Pedro Martinez Rumors

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports has a new article up. Here are the highlights.

• Even though the Red Sox are unlikely to move Brad Penny, they're receptive to the idea. With Tim Wakefield and Daisuke Matsuzaka on the DL, this should really read that if the Sox got an offer they couldn't refuse, they'd trade Penny.
• Rosenthal reports that despite the Yankees need for more depth in their rotation, there's no way they'd go after Carl Pavano. I'm not really sure if this is even news worthy. Who on earth would think they'd go after Pavano?
• If the Dodgers are going to acquire Roy Halladay, Russell Martin is not someone the Blue Jays are interested in. He has struggled offensively and the Jays have a good young catcher, JP Arencibia, who'll be ready soon.
• If Pedro Martinez is ready to go before the trade deadline, the Phillies may look to move Rodrigo Lopez. The only question? Who would really be interested?
• The Rays would like to trade for Halladay or Cliff Lee, they just don't have the ability to take on their contracts and/or sign them long term.

Buster Olney of espn.com provides us with a few good rumors today:

• Pedro Martinez's asking price appears to be too high based on his ability, or lack thereof.  "He'd have to lower [his asking price] a lot before we got involved," one GM said.  The Yankees will be sending a scout to his latest pitching session simply because they have someone in the area.
• Considering how few teams have money to spend at the trade deadline, the As might have to be willing to eat some of what remains on Matt Holliday's contract to move him.  He's owed $13.5M for 2009 and has approximately $8M left on his contract right now.  That number will be about $5.5M at the trade deadline.
• Olney heard that baseball executives expect the Indians to start seriously shopping Mark DeRosa soon.  Olney thinks that the Cardinals, Mets and Cubs make the most sense and figures he'll end up in St. Louis.

Buster Olney of espn.com gave us updates today about the various pitchers that are available and the teams going after them in his latest post.

The most obvious player is the Phillies who were looking for pitching at the start of the month when Chan Ho Park and Jaime Moyer were not pitching well.  Now that Brett Myers needs hip surgery (is this anecdotal, or are we seeing more hip surgeries recently?  Chase Utley, Mike Lowell, A-Rod and now Myers...) the Phillies border on desperate. 

Pedro Martinez doesn't seem to make much sense for Citizens Bank Ballpark and he'd like tax an already overworked bullpen with five and six inning starts. Jake Peavy and Roy Oswalt are options, but both the Padres and Astros are expected to ask for significant compensation something the Phillies might not be able to afford.  Erik Bedard is another option, but the Mariners gave us so much (Adam Jones and Chris Tillman) they may try to ask for something similar in return which might not be worth it. 

That leaves the most logical option and the one that has been frequently mentioned already: Brad Penny of the Red Sox.  Boston is a good match for the Phillies because they're rumored to be interested in shortstop Jason Donald.  The Red Sox have been rumored to be interested in Jack Wilson as well becuase of the difficulty they've had at shortstop this year, but Donald may be more appealing.

Jason Churchill of espn.com compared the 1994 Draft against the 1995 Draft.  While neither draft we deep and the success rate of 1st round picks was below 25% for both years (some of the lowest percentages in the 41-year history of the draft), the 1995 draft gets the nod.  But, what do you think?

1994 Draft

No 1 Pick: Paul Wilson was the #1 pick for the Mets and was supposed to be part of a dynamic trio that included Bill Pulsipher and Jason Isringhausen.  He finished his career 40-58 with a 4.86 ERA that was beseiged by shoulder injuires.

Best Pick, 1st Round: Nomar Garciaparra, #12, Boston Red Sox

Value Pick, Any Round: Javier Vazquez, fifth round, #140 overall, Montreal Expos, Tim Hudson, 35th round, #961 overall, Oakland Athletics

Notable Pick: Jason Varitek, #14, Seattle Mariners, Paul Konerko, #13, Los Angeles Dodgers.

Worst Pick, First Round: Antone Williamson, #4, Milwaukee Brewers "Williamson spent seven seasons in the minors and just 24 games in the big leagues, hitting .204/.254/.259 in 54 at-bats."

Best Teams: Boston Red Sox - Along with Garciaparra, the Sox drafted Carl Pavano (13th round) and traded him with Tony Armas Jr. to the Expos for Pedro Martinez.

1995 Draft

No 1 Pick: Darin Erstad was selected first overall by the then California Angeles (now Los Angeles) and is still active today as a bench player for the Astros.  Erstad won a World Series with the Angels in 2002 and "has played 14 years in the big leagues and entered play this season with a career line of .283/.336/.407"

Best Pick, 1st Round: Roy Halladay, #17, Toronto Blue Jays

Value Pick, Any Round: Carlos Beltran, second round, #49 overall, Kansas City Royals

Notable Pick: Kerry Wood, #4, Chicago Cubs

Worst Pick, First Round: Jaime Jones, #6, Florida Marlins "The left-handed hitting Jones never reached the majors, hitting .265/.341/.404 in 10 season as a minor leaguer. Jones retired after the 2005 season."

Best Team Draft: California Angels - After Erstad the halos grabbed Jarrod Washburn and Rob Quinlan and all three helped the Angels win the 2002 title.

Let's take a look at the latest article from Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal:

• Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is not interested in acquiring any of the available relievers despite the early struggles of the bullpen. The plan is to let the relievers continue to pitch and means Joba Chamberlain will stay in the rotation.
• Nationals manager Manny Acta might not finish the season, but is unlikely to be fired anytime soon.
• David Ortiz had an interesting comment about free agent pitcher Pedro Martinez: "When I saw him pitch, I had hot flashes of when he was here."
• Rosenthal comments on how Albert Pujols' seven year, $100M contract. "The seven-year, $100 million contract that Pujols signed in Feb. 2004 pays him an average of $15.75 million in what would have been his first four free-agent years. The Cardinals hold a $16 million option for 2011, after which he can hit the open market. If Alex Rodriguez is worth $27.5 million per season ... you get the picture."

Despite a rash of pre-season injuries to John Lackey, Ervin Santana and Kelvim Escobar Angels general manager Tony Reagins felt the team could contend with what it had in-house.  Even after the tragic death of Nick Adenhart, Reagins is sticking to that philosophy despite overtures from Pedro Martinez to Reagins and the Angels to let them know that he's available.  Other available free agents include Mark Mulder, Orlando Hernandez, Odalis Perez and Paul Byrd.

Ken Rosenthal keeps pumping out rumors and we're not going to argue.

• The Yankees are willing to trade Melky Cabrera and Rosenthal thinks that the White Sox are a good fit. 
• Another option for the White Sox is Gary Matthews Jr. who is still owed $33M on the remaining 3 years of his contract.  If the teams were to work out a deal, expect the Angels to pay the majority of what's remained on Matthews' deal.  Matthews Jr., is looking to play every day.
• Before the Royals signed Sidney Ponson, Pedro Martinez inquired if Kansas City had any interest, but Pedro's $5M asking price was too high.  Martinez is being told that his $5M asking price is too high and Rosenthal believes that if he came down to $1-2M, he'll likely find a taker.
• The Marlins are interested in Will Ohman, but are not interested in paying him $2M.
• Before Joe Beimel signed for $2M with the Nationals, the As thought they had an agreement with him on $1.7M.
• Since acquiring catcher Ronny Paulino from the Pirates in December, they are now interested in moving him and Rosenthal thinks the Marlins could be a suitor.

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated has a new column with plenty of rumors:

• There are whispers that Omar Minaya will bring Pedro Martinez back to New York.
• The Phillies still have $3M left to spend for 2009.  It's not a lot of money, even in this economy, but Heyman suggests that Moises Alou could be an option for that amount.
• As mentioned yesterday, Rich Aurilla and Nomar Garciaparra are both on the Phillies radar though Aurilla may return to San Francisco.
• Ivan Rodriguez may make the most sense to play in Florida, but only if the Marlins are willing to open up their checkbook.
• The only thing that seems guaranteed upon inspection of Milton Bradley's contract is that it is for two years and $20M.  It may ultimately work out to $30M over three years, but there are complex incentives to get there.
• Though the Yankees have been shopping Nick Swisher and Xavier Nady, there has been more interest in Swisher.  However, it seems like the Yankees are now likely to take both players into spring training.
• Jeff Moorad is likely to have his bid to buy the Padres accepted.  Moorad is expected to keep Kevin Towers in place if he becomes the owner.

Earlier we gave you Yahoo! Sports Tim Brown's winter meetings preview of the NL teams.  Now, let's look at the AL teams:

• The Red Sox are quite involved in talks for big free agent names like Mark Teixeira, Derek Lowe and AJ Burnett but perhaps the most interesting question is how they handle Jason Varitek or his replacement.
• There seems to be a hierarchy of the Yankees off season moves: 1) sign CC Sabathia 2) sign Teixeira 3) sign Lowe or Burnett 4) sign Manny Ramirez as the worst case scenario.
• The Blue Jays are out of the running for Burnett, but could still consider Brad Penny, Paul Byrd, Randy Johnson, Oliver Perez, Pedro Martinez and Ben Sheets are all possibilities. 
• The off season priority list for the Indians reads as 1) closer 2) closer and 3) closer.  Possibilities include: Trevor Hoffman, Jason Isringhausen, Huston Street or JJ Putz.
• Trading for Gerald Laird filled the Tigers hole at catcher, but they're still interested in a closer and could be a dark horse for Rafael Furcal or trade for Jack Wilson.
• Teixeira will dictate the Angels off season.  If he signs with the Angels, that's likely it.  If not, they'll take Francisco Rodriguez back for the right price or look at Sabathia. 
• As Jayson Stark told us a few weeks ago, the Rangers off season priorities are pitching, pitching and more pitching.  They'll look at Penny, Randy and Freddy Garcia.

More news and rumors from baseball today:

• Pedro Martinez is not expected to resign with the Mets.
• The Cardinals are interested in Will Ohman and/or Arthur Rhodes.
• Ramon Vazquez has started discussions with the Diamondbacks. 
• Nationals president Stan Kasten is trying to lower expectations that the Nationals could make an offer to free agent Mark Teixeira.
• The Tigers are interested in Joe Beimel.
• Don Wakamatsu has been hired as the Seattle Mariners manager.
• Oliver Perez is expected to wait until the free agent market settles a bit before signing a contract.
• The Braves are interested in Derek Lowe.
• The Cubs are looking to acquire Mark Teahen or David DeJesus from the Royals.  However, there is no indication that the two sides have discussed a deal.