Riding the Pine… Baseball Update 11/07/2007

Gold Gloves
NL Winners:
Russ Martin, Derrek Lee, Orlando Hudson, Jimmy Rollins, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Aaron Rowand, Jeff Francoeur, Andruw Jones, Greg Maddux,
(Note: Rowand and Francoeur were tied for the final outfield spot and both were given the award.)

AL Winners:
Ivan Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis, Placido Polanco, Orlando Cabrera, Adrian Beltre, Grady Sizemore, Ichiro Suzuki, Torii Hunter, Johan Santana.

A couple of notes about this: Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina were robbed. Molina has the top arm as a catcher, doesn’t let much past him, and works well with his pitchers; Martin won it because of his reputation of catching day in and day out. Pujols was the one bright spot on the Cardinals infield; sure, Rolen can still man his spot, but Eckstein and Kennedy made Pujols work to dig a lot of balls out of the dirt. Without him, things would have been a lot worse for the Cardinals pitchers. I don’t like the fact that both players that tied got the award; they really need to work on a tie breaker. It’s good to see some fresh blood win the awards (Sizemore, Rowand), but there are still some that get their awards based off reputation (Pudge, Jones).

News
– Owners have voted in favor of instant replay in baseball 25-5. It’s not set that IR will be introduced to the game; Bud Selig still will decide the fate. He’s been a vocal opponent of it since he feels it takes away from the umpires.

– The Giants are set to announce the re-signing of Omar Vizquel today. They have agreed upon a 1-year deal worth $5.5 mil. Vizquel will help the young pitching staff with his stellar defense, but the little ability he had to hit is quickly disappearing – not something you want on a rebuilding team.

– Joe Torre announced that Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa are moving across the country with him. It’ll be different to see Mattingly in a jersey other than pin stripes, but it will give him a change to work with his son.

– Jose Guillen is the most recent player linked to steroids; the San Francisco Chronicles is reporting that Guillen bought close to $20,000 in steroids between 2003 and 2005. HGH was also rumored to have been purchased. The report also listed former big leaguers Matt Williams and Ismael Valdez in the steroid scandal. Williams has stated that a doctor prescribed HGH to help an ankle injury towards the end of his career; no comment has come from Guillen or Valdez.

Rumors
– Tom Glavine’s name has been popping up a lot lately. Apparently, he wants to return to Atlanta and is willing to take less money to go there. Washington has approached him about a 1 year deal; he has said he’d be interested in that (and possibly re-teaming with Andruw Jones, who the Nationals have met with). Other teams rumored to be interested include the Astros, Cardinals, and Phillies.

– 4 more Japanese pitchers may come over the ocean: Kazuo Fukumori, Tsuyoshi, Shimoyanagi, Yasuhiko Yabuta, and Yukinaga Maeda. All have filed for free agency and would not be subject to a posting fee for interested teams. Reliever Masahide Kobayashi, starter Hiroki Kuroda, and outfielder Kosuke Fukudome have all filed for free agency and are already talking to MLB teams.

– The Tigers are discussing upgrading the outfield and their bench. Luis Gonzalez is one option to help in the outfield; they said if their season were to start today, the starting left fielders would be a platoon of Marcus Thames and Timo Perez. Other targets include Cliff Floyd and Shannon Stewart. One name being thrown around for the bench is Ben Broussard; there is a change Broussard will be non-tendered next month.

Transactions
Options Declined – now free agents:
Brian Lawrence, Andy Pettitte, So Taguchi, Jose Valentin,

Refused Minor League Assignment – now free agents:
David Newhan, Luis Rivas, Dave Williams,

Released:
Matt Miller

Re-Signed:
Marlon Anderson re-signed by the Mets, 2 years.
Greg Maddux re-signed by the Padres, 1 year $10 mil.
Curt Schilling re-signed by the Red Sox, 1 year $8 mil base.

Options Picked up:
Joe Borowski, Paul Byrd, Aaron Fultz,