With the Tigers being fairly active today, there won’t be a lot of speculation about those catcher and shortstop holes. But there still are items of interest on the relief pitching front. Here’s the buzz as I get ready to sign off for the night. This will be our day 2 rumor repository as well.
Chad Cordero will meet with 5 teams. The Tigers are one of them. I wonder if Cordero gets a big league deal from anyone or he chooses the best looking minor league contract.
Brandon Lyon, a favorite target of mine, will be meeting with the Royals along with Kyle Farnsworth.
As for the closer market, the Tigers are still connected to J.J. Putz and Kerry Wood. Their price could be heavily dictated by K-Rod who received an offer from the Mets that is expected to be 2 and 24 with a 3rd year option. Not quite the $75 million people were expecting heading into the offseason.
On that front, division rival Cleveland met with Kerry Wood’s people this evening and are still interested in Brian Fuentes and Trevor Hoffman.
I’ll post more as I hear it. As always I recommend checking out http://mlbtraderumors.com as well as Twitter for updates on the winter meetings.
UPDATE: 7:30 p.m. Kerry Wood is off the market and to the Indians. Damn. He wouldn’t have cost a draft pick or prospects. The Tigers continue to pursue J.J. Putz but I’d just assume not get into a prospect bidding war with the Brewers for a guy who is coming off an elbow injury.
Jason Beck continues to report Joe Beimel rumors. Let’s just say that Day 1 seems better than Day 2 so far.
Not sure I like the price for Putz, especially given his injury-filled 08 season.
Morosi says the Ms want Joyce AND Larish AND a big-league ready pitcher.
http://www.freep.com/article/20081209/SPORTS02/812090384/1048/sports
I really hope the Tigers have learned from the Lions propensity to overvalue the hometown guys.
They need to spend the extra couple mil/yr and get Wood or go another route, if this really is the asking price for Putz.
Sure seems like the market for closers is breaking in a way that will allow the Tigers to get someone with good stuff for a reasonable price.
“Morosi says the Ms want Joyce AND Larish AND a big-league ready pitcher.”
That’s asking way too much for Putz. I don’t believe it.
I’m liking dealing Larish and/or Joyce less and less. I’d offer the Mariners Thames and Rodney for Putz, and if they don’t like it, they can lump it. Yeah, I keep changing my mind.
Larish just happens to fit the bench particularly well. This Guillen in LF thing – how I hate it – really crowds the outfield, but I don’t like the idea of letting Joyce go. I’d sooner trade Guillen. Did I ever mention that I wish Sheffield was gone? No? I’ll have to elaborate on that some time.
Dear Kansas City Royals,
Please oh please oh please oh please sign Kyle Farnsworth for your bullpen.
Sincerely,
Tigers fan
P.S.
No, he’s good, I swear!
I don’t understand, Mark. You do realize that if Farnsworth signs with the Royals, he won’t be able to pitch for the Tigers, right? Oh. Just making sure.
A guy like Joyce will be key to covering up if the Tigers fall short this year.
Mark my words: if the Tigers are out of contention by the end of July, Maggs is gone. And RF falls to Joyce.
“if the Tigers are out of contention by the end of July…”
I’ll buy that, Chris. But I don’t think they’ll be out of contention then. I think they’re in it all the way in 2009. I really do.
If Farnsworth signs with the Royals, he will suddenly become unhittable. This is known as the Grilli Effect.
Yep, let’s hope we aren’t marking my words come July.
I don’t think we will be out either, but a lot still depends on what gets done for the bullpen.
The Grilli Effect makes me wonder about this whole NL-AL thing and whether there’s a sound statistical basis for assuming (as I do) that NL guys, especially pitchers, won’t be as good as they seem once in the AL, or whether it’s mostly bias from seeing a few conspicuous examples like Renteria. Or assuming, conversely, that a guy like Nate Robertson would be a minor star in the NL rather than the back of the rotation guy he is in the AL. You’d have to look at a lot of individual transitions and not just aggregate league statistics to know this. It’s an interesting question, and I’d be surprised if someone hasn’t examined it in some detail.
Going into 2008, the rotation was Verlander, Rogers, Bonderman, Robertson, and Willis and everything was going to be OK. Going into 2009 at this point, the rotation is 5 of Verlander, Galarraga, Bonderman, Willis, Miner, and Robertson and clearly not necessarily OK. But can anything be done?
“But can anything be done.”
Start praying to your respective Gods. Or in your case, Loon, the Sparky Anderson bobble-head idol that sits on your dresser.
Pray that Verlander rebounds. (likely) That Galarraga repeats (unlikely) That Bonderman is healthy (toss-up) That Willis remembers how to pitch (long-shot) and Miner and Robertson combine their skill sets to become Minebertson–the red haired, spectacle wearing cyclops with 5 good pitches.
@Chris Y. – bullpens are a crapshoot, though. They could bring back the exact same group and have a composite 3.50 ERA or something. (cf. Indians, Cleveland 2007 vs. 2008)
Indians rumored to be close to signing Wood:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081209&content_id=3708244&vkey=news_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle&partnerId=rss_cle
say it ain’t so.
Clevo can have that walking trauma ward.
Let’s sign Mark Prior and totally show Cleveland who’s boss!
Better still, let’s make Cleveland sorry by signing my wife Trevor instead.
Besides, the Tigers never had any serious interest in Wood, and no one here liked him at all.
“let’s make Cleveland sorry by signing my wife Trevor instead.”
Let’s sign him, Billy Wagner, and re-sign Jones. It would be totally 90’s, dude.
With the Mets only having to give K-Rod 3 for 37 I wonder if maybe Fuentes just dropped into our price range and is now a real possibility.
90’s? *gulp* Uh-oh. Can we at least get Cecil Fielder back, then?
The problem is that everyone else wants Fuentes, too, and all but three or four teams are willing to spend more money than we are.
Random trade updates:
– Mets sign K-Rod
– Indians look close to signing Wood
– Francoeur will NOT be traded for Greinke (thank heavens!)
– Ramon Hernandez (BAL) traded for Ryan Freel (CIN)
– and my favorite one; Delmon Young may be traded BACK to the Rays from the Twins
Francoeur will NOT be traded for Greinke (thank heavens!)
Why wouldn’t you want Greinke to exit the AL Central for a corner OF with a .312 OBP? Sounds like a win-win for Tiger partisans.
Dave’s a Royals fan, too, Chris.
Putz, Oliver, and Lyon for the Tigers. That would suit me. I could abandon Hoffman and a starter for that.
I don’t think the Braves would fully appreciate my beloved life-partner.
Also, that trade would be an insult to baseball itself — it would be one of the most lopsided trades ever
There was actually talk of Ordonez for Francouer on motownsports.com a while back. Really. It’s documented.
Yikes, that’s a pretty awful one, too.
Oops. I read now (2 day old news) that Darren Oliver is accepting arb. Damn mlb.com and their “tracker.” Unless… could it be untrue?
Wow, Maggs for Francouer? That’s not even funny, it’s just sick. Who would say such a thing.
I saw the Grienke-Francouer rumor and thought there was no way Dayton Moore was that stupid. I’m not surprised to see there’s little to that rumor.
Maggs for Francouer makes SLIGHTLY more sense than the Greinke rumor, I guess. At least there one could say they were trading for upside. It’s still atrocious, though.
Incidentally, I think K-Rod’s contract might be an indication that GM’s were taking reports of his decline very, very seriously.
Sucks that Wood will be an Indian,but he stands a better than average chance of being a hurt Indian. Time to move on to Fuentes or Hoffman. Did anyone see the Putz for Fielder rumor? Smoke or someones been smoking something other than Marlboros.
Nevermind the Fielder talk, Steve Phillips is the source.
I can’t imagine a package that the M’s could offer that didn’t include Morrow or Felix. Outside of that, who in their right mind would equate Putz with a Fielder in any deal.
Steve proabaly pulled this off some cracked post on an M’s board somewheres.
Everything is falling into place. Now Fuentes just needs to go to the Brewers. Then the Tigers can pit the ‘Stros, Rockies, and M’s against each other to see who will accept the least for their closer.
One of them will bite on a package of Larish and Thames.
Well according to MLBTradeRumors.com it would seem we are still in on the Beimel discussion. Which I wont mind. Putz I’m not too sure I mean i wouldn’t cry over losing Parrish as he is log jammed. Joyce I would like to keep, but we NEED a closer otherwise these moves we made no matter how small they are will mean nothing in our WIN NOW mode. Putz will be under contract for 3 years and can mentor either Zumaya/Rodney/ or Perry for the closer role when he is done. Besides Putz, i would really like Fuentes but the cost is bad. and Cruz and Lyon are good options but his numbers are small because of the NL. So Putz seems to be our only hope, to have a different picture than 2008’s season.
And whats with Morosi citing team interest in Jeff Parrish. What is that crap. Hes a clone of Seay (4+ ERA, 22SO/15BB, and 1-1 record). Sure he’s gonna be cheap but come on…..we don’t need more mediocre pitching. We need results, and from what Ive seen today letting Woods go to Cleveland, DD and front office is failing the Tigers Fans.
Parrish isn’t close to Seay. Parrish is a bad pitcher, and Beimel isn’t very good. I don’t know that either would be an upgrade over Seay/Rapada and Robertson is likely in the mix for the pen. I don’t get the need for a lefty reliever.
Well Billfer, I was just making the statement that we don’t need more bad to mediocre pitching. We need real upgrades if we are to even think about competing with the likes of the Indians Sox Twins AND the up and coming Royals. Lyon and Cruz would be great but can we attract them over here after the horrendous season we had. Biemel i think would be an ok signing nothing to shoot off fireworks for but a decent signing. Parrish would be a waste of money.
BTW Billfer, I like the new look and the posts and your webcasts great job.
My name will be changing next year because Ill be out of school and graduated and going back to Metro Detroit, so I haven’t decided on a new name yet. Anyhow great job and keep it up!!
“I don’t get the need for a lefty reliever.”
Just a guess, but 2 possible reasons (hypothetical): 1) The Tigers have no serious intentions of moving Robertson to the pen. He was pretty awful there in his brief show last season. 2) Seay is seen as declining, and Rapada as not ready to take his place.
“My name will be changing next year because Ill be out of school and graduated and going back to Metro Detroit, so I haven’t decided on a new name yet.”
How about “Steve in Detroit”? I know, I know – just a wild and crazy suggestion. I’m way out in left field.
Another hypothetical reason for needing a lefty reliever could be plans to make Seay, Robertson, or even Rapada part of a trade package.
Loon,
Yea that could be it. Still thinking about a nickname instead IDK right now lol. Anyhow yea agree with your last statment Loon, but i just dont see that happening we would get nothing in return.