
TCR Friday Notes
Well glad thatís all over, onto baseballís fourth season, the oven is warminí and the rumors are poppiní.
Free Agents
With the World Series ending, players can begin to file for free agency. The first Cub casualty was Jeromy Burnitz who appears to have had his $7 million option bought out by the team for $500,000. A lot of folks spent last season comparing Sosa and Burnitzís 2005 seasons. I always felt that Burnitz needed to equal Sosaís 2004 season and in my ever-present early season optimism, thought he was up for the task. And I was wrongÖ
2005 Burnitz: .258/.322/.435 24 HR, 87 RBI, 84 R, 57 BB, 109 K, 160 Games
2004 Sosa: .253/.332/.517 35 HR, 80 RBI, 69 R, 56 BB, 133 K, 126 Games
Okay his defense was better than Sosaís, which as you know, helped us lose more games than 2004 and helped our pitching staff regress from one of the leagueís best to middle of the road. So yeah, that didnít work out at all. And no, Iím not blaming Burnitz's defense for those unfortunate circumstances just stating what I think the overall value of right field defense is to winning ballgames. Heíll seek a starting job somewhere or possibly retire and if we had a team where I wouldnít have to worry about the manager playing him everyday over a more deserving younger player, Iíd be inclined to keep the lines of communication open and see if he wouldnít mind being a bench player. The Cubs apparently have 3 days to decide on Todd Walkerís option and also hold an opton on Scott Williamson. Glendon Rusch has his own option which he must decide upon in the very near future and of course Nomar and Neifi should be filing for free agency in the upcoming days.
In the same Trib article, it also does a bit of rumor mongering claiming the Rangers are interested in Corey Patterson.
In other free agents newsÖ
- Brian Giles turned down a three year, $21 million dollar offer from the Padres and filed for free agency. His agent stated that the offer wasnít even close to getting anything done.
- Billy Wagner turned down either 3 years /$24 million and a no-trade clause OR 2 years with an option for 2008 and incentives that would have made the deal worth up to $27 million, depending on your sources. Wagner would like Rivera money at about 3 years/$30 million and a no-trade clause. And thatís just silly. But it doesnít hurt to ask, right?
- Once the Theo Epstein saga is settled, Johnny Damon reiterated that Boston is still his first choice and would like to open up talks as soon as possible.
Minor League Free Agents
The Cubs did some work on the minor league front, resigning the following players:
1B/OF Brandon Sing
RHP Lee Gwaltney
LHP Phil Norton
LHP Yorkin Ferreras
INF Aaron Sisk
C Casey Kopitzke
The following players were released:
RHP Walt Nolen
RHP Alfredo Polanco
INF Jose Cruz
INF Aaron Smith
INF Uriak Marquez
RHP Armando Fernandez
RHP Mick Lefort
RHP Erik Foor
LHP Jason Terry
P Morrow Thomley
And according to our resident roster guru, AZ Phil, although I donít know his source, the following players are also minor league free agents:
RHP Talley Haines
RHP Jonathan Searles
C Mark Johnson
INF Cody Ransom
OF Calvin Murray
AZ Phil also believes that Cliff Bartosh and Nate Frese were retained by the Cubs, but I have yet to find corroborating evidence.
Winter Leagues
I looked around some of the winter league team pages and found the following players with Cubs ties on rosters:
Mexican Winter League
Casey McGehee
Trenidad Hubbard
Scott Chiasson
Chirs Walker
Dominican Winter League
P Alfredo Francisco
P Carlos Marmol
P Juan Mateo
P Adalberto Mendez
P Juan Cruz
P Alfredo Polanco
P Francis Beltran
C Sandy Martinez
3B Aramis Ramirez
LF Henry Rodriguez
CF Felix Pie
P Roberto Novoa
P Ed Campusano
C Oscar Bernard
INF Brendan Harris
Pie and most of the other Cubbies in the DWL, play for the Licey Tigers who have a roster of close to 100 players , but only about 30 or so have seen playing time so far. Iím guessing a lot of players are allowed to join the team like Pedro Martinez, Aramis and Vlad Guerrero and then can get into a game whenever they so choose. Pie so far is 8/24 in 7 games for a line of .333/.414/.625 with 2 doubles, a triple a home run and 2 walks and 6 strikeouts. In the VWL, Greenberg is hitting .350/.409/.500 in 10 games and about 40 at-bats.
Next week, the rumors will really start flying, plus GM meeting are the week after. Should be funÖ
Comments