Daily Archives: December 12, 2008
The Mets have traded Scott Schoeneweis to the D’Backs for RHP Conor Robertson.
The 27–year-old Robertson was 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA in nine games with Arizona this past season.
Robertson is 29-13 with a 2.82 ERA in 217 career-minor league games, during which he struck out 382 batters in 305 innings.
Tagged Scott Schoeneweis |
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com, citing a ‘baseball source,’ reports the Yankees have signed free-agent RHP A.J. Burnett to five-year, $82.5 million contract pending a physical.
Burnett was 18-10 with a 4.07 ERA in 35 starts with the Blue Jays this season.
As noted earlier today on MetsBlog, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the Yankees will not pursue Derek Lowe if they sign Burnett.
Cerrone also wrote the following in the above mentioned post:
Tagged Mike Nichols |“The way I understand it, Lowe is more concerned with the dollar amount than the years. Also, the buzz around Lowe continues to suggest that he would like to retire within the next few years or so, and would prefer to sign with a team who has a spring training facility near his home in Florida.”
Steve Phillips of ESPN.com reports the contract talks between free-agent LHP Brian Fuentes and the Cardinals have stalled.
According to Phillips, two other teams have become interested in signing Fuentes, but it was unclear who they are.
One of the two other teams interested may be the Nationals, as Dave Sheinin of Washington Post reports.
Fuentes’ agent told Sheinin the Nationals have expressed interest in the 33-year-old left-hand reliever, but seemed focused on signing a hitter before addressing their bullpen needs.
Sheinin also reports the Nationals have expressed interest in RHP Juan Cruz.
Tagged Mike Nichols |
The Mets’ triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons, have named Ken Oberkfell to be their manager next season.
He was most recently the Mets’ first base coach after Jerry Manuel became the teams’ manager.
Oberkfell is 812-803 (.503 winning percentage) in his previous 12 seasons as a manager.
Tagged Minors, Regis Courtemanche |In the latest entry to ESPN.com‘s winter meetings blog, Jayson Stark speculates on players that may become free-agents, if their teams do not tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players by midnight Friday.
According to Stark and his ‘educated, totally unscientific guess,’ RHP Daniel Cabrera, RHP Takashi Saito, OF Marcus Thames, OF Gabe Gross, and OF Jonny Gomes are among players that may become new free-agents entering the market.
Tagged Mike Nichols |
In an article for MLB.com, Marty Noble speaks with former Mets pitcher Aaron Heilman regarding his trade to the Mariners.
Heilman, as quoted by Noble:
“This is just the next chapter in the life of a baseball player. What do they say? ‘If you haven’t been traded, released, booed or aired out by your manager, you haven’t played long enough.’”
“I never wanted to leave because I got booed. I never had the feeling I wanted to leave New York. I loved playing there. I’m looking forward to the new opportunity, whatever it is.”
…any heilman post is usually received with bitterness, which is not entirely unjustified, but i know people who know aaron personally and he is truly a great guy who just wore out his welcome here in new york…a fresh start will do him good and i wish him the best…
Tagged Regis Courtemanche |The Associated Press relays a story about how J.J. Putz said “I’m hearing I’m going to get traded”, a month ago.
Mariners GM, Jack Zduriencik, is quoted as saying:
“I talked to J.J. (Wednesday). And what I told him was: ‘J.J., I can’t control other clubs calling me and expressing individual desire for you. You know, clubs that are in a pennant race are always going to desire to have a strong bullpen. That’s the case here.”
“I think he should be honored and flattered that they pursued him as hard as they did.”
…i wouldn’t misconstrue this as him being unhappy with the trade, that issue was clarified already…
…i’m yet to chime in on this but i didn’t see this trade coming at all…at first it confused me, but as long as all the parties involved, primarily putz, are happy, so am i…great trade overall…
Also, in the Detroit Free Press, John Paul Morisi outlines how the Detroit Tigers came close to trading for Putz before the deal fell through at the last minute.
Tagged Regis Courtemanche |Keith Law of ESPN.com recaps the significant deals and free-agent signing form this year’s Winter Meeting with his rankings of the top 25 moves.
Dominating the Law’s top five are the Mets recent bullpen acquisitions – the signing of RHP Francisco Rodriguez and the trade for RHP J.J. Putz and RHP Sean Green.
Law ranks the acquisition of Putz as the better move, than the signing of Rodriquez, writing:
“If he’s fully healthy, he’s one of the most dominant late-game relievers around, with outstanding control and an out-pitch splitter. He’ll make more of a difference to the Mets’ bullpen than the other guy they acquired this week.”
Meanwhile, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com also provides a team-by-team recap of the recently concluded winter meetings.
Tagged Mike Nichols, Sean Green |Joel Sherman of the New York Post is unable to convince himself that the the Mets are not aiming for free-agent pitcher Derek Lowe, despite the 
team’s claim that it is instead targeting Oliver Perez and Randy Wolf.
On Wednesday, Gordon Edes of Yahoo! Sports wrote that Lowe has been in talks with the Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox and Mets.
However, according to Sherman, the Yankees will not pursue Lowe if they sign A.J. Burnett, and the Braves, Phillies and Red Sox have all seemed to ‘waver on his asking price.’
Also, Edes, who covered the Red Sox for years, says he believes Lowe’s desire to return to Boston has been overstated.
“It is possible Lowe’s price could fall just enough for the Mets to become active participants,” Sherman believes.
…actually, i alluded to this in a post yesterday…it just seems to me that the when the music stops, there is a path for the Mets to sign lowe, who, from what i understand, had been their top target at the start of the off-season…
…as i have written before, the way i understand it, lowe is more concerned with the dollar amount than the years…also, the buzz around lowe continues to suggest that he would like to retire within the next few years or so, and would prefer to sign with a team who has a spring training facility near his home in Florida…
By the way, Sherman also reports on the market for Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn and Rafael Furcal; and whether the Dodgers will non-tender closer Takashi Saito.
In a must-read post to his blog for Newsday, Ken Davidoff does a great job of detailing how Omar Minaya acquired J.J. Putz.
In short, thanks to Davidoff’s outstanding reporting, Omar Minaya had been trying to acquire Putz for quite some time. However, once the Indians signed Kerry Wood, Minaya 
asked Cleveland for Franklyn Guttierez to send to the M’s, since Seattle had been asking the Indians for the outfielder during their previous talks for Putz – and the rest is history.
In the post, Davidoff writes, “Minaya was about as fired up as I’ve ever seen him. He had a ‘King Kong ain’t got @#$% on me’ vibe going.”
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