Posts tagged Buster Olney at FanHouse

The news yesterday that the San Diego Padres had withdrawn their offer to closer and all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman wasn't exactly a huge surprise.

With San Diego having what basically equates to a fire sale in hopes of cutting costs for next season, anybody who makes over $5 million a season should probably start packing their bags. Especially when you're a 41-year-old pitcher who's losing his effectiveness.

Still, Trevor wasn't very happy with the way the Padres handled the whole situation. When they offered Hoffman a one-year deal for only $4 million -- Trevor made $8 million in 2008 -- he basically knew then that it was the organization's way of saying it was time to move on, but that doesn't mean they had to toy with him.

For the first few months of the season, the Tampa Bay Rays were the darlings of baseball. While most people thought the Rays would be a vastly improved team this season, nobody was expecting the quick turnaround they've undertaken to get to the top of the AL East.

Still in the last few weeks, a lot of the hype surrounding the Rays seems to have died down. Even though they're still leading the AL East, the Manny Ramirez situation in Boston and the moves the Yankees made combined with the lack of moves in Tampa have once again knocked them off the front page. That doesn't mean Tampa is going to lose it's grip on the division, and thanks to some research done by Mark Simon of ESPN Research (which may or may not have included reading this post at OMDQ back in February), there are some signs that the Rays may end up winning the World Series this season. It turns out there are a lot of similarities between this Rays team and the 1969 Mets.

From Buster Olney's blog:

How are the 2008 Rays similar to the 1969 Mets?

On the 1969 Mets, the ace starter was 24-year-old Tom Seaver
On the 2008 Rays, the ace starter is 24-year-old Scott Kazmir
The 1969 Mets had a 61-101 record 2 years prior to winning the World Series (1967)
The 2008 Rays had a 61-101 record 2 years ago (2006)

In the last few weeks heading to tomorrow's trade deadline, there have been a few rumors swirling around that the Yankees are very interested in Seattle's Jarrod Washburn. Still, for the most part, everything that's been heard about this deal in recent days would lead us to believe it's dead.

Why? I don't know. From what I can tell, there was nobody else besides the Yankees interested in Washburn, so I don't understand why Seattle doesn't give him up and shed the $14 million in salary. Still, a deal between the two teams seems unlikely, so that's got ESPN's Buster Olney wondering if another New York team may come calling.

Baseball executives love the mental challenge of piecing together the trade deadline puzzle, and I heard this interesting speculation -- and that's all it is, speculation -- from an executive with a team that is not involved in the Jarrod Washburn conversation: With the Mets now perhaps in need of a starting pitcher (in the aftermath of the MRI planned for John Maine), wouldn't Washburn be a great fit for the Mets?

Washburn is a gritty pitcher, he usually gives six tough innings and he'd be pitching in a big ballpark. And because he's under contract for 2009, he would give the Mets some depth protection; Pedro Martinez and Oliver Perez are eligible for free agency after this season.

I have to agree with Buster and the anonymous executive. Washburn would be a good fit for the Mets. His overall numbers on the season aren't that great (5-9, 4.50 ERA, 1.43 WHIP), but the last two months he's been very effective. Since Jarrod's regained control of his changeup, he's gone 3-2 and has allowed more than two earned runs only once in his last ten starts.

Adding him to their rotation could help the Mets win the NL East, and they probably won't have to give up much at all to get him.

The Los Angeles Angels have to be loving what's going on up in Oakland. For the first half of the season, the upstart Athletics had the Angels looking over their shoulders a bit more than they would have liked, but with the recent trades that have sent Rich Harden and Joe Blanton to the National League, the Angels have just about clinched the AL West.

They've got an eight game lead on the A's now, and a 9.5 game lead on the Rangers, and at this point it doesn't look like either of those two teams is going to pose a real threat. So the Angels GM Tony Reagins is at that point where he knows he doesn't have to make any moves, as he told ESPN's Buster Olney yesterday.

"We're comfortable with our club at this point," Reagins said. "We're confident. At this point, I don't see us making any drastic moves. ... As of today, I don't see us changing the makeup of the club in a major way."

But as Olney goes on in today's blog entry, that doesn't mean they won't be making any "minor" moves. They're not going to be looking to add a bat--even though Gary Matthews Jr. has a torn ACL--but there may be some interest in Orioles All-Star George Sherrill. According to Olney, the Orioles are quietly letting teams outside the AL East know that Sherrill is available, and George does make a lot of sense for Los Angeles.

He can be that lefty specialist they've needed for a while, and he provides some insurance should K-Rod sign elsewhere this winter.

There were three groups who worked in concert to really help the steroid era in baseball grow to the epic heights it eventually reached. There were the players taking the drugs, obviously, and the teams who looked the other way when their players showed up with new bodies and new productivity out of the blue. And then there was the media which sat in the clubhouse, heard the rumors and chose to turn players like Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire into paragons of virtue during the late 90's.

Bud Selig has said that the first two groups are off the hook, more or less, but one member of the media admitted that he wasn't doing his best when it came to the steroid issue. Nashville Scene covered a recent speaking engagement with a candid Buster Olney.

Last Tuesday at the Wildhorse Saloon, ESPN's Buster Olney owned up: "I think I did a lousy job covering the steroid issue," he told the audience at the Nashville Sports Council's First Pitch Luncheon. In other words, he did a good job of not covering the steroid issue in those dark and fateful years B.M. (Before Mitchell).

I'm not sure what the exact moment was when Sosa and McGwire went from "saving" baseball to tarnishing the game's integrity but the shift was pretty complete among those covering the game. For all the calls to keep such players out of Cooperstown there's been little self-assessment like Olney's. And while Olney's statements are appreciated, it's a bit telling that he gave them at a Nashville luncheon and not on his widely-read ESPN blog.

(H/T Steroid Nation)

While April is way too early in the season for teams to start making changes with their managers (Well, unless your team is owned by a Steinbrenner.), that doesn't mean it's too early for teams to start thinking about a managerial change, or rumors to start swirling around that one could be on the horizon. Whether it's fair or not, it's a reality in baseball.

After losing another ugly game on Monday against the Red Sox, the Rangers find themselves in a very familiar place, the bottom of the AL West. Obviously, no team is ever happy to be in last place, and according to ESPN's Buster Olney on his blog this morning, Ron Washington's days in charge of the Rangers may be numbered.

Scouts are like barometers, in that they often have an early reading of a storm developing off in the distance, and there is a buzz among scouts these days that Texas manager Ron Washington is moving into job jeopardy. That doesn't have any official bearing, but the fact that this is being discussed among the scouts is probably not a good sign for Washington.

Unlike Buster, I don't talk to too many scouts around the league, so I'm not sure how to put too much credence into this. That being said, this could just be the first sign that Ron better start getting things turned around soon, or the Rangers may want to make a change.

But is that fair?

On ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning today, Mike Greenberg was talking to guest co-hosts Will Perdue and Buster Olney when out of nowhere, Perdue launched into an attack on blogs.

"When people are writing these blogs, I mean, what do you think about that?" Perdue asked. "I mean, some of these people now live by these blogs on the Internet. What do you think about that?"

Olney gave a fairly noncommittal answer, and Perdue was clearly appalled that Olney wouldn't join him in denouncing blogs. So Perdue continued:

"How much merit do these things have? They're just somebody's opinion," Perdue said. "These guys just write these blogs which is their opinion, next thing you know it becomes fact, and then we're talking about it because it's on some blog that's started by some guy that lives with his mother in an apartment in Hackensack, New Jersey."

Good one, Will. Make fun of bloggers because they live with their moms. And then Greenberg did something extraordinary. He actually brought a little common sense to the discussion.

There is no question that the most wanted pitcher who's actually available right now is Johan Santana. With every day that passes, it seems more likely that the Twins are going to part ways with the perennial Cy Young winner before he leaves via free agency.

As the esteemed PostmanR reported here yesterday, the Yankees are currently in discussion with the Twins about a possible deal. Of course, anyone who's planning on making a deal for Santana is going to have to part with quite a few prospects, and then quite a few dollars to keep Santana in town.

For a team like the Yankees, it's not really a problem. But what if you're a team that doesn't have so much money to spend, but has a lot of prospects? ESPN's Buster Olney has a pretty good idea for you. Why not talk to the Athletics about Dan Haren?

...you could back up the organization's truck and offer three or four prospects for Oakland's Dan Haren. No strings attached, no no-trade clause. And here's the really good news: You would have to pay Haren just $4 million for 2008, $5.5 million for 2009, and he has a $6.75 million option for 2010.

So not only would you have a great pitcher on the cheap for three years, you'd have cost certainty, the flexibility of not being locked into a long-term deal -- and you could spend cash that you would've had to spend on Santana to fill other needs.

Haren isn't Johan Santana, but he's not a bad consolation prize. Haren went 15-9 with a 3.07 ERA this season in Oakland, and at the cost of only (Ha! Only.) $16.25 million over the next three years, he's an absolute steal.

As the Twins enter the offseason unsure of what they're going to do about Johan Santana, Santana let them know yesterday that they do have options. You see, if the Twins decided this offseason that there was no way they were going to be able to re-sign Santana after next year, they may have looked to trade him.

The one problem there being that Santana does have a no-trade clause in his contract. Well, guess what? Santana would have absolutely no problem waiving that clause if it would help the team.

"Everything about the Twins, I love," Santana said. "At the same time, if I have to go somewhere else, and it's for the better, I'll do it. I won't have any problems with that."

The more I read about the Santana situation in Minnesota, the more convinced I become that there's absolutely no chance Santana will be a Twin in 2009. Everything both sides say seems to confirm it.

Now whether or not he'll be back next season, I'm not sure yet. There's no way a team can consider themselves better by trading their best pitcher, but the Twins have a lot of holes they need to fix if they're going to compete in the AL Central next season.

Johan Santana is the kind of player that can bring back a lot of players to fill those holes. I mean, if the Twins managed to get Joe Nathan, Boof Bonser, and Francisco Liriano from the Giants for A.J. Pierzynski, what could they get for Santana?

One of the deals I read about this morning on Buster Olney's blog centers around the Twins sending Santana to the Mets for Jose Reyes. That would be the very definition of a blockbuster trade, but I'm not sure the Mets would be willing to give up Reyes.

Whoever Santana gets traded for, if he does get traded, it's going to be a big name.

I told fellow Fanhouser Pat Lackey on Friday that if his Pirates won their series against my White Sox this last weekend, I would officially quit on the season. Well, three days later and two Pirates victories, I'm standing by my words.

Kenny Williams might have been thinking along the same lines as I am.

Before the White Sox start a homestand tonight against the Marlins, Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen are going to have a meeting. I'm guessing the meeting is going to center around what this team is going to do. Do they start selling off their parts, or make a last ditch effort to get back in the race?

I hope they decide to sell. This team is not the Twins of last season, and they aren't the Yankees of earlier this season. There will be no amazing run through the dog days of summer to get them back into contention in the AL Central.

So with Jermaine Dye, Mark Buehrle and Tadahito Iguchi ready to become free agents at the end of the season, I don't expect them to be around on August 1st.