Hot Stove Baseball 2005/06

The angels, dodgers, mets, yankees, red sox and cubs could probably afford manny.

I see the Cub are doing their best to ape the 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox. Perhaps Dusty will pull his head out of his ass and realize the value of a stolen base.

It'll be tough to see Konerko go, but I anticipate someone is going to go way overboard in paying him. As much as I'd love to have him around, at 15 million, he does more harm than good to the team. He's got good power and catches everything thrown to him at first, but he's a .280 hitter with no speed. Five years from now, where will the team be if they're paying him 15+ million? I hope he realizes how much playing in The Cell helps him out.

he's not going to get 15 mil per year but it's gonna be up there. if they sox wouldn't sign mags a few years ago they're not gonna sign konerko.

Konerko doesn't deserve 15 mil but 10 would do and he should stay with the Sox.

Delgado is trade bait for whatever team doesn't land Konerko.

Angels have been rumored to be interested in Manny and Nomar. I'd like to see Mike Sweeney in red.

If the Angels acquire Nomar I'll be disappointed. They don't need him. The infield is pretty much set.

If Arte did shell out the money for Konerko then at least we'd see Erstad back in Center Field.

I hope Moreno looks for a pitcher instead of a bat. This last post-season was just a letdown power-wise but I hope we don't make it the biggest priority this off season to find a bat. You can score runs but if youre pitcher cant hold em...you're still fucked.

A pitcher is fine but in my opinion its not needed. Priority number 1 should be to resign Bengie and Scott Shields. Number 2 get a bat or two and an arm.

As I said Mike Sweeney would look good in red.

Whoa, Shields' contract is up?

the funny thing is delgado is a better player, will come cheaper and won't have as many useless year's as konerko's contract.

nomar at third would be stellar...if he can stay healthy. big if.

Personally I would have agreed with you maybe 2 years ago but after Delgado flamed out his contract year in Toronto and in my opinion didn't do great in Florida i'd say Konerko's worth is certainly higher now. He came up clutch last year and in the postseason when it counted.

Still Delgado is a lovely down/upgrade eitherway heh.

Totally agree on Nomar its the health thats the question. Figgins arm isn't good enough for 3rd base so center is where he should go.

Moving on to Angel rumor of the day. Erstad is being shopped around supposedly. I hate this if its true.

Also Troy Glaus is supposedly trade bait in Arizona. As an Angel fan I can say quite honestly we'd love to have you back Troy.

I love Erstad at first base. Sometimes I see a bad throw and I think to myself "Thank God Erstad's at first". I hope he isnt being shopped around.


But, what did Troy do to make Arizona use him like that? Didnt he have an alright season over there? Did his shoulder act up again?

The Blue Jays have offered A.J. Burnett 5 years, $50 million. I love it...just more proof there are too many teams in MLB right now. Pitching is so bad and stretched so paper thin, more insane contracts like this are being offered.

Ah well, I'm just soooooooo glad it's not the Red Sox doing it.

He's either restricted or unrestricted but yeah it is either way.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...nnsi&type=lgns

no way. delgado didn't flame out on his contract year. he still managed to get a 4 year contract at like 12 mil a year at 32 years old. not bad at all. look back on that season. he was fucking terrible for the first 80 games or so. he was battling a rib injury the entire first half. that's probably the worse injury a hitter can sustain. then he got healthy and tore the cover off of the ball. he was one of the best hitters in all of baseball in the 2nd half. his average went from .220 at the all star break to finish the season at .270.

last season delgado had another very good year. he finished 5 or 6th in the mvp voting. he hit really well while he was hitting in a total pitcher's park. he's an rbi machine (the most important part of hitting) and is always on base. he has been doing very good now for basically 10 seasons. you can't say that about konerko. konerko has been consistently a good ball player over the years but never really very good. he's turned it on the past 2 season's but i'm not convinced he's one of the better hitters in the league. when i think of the great 1st basemen hitter's in the past few seasons konerko never comes to my mind. again he's a good player but not a part of the elite. whatever team "loses" and ends up with delgado is going to be better off. i'm sorry if i don't get a hard on because a guy played really well for 15 games in the playoffs.

really the pitching contracts the past few seasons are getting out of hand. wright, pavano, benson and clement's deal's were way too high and the same is going to happen with burnett. as a jays fan it could be a good thing to get burnett because he has an unlimited amount of talent but he fall's into the kerry wood category. he'll dazzle you one night but at the end of the season he just doesn't win any games. i want someone who's gonna win me a lot games but there just doesn't seem to be anyone out there. anyways the jays haven't had a quality #2 guy in about 10 year's so maybe i'll be willing to accept burnett if we can land him.

I'm not dissing the Cub on this, but you can tell how awful the Free Agents are this year with the excitement raised over this one. My Cub fan brother in law informed me last night that the Cubs had won the 'Scott Eyre Sweepstakes'.

haha that's hilarious but who knows this could turn out to be something great for the cubs. if eyre and dempster pitch as good as they did last season it's going to be tough for teams to come from behind on them.

Oh, sure. If he really is a lights out set-up guy, then he's worth the pretty large wad of cash they're playing him.

Is there a big star in baseball, whose already gotten their big money contract, thats underpaid?

All I could think of was Mariano Rivera, you could probably increase his base salary significantly and nobody would raise their eyebrows.

Too bad for BJ Ryan and Billy Wagner.

doesn't mo make something like 10 mil per year? i wouldn't call that being underpaid for a closer.

Well said on Delgado Paso. You made me a believer again.

i'm glad i helped. he's damn good! only if ted rogers decided not to be cheap ass a season earlier then we jays fans wouldn't have to go through many games of eric henske sucking it up on 1st.

double.

if the jays sign Burnett I think its pretty good. Its not that I think he is unreal or anything but what is out there he is probably the best available, and who knows maybe he can finally harness all his potential.It also would finally give the Jays there best one-two punch since Cone and Stewart and hell even put Guzman in there. As far as Delgado goes I think he had a good year especially in the park he was in. If I had the choice and I had to pay 12-15 million a year for Konerko or Delgado it would be Delgado in a heart beat. Konerko is a good player dont get me wrong but Delgado has been the most consistent first basemen in baseball besides Pujols for the past 5 years. Paso is also right about his last year with the Jays he had a big injury the first half and the second half of the season he tore the cover off the ball and raised his avg 50 points and still nearly got 100 rbi's when he only has like 35 at the break.For the same money value Delgado is way better. I really just think anyone paying 15 mill for Konerko is getting ripped off he is more like an 8-10 mill guy in my opinion.

So I'm gonna be NY-centric for a bit...

I can't help but think that the Mets are gonna score either Carlos Delgado or Manny Ramirez. The trade of Mike Cameron pretty much puts GM Omar Minaya in a difficult position, and he HAS to make a move like that now. It's only a matter of time... I think Minaya has shown excellent people skills, and I think he can persuade Manny to come here.

konerko looked awful a few season's ago and he bounced back so maybe lowell can too, even though he looked just dreadful at the plate. there's no better place then fenway to get your swing back. the red sox can now enjoy the many yearly dl stints for beckett.

Yea, it's tough giving up Hanley, but with the signing of Edgar last year, Ramirez was headed out the door via a trade. I hope Beckett can stay healthy because he's a nice addition to our staff. Not sure what we're going to do with Lowell, though...

Good players but for some reason this trade just doesn't seem like a good one. Perhaps its the injuries but if Beckett turns the corner (in a good way health wise) in Boston this could be a genius move.

I don't know, the way I look at being underpaid, if you added money to his current contract, would you even care? I wouldn't think the Yankees overpaid Rivera if he made $15 million a season, let alone $10 million. I think its mostly cause, well, the drop off between him and everyone else is so remarkably huge.


I'm probably alone in this, but I sure hope the Mets don't pick up Manny Ramirez, and I sort of doubt Carlos Delgado is coming after the debachle that was last seasons contract negotiations. I mean, sure, Manny Ramirez is a Hall of Famer, but the move from Fenway to Shea wouldn't be all that pretty, especially without Big Papi batting in front of him... and how much money is left on that enormous contract again?

I'm not sure where that leaves the Mets in their pursuit of a power bat, but I'd be much happier keeping prospects like Lastings Milledge and Yusmeiro Petit.

Then theres this whole courtship of Billy Wagner, a guy whose arm issues come up every single year. Why not just let the Phillies keep that injury waiting to happen and just throw some cash B.J. Ryan's way?

To be honest, I'd much rather the Mets just keep their farm system intact and pick up Brian Giles and B.J. Ryan.

15 mil for a closer? waaaaaaaaaay to much.

oh but you do have the most awesomeness player in the history of post season on your team!

Manny is by no means a pull hitter though, over the last 3 years manny has hit 63 homeruns at fenway and 62 homeruns away.In the past 3 seasons Paul Konerko has hit 61 homeruns at home and only 38 on the road. And he'll still get $12+ million a year most likely.

But I agree with you, Brian Giles will probably post a comparable OPS to manny next year, just as he did last year.

Scott Eyre's a nice player. Good thing he's only pitched in 350 games over the last four years... definitely not a candidate for a May season ending shoulder injury... who manages the Cubs again???

For a second I thought you weren't being sarcastic, Burke.

No, it's because the fans are assholes.

What's the hispanic population in Boston? 14?

There are actually large Brazilian and Portuguese populations (place goes nuts when it's World Cup time) but it's certainly no Latin mecca.

I'd really like to hear Ortiz's thoughts on this.

Dump some pounds and a few mil off your contract and brush up on those defensive fundamentals and we might be interested in you here Manny. Wait we don't have any Pedro's or other jackasses here move along Manny.

But, that's the problem, people do treat him like a jackass here. People don't realize that Manny does work hard on his defense, I mean he lead the majors in outfield assists last year. He has the image of being a careless slacker or something, but no one takes more batting practice than he does.

Mets get Delgado

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2234421

Just to add, it says the Marlins have gotten permission to seek relocation. I've read the Portland, OR is a front runner with Las Vegas to get the team if it happens. Baseball in Portland...Sweet.

Although, most likely it's just another ploy to get a stadium deal for the Marlins ownership. But, it's damn exciting that we might get a team here soon.

If you play left field in Boston and don't lead the league in outfield assists, you are probably the worst outfielder in the game. Manny doesn't work hard on his D, he's just been there long enough to understand bounces off the wall, and he plays about 20 feet behind the shortstop.

He still improved his footwork, positioning, judgement and release. How does that not count as working hard on your defense?

manny led the league, or was near the top, in one of his earlier seasons in cleveland when he was playing right field. so it's not just fenway helping him out.

Pardon me for being a Mets fan, but...

DELGADOOOOOOOOO!


If Wagner signs on the line that is dotted, than it will be an early Christmas for me.

Rowand for Thome

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5108694

not too sure what this portends. for me it raises more questions than answers. does this mean the sox are willing to spend more or are the phillies eating a lot of the contract? is this a safeguard against konerko leaving or is it a DH upgrade? how replaceable is rowand's defense?

Pending physicals, the White Sox have picked up Jim Thome in exchange for Aaron Rowand (and I have to imagine a couple minor leaguers - Gio Gonzales?). If he's healthy, that's huge for the Sox. Huge "if" though. He'd be great in the cleanup spot behind Konerko.

As for Konerko, the Sox are increasing payroll this year, and since they dumps Thomas' and Everett's salaries, they have the money to pay (assuming the Phils swallow some of it).

In terms of Rowand's defense, the Sox have a small army of OF prospects waiting to fill the position, with Brian Anderson the most ML-ready. He was a great clubhouse guy, and will definately be missed. At least he got to win a championship with the team he cheered for as a kid.

great movie by the phillies but i wonder how much money they sent the sox?