Baseball Free Agent Season is upon us

Hey Dukie, heres some info on the Braves plan B (according to Dukie)
Vladimir Guerrero, OF

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Nov. 12 -- Orioles GM Jim Beattie has had phone discussions with Guerrero's agents, but the talks have been "preliminary." The 27-year-old superstar is a five-tool talent and could command one of the most lucrative free agent deals in baseball history after hitting .330 with 25 homers and 79 RBIs despite getting just 394 at-bats in 2003. Expect the Yankees, Seattle, Los Angeles, Baltimore or the New York Mets to bid for his services.

 

Keith Foulke coming to Bean town?

Nov. 25 - Foulke met with the Red Sox on Monday and attended a Celtics game as a guest of Boston GM Theo Epstein. But Dan Horwits, Foulke's agent, tells ESPN.com's Jayson Stark nothing is imminent, although the closer is expected to sign somewhere before the Dec. 7 deadline for the A's to offer him arbitration.
Foulke, who saved 43 games for Oakland last season, has offers from four teams -- the Red Sox, A's, Mets and a mystery team that is believed to be the Cubs, Stark reports. Tuesday's N.Y. Daily News cites a source close to Foulke as saying the right-hander is more inclined to sign with either the Red Sox or A's, because he sees the Mets as a rebuilding situation.

 

Keith Foulke
Nov. 26 - One day after telling ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that nothing was imminent with Foulke, agent Dan Horwits hinted to Stark that the Red Sox have offered Foulke a four-year contract. Of course, that still doesn't mean something is imminent. "Keith is just trying to decide if this is where he wants to spend the next four years of his career, if not longer," Horwits said.
In addition to the Boston bid, Foulke reportedly has offers from three other teams -- the A's, Mets and a mystery team that is believed to be the Cubs. Tuesday's N.Y. Daily News cites a source close to Foulke as saying the right-hander is more inclined to sign with either the Red Sox or A's, because he sees the Mets as a rebuilding situation.



Tom Gordon

Cubs
Red Sox
A's
Phillies
Nov. 26 - A source tells ESPN.com's Jayson Stark that Gordon has been offered a two-year, $7-million deal by the Yankees to set up for Mariano Rivera and is thinking seriously about it. Gordon has said he prefers to be a closer, and the Devil Rays and Mets are said to be offering him that role.
The Cubs also are said to be pursuing Gordon as a closer, although they have Keith Foulke first on their list and likely will wait to see what he decides. The Phillies also have interest in Gordon as a set-up man for new closer Billy Wagner.

 

Phils offer Millwood three-year deal

ESPN.com news services
The Phillies have offered free agent pitcher Kevin Millwood a three-year deal with a vesting option, ESPN.com's Jayson Stark reports.


It is believed the offer is between $9 million and $10 million a year. However, Millwood's agent, Scott Boras, has been telling teams they're looking for $13 million per year over 5-7 years. Boras has yet to respond to Philadelphia's offer.


The right-hander spent his first six seasons with the Atlanta Braves before he was traded to Philadelphia for minor league catcher Johnny Estrada on Dec. 20 in a cost-cutting move.


Expected to be the team's ace in 2003, Millwood went 7-2 in the first two months of the season. But he fell off down the stretch, going 4-6 after the All-Star break.

 

Hernandez, Long land with Padres

Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. -- All-Star catcher Ramon Hernandez and disgruntled outfielder Terrence Long were traded from the Oakland Athletics to San Diego for outfielder Mark Kotsay on Wednesday, more than a week after the teams tentatively agreed to the deal.



Kotsay






Hernandez






The teams thought they'd finish the trade Nov. 18, but the A's wanted to see medical information on Kotsay, who had a herniated disc in his lower back that hampered him last season.



Oakland asked for scans from an MRI exam on Kotsay, then requested that he have a physical exam. The Padres in turn requested physical exams on Hernandez and Long.



"The medical reports were probably as good as you can get," A's general manager Billy Beane said, relieved to have finally completed the swap.



"Mark Kotsay is someone we've always admired from afar, going back to his college days," Beane said. "We believe he's one of the best center fielders in the game, and we like him as an offensive player."



The deal provides more payroll flexibility over the next two seasons for the A's, who began last season with the eighth-lowest payroll in baseball and finished the year with a payroll of about $50 million, not including bonuses.



There is some slight deferring in Kotsay's contract, but "nothing significant," Beane said.


Scout's take
A National League scout offered the following assessment of the three-player trade between the Oakland Athletics and San Diego Padres:
On Mark Kotsay: "Maybe Billy (Beane) thinks Kotsay is the kind of guy you put in their system, and he'll get better. In college he was a guy who could work counts and really got the most out of his tools. He knows how to play. He's just an overall solid guy.''

On Terrence Long: "He's a temperamental guy, but if you put him in there every day and he knows he's going to play, you may get some more out of him, because he does have some power. He's kind of an in-between guy. You're not sure he's going to give you enough power to really fit on a corner like you want. And he's only about an average runner, so you're not sure he can play center field like you want.''

On Ramon Hernandez: "I've always liked Hernandez. I've always thought he was a pretty productive guy. He kind of takes what he's given at the plate. He'll hit some home runs and he's a solid receiver. I'm just not sure what Oakland does now at catcher. It seems like there are guys who'll be out on the market. But Hernandez might be kind of hard to replace for the dollars Oakland will want to spend.'' -- Jerry Crasnick




Kotsay understood why everything took so long.



"Acquiring me and my salary, they wanted to make sure I wasn't going to miss significant time," Kotsay said. "Everybody would agree that's a smart thing to do. ... It's a big relief. Obviously, any time you're involved in a trade you want to find out one way or the other."



Hernandez, who made his first All-Star game last summer, hit .273 with 21 homers and 78 RBI. He also earned praise for his defense, his work with the A's powerful pitching staff, and his desire to play every day despite the rigors of his position.


"We're excited about adding two more pieces to our puzzle," Padres general manager Kevin Towers said. "In Ramon Hernandez and Terrence Long, we've acquired two solid players who will unquestionably be assets to the team, both from an offensive and defensive standpoint."



Hernandez will make $2.85 million next season in the third year of a $9.5 million, four-year contract. He has been the A's starting catcher for four seasons, and his departure leaves Oakland without an experienced catcher on a roster that's also could lose former AL MVP Miguel Tejada as a free agent.



Beane has a list of available catchers he likes. The new catcher probably will share time with backup Adam Melhuse more so than Hernandez did.



"I think it will be pretty difficult to find someone as durable as Ramon," Beane said. "He was out there almost every day. I'm not sure we're going to find a guy who catches 140 games a year like Ramon did."



Long, a former 162-game starter for Oakland who struggled in a platoon role last season, is due to make $3.7 million in 2004. He struck out looking to end the A's loss in Game 5 of their division series against the Boston Red Sox -- the fourth straight season Oakland failed to get out of the first round.



The next day, Long criticized manager Ken Macha for not paying enough attention to him, claiming the manager didn't shake hands with him in the locker room after the loss. Long was so fed up that he didn't play more last season, he said he was considering asking for a trade if the A's couldn't guarantee him a greater role for 2004.



"That's just a blip on the screen, I wouldn't say that's what motivated this," Beane said. "I'm not in position, it's not my role here, to emotionally react. It really meant nothing."



Kotsay has struggled through many injuries during his six major league seasons with Florida and San Diego, but he has been a consistent hitter with a high on-base percentage when healthy. The A's now have a wealth of center fielders following last Tuesday's acquisition of Bobby Kielty from Toronto for left-hander Ted Lilly.



With Kotsay and Kielty, Beane believes Oakland has upgraded its outfield both offensively and defensively. With these acquisitions, it is unlikely the A's will re-sign outfielder Jose Guillen.



The A's owe Kotsay $6.5 million in each of the next three years, including the automatic $1 million annual raise he received because he was traded. Hernandez is due $4.1 million in 2005, and Long will make $3.4 million next year and $4.7 million in 2005.



In addition, Kotsay has the right to terminate his contract after any season and file for free agency, though he doesn't expect he will need to do that.



"It is encouraging going to a ballclub that's been in the playoffs," he said. "This will be my first opportunity to play for a contending team

 

Decision may come by mid-December

HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros' offer to Andy Pettitte is in the range of $10 million per year, with some of that money deferred, ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports.



Earlier Wednesday, Houston television station KRIV quoted unidentified major league sources as saying the Astros had offered the 31-year-old left-hander a three-year contract.


Agents for Pettitte met with Astros officials Tuesday and said that Pettitte -- who is coming off a four-year contract with the New York Yankees -- may have a decision on his future plans by the middle of next month.


Re-signing Pettitte is the No. 1 priority of the AL champion Yankees, who have said they expect to negotiate with him later in the offseason.


The Astros' offer to Pettitte will be decidedly dwarfed by whatever the Yankees offer, which will likely be in the range of $13-$15 million per year, Olney reports.


What Pettitte's decision comes down to now is whether he wants to return to his home state with his family or stay with the Yankees and the bigger paycheck.


Pettitte lives in the Houston area.


Information from The Associated Press was used in this report

 

Alomar stays with $750,000 deal

Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Veteran catcher Sandy Alomar and the Chicago White Sox agreed Wednesday to a $750,000, one-year contract with a club option for 2005.


Alomar, 37, batted .268 with five homers and 26 RBI in 75 games with the White Sox in 2003, splitting time with Miguel Olivo.


Alomar has spent most of the past three seasons with the White Sox -- he was traded to Colorado and spent the last half of 2002 with the Rockies before rejoining Chicago last year.


Over his 16-year career, Alomar is a .275 hitter with 109 homers and 543 RBI

 

Matsui open to playing 'somewhere else

By Luke Cyphers
ESPN The Magazine

Kazuo Matsui was voted the best shortstop ever in Japan by the Japanese media, but he says he would switch positions if that's what it takes to play in the Major Leagues.


"I've only played as a shortstop, but I don't have an unhealthy attachment to it," Matsui said in his first interview with an American reporter since announcing his intention to play in the U.S. next season. "I would play somewhere else if it helps the team."


That leaves the Yankees in contention for the 28-year-old switch-hitting speedster. Other teams reportedly interested are the Mariners, Dodgers, Mets and Orioles.


All fall, speculation in New York has centered on the Yankees signing the Japanese free agent, who spent his career with the Seibu Lions and is no relation to the Yanks' Hideki Matsui. That would set in motion a chain of position changes in the Bronx, with Alfonso Soriano moving from second base to the outfield to open up a spot for Kaz Matsui.


But that doesn't mean Derek Jeter's job is safe, at least in Matsui's eyes. Nor is any other big-league shortstop, for that matter.


Wherever he ends up, Matsui would eventually like to return to shortstop. "My ambition would be to get my old position back."


A 5-foot-9, 183-pounder who has a 30-homer, 30-steal season, a career .309 batting average and four Japanese gold gloves, Matsui would be the first infielder to make the jump to the majors, following in the footsteps of pitchers Hideo Nomo and Kazuhiro Sasaki and outfielders Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui.


In October, Kazuo Matsui took a clandestine trip to New York to watch a playoff game in Yankee Stadium. He said it was a fact-finding mission to get a sense of the U.S.


"I didn't want to do it without seeing a major-league game," he says. "It was just amazing. The excitement was something I had never seen in Japan. You could tell the fans were very serious about it."


A few weeks later, he led off and played shortstop for the Japanese national team, which went undefeated in qualifying for the Olympics at the Asian championship tournament in Sapporo the first week of November.


He called playing on the team the fulfillment of a dream, and he considered staying in Japan for one more year so he could represent his country in Athens.


"I thought about it a lot," he said. "I had never been selected for the national team, and my body expressed my emotion out on the field. It was an honor."


But after consulting with his wife following the tournament, he decided it was time, after 10 years with Seibu, to accept a new challenge. He says he thinks he can adjust to the U.S. without feeling too homesick.


"The U.S. has so many Japanese people and restaurants," he says, "I think I can feel at home when I want to."


Though he's clear about his goals, including the ultimate one of playing shortstop in the majors, he says he has set no timetable on deciding what team he'll play for.


Nor will he predict what kind of numbers he'll put up next year.


"It's hard to imagine an answer to that right now," he says. "It depends on my role. I could be hitting first or second in the lineup, or I could be seventh or eighth, depending on what the team wants from me. I'll just have to wait and see what's needed."

 

Promoter expects decision next week

Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The promoter who brought the Montreal Expos to Puerto Rico last season expects a decision by commissioner's office next week on his proposal to host the team again in 2004.



Antonio Munoz, the Puerto Rican businessman, guaranteed major league baseball $6.6 million to stage 22 Expos games last season.



"We've had final talks and next week, between Monday and Tuesday, they should decide," Munoz said Wednesday. "The negotiations between me and the major leagues are set. What's missing is the approval."



Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, also is considering an offer from Monterrey, Mexico. The players' association has said San Juan is the leading contender, and DuPuy hopes to have a deal by next week.



Under the plan, the Expos again would play 22 games at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Montreal's games in San Juan probably would be before the All-Star break.



"They asked for shorter trips, improvements to the stadium, and that they hold the team together and resolve to find it a home by 2005,"' he said.



Munoz said players also demanded that their travel schedule take them only between the Caribbean island and the U.S. East Coast -- not more distant locations on the U.S. mainland. Last season, the Expos had to travel from Puerto Rico to Seattle.



The Expos were bought by the other 29 major league teams before the 2002 season, and baseball has discussed a permanent move to Northern Virginia; Portland, Ore.; or Washington, D.C. Major league baseball doesn't want to approve a move until financing for a new ballpark is complete

 

To tell you the truth I would rather have Vazquez then Millwood. Maybe just having an offer on the table will drive Millwoods price up for the Braves. Braves want Sheffield more than Millwood. If the Phils want him then move quick. Because the Yanks won't be out bid for Sheffield