Barry Lamar Bonds indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Derek Jeter reportedly owes back taxes to New York.
Rockies lose starting catcher, possibly 2nd baseman.
And the winner is?
OK, Bonds's indictment is bad news for the entire MLB and Derek Jeter possibly owing taxes is funny, but the third item is of more importance to the Rockies (since, you know, it involves them). By only offering a vesting option instead of a guaranteed third year, the Rockies lost Torrealba to the Mets. Time to move on . . . and also lose Matsui to the Cubs to a similar contract. Second base has more internal options to fill that hole (Carroll, Nix, Stewart, and possibly Baker) than looking to the market.
Tracy Ringolsby has a few more names to look at for catcher in addition to the regular three. But before getting to those names, read that line about the offers Lo Duca, Barrett, and Kendall might receive from the Rockies. The offers won't even reach the level offered to Torrealba. On the one hand, it won't be that great of a financial risk and because of their ages a long-term contract really wouldn't a question. Still, there's something telling me that it'll take a hard sell to get one of them here.
Don't sign one of them and that leaves the Rockies with Iannetta and the search for his backup. I'll use backup in a very loose sense since we really have no idea what to expect out of Iannetta in 2008. 37-year-old Damian Miller, 33-year-old Jason LaRue, and 31-year-old Rod Barajas each have a history of catching 100+ games should they be called upon to do so. This seems to be the riskier course. If Iannetta doesn't show any improvement, any of the three guys mentioned here will have to step in for an extended period of time. If I had to choose out of three, I'd hope for Barajas to do something more like 2004 or 2005. Any good catchers available on the FA market after 2008?