The Oakland A’s have solved all their problems by signing Rich Harden again.
How many times does this guy have to suck before teams give up on him?
A’s pitching is stacked. Harden’s a low risk-high reward player for them right now.
Harden strikes out such a huge numbner of batters that it’s hard to turn down the opportunity to get him cheap. Some guys don’t pit it together until later on; he has the stuff that if someone figures out how to get him tothrow it with command, he could still have an awesome season or three.
I am inclined to think he is miscast as a starter. I’d try him out as a reliever.
Yep. Spots 1-4 in the starting rotation are already locked up so, if anything, he’ll be competing for #5 along with all the other spring training invitees. But considering his injury history and the way that, when healthy, he can be lights out one inning followed by a “can’t find the strike zone if you spotted him the strike and the zone” inning, I’d agree with RickJay and start him out in the pen. He could be a lights-out set up guy or specialist.
It’s also worth noting that, really, last year was the first time Harden’s ever pitched badly.
In baseball-related news, the repeat offender drunk driver who killed Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was sentenced today. He got the max: 51 years to life.
The Blue Jays sign Octavio Dotel, who, apparently, is still alive.
Hooray.
The first projected 2011 standings of the offseason are out. Nothing too surprising here, though it is pretty down on the Blue Jays.
It sounds like Bagwell will fall short of the hall of fame for looking kind of steroidy, which would be an absolute disgrace.
Where are you hearing this from? Bagwell has never been linked to steroids as far as I’ve heard.
Yeah that is kind of the point.
http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/12/29/jeff-bagwell-a-no-for-this-hall-voter/
http://www.jeffpearlman.com/jeff-bagwell-and-why-i-disagree-with-joe-posnanski/
The Pearlman article turns my stomach. First he looks at baseball cards and says since Bagwell had more muscles at the end of his career than at the beginning he must have roided up. He steps back from that and says even if Bagwell didn’t use he is guilty since he didn’t say anything about everyone around him who was.
It’s unfair and idiotic.
Agree with pricciar about the Pearlman article.
As a side note, Pearlman says that “no two teams in baseball had more PED connections than the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros” during the nineties and into the 2000s.
More than Oakland?? Really??
I know that to make his point regarding Bagwell Pearlman needs to posit that the Astro clubhouse was absolutely crawling with PEDs at this time, but…more than the A’s?..I mean…
Well. I’m sure Pearlman won’t be voting for other possible steroid users when they come up for the HOF either. More to the point, neither will he vote for any of their teammates. No Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera (to name a few PED-enhanced teammates of theirs with the Yankees, Clemens, Giambi, and Pettitte). No Schilling (Ortiz and Ramirez in Boston, plus Matt Williams and others in Arizona, and for that matter Schilling was an Astro one year, so that’s damning in itself). Edgar Martinez played with Alex Rodriguez. Roberto Alomar played with Palmeiro in Baltimore and Ramirez in Cleveland. My goodness, Pearlman will never be able to vote for any candidate again!
It’s especially idiotic to use just two photos as evidence of anything. You can make anyone looking skinnier or more muscular than they are with the right photo.
Bagwell was undoubtedly bigger later in his career but Pearlman deliberately uses pictures that exaggerate the difference. In the younger picture he is standing with his arms at rest; in the order he’s actually flexing his biceps. If you look at the younger picture and examine his arms, he was a big, big guy. If that’s how his arms look at REST, he was strong as hell back then.
Maybe Bagwell used roids and maybe he didn’t. But until there is some evidence, it’s pointless and unfair to just make shit up.
Everyone said the Blue Jays would go 67-95 last year, too. Okay, they say 73-89, but you get my point. I sometimes wonder if people actually bother to examine Toronto’s roster before these predictions are made.
Toronto was 85-77 last year. I don’t see where they lose 11 wins. Jose Bautista’s not going to hit 54 homers again, but neither are they going to have a .271 OBP in the two spot all year, or let Adam Lind humiliate himself against lefties all season.
Well, despite the fact that the NFL playoffs start this weekend, there’s still stuff happening in baseball.
It looks like Matt Garza might be headed to the north side of Chicago. If the rumors are true, he’ll take two Rays minor leaguers with him, and Chicago will give up 5 players.
Adrian Beltre is headed for Texas, where he’ll push Michael Young off third base. Young will apparently spend time at first and at DH, and will also be considered something of a super-utility infielder, able to play at short or third if required. I know Beltre had a fantastic 2010 season, but $96 million over 6 years is a pretty big contract for a guy who’s on the wrong side of 30, and who is, if you take out his 2004 and 2010 seasons, a guy with a career OPS+ of 97. It could be that he keeps hitting the way he did last year, but i’m not sure i’d bet on it, and even though his defense will be a major upgrade over Young at third base, i think that $16 million will be a lot to be paying for him in years 2014-2016.
Interestingly, Beltre’s two huge years have both come when he was on the verge of free agency and looking for a contract. The folks at Baseball Prospectus think that the whole “walk-year” performance boost is something of a myth, but Beltre’s performance in free agent years will probably attract some support for the idea that players perform better when they are in search of a contract.
The Yankees just made a move that could turn out to be their best off season acquisition - 2010 AL saves leader to become set up man to Mariano Rivera.
It also opens the possibility at least of putting Joba back in the rotation where I think he could be more valuable. I am not expecting ace by any means, but 13-10 would be pretty useful.
Tampa lost Crawford (to a division foe), Soriano (to a division foe), Garza and Pena (both to the Cubs). The Yanks finished one game behind the Rays. I think the Rays’ off-season deficit and the that the only loss the Yankees (may) suffer is Pettitte, and the talent that Boston acquired effectively eliminates them from competition this year. Yeah, yeah, I know: you still have to play the games.
How can you not put him back in the rotation? Pettitte is likely gone, they didn’t get Lee, and Burnett is unreliable. Joba’s not that reliable (as a starter) either, but, with Pettitte gone, the Yanks have, essentially, 2-3 slots to fill after Sabathia and Hughes. If the Yanks do insert Joba back in the rotation, the biggest reason they do so won’t be because they acquired Soriano.
Cashman claims Joba is staying in the bullpen but I think that is just silly. He is worth far more as a starter than 6-7th inning guy. Or even an 8th inning guy which he won’t be. The Yankee spiel appears to be: CC, Hughes, AJ, Nova and Mitre as the rotation. So Joba should be competing for a spot.
Perhaps, as the other options include Russ Martin and Pedro Feliciano, but someone who despises the Yankees, I’m happy this is how they spend their money, though I grant there wasn’t much else. 35 million for a guy who at best will throw 70 innings, has had his fair share of injury issues, and gets an opt class every year. Plus they give Tampa their number #1 draft pick in what is supposed to be a very deep class. Buying a good bullpen on the open market rarely works well,
I think this overstating things by a wide margin. The Rays lost a lot guys, but only Crawford is a big blow and even he is being replaced by a very good prospect. Garza is a good pitcher, but switching to Hellickson is probably an upgrade. Soriano threw 62 innings, not that hard to replace for a team loaded with young pitching. Pena just wasn’t good enough last year to be a considerable loss. I expect the Rays will use the Garza money to sign a DH and perhaps add a 1b. They probably won’t win 96 again, I expect that they win around 90 and be in contention all year long.