Well, it turns out Mets’ GM Omar Minaya wasn’t messing around when it came to fixing his team’s biggest problem–the bullpen. A day after agreeing to terms with record breaking closer Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez, Minaya pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade involving two other teams, Seattle and Cleveland. The Mets acquired Mariners’ closer JJ Putz and RHP Sean Green from Seattle and OF Jeremy Reed from Cleveland; they sent OF Endy Chavez, RHP Aaron Heilman, and minor leaguers Maikel Cleto, Ezequiel Carrera, Jason Vargas, and Mike Carp to Seattle and RHP Joe Smith to Cleveland; Cleveland sent IF Franklin Gutierrez to Seattle; and Seattle sent Luis Valbuena to Cleveland.

Essentially what this means for the Mets is that they traded Heilman and Smith for Putz, while swapping marginal outfielders. The move is good for Seattle, who received a ton of young players, and for Cleveland, who now have a reliable sinker ball pitcher to put in front of new closer Kerry Wood. But it’s huge for the Mets, who will put Putz in the set-up role in front of K-Rod. Putz will earn just $5.5 million in 2009 and has a team option in 2010 for $9.1 million, and K-Rod’s contract also features a lot of money on the back end of his contract. That means Minaya and the Mets will have decisions to make in 2010 and beyond, but for 2009 in shiny new Citi Field, they have given themselves possibly the best one-two bullpen punch in the majors, and any lead after the seventh inning will almost certainly result in a win. Things still have to play out on the field, but that’s already a far cry from the two epic collapses of 2006 and 2007.

Meanwhile, the Braves and Yankees appear to be in a bidding war for RHP A.J. Burnett. The Yankees were not satisfied with just C.C. Sabathia, and are looking to fortify their rotation with Burnett, and/or Ben Sheets, Andy Pettitte or Derek Lowe. The Braves offered four years with a fifth year option, all totaling $80 million, to Burnett; and since then, reports surfaced that the Yanks upped their offer to $91 million, but that was incorrect, and it’s said to be more in the same $80 to $85 million range the Braves are offering, but with five years guaranteed. It’s unclear if the Braves can win a real bidding war with New York, but with the numbers close, this one will surely be more a matter of where Burnett wants to live and work for the next few years.

This is when the baseball season is really interesting—while no games are happening and speculation flies around about who will be changing uniforms and shifting the balance of the sport’s power. It sure beats watching a nine-inning game that goes on for four hours or more.

So the two big names that are free agents and will be courted heavily are CC Sabathia and Manny Ramirez. Forget the fact that commissioner Bud Selig cautioned teams about forking over too much money in a slow economy. Those two guys are going to rake in the cabbage either way, because teams will bid for them at ridiculous numbers. So far, the Brewers, Yankees and Angels seem to be the first in line to make a run at CC, and Manny’s agent, Scott Boras, had a 90 minute conversation with Dodgers’ GM Ned Colletti on Tuesday, but that pretty much means nothing. Still, the Dodgers owe their fans an offer to Ramirez, even if Boras is looking for a 5-6 year offer.

On the trading block, would you believe Tigers’ slugger Magglio Ordonez? The Tigers reportedly have enough holes to fill that they are willing to part with one of the game’s premier hitters to do so. That kind of deal has Yankees written all over it.

Two players whose team option was not picked up were the Yankees’ Jason Giambi and Dodgers’ Brad Penny. For all the talk about Giambi and steroids, the guy did hit 32 homers in 2008 and still has some pop as well as the penchant for bad mustaches.

Though the Mets need bullpen help more than anything, they are talking trade with Tampa Bay for starter Andy Sonnenstine. The Mets are also talking like they will not be bringing back Aaron Heilman, which is about as good a move as any trade to acquire a player.

Finally, free agent Ken Griffey may be heading back to Seattle, and pitcher Derek Lowe may be headed back to Boston. Stay tuned…..

It’s time for one of my favorite times of the year in baseball, the Hot Stove League…a.k.a. the time when players change teams and change the landscape of MLB for the following season. Let’s start by taking a look at the big names that will be moved or signed as free agents in the coming months, and be sure to check back in with us each week during the cold months….

Manny Ramirez—Word is the Dodgers do not want to sign Manny to a 4-5 year deal the way agent Scott Boras would like. That leaves open the very real possibility that Manny could be heading back to the American League where he can DH for a team like (are you ready for this?) Toronto. I don’t know, that just doesn’t seem right, does it? But it sure would tighten up a tough division even more. My feeling is Manny stays in LA for two years or so. The Yankees will also have to make a bid, and you might expect the Mets to as well just to say they did.

CC Sabathia—The Brewers would love nothing more than to re-sign their ace who came over from Cleveland in July and almost led them to the promised land. Well, he did almost single-handedly land the team in the playoffs. CC likes Milwaukee, but yearns for the west coast where he is from. The Dodgers might open their wallet here, especially if Manny goes elsewhere. The Yankees are also expected to bid, so the $$ could go high.

Jake Peavy—The hot rumor is that Peavy is being courted in a trade by the Braves, but GM Frank Wren is not itchy to give up the top prospects the Padres are looking for.

Francisco Rodriguez—The Angels’ closer who saved a major league record 62 saves in 2008, is expected to receive a hefty offer from the Mets to replace Billy Wagner.

Mark Teixeira—The Angels are likely to re-sign him, but if the Yankees do not get Sabathia, expect a run from them as well.

Other news….

Detroit’s Freddy Garcia has filed for free agency after pitching just three games for the Tigers in 2008……Seattle’s Raul Ibanez has also filed…AJ Burnett is likely to opt out of his contract with Toronto, and is expected to do so before next week’s GM meetings….Ken Griffey’s option was declined by the White Sox, who didn’t make it past the first round of the playoffs against Tampa. Griffey should find a home in the American League as a DH….Florida traded 1B Mike Jacobs to Kansas City on Thursday for pitcher Leo Nunez….the Tigers declined the option on Edgar Renteria….the Dodgers’ Jeff Kent is finally expected to retire…..in Brewers news, Ben Sheets has declared free agency, and they have named former A’s manager Ken Macha to replace Ned Yost…the Brew Crew also declined their option on infielder Craig Counsell yesterday.

According to a report from The Seattle Times, several Mariners players don’t like Ichiro Suzuki and at one point during the season, even weighed the option of beating him up.

And it was a clubhouse in need of some direction, given the problems engulfing it as the season came undone. When it came to Ichiro, who got off to a typically slow start in April and part of May, the internal turmoil nearly hit its boiling point.

“I just can’t believe the number of guys who really dislike him,” said one clubhouse insider. “It got to a point early on when I thought they were going to get together and go after him.”

The coaching staff and then-manager John McLaren intervened when one player was overheard talking — in reference to Ichiro — about wanting to “knock him out.” A team meeting was called to clear the air.

It was a repeat of May 2007, when Mike Hargrove was in charge and a team meeting had to be called during a series at Tampa Bay because of clubhouse bickering over Ichiro being a “selfish” player.

Well, considering the Mariners are collectively batting only .265 this season, they might as well hit something.

UATGSPORTS.CA compiled an interesting list of baseball’s top flops, failures, fiascoes and firsts of the 2008 MLB Season.

“Failures”
If there was ever an unfitting send off for the house that Ruth built, a season and era that ends without a World Series championship would be it.

New York Yankees
… The Yankees have been unable to string together enough wins to make up ground on the Red Sox or Rays. Much of the Yankees misfortunes can be credited to the meteoric rise of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays’ rise has knocked Boston back into the wildcard race with the Twins and thus left the Yankees on the outside looking in. Depending on how the Red Sox and Twins finish down the stretch we could be witness to a post season without the Yankees and Red Sox.

“Flops”
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Cleveland Indians
… Considering CC looks like a completely different pitcher with Milwaukee and the Indians are squandering a 30/30 season from Grady Sizemore, this season is an utter disappointment for Chief Wahoo and the Indians. The Indians have not won a World Series since 1949 and suddenly their collapse in the bottom of the 9th inning during the 1997 World Series with two outs doesn’t seem so bad.

“Firsts”
A changing of the guard (also the New York Yankees’ worst nightmare).

Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays are guaranteed to finish north of .500 for the first time in franchise history, but arguably more important is the fact that this team will likely unseat the Red Sox and Yankees in the AL East.

“Fiascoes”
Saying the franchise is in “rebuilding mode” is an understatement.

Seattle Mariners
Seattle brought in Erik Bedard (now on the DL) and Carlos Silva and JJ Putz was expected to step-up in the closing role. Big contracts were also handed out to Kenji Johjima and Adrian Beltre over the years which pretty much sealed the fate of Bill Bavasi, the Mariners GM who was fired back in June. Suddenly this team is rebuilding and the one reason to go see this team play is for the Mariner Moose. The memories of a 116-win season are long gone in the state of Washington.

Very cool list. The Yankees’ failures this season goes to show you that without pitching, it doesn’t matter if a team has an All-Star lineup. And the same can be said for the Tigers, who were also mentioned by UATGSPORTS.CA. As for the Tribe, injuries completely dismantled an otherwise potentially great year. But the Indians loaded up again in the Sabathia trade and should again be a contender next year if Carmona can stay completely healthy.

Show me a pitcher who doesn’t walk many batters, and I’ll show you a pitcher that wins games. Plain and simple, if you don’t hurt yourself by putting guys on base, you’re going to be in games and win a good portion of them. Here, we take a look at those active pitchers with the best control, i.e. those hurlers who yield the least amount of walks per nine innings. Interestingly, the Top 10 consists of all starting pitchers……

1. Carlos Silva, Seattle Mariners (1.634)–Okay, so Carlos Silva has lost more games than he’s won (59-60), but he’s pitching for the pathetic Mariners this year. What I’m saying is, 4-14 for a team that is 46-75 isn’t bad. And check this out…in 2005 with Minnesota, Silva pitched 188 1/3 innings and walked only nine batters. That’s just sick.

2. Jon Lieber, Chicago Cubs (1.725)–Journeyman Jon Lieber has been in the bigs since 1994, and has never walked more than 51 batters in a season. There’s no doubt his career ERA of 4.26 would be much higher if it weren’t for his excellent control.

3. Greg Maddux, San Diego Padres (1.803)–What, you expected not to see Mr. Maddux on here? Control is to Greg Maddux’ game what hot sauce is to Buffalo wings.

4. Ben Sheets, Milwaukee Brewers (1.960)–Sheets has never won more than twelve games in a season, but part of that is because he can’t stay off the disabled list. Sheets has nearly four times as many career strikeouts (1181) as walks (303) in seven-plus seasons.

5. Curt Schilling, Boston Red Sox (1.962)–It’s too bad that if we play word association, I’ll say “Curt Schilling” and you’ll say “bloody sock.” Then again, that also sums up the grit and determination of this guy. If I need to win a game, he’s one of maybe five pitchers I’ll give the ball to.

6. Mike Mussina, New York Yankees (1.987)–If you can see the concentration in a pitcher’s eyes, you know he’s focused on putting the ball over the plate and trying to get the hitter out. And how about this? In 18 seasons, Mussina has only hit 58 batters and thrown 71 wild pitches. Also, his 265-151 career record shows that my theory above has a bit of validity.

7. Mark Buehrle, Chicago White Sox (2.060)–Though he’s only won 117 games in almost nine seasons, Mark Buehrle is a workhorse (has never pitched less than 200 innings in a full season) who keeps his White Sox in games.

8. Roy Oswalt, Houston Astros (2.084)–Do you get the feeling Roy Oswalt hasn’t yet reached his potential? The guy is 122-62 since breaking into the majors in 2001, with a 3.20 ERA and 1286 strikeouts. And his control (360 walks, 16 wild pitches) isn’t too shabby, either.

9. Paul Byrd, Boston Red Sox (2.119)–I’m not sure that Byrd throws harder than 80 miles per hour, but there’s no doubt he can still get hitters out, which is why the Red Sox just obtained him from the Indians. And he gets better with age….in 2005 with the Angels, Byrd walked 28 batters in 204 1/3 — that’s 1.2 batters per game.

10. Roy Halladay, Toronto Blue Jays (2.127)–With a 124-64 record over 11 seasons with mostly mediocre Toronto, Roy Halladay has consistently been one of the game’s best pitchers during his career.

Source: Baseball Reference