Bits and Pieces

Here’s some little news about the baseball scene:

The A’s just released Jason Giambi.  He wasn’t hitting and is currently on the DL.  He has playing time incentives that kick in about 200 plate appearances from now.

Giambi wasn’t likely to meet these incentives, even if the A’s kept him.  However, the A’s perhaps figured it was better to play it safe and cut him loose now, rather than risk a possible grievance if they keep him around but don’t play him enough to make the incentives.

In a post-deadline waiver deal, the Twins acquired Carl Pavano for a player to be named later.  My guess is that the PTBNL will be named Mud.

This is a deal the Indians made primarily to dump Pavano’s remaining salary, so I can’t see the Twins giving up more than a poor Class A player to get him.  Pavano only has $500,000 in base salary left owing, but he has up to $1.75 in playing time incentives he’s likely to meet if he makes his remaining starts and averages about six innings per start.

Pavano is 9-8 this year with a 5.37 ERA, but that actually represents an improvement over Glen Perkins and Francisco Liriano.  Perkins, in particular, has pitched very poorly since the beginning of July.

Former Giant Russ Ortiz was recently released by the Astros and quickly signed a minor league deal with the Yankees.

The Yankees also designated for assignment Cody “Babe” Ransom.  Since Ransom came back from an injury that cost him two months of the season on June 25, he hit poorly in very limited playing time (79 ABs for the season).

At age 33 this year, this may be the last we see of Cody Ransom in a major league uniform, but he has surprised us all before.  Never say never!

The Yankees also obtained former Athletic pitcher Chad Gaudin.  His numbers aren’t bad, although his 5.13 era for a pitcher playing at Petco Park is pretty brutal.  Amazingly enough, he has pitched terribly at Petco this year (6.30 ERA at home) and much better on the road (4.41 road ERA).  Probably a fluke based on limited performance (105.1 IP) this year.

There are rumors that the Nationals may not be able to sign No. 1 pick Stephen Strasburg.  I still think the Nats should stick to their guns and offer him no more than $15M guaranteed.

If Strasburg and Boras won’t sign for a reasonable offer, the Nats should let him go, and spend the money they save to sign the best young Latin players next year.

Frankly, I’d love to see Strasburg not sign for $15M or whatever the Nats offer him, and then sign for less money next year when he’s a year older and likely won’t be selected with either of the first two picks (if Strasburg doesn’t sign this year, the Nats will have the first two picks in the 2010 draft, unless they pick up 5.5 games the rest of the way on the next-to-worst Royals).

Meanwhile, the tenth pick of the ‘09 Draft, Drew Storen, who the Nats selected after failing to sign No. 9 pick in the ‘08 Draft Aaron Crow, was the first 1st round player to sign a contract.  He’s burning up the Class A+ Carolina League as we speak.

Aaron Crow, who was selected 12th this year by the Royals, is unlikely to get the $3.5M he was offered by the Nats last, especially now that No. 7 in ‘09 pick Mike Minor just signed with the Braves for a $2.42M bonus.

The only thing Crow has going for him is that since he pitched in an independent A league, the August 17 signing deadline doesn’t apply to him and he doesn’t have to sign a contract until a week before next year’s draft.  However, the clock is ticking on Crow, who turns 23 in November.

Former Giant Brett Tomko was released by the Yankees and signed a minor league contract with the A’s two days ago.

The Red Sox finally signed Paul Byrd.  It will be interesting to see if he’s got anything left at age 38.  I doubt it.  I think that the odds are great he will be a bust like John Smoltz.

Finally, former Giant pitcher Julian Taverez was designated for assignment by the Nats back on July 19.  He hasn’t pitched anywhere since, so it’s probably safe to say that he was released and at age 36 his career is finally over.  Of course, there’s always the Independent A Atlantic League, if Taverez thinks he’s still got something left.