Tag: Los Angeles Dodgers (Page 21 of 30)

      Red Sox have leg up on signing Mark Teixeira

      December 18, 2008 /

      The Red Sox apparently are leading the race for free agent first basemen Mark Teixeira according to the Boston Globe.

      Mark TeixeiraTwo GMs who were involved in the Teixeira talks both felt the Red Sox had a leg up.

      “They have the highest offer on the table,” said one of the GMs.
      One of the GMs responded to Red Sox owner John Henry’s comment to the Boston Herald that the Sox would not go 10 years on any player with, “No one’s going there [10 years].”

      “We all have limits,” Henry said in an e-mail to the Associated Press yesterday. “Eight years is a very long time in baseball and everywhere else. Baseball as a whole has not yet been hit by the financial crisis, but it will. The degree is in question and won’t be answered for a while.”
      But who knows?

      The Yankees were willing to go two more years than anyone else on CC Sabathia, so why not on Teixeira?

      One of the GMs concluded the Yankees were the fly in the ointment, but “Manny [Ramírez is] going to the Yankees.”

      I’ll say this at least 34 more times before a deal is eventually in place but the Yankees are only in the Teixeira-talks to drive up the price for the Red Sox. They want to put the screws to their biggest rival before they turn their attention to Manny, who apparently no team has an interest in at his asking price.

      In the end, Teixeira will wind up in Boston and Manny will either remain a Dodger or become a rich Yankee.

      Fantasy Baseball, MLB

      Rafael Furcal pulls about face, stays with Dodgers

      December 18, 2008 /

      Two days ago it appeared that free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal would once again don an Atlanta Braves uniform in 2009. But the club Furcal left the Braves for in 2005 eventually came through with an offer more to his liking and now the most prized shortstop on the market is heading back to the Dodgers.

      On Monday night, the Braves were under the distinct impression that they had a deal with Furcal. On Tuesday, the Dodgers re-entered the discussions, and by Wednesday afternoon the Dodgers and Furcal were hammering out the terms of an agreement, sources said.

      The Braves on Wednesday were informed that Furcal would not accept their deal.

      “When people deal with you in this manner, they lose credibility,” Braves GM Frank Wren said. “You don’t forget these things.”

      According to Wren, this is how the situation played out:

      · Wren reached agreement on the terms of a contract with Furcal’s agent, Paul Kinzer, on Monday night, pending the approval of Furcal.

      · Between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET Monday night, Wren spoke with Kinzer three or four times, negotiating the dollar amount, the years and terms of the vesting option, and other contractual details.

      · Wren and Kinzer spoke again around midnight Monday night. Kinzer told Wren that he had not yet heard back from Furcal, but that Furcal was excited and that “we’re good.”

      · On Tuesday morning, Wren woke up to a voicemail from Kinzer telling him to put a term sheet (the standard baseball term for an official contract offer) together.

      · Wren went into his office in Atlanta, put the term sheet together and signed it.

      · Shortly thereafter, Kinzer began “backpedaling,” saying he promised the Dodgers he would talk to them.

      I don’t blame Wren for being upset because it looked like Furcal was going to be a Brave by the end of Tuesday. Then Wren wakes up on Wednesday and is told that Furcal is likely heading back to L.A. But that’s the business, I guess. Agents don’t care about the teams – they care about their clients and finding the best deals. It’s too bad it had to go down this way for the Braves.

      Fantasy Baseball, MLB

      Top 10 Worst MLB Free Agent Signings

      December 16, 2008 /

      RealClearSports.com recently ranked the top 10 worst MLB free agent signings of all-time.

      Chan Ho Park#1 Chan Ho Park Signed by Texas in 2002, five years, $65 million.
      Coming off 18-10 and 15-11 seasons in the pitchers’ heaven that is Dodger Stadium, Texas gave Park one of the most lucrative contracts ever given to a pitcher at that time. Injuries limited his workload, which wasn’t a bad thing considering his ERAs with the Rangers: 5.75, 7.58, 5.74, 5.66, before he was finally unloaded to San Diego in 2005.

      #2 Juan Pierre (signed by Los Angeles in 2006, five years, $44 million) and Andruw Jones (signed by Los Angeles in 2007, two years, $36.2 million).
      You know it’s a really bad signing when the team inks someone a year later to play the same position, and he does even worse. Pierre took his below-league-average on-base ability and minuscule power into the offensive void of Dodger Stadium with predictable results: .664 and .655 OPS in his two seasons so far. Andruw Jones received a raise off his worst season in 2007, and demonstrated that bad year in Atlanta was no fluke, batting .158 with three home runs in 209 at bats in 2008. The Jones signing also shifted Pierre to left field, where his wretched bat for a centerfielder would be an even greater liability. By the end of the season, the Dodgers recognized their CF answer had been there all along, in the person of Matt Kemp.

      #3 Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle – Signed by Colorado in 2000; Hampton for eight years, $121 million, Neagle for five years, $51 million.
      The vertiginous problem of pitching in Colorado led to some terrible decisions. Even though importing a free agent had failed in the case of Darryl Kile (ERAs of 5.20 and 6.61 in his two seasons before he was traded to St. Louis), the Rockies tried again in the 2000-01 offseason, giving $172 million to two lefthanders. Hampton was hampered by injuries and ineffectiveness in his two seasons in Colorado, going 21-28 with ERAs of 5.41 and 6.15 before being shipped off to Florida (and then on to Atlanta); his free-agent contract finally expired last year. Neagle was a decent 31-year-old pitcher with a 105-69 record and 3.92 career ERA when the Rockies elevated him to the front of their rotation; he gave them three seasons of 19-23, 5.56, before earning his release with two years left on his contract.

      I’m a little surprised Barry Zito didn’t make the list, but I guess people are willing to give him one more year of brutal pitching before really laying the hammer on the massive free agent bust.

      MLB

      Hot Stove League: New York, New York (Burnett Officially Signs With Yankees)

      December 13, 2008 /

      I know this was Vegas, which comes with its own set of distractions, but come on. We all expected a lot more to happen at the MLB Winter Meetings this past week than the Yankees giving CC Sabathia the equivalent of a small planet and AJ Burnett significant real estate on said planet (the Yanks made the latter official Friday afternoon with a 5-year, $82.5 million deal), as well as the Mets signing the best closer out there (K-Rod) and trading for a second one (JJ Putz) to be their set-up guy. Unless the Orioles and Reds swapping Ramon Hernandez and Ryan Freel, or the Rays and Tigers trading Edwin Jackson for Matt Joyce gets your blood flowing, it was kind of a disappointing week, especially if you live 40 miles or more outside of the New York metro area.

      We still have Manny Ramirez without a team, and the very real possibility that he could just stay with the Dodgers. Really, doesn’t that make the most sense for this guy’s, um, easygoing, personality and playing style? Meanwhile, the stakes for Mark Teixeira have been upped by none other than the Washington Nationals, who are believed to be offering the free agent slugger eight years at $20 million per. That sounds to me like agent Scott Boras trying to just be Scott Boras. We all know Tex is going to wind up in Boston, Baltimore, or back with the Angels.

      And as if Cubs’ fans haven’t suffered through enough misery lately, GM Jim Hendry decided to pull the plug on the Jake Peavy trade. He just didn’t want to inherit as much salary as the Padres wanted him to, and he surely didn’t want to throw Mark DeRosa on a plane to San Diego as part of the deal. Now, the Angels have been mentioned as a team that might pursue Peavy, and you definitely can’t count the Yankees out either. Oh, and by the way, the Yankees have turned their attention to in-house “old reliable” Andy Pettitte now, and have not ruled Ben Sheets or Derek Lowe out yet. Wow.

      Meanwhile, the Mets spent so much on closers that they literally had nothing left to go after Lowe. Instead, GM Omar Minaya is talking to the Cubs about a trade for Jason Marquis, and/or re-signing Oliver Perez or Pedro Martinez.

      There could be a lot more moves on the horizon, but in a week expected to have a lot of fireworks, the hot stove fired up in New York and nowhere else. Stay tuned though, because deals are known to happen into January, and some, like Ramirez and Teixeira signing, could lead a domino effect for more moves.

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, Fantasy Baseball, MLB

      Dodgers offer Furcal 2-year deal to stay

      December 11, 2008 /

      The Los Angeles Dodgers have officially offered shortstop Rafael Furcal an incentive-laden two-year contract. Furcal, however, is seeking a four-year deal.

      Rafael FurcalThe Dodgers have offered the 31-year-old shortstop an incentive-laden contract that is guaranteed for two years and includes a vesting option for a third, according to sources familiar with the negotiations who were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter. Furcal is asking for a four-year deal.

      Furcal’s agent, Paul Kinzer, said Wednesday that the Dodgers are one of four finalists to sign his client. Kinzer said the other three — Oakland, Toronto and Kansas City — also have offers on the table and that Oakland’s is for four years.

      Kinzer says he expects Furcal to be signed by Christmas.

      Furcal can guarantee the third year of the contract with the Dodgers by accumulating a certain number of at-bats in the first two years, sources said.

      Considering Furcal is coming off an injury-riddled season, the Dodgers were wise to protect themselves with an incentive-laden deal. This is the second time L.A. has offered a quality free agent just a two-year deal (the first was Manny Ramirez), which again, is smart. They might not land either player because other teams will come to the table with more years, but at least they’re trying to protect themselves from getting burned on ridiculous guaranteed contracts that could kill their spending in the future.

      Fantasy Baseball, MLB

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