Rounding the Bases – Week Ending 11/27/11

This has been a loooong week my fellow baseball nerds, for myself that is. I had 3 teeth removed on Monday, including two wisdom teeth. Then, I went to visit my in-laws starting Wednesday, for the long Thanksgiving weekend, not coming home until Sunday night. And, unfortunately, my mother in-law has been recently bed ridden with back issues. I hope she gets better soon!  But enough about me… onto the important Baseball!

Starting with this Sunday's article, and continuing on every future Sunday, I will cover some of the previous week's smaller (but interesting) moves, rumors and happenings.

Boston’s Search For A New Manager:

It would seem that the manager search has been narrowed down to two solid baseball people, Bobby Valentine and Gene LaMont. Both gentlemen have interviewed with multiple Boston bigwigs in the past week, and a decision should come this week. With the St Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs making much quicker manager hiring’s you have to wonder why the Red Sox are dragging their heels to make a decision.

Both finalists are in their 60’s, have outstanding baseball resumes and have both managed two previous major league teams. Valentine also managed a Japanese team, winning the Japanese World Series in 2005! Perhaps the main reason for the delay is that the two candidates are opposites in the their approach to managing. LaMont is old school, laid-back, levelheaded and lets the players play type of manager. He never looks for personal attention. That can hardly be said of Valentine, who is notorious for seeking the limelight. Valentine can be very outspoken and has gotten himself in trouble, eventually, everywhere he has been. It will be interesting to see which way the Red Sox decide to go!

Wednesday’s Arbitration Deadline:

With the deadline for teams to offer players arbitration, there was a flurry of last minute activity (rumor has it that the MLB’s sole fax machine went down). In the end, every major free agent was offered arbitration, except for Roy Oswalt. By major, we mean classified an “A” type free agent, where the original team would receive a compensation pick (or two) if the player signs elsewhere. I guess the Phillies were scared Oswalt might accept their arbitration offer! The players now have until this coming Wednesday to either accept arbitration or decline it. I expect at least one major free agent surprise acceptance! My initial gut instinct would be David Ortiz agreeing to arbitration with the Red Sox.

Free Agent Signings:

While there hasn’t been much movement yet in the free agency market, a few smaller signings occurred this week.

Grady Sizemore re-signed with the Cleveland Indians for 1 year at $5 mil. His contract also has substantial incentives in the neighborhood of another $4 million. I have a feeling that the 29 year old Sizemore realized he wasn’t going to receive any offer much more substantial than that. Plus he probably felt a loyalty to the Indians who have stuck by him throughout multiple injury years (Sizemore has only played 210 games over the past 3 years, ouch!).

Bruce Chen re-signed with the Kansas City Royals for 2 years at $4.5 mil per. The 34 year old lefty Chen has had a solid couple of years in a row with the Royals so his resigning with them isn’t much of a surprise. He actually led the Royals in wins last year with 12! With the signing of Chen and the recent trade the Royals made for Jonathan Sanchez, it looks like the Royals are now just one solid veteran starter away from a very capable rotation (the young Danny Duffy and Luke Hochevar each have showed promising flashes).

Ryan Doumit signed with the Minnesota Twins for 1 year at $3 mil. I think this was a nice move by the Twins as Doumit can play first base, the corner outfields and backup Joe Mauer at catcher (not that anyone is claiming any great fielding prowess at any of these positions). The lefty Doumit hit .303 with a .353 onbase and .477 slugging in 77 games last year. I am inclined to think that the Twins will carry three options at catcher during the coming season, since the Twins are coming to grips with how fragile Mauer has been. And Doumit’s position flexibility and solid offensive production go hand in hand with the Twins organizational philosophy.

Clint Barmes signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2 years at $10.5 mil total. The Pirates had a huge hole at shortstop (both offensively AND defensively) and they curiously decided to fill it with what I can only label as an unbelievable overpayment for the enigmatic Barmes. The funniest part (by funny I mean dreadfully sad) is that the 32 year old Barmes instantly became the highest paid Pirate with the signing! This is just the type of silly free agent signing for which the small market Pirates have been famous for the past 20 years… who exactly were they bidding against to land Barmes? And, if they needed an emergency stopgap shortstop, why a second year? He will easily join Doug Strange, Pat Meares, Terry Mullholland, Derek Bell, Kevin Young, Jeremy Burnitz and Pokey Reese (amongst others) as just awful signings the Pirates have done to keep their team mediocre and cash poor. What a shame!