Well fans, just a couple of weeks before pitchers and catchers report to their respective Grapefruit and Cactus League Spring Training facilities, MLB continues to make major headlines with free agency signings and even near-the-trade-deadline-like trades. Here goes…..We’ve got the Giants making sure the 27 year old Tim “The Freak” Lincecum stays in San Fran. for a couple more years for a cool $40.5 million. He wanted a shorter contract and he still got the big bucks as free agency will surely be good to him after the 2013 season. I’m thinking the Giants will be lucky to keep him if they do not make the playoffs in either 2012 or ’13. The extra Wild Card may help them though….
…..WOW!! Tigers owner Mike Ilitch goes out and pens Prince “I’m a way better” Fielder (than Miguel Cabrera at first base) to nine years and $214 million bucks. This was definitely a suprise to this guy right here as I figured Prince would stay in the senior circuit N.L. Ilitch also owns the Detroit Red Wings and his committment to making his teams competitive while trying to uplift the repressed Detroit area are even far more impressive than this signing. However, Detroit’s lineup is impressive enough, especially if you’re in the A.L. Central Division. The White Sox, Indians, Twins, and Royals will be fortunate to hang with the Tigers passed July. Cabrera thinks he will go back to the hot corner. I’d like to see that, but I won’t hold by breath. He’s been in Detroit since ’08 and has 5 errors in 14 games at 3rd. That’s minor league stuff…..
……Well the Yanks finally went and got that big pitcher from Seattle. Nope, not King Felix Hernandez. They traded Catcher/DH up and comer Jose Montero for RHP Michael Pineda. Montero tore it up as a call up last year and people think he will be a big slugger for years to come. Pineda had a great start to his rookie season last year and even made the All-Star game before tiring a bit down the stretch. He went 9-10 for a team that CAN’T hit with a 3.74 ERA and 210 K’s to boot. People questioned why the Mariners traded a young power arm for a batter who may develop into a decent catcher. I didn’t. They are real deep in arms with King Felix at the top of the rotation, and even if they are suspect, they hit .233 as a TEAM. That’s ROUGH. The Yanks’ rotation is looking real solid with C.C. Sabathia, Pineda, Ivan Nova, A.J. Burnett, and newly signed free agent Hiroki Kuroda. The Yanks always make a splash in the off-season and this was it folks. Ironically, Kuroda only got a one year deal but did grab $10 million.
To keep things in the A.L. East, of course the Red Sox have acquired a fantasy team as well with the likes of closer Andrew Bailey to replace Jonathon Papelbon. That was an old fashioned trade that, with Bailey, also fetched Ryan Sweeney, a monsterous RF. The A’s got OF Josh Reddick, who was solid last year when the Sox injuries mounted. Miles Head, an INF, and P Raul Alcantara also moved West. So the Sox now have Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Clay Buccholz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Daniel Bard filling out the rotation with Bailey, “I’m not chicken” Alfredo Aceves, and Bobby Jenks in the pen. Man that’s a deep team with some BIG names with BIGGER arms. PLUS, there’s rumors of going after Roy Oswalt, who I can’t believe doesn’t have a home yet. And they already signed former Met starter John “I should play in New England” Maine to a minor league contract in case the Bard experiment doesn’t work or Matsuzaka is more of a Dicey arm rather than K pitcher as anticipated.
Later fans.