Tag: Roy Halladay (Page 8 of 12)

      MLB Trade Rumors: Kazmir, Halladay and Lee

      July 24, 2009 /

      – ESPN’s Buster Olney is reporting that the Angels have interest in Rays’ starter Scott Kazmir, although its unclear at this point if this could be a precursor to a trade for Tampa, who apparently has their eyes on Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee.

      – Sticking with the Angels theme, owner Arte Moreno tells the L.A. Times that he remains interested in landing one of the top arms on the market, which includes Halladay and Lee. Apparently he’s also willing to pay a hefty price to acquire one of the big names.

      – Speaking of Lee, ESPN’s Jayson Stark says he is available, but it appears that the Indians would have to be overwhelmed by a deal. Stark is also reporting that the Reds will listen to offers for starter Bronson Arroyo.

      – According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Twins are interested in Oakland shortstop Orlando Cabrera and reliever Michael Wuertz.

      – The Padres are making Heath Bell available.

      – SI.com’s Jon Heyman is reporting that the Rays are kicking the tires on possibly acquiring Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez.

      – Brian Anderson has asked the White Sox to trade him according to MLB.com.

      College Football, MLB, Rumors & Gossip

      Cards trade three prospects to A’s for Holliday

      July 24, 2009 /

      The St. Louis Cardinals have finally found slugger Albert Pujols some protection in the lineup, as the Red Birds traded three minor league prospects to the A’s in exchange for outfielder Matt Holliday according to ESPN.com.

      One of those three minor leaguers was Brett Wallace, who was Baseball America’s 40th-best prospect entering the season, while the other two were 24-year old right-hander Clayton Mortensen and outfielder Shane Peterson, who was a second rounder in 2008. Apparently Oakland will also chip in $1.5 million to help pay for some of the $6 million still left on Holliday’s contract.

      After a slow start, Holliday is now hitting .286 with 11 home runs and 54 RBI. He instantly makes the Cardinals the favorites to win the NL Central and challenge the Dodgers and Phillies for the NL Pennant by adding much-needed protection behind Pujols in the lineup. His presence in the order should also make players like Mark DeRosa and Ryan Ludwick better as well.

      Billy Beane once again did well in a trade. The Oakland GM wanted to get Holliday’s contract off the books (or as much of it as he could), but he also didn’t want to just stick a for sale sign in Holliday’s forehead and give him away for free after trading multiple players to acquire him from Colorado last winter. With Holliday set to become a free agent at the end of the season, Beane did well to not only shed salary, but also get one of the Cards’ best prospects in Wallace.

      What will be interesting to keep an eye on over the next two weeks as the trade deadline approaches, is whether or not the Cubs or Brewers will make a big move to counter this trade. Chicago doesn’t have much to offer in its farm system, but Milwaukee, as usual, is stacked and could look to add a pitcher. Although it would require giving up a haul, it’ll be interesting to see if the Brew Crew makes a run at Roy Halladay or the Tribe’s Cliff Lee.

      MLB

      Posnanski: Top 100 MLB Players

      July 22, 2009 /

      Joe Posnanski put together a ranking of who he believes are the top 100 current MLB players at this moment (as in right now – not over the past two years, three years, etc).

      Here is his top 10:

      1. Albert Pujols, 1B, Cardinals
      “Every hitter is human,” says pitcher Zack Greinke (No. 4). “Except Pujols.”

      2. Joe Mauer, C, Twins
      Could win his third batting title this year … no other American League catcher ever has won even one in history.

      3. Hanley Ramirez, SS, Marlins
      Advanced stats suggest he’s better defensively than people think. Offensively, he leads the league in hitting and might have another 30-30 season.

      4. Zack Greinke, SP, Royals
      Throws four plus pitches, all for strikes, leads the league with a 2.08 ERA, and has won 10 games for a team that has scored the fewest runs in the AL.

      5. Chase Utley, 2B, Phillies
      Crushes the ball, plays outstanding defense and, just as a fun side note, has led the league in hit-by-pitch three years running.

      6. Alex Rodriguez, 3B, Yankees
      Disastrous first half splattered with injuries, rumors and a low batting average … and the guy STILL has a 145 OPS+, good for seventh in the AL.

      7. Tim Lincecum, SP, Giants
      The Freak is pitching even better this year (10-2, 2.27 ERA, league-leading 159 K’s) than last year, when he won the Cy Young.

      8. Dan Haren, SP, Diamondbacks
      League is hitting .187 against him and he has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 137-18. Baseball hasn’t seen anything like that since the heyday of Pedro.

      9. Johan Santana, SP, Mets
      He was 2-4 with a 6.19 ERA in six June starts and people screamed that he was done. But Santana is a demon in the second half … and sure enough he has not allowed a run in his last two starts.

      10. Roy Halladay, SP, Blue Jays
      Not sure where he will be pitching … but he will dominate. A handful of the people in the world can throw 93-mph fastballs that sink. A handful of people can pitch with pinpoint control. One man can do both.

      It’s hard to argue Pujols being in the top spot and with how good Mauer has been this season (especially considering how there were huge concerns about his back in spring training) I’m not going to debate Posanski about his second slot either.

      But I guess I’m a little confused about his ranking system overall. He says that he’s doing a top 100 of players RIGHT NOW (to use his exact phrasing of the words “RIGHT NOW”), but what does that mean? Over the past two weeks? Over the past couple days? Over the entire course of the season – what?

      Because if it’s over the entire course of the season, he’s got A-Rod way too high and I don’t think Johan Santana should be ranked ahead of Roy Halladay either. Also, and I know I might catch some flack for this, but I think Lincecum is the best pitcher in baseball right now. Greinke has been absolutely phenomenal, but Lincecum just recently went 29 innings without giving up an earned run and could easily have 13 or 14 wins if it weren’t for the Giants’ pathetic use for an offense.

      But hey, as with any ranking, you can debate every slot 1 through 100 and I like the feature on a whole.

      MLB

      Blue Jays unlikely to trade Halladay

      July 22, 2009 /

      Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi has set a July 28 deadline to complete a deal for ace Roy Halladay, but admits that a trade is probably unlikely.

      “At this point, it’s probably unlikely that we’ll trade Doc,” Ricciardi said Tuesday.

      “No one has really stepped up yet,” Ricciardi said. “We’ve got to be highly motivated to move him. We haven’t been highly motivated yet.”

      “In three days, not much is probably going to happen,” Ricciardi said. “It’s such a magnitude, the trade. He’s got to OK the team he’s going to, we’ve got to agree on prospects. That doesn’t happen, traditionally in baseball, in one hour. I think we need a little more time than that.”

      If a trade is unlikely, then I have to question Ricciardi’s thinking behind putting Halladay (somewhat) on trade market in the first place. Granted, he’s said all along that he would have to be blown away by any offer, but what was he expecting?

      If he believed that some team was just going to swoop in and offer him three top prospects and a bona fide All-Star for Halladay without even attempting to do the negotiation dance, then Ricciardi has been in la-la land the entire time. Halladay is a phenomenal pitcher and could easily make a playoff contender into a World Series favorite, but the Doc is also 32, doesn’t come cheap, and becomes a free agent in a year and a half. That’s a lot to consider for a team even remotely interested in him, nevertheless one seriously entertaining putting a package together.

      I think Ricciardi never had serious intentions on trading Halladay in the first place. Putting Halladay on the trade market this year was essentially a practice round for him next year when he will actually have to move the ace before Doc becomes a free agent after the 2010 season. With the Jays freefalling out of first place following a red-hot start, Ricciardi couldn’t risk the backlash he would receive trading away the club’s most popular player.

      While there’s still a chance he could be dealt, it appears that Halladay is going to be a Blue Jay until this time next year.

      MLB

      Ten Predictions for the MLB second half

      July 20, 2009 /


      The second half of the 2009 MLB season has kicked off and with that, I’m going to make some predictions that are sure to be proved wrong in a couple months.

      Feel free to whip out your crystal ball in the comments section but before you do, please do everyone a favor and take off your favorite team prescribed glasses and be objective for once in your life, will ya?

      1. The Blue Jays will trade Halladay…to the Phillies.
      Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi is reminding everyone who will listen that he doesn’t absolutely need to trade Roy Halladay – which he doesn’t. But the bottom line is that he’ll probably get more in return for the “Doc” this season than he would next when Halladay is set to become a free agent after the 2010 season. And despite Ricciardi stating that he’s open to trading Halladay within the division, he’s not stupid. He’s not going to trade Halladay to the Red Sox or Yankees and risk becoming public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of Jays fans for not only getting rid of their best and most popular player, but also trading him to a division rival in the process. In the end, I think Ricciardi will trade Halladay to an NL team and my guess is that it will be Philadelphia that will eventually puts a package together to acquire him. Although they might balk at the $7 million that’s remaining on Halladay’s contract, the Phillies are built to win now and need more starting pitching to make another run at a World Series. They also have enough appealing prospects to entice Ricciardi to make a deal.

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      MLB

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