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MLB Talk
by CSF
Staff
12-09-2006
Who said there wasn't quality
bullpen help available this year? It appears the Red Sox are out
of the race for Eric Gagne. The fact that the team that spent
over $100 million on J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo and now is balking
at paying another pittance of $6 million to Gagne should be a
warning sign to the Cleveland Indians. The Indians should
explore the possibility of Otsuka themselves. He is another good
closer candidate apparently available through trade this year.
"If he wants to stick with the Japanese motif, Epstein could
press the Rangers about Akinori Otsuka, who had 32 saves
in 36 chances last season, posting a 2.11 ERA. The Rangers,
having lost Gary Matthews Jr. to the Angels in free agency, are
in the market for a center fielder, raising the question of
whether the Sox would dangle Coco Crisp"
Boston Globe
Here is a good breakdown and analysis by Jeff Passan at
Yahoo Sports on the moves in MLB so far. You might want to
bookmark
Mr. Passan as he's one of the better young baseball writers
around. And sometimes I agree with him a lot:
"Best One-Sided Trade:
Atlanta receives Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez. Soriano
could eventually close for the Braves. Ramirez will never be
anything more than a serviceable No. 4 starter for Seattle, and
even that is a long shot."
If Soriano is over his injury
problems, this will be the heist of the year. It won't quite be
a Travis Hafner/Ryan Dreese theft, but in the same zip code.
Passan gives the Indians an up
arrow for their moves this winter. And it is true that the
Indians, on paper, have improved the club. But when you look at
what they were improving: Jason Michaels, Guillermo Mota, no
closer, it doesn't take much to improve on said paper.
The question will be, is it
enough to make a significant difference to a 78 win club in the
American League Central? The answer to that is if you think the
Cleveland Indians were a candidate for significant improving or
tweaking around the edges. I am hoping they are not done this
winter.
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