Smolinski is a position player that was drafted this year by the Washington Nationals 70th overall. He is one of the reasons why the Nationals' farm system will start to get more attention. He was drafted right out of high school, Rockford Boylan High, which is in Illinois. In his senior season, he had a .441 BA, 13 HR, 13 doubles, 49 RBI, and 50 runs.

He followed this up with the Area Code Games (a series that displays some of the best High School Baseball Talent in the Nation), where he went 8 for 11, leading his team to a 5-0 record, which is the first time a Midwest Team won that tourny. (Information from studentsportsbaseball.com).

Professionally, after being drafted, he debuted with the GCL Nationals where during 28 games over 105 AB, he had 32 hits including a homer, and 16 RBI (.305 AB). Smolinkski is not in the top ten prospect list for the Nationals (from Baseball America) but Baseball America does list him as Best Hitter for Average. According to the write up, he just missed their top ten and he is going to be an OF prospect for the Nationals.

Overall, the Nationals system, according to Baseball America was the worst in Baseball a year ago, but after this year's draft, that is not the case. Furthermore, after that statement, the Nationals got Dukes and Milledge bringing more young talent to the team.

If have a prospect that you would like me to do a deeper look at, please email me at eteich@umd.edu

Do you have kids? Do you want them to learn about baseball's great history? Well the Baseball Hall of Fame has a great way for you to accomplish your goals. They are offereing an overnight program where the Museum will be open all night and everyone sleeps....in the actual hall.

I was all for this idea until I heard about sleeping in the hall. I am not really upset about it, but I feel that the hall itself is sacred.

Remeber earlier in offseason when the Astros traded for a peice of the Braves bullpen, Oscar Villreal? Well they signed him to a two year extentsion yesterday.

It has been a real stretch for news recently

You know its been a slow week and a really slow day regarding baseball news when the first picture/featured story on mlb.com is Darin Erstad signing with the Astros. He spent 12 years in AL with a carear .284 BA, but batting .248 last year, and .221 the year before that. (They year before that he hit in the .270's but before that in the .250's...I think you get the idea).

In other small pointless news, foxsports.com is reporting that Kei Igawa's name has been put in the mix for a possible trade between the Twins and the Yankees. Its understood that if this is true, Igawa will not be the name breaking or making this deal, that honor still goes to Phil Hughes.

To prove that I am really stretching for news, my last bit comes from Pulaski, Va, dating to Dec 21 when the Seattle Mariners announced that they will have a team in the Appalcian Rookie League this season there. Last year there was no team due to a pull out of the Blue Jays from Pulaski (making the league 9 teams). Some interesting facts about Pulaski, all found on milb.com, is that the stadium opened up in 1935 and so far, seven major league teams have been affilated with the Pulaski area. The Mets have a team in this league as well in Kingsport, Tennesee.

The news that Metsblog has been  reporting the last few days has finally made it to the Baltimore Sun. The Sun is reporting this morning that Andy MacPhail expects Bedard to be the opening day starter for the Orioles which means that he is not satisfied with offers he is getting for Bedard.

"It's up to [manager] Dave Trembley in the final analysis to set his rotation, but that's what [Bedard] is today, and I think that's a strong likelihood,' said MacPhail, the Orioles' president of baseball operations. 'But that said, you never know."

That all being said, it looks like the Orioles are just making it public that they are still open to huge offers, but they need to be HUGE offers to separate Bedard from the Orioles.

Silva is now off the list so from the last post, lets take a deeper look into Lohse and Blanton. Today I wanted to look into their experience in the NL East.

First up is Blanton. Blanton has had very little experience agaisnt our rivals in the East. In one start agaisnt philly in 2005, he went 7.2 innings with a 2.35 ERA, 7 K and 4 BB. He has no starts agaisnt the Braves.
In 2007, he made one start at Shea Stadium where he pitched 8 innings, posting a 0.0 ERA, 6 K and 1 BB.
In other words, there are not enough numbers to draw conclusions about Blantons potential 2008 numbers in the NL East because he does not have enough numbers in his carear.

Lohse has more numbers to draw upon. In three starts vs Philly, he has a 0-1 record and an 1.40 ERA. In four games agaisnt the braves, he posted a 2-1 record with a 5.16 ERA. In 2 games at Shea, he posted a 7.45 ERA (but lets blame that on the explosive Mets offense).

More specifically, lets look at his 2007 NL East stats. He spent parts of 2007 on the Reds and the Phillies. Overall, in starts agaisnt teams in the East (not including his numbers against the Mets), he pitched 50 IP with 27 ER, posting a 4.86 ERA.

Lohse is not the answer. I would rather see the Mets solve the rotation problem internally if it came down to Lohse and internal options. But, if the price of Lohse drops considerably, I might reconsider this thought.

Earlier this offseason, I took a look at Harens numbers vs Bedard and Santana. Now I am going to do the same thing with three players that at this point in time, the Mets have a better chance of getting.

In 2007 Carlos Silva went 13-14 pitching 202.0 IP striking out 89, walking 36, and putting up a 4.19 ERA with a 1.312 WHIP. Key points for Silva include his innings pitched, his ERA and WHIP last year were better than his carear average, and as many have pointed out before being average or slightly above average in the American League will be beneficial for pitching in the pitcher friendly national league and more specifically in the pitcher friendly Shea Stadium.

Lohse out of the three would be the one the one that I would not want on the team. He will be 29 next year like Silva but he falls short in a few areas the Mets need. Most importantly he has only suprassed 200 IP once. Last year he want 9-12 pitching 192.2 IP, with 122 SO, 57 BB, with a 4.62 ERA and a 1.370 WHIP. Althouh he struck out more hitters than Silva, his K to BB ration is less than Silva. Silva put up a 2.472 K to BB ratio last season while Lohse put up a 2.140 K to BB ratio.

Blanton, the youngest of the bunch, will be 27 next season. Last year he pitched 230 IP, with a 3.95 ERA, 140 K, 44 BB, and a 1.217 WHIP. Out of the three, he has the best K to BB ratio (3.182), IP, ERA, WHIP, etc. His innings pitches is very appealing, 230 innings in one season, especially at the age of 26, is really something special. His ERA might be higher than what we were looking at towards the beginning of the offseason, but his numbers will be helped by pitching in the national league and at shea stadium. 

Blanton should be the number one choice here. Silva is already in contract talks in a few teams. The door is not completly shut yet on Bedard and Santana as well. Blanton would be a nice fit.  

Yesterday
Haren was traded to the Dbacks
Valverde was traded to the Astros
Floyd was signed by the Rays
Jim Edmonds was traded to the Padres
Vizcaino signed with the Rockies
Mike Lamb signed with the Twins

And according to mlbtraderumors.com the Astros, Nationals, Mets and Yankees are all interested in Prior (preliminary interest)

There are two different ways to look at the Haren and Valverde trades. The first is that for Haren, the Dbacks gave up most of their farm system, including a mix of very young pitching and hitting prospects. Many of these players will not be seeing Major League action until the end of next year. In the Valverde trade, the Dbacks gave away their closer for three young players that could play in the majors this year, but wouldnt have to. One way to look at this Valverde trade is that it was a step in rebuilding their farm system. I am not so postive on this trade for the Dback perspective. Valverde was a great closer for them and even though he had only 2 years left on contract, keeping him would have been a big sign that the Dbacks are in it to win it. Chad Qualls from the 'stros, is figuring to the Valverde's replacement in this deal, but I have problems seeing it.
On the Haren side of the deal, this is a clear victory right now for the Dbacks. The NL west is a very weak hititng division and Haren's numbers should really be a big boost for this club. Yes the dbacks gave up a lot of talent for Haren, but its talent that has seen little major league action. Beane took a big gamble. On that same note, 5-7 years from now, the A's might be the best team in the league, you never know.
Back to Valverde, on the Astro's side this trade is pretty good. I do not think the Astros can make it to the playoffs just by adding Tejada and Valverde, but it doesnt hurt and at least they are doing something. The downside is that they probably wont make the playoffs, and now they dont have a farmsystem, which means next offseason if they want to rebuild, they will either have to trade away all that they have or sign a large group of free agents.

I'm a big Cliff Floyd fan, I feel a good number of Mets fans are too, so in a selfish way I am glad that he signed with the Rays because at least I'll be able to see him Baltimore 9-10 times a year. For the rest of the guys that were moved and signed yesterday, I really do not have much to say.

I am pretty busy today, but I just wanted to jot down a few notes on my thoughts on this trade:

Well as you know by new, the Astros got Tejada and they gave up a 29 year old Luke Scott who plays infield and right field and then 4 prospect pitchers.

What I see this as is Luke playing in the infiled (Markakis has right) and now the Orioles will be looking for new OF. THis is good news to the Dodgers, and possibly the Mets because they both have OF the Orioles could have interest in. I'll try comment more on this tommorow.

One of the over looked aspects of the winter meetings is the tradeshow that takes place. This year, milb.com had two of their reporters go to the trade show and show off some of the products that are being developed.

The type of things that are presented at the trade show are products for future sale, people who will peform at the stadium, and people to help with promotions. The video highlights a few of these booths. They first looked at a couple who develop specialty jersies for minor league promotion days. This even included a starwars jersy (could not read the name of the team though)

They highlighted two independent product developers. The first group made a pair of gloves that allows pain free and noisier clapping, the second is an activity box for children to be entertained at games.

They had a performer on too. check the video out at: http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?w=http%3A//mfile.akamai.com/10869/wmv/mlb.download.akamai.com/14668/2007/wm/video/120507_wm_tradeshow.wmv&type=v_free&_mp=1

In November when I read that the Reds had  signed Cordero, I was thinking why would they do that? They are not going anywhere, and Cordero is a peice that many teams would need.

Then I started to hear some rumors last night on mlbtraderumors.com that allows this all to make sense. The Reds are tryng to get Bedard as well, and they do have a lot of young talent, like Homer Baily, that the Orioles would be interested in. When you think about it, Arroyo and Hanrang are not bad starting pitchers, and they both would benefit from Bedard's prescense.

Then, I remebered that they also brougtht in new management this year in the form of Dusty Baker. Their offense is already explosive in terms of power. I do not think the team as is with Bedard would get the Reds in a wildcard position but if they got Bedard this offseason, and added to their arms in bullpen and in the rotation next offseason, we could be looking at a wild card contender in 2009. (that would assume though that their offense stays as explosive as it is. Griffy and Dunn are aging, so there will be decline. Being contenders in 09 will be rough but it is possible)

(If I missed a team, please comment)

So far, three teams have announced uniform changes for the 2008 season. The Rays (formally the Devil Rays or DRays) had the biggest change with a complete new team name, logo, and whole set of uniforms. As I posted earlier, they look pretty awful. To quote one of my neighbors, "They look like they are a retirment home team now"

The Phillies were next team to announce a uniform change. They added an alternate uniform that has no pinstripes, same type face, but everything is surrounded in blue, a red race stripe outline with blue down the pants and a blue hat with a red bill. I hate to admit but out of the three teams that added or changed uniforms so far this offseason, theirs look the best.

The Royals revealed today their new alternate uniforms that are powder blue jersies. Yes, powder blue. To go along with the uniforms, they added a slogan "new blue tradition." (I believe their official slogan is still True Blue Tradition, and they changed it to new blue tradion for the uniform show) These uniforms also get a thumbs down.

This is just a quick note:

Do you remeber Craig? He was a prospect for the Mets at first base a few years ago. He was called up for a few games in 2004. Since then he has been around the minors a bit and finished with the most amount of homeruns in the minor leagues this year. He played mainly with the Omaha Royals.

Brazell is planning on playing in Japan next year for the Seibu Lions.

Good luck Craig

A lot of action went down today, so here are some of my thoughts:

Willis and Cabera to the Tigers.
I think my intial reaction was similar to others, which was my mouth just hanging over. This deal was really good for the Tigers. Yes in the long run Andrew Miller will be better than Willis, the Tigers do not need Willis as an ace. Due to that, I believe Willis will do better there, even though it is an American league team. The pressure of him being the ace is gone. As for Caberera, well the dangerous lineup that Detroit has just got that much better.
Honestly I shake my head at Florida sometimes. Yes it is good for them to get a new boatload of prospects, with at least Miller being major league ready, but remeber their firesale a few seasons ago? That really did not pan out for them. The two players they wanted to build a franchise around were just traded.
For the Mets, I am just disapointed that Cabera was not traded to the Dodgers, because now the Mets have serious competition for Bedard.

The Nationals have been very active. They are looking into Japanese pitcher Fukumori right now. This is a bit concerning.

Might post more later. After the winter meetings I will go back to a more statistical outlook of things and how many of these traders effected teams that way.

At 7:01, mlb.com had reported two official trades for the day. Each day at least once, I am going to try to say a little bit about each of the deals.

The Dbacks traded young Quetin to the White Sox for minor league first basemen Chris Carter. Quetin, if you didnt know, is a 25 year old OF that the Dbacks were hoping for some more power than he produced last year. His year was slow due to injuries and thus he didnt reflect his minor league numbers. Chris Carter has played in the minors since 2002, and was 24 last season. In total during the minors he has hit .310 with a .519 slugging. Currently, the Dbacks have young Conor Jackson, roughly the same age as Carter, playing at first base. He hit .284 last year, which was a slight decline from his .290 the year previous. Both years he hit 15 jacks. Barring some major event, Conor looks to be the first basemen next year, with Carter either on the bench, or still playing  the minors, we will see with time.

The more noted trade of the day was the Rays trading Dukes to Washington for Glenn Gibson. So there are a few story lines here. The first is that the Nationals now have two young, but borderline reckless, or reckless in Dukes case, Outfielders that are talented. The Nationals said that they want to teach Dukes how to be a Baseball player and a Civilian. Gibson has a two years in the minors recording a 2.81 ERA over 15 games with a 9.4 K/9 and 1.00 WHIP. Due to his expierence, I doubt he will see much action in the majors this year, although with the Rays you never know.

I love the media. I really do. For the past year or so, all we have heard different sources say is that Lasting Milledge's stock is dropping, that he won't pan out as hoped, etc etc etc.

When we trade Milledge, all we hear now is how he is going to be a superstar, he's another Kazmin, what were the Mets front office thinking, etc etc etc. In fact one of the Headline feature articles over at foxsports.com is a picture of Milledge under the words "Another Mistake?".

This is how I explained my thoughts on this yesterday. In the long run, Milledge will pan to be a better player than Schnieder and Church, however at this current moment, the Mets cannot be thinking of the long run. We still have Beltran for 4+years, and even with trading Gomez this winter, which seems like it will happen, the Mets still have other young talent in OF like F-Mart. The Mets are looking to win next year. They wanted to get a right fielder that was increase over Green which is what they got. They never really have had great defense catchers, I am not saying Schnieder is great but he is an above average catcher. I still have faith that the Mets will get either a Bedard or a Haren or a Blanton and that their rotation will be stronger, which naturally makes your pen stronger.

We have been, and will continue to be bombarded with trade rumors about Bedard, Haren, and Santana, so lets take a look at some of their stats:

Bedard:
2007: 28 Games, 182.0 IP, 3.16 ERA, 221 K, 57 BB, 10.93 (K/9), 1.09 WHIP, 13-5
Carear: 114 G, 658.0 IP, 3.83 ERA, 639 K, 254 BB, 8.74 K/9, 1.34 WHIP, 40-34

Haren:
2007: 34 G, 222.2 IP, 3.07 ERA, 192 K, 55 BB, 7.76 K/9, 1.21 WHIP, 15-9
Carear: 130 G, 781.1 IP, 3.82 ERA, 606 K, 192 BB, 6.98 K/9, 1.24 WHIP, 49-44

Santana:
2007: 33 G, 219 IP, 3.33 ERA, 235 K, 52 BB, 9.66 K/9, 1.07 WHIP, 15-13
Carear: 251 G, 1308.2 IP, 3.22 ERA, 1281 K, 364 BB, 9.50 K/9, 1.09 WHIP, 93-44

Stat Notes:
Bedard's ERA and WHIP have decreased every year he has pitched, his K totals have increased every year he has pitched. You also have to imagine his stats higher than this because he missed all of September due to injury, and with the Orioles going no where, there was no point in bringing him back. I feel he would have been the AL Cy Young if he pitched in September, he still finished 3rd of 4th in the league in K totals although he missed that month. I do not have the number stat, but it felt like the Orioles bullpen blew a good number of Bedard's games.

Haren's K/9 has increased every year that he has pitched. I know that Mets have no chance of getting Santana, but I put his stats up there to show difference of Bedard/Haren and Santana.

Out of these three, I would love to see Bedard. If you have gotten this sense over the last week or so, I am very Pro-Bedard. He is a power pitcher, pitches for strikeouts, which is exactly what this team needs to add more balance to the starting rotation, and to make pitchers in the bullpen that are not Billy Wagner more effective because of the change of speeds during the game.