Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Heh Heh (look at the photo)

- Interesting look at the effect the retired Dan Haren is having on the Diamondbacks pitching staff

- Might be in the minority but I love Rondo

- Great Larry Bird trash-talking story from Kevin McHale

- Got to remember this if I need a Halloween costume

- Love this! Sorry but I'm laughing at you Kareem not with you

- Love this even more!

Thoughts on Red Sox Moves at Winter Meetings

Here are my thoughts regarding the roster moves the Boston Red Sox have made regarding the Winter meetings:

1. I'm a little ambivalent regarding signing Mike Napoli. Three-years $39 million seems a bit much but I've decided to look at the bright side of this signing - Napoli will give the Red Sox about the same OPS in 2013 that the Yankees will get out of Mark Teixeira but at half the price.
2. I hate the Shane Victorino signing. Hate it. 100% agree with Kirk Minihane that it was a mistake. Let me ask you two questions - how is Victorino better than Torii Hunter who got two-years $26 million from the Tigers? The Red Sox would have been so much better off giving Hunter two-years and $30 million than signing Victorino. Much better off. Secondly - how is Victorino even an upgrade over Ryan Kalish? Hate this move.
3. David Ortiz has to be wondering WTF? The Red Sox squeeze Ortiz trying to avoid giving him a multi-year deal and then turn around and sign Napoli and Victorino to more years and the same per year salaries? The optics are bad by management.
4. The Red Sox should have done more to sign Dan Haren. Maybe a two-year $26 million deal would have worked. The money they spent on Victorino would have been much better used on Haren in my opinion. Opportunity missed here.

If the Red Sox had signed Torii Hunter and Dan Haren - I'd be pretty excited about the Sox right now. Instead they signed Napoli and Victorino and I'm honestly left scratching my head.

Dan Haren

The Angels did not exercise their 2013 $15.5 million option on starting pitcher Dan Haren and instead will be giving him a $3.5 million buy-out making him a free agent. That news comes on the heels of the news that an announced deal that would have sent Haren to the Cubs for Carlos Marmol fell apart at the last minute.

I don't understand this - I don't understand this at all.

First off - Carlos Marmol isn't chopped liver. He's a good reliever with a live arm about to enter his prime (just 29-years old). If the Cubs were willing to give up Marmol then there had to have been other clubs offering something - anything for Haren. By not picking up Haren's option then the Angels get nothing.

I've seen speculation that the Cubs may have been scared off the deal once they saw Haren's medical reports. This could be. Haren does have a bad back but Haren also came back from that bad back to go 3-2 with a 3.07 ERA in September in the middle of a playoff race. That's worth the risk for a team like the Red Sox who have deep pockets but not a deep rotation. 2012 was a bad year for Haren yet his 4.33 ERA for the year would have been the best among Boston pitchers with at least 10 starts. Don't tell me they wouldn't have given up something for Haren.

Could this have been financial? Marmol is on the books for almost $10 million in 2013. But again - by declining the option the Angels still pay the $3.5 million buyout but get nothing in return. This just doesn't make sense.

Red Sox 2013 Starting Pitching

Gordon Edes has a good look at the options available to the Red Sox for their 2013 starting rotation.

Its interesting that Edes doesn't view Alfredo Aceves as a persona non grata with the Red Sox and actually considered him a viable option for the starting rotation. I would think John Farrell would be best served eliminating any headache players from 2012 with Aceves at the top of the list. Aceves is still under team control and will probably only cost a little more than $2 million in arbitration - I'd be dangling him in trade talks.

Also interesting that he doesn't even mention Vincent Padilla as an option. Padilla would be relatively inexpensive to keep and did average more than a K per inning in 2012. He came into town with a bad reputation but he was a solid citizen whose stock with fans went way up as he was one of the only players to attend Johnny Pesky's funeral.

If the Red Sox keep John Lackey then they would have a rotation of Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Felix Dubront and Lackey. If that's the case then they have a number of young arms that could step up to be the number 5 starter or fill in if there are any significant injuries.

My preference would be to trade away John Lackey and bring in either Dan Haren or Cliff Lee (if the Phillies are looking to move his contract). Fangraphs has a very good look at Haren whose option may not be picked up by the Angels. It should be noted that 2012 was a bad year for Haren but his 4.33 ERA still would have been the better than any Red Sox starter with more than 10 starts last season.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I love these "Hitler in the bunker" spoofs. My favorite was the Terrell Owens one. In the newest one Hitler learns of Michael Jackson's death. Hitler loved Michale Jackson as much as the next Nazi... Pitcher Dan Haren has the 4th best batting average on the Diamondbacks (3rd best if you kick out Alex Romero who has only played 6 games). It should come as no surprise then that the the Diamondbacks have the 2nd worst team batting average in the NL... Drew Bledsoe is opening his own winery. I am so jealous. I would love to own my own vineyard and winery. I'll be buying a couple of bottles of Doubleback when they become available... Do the Nationals have the Braves number? Last season the Nationals were 12-6 against the Braves including a 7-2 mark at Nationals Park. This season the Braves are 5-3 against Washington but all 3 of the Nationals wins have come at Nationals Park. Even if I knew those numbers before now - I still would have picked Tommy Hanson and the Braves yesterday as my POTD (of course if I knew the final score I would have gone the other way)...