[thehatfield]

Saturday, November 28, 2006

The New York Yankees made big news by re-signing their 34-year old right fielder Stewart “Bug” Tingle to a two year contract at close to $10 million per season. Bug is on his way to the Hall of Fame if he can keep his production up over the next couple of years, having compiled 2,335 hits, 434 home runs and 1,364 RBI with a career batting average of .311 in 7,515 at-bats. Last year for the second-place Yankees he hit .326 with a .402 OBP and .568 slugging, 34 homers and 42 doubles in 604 at-bats.

Our offers to the “Big 4” were out there and the players or their agents all seemed fairly taken aback. They weren’t quite sure if coming to Oakland was really the best move but I told them that if the money was comparable they should really think about what it might mean to the Oakland fans. These folks would be deified to choose Oakland over anyone else. Unfortunately Teodor Revelez was linked in two national news stories as going to either the Mets or the Phillies.


Sunday, November 29, 2006

I got a call early on Sunday morning from my toady Herb Watson.

“Turn on ESPN,” Herb said in a raspy voice. He sounded half-awake or perhaps like he had had a long night.

I flip on TV and fumble for the right channel and it’s right there as clear as day: A picture of 30-year old third baseman Juan “Dome” Guevaro in an Oakland Athletics cap was positioned behind the shoulder of some slick-looking talking head sports geek. They were just finishing the story when I found the channel and mentioned his $7 million per-year for the next four years. I was happy the 2009 #4 overall pick of the Washington Nationals was coming but I would have liked to know about it before the media did. Pangs of doubt about him being able to fit in immediately crept into my head but the guy is a 3-time All Star at third and has 346 career homers and that was all we wanted from him.

My phone rang. I figured it was going to be Dome. It wasn’t.

“Hey, is this Jim Fillmore?” asked the voice on the other end of the line in a surfer-dude slow, looping cadence.

“Yes,” I replied.

“This is Rowley Dickson, man, can I speak with him?”

I took the phone away from my head for a moment and shook my head while exhaling loudly and slowly.

“This is Fillmore. What do you want?”

“Oh, right man,” Dickson said, “yeah, sorry about that you know sometimes I just like don’t really know what’s happening and…”

“Yeah, Mr. Dickson,” I interrupted sarcastically, the Jersey in me boiling to the surface, “I’m trying to put a team together here what do you need?”

“Yeah, man,” Dickson replied slowly, “well, I was just watching ESPN and saw you got Juan Guevaro. I’m actually a good friend of his and you guys got in touch with my agent anyway a few days ago. I think you’ve got some stones to try and bring in a guy like that. You want good players to come here not for a quick fix but to make something magical. And that’s just what I’m looking for in an organization – a chance not to just be a spoke in some giant corporate wheel but to really create something special. You guys are willing to go four years at $4.5, if this works out I want to renegotiate after two years. What do you think? Oh, and I only come to Oakland if I get #10. How ‘bout it?”

“I say welcome aboard!”

The Devil Rays will now get our #1 overall pick in next year’s draft but I feel this signing is going to be well worth it both in the short term and in the long run. The 25-year old Dickson, if he can keep his head on straight, should be a top of the rotation starter for years to come. The lefty sinkerballer doesn’t have a tremendous amount of velocity but he throws all of his pitches with fantastic control and that sinker coming in from his lanky frame and fluid delivery looks like it could be anything.

The local news was starting to catch on and there were now some voices of reason starting to creep in saying folks should “wait to pass judgment on the new GM” whereas just a few days ago they wanted my head on a pike. While they weren’t convinced we should be trying to sign Juan Guevaro they didn’t really come out and say it was a bad move to make either. He was, after all, the best offensive third baseman available and one of the best power bats in the league. I said third base was a goal and we went and got our player so that was helping my credibility all around. They were delighted that we had brought Dickson over despite losing the draft pick. They saw nothing but upside and were putting a lot of expectations for the whole franchise at his feet. As of right now he’s obviously the new ace of the staff and he’s going to be under a lot of pressure to deliver with some weak arms at the back of the rotation.

Now with two pretty good names signed I hoped it might strengthen our position with Teodor Revelez who remained on the open market being linked, it seemed, with everyone but us.


Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Not much on the free agent front for a couple of days as organizations started looking at their entire rosters to see if any prospects needed protecting or looked tempting enough to plug holes in their clubs. You guessed it - Rule 5 draft day. We weren’t planning on taking anyone but we did decide to add 23-year old shortstop prospect John Tardif and 24-year old catcher Aaron Rice to our 40-man roster to ensure they’d still be with us going forward.

Only four players switched clubs in the Rule 5 draft this year and the Milwaukee Brewers took two of them – 22-year old center fielder Miguel Cruz from the San Francisco Giants and 22-year old shortstop Cole Williams from the Texas Rangers. Neither player made it to the majors last year but they both ended their seasons on an upswing at the AAA level and with a good spring I think both have a solid chance of making the Brewers. The World Champion Mets took 27-year old career minor league outfielder Pin-zhen Eng from the Detroit Tigers for some reason and the Los Angeles Dodgers swiped 25-year old second baseman Alberto Morin from the Arizona Diamondbacks.