New/General Rumors
Up first, a Tweet from Yahoo! Sports writer Tim Brown:
Early market for Kevin Gregg: Rays, Nats, Tigers, Rockies...
Gregg was eligible for Type-A compensation but the Cubs chose against offering him arbitration due to a poor season. His career FIP is 4.00 and last year it was 4.93. Wanna know the secret behind that horrible year? It has to do with the fact that 15% of his fly balls went over the fence, his previous career high was 11.6% and his career percentage even now is 8.5%. That's what we call a prime candidate for regression towards the mean. Ignore the home runs (i.e. use xFIP) and Gregg had one of the best seasons of his career when it came to strikeouts and walks. He misses bats and should be a bit undervalued, I suppose it really comes down to asking price.
More after the jump, including the latest on Pat Burrell and Matt Lindstrom.
Pat Burrell/Milton Bradley
Next, we have a Tweet from the New York Post's Joel Sherman
Could be posturing, could be serious. Who knows. Lots of disinformation and bluffing will occur during these next few days. Keep that in mind. Same with this Tweet, also from Sherman:
If Burrell goes to #Cubs for MBradley, #Mets consider Castillo-for-Burrell, but r hesitant because of defense/makeup issues with Burrell
And finally -- for now -- there is a report out there that Burrell has been dealt to the Cubs, who then dealt him to the Mets. I'm not linking to it because A) It doesn't pass the smell test, and B) I think Sherman, Rosenthal, Olney, whomever would have more information by now, like, say, the other players names. We'll see.
[Note by R.J. Anderson, 12/07/09 12:37 PM EST ]An update on this comes from the aforementioned Tim Brown:
Rays source on Burrell to Mets: "News to us."
So there's that.
And here's this, from David Lennon of NewsDay:
Oh, and forget Burrell to #Mets - period. Source just said team not interested in him. Not in 3-way, not in any way.
Matt Lindstrom
A Tweet from Buster Olney regarding Matt Lindstrom:
Rangers perhaps the most serious among teams in discussion for Matt Lindstrom. Two teams have fallen out of running, two other teams in.
And a Tweet from Frankie Piliere, formerly of the Rangers organization as a scout:
Rangers look like front runner for Lindstrom from what I've heard. Hard to find solid info on Lindstrom rumors but I think Tex is leading
This from the Miami Herald:
Lindstrom trade rumors are swirling, but I'm told that the Rangers' interest in the hard-throwing reliever is not as strong as some reports have led to believe. And the Rays' interest in Lindstrom is mild at best.
More coming throughout the day.