Baseball Blog

Archive for January, 2008

Free-agent outfielder Brad Wilkerson was signed to a one year, $3 million contract in a move that shows that Seattle is close to sealing the much-awaited trade for left handed pitcher Erik Bedard. The Mariners would trade George Sherrill, and three Minor League pitchers to the Orioles for Bedard, which would give Seattle a powerful combination with Bedard and right-handed pitcher Felix Hernandez at the top of its rotation.

Though the Bedard deal has been going on for some time now and has seen various twists and turns, it is expected to be finalized in the coming few days.  Adam Jones was initially tagged to replace Jose Guillen this season but instead it seems that Wilkerson will get to play during the Spring Training.

Wilkerson said that it was a great spot for him and that he would get a chance at the everyday job. He said he could go to Spring Training if he had to but since the Seattle opportunity came to him he would seize it.

Wilkerson was also pursued by the Red Sox and one other team offered him a longer term than one year.  This deal however allows him to make $ 2 million extra in bonuses, based on plate appearances. He brings with him more versatility to the team after Ben Broussard was traded to the Rangers earlier on.  He has spent the last two seasons with the Rangers and recorded his third career 20-homer season in 2007.

He has been certified fit after a physical exam conducted by the Mariners’ staff after battling shoulder and hamstring injuries. He said he was very excited about the opportunity and hoped that he would be able to give it his best shot. With the team line up looking strong eyes will be on the Mariners to see what they pull out.

Carlos Pena of the Tampa Rays passed a physical test and finalized a three year deal worth $ 24,125,000 with the team. He is the third player who has been signed on after Scott Kazmir and John Shields. This is a very important step towards a better future for the team from Tampa Bay which is the weakest baseball franchisee in the country.

Pena who was the American League comeback player of the year agreed to a $ 6 million, one year contract that allowed the Rays to meet a self-imposed deadline to sign him on before the matter of salary went into arbitration.

Pena, 29 underwent the test on Thursday as the final step towards completing the deal through which he will earn $ 8 million in 2009 and $ 10,125,000 in 2010. He scored career highs of 48 homers and 121 RBIs in the past year and set a season franchise record for homers and finished with the fourth highest in the major league after Alex Rodriguez, Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard.

The year also yielded a career best average of .282 for the slugger and a team high of 99 runs and he became the first person to hit 40-plus homers in the season after being released by another team. He had signed on with the Rays after leaving Boston and the New York Yankees whom the played for in the minors in 2006.

These signings have come along with the signings of free agents Troy Percival and Cliff Floyd and show the willingness of the ownership to increase the payroll from $ 24 million to $ 40 million. This is seen as a move to improve the image of the team which has taken quite a beating in baseball circles.

Hopefully the effort from the team management will pay off in the near future.

Miguel Cabrera entered into a one year contract worth $ 11.3 million with the Detroit Tigers thereby avoiding salary arbitration before the All-star third baseman began his season with the team.  Out of the 110 players who had filed for arbitration 42 reached agreements regarding salaries while 15 had settled on terms earlier on. Earlier the Tigers wanted to sign Cabrera on for a new, long-term contract but when that didn’t work they elected to avoid arbitration thereby coming to this one year deal.

Cabrera along with pitcher Dontrelle Willis joined the Tigers as a part of the trade with the Florida Marlins in December.  The Florida team received six players including two much talked about prospects left hander Andrew Miller and outfielder Cameron Maybin.

In the 157 games that the played for the Marlins in 2007 Cabrera hit .320 with 91 runs scored, 38 doubles, two triples, 34 home runs and 119 RBI. He has a batting average of .313 after five seasons with the Marlins.

The Detroit Tigers have also acquired five- time All Star Edgar Renteria  after a trade off with Atlanta and entered into a one year contract with pitcher Bobby Seay worth $ 780,000. 24 year old Cabrera can become a free agent after the 2009 season but the Tigers hope that he will stay on.

Cabrera is one of the world’s top sluggers and joins an already strong lineup that boasts the likes of Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Guillen, Ivan Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco.

The debate is also on about how much Cabrera is worth and how much the Tigers could have paid to have entered into a long term contract with him.

After the recent controversy surrounding drugs in baseball Major League Baseball has announced the creation of a Department of Investigations to keep a check on the league’s policy on performance enhancing substances.  The creation of such a department was one of the most important recommendations in the report on performance enhancing substances by former Senator George Mitchell. The report was published on the 13^th of December amidst great controversy involving the federal government and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Commissioner Bud Selig said that the Department would be extremely important to the protection of integrity of the sport. He said that Major League Baseball would continue to function as per the recommendations in the report as part of the effort to prevent the use of drugs in the system. The new department will be independent of the teams and at the top will be Dan Mullin a former New York Police officer who is the vice president of security operations and along with him will be George Hanna baseball’s director of security investigation who happens to be an ex- FBI officer.

It is believed that under the leadership of these two men any allegations of illegal use or possession of drugs would be dealt with strictly. The department will join forces will law enforcement authorities to further its investigations as required and will also operate a telephone hotline so that any violations aware to club employees are made known.

Hopefully the coming into being of this new department will root out the problems of drug and substance use in the system which has been made public after the entire Clemens controversy. While new things are coming to light, hopefully the department will act as a deterrent and any violators are dealt with in the strictest manner possible by the concerned authority.

Hearst Corp. who is the publishers of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Albany Times Union filed a brief on Friday before the Federal Government asking why it unsealed a statement which contained the names of players implicated in the drug use case by Kirk Radomski, an attendant who previously worked at the Mets clubhouse.  Earlier the government has insisted before the court that the information should remain secret. The brief was filed before the 2^nd U.S Circuit Court of Appeal saying that the government violated the order it was defending  when George Mitchell was allowed to publish the names of the players who used drugs as alleged by Radomski.  These names were contained in the affidavit of IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky.

When the affidavit became public in 2005, the names of the players he implicated were blacked out. Hearst then went to court praying that the entire affidavit be made public. This was opposed and in September the District Court declared that there was no public right in the names.  On the 20^th of December, a week after Mitchell’s report was released, the government asked them to unseal the affidavit which was then done so.

Earlier the government said that the affidavit should remained sealed so that they secure the cooperation of certain parties, but later on had it unsealed themselves. Both Hearst and the Major League Baseball Players Association are miffed at not having got a chance to respond to the motion which wanted the affidavit to be unsealed. The MLBPA says that there are issues of privacy and confidentiality which have been breached.

Hearst wants the case sent back to the district court and seeks answers as to why the government did not give notice of its motion to unseal and that the district court conduct proceedings appropriately.