“I like our team.  I like it even more now with this addition.”

Cubs manager Lou Piniella

The Cubs wasted no time in turning the focus in the NL Central away from the Brewers and the C.C. Sabathia deal by making their own blockbuster deal.  On Tuesday, they acquired Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A’s for Matt Murton, Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, and AAA prospect Josh Donaldson. 

What are your thoughts on the deal? 

As for me, I’m pleased. I have the normal reservations about Harden’s endurance and health issues but aside from that, I think this helps the club tremendously.  The fact that we got Gaudin is icing on the cake, in my opinion.  We need some help in the bullpen and Gaudin is no stranger to the starting rotation. 

I was listening to Episode 419 of Cubscast today and they had on Jordan Stepp from the Athleticscast podcast.  It’s Jordan’s feeling that A’s fans are quite unhappy with the deal.  To be fair, the kind of trade where a big ticket player is traded for several players with potential would be hard to be excited about.  It’s possible in two years (two months?) Billy Beane would be hailed as a hero.  For now however, he’s the one who selling away their best players. 

One more note on Harden, it should be worth mentioning that he has a 17-10 record on the road.  Perhaps that didn’t escape the Cubs attention either.

Will I miss any of the players given up?  I think Matt Murton has reached his ceiling.  Cute red hair can take you only so far.  I honestly don’t know a lot about Josh Donaldson but he put together a good year while in Boise last year. 

The two key players in the deal were Gallagher and Patterson and I’m sure Billy Beane knows it.  Gallagher is a solid pitcher with a good K/BB ratio.  Patterson has some good upside and it really depends how far he wants to take himself and how long he’ll take to get there (see brother Corey). 

The key for the Cubs is Harden’s health.  If he stays healthy, this is will pay big dividends for the Northsiders.

Tags: Cubs, Hot Stove by The Baseball Zealot
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Tags: Hot Stove by Thomas Wilson
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No need for a program… The Cub Reporter has the gist of it.

Quite funny if you think of it.  Maybe someone should do one for Joe Crede.

Tags: Cubs, Hot Stove, Humor by The Baseball Zealot
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Manny Ramirez fired his agent and has hired Scott Boras.  Or maybe it’s more appropriate to say that Boras has picked up Ramirez as a client. 

Ramirez, never one shy to speak his mind, said he’d like to stay in Boston but the idea of free agency wouldn’t be so bad either:

“I want to stay here, but it’s up to them if they want to bring me [back]. But if they don’t want to bring me back, that’s fine. I know I’ll be a free agent after ‘08 so that’s another thing I’m looking forward to.”

In a free agent year, you can bet Manny’s fantasy value will go up. 

With a growing list of teams who simply won’t deal with Scott Boras, Manny might be find his options somewhat limited next spring should he go that route.  Then again, any team who deal with Boras probably can’t afford Manny anyway.

Tags: Baseball Business, Hot Stove by The Baseball Zealot
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Fortunately for him, this was no practical joke.  Ryan Howard won his arbitration case against the Phillies.  The Phils offered Howard $7 million but in arbitration, he was awarded $10 million. 

The arbitrators were comparing Howard’s case to Miguel Cabrera’s from last year.  Cabrera hit the $7.4 million mark when he was with the Marlins.  Apparently, they felt they couldn’t go lower than that figure. 

Howard’s victory was the first arbitration win by a player in six tries so far this off-season. 

So now, Howard’s price got a lot steeper.  Is he worth it?  If there is one young slugger out there I would want to get for my MLB team, it would be Howard.  Yet, I’m sure the Phillies are also interested in locking some players up for the future not paying big bucks for a one-year contract only to go through this again. 

Tags: Hot Stove by The Baseball Zealot
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Ok, Livan Hernandez does not equal Johan Santana but he does fill a void. 

Twins GM Bill Smith probably endured more than his share of criticism for the Santana deal which netted four prospects for the Twins.  Perhaps even unfair criticism.

The signing of free-agent Hernandez does make some sense.  It was a one-year dealie for $5-6 million.  Let’s not forget that the Twins still have Mauer, have re-signed Morneau, and have Francisco Liriano coming back from his Tommy John surgery.  The addition of Hernandez who is a fantastic innings-eater (only three pitchers have made 30 starts in the past 10 years, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and Hernandez), may be enough to make the Twins interesting in 2008. 

There’s only one problem.  The Detroit Tigers who right now look to be the far and away the favorite in the AL Central. 

Tags: Hot Stove by The Baseball Zealot
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If you think this year was interesting, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors has the list of free agents for 2009.

Seventeen of the pitchers are over 40 so don’t hold your breath. 

As he intimates, it should be an interesting off-season. 

Tags: Hot Stove by The Baseball Zealot
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The Seattle Mariners closed the deal for Erik Bedard solidifying their rotation.  In return, they sent the Baltimore Orioles five young prospects. 

A few of those prospects didn’t look too bad either.  Adam Jones you probably already know about.  Jones has been touted as “can’t miss” which is sometimes of kiss of death but with Jones, he might play through the hype.  He’s had two very solid seasons in AAA Tacoma before being brought up last year. 

Chris Tillman (left) is young (he’s still a teenager), tall (6 foot 5 inches) and boy, the word is he can pitch.  He was Seattle’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year last year.  He threw 139 strikeouts in 133 2/3 innings. 

In George Sherrill’s case, “young” may be a misnomer.  He’s 30 years old.  For that matter, so might “prospect” though he did pitch his way to a 2.36 ERA last year. 

Holy cow, Kam Mickolio is 6′9″!  His minor league numbers are a drastic improvement over his college stats.  That’s good, I think.

Finally, there is Tony Butler.  No, not the British broadcaster.  Tony, the starting pitcher, has been in minors for only a couple years seeing as he’s only 19 but again, he has some fire.  He has 150 Ks in 141 plus innings. 

As with the Twins and the Santana deal, we won’t know if this helps the Mariners for another year or two down the road.  At least with this deal, they have one player that can play at the major league level and perhaps excel. 

Tags: Hot Stove by The Baseball Zealot
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Apparently, the Mariners’ deal for Erik Bedard is very close.

Mariners OF Adam Jones is the key player in the deal and he’s been ordered to report to Baltimore for a physical. 

Assuming this deal goes through, this would give the M’s a rotation of Bedard, King Felix, Washburn, Silva, and uhh, Horatio Ramirez.  Some Seattle fans say that might be enough to compete with the Angels. 

Pitching-wise, maybe.  Offense is another story.

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After Curtis Granderson’s breakout season in 2007, the Detroit Tigers have seen fit to lock him up for five years.  Granderson’s contract will earn him $30.25 million over that period.  With a club option, the contract could be worth up to $43.25 million. 

“The Tigers held all the chips and didn’t have to do anything,” Granderson said. “I’m very happy with the way everything happened.”

Granderson hit .302 with 24 homeruns and 74 rbis in 2007 not to mention 23 triples and 26 stolen bases. 

Curtis graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s sister campus) and so far is the the only one from there to make the majors.  One thing I didn’t know till today:  He graduated with two degrees. 

Tags: Hot Stove, University of Illinois Baseball by The Baseball Zealot
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