Late Innings

Peter Gammons of ESPN wrote about the Dodgers 21 year old starter today, currently slated as their #3 starter. RotoProfessor smells breakout with this pitcher, as do I:

2009 Projection: 14 W, 195.0 IP, 3.25 ERA, 208 SO, 75 BB, 1.35 WHIP

He’ll be the ace of the Dodgers come 2010.

Update: RP is projecting Kershaw to have 190 SO this year at a 12% rate. I think that probability is much higher than many believe… seriously. Edison Volquez whiffed 206 hitters last year. Who saw that happening?

In case anyone missed the news today, Manny Ramirez finally signed. Frank McCourt and the Dodgers’ brass acquiesced, and gave Manny the money he wanted. He’s getting the 45MM over two years, but less of it is deferred.

Some interesting quotes about the whole thing, and of course my color commentary thereafter:

The mood brightened in sunny, balmy Dodgers camp with the news that Manny Ramirez was on his way into town to continue a Dodgers career that could not have begun more auspiciously. Quirky, funny Manny isn’t due in until Thursday, after he completes a full physical Wednesday in L.A., but his peppy personality was already seen in some teammates who were just happy to hear they weren’t going to have to fend for themselves.

In case anyone figured, that was CNN’s Jon Heyman. He is to Manny as Chris Matthews is to Barack Obama. Actually I’m not sure if that’s the best analogy, but he’s been the official mouth piece in regards to this contract saga.

I’m glad to see that many other people are starting to see this Heyman/Scott Boras tie, originally brought up by Baseball Analysts’ Rich Lederer. This is from the RotoWorld blurb last night, when the contract talks were starting to converge:

That’s ESPN speak for “we blew it, but we’re going to do our best not to admit it.” It’s probably only a matter of time until something does get done here, and we’ll trust SI.com’s Jon Heyman, the unofficial mouthpiece of Boras Corp., to have the scoop.

Manny then chimed in on the whole saga:

I cannot control what people might think … The economy is making everyone adjust. I will be happy to play for L.A., win and win a couple Gold Gloves just like Andruw Jones.

Wow. Thank god this is finally over.

…does that mean he’ll be signing soon? The last time I did this, Jason Varitek then signed his one year, 5MM deal. In either case, the other Scott Boras client apparently got another offer from the Dodgers this afternoon:

From what I understand, though, there WON’T be a deal tonight. The offer is a two-year, $45 million contract, with salaries of $25 million the first year and $20 million the second, but the second year is a PLAYER option so Manny can walk away if he believes he can get more on the open market next winter. If he is injured during the first season, the second year becomes guaranteed. Boras and Co. have taken it under advisement, and the club is expecting a response early tomorrow.

Essentially they combined the one year, 25MM offer the team made a month back and added a player option onto it (for 20MM), pushing this puppy to 45MM (potentially) over two years. As you recall, Ned Colletti made the exact same offer back in November. In other words, I’m seeing little deviation in the offers to Man Ram.

If Boras maintains his “hold down this fort approach", this permutation of offer #1 with offer #2 will be handled the same way as the prior ones were: in front of a firing squad. In all fairness, Manny is an idiot for leaving this money on the table. He will be paid more during the two years with the Dodgers than he would had he shut up in Boston and played out the final two option years (each at 20MM a piece, assuming they were vested of course.) But then again, as we’ve been witnessing all off season, this is just Manny being Manny.

ESPN’s Buster Olney speaks out on the possible “destinations” for Manny:

And yet just two teams have shown an interest in Ramirez, who hit .388 after the All-Star break last season – the Dodgers have serious interest, but only on a deal of one or two years, apparently, and the Giants have limited interest. Ramirez is one of the greatest hitters we have ever seen, a unique talent who put on one of the most extraordinary performances of our generation in his 10 weeks with the Dodgers, and he’s probably going to have to take about half of what Jim Thome got from the Phillies six years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, Ramirez was fantastic last year, a 6+ WAR player (even with his fielding being at a disadvantage.) However his attitude about his contract, plus his ridiculous contract demands, have limited his demand. The best contract received by a corner outfielder this year was the three year, 31MM deal received by Raul Ibanez from the Phillies. And that was considered by many in the media to be a “bad contract.”

Manny shot down a pair of offers from the Dodgers which any other outfielder on the market would have taken with open hands. He’s still expecting to land a 100MM contract. News flash, not going to happen. He’s expecting to land four years, again not going to happen.

Still this news only proves one thing, that CNN’s Jon Heyman is full of shit whenever he reports “news” about Manny. In other words, this glowing piece he wrote about Manny and Scott Boras two days ago is suddenly not worth anything.

Attention Late Innings readers! We have breaking news regarding MannyBManny:

Ramirez, Dodgers closer, but deal still not imminent

Now, going from what I read from Rich Lederer about Boras and his clients, he uses Jon Heyman as his means for communication, or as he put it, his personal “mouthpiece.” Granted the free agent market has “moved” slightly in the past few days, if you count the deals for Orlando Hudson and Joe Crede as blockbusters. Still movement is movement, and Boras is simply using his advertising arm (e.g. Heyman) to drum up support for his (currently largest) unsigned client.

Seriously. Let’s translate this “breaking” story:

Dodgers have done some compromising in recent days, according to people familiar with the negotiations, as the two sides seem to now understand that they aren’t going to get exactly what they want in a potential deal.

In other words the two parties probably haven’t met. Boras gave Heyman a call and told him to get his ass to work; Manny is seeing reality and is scared. Moving on:

But as to whether the Dodgers ultimately get Ramirez, well, that remains uncertain, even now as spring has sprung.

It’s all but certain that the Dodgers will get Manny. We’re the audience here Heyman, and there’s a bad case of dramatic irony heading our way…

Ramirez has to understand by now he isn’t getting a four-year deal (nor certainly five or six), and the Dodgers probably know that their offers of $45 million over two years or $25 million over one year aren’t going to get it done, either.

Translation. Boras saw that he could only get 2MM for Crede when he was hoping to get 7MM. He saw that Garrett Anderson only got 2.5MM. He’s not stupid, he read the writing on the wall. The market for a bad fielding corner outfielder is dry, especially with Jim Edmonds still on it. Boras is simply rattling the saber here. He knows that no other team will pony up 25MM for Boras, but he’s still trying to remain on the offensive with the Dodgers.

There are indications the sides may be slightly closer. But that doesn’t mean they are close.

We are still where we were back when the Dodgers made their 25MM one year offer. Boras is clearly struck with a case of temerity here.

As recently as a few days ago, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, perhaps in a fit of frustration, was said to be telling friends he just might fly to Pensacola, Fla. to confront the Man-child himself.

Most baseball people believe a Dodgers deal will eventually get done for Ramirez. But both sides appear fairly firm in their beliefs.

As I stated earlier, it will happen, but when…

The Giants are the only other team known to be in the bidding, and perhaps discouraged after being ripped for giving Edgar Renteria $18.5 million over two years, they’ve stated many times that they aren’t up for a bidding war. Even so, their presence may provide Ramirez the resolve he needs to hang tough.

Translation: there goes the “competition"… oh shit! Panic time yet?

The Dodgers, who always prefer short-term deals anyway, say they are willing to make Ramirez the second- or third-highest paid player in the game despite a dreadful economy. But so far they seem to be stubborn about sticking to a deal of one or two years. Ramirez can counter by pointing out that he saved the team last year by reinvigorating the franchise, hitting a ton (.396 with 53 RBIs in 53 games, and an outrageous .520 in October) and leading them into the NLCS after coming to a .500 team. He knows the Dodgers aren’t the same without him. But is that enough leverage?

Turn to Stats 3:16 … another reading from the Book of Manny, as written by Boras (publisher Simon Schuster.) This is when Ned Colletti should offer him a one year, 15MM deal to put Boras in his place. Again, it’ll be the best offer on the table.

The market has been dreadful, especially of late. And since Oliver Perez signed with the Mets for $36 million over three years, none of the stars to sign has even broken the $10 million per year barrier. Excellent players such as Bobby Abreu and Orlando Hudson signed for $5 million and $3.38 million guaranteed.

Translation, Boras is losing sleep big time, and he ran out of Tylenol PM. He saw that the market is correcting itself, and Manny’s number is about to be called.

However, Ramirez’s case is somewhat different in that he affects the team on the field and at the gate (though owners will dispute the claim that he pays for himself, especially if he’s making north of $20 million). It’s true he needs a job. But, as one competing executive pointed out, “They need him, too.'’ Ramirez is a prideful and patient guy, not to mention a fellow who doesn’t especially treasure spring training.

Boras in other words is starting to get desperate. The Dodgers “need” Manny…

The negotiations, already difficult thanks to the determination of Ramirez and agent Scott Boras, a down economy and an owner who isn’t exactly flush with cash, also have the hurdle of the recent history between McCourt and Boras. Their latest dealings include at least three tough outcomes in fairly high-profile cases: the failure to sign top draft choice Luke Hochevar, the opt-out decision by outfielder J.D. Drew and the free-agent signing of Andruw Jones, an unmitigated $36.2 million disaster from Day 1 due to Jones’ bad shape and underperformance.

The mouthpiece throws up a little reverse psych in an attempt to shake up Colletti. Highlighting bad deals to show the brilliance of giving Manny a monster deal? Don’t do it! Stay strong Ned! Never give in! Never give up! Remain steadfast homeboy!

However, Boras and the Dodgers have gotten past that history to make two deals this winter, one a minor-league deal for veteran pitcher Jeff Weaver, the other an unusual separation agreement for Jones. So any belief that the hard feelings will prevent a deal is unfounded.

Here’s a look at some of the other better remaining free agents …

blah blah blah. The mouthpiece goes on to prattle through some other remaining free agents available, mainly to show that it’s slim pickins’ after Manny.

***

Heyman is trying to sell Manny with the same manner as George W. Bush sold the bailout, and Barack Obama sold the stimulus. That is we need to move fast and get THIS THING DONE! AND GET IT DONE NOW!

If I was Ned Colletti, I’d just sit back and laugh and wait it out, until Manny and Boras come begging to your door for that 25MM offer. They have no other offers, there are no “mystery teams” here. It’s down to the Dodgers and Manny. The ball is in the Dodgers’ court, and they have all the time in the world. Manny will agree to them on their terms.

This case is the 2009 equivalent of the Kyle Lohse situation, where he held out until the end of the 2008 Spring Training, signing a one year deal out of desperation with the Cardinals. Manny will sign, it’ll be in March and it’ll be with the Dodgers. Period. We know how this thing will end. There’s no need to rush through things. The only thing on a collision course after all of this is Jon Heyman’s journalism.

Lots of stuff to run through quickly, but I see no need to use an ordered list here… on Friday last week the Twins inked Joe Crede to a one year deal somewhere between 2.5MM and 7MM. His offense was the main thing dragging him down in 2008, and if he rebounds in 2009, it’ll be good for both him and the Twins. With this news, I still see no need for Seattle to reduce their asking price for Adrian Beltre, who will be a hot name this November. … Speaking of other signings, Los Angeles signed Orlando Hudson to a one year deal worth 3.4MM. If he hits his incentives, he’ll be given a compensation of 8MM. He’s worth the 8MM, but is not worth the 15MM that he was originally seeking. Still with this, the team should really focus on getting Manny signed…

Speaking of other Type As who turned down their arb offers back in December, I could see (the other Orlando) Cabrera in Oakland, however not at 5.5MM, since he’ll cost an unprotected first round draft pick in the process. The same thing applies with the Twins and Juan Cruz. …

Hindsight is 20/20 for Cruz, and other players who gave the middle finger to their arb offers. (Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic)

I’m changing my mind now on Garrett Anderson’s contract, only because he’s only getting 2.5MM. RotoWorld called this move an “uninspired” signing by Frank Wren, but at that price Anderson’s worth it. If he gave the money that the Angels gave to Gary Matthews Jr. two plus years ago, it would be another story. Still I wish they would have signed Jim Edmonds instead…

Rich Lederer from Baseball Analysts sums up the arbitration cases nicely, and I agree with him when he calls Jeff Francoeur “overrated.” … Edwar Ramirez might have been referred to as “good hittin’” by Kevin Millar, but others disagree. The same thing applies to the rest of the Yankees’ relatively unknown (yet effective) bullpen. … and lastly in regards to Rick Kranitz’s “mystery starter”, I like David Pauley. Just say “no thanks” to Danys Baez.

News item of today: Andre Either signed a 3.1MM deal. Finally the corner outfielders are starting to sign, as in we saw this past weekend with Ryan Ludwick and Rick Ankiel. Will Corey Hart and Ryan Zimmerman come to terms now? I’m not sure. Still we’re starting to see fewer arbitration cases than we did last year. Last year we had eight cases, this year we have three so far (the players winning two of them.) This year with teams locking down their players (notably Ryan Howard), arbitration isn’t as fun this year as it was years in the past. Granted the month is still young…

Also, Edwin Encarnacion agreed to terms on a two-year deal. He’ll make 7.6MM over the next two, leaving one year of arbitration for him (2011) on the table. If Encarnaction goes deep 35 times, as projected by RotoProfessor, then this deal will look good for Walt Jocketty and Co., regardless of how bad Edwin will look in the field.

From this evening’s news wire:

Right-hander Jeff Weaver agreed to a minor league deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday after taking last season off.

Weaver, who played for the Dodgers in 2004-2005, is 93-114 with a 4.72 ERA in nine seasons. He has played in four postseasons, winning the clinching Game 5 of the 2006 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals.

I’m watching the Obama press conference and am hearing words mentioned like “economic stimulus” and “worst economic times since the Great Depression.” For Weaver, things were pretty good for him, as well as the economy. In 2006, he went 8-14 with a 5.76 ERA. However he tuned himself up in the postseason for the Cardinals, had a big World Series and then left for greener pastures as a free agent. The team that scooped him up was the Mariners (with Bill Bavasi obviously) for 8.325MM (the same salary he made in 2006.) Weaver paid off dividends immediately for his new employer, going 7-13, 6.20.

He had a hard time finding work back in 2008, mainly due to ridiculous contract demands and for the most part sat out the year (he did apparently pitch in the lower levels of the Brewers’ organization.) We’ll see if he can get himself into gear for 2009 for the Dodgers. That 5.0 WAR that Derek Lowe had can’t be replaced by any free agent starter on the market currently…

As in the following:

It didn’t take Manny Ramirez long to turn thumbs-down on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ latest attempt to bring him back to Chavez Ravine.

Just hours after the Dodgers offered him a one-year, $25 million contract that would have made him the second-highest paid player in baseball and the highest-paid outfielder in baseball history, Ramirez and agent Scott Boras informed the team late Monday night that they’d rejected that offer.

Everyone knows that Scott Boras spurred the two year, 45MM offer from the Dodgers. And it apparently didn’t take Manny and Boras long to shoot down this offer. Honestly, I’m waiting to the Dodgers to simply “move on.” If that’s the case, will Boras get his client the four year, 100MM offer (or six years, 150MM according to Jon Heyman?)

There are tons of options that the Dodgers can use to fill their outfield holes, both internally and on the free agent market. And Manny, the more he shoots down, the less he’s likely to get. I understand that Boras enjoys getting his client long term deals, since that’ll free up his time for subsequent seasons. However I’m now excited to see what Boras will get his client, with the Dodgers and Yankees (can’t sign anymore Type A free agents) out of the picture. Sooner or later, Boras is going to have to settle for his client who’s on the wrong side of 35…

Why in the world did the Padres and Kevin Towers have any interest in signing Brad Ausmus? Going all ShysterBall on y’all:

Ausmus, who makes his home in nearby Del Mar, Calif., was a player Towers talked too often during the offseason. The two are also friends.

Any ways that was short-lived, since he signed a few hours later to be Russell Martin’s backup in Los Angeles. Towers countered immediately by signing Henry Blanco.

Is it just me, or are these two teams in strict competition over major league retreads who shouldn’t even be bringing a bat into the batters box? Blanco thankfully is a much more competent hitter than Ausmus, still neither of them should ever be pushed into full-time duty if need be. I think this all started when Towers countered Ned Colletti’s Juan Castro signing with his signing of David Eckstein. Exciting. These kind of things only happen on the left coast…

Update (Tues 2:42 PM): According to Jayson Stark of ESPN, the 17.1MM deal for Blake will be announced Thursday. Also, the team inked free agent Mark Loretta to a 1.25MM deal last night (not a bad signing at all.)

I’m reading RotoWorld now, and apparently Casey Blake is about to sign a three-year deal with the Dodgers. BTBS is also discussing this now. The Indians apparently were interested, as were the Twins. The main reason here is that the Dodgers went the extra mile and gave Blake that third guaranteed year. RotoWorld isn’t too optimistic about the deal:

This looks like another awful multiyear deal handed out by Ned Colletti, but we suppose one of them will have to work out eventually.

I’m not sure if I agree with this. Blake’s not going to handcuff the team with a contract in terms of both term and compensation. There have been far worse deals given out the past two years, and Blake does offer a sense of consistency, though he essentially has little value over the replacement player (if any.) At 17MM, it’s not that bad of a contract (the average value is less than the 6.2MM that Blake got in 2008.) They would have got compensation if Blake signed elsewhere since he was a Type B and was offered arbitration, but he cost the team the young catching prospect Carlos Santana last July.

This signing isn’t overly surprising. Heck, I even predicted that Blake would get a three year with the Dodgers deal back in August. Then again I guessed 25MM, and that was before the whole “worst economic times since the Great Depression” rhetoric kicked in. Still this deal in the end will only hurt the third baseman market, which includes both free agency (Joe Crede) and trades (Garrett Atkins.)

Interesting news item from yesterday: Dodgers’ ace Chad Billingsley slipped on ice at his home, broke a bone in his leg and had surgery the same day to fix the infraction. He should be fine for Spring Training (some people aren’t certain), however considering the fact that I live about an hour from where Billingsley resides, I can vouch for him. The Northeast is going through a cold period right now. We had ice on Friday last week, and there were traffic wrecks a plenty, since people seemingly forget how to drive in inclement conditions after months of warm Summer weather. On an aside, this is usually the time when Al Gore gives his “global warming” localized lectures…

“Ice to see you.” Billingsley was 16-10, 3.14 last year with 201 Ks for the Dodgers. (Ann Heisenfelt/AP)

This injury only addresses the weaknesses that the Dodgers have currently in their rotation now. If the season was to open today, Billingsley would be their Opening Day starter. Hiroki Kuroda gets the #2 slot, and 20-year old phenom Clayton Kershaw is the #3 starter. After that, there aren’t other options aside from dipping down to their farm. Esteban Loaiza left to the White Sox in mid-season, Brad Penny and Derek Lowe are soon to be gone as well. Greg Maddux is to retire. Yes I understand that Ned Colletti has a large issue to take care of with this, however I hope that he has a “Plan B” ready just in case C.C. Sabathia doesn’t sign with the team.

I just wanted to round up a few interesting links and small news tidbits of the day:

• David Laurila of BP sat down with Indians’ starter Anthony Reyes for a five minute Q&A session. Apparently there was some bad blood between Reyes and (Cardnials pitching coach) Dave Duncan. Reyes seemed to find his niche in Cleveland, pitching to a 2-1 record with a 1.83 ERA before being shut down. You have to give credit to Mark Shapiro for this shrewd move. He gets a very-solid starter to be matched alongside Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona and Jake Westbrook, and all it cost him was a middle reliever.
• The Dodgers shot down the 5.5MM 2009 team option on Angel Berroa, and the Cardinals did the same with Mark Mulder’s 11.5MM option. Next on the easy list, the Braves choosing between a 6MM buyout our a 20MM option for Mike Hampton. On an aside back to Berroa, remember when there was outrage on the East Coast about Hideki Matsui being snubbed for the 2003 Rookie of the Year voting?
• Jose Canseco now has regrets after writing Juiced (no surprise.) File under “clown.”
• Here’s a clever post from Royals Review which attempts to find a measure to whether a starting pitcher is a bona-fide #1, #2, etc. His findings were that Zack Greinke was an ace in 2008, and Gil Meche was an ace in 2007 and just missed the cut in 2008 (funny about those who were criticizing the Royals for Meche and his contract before last year.) Any ways the Royals won 75 games last year, and you could only imagine how many more they’d win with Joakim Soria in their rotation (note to Glass, Moore, Hillman, Leo Nunez can close.) Conversely you can also imagine how many more they would have lost had Carlos Silva been their #3 starter.
• I think I’ve reverse-engineered J.C. Bradbury’s formula which is used to calculate a player’s true value. Since he says that Mark Ellis will be valued at 35MM between 2009 and 2010, and Ellis actually will be receiving 11MM during those two years, then his formula must weight defense ten times as much as offense (no need to calculate any eigen vectors here.) It’s either that, or that he’s factoring in the extra million fans that will come to Oakland and pay to watch the A’s play in 2009, just for them resigning Ellis. Next up on the things I plan to reverse-engineer: the Elias Rankings, Google’s PageRank algorithm and the SAT score metrics.

• I’ve seen a good amount of news today on Jason Varitek and whether he’d return to Boston. Long story short, Jorge Posada got the money he did last winter after hitting .338, hitting 20 HRs and putting up a sparking 154 OPS+. Varitek’s 2008 numbers were litterally half of that (.220, 13 HR, 74 OPS+.) If Scott Boras expects his client to get Posada’s money he got in 2007, Boston will let Jason walk.

  I’ve seen a few comments and Red Sox blogs about how the Orioles will give away Ramon Hernandez to them for free. Note to the Nation: fat chance. Hernandez was the tenth-best fantasy catcher last year, and Andy MacPhail isn’t going to just flip him, with Baltimore paying some of the salary. Hernandez is a viable trade chip, the same goes with Melvin Mora and Aubrey Huff. All three hitters had solid 2008 seasons. Besides, if Baltimore elects to not-resign Kevin Millar (20HR at 3MM in 2008 is not overpaid by the way), Hernandez can still play first for them in 2009. Matt Weiters is all but ready to be the starting backstop in 2009, and alonside David Price of the Rays, are the early challengers for the 2009 AL Rookie of the Year award. If the Red Sox fans want a trade that works, the Sox would flip Clay Buchholz to the Orioles for Hernandez. Buchholz then in turn would flip his girlfriend Erica Ellyson (2008 Penthouse Pet of the Year) to me. That’s a trade that would clearly benefit all three parties.

I read a piece this weekend in the NY Daily News, mainly about Manny Ramirez asking for a six year deal this coming Winter. I know that his services will be in demand this winter, especially after a .332, 37 HR campaign, however hopefully teams won’t go overboard for him.

If I did my math correctly and if Manny gets that six year deal he wants, he’ll be 43 at the end of the contract. In order for him to make out ahead, he’ll need to recoup at least 20MM a year for the next two years, the money that Boston was going to pay him in options if he had just remained quiet. The Dodgers agreed to drop these two options, and he’ll be a free agent on November 15th. The Dodgers will most likely offer him arbitration as well, especially since he’s a Type A free agent (or will most likely be so.) They wouldn’t mind having him back on a one year deal.

The arbitration bit will hurt Manny, since many teams who go after Ramirez won’t want to surrender the draft picks. Still an ideal situation is that we’ll have some more MLB collusion, that is the same flavor that we had back when Barry Bonds wasn’t being tendered a contract. I’d love to see Manny simply just get one year contracts, and have to watch him re-work his worth each year. However I don’t see that happening. Manny should get at least three years this year, and one team might go out on a limb and give him four.

Prediction: three years, 57MM. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Any ways as usual I’ve been drinking tonight (note to casual L.I. readers, this tends to happen often here.) I made predictions last week as to who would win each Division Series. I got the Rays and Dodgers right, I got the Angels and Cubs wrong. In regards to the Phillies, the pitching is key. Brett Myers stepped up, as did Cole Hamels, and Joe Blanton was huge. That’s why they won. Of course the Brewers’ mistakes helped. The Angels I thought were going to pull it out as well, however they made base-running mistakes all series. Still, as we’ve learned now facing Jon Lester in a short series is deadly. And we also saw the importance of jumping out to a 2-0 lead in a short series, since all four of the teams that did this either swept their series or won it in four.

Any ways with that stated, we have our Championship series. I still think the Dodgers are going to win the whole thing (as I’ve been saying since March.) It’ll be great to see Manny Ramirez go back and face his (supposedly maligned) teammates in Boston. I love the story that the Rays are writing now, and I’d love to see them win, however the Red Sox have too deep of a team. I’m rooting for the Dodgers to knock the Red Sox, just so I won’t have to hear the words “Nation!” and “dynasty” uttered all throughout ESPN all Winter.

Any ways back to the hot stove discussion, and in regards to the Rays, think back to the Chad Bradford trade. The Rays get him for this year and the next for 3MM. The Orioles? They get a PTBNL. As to who they would get for this, I’m not sure. Reid Brignac, I doubt it. Same goes with Jeremy Hellickson or Wade Davis. As Peter Schmuck said, they most likely won’t get their blue chip prospects here. One reader posted a comment saying how Baltimore will most likely receive Evan Longoria, since they’ll want to unload all that money he was inked to back in April. As to what the comment said:

I still think that the Rays regret giving so much money so soon to Longoria and they are trying to offload him to the Orioles as the PTBNL, but of course he didn’t clear waivers. The O’s have two major concerns with accepting him though: 1) all that guaranteed money he’s getting; and 2) they are already set at 3B with Mora. So I heard that Angelos is trying to get TB to pick up some of the guaranteed money in Longoria’s contract to take him off their hands.

Schmuck’s rebuttal was classic:

I think you’re right. The guy is totally overrated.

Hopefully Baltimore will make the same proposition to the Brewers for Ryan Braun. He also was given a good chunk of money so early into his career. Yeah I’d love to see Longoria in Baltimore, but then again pigs must fly. Maybe that’ll start happening after a few more drinks tonight…