Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Santana Claus Going to Boston?

The great Will Carroll, over at Baseball Prospectus, is reporting that a deal to send Johan Santana to the Red Sox is "all but done," with Minnesota getting Jon Lester, Justin Masterson, Ryan Kalish and an unnamed center fielder. If that center fielder turns out to be Jacoby Ellsbury, then I'm quite happy with the news. We all saw what Ellsbury and Lester are capable of in September, and the other two players are very good prospects as well. Plus, the players are only Minnesota's price. The Red Sox will still have to contend with Santana's price, as the pitcher won't waive his no trade clause without a long term deal. Considering what Barry Zito got last season, the Sox will be lucky to sign Santana for "just" $120 million over six years. Obviously Santana is a great pitcher, and I don't relish the idea of seeing him in a Red Sox uniform, but I'm glad to see Boston pay so heavily. Of course, I won't be quite as happy if the unnamed center fielder is Coco Crisp, but I've got a feeling that that's not the case.

Clippard Sailing Away

It's not the most prestigious of news sources, but MLBTraderumors.com tends to be pretty good with their information, and they're reporting that the Yankees have traded Tyler Clippard to the Nationals for reliever Jonathan Albaladejo. If it's true, which is a big if, it makes no sense to me. The Yankee farm system is filled with hard-throwing righthanders, and I can't find anything that makes Albaladejo seem better than Ross Ohlendorf, Chris Britton or Jose Veras. Granted, they'd only be trading another one of their many righthanded pitching prospect, but Clippard's success as a starter makes him significantly more valuable. I'll try and stay on top of this story and see if things start to make sense.

Update 1:06AM: The Washington Post has picked up the story as well, with no new information that would explain the Yankees would do this. I understand trading Clippard for a reliever; the Yankees need bullpen help and have pitching prospects to spare. What I don't understand is trading for a right-handed reliever with only 14.1 innings of major league success, and 24 innings in Triple-A. Considering that Clippard could very well make it into the Nationals' rotation, you'd think Brian Cashman could at least have found a lefty, or someone with
more of a track record.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Back in the Saddle

Late November tends to be pretty slow as far as baseball is concerned, so I took a little time off from blogging. However, it's now December, and that means it's time for the Winter Meetings; that magical time of year when the 30 MLB teams' general managers, managers, assistant general managers, player development staff, public relations spinsters, trainers, lawyers, accountants and coffee boys turn some random hotel into The Baseball Capital of the World for one week. This year, it's the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN, which I will henceforth be calling the Gaylord Perry Hotel.

The Yankees headed into Nashville this morning knowing that whatever happens at the meetings, this will have been a good week. That's because before they left, Andy Pettitte let them know that he wanted to put the pinstripes on for another season. It was a surprising announcement, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Not only does Pettitte help solidify a rotation that's heavily dependent on unproven talent, but he also greatly decreases the team's need for Johan Santana. One of my biggest fears about this week was that the Yankees would overpay for Santana, and hopefully this means that they won't.