Clem Fandango

He's not very good either

And only one year and one level away from the MLB job opening up... what a coincidence

Figured since there's going to be a bunch of small rumors going on this week that might be discussion worthy, they all probably don't need their own thread. Here's a few interesting rumors thus far...

I'll toss my hat into the pro-Mike Cameron ring.

Kendall reportedly wanted the Brewers to pay him $5 million to stay. Good luck getting that anywhere else, Jason

except 7.5 mil on john grabow We're only spending 3.75 on him this year, get it right!!!!!

If I'm Theo Epstein and I'm looking for a crappy middle infielder, I sign Ronnie Belliard to play 2B a a much lower cost than Scutaro, move Pedroia to SS, and save the draft picks. Scutaro kinda sucks... he'll provide league average defense and probably revert back to his norm as a hitter, which is below average. Belliard is no savior, but he's peroven to be a much better hitter and will provide league average D at 2B just as well as Scutaro would provide league average D at SS. Also SS was Pedroia's original position in the minors where he was actually a pretty solid defender at. This is a really silly move by Boston

wait cardinal fans would be mystified that one of THEIR players got better after leaving town? because we're frequently mystified by the parade of scrubs turning into usable players in st. louis. Haha. Well, in this case I was more specifically referring to Cardinal players generally chased out of town by pissy fans, then signing with the Cubs. I suppose it's a short list. I very well understand the plight of all my Cub fan buddies watching St Louis's mystifying ability to make Jeff Weavers and Ryan Ludwicks play well for a little while. And Kyle Lohse, and Joel Pinero, and Todd Wellemyer, and Ryan Franklin, and Chris Carpenter, and Chris Duncan, and.............. :D

\:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/

Exactly. See, you and I are on the same page here. Like I said $7 mil is too much for any closer. Payiong anyone that much money for 60-80 innings is absurd, but the closerr has this mystique to it that make ball clubs overpay for them. $7 mil is a steal in that regard. Had Wagner been healthy all this year and hit the free market with typial career numbers, he'd be making $12 mil a year easy in a multi year deal. The Braves have a vesting option that sit at $6.5 mil if he finishes 50 games. If that happens and he's healthy and good, absolute steal.

What about Tony Thomas. I'm not saying that in a "I think he's gonna break out" sense, but I was curious about him. How does he project? What would be his peak? He's got some pop which is nice for a 2B, and he has speed but he appears to be a poor baserunner judging from his terrible SB%. I saw him play while in Mobile and he crushed a few homers off the BayBears. Could he be one of those guys who comesu p through the system and just randomly gets a spot by default (i.e. Blanco, Theriot, etc) because of a lack of options at the position? I don't know much abou him, but he intrigues me. Can he improve and become a good player because right now judging from his numbers the past two years it seems he's destined to become a AAAA player.

That's a steal, IMO. I think he's still got some left in the tank. A "steal" would be a deal under $3 mil. IMO. This is a pretty average to an actually bad move to me given the monetary commitment to a guy who has been marred with injuries the last few years. Also when you consider the Braves don't generally spend a ton of money this is a good chunk of money to commit to a closer with all of Wagner's question marks at this point in his career. If by "marred with injuries the last few years" you mean he had TJS like a year and a half ago and came back a dominated for a month or so in both and AL and NL in a short time just like he did before he had TJS when he was perfectly healthy, then yeah. Billy Wagner is a good reliever, and if he's still as good as he was at the end of this year, which is as good as he was before he got injured, $7 mil is kind of a good deal especially since, as reggiemillerrules stated, they will likely get picks back if someone signs Soriano and/or Gonzalez. It's a good move, and a heck of a bargain for someone of Wagner's talent. The going rate for closers of his caliber is far higher than what the Braves signed him for. In the closer market they got a bargain if he produces like he's shown he's still capable of doing. Is he worth $7 mil? No, no reliever is worth $7 mil a year (IMO), but reality of it all is common sense and logic just doesn't happen in baseball, and what the Braves are paying is a pretty good deal when compared to other high paid closers are making

Clearly we're trying to sign him as a pitcher

I don't like him because it's an inconvenience to me to look his name up on Baseball Reference because it's really hard to spell it. Pass.

Jim........... Hendry

Forgot about the type A status, good point.

If we're not gonna resign Harden who is a high risk high reward guy, why not a different one? Would you take a flier on him for $9 mil?

Too late... That's a steal, IMO. I think he's still got some left in the tank.

they showed damn near every ASG from the 70's up to last year's ASG all Thanksgiving weekend. They had the Wrigley one on Saturday I think. It kind of annoyed me because I wanted some analysis and debate and discussion shows, even if they would've been pointless (and not well debated for that matter). I mean the all-star game is fun... but I don't want to watch old all star games for 96 straight hours

Have fun with that one Boston. Probably a made up rumor to stir the pot a little. It will never happen

The Edgar Martinez vote is going to be crucial

Rotoworld's take on the 2nd base move...

Sometimes you just gotta respect to your elders

One could easily make the case that in overall production, Jenks > Fox. But on a production-per-dollar basis, they're pretty close in value. Interest in guys that can play a role while making league minimum is roughly on par with interest in sub-elite closers that make $6M a year. Is Jenks that much different than Kevin Gregg last year? Ummm.... yes. Jenks wasn't spectacular last year, but he definitely outperformed Gregg