Olerud retires
(sorry, I thought we’d touched on this elsewhere)
John Olerud has retired. I liked Deanna’s write-up.
I’d only add that Olerud’s demeanor has, perhaps, contributed to the lack of notice of what was a long, nice career where he made huge contributions to some great teams.
M’s get new BP jerseys!
Now at least during batting practice there’s a new look for the team. I’m sure this will placate everyone disappointed by the lack of big moves so far. They sure are spiffy.
This may be a marketing play: if enough people immediately buy a new jersey, they’ll sign Millwood.
Also, note that Joel Pineiro gets his name spelled wrong in the caption — and that’s on the team website!
Marcos Carvajal
I’ve just learned that the PTBNL in the Yorvit Torrealba deal is RHP Marcos Carvajal. In describing him to a friend, I called him a Venezuelan Clint Nageotte with a better fastball, and I think that sums him up fairly well.
21-years-old, throws in the low to mid 90s, has a promising breaking ball and a change with good potential, and was relatively effective in the majors last year. He’s a groundball guy with mediocre command but enough stuff to miss a lot of bats. Carvajal is already a better pitcher than Putz or Mateo. Behind Soriano, he’s now the second best righty in the bullpen.
His expected fielding independant ERA last year, which adjusts for the HR inflation that Coors penalized him with, was 4.06.
Oh, he also makes the league minimum this year, and won’t cost significant money until after 2007. This is just a steal, no two ways about it.
M’s pick, lose no one in Rule 5 draft
Not a lot of movement in the major league portion, as it turns out. Baseball America’s got the list. Combined with their preview, you should be able to get a pretty good look at who went where, and why.
Updated: they’ve caught up with the minor-league portion now.
There, the M’s picked 2B Jason Bourgeois. And they’re getting pillaged for talent.
The A’s, as is their habit, are going nuts, picking in every round of the minor league portion.
Thursday’s moves-a-go-go
So! Larry Stone says Carl Everett’s signing is pretty much done:
The Mariners are also on the verge of signing free-agent outfielder Carl Everett to a contract, addressing their need for a left-handed bat. If nothing goes wrong, the signing of Everett, a 34-year-old switch-hitter, could be announced any day, but possibly not until next week. The Mariners need to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Everett…
Again, this is a horrible, horrible, horrible idea. Stone’s article cowardly pushes Everett’s issues to the second-to-last paragraph of the article:
The other outfielders on Seattle’s radar were Jeromy Burnitz and Everett, with Everett getting the call despite his controversial history.
Yeah. Controversial. That’s one way to put it, I guess. How disappointing.
Also, the M’s didn’t offer arb to PH Dave Hansen, RHP Shigetoshi Hasegawa, RHP Jeff Nelson, or DL Pokey Reese.
According to ESPN, the Red Sox trade Edgar Renteria to the Braves and get ANDY FREAKING MARTE. This is nutty. Marte is a stellar prospect. Renteria bites.
The Blue Jays picked up possible Mariner target Lyle Overbay, and gave up:
RHP Dave Bush
OF-L Gabe Gross
LHP Zach Jackson
That’s quite a haul for Overbay. The Brewers are making some really sweet deals this off-season.