Don't let the door hit your ass...

Jim Hendry appears to have used his magical powers over other GM's once again as Sammy Sosa is on his way out of Chicago and headed Baltimore way. There are reports going on that the Cubs brass has been locked up in the Cubbie war room in Wrigley field since sometime Thursday, while the big boys came in today to discuss monetary issues involved with this deal before it gets the goahead to get finished. Right now all that is known for sure is that Sosa and $7-10 million will go to Baltimore, while Jerry Hairston Jr. is the only definent coming back to the Northside. There have been rumors of 2-4 minor leaguers(some names like 2B Mike Fontenot and RHP Dave Crouthers have been mentioned) as well as former closer Jorge Julio, but nothing has been substantiated - yet.

Proving that you can come home again Hairston Jr., a Naperville native and product of Southern Illinois, will immediately become the starting LF and leadoff man for the Cubs. Finally giving the Cubs the much needed leadoff man they have been missing for so long that I cannot even remember their last legitimate leadoff hitter that they had, Hairston will boost the lineup and give the guys behind him more of an opportunity to drive in runs without hitting a bomb. His OBP last year was .378, going up each of the last 3 seasons, while also having 13 stolen bases in just 86 games. He doesn't hit for much power, but the Cubs aren't going to ask him to, they just want him on base. His defense in LF won't be too shabby either. Last year was the first year that he played the OF and played 15 games in CF, 8 in LF, and 24 in RF. Averaging out his numbers he had a zone rating of .858 and a range factor of 2.345 while picking up 3 assists and making one error in 109 chances. His range factor would place him either 2nd or 3rd in the majors each of the last four seasons and projected out to a full season he would have about 10 assists. Pretty good numbers. While his range factor would only place between 5th and 12th thats still in the upper third of LF's in the majors and should improve with more and more time played in the OF, remember last season was the first he played there in his career. If there is a downside to Hairston it is that he has been injured in each of the last two seasons with a broken foot, finger, and ankle - and if that happens again in the next year or two he will be officially injury prone. The good thing is that these aren't ligament, tendon or muscle damages so these injuries appear to more of the bad luck variety and not something to be concerned about over a career. Hopefully he can stay healthy and help balance out this Cub attack which has been woefully inefficient at the top.

Let me be the first to congratulate Sammy Sosa on putting up perhaps the greatest numbers ever by a player to don a 'C' on his hat. He did very well while he was here and will go into the Hall-of-Fame in Cubbie blue, but he needed to get out of town. The fans, city, players, and management had all turned on him and if he stuck around the whole team would have been crippled under the weight of his sulk. I've personally never seen someone go from so renown to so hated in such a short period of time and really it was only a matter of time before he was dealt. Hendry knew what was going on and what would happen if Sosa showed up to spring training with the team this year so he had nothing else he could do but deal him. Hendry is going to probably wind up giving more money than he wanted to in the deal, but the Orioles will still pay the majority of this seasons salary, plus the buyouts at the end of this season. Predicated on this move, there seems to be a lot of talk that one of the Tampa Bay outfielders, most likely Aubrey Huff will taking up residence in RF for the Cubs next season. Moving a combination of their own prospects along with some new ones from the Sosa trade, Huff would be a great fit in the Cub OF. Although his power numbers inexplicably dropped from 47 doubles and 34 HR's to 27 and 29, he is a lefthanded power bat who has a .306 BA over the last three seasons, filling a need the Cubs haven't possessed since the Henry Rodriguez's 1998 season. And according to his range factor and zone rating from playing half a season in RF during the 2003 season, he would be an upgrade in the field compared to Sosa's last three seasons. If there's one thing Jim Hendry has proved himself to be good at it's trading, pulling a lot of money dumps(Todd Hundley, Sosa) and trades out of nowhere(Nomar, Derek Lee, Clement/Alfonseca) for players not even considered at the time.

Remember though, it is still possible for this deal to fall through. Sosa still has to waive his no-trade clause and trade kicker on his contract, two things his agent has said he will do. The union has to approved the waiving of the trade kicker, something they said will happen. Commissioner Bud Selig has to approve the money changing hands in the deal. And on top of that everyone involved has to pass their physical. So although it seems likely right now, any of these things could cause trouble.

Mags seeing dollar signs...

The market for Magglio Ordonez is finally starting to get some attention from teams now that all the other major free agents have gone elsewhere despite not being able to do more than hit in the batting cage to show teams how 'healthy' he is. And even though he hasn't been able to show off his newly functional knee, the Tigers appear to have stepped up with an offer of 5 years and between $55 and $70 million. I'm sorry but I cannot believe that this happened for a second. You have to remember that Scott "I'm here to ruin baseball" Boras is his agent, and this seems like a concoction of Bora's doing to drive up the value of the contracts offered to Magglio. There might have been an offer from the Tigers, but it cannot be close to what was reported, unless there are serious incentives based on performance and plate appearances every season.

If Detroit manages to sign a Boras client in consecutive offseasons to a incentive loaded contract that can be opted out of due to injury it could be a major coo, and would make the Tigers instant contenders in the wide open AL Central. They would need their young pitching to turn it up a notch, continuing the progress they made last season, but all you have to do is look to the 2000 Chicago White Sox to see a team run to a division crown on a great offense with decent young pitching.

Playing 1b and batting cleanup, Carlos Delgado...

And for none other than the Florida Marlins. Inking a 4yr/$52 million deal with an option year for $16 million, which is surely not going to be exercised. Delgado turned down 4yrs/$48 offers from the Rangers and Orioles, and an offer of 4 yrs/$52 million from the Mets, with a $15 million option year. Although the possibility of an extra year at $16 million - plus the close proximity to his home of Puerto Rico - were the main reasons why he took the offer from the Marlins, something he said was the main reason in his press conference should hit home sometime next year for the team from queens next season, he signed with the Marlins because he felt that they were the team that had a chance at making the playoffs, not the Mets. And frankly, it doesn't even matter if that quote will provide good bulletin board material or not, with this signing the Marlins and the Braves now have to be the two teams out ahead of the pack in the NL East, and might have even jumped the Braves for best team on paper going into the season. Comparing the teams in the division I would have to put the Marlins on top talent-wise, followed by the Braves, Phillies, and Mets. The Marlins now have a solid lineup from top to bottom and no1.-no.4 starters that can only compare with the Cubs in the NL (when both staffs are healthy). Although they have solid people in their 'pen, the only question mark they have right now is at closer since the guy they're going with, Guillermo Mota, is not proven at the position.


I'm turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese...

The Southsiders finally worked out a deal for Japanese 2B Tarahito Iguchi, signing him to a 2yr/$4.95 million deal with a $3.25 million option year. The Sox are penciling him in as the starting 2B and no.2 hitter in their lineup behind newly acquired leadoff man and CF Scott Posednik. Both players are risky investments, but if they pan out the Palehosers will get two good defensive players and onbase men who have the speed to produce runs like Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo did for the Marlins in 2003. I've talked about Iguchi before but word from some major leaguers that have played against him in the Japan/MLB allstar series say that he can't hit MLB fastballs and if this is true, an adjustment period could be seriously needed before he becomes a quality contact man. His defense also needs to be looked at, as the Mets learned last year with Kaz Matsui, the traditional style in Japan makes it dishonorable to go after a ball that you cannot get completely in front of it on defense. If he plays in the traditional way here the Sox will have to beat that frame of mind out of him. My prediction on Iguchi this year is a .270 avg(.290 if he can hit the fastball or adjusts fast), 10-15 HR's and 25-30 SB's.


A man with a large unspellable name is traded to New York...

Doug Mienkiewicz was traded from the Red Sox to the Mets the other day after New York failed to nab Carlos Delgado to play 1B. Although Delgado's lefty bat would have been huge for the Mets, his defense is subpar and might throw the confidence of a shaken player who switched positions last year(Matsui), someone going back to his old spot (Reyes), and for all intensive purposes a rookie 3B who has defensive liabilities(Wright). Mienkiewicz, a gold medal winner in 2000, has won multiple gold gloves and will help the defensive confidence of these players and if he can revert to his former .300 hitting self, will be a pickup with as much almost as much impact as Delgado would have been.

The Mets did give up a decent prospect in this trade in Ian Bladergroen. He is a 21 year old first basemen coming off an injury to his wrist last season, but before going down to injury he hit .342 with 13 HR's and 69 RBI's in 270 AB's in Class A ball.


Cause he's a rocketman...

congratulations to Roger Clemens for becoming the highest paid pitcher in the game for the 5th time in his hall-of-fame career. And pre-congratulations to Roger Clemens for the mid-season trade to the contender of his choice after the Astros fall helplessly out of contention waiting for the return of Lance Berkman, the continuing fall of Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, and the imminent falling off of Andy Pettit's elbow. Congrats Roger, you got exactly what you wanted.


Cubbie notes....

- The Cubs signed RHP Scott Williamson to a minor league deal worth $500,000 this season with an option for $2 million next season while he rehabs his reconstructed elbow. This is almost identical to the deal the Cubs made with Ryan Dempster last season while he rehabbed his elbow. Williamson has been a very effective reliever in his career and a part-time closer when with the Reds. If he can make a quick recovery, and depending on polish Joe Borowski's comeback, you are looking at the future closer of the Chicago Cubs. Williamson had a 1.26 ERA and .115 BA against last season for the Red Sox before he went down with the injury prompting Tommy John Surgery.

- The Cubs also signed arbitration eligible catcher Michael Barrett to a 3yr/$12 million deal. Although he finally seemed to have tapped his offensive potential last season, with another year of arbitration after this still to burn, I would have waited to see what happened this season - both at the plate and with his game-calling abilities, which need to improve from last season.

Money Talks....

And lets get this straight, that is the only reason why OF Carlos Beltran will be playing in Queens next season. It wasn't because of a no-trade clause the Astros wouldn't give him. It wasn't because the Mets signed Pedro Martinez. It definently wasn't because the Mets play in a good stadium and is a young up-and-coming team. It was because the Mets gave him 20 million more reasons to play in New York for the next 7 years. Here are some contract details of the 7 yr/$119 million deal that Beltran inked with the Mets the other day, and i must say I was surprised at the $34 million in deferred money that is part of the contract. But this deal has a stink to it, and even though I don't particularly like the Astros, they got played like fiddles in this deal. By all accounts it appears that real negotiations between Boras and Astros owner Drayton McClane didn't begin until less than 6 hours were left before the deadline to sign him, and this was done because Boras refused to start negotiating until then. If Beltran really wanted to stay in Houston, or if Boras was going to really let him even go there, would negotiations begin so close to a deadline in which there would be no possible way that everything could be worked out before it passed? Probably not. If he really wanted to come back to Houston would he have had his agent spring a bunch of minute details at the last second to hold up talks? Again, probably not. But in the end Boras did what Boras does best, playing all the sides involved to get much more money from one team compared to the others involved in the deal. He even made a fake offer to the Yankees to try and draw them into the talks and push up the Mets bid even more, saying Beltran would play for them if he got a 6yr/$100 million offer from the Bombers. It didn't work in raising the Mets offer, but Boras still got the extra money he was hoping for.

Beltran said and did all the right things to make this progress during the offseason. When talking to a reporter from Houston while working-out in the days leading up to the Saturday deadline he said, "I Definently want to play for a contender, thats important to me." And when asked by the reporter if they should stick around in Houston for the deadline he quipped, " That might be a good idea." You heard stories on how much his wife loved being in Houston. You heard all the stories about how Beltran had old school qualities of loyalty, family, and the such - and that re-signing in Houston was a forgone conclusion. Was is possible that he was doing these things knowing that McClane Wouldn't go higher than $100 million to keep him, and that he was forcing other teams that wanted him into throwing more money his way in order to "influence" him to leave Houston for someone else? This is what I believe the plan of attack was for Boras/Beltran this offseason, and they found a sucker in the Mets - a team that decided to spend like crazy in preparation for their new cable network in New York next season, ala the Yankees YES network. I don't buy the argument that Beltran really wanted to go back to Houston and Boras did what he wanted anyway, because if that happened Scott Boras wouldn't be Beltran's agent today.

And why weren't the Cubs more seriously interested in these happenings? I'm gonna take a look at this from both sides, the rational view, and an upset Cub fans view. Then I'm gonna write my opinion on what will happen to Beltran and Mets in the upcoming years.

Rational view: There are couple things in play here. Did Carlos Beltran ever have any serious interest in actually coming to Chicago or was it another play by Boras to try and drag in another bidder? I really think that this was the play here as well as Hendry sticking to his guns on what Beltran could potentially be worth. Looking at it rationally, is Beltran a $17 million a year player? No. Could he someday turn into one? Possibly. Did Jim Hendry think it was likely? Probably not based on his interest in Beltran on the open market. Reports vary as to whether the Cubs actually offered Beltran parameters on a 5yr/$75 million deal or a 6yr/$90 million deal, but either way those bids were way to low to nab the CF in this market. Some reasons for not signing Beltran to that deal: He has always preferred to hit in the no.2 spot in the lineup as opposed to no.3 or 4 - is paying that much money for a no.2 hitter really that wise? Despite a high range factor for CF's, Beltran has always been near the top of the list of most errors for CF's every season. Was his .258 avg last season while playing in the NL an anomaly or will it be the norm. He has only had two seasons of a batting average above .300 with a high of .307. Speaking of avg. He seems to have one good season batting avg followed by a season of a bad one, look at his career patterns. He never hit more than 29 HR's till last season, when he hit 38, but saw his avg drop 20 points below his career numbers. He has also never had more than 108 RBI's in one year. Did Jim Hendry look at these things and decide that it wasn't worth the risk of seeing whether Beltran could turn into a $17 million player? Did it turn out that Beltran wasn't seriously considering coming to the Friendly Confines in the first place? It would seem that a combination of those two came into play in this decision.

Upset Cubs fan: How in the hell can you not sign Beltran this offseason. Beltran is a potential 5-tool player and has already show 4 of those tools regularly. Starting with defense, Beltran has one of the highest range factors in the league and would be able to regularly cut off those balls to the gap that have killed many games for the Cubs over the years. Combined with moving Patterson to LF, they would have almost the entire OF covered to makeup for Sosa's lack of mobility and defensive skills in RF. He has increased his SB totals each of the last 4 seasons to 42 last year, while swiping them at an amazing rate of nearly 91%. He has increased his walk totals, something the Cubs desperately lack in, the last 5 seasons to 92, while his strikeout rate is way down from his first four seasons in the majors. His slugging and OPS percentage has gone up each of the last three years. If you don't sign Beltran this year and lose Sosa next season (not to mention the fact another OF is still needed for this season) minor leaguers Felix Pie and Ryan Harvey won't be ready for at least another couple years and Brian Dopirak still needs to be converted into an OF, and all still haven't played significant time above the 'A' level. And since you have no one ready in the minors to take over a spot here's the list of free agent OF's for next season: Jose Guillen, Tim Salmon, Johnny Damon, Carl Everett, Carlos Lee, Bobby Higgenson, Rondell White, Terrence Long, Kenny Lofton, Bernie Williams, Randy Winn, Jose Cruz, Preston Wilson, Juan Pierre, Jeff Conine, Craig Biggio, Reggie Sanders, Larry Walker, Brian Giles, and Jay Payton. Some of these guys will resign with their teams and some will retire, taking more than a few off the list. Some of these guys aren't even worth signing, and the ones that are aren't in the same league as Carlos Beltran (or Sosa for that matter). This is a pretty lackluster list of guys to fill the spot for next season - so why not fill your need this season. And finally he is 27 years old and is just entering the prime years of his career. The Tribune company has more than enough money to sign Beltran and bump the payroll well over $100 million. The company made a sizeable profit last season after having the payroll reach nearly the $100 million mark, yet the team is now adding revenue from more $250 seats down the RF line, getting a reported $3 million for the ads going on the wall behind home plate next year, as well as starting their own cable network with the three other major sports teams not associated with the NFL. That's right, the same reason why the Mets said they were able to go out and get Beltran (their own new cable network) is something the Cubs will have starting next season as well, YET THEY HAVE NOT RAISED THE PAYROLL. I'm sorry but if you're gonna gouge more money for seats, deface Wrigley by adding signs, and start your own cable company (even a 25% share is huge profit) and not re-invest it into the teams the fans support, thats just low-down and dirty dealings right there. People shouldn't stand for it and shouldn't have to. Now the team will only have the options of trading for someone or throwing money at weak players in next years free agent class to improve the team, and I for one do not like the way things are going.

What I think will happen during the length of the contract: I think Beltran will continue to bat around .280-.300 with 30-35 HR's and around 100 RBI each year, but his SB numbers will go down from here on out since New York will try to turn him into a middle of the lineup hitter and not a no.2 man. The defense in CF will remain the same but it will actually hurt the team as a whole as the previous CF Mike Cameron has a bigger range factor and zone factor - aka covers more ground and gets to more baseballs than Beltran. If they both stayed in the OF of New York it might work out, but in one of the funniest developments in my opinion, Cameron, who when initially approached by Mets GM Omar Minaya about moving to RF if Beltran was signed said it was okay, has decided against it since the signing and wants out of town. I guess Cameron though that the Mets had no shot at getting him and just agreed to it without thinking it could actually happen, well now it did and he is not to happy. This leaves Minaya with a LF that he dislikes (Cliff Floyd) and a displaced CF that wants out(Cameron). This signing also doesn't address the fact that the Mets had serious offensive problems last season with the highest batting average on the team .272 by Kaz Matsui, who was considered a disappointment, while Cameron, who wants out, led the team is every other major category. I think that after a few years of typical production from Beltran, and a few years of losing, Beltran will be begging his way out of town to join a real contender and Omar Minaya will have to practically give him away with his huge backloaded deal. Remember, the Mets could arguably have been the fourth preference of Beltrans on where to play this summer, but if he really wanted to play for a contender and wasn't just taking the money Beltran would have done one of three things: resign with Houston right away and force them to bring everyone back, sign with the Yankees, or sign with the Cubs. Notice how signing with the Mets is not an option there. They have no bullpen to bridge the gap to closer Brandon Looper from their rotation of 6 maybe 7 inning starters. Their offense stinks. Yes they signed Pedro, but it is likely that he will not be close to what he used to be, if he doesn't seriously injure himself in the next year or two. As for the rest of the rotation, they have two aging starters in Tom Glavine and Steve Tracshel who won't be there in a year or two, and two other starters that are 30 already in Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano who won't be getting any better than the no.4 starters they are. They don't have any good starters in the minors either since they traded them away to get Benson and Zambrano. Catcher Mike Piazza and OF Cliff Floyd are aging and cannot produce offensively or defensively beyond the decent level, and they will also be out of town this season or next. But, they do have a very good, very young right side of the infield in 3B David Wright and SS Jose Reyes - as well as an above average 2B in Kaz Matsui. There are three teams in their own division alone: Philadelphia, Florida, and Atlanta; who on paper are better than them right now. Granted players on paper do not win games, but three teams with more quality is hard to overcome. Even if they add Carlos Delgado I cannot put them ahead of those other three teams in their division.

Although I do not believe that the Mets overall this season will be as big a disaster as their 2002 offseason when they added 1B Mo Vaughn, 2B Roberto Alomar, OF's Jeremy Burnitz and Roger Cedeno, and starting pitchers Pedro Astacio, Shawn Estes, and Jeff D'Amico, I do think that this seasons moves will not work out as planned as they will miss the playoffs again with the stronger teams ahead of them in their division. The Mets also better hope that Beltran doesn't turn out like the last time they signed one of the best players in MLB as a free agent going into his prime, signing Bobby Bonilla to the richest contract in history when he was just 28 years old. That deal ended badly after Bonilla floundered, will Beltran do the same?


Some of the Aftermath...

Well many teams have a whole in the OF, CF in particular, and it seems that now we can move ahead and see where some of the players are going. These are the players available either through trade or Free Agency: Jeremy Burnitz, Marlon Byrd, Eric Byrnes, Mike Cameron, Cliff Floyd, Magglio Ordonez and of course, Slammin' Sammy. Here are some teams in need of these OF's: Houston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Arizona, the Mets (if they deal their current OF's), and Baltimore. There are also some other teams with passing interest in some of these players like Tampa Bay and Pittsburg, but they both already have their respective OF set.

Burnitz says he wants to play for a contender and Arizona, Houston, and sadly the Cubs are interested in signing him. Burnitz was a pure product of Colorados thin air last season and he cannot hit like he used to back in his days with the Indians and Brewers. I hope that he does not wind up in Chicago, especially since he wants to play in CF next season. In my opinion he ends up with Houston on a one or two year deal while they wait for future OF Willy Tavaras to get ready, and it allows them to move Craig Biggio back to 2B to fill another hole they have there.

Milwaukee almost had a completed deal for Marlon Byrd earlier in the offseason and then decided to back out of it, but with Byrd back on the market I believe that they will get back into the fray and wind up with the former Philly CF. Arizona is also interested (again).

As for the other guys rumored to be going somewhere by trade, I really don't think any of them will be going anywhere, but that Floyd has the highest possibility to be playing at a new address next year.


What are the Cubs to do now...

Out of the OF options listed above, I think the best thing the Cubs can do is trade for Byrnes to fill the spot in LF. And if Corey Patterson can't get his act together and play like a real leadoff man, you can stick Byrnes there and move Corey down in the order. Will I think this will happen, probably not as the D-backs are very hot on his trail right now.

I believe that the Cubs have a shot at getting Magglio to sign a one year trial deal like the Cubs and Nomar agreed to. If he's healthy, sticking him in LF will add another power bat to this lineup as well as improve the defense in the OF slightly, as he would be a significant upgrade over Moises Alou. But again, this is only if he is healthy are rearing to go next season, otherwise signing him if there are any doubts would be a serious mistake, as the guys they are bringing up to compete for a spot, David Kelton and Jason Dubois do not seem to me to be everyday MLB material. If the Cubbies do deal Sammy, then signing a healthy Magglio to replace Sosa's production will be vital and the only possible move to make.

I don't think that the Cubs will wind up moving Sosa this offseason, as they will live with him and his mistakes next year as they have for the past 12. I do think however that GM Jim Hendry has something up his sleeve that no one is even conceiving right now. He has a past history of doing deals like this as the Derek Lee and Nomar trades were sprung out of nowhere and completed quickly. This is the path that i see Hendry going this offseason (maybe for Burnett and Encarnacion from Florida)


Big Unit already in Big Trouble...

Randy Johnson has been in New York for one day officially, and the media jackals there have already gotten to him. Although the incident doesn't seem like much, you have to remember that Johnson has never played in a market (Montreal, Seattle, Houston, Pheonix) where the attention will come down like it has already in New York. Will he be able to be himself next year, most likely, but Johnson always has seemed to be on edge with the media and it is possible that playing in New York will throw him over the edge.

Speaking of Johnson, his trade was finally completed and so were the deals that were to follow the completion of it. The Diamondbacks immediately turned catching prospect Dioner Navarro to the Dodgers along with minor league RHP prospects William Juarez, Danny Muegge, Beltran Perez for RF Shawn Green and $10 million in cash. This deal hinged on the D-backs signing Green to an extension which they did to the tune of 3yr/$32 million. That figure is a bit misleading however, as they included his $16 million dollar salary this season, added another $16 million, and restricted the amounts for this season. Instead of earning $16 million this season Green will now earn $10.5 million, as well as a $2 million signing bonus, while earning $8 million next year and $9.5 million in the final year of the deal. There is also a mutual option for the 2008 season, with a $2 million buyout.

After clearing out Shawn Green's salary for the 2005 season the Dodgers completed their signing of RHP Derek Lowe, giving him a 4yr/$36 million contract. Giving a pitcher who's ERA has escalated each of the last 3 seasons to 5.42 last year might be questionable, but winning the clinching game of each playoff series for the Red Sox last year - as well as the inflated prices that starting pitching has gone for this offseason - has really helped the value of Lowe on the open market.

Looking at the deals going on here, i seriously cannot figure out what the hell the Dodgers and Diamondbacks are doing. The Dodgers let one of the best young players in the game, a guy they developed for the last 5 years in 3B Adrian Beltre, walk away to sign an oft-injured outfielder who has never produced at the level Beltre did last season. To be fair few players have had a season like Beltre's, and Beltre himself probably won't have another season like that again, but he will come close - and that is more than J.D Drew can say. L.A. Also signs 2B Jeff Kent and 3B Jose Valentin to help offset the loss of Beltre, but in the process they dump their incumbent 2B Alex Cora, who although is only decent at the plate, is excellent in the field. Then the team trades current 1B Shawn Green for the chance that catcher Dioner Navarro will become a solid major leaguer, and the ability to sign RHP Derek Lowe. There's only one inherent problem with this; Lowe is a sinkerball pitcher; the Dodgers worsened one of the best infield defenses in the game - losing potential gold glovers at 3B and 2B, and a good defensive 1B - while replacing them with subpar fielders; this is not a good combination. Combine this with the trade at the end of last season with the Marlins breaking up the Dodgers main strength - the bullpen - and you really have to wonder what Dodger GM Paul DePodesta's final plan really is.

Now on to the D-backs. The Diamondbacks made a surprising run in 2003 finishing above .500 and developing some good young players in the process in Matt Kata, Alex Cintron, and Brandon Webb. Then this past season they traded Curt Schilling for a bunch of players and then added more players to that and traded for Richie Sexson to try and make the jump to contender. This move backfired when they couldn't replace Schilling on the mound and multiple key injuries occurred, but in the process they found another good young player in 3B Chad Tracy. So instead of taking that progress and continuing a youth movement, they blew it all up to guarantee that they will hover a bit below .500 for the next 5 years. They signed SS Royce Clayton and 2B Craig Counsell to supplant the younger players at those positions. They Overpaid for free agents RHP Russ Ortiz and 3B Troy Glaus. Ortiz is a fringe no.2 starter at best and they paid him to be their new no.1 starter. By signing Troy Glaus, an injury-plagued player, they now have to move 3B Chad Tracy to 1B, making him learn a new position in his 2nd year in the league. And that has forced the trade of Shea Hillenbrand, a 1B by trade who is decent with the glove and hits around .300 every year. However all they got from Toronto was a 25 year old pitching prospect who might be minor league filler for the next few seasons. Then they traded for RF Shawn Green(who might turn back to greatness after finally recovering from a shoulder injury the last two year) from L.A., giving up the one decent prospect that they received from the Yankees for Randy Johnson. They also signed LHP Shawn Estes to a one year deal yesterday to be their no.4 starter. You might say that leaving Colorado could lower his 5.84 ERA, until you realized that he has 7 seasons of ERA's higher than 4.92 in his career, including the last three.

Teams that are close to competing for a playoff spot sign guys like Ortiz, Glaus and Green - not teams that are supposed to be losing to rebuild their system and get young guys in the majors. Guys like Counsell and Clayton are signed to be bench players. Guys like Estes shouldn't even be signed. These players are just blocking the way for younger players in their system from coming up and getting MLB experience and letting the D-backs know if they have anything decent in their system. All these moves have done is let the team float in mediocrity for the next 3-5 years while this current crop of players gets older till they'll have to go and rebuild again just a few years down the line while blocking stud minor league OF's like Conor Jackson and Carlos Quentin (both slated to be MLB corner OF ready in by 2006 - or 2007 at the latest) from jumping up and getting playing time. The D-backs have gotten a bit better, and the Dodgers have gotten a tad worse, and the sad thing is that no one in the NL West is dominant enough to win the division outright and if things actually go their way, either of these teams is capable of sneaking into the playoffs.


The Cubs signed somebody, the Cubs signed somebody...
The Cubs signed SS Cody Ransom the other day to a minor league deal. Ransom comes over from San Francisco and will compete in spring training for the back-up infielder position, but most likely will not make the opening day roster unless someone gets hurt.

The Cubs also made a trade for LHP Stephen Randolph, acquiring him from Arizona for the infamous PTBNL (player to be named later). Last season Randolph posted a .191 opponents batting average against out of the bullpen and figures to battle minor league Wil Ohman for the 2nd lefty spot out of the 'pen for this upcoming season.

Two pretty non-descript moves for the Cubs this week and it leaves the Cubs with the same two holes they've had all offseason, a 5th starter and a LF.

Other notes...

- The Marlins and Paul LoDuca finally agreed on a new contract to avoid arbitration, signing a 3yr/$18 million deal. Although he hasn't come close to duplicating his rookie season stats, LaDuca is very adept at handling a pitching staff and has a reputation as a fiery leader in the clubhouse as well as giving you pretty good production from behind the plate.

- Arizona traded Shea Hillenbrand to the Blue Jays for pitching prospect Adam Peterson. This move may force Toronto to turn around and trade former 3B Eric Hinske, now that Hillenbrand will most likely take over 1B and new signee Corey Koskie will take over 3B. Hinske is set to make $13 million over the next three years and with the decreased production since his rookie season the birds to the north have been trying to get rid of him for awhile.

- The Jays made other news signing former White Sox pitchers Billy Koch to a 1yr/$900,000 deal and Scott Schoeneweis to a 2yr/$5.25 million deal. If Koch can ever find the arm strength he had during his tenure with Toronto and Oakland he can be an effective reliever, if not closer, again. However until he does, or if he learns how to actually pitch instead of throwing, then he will be a waste of a roster spot. Schoeneweis on the other hand will make a return to the bullpen with Toronto, hoping that he can work effectively against lefties in spot duty.

- In more D-back news, the team signed LHP Shawn Estes to a 1yr/$2.5 million deal to be their no.4 starter for the 2005 season. Estes turned down two year deals with the Nats and San Diego to sign with Arizona because he liked the idea of pitching close to his suburban Arizona home. If i were him i would have taken the 2 year guarantees. Don't let last years record fool you, Estes hasn't had a decent year since 2001 and its been 8 years since his only very good season in 1997, when he won 19 games and posted a 3.18 ERA.

- The Orioles inked former Palehose RHP James Baldwin to a minor league contract yesterday. Baldwin was never really a good pitcher, and at best only a decent one, but he was an innings eater, and Baltimore desperately needs pitching help, so maybe this could work out for him.

- The Marlins filled out their rotation bringing back 5th starter and former Cub Ismael Valdes with a 1yr/$1.5 million deal, although he will only see $750,000 of that next season.

- The Braves have according to Raul Mondesi, signed Raul Mondesi to a 1yr/$1 million deal with incentives of $700,000. Mondesi says that he turned down more money from Baltimore for the guarantee of being the starting RF in Atlanta. If Mondesi can put the various items from his past behind him, including essentially getting kicked off of two teams last season, this could be a good pick-up for Braves GM John Schurholz. Atlanta still has the LF spot to fill on their team and are rumored to be going hard after Cincinnati OF Austin Kearns.

- The Devil Rays signed former D-back OF Danny Bautista today to a 1yr deal. He will fill the OF spot left open by the injury of Rocco Baldelli until he returns and then fight for time with DH Josh Phelps.

- And finally, if any of you Cub fans wish to continue following the career of Greg Maddux valet catcher Paul Bako, then you'll need to start watching the Dodgers. Bako signed(scroll down) a 1yr/$650,000 deal with L.A. to possibly be their starter next season. Bako is a decent backup who can call a good game, but if he winds up starting for the Dodgers that position will be a black hole offensively in their lineup.

T-Minus 10 hours....

It's about 10 hours (at the most) until we know what will be going on in the Carlos Beltran deal. He has until 11 p.m. CST tonight to re-sign with the Astros otherwise he cannot sign with them until May 1. Right now there are so many conflicting reports out there that I cannot personally decipher what the hell is going on or what is going to happen, but there are a few things we know for sure. The Astros have offered him 7 years (possibly one an option year) at between $100 and $105 million guaranteed. The Mets have come in at those same terms, with some more money (rumored to be $112 million). The Cubs have offered a 5 or 6 year deal, with no monetary terms released. This is all we know right now. The New York newspapers are saying Houston is out of it, the Houston papers are saying that New York has no chance, the Chicago papers are saying it's either New York or Houston and the Cubs have no chance, and they all claim that their is another 'mystery team' out there - which is a staple of all of Scott boras' big-name clients negotiations. There have also been serious reports out there that Roger Clemens has told Houston that if Beltran does not return, neither will he.

Who is this 'Mystery' team? And what exactly are the Yankees plans in all of these shenanigans? Stay tuned tonight to find out....Same Bat-time, Same Bat-channel.


The Great Arms Race of 2005 continues...

The Indians have finally come to terms with RHP Kevin Millwood and the contract terms are fairly interesting. On the surface its a 1yr/$7 million deal but has some interesting clauses. Millwood is guaranteed $3 million of the deal while $4 million is payed up front in a signing bonus. However, if Millwood spends more than 20 days on the DL this season with an injury from pitching (not fielding or batting) then he pays back 1/183 of his bonus for every day. This is similar to the clause the Tigers put in for terminating Ivan Rodriguez's contract if he has the lumbar injuries which were a problem earlier in his career. This might become more and more the norm for teams when negotiating deals, and lets hope that it is.

As for the signing itself, its not a bad price considering the rates that starting pitching was going for this offseason, and he should fit well into the no.2 or no.3 spots in the rotation for the Tribe. If Cleveland has the money, why not spend it on a guy that out of his 7 seasons has four with 200 IP and one more with 175 IP. Like the 1990's, the Tribe is getting a young solid group of players in the field from their farm system, yet they aren't developing the starting pitching to go with it. From in-house they've only created 2 good pitchers long-term, Bartolo Colon and C.C. Sabathia. Jake Westbrook is an up-and-comer for the Indians and could develop into a solid no.2 (he'll probably be the no.3 this year), but he still has to string a couple more years together first. Cliff Lee also has some potential there, as he showed some signs last year of being an effective starter. Westbrook and Lee will be in seasons three and two as starters respectively next year, and should start taking the steps to determine what they can do in the future. Cleveland has a very good group of position players and that can turn into excellent with some seasoning in the next year or two, and are about to pick-up OF Juan Gonzalez to an incentive laden minor league deal. Cleveland was the place where Gonzalez had his last great season (2001) and if he were to make the roster this season it would create a logjam at the 1B/DH/OF positions on the team.

Last year the Tribe was one solid starter and a closer away from seriously competing in the AL Central for a playoff spot, whether or not they can duplicate their season from last year I don't know, but here is their solid starter. Now they must bank on former closer Bob Wickman coming back healthy enough to perform the way he has previously in his career, and you might be talking about a very close race next year for the AL Central crown.


In other moves the Dodgers are about to add Derek Lowe with a 4yr/$36 million deal, pretty much pending on the deal between themselves and the Arizona Diamondbacks for Shawn Green. Although the 1st and 2nd attemps at that deal were squashed, it has been re-opened yet again and a window of negotiation was re-granted to the D-backs to work out an extension for Green. If the Green deal does go through, the Lowe signing will immediately happen. Also look for the Dodgers to make a bigger push for 1B Carlos Delgado then, as they will have the spot open with the Departure of Green. They better act quick however as the Mets have been hot on his trail and as a surprise to many, the Marlins have entered the fray, presenting Delgado with a contract proposal around 3yr/$30 million (there are also reports of only a 1yr/$10 deal being offered). It is known that Delgado has rejected at 3yr/$30 million offer from the Baltimore Orioles but the Marlins are trying to pin things on hopes that the short flight from Miami to his Native Puerto Rico, where his entire family lives, and the fact that he like the the Miami area will help in negotiations. To possibly open up some space under the Marlins self imposed $60 million payroll limit they could trade OF Juan Encarnacion and arbitration eligible RHP A.J. Burnett in a combined or separate deals. Encarnacion is due to make $4.45 million next season while Burnett could make around that much or higher from an arbitrator. If the Marlins do trade Burnett they will have to get a MLB-ready pitcher in return to take his spot, or a couple of guys since currently they have no one in their no.5 starter spot as well. Depending on what happens in the Carlos Beltran derby, maybe the Cubs can package a couple of their close pitchers for the two, since they still have an open OF spot as well as open no.5 starting slot.

Sox pick up a new Backstop....

White Sox GM has finally signed one of the two players he's rumored to be in on for the last couple of weeks, as the team is about to sign former Twin and Giant catcher A.J. Pierzynski to a 1yr/$2.25 million deal. Not a bad little pickup for the southsiders, especially since the current catchers on the roster havn't proved they would be anything but a blackhole on the team for next season. Although he isn't superb defensively, Pierzynski can call a very good game and is solid offensively. A left-handed bat, he should probably be good for 10-15 HR's, 70+ RBI's, and around a .300 BA. And although you wouldn't guess it by looking at him, there have been rumors of Pierzynski being a steroid user, but so far nothing has come about of it. All in all though, not to bad a pickup for $2 million.

- The Sox and Japanese 2B Takahito Iguchi are about $600,000 apart on a 2 year deal but it doesn't look promising. GM Kenny Williams said that the two sides will have to get 'really creative' with the rest of the money if they were to agree to a deal. Personally, for a bump in $300,000 a year I cannot believe that either management won't greenlight it or Kenny Williams will not pay it.



A New Door Opening in the Sosa Trade Talks....

Although Randy Johnson agreed to a new extension with the Yankees today like predicted, the other deal involved with this is about to fall apart. The negotiating window between the D-backs and Shawn Green has closed without a new extension, and he is now inclined to use his no-trade clause and kill this deal. Because of this news, Arizona may now want a different prospect than Navarro because they have thier own young catching prospects and do not need another. If Green does go ahead and kill the deal the Cubs may have a new partner in trade for Sammy Sosa, as the deal that went nowhere in early November might start to heat up once again.


As the Gruds Turns....

Former Cubbie 2B Mark Grudzielanek sign a 1yr/$1 million deal with the Cardinals today to fill the vacated spot from Tony Womack signing with the Yankees. I really would have rather had St. Louis sign Robbie Alomar, as that would have been a disaster for them, but you get what you get sometimes. Although Gruds doesn't scare me coming to town as a visitor now, he will be solid for the Redbirds, probaly batting around .300 and playing some good defense. This does come as odd for the Cardinals as they have now replace two guys who could have led off in Renteria and Womack, with guys who are not close to being leadoff hitters and are better suited for batting down in the order. They are going to miss Womack's speed at the top next year as well as feel the defensive downgrade in the middle of the infield.


Pirates actually keep a good player...

Pittsburg actually keep a decent player in the fold for a couple years today, signing SS Jack Wilson to a 2yr/$8 million extension. This isn't a bad price considering the huge inflation for SS prices paid this offseason, so congradulations to the Pirates for tying up someone to the end of thier arbitration is up, just in time for them to leave in free agency.

Ryno charges into Cooperstown....

Much to the dismay of ESPN announcer Joe Morgan who for years has stumped from his post at ESPN Sunday night baseball of how Sandberg was overrated. If Morgan is looking for someone who is overrated in the overall scheme of secondbasemen he should look in the mirror first. Not only did Sandberg put up better offensive numbers (minus stolen bases and OBP) in about 500 less played games than Morgan, but Sandberg was vastly superior in the field as well. For someone who people claim had no range Sandberg managed to have the most single season assists since 1930 (571), as well as 5 other seasons of more than 500 assists and 4 more of more than 400. Morgan only managed to get over 400 six times with a high of 492. Sandberg also owns the modern record (post 1900) of fielding percentage for 2B at .989. Were they both the premier 2B of their respective playing periods, yes - Morgan in the 70's and Sandberg from 1982-1992, but Sandberg was definently the better player overall.

(*added 1/05) I believe much of Morgans outright hatred for Sandberg probably came from Ryno coming back out of retirement and breaking Morgans HR record for secondbasemen. Even when asked in his hall-of-fame press conference today about how Morgan slams him and his thoughts on it he acted like he has his entire career, very nice and non-confrontive about the situation, not acting like the petty asshole that Joe Morgan is. This was probably one of the main reasons why it took three years for Sandberg to get in to the HOF when he should have been a sure thing first-balloter.


Here's your Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim....

The Angels have changed their name to this atrocity written above and apparently people aren't too happy about it. Changed under the guise that they are trying to broaden their marketability to people in California. While this may be true, its not too smart, and the people of Anaheim are fighting back. I talked to a friend of mine who lives near Anaheim and in Orange County and he says that people there are really P'O'd at this move, and that all the goodwill new Angels owner Artie Moreno did by signing bid name free agents and slashing beer and ticket prices, appears to have been wiped out. The people of Anaheim and Orange County did a lot to keep the team there and ponied up the money to rebuild Edison Park, and now they feel this is a slap in the face. It appears a long fight is ahead.


Cubs have a shot....

The shot at attaining Carlos Beltran is getting better. Two teams have unofficially taken themselves out of the race for Beltrans services, the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees. Although I would think this is just a ploy by the Yankees, it is possible that they have decided to go a different way. The rumors right now have the Astros giving Beltran an offer of $75 million guaranteed over five years plus an option year, but that number will probably go up sometime before Saturdays deadline for them to resign him. The Mets appear to have rang in at 6 years with an option and around $107 million guaranteed, but Beltran has gone on record in the past saying that he would prefer not playing in New York, which means it will probably take a much higher deal to get him to head there as opposed to Houston or Chicago (and it probably means he will sign there also). The Cubs have offered a 5 or 6 year deal to him but no money has been reported yet as GM Jim Hendry has been very secretive about the whole situation with Beltran this entire offseason. Here's to hoping the Cubbies can nab this one and the options in free agency or trades now is pretty thin.


Dollar Dollar Bills y'all....

After recently going through some of the new contracts signed it appears that the first year of Adrian Beltre's new contract with the Mariners is going to pay him $19 million. Thats right, its the elusive front-loaded contract. With a move like this I have a sneaking suspicion that the Mariners are setting up some 'free' money to bid on the next phenom from Japan, Diasuke Matsuzaka. The 25 year-old righty has been the best pitcher in Japan for the last 3 or 4 years and after this next season he will be eligible for the Japanese posting system, which a player has to use if he wishes to go to MLB (or any other league for that matter) before he is eligible for free agency. This is the way that Ichiro and Kaz Ishii have come over. When a player 'posts' any team in MLB can bid for the exclusive rights to negotiate with that player. Even then this doesn't guarantee the MLB team that the player will play for them, as he can go back to play in Japan if he wishes.

As for Matsuzaka, he shut down the MLB all-stars in their tour in November, throwing a complete game for the first time in 20 years for a player from the Japanese team. With all of the past Japanese players Seattle has had and this odd stroke of paying early in Beltran's deal as well as their need for a quality pitcher, the Mariners might be the odds on favorite to nab Matsuzaka this offseason.

In another note from the great northwest, Seattle signed Pokey Reese to play SS for next season at a rate of $1.2 million with a $2.25 million option year. The Mariners didn't feel that Josie Lopez was MLB-ready yet after his showing at the end of last season and signed Reese as a one or two year stopgap. Seattle now has a very solid infield defensively with all 4 starters having either won a Gold Glove or capable of winning one.


Other notes...

- The Dodgers are about to resign Odalis Perez to a 3yr/$24 million deal. They also avoided arbitration with OF Milton Bradley by signing him to a 1yr/$2.5 million deal. The team will still like to add another pitcher and could still be the leader for Carlos Delgado, sending the payroll closer to that $100 million mark.

- Free agent 3B Tony Bautista has spurned offers from Houston, Detroit, and Tampa Bay to sign a 2yr/$15 million deal with the Fukuoka Hawks of the Japanese professional baseball league. In case you recognize the name that is that the same team the Takahito Iguchi, the 2B the White Sox are courting, plays for.

- Per request of a reader i will be doing a Cubs v. Sox article soon, as i will probably wait will after the arbitration deadline so i can better concise their offseasons as well as what i believe, at this point in the year, what they will be like for next season. And I'll probably be going through their minor leagues sometime soon as well, plus early March will bring the NL Central Preview and MLB predictions for the 2005 season.


Q' o' the P

Ryne Sandberg, at his HOF announcement press conference, on his hearing that he was elected

"I was speechless. Then again, that's not much of a surprise, is it?"

White Sox going shopping on the Far-East Side...

Well I'm back from Christmas holiday after a two week break or so and it appears that some things have happened around MLB, including my last post not happening at all....or is some of it still happening. Well let's start off with the White Sox taking a look at the land of the rising sun to shore up their infield by expressing major interest in 2B Tadahito Iguchi of the Fukuoka Dei Hawks of the Nippon Professional baseball league. One of at least three teams to contact him about coming over for next season (the Red Sox and Yankees also showed interest), the Japan Times is reporting that owner Jerry Reinsdorf wants to meet with the 30 year-old before entering serious negotiations. The Sox have reportedly offered at 2yr/$4 million contract while Iguchi himself is looking for something more along the lines of what Mets SS Kaz Matsui received during last offseason (3yr/$20 mil.), although with the relative bust Kaz Matsui was last season Iguchi will probably have to take a flyer on a contract till he can prove he belongs in the major leagues.

As for the player that Iguchi is, well let's take a look. You never know how a player from Japan will adjust to MLB (Ichiro, Hideki Matsui, Hideo Nomo, some others fairly well....Kaz Matsui, Hideki Irabu, some others fairly bad) but Iguchi has done pretty well the last few years. He began his career as SS with defensive prowess but little offensive punch 8 years ago, but changed positions to 2B in 2001. Since the change his offensive numbers(stats) have come around (though not consistent) and his glove has gotten better, posting a .990 fielding percentage over that time. He was the Japanese Gold glove in 2001, 2003, and 2004 and was an all-star all four years. He has some decent pop in his bat, but the parks are much smaller in Japan and I wouldn't expect much more than 10-15 HR's from him in MLB. Iguchi also led the league in SB in 2001 and 2003, but this starts some the points of inconsistency he has had over the last 4 seasons. Over the last four years his steal totals are: 18, 42, 21, 44. Two decent years and two excellent years. Now lets look at his last four batting averages: .333, .340, .259, .261. Again, two decent years and two excellent years. Now one more time, this one is OBP: .394, .438, .317, .346. See a trend here. If you can get him to come over to the majors and take walks like he does in his high OBP years, bat around .270-.280, and get at least 30 steals a season, then you can talk about him being a legitimate leadoff man in MLB and a very solid pickup for any team, especially they way he can throw around the leather. Now the question comes down to, is he worth the risk of signing him. If it was to a Kaz Matsui type deal, i would say no. He is 30 years old, will need an adjustment period to playing defense on grass, and the power numbers will not translate over to MLB. However, he can be a high OBP guy since he has shown he can walk a lot in some years, he will only need to hit the gaps for whatever team signs him as a potential leadoff man and not for power, and has shown some speed in the recent past. These things will make him a good risk in a smaller deal. My guess is if he signs with the White Sox it will be for a little more than they offered, maybe a 2yr/$5.5 million deal with an option for a third year at a higher price tag (maybe $6 million). This could be a potentially great pickup for Sox GM Kenny Williams who can have Iguchi fill in at SS if Juan Uribe cannot get the job done or take the place of 2B Willie Harris, who hasn't yet 'got it', and it seems as if the GM has grown impatient waiting for him to come around.

I still believe that the Sox will end up with former Dodger 2B Alex Cora, who will reunite with his older brother, Sox 3B coach Joey Cora.

A.J. Coming to Town...
The Southsiders have decided to offer free agent catcher A.J. Pierzynski a contract after a face to face meeting between himself and GM Kenny Williams. Williams initially had reservations about the former Twins and Giants catcher but decided that he would be worth the offer. Great at game-calling and decent offensively, Pierzynski has a reputation of upsetting the staffs he's with because he appears to be more concerned about preparing offensively than setting up game plans with the starters. Pierzynski does however have one intangible that the Sox appeared to have been lacking the past few years, heart and fire. He comes to play and is a big game player as well. The Palehosers have had a lack of those type of players for many years and Pierzynski might be able to help change the clubhouse atmosphere even more this season after the already drastic changes made to the roster. The contract offered to Pierzynski is not known, but it is supposedly less than the $3.5 million a year he made last season.

El Duque joins the staff...
Orlando Hernandez is back for his second stint with the White Sox after two seasons away. Technically he was with the team for less than a day after being obtained from the Yankees and turned right away from Bartolo Colon, but that still counts, doesn't it? What the Sox get here is not the number three pitcher they say he will be but a good no.5 pitcher who will be fantastic if they make the playoffs. Hernandez cannot start 35 times a year like a no.3 would, but more like 20-25 starts, which is more easily attainable when allotted the extra days inbetween needed starts for a no.5. If the Sox plan on actually using him like a no.3 they better be prepared to shut him down for a couple months at some point or risk burning him out before the end of the season nears. In his six MLB seasons he has only pitched two seasons that could be considered 'full': 33 starts in 1999 and 29 starts in 2000. The next year he hurt his arm and in 2003 he missed the entire season with an injury. When Hernandez gets overworked he has to shut it down, and the Sox better take that into account when using him the next two years. If they use him sparingly its a good signing, but two years might still be a tad much.

Randy Johnson finally heading to the Dark Side...

Barring an unforeseen disaster (although that already happened about two weeks ago) the deal to send Randy Johnson to the Yankees is finished, with only a negotiation window for an extention being used before the trade becomes complete after commissioner Bud Selig approved the deal today. In return for giving up the most dominating pitcher in baseball the Diamondbacks will get in return RHP Javier Vasquez, LHP prospect Brad Hasley, Minor league catcher Dioner Navarro, and $8-9 million in cash over a three year period.

On top of this trade the Diamondbacks have also agreed to a deal with the LA Dodgers that will send OF/1B and Des Plaines native Shawn Green and $8 million in cash to Arizona while the Dodgers get Catcher Dioner Navarro (if the Yankee deal falls through, then other catching prospect Chris Snyder will be sent) and pitching prospect William Juarez. This deal is pending a contract extention for Green. I cannot imagine how difficult it is right now though, with the man who got Green's current contract for him, Jeff Moorad, now the chairman of the D-backs.

Also stemming from this trade there are heavy rumors that Arizona will turn around and peddle Vasquez to another team after the Yankee deal is completed. Philadelphia and Baltimore are the leaders according to the East Valley Tribune (Arizona), with the White Sox, Detroit and Rangers also interested, although the White Sox found out after doing some research that Vasquez wants to go back to the NL and stay there after one season in the AL.

Anyway you look at it however, the D-Backs seem to be getting screwed over in this deal. Giving up the best pitcher in the game and getting only two mediocre prospects and a high-priced no.2 starter in return?? Please. Even the swap for Green only makes this a bit more palatable for Arizona, unless they can turn Vasquez into a heaping pile of gold, which would be the opposite of the heaping pile of something else this deal is for them right now.

The Yankees get what they want in this deal without giving up too much, but sometimes what you get isn't exactly what you want. Johnson will turn 42 in September of next season and has had knee and back problems in the last few years. Historically very few pitchers have held up at that age besides knuckleballers and giving Johnson the 2yr/$32 million extension he wants might be the final nail in the Yankee dynasty coffin. Is it possible that Johnson will hold up for 3 years at close to the same caliber he has pitched in his career, possibly. Is it likely that he will not, probably.

After backing out of the three-way deal a few weeks ago the Dodgers seem to make out like bandits in this one. They obtain a decent catching prospect to fill their void there, plus they get rid of a player who wanted out of town, all while saving a whole load of salary for next season. This will allow them to go out there and get Derek Lowe and also puts them in the front for Carlos Delgado, who wants to go to LA, to replace Green at 1B while staying under the imaginary line management has put at the $100 million payroll mark. However if they do not get the pitchers and Delgado, this move will turn to bust for them as Navarro is not a can't-miss prospect, and they will lose yet another bat from their lineup without replacing it adequately.


The Reds are wastin' a lot of Money...

The Cincinnati Reds have finally done something in free agency, unfortunately it was mostly money spent unwisely. Over a couple week span they added David Weathers, Ben Weber, and Kent Mercker to their bullpen, Joe Randa to play 3B, Ramon Ortiz as their no.3 starter, and Eric Milton as their new no.1 starter. You look at the names and you say, 'hey, nice players to add to a team with a few holes,' but only if those holes were middle relief pitching a no.8 hitter and a no.4 or 5 starter - not the kind of holes that Cincinnati has. Then to top that off they severely overpaid for all these players except for Weber.

The relievers will be decent pick-ups, especially since they already have their closer in Danny Graves, but we all know the clubhouse cancer that Kent Mercker was for the Cubs this past year. They handed Joe Randa, a guy who is slightly above average at best, a $2.15 million deal to play 3B, effectively ending the Austin Kearns at 3B experiment and forcing the Reds to trade someone among their four starting OF's (Griffey Jr., Dunn, Kearns, Mo Pena) or 1B Sean Casey (then move Griffey to 1B. Unless the Kearns transition was going very poorly this does not make any sense. Ortiz is a guy who has had one pretty good year, one decent year, and a bunch of bad years pitching for the Angels. He is a no.4 starter at best and will make more than the $2.5 million he made last season. As for Milton, he has had one decent season, and a bunch of mediocre seasons, and for these non-accomplishments he earned a 3yr/$25.5 million deal. Moving from Coors-East, Citizens Park, might make him a slightly better pitcher, from a no.4/5 quality pitcher to a solid no.4, but by no means is this paying for quality here historically speaking. Cincinnati would have been much better off keeping Corey Lidle than picking up Milton, which is probably why Philadelphia did that exact thing. These deals seemed to have moved the Reds further down the spiral and will improve the team only minimally. But then again, if it helps the Cubs win an extra few games a year, I'm all for it.


Peein' in the Wind...

Moises Alou is officially gone from the Cubs, singing a 2 yr/$13.25 million deal with a player option for a third year. Alou, who will be 39 next season, helps the Giants create the all-social security team I dreamed of in the beginning of the offseason. They now only need to replace youngsters 2B Ray Durham, 33, and 3B, Edgardo Alfonzo, 31, and every starter will be older than 35 next season. Hopefully this happens sometime soon as there are a few guys on the market that can fill this need.

I really liked Alou on the Cubs and hope he does well in SF, but I am very glad he was not resigned this offseason by Jim Hendry. At his age and with his past injuries this signing is a major risk for the Giants. I would cringe every time he dived for a ball in the OF and I'm still amazed that he made it the last two years injury-free.



Jay Mariotti Fired by WMVP ESPN1000....

Although this isn't a purely baseball topic I'm going to talk about it because of the long-standing feud between the self-proclaimed 'King of Chicago Media' and the owner of the White Sox Jerry Reinsdorf - as well as the team in general (especially 'Hawk' Harrelson). For many years the two sides have despised oneanother and it got especially viscous when Mariotti got his own radio talk show about a year ago. The feud even got to the point last season when himself and White Sox announcer Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson nearly got into a fistfight in a Minnesota press box during which it is rumored that Harrelson was held back by multiple people while Mariotti ran away.

Mariotti then got his show coincidentally on the same station that airs Reinsdorfs Sox and Bulls games. He claims that Reinsdorf strong-armed the station into firing him and that he got a memo a month before to stop telling his listeners to 'not buy tickets to White Sox games' among other things along that line. He then claims he told the station that he would not sacrifice his principles and the mutually agreed to part ways. Way to try and save face pal. This is the problem I with Mariotti - he is a pompous ass who creates his own story out of opinion and passes it as fact. And frankly thats a major problem now in all journalism, especially sports journalism. First of all, if he had any integrity, the day he got that memo he should have brought it out to light. But he waited till he was actually fired to say anything because he was almost due for an automatic six-month extension in his radio contract. If this was the real reason he was fired, then I would be upset right along with him, but this by now means was the only reason he was fired.

Now Reinsdorf probably did say that getting rid of him would help in the upcoming negotiations with the station, but the facts are that Mariotti deserved to be fired on his own merit without that outside influence. He was unprofessional in his reporting, he wouldn't let callers get their points in before cutting them off, he even berated his co-host Marc Silverman on the air stating that he had 'no right to question me' and was serious about it, he would routinely leave the show early to prepare for Around the Horn, and to top it off he had bad ratings. The fact that he went to the Tribune with his sob story should say enough. It's sad, and pathetic actually that he still finds the work he does.

The other sad fact is that many more like him exist in the world of journalism and the power of the pen isn't a myth, it is quite real. Yet more and more people are abusing this power and I'm wondering what it's going to take to have this trend stop - before its too late and renders print the way that television's credibility has gone.


Other notes....

- The Cubs re-upped Todd Hollandsworth to a 1yr/$900,000 deal with incentives for starting and staying healthy. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a starting LF in a platoon this season the way things are looking.

- The Yankees brought back Tino Martinez to play 1B for 1yr/$3 million with a $3 million option year. He most likely be the starter in the field for the Yankees unless they sign Carlos Beltran, which would push Bernie Williams to DH and Jason Giambi to 1B.

- The Cardinals are about to sign 2B Roberto Alomar to fill the hole left by Tony Womack. I hope that this deal happens because Alomar is way past his prime and anything that weakens the Cardinals is good to me.

- The Cardinals also picked up SS David Eckstien after the Angels dumped him, signing the former Halo to a 3yr/$10.25 million deal. Nice little deal for the Cardinals as Eckstien is a hell of a player who plays hard, but he is nowhere near the talent level of Edgar Renteria. Combined with the loss of catcher Mike Matheny and 2B Tony Womack the middle of the infield for St. Louis this season will be much weaker than the past few seasons.

- While researching for the Iguchi piece I came accross an interesting item, 3 former Cub OF's were in the Japanese leagues: Tuffy Rhodes, Rosevelt Brown, and Julio Zuleta - who is on the same team as Iguchi. I also found a note that said Raul Mondesi is very interested in signing with a Japanese team since he cannot find any work here in the US.

Q' o' the P

In honor of the Mariotti story, here's a quote from Plato on the dangers of what can happen when writers can go unchecked and the power they wield.
"....One man has the ability to beget arts, but the ability to judge of their usefulness or harmfulness to their users belongs to another; and now you, who are the father of letters, have been led by your affection to ascribe to them a power the opposite of that which they really possess. For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory but of reminding; you offer your pupils the appearance of of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction, and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise. "