Kuzul

The Boston Red Sox really aren’t messing around this offseason. They are crossing all of their T’s and dotting all of their I’s in preparation for 2011 season.

If Boston felt they needed something this offseason, they have gone out and got it. One of the main areas that Boston needed help in this offseason was their bullpen.

Earlier this week, Boston added Bobby Jenks and brought back Andrew Miller and Rich Hill to help improve their pen. Despite those additions, the Red Sox felt they even needed more help.

That’s why on Saturday, they signed RHP Dan Wheeler. Boston signed Wheeler to a one-year, $3 million contract with a $3 million mutual option for 2012. The option for 2012 can vest if Wheeler appears in 65 games in 2011.

I was a little surprised the Red Sox signed the 33-year-old righty because I thought they needed proven lefty in the pen rather than another proven righty. However, the Red Sox in this case are hoping that Wheeler can act like a lefty.

Left-handed batters hit only .154/.227/.436 against Wheeler last season. If he can do that again next season, the Red Sox will have found their pseudo lefty. Though I will say Wheeler’s success against lefties does appear to be an aberration because in the two years prior to last, lefties hit close to .300 off him.

Overall, Wheeler posted a 3.25 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and 8.6 K/9 with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010. He also posted 34.6 percent Groundball Percentage in 2010. It was the third year in a row that Wheeler’s Groundball Percentage has improved.

With the acquisitions of Jenks and Wheeler to their bullpen, the Red Sox have turned a weakness into a strength for 2011.

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I am going to have to admit, I am really sour on the Detroit Tigers’ offseason so far. This team had almost $70 million come off the books after the 2010 season and the best they have done so far is sign Victor Martinez, overspend on a middle reliever, and re-sign a bunch of aging free agents.

Perhaps my expectations for what the Tigers were going to do was too high. I thought the Tigers were going to make some major splashes. VMart was a good signing, but I thought they were eventually going to pair him with someone like Jayson Werth or Carl Crawford.

The Tigers didn’t sign any other major free agents, but instead filled out their roster with guys like Magglio Ordonez. The Tigers re-signed Ordonez to a one-year, $10 million contract on Thursday.

Ordonez will be back for his seventh season in Detroit and if his ankle is healthy, then the Tigers know what they are going to get out of Ordonez at this point. For those of you who don’t remember, Ordonez fractured his ankle back in July.

Ordonez is a guy who will bat around .300 with 10 to 15 home runs and have around an .830 OPS. Certainly not bad for someone who will be turning 37 next year and certainly not bad for $10 million. Between those offensive numbers and his average defense in right, he should be able to produce more than the $10 million he is going to make in 2011.

With Ordonez back in the fold, the Tigers lineup might look something like this on Opening Day:

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Will Rhymes, 2B
3. Victor Martinez, DH
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Magglio Ordonez, RF
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Brennan Boesch, LF
8. Brandon Inge, 3B
9. Alex Avila, C

It’s not a bad lineup,  but it’s not that great either. On the days when Martinez is behind the plate, Carlos Guillen should be the DH for Jim Leyland’s club.

I just look at this lineup and besides Martinez and Cabrera, nobody really scares me. Besides those two, everyone can be pitched to and unless Boesch reverts back to his first half of 2010 form, there are a lot of automatic outs in this lineup.

Unless the Tigers make a surprise move towards the end of the offseason, I see them as a third place team in the American League Central. I still don’t think they are better than the Minnesota Twins or Chicago White Sox.

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For one day, Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry was the smartest man in baseball.

In an offseason where Joaquin Benoit, Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain get three-year contracts, how the heck did Hendry manage to sign Kerry Wood to just a one-year deal? I am befuddled.

After a three-year absence, the Cubs brought back Wood on a one-year, $1.5 million deal on Thursday. This is quite a hometown discount the Cubs got because it was rumored that Wood turned down multi-year deals with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox just so he could return to the place that made him a household name.

After spending 10 years in Chicago, Wood left as a free agent and signed with the Cleveland Indians. After spending one and a half uneventful years in Cleveland, Wood was traded to the New York Yankees at the July 31 trade deadline.

With the Yankees, it was like Wood was 21-years old again. Mariano Rivera taught him the cutter and down the stretch and into the playoffs, Wood was ridiculously good for the Bronx Bombers.

Wood posted a 0.69 ERA and a 10.7 K/9 ratio in 26 innings. To be honest, I can’t believe the Yankees made such little effort to bring him back.

The signing of Wood allows the Cubs to do a couple of things. First, it gives them a nice one-two punch at the end of the game. Wood will set up Carlos Marmol and the Cubs have to feel very good about that combination at the end of the game.

Second, it allows them to move Andrew Cashner into the starting rotation. Cashner pitched exclusively out of the pen in 2010 and now will be groomed as a starting pitcher.

If Wood would have signed a three-year, $13 million contract with the Cubs, I wouldn’t have even blinked an eye. But at $1.5 million, this is quite a steal for Chicago.

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The clock is officially ticking on Jonathan Papelbon‘s time as closer in a Boston Red Sox uniform.

If the Red Sox don’t trade Papelbon this offseason, he will certainly be on a short leash during the season in Boston. And if the Red Sox trade Papelbon or have him on a short leash during the season, GM Theo Epstein is doing everything he can to prepare for either situation.

On Thursday, the Red Sox signed former Chicago White Sox closer Bobby Jenks to a two-year, $12 million contract. Jenks was non-tendered earlier this winter by the White Sox.

I wrote back in my “Non-Tender Roundup” that Jenks could be a fit with the Red Sox and dog-gonnit he is. Whether or not Papelbon is in a Boston uniform at the start of the 2011 season, Jenks should help the Red Sox bullpen in any role he is in next season.

Outside of Daniel Bard, the Red Sox bullpen took a major step back in 2010. Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez were so bad, they were shipped out of town during the season. Hideki Okajima no longer was Mr. Reliable. And Papelbon became a one-pitch pitcher and that one pitch was very hittable.

Despite having a 4.44 ERA, Jenks had the second highest K/9 ratio of his career with a 10.4 mark and had the second highest Groundball Percentage of his career (58.3) in 2010. A very high BABIP (.368) could potentially explain the high ERA.

Jenks also saw an increase in velocity in 2010. He was hitting 95 again on his fastball.

If Papelbon sticks around, Jenks will find himself pitching in the seventh or eighth inning in 2011. If Papelbon is traded, Jenks could very well find himself closing out games at Fenway. I don’t believe the Red Sox feel Bard is ready to close game quite just yet.

In other Red Sox bullpen news, they brought back both LHP Andrew Miller and LHP Rich Hill with the hopes that one of them can figure out how to get left-handed batters out in 2011. Unless one of these reclamation projects steps up, left-handed reliever figures to be a weakness for the Red Sox next season.

The Red Sox have made a lot of big time moves this offseason. And now with the addition of Jenks, Miller and Hill, they are hoping to turn their weak bullpen of 2010 into a strength in 2011.

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Baseball and America lost a legend on Wednesday when Hall of Fame pitcher and World War II hero Bob Feller passed away. Feller was 92 years old.

Feller, who played all 18 years of his Major League career with the Cleveland Indians, won 226 games, struck out 2,581 and had a 3.25 ERA. His numbers would have been even better if he didn’t serve his country in World War II in the prime of his career. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962.

I had the opportunity to meet Feller when he was a guest speaker at one of my classes back when I was a senior in 1999 at the University of Massachusetts. Every week we had a guest speaker in the class and those guest speakers included Buck Leonard, Joe Morgan and other baseball greats. It was a pretty awesome class.

Even though we had one baseball legend after another come into this class and speak, it was Feller that really stood out to me. He just had this presence about him and I knew I was in the company of a legend.

I remember Feller telling some great stories about Satchel Paige and their barnstorming days. I also remember him making a comment that his wife wasn’t too thrilled with his “Rapid Robert” nickname. It was pretty funny.

Feller was a great ambassador to the game of baseball and a great ambassador of America. I feel privileged just to have met him.

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I am writing this post as I am watching She’s Out of My League. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting much, but I find it surprisingly funny. There are definitely some good parts in there that have made me laugh.

Now on to another laughing matter. That’s the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

The Pirates have been the joke of the sports world for the past 18 years and it has been very rare that we have commented on anything they have done over that time period. Let’s give them some love today.

Over the last couple of days, the Pirates have dipped their hands in the free-agent waters by signing 1B Lyle Overbay and OF Matt Diaz. They signed Overbay to a one-year, $5 million contract and Diaz to a two-year, $4.25 million contract.

I like both of these signings by the Pirates.

In my “Free Agent Primer,” I had Overbay pegged as this year’s Aubrey Huff. Now, will Overbay lead the Pirates to a World Series title like Huff did with the San Francisco Giants? Absolutely not, but that doesn’t mean that Overbay can’t help the Pirates in 2011.

At this point in his career, the Pirates know what they are going to get with Overbay. He is going to hit around 15-20 HRs, have an OBP about 80 points higher than his average, which is usually around .260, and produce an OPS around .800.

I like to call him a “Poor man’s Mark Grace.”

Overbay is also an upgrade over Garrett Jones at first and should help Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker in the infield. Overbay isn’t as good defensively as he used to be, but he is certainly better than what the Pirates were rolling out there in 2010.

The Pirates didn’t bring in Overbay to help them win the NL Central. The Pirates will continue to bring guys like Overbay to help them be a little bit better on the field, but also to be a stopgap until they amass enough young players to really compete.

At $5 million, Overbay will outperform his contract and help the Pirates be a little better on the field.

Diaz is an interesting signing as well. I always had something personal against Diaz because he pronounces his name “Die-az” instead of the traditional “Dee-az.” I always found that annoying.

But anyway, I digress.

Diaz spent five years in Atlanta and hit .305/.353/.461 with 41 HRs in 511 games. Not too shabby.

Diaz spent the majority of his time in Atlanta as fourth outfielder and that is what he will be doing in Pittsburgh. The right-handed Diaz will platoon right with Jones.

That’s a good thing because Diaz crushes left-handed pitching. For his career, Diaz has hit .335 against lefties in 797 plate appearances. Players thrive when they are put in the right role and this should be the right role for Diaz.

Both Overbay and Diaz won’t help the Pirates win the NL Central or even compete for the Wild Card in 2011. They are still years away for that to happen. But, the Pirates did get better this week with those signings.

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If you listened to the New York Yankee fans here in the Big Apple, you would think that Cliff Lee beat up their firstborn. I really can’t get over the reaction to a guy who made a decision that was best for himself and his family.

Yankee fans are reacting as if not getting Lee, the Yankees are going to win 60 games in 2011. Wake up people. Lee would have been a luxury.

The Yankees still have a $200 million payroll and a very talented team that will certainly be one of the top teams in the American League. If anything, this was a big blow to the Yankees ego internally. Lee was their guy and he said talk to the hand.

But not getting Lee is not the end of world; tomorrow will still happen, and the Yankees need to move on. So the question now is—where do the Yankees go from here?

Outside of bringing back Andy Pettitte, there isn’t much improvement they could make to their rotation. Obviously bringing back Carl Pavano is not a possibility and the Yankees are too worried about Zack Greinke‘s mindset to bring him into New York.

Unless the Yankees pull off a surprise for someone like Mark Buehrle or Josh Johnson (my friend Tom suggested that at lunch), the Yankees are most likely going to have a rotation of CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes, AJ Burnett, Pettitte (I say he re-signs) and Sergio Mitre.

What I can see the Yankees doing if they don’t bring back Pettitte or even if they do, is build a super bullpen. The best way to compensate for a weak (by Yankee standards) rotation, is to have a strong bullpen.

What would prevent the Yankees from signing Rafael Soriano and re-signing Kerry Wood? Soriano can’t find a home right now, so why not pair him up with Mariano Rivera? A Wood-Soriano-Rivera trifecta at the end of the game would be lethal.

Whichever direction the Yankees go in, losing Lee is not the end of the world. They will be just fine in 2011.

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The Oakland A’s finished 11th in the American League in runs scored (663), 13th in HRs (109) and 10th in OPS (.702) in 2010. Despite those pedestrian offensive numbers, the A’s still managed to finish .500 on the season.

Going into the offseason, offense was and still is a top priority. The A’s have been in on a couple of free agents this season, but so far have been spurned by some of the bigger names on the market. It seems like Oakland at times can’t even give away their money.

However, one guy willing to take their dollars is Hideki Matsui. Matsui or “Godzilla” signed a one-year, $4.25 million contract on Tuesday.

Matsui will serve as the A’s primary DH, replacing Jack Cust who signed with the Seattle Mariners last week.

Here is my take on this signing. While $4.25 million is a bargain for Matsui, I have to question if he is really an upgrade over Cust? I am not so sure he is.

Take a look at Cust vs. Matsui last season.

Not only can you see that I used Oakland’s color to illustrate my point, Cust is almost better across the board in 2010. The A’s are banking that Cust will not repeat his 2010 season in 2011 and that Matsui is the more reliable option.

As I mentioned above, Matsui is a good signing for $4.25 million, but he’s not a big enough upgrade for the A’s to make a difference in 2011. If they plan on catching up with the Texas Rangers, they are going to need to add some more offense.

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So, I guess there was a mystery team after all.

Usually when an agent tells everyone there is a “mystery team,” it’s nine times out of 10 just him trying to make agent speak and trying to drum up interest in his client.

It’s like when a girl tells you she is leaving for another guy. You kind of don’t believe it, but in the end, it proves to be true.

Unfortunately for the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers, there was a mystery team involved in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, and that team was the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies shocked baseball early this morning when they signed Lee to a five-year, $120 million contract. The contract also includes a vesting option for a sixth year.

I am for one, am shocked. I thought if there really was a mystery team, it would have been the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I thought they might have been desperate enough to outbid everyone.

I am not shocked, however, that Lee spurned the Yankees. I called this back in November in my Free Agent Primer.

Let’s go back to two winters ago and the CC Sabathia negotiations. It seemed Sabathia had very little interest in pitching in New York. By all accounts, he wanted to stay in California. But because he was a free agent in the most depressed baseball market in years, no other team could afford him except for the Yankees.

Even then, Brian Cashman had to fly to California, bid against himself and practically beg Sabathia to come to NY. If any of the California teams were seriously interested in Sabathia at that time, I would bet he would be pitching with those teams instead of the Yankees right now.

My point is, this time around the Yankees had serious competition and the player they were going after had options. The Yankees weren’t the only game in town.

Lee never showed to have much interest in NY and choose the best situation for him and his family. The key word in that last sentence is “choose.”

Unlike Sabathia, Lee didn’t have to sign with the Yankees out of default.

Lee clearly liked his time spent in Philadelphia back in 2009 and now gives the Phillies a rotation for the ages. Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton and Lee is one ridiculous five-man rotation.

The Phillies now have $147 million tied up into 11 players. Look for them to try to trade Blanton or Raul Ibanez to free up some money.

So the question is, which team lost out more on not getting Lee? The Rangers or the Yankees?

I am going to say the Rangers on this one. Despite the fact that Lee wouldn’t have taken up a good chunk of their payroll, he gave them something they haven’t had in years—a true, bona fide, punch-you-in-the-mouth ace.

Lee made the Rangers a World Series contender. He gave them someone that can walk into any stadium and shut another team down.

Now the Rangers have a bunch of No. 2 and 3 starters in their rotation. That might be good enough to win the division, but, as they found out this season, aces win the World Series, not No. 3 starters.

Expect the “Zack Greinke to the Rangers” trade rumors to heat up.

The reason the Yankees don’t hurt as much as the Rangers do in this one is because they still have Sabathia and Phil Hughes. Would Lee have shifted the balance of power back in the Yankees’ favor in the AL East? Yes it would have. But it’s not the end of the world.

Expect the Yankees to bring back Andy Pettitte to fill out the rotation. I don’t expect them to pursue Greinke at all.

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The Cincinnati Reds have as much young talent as any team in baseball. Players like Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Drew Stubbs, Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, and Aroldis Chapman represent a bright future for the Reds and their fans.

When a team has that much talent, the next step is to lock up that talent.

The Reds took the next step with one of their young, talented players this week when they signed Bruce to a contract extension. Cincinnati signed Bruce to a six-year, $51 contract with a $13 million option for 2017.

At $8.5 million a year on average, this is a very good and fair extension by the Reds.

After a down 2009 season, Bruce had a nice bounce back season for the Reds in 2010. Bruce finished the year with a .281/.353/.493 slash line with 25 HRs. Back in late September, I thought there were three reasons for Bruce’s rebound season.

1. Improved BB percentage. Bruce has improved his BB percentage from 9.8 percent last year to 10.1 percent in 2010. While that might not be the biggest jump in the world, it marks the third year in a row that Bruce’s BB percentage has increased. It was just 7.3 in 2008.

The continued increase tells me not only is Bruce getting more comfortable at the plate, but more comfortable facing major league pitching. Bruce is only 23 years old, and the more comfortable he gets throughout his career, the more I would imagine his BB percentage would continue to increase.

2. Improved line drive percentage. Last year, Bruce was hitting more flyballs (48.5 percent), which led to more HRs, but also led to more lazy flyball outs. Bruce has stopped hitting so many flyballs and has started to hit line drives.

Bruce has improved his line drive percentage by over seven percent in 2010.

3. Improvement versus left-handed pitching. Coming into 2010, Bruce had a career slash line of .200/.288/.315 in 263 AB’s versus left-handed pitching. Essentially, he was an automatic out against lefties.

However, Bruce has really improved versus lefties in 2010. Bruce came into Wednesday night’s game hitting .260/.335/.500 in 154 AB’s. He also has 10 of his 22 HRs against lefties in 2010. That’s a tremendous improvement from years past.

If Bruce continues and improves in those three categories throughout the length of his extension, the Reds will be getting a steal.

Not only is Bruce solid offensively, but what many people don’t realize is that he is very good defensively. I know a lot of people will remember Bruce for his gaffe against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS this season, but I hope that is not the case. Bruce has posted back-to-back solid defensive seasons in right and his 20.2 UZR was second amongst all Major League right fielders in 2010.

This is a good extension by the Reds. Now if they can get Votto extended, they will really be in business in the future.

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