Ten Things to Watch For As Pitchers and Catchers Report

A-Rod cheated when? Tejada lied to who?? Alomar did what???!? Baseball's offseason has taken a turn for the worse and the wacky this week. Luckily for us fans, the offseason is finally over.

This weekend MLB pitchers and catchers will report to spring training camps in Florida and Arizona. That means we've got CC Sabathia headed to Tampa for Yankees Camp, K-Rod to Port St. Lucie for the Mets, and Derek Lowe trucking to Disney's Wide World of Sports in Orlando. Yes after a relentless wave of one distressing news item after another, its good to start talking about something that matters - baseball.


So to help get you all excited about the upcoming season, let's run down 10 things to watch for (in no particular order) as batteries around the league begin to suit up:

1) Sabathia and Burnett in Pinstripes
The new-look Yankees rotation heads to Tampa hoping to prove they're worth the monster contracts. A year after injuries decimated their staff, the Yankees pin their playoff hopes on a younger, stronger core, as well as on the health of backstop Jorge Posada. With Abreu and Giambi removed from the middle of the order, the switch-hitting catcher will need to prove he's healthy for long haul.

2) Lowe, Vazquez and Kawakami in Atlanta
Speaking of injury-decimated staffs, the Braves will move on from Smoltz/Hudson/Glavine and start fresh with a trio of durable new arms. There's a chance they could come out of Spring Training with 7 or 8 potential starters, which would provide great relief to the bullpen. Set-up men Rafael Soriano and Peter Moylan are coming off major injuries, and closer Mike Gonzalez is less than two years removed from Tommy John surgery. A healthy bullpen could gloss over the likely lack of run support.

3) Old Closers in New Cities
Free agent departures such as K-Rod (NYM), Kerry Wood (CLE), Trevor Hoffman (MIL), Brian Fuentes (LAA) and Takashi Saito (BOS) means new roles for established set-up men around the league. How Carlos Marmol (CHC), Jonathan Broxton (LAD) and Heath Bell (SD) take to being the closer ought to heavily impact the playoffs hopes of their teams.

4) Jake Peavy Staying in San Diego?
Its been a couple of months since we last heard Jake Peavy's name associated with trade rumors, but as the seasons draws near its becoming more likely that if the Padres are still going to move him - its going to be soon. Possible trade partners Cubs and Braves appear to be set in their rotations now, leaving San Diego GM Kevin Towers with having to search for new suitors. Will Peavy be a Padre on opening day? Its likely. Will the trade talks impact his relationship with the ball club? It remains to be seen.

5) The Young Guns in Miami and Tampa
The two teams down in Florida will travel short distances this week to get to camp, bringing with them a cast of talented young pitchers. Tampa Bay will move David Price into the rotation alongside Kazmir, Shields and Garza. The Rays' front four might just be good enough to hang with any rotation in the league, including those highly paid Yankees. Meanwhile the Marlins' staff may not have the big names or national spotlight, but their front five could help them be the dark horse in the NL East. Ricky Nolasco, Josh Johnson, Andrew Miller, Chris Volstad and Anibal Sanchez are as green as can be, but all appear ready to make their mark in the bigs.

6) Rehab Projects in Boston
Rather than signing massive contracts like the Yankees, the Red Sox signed multiple players to smaller deals, banking on them to return from injury successfully. John Smoltz, Takashi Saito and Brad Penny join the pitching staff, and should they all be healthy by mid-season the Red Sox may as well throw out a six-man rotation and rotate closers between Jonathan Papelbon, Smotlz and Saito and save everyone's arms for the postseason. The best part of the signings is that the Red Sox have great pitching depth without the newcomers, putting little pressure on them to come out of Spring Training looking like spring chickens.

7) Three Cy Young's in San Francisco
The 'freak' Tim Lincecum will show up with his first Cy Young trophy this week. Meanwhile overpaid and over-the-hill Barry Zito will already be polishing his trophy, and newly signed Randy Johnson will lug his four trophies into the locker room. Suddenly the Giants have established winners in the rotation (not to mention young stud Matt Cain), its just too bad they wont be expecting Zito or Johnson to be on the pedestal again. Watch for the Big Unit's health as well as Zito's stuff, as getting a moderately productive season out of either of them is paramount to the Giants success this season.

8) Geovany Soto vs. The Sophomore Slump
The days of the one-year wonder Rookie of the Year are all but gone after a wave of superstars has flooded the league. Geovany Soto had a huge year for the Cubs, but fizzled out by September and limped into the playoffs. In his second season, Soto ought to be stronger and more prepared for the long haul, just as pitchers and scouts will be more prepared on how to attack the young backstop. A slight dropoff in production wouldn't hurt the loaded Cubs lineup too much, but keep an eye on Soto as he's expected to be a top-tier catcher for years to come.

9) Matt Wieters vs. The Hype
Last season the hype was on Soto, this season its on Matt Wieters. Pegged by scouts as a mix between Joe Mauer and Mark Teixeira, Wieters could be the savior for baseball in Baltimore. Fantasy players will be keeping a close eye on him throughout the spring, for sure, ensuring he makes enough of an impact to be a starter on day one. Veteran catcher Gregg Zaun was signed in the offseason, likely as insurance.

10) Ivan Rodriguez Faces Unemployment
Pudge is a first ballot Hall of Famer and the best catcher to play in our generation (if you take Piazza's defense into account) - so why hasn't anyone signed him? Many may cite he's over the hill or past his prime, but it seems like every new (and young) team he lands with instantly improves. He anchored the Marlins to a World Series title in 2003, and helped the Tigers win a pennant in 2006. My guess is that the Marlins would enjoy a reunion, letting Pudge work with their young arms is far from a bad idea (take note, Tampa Bay).

Also let's not forget that fellow first-ballot Hall of Famers Manny Ramirez and Ken Griffey Jr. have still yet to land anywhere. There are still deals to be made and rosters to be shuffled as the Spring Training schedule draws closer.
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Braves Burrnett offer not "even close" to Market Value

[source mlb.com]


Right after CC is taking a $161 million 7 year deal, the offer made last week to AJ Burnett seems small in comparison. The offer is originally marked at $60 million for 4 years with a 5 year option, over 5 years it is worth an estimated $80 million. But now, Mark Bowman is reporting that sources in Burnett's camp think that this is not "even close." Wow! The largest free agent pitching offer by the Braves since we grabbed Maddux, and it is like we are offering peewee league pricing. The main competition? The Yankees. They have reportedly offered him $64 million guaranteed over 4 years. It seems the 5th year option alone is not going to put Burnett convincingly in our corner.

The Braves should not offer Burnett the kind of money that CC is getting, but 80 million is a lot too. Unfortunately for the Braves, the year we have money to spend, we are competing in one of the most over paid free agent markets since ARod signed with Texas for over $250 million. What are the Braves to do? I don't know. If we blow our load on Burnett, what about getting the hitter we need? It will mean more trading, and losing more young talent. We have been doing that for a long time, it generally works, but there is no one coming up that will be the kind of big time pitcher that Burnett can be. It is a tight spot. I hope Wren continues to compete over Burnett because, as I have said before, it makes us look more competitive for other free agents, and in particular to Jake Peavy who has a no-trade clause. I have to warn Wren, if we don't land Burnett, to not leverage the future of the team by over-trading as a result. We all want Burnett, but if we can't afford him, the fans will understand, but we don't want you to give up. Hang in there Wren.

[UPDATE: Talks between Burnett and The Cubs have broken down. Seems there is a little less competition]
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Yankees Land Sabathia, Let the Flood Begin

Reports out of Vegas are that the Yankees and pitcher CC Sabathia have agreed to a contract worth $160M over 7 years (that's over $23M per year for those counting at home). Sabathia, the AL Cy Young Award Winner in 2007, had a rocky (read: terrible) start last season with the Indians before returning to form as a Milwaukee Brewer in the second half. Combined he went 17-10 with a 2.70ERA and 251Ks last season, with a major league leading 10 complete games.

What's this mean for the rest of the league and the Winter Meetings? Now that the market is set for pitchers, both starters and relievers (see K-Rod's 3-year $37M deal with the Mets), expect a flood of offers and signings to occur with the remaining free agent arms. Top of the list is AJ Burnett, who's being heavily courted by the Braves (and Yankees and Orioles, among others). The Braves offered Burnett a 4+ year deal worth about $16M per year. Given that Sabathia is top of the class, at $23M no one will earn more than him, or anything approaching him. A salary in the ballpark of $16-18M now seems about right for a pitcher like Burnett, given the market. The Yankees had claimed they would best any offer that the Braves made, so don't be suprised (even after signing Sabathia) if the Steinbrenner's throw more than $18M a year at AJ.

Now that agents and GM's know the market, expect a lot of names coming out of the pool in coming days. Keep it here for all the updates. Read Full Article!

MLB Winter Meetings: Woooo! News a Plenty out of Vegas

[SOURCES ESPN] [ESPN] [ESPN] [MLB]


I woke up this morning to check my feeds, and it seems, unlike me, the GM's and agents out in Vegas have been more busy than I anticipated.
The Mets, the Braves arch nemesis, are closing on a big deal to send K-Rod, Francisco Rodriguez, to the Big Apple. This scares the crap out of me. He was by far the most dominant closer last year, sorry Brad Lidge you're good too. Bringing in another big-time closer into the NL East is just going to make the division tighter, and this is definitely a play to get back at the Phillies. The Braves seem to be falling farther and farther behind in the bullpen. Mike Gonzalez is a fine young closer, but you line him up with the other two guys, and I'd take K-Rod or Lidge any day.

Now a word from Braves camp. Bobby Cox is speaking out about the pitching staff. Cox very blatantly said, "You can't win unless you have good pitching, and we lost everybody last year." [mlb.com]. That is a lot to digest, but he is right. I have been going on about getting a big bat, which we desperately need, but in the end we also really need one more big name pitcher. I think Bobby may be worried about our ability to compete over Burnett, a concern that is warranted. We will just have to see.

More news from Vegas around the National League, including a flurry of activity from the Dodgers. Casey Blake is to resign for 3yr's $17 million, and the Dodgers also picked up veteran 2nd baseman Mark Loretta for $1.25 million over 1 year(cheapo). I think Blake is definitely a keeper. He plays hard and can be clutch, kudos to the Dodgers for keeping him around. The only down side is that it is just more money the Dodgers are going to be sending down the hole. Their payroll is extreme, and a lot of the players they pay big bucks to end up sitting out and riding the bench. The Loretta pick up is a little strange. I can see how they want someone to back up Kent who is injury prone, but I would think a younger player would be better. It is likely they don't have the homegrown talent for that yet, so it looks like the Dodgers will be playing some age over at 2nd this year.

The Dodgers aren't done yet. Word on the street is that they are highly interested in CC Sabathia. The Dodger GM boasts that he thinks CC wants to play in LA [cite espn.com], I could believe that. Not having to pay Manny next year could just make CC affordable. All reports from CC seem to indicate he wants to play in the NL where he can hit and live in a warm city. LA fits both of those needs. I am not convinced this will eventually be his final landing spot, as the Yankees and Red Sox have a lot of money to throw around. Should Sabathia end up in the National League, as Johan Santana did last year, we could be looking at one overly dominant pitcher after another next season. If teams like the Dodgers are willing to throw around bundles of money to land the superstars, expect more pressure on Frank Wren to pull the trigger on big names to keep pace.

That's the news so far. Keep an eye to the west, all sorts of shenanigans is going down.

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