Sandberg moves up to Iowa
INDIANAPOLIS _ Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is getting a promotion. He'll move from being the manager at the Cubs' Class AA Tennessee farm club to manager at Class AAA Iowa. The job became open when Iowa manager Bobby Dickerson left for a coordinator's job in the Baltimore Orioles system. Sandberg managed Tennessee into the Southern League playoffs this season after managing at Class A Peoria for two years.
As far as late rumors go, Cubs GM Jim Hendry laughed off a Chicago-based rumor that had the Cubs interested in Padres closer Heath Bell, with possible trade bait being catcher Geovany Soto or shortstop Ryan Theriot. As I blogged this morning, the Cubs like Bell, but he's not on their radar at all because he'll have a big raise coming this fall, as he's arbitration-eligible.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella says he'll keep Alfonso Soriano in the sixth spot in the lineup.
On the South Side, Ozzie says two key players will be Carlos Quentin and Alex Rios. Quentin is Guillen's choice for right field, his natural position, with Rios likely to play center. Ozzie called the team's defense this year very, very, very bad and says that area will improve.
Neither Ozzie nor GM Kenny Williams called the Sox the best team "on paper" in the AL Central, but Ozzie said he likes his starting rotation the best, with Freddy Garcia the choice right now to be the No. 5 starter.
Both Chicago teams deftly danced around inquiries from Japanese media members about free agent Hideki Matsui, the World Series MVP from the Yankees. With the Sox having plenty of DH candidates and Ozzie talking about outfield defense and the Cubs having no place to put Matsui, Chicago won't be his landing place.
More later.
Looks like Granderson is going to the Yanks, pending physicals.
Still no interest from the Cubs in David DeJesus? Lefty lead-off hitter with some pop that played a pretty impressive CF in 2008. No idea what the Royals are asking, but for a team with no CF, no lead off hitter and a lack of speed he seems like a fit.
The Cubs were "on him" a few years ago, when everybody thought the were after Teahen, who got a three-year deal from the Sox today. There really hasn't been that much interest in him this winter.
for the White Sox anyway. 3 year deal for Teahen, $14 million, something like that...
Bruce, I was watching MLB Hot stove last night and they were talking about the Halladay/Blue Jays situation. The other 4 projected starters in the Blue Jays rotation have a combine 40 major league starts. Is it really so hard to imagine a scenario in which they would take Canadian Ryan Dempster and a package of prospects including Vitters and Cashner/Carpenter/Jackson and either Theriot or Ryu. Halladay is the face of the franchise. Having an established innings eating starter who is Canadian would be a good thing for a team like that. And yes, his contract is a little high, but not ridiculous. I am sure the Cubs might provide some financial relief in such a deal.
The Cubs are in need of too much of that themselves. Remember Milton Bradley? They are not a player for Halladay.
Rosenthal and Morosi discussed how the D-backs/Tigers/Yankees discussed a three way where Max Scherzer/Austin Jackson/Michael Dunn/Phil Coke would've gone to Detroit, the Yankees would've gotten Granderson/prospects from the D-backs, and the D-backs would've gotten Edwin Jackson/Ian Kennedy. Late tweets from NY writers seem to suggest that both the Yankees and the Tigers were lukewarm on the deal. Personally, that would've been a steal for the Yankees, IMO. It doesn't make that much sense, IMO, for the Diamondbacks (swapping Scherzer for Jackson would be a downgrade, and I think most organizations have a Kennedy type arm), After further thought, it's a decent enough trade for the Tigers, although I think they probably deserve a bit more (that said, you don't always get what you deserve). I mean, a package of Scherzer/AJax/Coke/Dunn is probably too much for Granderson alone, so it isn't bad.
Leaving all that aside, that rumor seems to suggest the fundamental problems the Cubs might have in making a deal, if they hold Starlin Castro back. The Cubs don't have a ready, young arm of Scherzer's ability to offer that is in the bigs . The secondary problem is that they don't have a top young CF with Jackson's upside (I really don't think Jackson's bat will develop that much more, but some folks like to dream).
So, I'm curious about
a) Was there any truth to the talk that Peter Gammons indicated, that the Tigers asked for Castro and two others? If so, do we know who the two others were.
b) Has there been any indication, assuming that the Cubs are discussing Granderson actively, of a possible multi-team deal?
_____________
Personally, I think a package like Carpenter/Gaub/Parker would be equal, if not better than, Kennedy/Coke/Dunn, and I wouldn't be against forking over those a Carpenter/Gaub/Parker package to try and land Granderson. We just don't have the young CF, though, and I'm at a loss to think of a young CF that might be attainable (well, there is Felix Pie I guess).
This just seems so tantalizing and a bit less than what I expected (facilitated partially, I guess, by the Diamondbacks potential willingness to deal a young stud, if these rumors are correct).
The Cubs have not discussed Granderson as part of any multi-team deal. Two-way deals are hard enough to get done. What I've been told is that Hendry said to Dombrowski, "If you're going to trade Granderson, I'm interested." The Tigers actually have gone back and forth on whether to trade Granderson at all. Here is a guy who is not making that much money, relatively speaking, and he's a solid person. Of course, the Tigers would start by asking for Castro. The Cubs would say no. As far as the other names, nobody knows that but you'd have to figure Vitters and Cashner and Jay Jackson came up or would come up.
Is there really a lot of trade interest in him around the league?
There may be, but Baltimore seems to like him. I think it behooves MacPhail to keep Pie. He had a decent second half.
Was it Pinella who was fed up with Pie? I know that Gathright was a Pinella guy from his days in Tampa. We chatted last spring about how Pie still would have made a quality back-up. I guess my question is...does Lou have too much pull with the 40 man roster? Wuertz and Pie would look okay on this team right now.
Okay, I'll say the obvious thing most are thinking: This promotion and the fact that a lifelong Cubs fan (Ricketts) is the new owner now means Ryno will be the next manager of the Cubs as soon as Ricketts and Piniella are ready to part. Maybe that's at the end of the 2010 season; maybe it's at the end of the 2011 season.
Anyone who has watched Carlos Quentin play defense understands he's barely a leftfielder, and the Sox think putting him in right will shore up their defense?
Unless the Sox pull off a worthwhile trade (which sounds unlikely), the best hope they've got is giving Danks a shot in center and leaving Rios in right.
As far as the Sox DH situation, count me in agreement with gunner stahl. Andruw Jones? Who are they kidding? And it's not just a matter of power. Where's the improved OBP Kenny was talking about in September?
Not sure what you mean by the Sox having plenty of DH candidates. They don't have an acceptable one currently on the roster. I would certainly hope Kenny is looking for an impact hitter like Matsui for that position.
Ozzie said that decision would be easy every day. He said he could choose from among Kotsay, Konerko, Vizquel, Andruw Jones and others, depending on the day. Matsui came up, as I mentioned, but he does not appear high on priority list at this time. Kenny wouldn't rule out Thome, but that seems a longshot as well.
This "flexible" DH talk coming from Ozzie is depressing. Rotating bench players in a premium offensive position is a recipe for disaster. Hopefully Kenny has more sense and will take the decision out of Ozzie's hands.