Nashville

[Frayed Knot]

aka; the home of the winter meetings

The crew at Baseball Prospectus get things started with the latest pre-meeting scuttlebutt:

* The Yankees are going to have to offer more than what they have on the table. The team thought putting Phil Hughes on the table was enough, but the Twins aren’t selling Johan Santana for anything less than three major-league ready prospects. The Red Sox offer is also short, leaving some wiggle room for other teams - the Mariners? - to make a run. The M’s could offer an attractive package, but Jeff Clement, a catcher, isn’t that interesting with Joe Mauer locked in.

* Dan Haren is everyone’s Plan B, but he’s going to cost nearly as much. With new Twins GM Bill Smith holding the line on Santana, Billy Beane and the A’s could end up making the deal by simply being willing to make the deal.

* Aaron Rowand has been “really close” for about a week, says one source. So why hasn’t he signed? “Fluid market,” says one AL exec. “Rowand and Andruw Jones are kind of on hold until we all figure out Kosuke Fukudome and whether Coco Crisp will be dealt.” None of them get Torii Hunter money, but maybe Gary Matthews Jr money.

* Kyle Lohse is this year’s Ted Lilly. Everyone will fight for him, then complain that they’re fighting over him. That said, no one thinks he’ll be signed during the Meetings. “Too many offers and the market for pitching has been all focused on trades.”

* Miguel Cabrera? “You’ve got to be kidding me,” says the AL exec. “The Marlins must be advised by Chuck Lamar on the art of the deal. You can’t ever say you won’t deal with someone, but no one likes picking up the phone from them right now.”

* Who’s the surprise player? According to five different independent sources, it’s the Orioles. “They’re buyers and sellers, plus this is probably the one time when Andy MacPhail will have a free hand to make these kinds of decisions.” Others mentioned are the Royals, Astros, and Giants.

*Don’t expect any early deals. There’s nothing THAT close right now and the teams will stay away from announcing anything close to the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee results, assuming they have some.

[metirish]

I like the winter meetings, something big usually happens for someone.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Why, yes, I would like them to move the team to Nashville.

[seawolf17]

Have you ever been to the Opryland Hotel? It's like its own planet. The place is enormous.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I went to Nashville once. It was right after Gore lost Tennessee. Went to the Grand Ole Opry, which was OK to say you did but definitely catered to the 3 dozen busloads of touring seniors at the show.

They apparently moved the theatre to this off-ramp combo shopping mall/amusement park/hotel complex and subsequently beat all the soul out of it. You'd do better historically at the Country Music hall of Fame and at the local bootscootin places.

[Vic Sage]

i went to a few conferences at that hotel, in my bachelor days. Good times, good times... Many rooms have terraces that overlook an indoor atrium. Nice gourmet restaurant, too. Had Bananas Foster. mmmmmmmm

My nephew is there, right now. He goes to school at UConn and wants to get into sports administration/management. He did an internship last summer with an independent league team in CT. He's at the meetings because they run a job fair there for college kids.

He's a Yankee fan, but i can't hold it against him. Its his poor upbringing, largely the fault of my idiot brother.

It would cool, on so many levels, if he got a job with the Mets.

[Centerfield]

Speculation in the rags today is that the Mets might not make any move, for a starting pitcher or otherwise. I hope this is just posturing on Omar's part.

Schneider/Church better not be the major acquisitions of this off-season.

[metirish]

Vic Sage wrote: He's a Yankee fan, but i can't hold it against him. Its his poor upbringing, largely the fault of my idiot brother. .

Funny.

[metirish]

Dickshots least favorite pitcher of recent vintage gets tradred to the Nationals for reliever Jonathan Albaladejo, now JD can look forward to more Tyler Clippard.

[Frayed Knot]

Centerfield wrote: Speculation in the rags today is that the Mets might not make any move, for a starting pitcher or otherwise. I hope this is just posturing on Omar's part. Schneider/Church better not be the major acquisitions of this off-season.

Except that (as we've discovered from time to time) no move is better than a bad move and it's the over-anxiousness to make A move that often leads to bad moves.

[metirish]

Lots of stuff going on at the meetings, some small some potentially huge.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb

[Guest Edgy DC]

Frayed Knot wrote: ="Centerfield"]Speculation in the rags today is that the Mets might not make any move, for a starting pitcher or otherwise. I hope this is just posturing on Omar's part. Schneider/Church better not be the major acquisitions of this off-season. Except that (as we've discovered from time to time) no move is better than a bad move and it's the over-anxiousness to make A move that often leads to bad moves.

Word to Mrs. Knot.

[Frayed Knot]

Common sequence of thought among fans at this time of year:

1) Our GM needs to make a big move

2) When is he going to make a move?

3) Make a move already!!!!

4) NO, NOT THAT ONE!!!!

[metirish]

Bedard apparently going to the Dodgers for Broxton and Kemp + others.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Huge uniform time for the Orioles.

[Valadius]

If true, the Orioles board I visited will be having a party - that's exactly what they wanted.

[Valadius]

Apparently, we're in the running for Kuroda, though he's looking for 5 years, $50 million.

[metirish]

Valadius wrote: Apparently, we're in the running for Kuroda, though he's looking for 5 years, $50 million.

You mean Hiroki Kuroda?, the DOdgers apparently have made an offer to him.

[metirish]

I'm reading the ESPN blog.

] 8:12 p.m., from Steve Phillips � The Mets offered Aaron Heilman, Carlos Gomez and Philip Humber for Erik Bedard

FWIW SNY's MLB insider says they turned that down .

[metirish]

Hank has pulled out......

] "A deadline is a deadline. It was pretty much done as of this morning," Steinbrenner said. "He's a fine pitcher, but there's a lot of things that go into this. This isn't fantasy baseball."

Apparently Boston has him in a trade , that's the hot word down there.

[nymr83]

metirish wrote: Hank has pulled out...... ] "A deadline is a deadline. It was pretty much done as of this morning," Steinbrenner said. "He's a fine pitcher, but there's a lot of things that go into this. This isn't fantasy baseball."

"if he opts out he won't be a yankee next year" - hank "i've got no credibility" steinbrenner

[metirish]

No way this happens.

] Here are some other things I heard before I left for the evening: - Although it is not confirmed, the Tigers might look to trade Dontrelle Willis and Ivan Rodriguez to the Mets for Brian Schneider, Phil Humber, Fernando Martinez, and Aaron Heilman. Those names are not being thrown around at the moment, but it is a possibility. Personally, I think the Tigers should absorb the money by bringing in these players and make a run at a World Series.

http://mlb-rumors.blogspot.com/

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Andruw to the Dodgers, 2 years, $36 million

[Frayed Knot]

Yowzers that's a lot of cash for a guy coming off a bad year!!

So does he go to a corner spot or do they try to dump their last bad CF contract (Juan Pierre) on someone?

[smg58]

]Those names are not being thrown around at the moment, but it is a possibility.

In other words, the writer is just making shit up.

[Frayed Knot]

I think even referring to those at rumor sites like that one or say RotoWorld as "writers" is probably stretching things a bit.

What I did hear (radio) was that the Mets had previously inquired about Dontrelle but were told he was unavailable and that even if he were they weren't about to deal him within the division. But the Tigers are under no such restrictions and so considered spinning him off after they completed the trade, including one where they could package him with a catcher for the back-stop starved Mets and get out from under the final year of Ivan the Catcher's contract.

THAT, of course, is where the speculation (ie; making shit up) comes into play. The Tiggers would be stuck w/o a catcher if they dealt him so Schneider's name comes into play. The other names are just a case of rounding up the usual suspects that you can only get from "insider" sites like that one ... or from 90% of the people on the street.

[soupcan]

metirish wrote: No way this happens. ] Here are some other things I heard before I left for the evening: - Although it is not confirmed, the Tigers might look to trade Dontrelle Willis and Ivan Rodriguez to the Mets for Brian Schneider, Phil Humber, Fernando Martinez, and Aaron Heilman. Those names are not being thrown around at the moment, but it is a possibility. Personally, I think the Tigers should absorb the money by bringing in these players and make a run at a World Series. http://mlb-rumors.blogspot.com/

I would happily do that deal.

[Frayed Knot]

Well it would depend on what the details of the deal are ... but do keep in mind that Pudge is a fraction of the defensive stalwart he was in years past and has racked up sub-.300 OBAs in two of the last three seasons.

2005-2007 K/BB = 275/46 and last year alone it was 96/9

[soupcan]

But he's only got the one year left on his deal (I think) and he's better than any catcher the Mets have right now.

Besides this is about Dontrelle.

[Frayed Knot]

And Dontrelle was lousy last year too.

Also, Pudge has a no-trade clause which players in his spot frequently use to try to force extensions onto existing deals in order to sign off on a trade.

As always, it'll all depend on the details.