Ok, So Maybe Rich Hill is Going to the Mariners
Fresh on the heels of a Baltimore Sun article that Rich Hill to the O’s was a near done-deal, it seems the Mariners are trying to pry the troubled lefty from the Cubs.
Sources suggest the Baltimore Orioles may have the inside track on Hill, who was a top prospect before battling control issues. He won 11 games and had a 3.92 ERA in 2007 in making 32 starts, but he walked 18 batters in his first 19.2 innings and was sent to the minors.
He tried to pick things up in winter ball while pitching in Venezuela, but he walked 23 batters in 21 innings.
If Seattle could tempt the Cubs with one of their best-paid pitchers – Miguel Batista ($9 million in 2009), Jarrod Washburn ($10.3 million) or Carlos Silva ($11) – in exchange for Hill, that would probably clear the way toward the club making Abreu, who made $16 million last year, a legitimate offer. seattlepi.com.
1.) A lot of kerfuffle over a guy who was released by his Venezuelan Winter League team this year.
2.) Why would the Cubs dump Jason Marquis and his expensive one-year remaining deal, just so they could pick up a crappier pitcher with a more expensive, multi-year remaining deal? Keep dreaming Seattle Post Intelligence (ah, nomenclature is funny).
3.) Are the Mariners and the Orioles battling each other to build the best Cubs scrap heap team? Like assembling a Voltron wannabe team from broken down cars they found at the county dump?
The Cublogoverse is MONEY GRAB!
Flipping through my headlines the other day, I came across this peach from Inside the Ivy:
If the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th president is a precursor to the play of typical Cubs teams during inaugural years, what can be expected of the 2009 club? Scout.com: How Have Cubs Fared in Inaugural Years?.
And I thought to myself, “Self, I bet you would kind of like to know that.” It’s not as if there is a causal relationship between an inauguration and the play of a Major League Baseball team, and the very suggestion that there could be is so ridiculously beyond the pale that the laughter it induces is downright painful.
Still, it might be good for a quick read, and millisecond larf.
So I click to read the rest of the story, only to find… SUBSCRIPTION!
More after the jump (don’t worry, we won’t charge you).
Paul Bako is a Chicago Cub (For Ril, Again)
Bako or “The” Bako has been the Cubs’ primary backup catcher target
since Henry Blanco bolted for San Diego – actually, Bako was the
target in lieu of Blanco, hence Blanco bolting. One could question
what exactly Bako provides that Koyie Hill couldn’t (except a few more
fingers), but at least Bako isn’t going to cost the $750k that was
previously speculated.
The Cubs finalized a one-year contract with veteran backup
catcher Paul Bako, who previously played for the team in 2003-2004.
Bako will get a salary in the neighborhood of $500,000, according to
multiple reports over the past few weeks, to serve as the backup to
reigning National League Rookie of the year Geovany Soto.Bako, 36, a defensive-minded catcher, hit .217 in 99 games for the
Reds last season and bats left-handed. Soto is a right-handed hitter.
Cubs.com.
That is some hard-ass hitting reporting right there. Soto? Right-handed? Zoinks!
I love the “defensive-minded” preface leading into the joke of a
batting average. Yes, we get it. He’s possibly the worst hitter since
Mendoza. Again, I say: could Koyie Hill really be worse? And does it
really matter that you’re a “left-handed” hitter if that only means
you can hit .215 against righties instead of the .180 you hit against
lefties?
The St. Louis Cardinals’ Offseason is Disappointing, Testy
Quick – name the Cardinals’ big off-season move.
Stumped?
Hint: Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Yup. Khalil Greene. (unless they’re able to make the highly unlikely, but highly terrifying Manny Ramirez addition we discussed yesterday…)
So it’s no surprise that given the chance to chat with Cardinals’ GM John Mozeliak, Cardinal fans would probably be hilariously irate. If only we had some way to see it. Ta da, St. Louis Today to the rescue with a fan chat with Cardinals’ GM John Mozeliak.
I Hate Bill Dewitt!!: Hey Johnny-
After this are you going to go into the yahoo teen chat room, and talk about designer clothes, and playing spin the bottle. GO DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE LOSER!!!! Other G.M’s are working on deals, don’t you get it!!
John Mozeliak: Clever, and with that I will sign off big guy. STLtoday – Discussions – Cards Live.
Who could have predicted it would end like that? More hilarity, after the jump.
Milton Bradley’s Deal is Technically Only for 2 Years and $20 mill
That’s because the third year is kind of an option. Word floated around when Bradley was signed that there was “protection on the back-end” of the deal for the Cubs if Bradley was injured in the first two years (a move popularized by the Detroit Tigers’ genius signing of Magglio Ordonez, coming off massive knee problems, when other teams *cough Cubs* were too pansy to take the risk… remember that? Remembering things is fun… sorry… back to the outside of the parenthetical).
Well now we’re finally getting some word on that protection for the Cubs.
After actually viewing Milton Bradley’s contract, it appears to be a $20 million, two-year deal, not a $30 million, three-year guarantee as has been widely reported (including here). While it’s very likely Bradley gets the $30 million, the complicated agreement appears to suggest that he needs to spend fewer than 75 days on the disabled list in 2009 to guarantee the full amount. And that’s no guarantee for Bradley, especially with him having to play the outfield. SI.com.
It’s also no guarantee of health for the Cubs. Last year, despite only playing in 115 games, Bradley didn’t spend a single day on the disabled list. More after the jump.
Rich Hill About to Be the Next Oriole Castaway
How many players that the Cubs desperately don’t want can they possibly pawn off on the Orioles?
The Orioles and Chicago Cubs are again involved in trade talks, this time about the Cubs’ left-handed starter Rich Hill. According to industry sources, the two teams have had ongoing talks about Hill, a one-time top pitching prospect who is struggling to regain his command.
One industry source said it’s a “strong possibility” that Hill will wind up with the Orioles, perhaps as early as next week. The Orioles will likely give up a player to be named who could be contingent on Hill’s success in Baltimore.
“We are talking to them,” Orioles club president Andy MacPhail said about the Cubs. “We are talking to a lot of teams about a lot of players.”
The Cubs have spoken to several teams about Hill, including the Seattle Mariners, but a source said the Orioles are in the lead to land the lefty. The Orioles would have to shuffle their 40-man roster, which is currently full. baltimoresun.com.
The return for a guy like Hill will be very interesting. A low-level, high ceiling, low likelihood of success type prospect makes sense, given that Hill, himself, is a high ceiling, low likelihood of getting it back type pitcher.
Holy Scary Balls, Batman: Manny Ramirez to the Cardinals?
Apparently Albert Pujols is pushing the Cardinals to sign the only right-handed hitter in the game who might be more scary than he is: Manny Ramirez.
“I speak with Manny every three days and he tells me, `Man, no one wants to sign me,’ Pujols said Thursday during a news conference. “I’m not an agent or general manager, but I can’t understand how Manny has not signed.”
Pujols passed along Ramirez’s telephone number to St. Louis manager Tony La Russa.
“Maybe St. Louis doesn’t have the money to sign him, but he could give them a discount because St. Louis is a great city that supports its players,” Pujols said. STLtoday.com.
Whether the Cards could make the move financial is questionable, but remember, they did try to land Matt Holiday earlier in the offseason. The likelihood here seems low, but the gravity of harm to the Cubs is VERY high.
Imagining Manny and Pujols hitting back to back is enough to give me a permanent anti-boner.
The Cublogoverse is Movin’ on Up
Recently, our friends at Wrigleyville23 got the call up the big leagues. Well, the call up to somewhere anyway. They were tapped to become the Chicago Cubs blog for MVN, a post previously occupied by such Cublogoverse heavyweights as The Cub Reporter and View from the Bleachers.
We caught up with the proprietor of Wv23 (creatively known as… Wrigleyville) for a brief chat over coffee and scones.
The conversation ranged from ethical entreaties regarding the atrocities in Darfur to the merits of an aggregator bank formed to purchase and hold toxic assets. Or maybe we just talked about the Cubs and blogging. Check out the interview after the jump.
