Kuzul

With two swift moves, the Baltimore Orioles went from having one of the weakest infields in baseball to one of the best.

Earlier in the week, the Orioles acquired Mark Reynolds from the Arizona Diamondbacks to play third base. I didn’t get a chance to post on that trade, but I really liked it from the Orioles perspective.

I understand Reynolds hit only .198 in 2010, and everyone knows about his ability to strike out with the best of them. But he does a lot of other things well, such as hit HRs and play tremendous defense, which makes him more than worth the $12.5 million he’s guaranteed from the Orioles in the next two years.

The Orioles upgraded at third, so the next step was to upgrade at shortstop. Enter J.J. Hardy.

Hardy, along with utility infielder Brendan Harris, were traded from the Minnesota Twins to the Orioles on Thursday for relievers Brett Jacobson and Jim Hoey. Another good, good trade for GM Andy MacPhail and the Orioles.

Hardy became expendable because the Twins didn’t want to pay Hardy in arbitration. Hardy is probably due about $6 million as a third-year arbitration eligible player.

Is Hardy ever going to go back to his ’07 and ’08 seasons offensively when he was with the Milwaukee Brewers? Probably not. He averaged a .280/.333/.470 slash line with 25 HRs and 30 doubles in those two seasons.

Hardy offensively is more like the player we saw the last two seasons in Milwaukee and Minnesota. That is a player that will hit around .260 with 10 HRs, 15–20 doubles, and a .685 OPS. While those might not be the greatest offensive stats in the world, Hardy makes up the difference on defense.

Everyone talks about Troy Tulowitzki as the best defensive shortstop in baseball. While that may be true, Hardy isn’t too far behind. As a matter of fact, I would say Hardy is nipping at Tulowitzki’s heels.

Since 2007, no other SS in the game has a better UZR than Hardy. His 34.3 UZR over that time is better than the likes of Tulowitzki, Jimmy Rollins, and Alex Gonzalez. The man can flat-out pick it at short.

Now with Reynolds at third, Hardy at short, and Brian Roberts at second, all of a sudden the Orioles have the makings of one of the best infields in baseball. Who will play first base for the Orioles is still up in the air. Guys like Jake Fox, Luke Scott, and Brandon Snyder will compete for that spot. Regardless of who plays first, with Reynolds, Hardy, and Roberts in the infield, and if Matt Wieters and Adam Jones can come back in 2011, the Orioles should be much improved offensively in next season.

In exchange for Hardy, the Orioles traded two young relief pitchers.

Jacobson is a 24-year-old right-handed pitcher, who has a 3.09 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 8.3 K/9, and 3.0 BB/9 in 166 career minor league innings. His highest level of competition with the Orioles was High-A.

Hoey is a journeyman minor leaguer who last pitched in the Major Leagues in 2007. He compiled an 8.13 ERA over 34.1 innings. He soon will be 28 and seems to be a classic quadruple-A player. Over the last three seasons split between Double-A and Triple-A, Hoey has averaged 12.1 K’s/9.

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For those Kansas City Royal fans who thought the last 15 years were the worst, wait until they get a load of next year. The Royals might have the best farm system in baseball and are gearing up for 2013, but they are officially in bottom-out mode in 2011.

The team GM Dayton Moore is going to field in 2011 will be the worst team in baseball. Outside of Zack Greinke, who will most likely get traded, and Billy Butler and Joakim Soria, this team has zero talent on their roster.

And their recent acquisitions haven’t helped the situation either.

This week, the Royals signed outfielders Jeff Francoeur ($2.5 million) and Melky Cabrera ($1.25 million) to one-year contracts. To sign one free-agent scrub outfielder, who doesn’t walk is tough, but to sign two of them? Well, that’s the equivalent to Chinese water torture.

Both Francoeur and Cabrera are fourth and fifth outfielders on most teams, but will be everyday players with the Royals. Not only will they be everyday players with the Royals, but looking at their depth chart, I could see Francoeur batting in the middle of their lineup.

That’s how bad this team will be in 2011.

Here is their—or I should say my—projected lineup for 2011:

1. Getz, 2B

2. Aviles, 3B

3. Butler, DH

4. Francoeur, RF

5. Ka’aihue, 1B

6. Gordon, LF

7. Cabrera, CF

8. Kendall, C

9. Betancourt, SS

I just threw up in my mouth as I typed out this lineup. I have seen more talent at a strip club in Milwaukee on a Tuesday night than there is in this mess of a lineup.

And don’t get me started on Cabrera. I was quite pleased when he was exposed as a fraud in Atlanta this season. Nothing angered me more than New York Yankee fans walking around with Cabrera jerseys on, telling me how good he was. I felt like I was talking crazy pills.

He was a clown in New York that just so happened to be surrounded by eight All-Stars. Anybody with some sanity would have noticed that Cabrera isn’t a starting-caliber center fielder on a Major League club.

I can only imagine how poor he is going to be surrounded by nobodies in KC.

The Royals are in the bottom-out phase of Moore’s plan, which means they need to sign mediocre veterans to fill out the starting lineup. It’s like when they signed guys like Terrence Long, Reggie Sanders, Jose Lima and Matt Stairs at the end of their careers to start in years past.

It’s going to be at least two years before top prospects like Mike Montgomery, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Tim Melville and Aaron Crow contribute at the Major League level. Until then, there are going to be some more lean years in Kansas City.

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I am going to say that this week was not the best one in the career of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim GM Tony Reagins.

First, he gets smoked by the Boston Red Sox in the Carl Crawford deal. Then, he announced late Friday that they were no longer going to pursue Rafael Soriano. Essentially, the two main Angel targets this offseason disappeared within 48 hours.

If it’s any consolation to Angel fans, they did sign a pretty good reliever on Friday.

The Angels signed former Toronto Blue Jay LHP Scott Downs to a three-year, $15 million contract. Downs can earn another $1 million in incentives if he finishes a certain number of games.

Well, I certainly didn’t see this move coming from the Angels.

I didn’t see it coming because A. I thought Downs would sign with the Boston Red Sox and B. The Angels already signed a left-hander earlier this offseason when they inked Hisanori Takahashi to a two-year, $8 million contract.

For those of you scoring at home, the Angels have spent $23 million on left-handed middle relievers this offseason. That’s umm, interesting to say the least.

Then again, if you have followed the Angels over the last couple of years, they have shelled out some interesting contracts to some not so stellar relief pitchers. Of course, I am talking about the $17.5 million they shelled out to Brian Fuentes and the $11 million they spent on Fernando Rodney.

However, I am going to cut the Angels some slack on the Downs signing. He is actually pretty good.

Since 2007, Downs has compiled a 2.36 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 7.8 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 236.2 innings. Downs features a fastball that hovers around the upper-80s, a slider and a pretty sweet curve.

What makes Downs so good is that he is one of those rare left-handed pitchers that can get both lefties and righties out. Left-handed batters had a slash line of .152/.247/.241 with two HRs and right-handed batters had a slash line of .243/.283/.354 with one HR against Downs in 2010.

That’s some solid work from the 34-year-old from Louisville, KY.

What role Downs will have with the Angels is still up in the air. If Reagins was telling the truth and the Angels are really out of the Soriano sweepstakes, then Rodney is the only closer on the roster.

Even the Angels have to realize at this point Rodney sucks out loud. Downs could very well find himself closing games in 2011.

Would I have signed Downs to a three-year, $15 million contract and on top of that surrender a first-round pick? No, I wouldn’t have.

But then again, after Joaquin Benoit set the market with his ridiculous contract, how could anyone argue with this contract? I would take Downs over Benoit any day of the week and even three times on Sunday.

In regards to surrendering a first-round pick? I don’t think the Angels cared about that. I think they will sign one more Type A free agent this offseason and that Type A free agent will be Adrian Beltre. I can’t see owner Arte Moreno going down this quietly this offseason.

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Based on this offseason, I think I am going to start calling Colorado Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd “A Deal A Week O’Dowd.” It seems like every week the Rockies are in the news for something.

First it was trading Clint Barmes. Then the Troy Tulowitzki extension. After that it was re-signing Jorge de la Rosa.

O’Dowd wasn’t done yet as he traded for infielder Jose Lopez. Yesterday, O’Dowd continued to tweak the Rockies roster by signing Ty Wigginton.

The Rockies signed Wigginton to a two-year, $8 million contract with an option for 2013. Wigginton hit .248/.312/.415 with 22 home runs in 649 plate appearances for the Baltimore Orioles in 2010.

That seems like a lot of boxes of ziti for a guy who had a .283 OBP in the second half of last season. It’s also a lot of boxes of ziti for a guy who is a jack of all trades, but master of none.

Wigginton has some pop in his bat, but not great pop. He can play three infield positions, but none of them overly well. He’s been your classic role-player on bad teams throughout his career.

I call those players “Kansas City Devil Pirates” players. Those are the players like Wigginton, who can play on those teams, but not on a big-time team. Lastings Milledge will be on that list soon.

So the question is, what role will Wigginton play with the Rockies?

Wigginton will be the Rockies primary right-handed hitter off the bench and will fill in for Ian Stewart at third or Todd Helton at first against left-handed pitching.

Against lefties, the Rockies could feature a lineup that looks something like this:

1. Young, 2B

2. Fowler, CF

3. Gonzalez, LF

4. Tulowitzki, SS

5. Lopez, 3B

6. Wigginton, 1B

7. Spilborghs, RF

8. Iannetta, C

9. Pitcher

Outside of Carlos Gonzalez, every other position player in that lineup bats right-handed. The damage that lineup will do will be dependent on Lopez and Wigginton. If the Rockies get the 2010 Lopez and the second-half Wigginton, that lineup looks a lot less formidable.

I don’t mind the signing of Wigginton because I can see how he can be used on the Rockies. I just wouldn’t have given him $4 million a year to do it. It seems a little outlandish to me.

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New Arizona Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers had one goal this offseason. That was to somehow improve the worst bullpen in baseball last season.

The Diamondbacks bullpen finished the 2010 season with a 5.74 ERA. That was a full run worse than the next worse bullpen. The Diamondbacks were rolling out “jabronis” such as Chad Qualls, Leo Rosales and Cesar Valdez.

Not only could the underbelly of the bullpen not get to the closer, but when they finally did, nobody could close games for them. Qualls was a clown show and Juan Gutierrez, who replaced Qualls, was no better.

Towers has done his best to get rid of these clowns and bring in fresh arms. The latest fresh arm Towers has brought in will be expected to close games with authority in 2011.

Towers and the Diamondbacks signed RHP J.J. Putz to a two-year, $10 million contract with an option for 2013. The option is for $6.5 million according to Ken Rosenthal.

This is a really good signing by the Diamondbacks.

After a disastrous 2009 season with the New York Mets where he battled injuries and the Mets medical staff, Putz had a bounce-back season with the Chicago White Sox. It was like Putz was back with the Seattle Mariners all over again.

Putz had a 2.83 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and a 10.8 K/9 in 54 innings. Putz was especially tough on right-handed batters last season. Righties hit .164 with just three extra-base hits in 120 plate appearances.

What made Putz so tough was the return of his split-fingered fastball. He threw more splitters last season (29.4 percent) than at any point in his career.

Not only was he throwing it a lot, but it was nasty. His 5.1 wSF was the fifth highest in the Major Leagues in 2010.

At 33, Putz appears to have a lot left in the tank and should be a solid signing for the Diamondbacks.

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Remember when Barry Zito signed his seven-year, $126 million contract in the winter of 2006? Remember how we all scratched our heads and said how could the San Francisco Giants commit that much money to a pitcher like Zito?

Well, it’s time to start scratching our heads again.

On Sunday, it was announced that the Washington Nationals signed OF Jayson Werth to a seven-year, $126 million contract. Werth’s contract is the third largest ever given to an outfielder—only Manny Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano scored larger contracts than Werth.

I like Werth a lot. I really do. He’s been a stud for the Philadelphia Phillies for the past four years and my fantasy team for the past two.

However, this contract is ridiculous.

The overall consensus was that Werth was going to sign with the Boston Red Sox or the Detroit Tigers. The Nationals were nowhere on the radar.

But when the Nationals presumably blew everyone with some sanity off the map with their offer, Werth was DC bound.

I am not sure that anyone can argue with Werth going to the Nationals. I mean, if someone is going to offer you that much more money than anyone else, I don’t care if you are going to endure a 0-162 season, that’s where you are going.

I have no problem with the annual salary the Nationals are giving Werth. He has been a $20 million a year player for the Phillies for the past three years, so $18 million a year isn’t outlandish.

Now giving a guy who will be 32 on Opening Day for seven years, well, that’s a bunch of Tom Foolery.

Four years and $72 million would have been adequate for Werth. The Nationals gave Werth three more years, which doesn’t make sense to me.

In the final three years of the contract, the Nationals will be paying Werth $18 million a year when he is in his late 30′s. By that time, I will make a safe bet that Werth will no longer be an $18 million a year player.

If you think about it, the Nationals might not even be good until four or five years from now. By the time the Nationals get really competitive, Werth’s contract will be an albatross.

Contract aside, Werth is an overall upgrade over the recent departed Adam Dunn. Most importantly, he is a huge upgrade over Dunn on the defensive side of the ball. Defense has been the achilles heel for the Nationals over the past couple of seasons.

However, Werth doesn’t solve all of the Nationals’ problems and he is only a win or two improvement over Dunn. If this team doesn’t get some pitching, the Nationals will find themselves in a similar situation to what Soriano is in with the Chicago Cubs.

Having a player with an untradeable contract on a crappy team never ends well.

And for those of you who want to blame Scott Boras (Werth’s agent on this deal) for ruining the game by demanding these large contracts, which price out the small market teams, just remember this: Someone has to buy what he is selling.

Boras doesn’t sign contracts; there has to be some clown out there to sign the contract he is pitching.

In this case, the clown turned out to be Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo.

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The Boston Red Sox had until 2:00 PM EST to work out a contract extension with Adrian Gonzalez, and according to multiple sources, the two sides failed to come to an agreement.

However, this trade has been completed and the Red Sox will wait until spring training to work out a deal with Gonzalez. This is a huge change of events because, to be honest, I was writing about how this deal fell through about 10 minutes ago.

If the Red Sox didn’t pull this off, it would have given them a second negotiation black eye to match the one they got in the Mark Teixeira debacle two winters ago. Now, with a four-month window to negotiate, I would fully expect the Red Sox to get this deal done.

Don’t be surprised if the Red Sox and Gonzalez work out a deal in spring training, but announce the deal until after Opening Day. They did the same thing with Josh Beckett last year. Announcing deals like these after Opening Day helps Boston when it comes to the luxury tax.

A press conference is schedule for Monday to officially announce the trade.

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I am happy this made-up drama is finally over. I have seen wrestling story lines that had more real drama that what went on with the New York Yankees and Derek Jeter over the last couple of weeks.

Living here in New York City, I saw and heard everything, from Jeter being on the back page of the New York Post in a Boston Red Sox uniform, to every Yankee fan calling WFAN and making my ears bleed, to Hal and Hank Steinbrenner make outlandish comments for the sake of making outlandish comments.

The reality was, Jeter was never going anywhere. This was such a non-story, but the Yankees—like the Dallas Cowboys—usually turn molehills into mountains.

Jeter wasn’t going anywhere two weeks ago, and he won’t be going anywhere for the next three years. The Yankees and Jeter agreed to a three-year, $51 million deal.

Also included in this contract is a player option for a fourth year for $8 million, and Jeter can earn an additional $9 million in incentives in the fourth year if he doesn’t make certain incentives in the first three years. According to SI.com’s Jon Heyman, the incentives are based on finishes in the MVP, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove voting.

We all the know the story of Jeter and his down 2010 season. That story has been beaten to death. And we all know Jeter isn’t worth $17 million at this point in his career.

He performs more like a $10 million-a-year player nowadays. But the story here is how once again the Yankees have set the market for the shortstop position.

The Yankees have become very smart over the years. And when you have money and you become smart, that is a lethal combination.

What the Yankees have done over the past 10 years is overpay players and set the market for each position. When that overpaid player reaches the end of his contract with the Yankees, they just replace him with another star that no other team can afford.

The best example of this would be the Jason Giambi contract. The Yankees grossly overpaid for Giambi and were paying him $20 million plus annually from 2006–2008.

By the time 2008 rolled around, Giambi was useless to the Yankees. So what do the Yankees do? They replace him with the best first baseman on the market in Mark Teixeira, for almost the same annual salary per year.

At $20 million plus annually, there are realistically maybe two or three teams that can afford that, the Yankees being one of them and usually the most aggressive.

The same thing is going to happen to Jeter.

Even three years from now, how many teams will be able to afford a $17 million-a-year player? Five? Maybe six? When Jeter leaves and the Florida Marlins can’t afford Hanley Ramirez or the Colorado Rockies can’t afford Troy Tulowitzki, the Yankees will be there to scoop them up.

Whether you like it or not, that’s the way it is.

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I guess the St. Louis Cardinals figured if they won the World Series with Chris Duncan starting 59 games in the outfield in 2006, they can do the same with Lance Berkman in 2010.

In a surprising move, the Cardinals signed Lance Berkman to a one-year, eight million dollar contract on Saturday. The 34-year-old switch-hitter will play left field for the Cardinals in 2011. Matt Holliday will move to right, and Colby Rasmus will remain in center.

This is a surprising move, because Berkman hasn’t played the outfield since 2007, and even back then he wasn’t very good at it. And on top of that, Berkman has two bad wheels, and Holliday has never played an inning in RF in his Major League career.

Perhaps with four groundball pitchers in the rotation, the Cardinals are banking that a limited amount of flyballs will be hit.

While the Cardinals have statistically gotten worse on defense with the acquisitions of Ryan Theriot and Berkman, their offense should be better with these acquisitions in 2011.

As much as Berkman fell off last year, he still was good for a .368 combined OBP with the Houston Astros and New York Yankees. His BB Percentage and K Percentage were right in line with his career averages.

Where Berkman really fell off in 2010 was his performance as a right-handed batter. He only hit .171/.261/.256 with one HR as a right-handed batter. One would think he could only improve on that in 2011.

With Berkman, the Cardinals now will feature a lineup that looks something like this:

1. Schumaker, 2B

2. Berkman, LF

3. Pujols, 1B

4. Holliday, RF

5. Rasmus, CF

6. Molina, C

7. Freese, 3B

8. Theriot, SS

9. Pitcher

For a National League lineup, it’s not that bad. It’s still very top heavy, and if Berkman can’t stay healthy, this lineup doesn’t look nearly as good.

Berkman only played in 122 games last year, and that was with him playing first and DH. So it will be interesting to see how healthy he can stay trying to track down fly balls in left on a daily basis.

If Berkman can stay on the field, Berkman can still be productive enough to give the Cardinals a solid bat in front of Albert Pujols. Of course, that’s a big if.

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When Ozzie Guillen filled out his lineup card throughout the 2010 season, the DH spot in the lineup was often a black hole. It seemed like the White Sox had this hodgepodge of players trying to fill the position and none of them could cut the mustard.

White Sox DH’s hit .247/.332/.396 with 18 HRs in 2010. Now they have a guy who might hit 18 HRs in the first half of the 2011 season.

The White Sox signed DH/1B Adam Dunn to a four-year, $56 million contract on Thursday. Dunn spent the last two years of his career in a Washington Nationals uniform.

I don’t have a problem with the length of the contract, as Dunn will be 35 when the contract ends. With the position he plays, he should still be productive by that age.

I do however think the dollar amount per year is a little high for what Dunn will bring to the table, but not completely outlandish. If I were going to go four years with the big Texan, I would have gone four for $44 million.

Dunn made $10 million a year for the last two years with the Nationals, so a $4 million/year raise isn’t crazy. It wasn’t like Dunn made $3 million and GM Kenny Williams gave him a huge raise.

Money aside, I think the one thing people don’t realize with Dunn is that he has been one of the most consistent players in baseball over the past seven seasons.

Here is what I know I am going to get with Dunn every year. Dunn’s 162-game average looks something like this: .250/.381/.521 with 40 HRs. And guess what? He pretty much comes close to that line every year.

I would expect it to be bombs away in the hitter-friendly US Cellular Field. Forty-five to 50 HRs won’t be out of the question for Dunn in 2011.

I also know Dunn is going to take the field every day. Dunn has played in over 150 games eight out of nine years in the majors. For a guy his size, that’s pretty impressive.

Dunn will be the primary DH for the White Sox in 2011, but will sprinkle in time at first as well. His time at first will mostly depend on whether or not the White Sox bring back Paul Konerko, which I expect them to do.

If there is a concern with Dunn, it’s that his BB percentage has decreased three years in a row and his K percentage has increased three years in a row—never a good trend to have.

However, my positive spin on that is that Dunn was playing on a pretty bad team the last two years and that could be the result of him trying to do too much. Dunn will be joining a pretty decent lineup in Chicago, so we will see if this is a trend or just a product of his environment.

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