The Commish Online www.thecommishonline.com
BLOG ARCHIVE: 12/01/06 - 12/31/06
12/29/06
White Sox GM Ken Williams grew tired of his World Series pitching staff awfully staff, trading away Freddy Garcia, Brandon McCarthy and almost shipping Jon Garland to Houston, all for younger pitching prospects with the dreaded "potential" tag. Is Williams a genius or simply power hungry? Read the latest Hot Corner to find out!
12/28/06
According to ESPN.com, Barry Zito just signed with the San Francisco Giants and will be getting paid way too much money ($126 over 7 years).
12/26/06
Randy Johnson's short and uneventful (from a success standpoint) stint with the New York Yankees may be coming to an end. Will he return to the Diamondbacks? Check out MLB.com for the latest updates.
12/22/06
While checking my email the other day, an early Christmas present arrived, courtesy of Sean Forman (baseball-reference.com founder). The good folks at baseball-reference.com have updated their site to include what they call Play Index. Basically, if you want to find out what pitcher surrendered the most home runs to Ryne Sandberg and other ridiculously useless but interesting facts, baseball-reference.com is the place to do it. The search form is easy to figure out and get what you're looking for. And by the way, it's Terry Mulholland. Merry Christmas.
12/18/06
In the past week, the Toronto Blue Jays have stepped up to the plate, offering a huge deal to Vernon Wells, keeping him in town for possibly the rest of his career. The larger deals all make sense. What I can't figure out, is how a team like the Angels can trade middle reliever Brendan Donnelly to Boston for a career minor leaguer (Phil Seibel) who will be 27 when spring training begins. Donnelly is one of those invaluable pitchers (2.87 career ERA in 276 appearances) every team wants.
With a contract under $1 million/year and a solid '06 (3.94 ERA, 6-0, 62 games), I can't understand why Los Angeles would be so willing to trade him, especially if their plan was to give $18 over 4 years to the slightly younger but much worse Justin Speier (4.02 career ERA). Either something is fishy with Donnelly's arm or the Angels are just plain stupid.
12/11/06
The Chicago Cubs continue their quest for mediocre pitching by snatching hohum pitcher Jason Marquis for 3 years and somewhere between $20 - $28 million, depending on the report. Marquis was 14-16 with an ERA above 6.00 last year. Imagine if Marquis was actually successful...
12/08/06
For the same amount of a Barry Bonds, the Yankees brought back Andy Pettitte, the man with too many "t"'s. For the details, click here.
12/08/06
Barry Bonds is still a Giant. $16 million for 1 year. Nobody cares.
12/07/06
Gil Meche. 5 years. $55 million. Kansas City Royals. Are you kidding me?!
12/07/06
The deals and signings are picking up now, but none of them seem to make much sense. Check out MLB.com for the latest news. Despite everyone desperate for pitching (the Cubs just gave Ted Lilly - TED LILLY - $40 million), the White Sox traded Freddy Garcia and only got first round failure Gavin Floyd and minor league pitcher Gio Gonzalez. Garcia is scheduled to make $10 million this year, but when you factor in that the Ted Lilly's of this world are now making that, Garcia (and his consistent 200+ innings every year) wasn't a huge burden on the payroll. Chicago White Sox GM Ken Williams likely has more moves up his sleeve, but he could have saved a step or two by trading Garcia for talent rather than freeing up more money to sign talent.
From Philadephia's perspective, Garcia will help the rotation immensely simply by giving the team a chance to win every fifth day.
12/06/06
Greg Maddux signed with the San Diego Padres for 1 year and $10 million, while the Mets acquired overhyped closer Ambiorix Burgos from Kansas City for pitcher Brian Bannister. Mike Piazza is expected to decide between Oakland and Texas shortly, J.D. Drew just made too much money courtesy of the Red Sox, and the gaggle of mediocre pitchers (Lilly, Meche, etc.) continue to wait each other out, hoping to be the last one available, creating a bidding war among the many teams desperate for pitching help. More updates to follow as they come in.
