ESPN's Phil Rogers has an article on Chicago White Sox GM Kenny Williams' interest in trading basically anyone on the roster. Rogers brings up Williams' already-known interest in Willy Taveras, but he also mentions that the Rockies (and the Dodgers) may be interested in Jermaine Dye. Dye has a limited no-trade clause, allowing him to block a trade to 6 teams.
Now as Rox Girl brought up tangentially almost two weeks ago, Jermaine Dye was a Rockie for a short time in 2001 before being traded the same day for . . . let's not drudge up bad memories of the past.
First up, Dye's contract status: Dye is due $11.5M in 2009 and has a $12M mutual option for 2010 (with a $1M buyout).
After a severe dropoff from his 2006 season performance in 2007, Jermaine Dye bounced back in 2008. He'll be 35 in 2009.
| Year | PA | R | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | AVG | OBP | SLG | EqA | VORP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 579 | 74 | 29 | 2 | 31 | 86 | 39 | 99 | 11 | 4 | 0.274 | 0.333 | 0.512 | 0.289 | 27.7 |
| 2006 | 611 | 103 | 27 | 3 | 44 | 120 | 59 | 118 | 7 | 3 | 0.315 | 0.385 | 0.622 | 0.326 | 64.6 |
| 2007 | 561 | 68 | 34 | 0 | 28 | 78 | 45 | 107 | 2 | 1 | 0.254 | 0.317 | 0.486 | 0.277 | 12.2 |
| 2008 | 645 | 96 | 41 | 2 | 34 | 96 | 44 | 104 | 3 | 2 | 0.292 | 0.344 | 0.541 | 0.293 | 37.7 |
Now, trading Dye won't be a sell low situation for Williams as it was in the Nick Swisher trade from a couple of weeks ago. However, Dye is an aging veteran who regressed after a strong season in 2006. While he came back strong in 2008, can Dye continue that level of production? And what about his legs? Reading over at South Side Sox, I get the sense that many of the fans over there expect Dye to wind up with a leg injury soon.
Ken Rosenthal has a new report out that the asking price for Dye is a young starting pitcher and more.
Vote in the poll.
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At the end of the last link, Rosenthal writes that the Rockies are inclined to keep Garrett Atkins, "at least for the moment." Or to put it another way, they haven't found the right deal yet.
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The Denver Post adds another name to the lefty reliever list: Brian Shouse.
He was the third best reliever on the Brewers last year with a 0.922 WXRL, behind Salomon Torres (2.930) and Carlos Villanueva (1.497). He'll be 41 at the end of the 2009 season.
And while Clint Hurdle, at the end of the article, said the Rockies internally discussed Will Ohman, Ohman's agent has yet to receive a call from the Rockies.
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Don Baylor on what he plans to do as hitting coach:
"What I like to preach a lot is the mental part of the game. We have to be more selective," Baylor said. "You don't have more than one sac fly (by mid-April), that says there's not a lot of thinking going on at the plate. That's a lot of freelancing." Baylor talked of having a game plan, of inflating pitch counts. But will he be able to reduce the number of strikeouts at the same time?