Bye, Bye, Nook
Hope you're sitting down. The Nats have non-tendered Nook Logan. Now, I'm not quite sure what that means in the context of someone who's not yet arbitration-eligible, but I'm working under the assumption that it's basically a pink slip. Don't call us. We'll call you.
They did the same with Irish Mike O'Connor, whose starts you've probably just finally flushed down the ol' memory hole.
But the more important news is that they've agreed to contracts with Luis Ayala, John Patterson and Ryan Wagner (remember him?), avoiding arbitration with all. No terms yet. I wonder if Wagner's is a minor league deal? Could they have worked out something with him on that level, circumventing the need for waivers to option him down. (Yes, I'm talking out my ass now)
That leaves Jesus Colome, Tim Redding, Felipe Lopez and Jon Rauch as the remaining arbitration candidates. I'd imagine that all would be tendered at this point.
UPDATE: Zuckerman (via NTP) says that all WILL be offered a contract. Welcome back, FLop. (I'm really pulling for the guy... he's a hard worker, and I'm sort of tired of the Couch Commandos trying to divine attitude through the 2 shots of his face you get a game. Meanwhile, Kudos to the Times for finally getting an RSS Feed! I was starting to miss a fundamentalist slant to my news coverage!
The Astros are exepected to non-tender shorstop Adam Everett, a player who I mentioned as someone the Nats should be interested in investigating when I bleated for a glove-first shortstop last week.
Everett broke his leg in an on-field collision last year, missing most of the middle of the season. He was able to play a few games at the very tail end of September, but I imagine that (along with prior concerns about his back) helped scare the Astros off. With that in mind, the Nats probably still should kick the tires.
More on Everett... the algebraic argument for him!
They did the same with Irish Mike O'Connor, whose starts you've probably just finally flushed down the ol' memory hole.
But the more important news is that they've agreed to contracts with Luis Ayala, John Patterson and Ryan Wagner (remember him?), avoiding arbitration with all. No terms yet. I wonder if Wagner's is a minor league deal? Could they have worked out something with him on that level, circumventing the need for waivers to option him down. (Yes, I'm talking out my ass now)
That leaves Jesus Colome, Tim Redding, Felipe Lopez and Jon Rauch as the remaining arbitration candidates. I'd imagine that all would be tendered at this point.
Everett broke his leg in an on-field collision last year, missing most of the middle of the season. He was able to play a few games at the very tail end of September, but I imagine that (along with prior concerns about his back) helped scare the Astros off. With that in mind, the Nats probably still should kick the tires.
posted by Chris Needham at
6:56 PM
15 Comments:
best news of the day!!!
however, chris, thanks to your diligence in getting this online, my comments on adam everett's possibilities are included on the prior post/thread. don't rush over there too quickly!
By
DCPowerGator, at 12/12/2007 7:12 PM
Why on earth aren't we non-tendering FLop and then re-signing him cheaper?
There can't be anyone out there who'd take a chance on him for ~$4m or whatever he's making, meaning that even if we had to re-sign for $3.5m or so, at least we wouldn't be ridiculously overpaying quite as much. It's not even the performance so much as the embarrassment that we're paying him that much for that kind of a job.
By
Michael Taylor, at 12/12/2007 7:21 PM
We're paying Guzman $4.2 million. I don't think there's any shame in paying Lopez considerably more than that!
By
Chris Needham, at 12/12/2007 7:23 PM
Yeah, Chris, but Guzman's on a free agent contract with guaranteed money. I'd be in favor of doing the same to him if he were in FLop's situation. I certainly don't like Guz any better than Lopez, but that's like saying because we've made one mistake, we might as well make two.
By
Michael Taylor, at 12/12/2007 7:26 PM
But it's not a mistake.
Felipe's going to get pretty close to that on the FA market if you released him. No sense pissing him off over a million dollars which would only go for Uncle Teddy's liverspot polisher.
Lopez, I'd bet, is going to turn some heads this season with how much better he plays. Regression to the mean is a beautiful thing, sometimes!
By
Chris Needham, at 12/12/2007 7:29 PM
I'll concede to you that he will probably regress to the mean. He will probably bring his OBP back to around .335 or so and his average up to the .260-270 range at least, but his slugging looks more a product of the Great American Ballpark than anything else. Take a look at his away splits for 2005, his big year. He's not going to be as terrible as he was, but he's definitely not going to be a force to be reckoned with either, and if he can't get his defense back a little bit, there might be trouble.
By
Michael Taylor, at 12/12/2007 7:37 PM
FLop's actually not a horrible defensive 2B. He's terribly exposed at SS, but if he can move back to second and he comes back to something like his career averages it'll be a tremendous boost out of that position. Plus the benefit of having Belliard as a bench bat.
By
Nate, at 12/12/2007 7:56 PM
with the team up the road in need of a ss now, perhaps Trader Jim thougth it best to keep FLop around for trade fodder? i offer this only half-jokingly.
By
Anonymous, at 12/12/2007 7:57 PM
If we got a decent shot-stop I wonder how the market would be for Guzman. I mean obviously not good, be probably no worse than FLop, who would be more useful to us as he can play two positions, which Guzman can't.
By
Unknown, at 12/12/2007 11:18 PM
Chris
Lopez is not even a Type A or B Free Agent according to the official Elias NL ranking which means the Nationals would get nothing for him when he leaves for free agency AND he's getting $4M money that a Type B free agent would command!
By
Anonymous, at 12/13/2007 7:54 AM
Chris
Lopez's attitude indicates to me that there is some personal issue distracting him and has so for a few years. Until he resolves that issue(s), he will continue to have the same inconsistent performances.
By
Anonymous, at 12/13/2007 8:04 AM
Elias rankings have zero value in terms of real world value.
Dmitri Young isn't ranked, yet he's getting $5 million and many would argue that that's a fair salary.
Those are silly rankings using arbitrary criteria which really aren't aimed at measuring a player's contribution, so other than for compensation purposes, ignore them.
By
Chris Needham, at 12/13/2007 8:42 AM
Mark Prior cut loose. Talk about huge potential in a reclamation project. Let's get him and get Randy to work on him.
By
Anonymous, at 12/13/2007 9:43 AM
It also looks like the B Jays are about to sign Eckstein. Could we possibly pry Josh McDonald from them? I watched a bunch of Toronto games last year and that guy is ridiculously awesome at SS.
By
Anonymous, at 12/13/2007 9:46 AM
JT - it's john mcdonald but your point is well taken! the former tribe farmhand is indeed a great glove man. would be at worst a great utility guy and possible starter at SS if FLop or Guzzie don't pan out.
By
DCPowerGator, at 12/13/2007 10:59 AM
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