– The Cliff Lee race is over, and the Phillies win by a mile. Lee reportedly left $50-$60M on the table to sign with Philly, who now boasts Cole Hamels as their #4 starter. Halladay, Lee, Oswalt, Hamels. Wow. Kudos to Lee, it really wasn’t about the money.
– Henning writes that the Tigers’ next move should be to sign Maggs. If he falls through, they might be looking to reunite with Ryad Ludwick.
– Word is that the White Sox are entertaining offers for Buehrle.
– What about Max St. Pierre?
– I think this line from the Free Press last week pretty much sums up Zumaya’s career. ‘For the fourth straight off-season, Joel Zumaya looms as the Tigers’ “X factor.”‘ We all know how brilliant he can be when he his healthy, but I think it would be silly to pencil him in as a reliable guy for the 2011 pen.
A few things that I found this morning, enough to share, not enough for a new post:
– Posnanski wrote a great article in SI yesterday, with Bill James, discussing the best 4-man rotations of all time. He listed the 15 true no. 1 starters” today, JV is on the list.
– Figaro’s contract was sold to a Japanese team. Meh.
– Laird will be backing up Yadier Molina next year in StL for a cool $1M. Not sad to see him go, and this should not be a surprise to anyone. Good speed for a catcher, he likes to drink beer (can’t fault him for that), not a great ML starter.
Tigers need to add another starter(preferably) a lefty who can eat up some innings and give us an era 4.00-4.30. They also need another bat while re-signing Magglio. If they think just signing magglio helps this team win then I feel for Tigers fans this season. I’m not sold on Ludwick. Since his breakout season he hasn’t done much. I rather take a flier on Brad Hawpe and hope he recaptures his 25hr 80rbi form. As is stands right now with signing Magglio our lineup would look like this…..
cf jackson
2b rhymes/sizemore- not good
rf ordonez
1b cabrera
dh martinez
lf raburn
ss peralta
c avila
3b inge
another 80 win season
Where is Carlos Guillen? Word is he may be ready by opening day which means he can play 2B when Martinez DHs and he can DH when Martinez catches. What about this:
1- Jackson CF
2- Raburn LF
3- Guillen 2B
4- Cabrera 1B
5- Martinez DH
6- Ordonez RF
7- Peralta SS
8- Inge 3B
9- Avila C
Obviously you could switch Maggs and Carlos around but I don’t like using both of our switch hitters next to each other. Not to mention Guillen may benefit the most by hitting in front of Cabby.
You know better than to count on Carlos for more than 80 games, right? You won’t be able to choose which 80, btw.
Zumaya might never pitch an entire season again. His mechanics destroy his shoulder, arm, and elbow. Don’t just take my word for it, see:
http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/Baseball/Pitching/ProfessionalPitcherAnalyses/JoelZumaya.html
If he corrected his mechanics, he would probably be a mid-90s pitcher. We saw how hittable he was at the end of ’08 pitching in that range.
Bill’s lineup seems reasonable, but don’t rule out Raburn playing 2B and either Wells or Boesch playing OF. On the other hand, I like Will Rhymes. I picture him being a David Eckstein-type player. Remember, he was MVP of 2006 World Series.
Additionally, each team seems to have a new contributor every year. Who might that be this year?
Preferably, a pitcher, but I like Danny Worth, also.
I absolutely shudder at the thought of Raburn playing anywhere on the infield. I have great respect for utility guys (shoutout to Shane Halter!), but Raburn’s glove is lucky to creep past replacement level anywhere on the field, let alone the infield.
Agreed. If we could plug Raburn at 2B this would dramatically improve our team offensively, maybe even by a few wins alone, but his glove has too many holes.
Raburn at 2nd would be an automatic contender for the Holed Glove award.
Agree with Coleman – “plug” and “Raburn” are two words that don’t belong in the same sentence unless there is a contraction somewhere close by.
How about a Ryan Raburn for Joe Blanton trade y’all? Blanton is not a stud, but I think he’s a better candidate than anything we have. Raburn would plug the Phillies outfield hole. Blanton’s going to make $8.5 this year and next – not ridiculous by today’s standards.
Just food for thought.
I see two immediate problems with that:
1. Blanton is RH and could only replace Galarraga in the rotation, which I don’t see as a significant upgrade for the additional cost. If another starter is added it should be a lefty so they can move Coke back to the pen. But I don’t see that happening either and my guess is we go into 2011 with the rotation we have now
2. Until the Tigers sign another quality OF bat (and if they don’t sign Maggs, who is there?), they won’t be able to trade any of Boesch, Wells, Raburn. Are these guys diamonds in the rough or one-note Johnnies? The Tigers don’t know and neither does anybody else. Until they establish their bonafides they have little trade value. Indeed, at this point we need to find out exactly what they are made of, so I doubt that any of them go anywhere.
Agree to a point about Blanton, Vince. But he does have a longer and better track record than Armando. I think there’s a good chance he would pitch better at Comerica. He’s still young, too.
For me, I don’t really care if we add a lefty. I’d rather have four good right handers than three plus one ify lefty. Having a lefty for the sake of having one isn’t good baseball, IMO.
But I like Coke in the pen better, too. If the Phillies let Durbin get away, we should look at bringing him back.
From the Cliff Lee article:
The Yankees were willing to guarantee Lee $154 million for seven years. And instead, he picked a five-year deal worth around $120 million? Astounding.
What’s so astounding about taking 5 years at $24m/year over 7 years at $22m/year? To not pitch for the fans who treated his wife poorly during the playoffs? He’ll only be 37 when this contract is up and will probably not lose much money in the long run.
He’s certainly taking a risk, but if he’s the same pitcher in 5 years that he is now (not that unlikely) he could make even more money going this way. And if he doesn’t, so what? He’s made enough money to last dozens of lifetimes.
Ordonez has signed…
http://twitter.com/SI_JonHeyman/status/15472785958633473
http://www.detroittigertales.com/2010/12/ordonez-returns-for-another-year.html