Hot Stove League

[catman]

Discuss your team and what they need to do to improve next season.

[boston_aloha]

I was just reading about Thomas, Bonds, and Nomar becoming free agesnt and asked myself "should I create a hot stove thread?" Nice timing C-man!

Any thoughts on where the above ^ 3 may go?

[coachJ]

The Astros are going to have a lot of holes to fill. Pettitte becomes a free agent this year, and the Rocket might call it quits again, so thats 2 holes in their rotation, not to mention that they have no offense outside of Berkman and would be smart to try and get some offense.

[catman]

Thomas will be worth a lot more this year than he was last season. I thought the A's had an option on him for next season, but I might be mistaken about that.
Bonds should just retire, although he will likely be back with the Giants again. No one else in the NL would want him and the AL teams probably won't want to pony up for a DH that gets hurt running bases.
Nomar has re-invented himself, again. He can actually play 1B which will add a few seasons to his career, maybe. Possibly he could go back to the Sox to fill their hole at 1B?
As to the Astros, I agree with your take on them. They need offense and pitching. They may be in full-fledged "rebuilding" mode now.

[catman]

My team is the Twins, as everyone knows. The Twins need to bring in a big right-handed bat to go with their solid lefties. Unfortunately, they decided last season to go with Rondell White as oppossed to Frank Thomas -- likely due to Franks bad legs. If they would have gone the other direction, they might have had a better outcome.
They need to see if Liriano will be OK next season as well. He may not have the arm-strength to be a full-time starter in the bigs. He may just have to be a 3-inning reliever that can pitch 3 games a week for them.
The Twins are looking to fill Radke's spot in the rotation also. His shoulder was held together with duct tape and bailing wire this season.
The offense is OK outside of the DH spot. The defense is solid, with Casilla coming in to replace Castillo as needed at 2B next season.
Potential line-up
Castillo -- 2B
Punto -- 3B
Mauer -- C
Cuddyer -- RF
Morneau -- 1B
??????? -- DH
Hunter -- CF
Tyner/Kubel/West -- LF
Bartlett -- SS
Rotation -- Santana, Bonser, Garza/Silva (?), Baker, ?????

[Brandon]

You know, there's not much the Braves can do this year, except improve the bullpen, which they started to do when resigning Wickman, not the sexiest closer, but he gets the job done, and does what other Braves couldn't do last year.

You look at the Braves last year, and it was the first two months of the season that doomed them. If the bullpen hadn't gave up every other lead or more, they would of at least been in the wild card hunt. They were also injured often, and you might consider one or two of those cases chronic (Chipper's feet and Horacio Ramirez)

So what do I look for them to do? I think about the one more they will do for sure is move Giles and let a couple of their younger guys play (Martin Prado or Willy Aybar). Look for Prado to play first and Aybar to be the super utility guy and insurance at 3B. Look for them to upgrade the bullpen through the free agent market or most likely trades.

The other thing is they're already getting a huge guy back this offseason, Mike Hampton is coming back. He'll help the starting rotation, which is already decided for the most part. Smoltz, Hampton, Hudson (Is he the pitcher that he was with the A's or is last years version the new Hudson?), Chuck James, and then Horacio Ramirez/Kyle Davies.

I think the Braves will be much more competitive next year.

[doublee]

I was just reading about Thomas, Bonds, and Nomar becoming free agesnt and asked myself "should I create a hot stove thread?" Nice timing C-man!

Any thoughts on where the above ^ 3 may go?

It was mentioned during the playoffs that the A's want to bring Thomas back and he would like to re-sign in Oakland. It sounded as though he might be willing to re-sign for a reasonable amount. He'll definitely stay in the AL where he can DH full time. I don't think his legs/feet will let him play the field on a regular basis anymore.

Catman, I seem to remember the topic of Thomas and the Twins coming up during the playoffs and hearing one of the commentators say it was mutually agreed upon by both sides that Thomas would be better off playing for a team that had natural grass on its home field as opposed to turf.

Bonds' destination will by in large depend a lot on how much cash he is looking for. If he is willing to sign for fair market value based on the numbers he put up last year then someone will pick him up. But, something tells me his ego just might lead to him sitting at home a-la Clemens until someone strokes his ego enough to want to come back and play.

Nomar most stays in LA or moves down the road to San Diego. It was always rumored a couple of years ago when Boston refused to give him the extension he was looking for that he was going to sign with LA once he became a free agent. Nomar is a So-Cal native and would probably like to end his career on a Cali team.

The Braves need to find a true leadoff hitter and figure out what to do with Andruw Jones whom I believe is a free agent after next season. They also just need pitching help in general. They are set at closer but need to find guys who can get them to the closer. There was very little consistency there this past season. They need to find some quality depth in the rotation as well. After Smoltz there was not much there to be overly afraid of.

The Cards don't need to change anything they are the champs baby!! :D

But, seriously, this is going to be a different looking team next year. Jim Edmonds will be bought out of the final year of his deal for $2 mil. They'd like to keep him but not for the $10 mil he is due next year. They need to find a new closer. Looper is not the answer and Isringhausen just is not cutting it anymore and is coming off of another hip surgery so who knows what he will be able to contribute if anything next year. Wainwright is going to the rotation next year as that was the plan all along and Carpenter is the only one under contract of the five regulars from this year. Jason Marquis' days are probably over in St. Louis. They will probably keep Suppan and give offers to Weaver and Mulder. They can probably get Mulder for cheap since he is damaged goods. I expect there to be some interest in Weaver in the offseason given how well he pitched in the post season so they may not be able to hang onto him. Duncan will end up in the lineup somewhere next season probably in left. Hopefully they find someone better than Aaron Miles to play second next year. He gives them nothing offensively and was nothing special defensively either.

[catman]

An update on the Twins -- Francisco Liriano will likely miss the entire 2007 season. He will undergo Tommy John surgery on Monday in LA. Here's hoping he makes a full recovery and can contribute in 2008.

[Alex]

The Yankees need some pitchers who aren't ready to file for social security.

I'm not sure what they can do other than that. It's not like the hitting can really be improved that much. I've been under the impression that they picked up Sheffield's option so that they could trade him but Sheff isn't too happy about that idea so who knows what will come of that.

[doublee]

Yes, they picked up Sheff's option with the idea of trading him, but what team in their right mind is going to trade top pitching talent for an aging slugger coming off a season where he played only 39 games, is due over 10 mil next year and is making noise about wanting to sign a new three year deal? Especially now that he has gone into prima donna mode saying he won't play first base next season and wants a new contract. He has kind of backed the Yanks into a corner to the point where other teams are going to know that the Yanks are going to be desparate to unload him. I kind of suspected something like this might happen when they traded for Abreu during the year.

There really is not a ton of pitching talent under the age of 30 available on the market this winter aside from maybe Zito but rumor has it he has little to no interest in playing in NY and would prefer to stay on the West Coast.

Honestly the Yanks are going to have to part with someone like Cano or A-Rod if they want trade for some serious pitching talent.

[catman]

I agree with that assessment. I'm sure even the Twins would part with some young pitching for Cano. He could be a perennial all star for anyone and be quite a bat in the middle of any line-up (or at the top or bottom, who cares where he bats?).
ARod may not be worth as much to someone else as the Yankees want him to be. His huge contract will be quite a detriment in finding a trading partner for him -- unless King George is willing to eat a large part of it.

[doublee]

No, he may not be but A-Rod would still fetch a guy who is younger, far more consistent, and durable than Randy Johnson is at this stage. He may not fetch a Johan Santana or a Chris Carpenter type of guy but they should be able to easily get a quality starter and a prospect or two for him. But, for that to happen the Yanks will either have to eat some of his contract like you said or bite the bullet and realize that they don't need to have an All Star bat at every position and accept a little less in an effort to strengthen the weakest parts of the team which is middle relief and depth in the rotation.

Cano and A-Rod have the highest trade value of the guys they could probably live without and still remain in the postseason picture.

[tobynosker]

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Royals decide to someday bring up Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar and Chris Lubanski.

And, if I have to sit through the piss poor display of what Kansas City likes to call Major League Baseball, the team can at least don the famous powder blue uniforms!

[doublee]

Yankees find a suck, err..., taker for Jaret Wright. The O's take him and $4 mil off the Yanks' hands for little known Chris Britton. Given that he was 15-8 with a 3.28 ERA under Mazzone in his lone full season as a starter for the Braves it is a gamble worth taking for the O's if Wright is healthy.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2658959

[Alex]

Good riddance. It's about time the Yanks start cutting away some this dead weight. I still don't understand what they saw in him. One good season does not make a career. Just ask Kent Bottenfield.

[doublee]

Steinbrenner has a long and storied history of getting the flavor of the month free agent pitchers only to have them flame out in the Bronx: Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Kenny Rogers, Tim Leary, Andy Hawkins, Dave LaPoint, and the infamous Ed Whitson to name a few.

[catman]

I thinks some of those guys, Kenny Rogers for example, just couldn't adapt to the pressures of the Bronx. He has done pretty well since leaving there.
I would add another to your list -- Jeff Weaver. He did OK in LA, and has been pretty good with the Cardinals. Where will he go next?

[doublee]

They traded for Jeff Weaver though. Mine was just a list of free agents they signed over the years. There is a pretty significant list of guys they have traded for over the years as well who flamed miserably or did not live up to the hype in the Bronx.

[doublee]

Sounds like the Jays may be close to signing the Big Hurt:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2663691

This would not be a bad pickup if they get him for the right price. But, I thought Thomas was not overly interested in playing on artificial turf though.

[catman]

The offer is pretty big, according to MLB's site, between $20 and $30M: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061115&content_id=1741454&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp