After something of a lull the last few weeks, NatsTown springs back to life today. Plenty going on over the next 36 hours, including...
-- The NL Gold Glove awards will be announced at 3:30 p.m., with Ryan Zimmerman trying to hold off Chase Headley and Placido Polanco and retain his title for a second year.
-- The Nats are unveiling their new uniforms at 6:45 p.m. in an invitation-only "fashion show" at Nationals Park. Scheduled runway models include Zimmerman, Tyler Clippard, Ian Desmond, John Lannan and Drew Storen. (It's really a shame, by the way, that Miss Iowa Miguel Batista isn't taking advantage of this golden opportunity to prove once and for all he can walk in high heels.)
-- The Silver Slugger awards, meanwhile, will be unveiled tomorrow at 6 p.m. in a live broadcast on MLB Network. Zimmerman is trying to retail his crown in that department as well.
I'll have coverage of all of those events, including photos from tonight's uniform unveiling, so please check back later on for that.
In the meantime, Baseball America has put together a comprehensive list of the 533 players who became six-year, minor-league free agents this week. It's worth perusing the full list just to get a sense of who's going to be out this winter. Expect to see several of those names in Viera come February.
There are 27 guys who played in the Nationals' farm system this season who have become six-year free agents: pitchers Jimmy Barthmaier, Zach Dials, Jesse English, Victor Garate, Luis Garcia, Glenn Gibson, Chuck James, Jason Jones, Andrew Kown, Dan Leatherman, Carlos Martinez and Yunior Novoa; catchers Nolan Brannon and Devin Ivany; infielders Chase Lambin, Ofilio Castro, Pedro Lopez, Pete Orr and Wilberto Ortiz; and outfielders Edgardo Baez, Jason Botts, Brad Coon, Leonard Davis, Chris Duncan, Marvin Lowrance, Jerry Owens and Jamar Walton.
19 comments:
So, the Yankees and Red Sox are using Posada and Ortiz at DH respectively. The Cubs are going the cheap route, although some reports say they will try to trade Fukudome to clear salary room.
Can a player get a clause in his contract stating that player must start "x" number of games at a certain position. I'm assuming not due to the risk of injury. Maybe a percentage of games played must be started at a position? Or could an AL team say "Yea sure Adam, you can play first base, just sign on the dotted line," and then they turn around and make him the DH.
It seems like Rizzo assessed Dunn's value correctly and no other teams will be willing to give Dunn a four-year deal. Now the question is, how long will Rizzo wait for Dunn to realize that the Nats have the best offer, before he goes after other, cheaper, possibly better defensive options at first base.
SpashCity, the Tigers don't seem to be in a rush as they are exploring Victor Martinez and Carl Crawford as well as trades according to what I have read.
Why would Dunn even consider going to crappy Detroit for an offer which is the same as the Nationals especially since he could end up as a DH.
I think you hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph because at some point Rizzo has to move on.
This is exactly what happened to Dunn's camp after 2008. Texeira was the big name and nothing happened until after Texeira was signed at the beginning of Decemeber then the other suitors for Dunn fell out and it pushed into January of 2009 before the Nationals were the only ones left.
If Ladson is correct, the Nats have already offered 3 yr $40 million which seems to be the market rate. Dunn said he wanted to remain here so what gives?
The Nats' PR department missed an opportunity to have Miss Iowa twist a few necks at the fashion show.
Just for fun they could have had Batista walk the runway in Miss Iowa's bathing suit!!
@Steve M: I get what you are saying, but honestly Dunn might have more suitors than any of the other top free agents. Since it will only take 3-4 years as opposed to 5-7 for Lee, Crawford, Werth I think a lot more teams will be interested.
If the Angels strikeout with Crawford, they could look at Dunn as a good fallback. Oakland and Baltimore both need a big power bat at 1B/DH and could be interested. The White Sox are always an option as could the Blue Jays if they think they are close. In the N.L. the Brewers could look at Dunn if they move Fielder and I wouldn't count the Cubs out just yet. You also never know when a dark horse (Astros maybe) decide to jump into the market.
At this point I don't see Dunn coming back, unless the market just collapses. I want him back, but if the Nats did they would have already resigned him by now.
I think Ladson simply reported that a 3 year deal had been on the table for 3 months. I don't think any dollar value was reported. I think Boswell might have said in a chat that he thought it was significantly less than $40 million. Maybe more like 3yr/$30 million. I'm not sure about that though.
Regardless, that might end up being the going rate for Dunn (or even less). No one is going to give Dunn a 4 year deal to be a DH, especially since the market is glutted with potential DH's that would be happy to take a 1 or 2 year deal. If Dunn is serious about being a position player, and the Cubs can't meet his demands, then the Nats may be his only viable suitor.
It would be strange to see the Nats move on and sign someone else, and then have Dunn settle for a 2yr/20+ million deal to DH later on, but I could totally see that happening.
Steveospeak, I think Dunn is in "la la land". He was told 2 years ago by his agents to sign for something under market to stay employed and here he is at the present and nobody is going to give him $13 mill a year for 4 years. He can get $10 mill a year for 4 years but essentially while there are many window shopping, nobody is buying until Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth are signed.
http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=340500
Another Free Agent 1st baseman had surgery this week. Derrek Lee had thumb ligament surgery.
This is Dunn's primary competition for 1B/DH jobs:
V. Guerrero
L. Berkman
J. Thome
P. Konerko
D. Lee
H. Matsui
M. Ramirez
A. Huff
C. Pena
A. LaRoche
That's a lot of competition, and a bunch of those guys will take 1 or 2 year deals for less per year than what Dunn wants. Not to mention that some of these guys bring decent power bats with much better defense, some are better contact hitters (w/ less strikeouts), and some are just pretty decent power hitters who will be very cheap after they have sat around on the market for a while. I think Dunn could easily end up with way less than he thinks, maybe even less than the Nats already offered.
Time will tell, but I'll bet Rizzo pegged the market much better than people think, but I don't expect that Dunn will be back.
As to the uni's, the only specific things I've heard are the loss of the gold piping and script Nationals instead of block lettering.
In general terms, I have heard the new unis are "simpler," though I'm not sure exactly what that means.
Nats Fangirls blog had a picture of one of the prototype home jerseys up a few weeks ago which may end up being "THE" jersey.
I think the number fonts are exactly like the new fonts but not sure if that is the script design that was chosen.
http://natsfangirls.com/2010/10/time-to-buy-a-new-jersey/
I am very sorry to lose Dan Leatherman from my All-Name team.
The Hot Stove reports are great. Here is Mike Rizzo's interview today on MLB Radio:
"We have contacted his [Cliff Lee's] agent and begun discussions with him. I'm certainly not going to put all my eggs in the Cliff Lee basket. The chances of Cliff wanting to come to the Nats is small."
Mark,
Great news: Jeter's defensive WAR was -1.1, and he received a Gold Glove. Dunn's defensive WAR was -0.3. So the Nats needn't worry about Adam's glove: he's going to be honored for it later today!
The Nats PR folks are making their first of I assume many blunders regarding handling fo the fan base AGAIN this season by shutting most of us out of the new uniform unveiling. The fact that these events are only open to the "yes men" surrounding the Nationals is criminal.
Anon @ 2:12, are you for real? Every other jersey unveiling was open to the public and maybe they had 150 to 200 people at the last one at the ESPN Zone. Tonight they make it invitation only and 300 people will show up and now everyone wants to go since it is "exclusive".
I will be at my computer looking for Mark Zuckerman's photos!
Nice to see plenty of familiar faces on the minor league free agent list! ala my major league free agent roster of former Expos, here is my list of minor league free agents who have been part of the Expos/Nats organization somewhere in their past:
2B: Joe Thurston
OF: Mike Daniel
RHP: Josh Perrault
LHP: Mike Hinckley
1B: Joel Guzman
OF: Jeremy Reed
RHP: Jason Grilli
RHP: Luis Ayala
1B: Brad Eldred
RHP: Brian Lawrence
RHP: Tom Mastny
RHP: Daniel Cabrera
RHP: Claudio Vargas
OF: Prentice Redman
OF: Michael Restovich
OF: Norris Hopper
3B: D'Angelo Jimenez
RHP: Brian Bruney
RHP: Chad Cordero
RHP: Mike O'Connor
C: Michael Barrett
C: Luke Montz
2B: Alex Cintron
OF: Jorge Padilla
RHP: Zack Segovia
SS: Eric Bruntlett
2B: Melvin Dorta
OF: Wily Mo Pena
LHP:Horacio Ramirez
RHP:Steven Shell
RHP: Levale Speigner
RHP Winston Abreu
RHP: Jesus Colome
OF: Endy Chavez
OF: Willy Tavares
RHP: Clint Everts
the SADDEST part of this list is several of the individuals above have started for the Nationals!!
Well, sadder would be if they still started.
Wow, SCOTT ROLEN. Who saw that coming?
Leatherman, a multi-tool player for the ages.
A bit interesting as to who was NOT modeling uniforms--- Dunn & Nyjer for two. Of course, Dunn's picture was dropped from the Nats website mid-summer as the first step towards his becoming a "non-person". Also, maybe Nyjer isn't in as solid as the brass would like us to believe.
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