership is as serious about winning as it asserted when it took control in October.

    “The dollars leaving the door is not the issue,” Chairman Tom Ricketts said. “It’s the third-highest payroll (in baseball). The issue is getting the right performance for the number of dollars you spend.” chicagotribune.com.

   TO read more..

   http://www.bleachernation.com/

   6. Takahashi Rejects Some Offers

   Taters and Gophers is reporting Japanese left-hander Hisanori Takahashi has reportedly rejected contract offers from the Orioles and Mets.

The 34-year-old is expected to sign a minor league contract shortly, but not with San Francisco, Baltimore or New York. He posted a career 3.40 ERA over 245 games in Japan and will relieve stateside. Additional teams interested in the lefty include the Dodgers, Red Sox, Pirates and Padres.

   TO read more..

   http://tatersandgophers.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/takahashi-rejects-some-offers/

   7. Fernando Martinez Named MVP Of Caribbean Series

   Metsmerizedonline is reporting ESPN’s Enrique Rojas reported via Twitter that Mets prospect Fernando Martinez was named the MVP of the Caribbean Series last night.

Martinez went 2-4 with a walk and an RBI to lead the Dominican Republic to a 7-4 victory over Venezuela. Overall, Martinez had a great series, batting .348 (8-for-23) with a double and two home runs?

It looks like F-Mart is in prime mid-season form, and it would be great to see him carry this over and have a great spring training. While Angel Pagan and Gary Matthews Jr. are virtual locks to make the team, there is one spot left open at least until Carlos Beltran returns from injury, and the kid could force the Mets hands with a solid spring.

As I wrote here a couple of weeks ago, I still believe we have a future All Star with tremendous power potential in F-Mart. If he could just stay healthy and string together a few hundred at-bats in AAA, we may see him sooner than you think, and I predict that his second cup of coffee in the Majors will be much better than the first.

   To read more..

   http://metsmerizedonline.com/2010/02/fernando-martinez-named-mvp-of-caribbean-series.html

   8. The trade that never happened

   Yankees IH blog is reporting In general, I’m a very big believer in the present tense as it relates to sports. While I absolutely appreciate the concepts of “up-and-coming,” “upside” and “potential,” most of the time I look at all those terms and just think they’re nicer ways of saying “haven’t made it yet.”

In baseball (especially when it comes to the Yankees), I feel even more strongly about this. Do I think the Yankees should be a team of guns-for-hire? Mercenaries? A team that – to borrow a recently nonsensical quote – just goes out and signs the Cy Young award winner every year?

Hardly. But I do think that, when given a chance to pull the trigger on a deal for a high-level established major leaguer (especially a pitcher), it’s worth giving up a lot of “prospects” to make it happen. In other words, I would have absolutely made the deal for Johan Santana a few years back.

That trade (or non-trade, I suppose) may well go down as one of the best decisions that Brian Cashman made. Some folks will be revisionists and say they “knew all along” it was a bad idea but I’ll cop to my true thoughts at the time and take my lumps – I thought the Yankees should have pushed for Santana two years ago and, given the same set of cir*****stances now I’d probably say they should push for it again. As Moshe wrote this morning, I’ll always value a player who I know can play at the major-league level over someone who may be able to play at the major league level. There are too many can’t-miss prospects who do; too many guys who burn out before they ever make it big.

If you look now at the potential Santana deal the Yankees could have made, you’d have to call the Yankees winners overall; they probably wouldn’t have had the money to sign CC Sabathia and/or A.J. Burnett and/or Mark Teixeira if they’d given Santana an extension, for starters, and then there are the prospects. The Yankees used Ian Kennedy and Melky Cabrera in other trades (hello, Curtis Granderson and Javy Vazquez), while Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez were in the Nick Swisher deal. Phil Hughes? Well, you know what’s happened to him.

Thing is, while Santana hasn’t been as successful for the Mets as they’d imagined (though he’s been pretty darn good), but who knows what he would have done for the Yankees. And who knows how the budgets of the past few years would have played out if he’d gotten an extension in the Bronx instead of in Queens. It’s easy to look at where everyone is right now and say the Yankees did the right thing, but maybe they’d have done even better over the past few years? And more importantly, what did you think they should have done at the time?

Given the exact same opportunity for the exact same star player and the exact same prospects (at that point in their careers) again, I still think I’d be in favor of going out and getting the best pitcher in baseball. That’s no knock on the Hughes of a few years ago (or any of the other kids in the deal); it’s more a testament to what I believe the value of an established superstar is and should be.

What would you do?

   To read more..

   http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2010/02/06/the-trade-that-never-happened/


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