- Travis Sawchik of the Tribune Review writes that Fran Cervelli is open to a contract extension. "Cervelli would consider foregoing the open market if the Pirates offered a three-year extension offer worth roughly $13 million per season, according to a source," per the article. The Bucs are deep at the spot: they already have Stew under club control for three years, with Elias Diaz knocking on the door and Reese McGuire's ETA 2018-19. The price is about right for a 5-6 WAR performance over its duration, but the length is a big issue with the upcoming logjam.
- Neil Weinberg of Fangraphs suggests an odd sort of late inning strategy for the Bucs involving Jaso/Morse, Fran & Stew.
- John Jaso made Sport's on Earth Anthony Castrovince's list of the best under-the-radar deals this off season; four ex-Bucs were also included: Steve Pearce, Joe Blanton, Justin Wilson & pitching savant Jim Benedict. In a related article, Matthew Leach picked the Top 10 February signings of the past decade; Frankie Liriano was a biggie.
- August Fagerstrom of Fangraphs calculated the value of MLB's expected 2016 platoon pairings. John Jaso and Michael Morse were one of the better offensive duos, but not so much for glovework.
- If you wondered what the national take on Pittsburgh's talent is, here's Fangraphs just completed ranking of players by position (click on the position to link).
- Tony Watson's Iowa HS, the Dallas Center Grimes Mustangs, retired his jersey on Friday.
- Scratch Doug Fister from the Pirate list of depth adds; he signed a deal with the Astros. It was for one year/$7M with $5M more on the table in incentives.
- The Pirates have six of Baseball Prospectus' Top 101 Prospects - RHP Tyler Glasnow (#11), OF Austin Meadows (#22), 1B Josh Bell (#49), RHP Jameson Taillon (#51), C Reese McGuire (#76) and OF Harold Ramirez (#80).
- MLB Pipeline picked five Pittsburgh pups in their Top 100 - Glasnow (#10), Meadows (#20), Bell (#49), Taillon (#54) and McGuire (#98).
- Chris Mitchell of Fangraphs has six Bucco youngsters on his Top 100 List: Glasnow (#13), 2B Alen Hanson (#22), SS Cole Tucker (#32), McGuire (#33), Meadows (#51) and Bell (#67).
- Austin Meadows was ranked #4 on the MLB Pipeline prospect list for outfielders.
- RHP Adrian Sampson has been invited to big league camp with the Mariners. He was the Bucco back-end rotation prospect who was traded to Seattle for JA Happ.
- Neil Walker and the Mets settled his arb deal for $10.55M, pretty close to his projected going rate. He had requested $11.8M and was offered $9.4M by the Mets when figures were exchanged earlier.
"Somehow we have developed this large contingent of know-it-all baseball fans who bay like wounded coyotes at any mention of wins, losses, RBI or batting average. I never know whether I should blame myself for this or not.." (Bill James)
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Notes: John Jaso; Fran; The Kid Signs w/Mets for $10.55M; Player Ratings & Moves
Seems like Fangraphs showed a lot of interest in the Buccos the past couple of days. Top 100 Prospect ratings blossomed to go along with the usual mix of Pirate tales.
Re: a potential Cervelli extension. He's still not particularly old, and while he's been fragile for much of his career, his pretty good defense and high average - contact hitter style will probably age fairly well provided he stays on the field. It might not be a bad idea to extend him until Reese McGuire is ready, and use Elias Diaz as part of a package to acquire some other much needed parts in trade.
ReplyDeleteThat's a thought, Will, tho my guess is Fran's agent dropped those figures to a newsman knowing the FO wasn't talking to him. That gets his client a starting point for his FA talks next year. We'll see, but unless Diaz gets hurt or regresses, I think Fran is as good as gone.
ReplyDeleteWell, Diaz is a good prospect, there's no doubt about that. I just hope that if the Pirates don't extend guys like Cervelli, they invest the money in our splendid outfield or in picking up some impact veteran starting pitchers (read: more expensive hurlers) in trade.
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