AZ D'BACK Baseball...as well as other MLB talk

[stuporfly]

Just back in Brooklyn after the parade. My friend and I gave up a good spot in the hopes of getting closer, but wound up much further away. The whole thing was a total clusterfuck, but at least I can say I went.

Saw Jeter, Rivera, Matsui, Sabathia, Teixeira, Swisher, Damon, Pettitte and A-Rod (with Jay-Z).

[paulb]

awesome! wish I could have been there...

[humanoid]

How do you Dodger fans feel about Manny exercising his option?

a little worried? I would be, I'm not sure his interest level is the same any longer...of course, he would be once again playing for a contract, so that could be a motivational factor.

[boarderwoozel3]

The Giants need to get an outfielder, nay, anyone who can drive in some runs. The panda needs help. Molina is a free agent who hit .265-20-80 but he's also a 35 year old catcher, risky. Another lefty in the bullpen would help too and our starting pitching is stacked. 2nd in pitching and 26th in runs scored. Frustrating.

[Alternate]

i hope the yankees win the world series.

[humanoid]

The Giants need to get an outfielder, nay, anyone who can drive in some runs. The panda needs help. Molina is a free agent who hit .265-20-80 but he's also a 35 year old catcher, risky. Another lefty in the bullpen would help too and our starting pitching is stacked. 2nd in pitching and 26th in runs scored. Frustrating.

Are they expecting Buster Posey to be ready yet? I know he's been progressing really well in the minors, but he still has limited experience in higher levels of the minors, so he might not be quite ready yet... exciting prospect for you guys definitely, but Molina's bat would surely be missed if he is gone(not his .285 OBP though)

SF really needs a patient, OBP type guy with some power though to see some pitches, every guy on that team is a free swinger with pretty low OBP #'s

[boarderwoozel3]

Not sure what the plan is. Posey is still a pup and Whiteside is 30, can't hit for squat but handled our staff pretty well. Molina is going to want to get paid and likely a 3 year contact which we would be fools to give him. And yet, pathetically, he was a key part of our offense and cleanup hitter.

The two guys I really want back are Brad Penny and Juan Uribe. Penny was lights out for us and clearly better off in the NL. Uribe was clutch all season and can play three infield positions 3b-2b. Both will likely cost too much.

What are the Yanks up to? I see Damon and Matsui are testing the free agent waters.

[humanoid]

Not sure what the plan is. Posey is still a pup and Whiteside is 30, can't hit for squat but handled our staff pretty well. Molina is going to want to get paid and likely a 3 year contact which we would be fools to give him. And yet, pathetically, he was a key part of our offense and cleanup hitter.

The two guys I really want back are Brad Penny and Juan Uribe. Penny was lights out for us and clearly better off in the NL. Uribe was clutch all season and can play three infield positions 3b-2b. Both will likely cost too much.

What are the Yanks up to? I see Damon and Matsui are testing the free agent waters.

yeah, I could see Molina not wanting to mess around with a 1 year deal at this point in his career. He is barely within the age range of where someone will give still give him a 3 year deal, likely an AL team in need of some solid run production, that could keep him fresher by giving him semi regular DH duty. Giants can't give him a 3 year deal with a prospect such as Posey nearly ready to take over full time duties. Better to let him walk and get the 2 prospects you'll get since he's a Type A free agent.

What spots do the Giants have available? Does Panda project more as a 3B or a 1B? I didn't get to watch him play too much defense. I know he played far more at 3B, but his body type tells me eventually 1B. I guess for now, Garko is still there at 1B, Sanchez at 2B, and are you guys stuck with Renteria still? another $9.5 mil...ouch...he was terrible both on offense and defense last year. Randy Winn is a free agent, he's probably gone after a week year. If Fred Lewis can play more like the player he was in 2008, that would help tremendously. He took a serious step backwards this season. I love Aaron Rowand, but he needs to hit more than he did.

If Nate Schierholtz is ready to take the final step, that would be huge. His development has looked great, and he has always had some pop in the minors.

Someone like Mark Derosa could be good to play LF and add some pop to the lineup if Molina is gone, but he is having serious wrist surgery this offseason and that is worrisome.

It would be nice to add a LH hitter, the Giants are fairly RH in their lineup...I'd recommend Johnny Damon to play LF and fill your leadoff role also if he didn't throw like such an infant girl. You don't want to see every guy on second score on basehits to LF, no matter the circumstances.

[ThomThom]

How do you Dodger fans feel about Manny exercising his option?

a little worried? I would be, I'm not sure his interest level is the same any longer...of course, he would be once again playing for a contract, so that could be a motivational factor.

As expected as that decision was I am still a bit saddened by the fact that there are solid young power hitting outfielders (Bay & Holliday) and a solid rotation pitcher (Lackey) out there that are going to be signed for much less than $20 mill per season. *sigh*

[suprefan]

How do you Dodger fans feel about Manny exercising his option?

a little worried? I would be, I'm not sure his interest level is the same any longer...of course, he would be once again playing for a contract, so that could be a motivational factor.

He knew nobody woudl pay him $20 now, so of course he stuck with it. And thats not the issue, CAN SOMEBODY TELL THE MCCOURTS TO GET DIVORCED ALREADY AND GET BACK TO BUSINESS!?!?!?!

[TommyboyUNM]

Not sure what the plan is. Posey is still a pup and Whiteside is 30, can't hit for squat but handled our staff pretty well. Molina is going to want to get paid and likely a 3 year contact which we would be fools to give him. And yet, pathetically, he was a key part of our offense and cleanup hitter.

Based on everything that I've read, Posey is just about ready to be the Giants everyday catcher. Pup or not. I bet the Giants would love to have Molina around to tutor Posey, if Molina would even accept that role, but they won't be losing sleep if Posey is their catcher on opening day.

[humanoid]

He knew nobody woudl pay him $20 now, so of course he stuck with it. And thats not the issue, CAN SOMEBODY TELL THE MCCOURTS TO GET DIVORCED ALREADY AND GET BACK TO BUSINESS!?!?!?!

I knew that, I didn't ask why you thought he re-signed, I was curious what Dodgers fans thought about it...and it is an issue since it locks up $20 million that could probably be better spent trying to find a legit starting pitcher

[humanoid]

Based on everything that I've read, Posey is just about ready to be the Giants everyday catcher. Pup or not. I bet the Giants would love to have Molina around to tutor Posey, if Molina would even accept that role, but they won't be losing sleep if Posey is their catcher on opening day.

he is nearly ready...at least offensively, but most of his experience is in the lower minor leagues so far, so i don't know how willing the Giants would be to turn over the handling of their pitching staff to someone with such little experience....fortunately for them, they have a very talented staff that should be able to pitch with almost anyone catching

Molina likely won't stick around to mentor someone and share playing time...he is still a regular catcher for the next 1-2 years and knows that someone will be desperate to pay him solid money to catch nearly every day and give him a 3 year deal...he's out of time to get any more serious contracts after this one, so he's gonna want to make sure he's financially secure for the rest of his life

[gmoneyak]

Can we just name Joe Mauer AL MVP and wrap up this season already?..

[humanoid]

Can we just name Joe Mauer AL MVP and wrap up this season already?..

I hope that's the way it goes, so it doesn't give everyone one more reason to hate the Yankees

Mauer had a phenomenal season...especially since he kept hitting after Morneau was a virtual non factor after August 1st

[boarderwoozel3]

Like I wasn't going to bring this up eventually...

REPEAT!

[boarderwoozel3]

I highly doubt Molina comes back. We'll likely get a cheaper veteran and work Posey in slowly at the MLB level.

Supposedly we've had talks with Dye, Beltre and Uggla. The latter requiring prospects in a trade and Florida is actively shopping him. As is their model in frequent years, he's about to command a large contract so they're looking for cheap prospects in return.

[Still-ill]

Those are all terrible choices, imho.

[seandlr]

I guess it's official.

The Seattle Mariners are "very close" Friday night to finishing off a deal that will make Chone Figgins their next third baseman, a source familiar with the club's negotiations told ESPN. The 32-year-old Figgins would be guaranteed $36 million over four years, but there were indications the deal would also include a vesting option for 2014 that could boost the total value to the neighborhood of $45 million.

Seattle has aggressively pursued Figgins to replace Adrian Beltre at third base. The Mariners offered Beltre arbitration, but know Beltre is seeking a long-term deal elsewhere and don't expect him to accept it.

A fascinating, but still unanswered, question is how the Mariners would fit Figgins and Ichiro Suzuki in their lineup.

Figgins has batted leadoff for the Los Angeles Angels in all but two games over the last two seasons, and was second only to Derek Jeter in on-base percentage (.395) among AL leadoff hitters. But Ichiro has been a fixture in the leadoff hole in Seattle for the last nine years, aside from 13 games in the No. 3 slot in 2002 and 2004.

[paulb]

thats a pretty sweet get!

[buddy]

phillies get holliday? send lee to mariners?

All-Star pitcher Roy Halladay, who has been a regular subject of trade talk since before last July's deadline, is headed to the Philadelphia Phillies, SI.com is reporting.

According to the report, Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee is likely headed to the Seattle Mariners as part of a three-team trade.

Halladay was entering the final year of his Toronto contract.

The Phillies tried to acquire Halladay last season, but couldn't agree to terms with the Toronto Blue Jays. They then dealt for Lee instead.

Halladay, 32, is 148-76 lifetime with a 3.43 ERA. He won the 2003 Cy Young Award and finished in the top five in the Cy Young voting four other times.

Halladay went 17-10 with a 2.79 ERA in 32 starts for Toronto last season. He threw 239 innings and led the league with nine complete games.

Lee, who was acquired from the Indians on July 29 for four minor leaguers, quickly became Philadelphia's ace. Lee posted a 3.39 ERA in 12 starts for the Phillies and then went 4-0 with a 1.56 mark in five postseason outings, including 2-0 in the World Series.

Lee, the 2008 AL Cy Young winner with Cleveland, will make $8 million in 2010 and then be eligible for free agency.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[humanoid]

I hope that's true and keeps both of them out of the AL East until next year when both are free agents


it'll be kinda funny if they jettison Lee who dominated for them in the playoffs....then they get to the playoffs again and Halladay sucks

[buddy]

in other news, the red sox are close to signing lackey. i would guess they would then trade clay buchholz and a few more prospects for adrian gonzalez.

[buddy]

I hope that's true and keeps both of them out of the AL East until next year when both are free agents

mariners would have a decent one, two with roy and felix

[humanoid]

I still don't think the Padres are going to trade Gonzalez yet...he is really cheap and under their control for 2 more years...unless they get blown away by an offer

[stuporfly]

Why would the Phillies trade a guy like Lee after the season he's had? The Sports Illustrated article claims Philadelphia is trying to keep their payroll at around $140 million, but if they want more than a year out of Halladay, they're gonna have to break the bank to keep him.

[buddy]

i think if you're the red sox, and you sign lackey you might as well give up buchholz and whoever else they want (bard?) for gonzalez

[buddy]

Why would the Phillies trade a guy like Lee after the season he's had? The Sports Illustrated article claims Philadelphia is trying to keep their payroll at around $140 million, but if they want more than a year out of Halladay, they're gonna have to break the bank to keep him.

yeah i think its silly. why not keep lee? but we'll see if the report pans out.

[humanoid]

mariners would have a decent one, two with roy and felix

Lee and Felix....

that will be great for them...if Lee continues like he has been pitching....Lee is one of those guys that is a little confounding, because he hasn't had sustained success...and I'm not quite sure how he's as dominating as he has been recently

Felix Hernandez on the other hand, it's quite obvious why he's so good

[humanoid]

i think if you're the red sox, and you sign lackey you might as well give up buchholz and whoever else they want (bard?) for gonzalez

I would think they'd have to give up more than that to get a budding superstar who will only make $11 mil total over the next 2 years...

Buchholz, for all his promise and early no hitter...has not been very impressive yet when looking at his numbers