Tracy Ringolsby's new article for FoxSports.com highlights the shifting market for Matt Holliday and implies the slugger may be receiving his comeuppance for rejecting the Rockies four year, $82 million offer before they traded him to the Athletics. Ringolsby astutely notes how all of Holliday's reasons for that rejection seem absurd in hindsight.
The article also talks a little about Garrett Atkins' effect on the free agent third base market and how with new ownership, the Cubs may decide to leave the Cactus League for Naples, FL. The Cubs are typically the Cactus League's biggest draw, so it would be a big hit economically to Arizona, but I don't know, Spring Training without Cubs fans could make it that much better for everybody else.
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Atkins' most clearly revealed suitor would be Baltimore, although it appears the Orioles are still downplaying interest in the third baseman, which makes sense from a leveraging standpoint given that there's not really a clear competitor for a contract with him.
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Another former Rockie looking for work appears as though he may be heading for Washington. Fellow SBN site Federal Baseball takes a look at what signing Jason Marquis would mean for the Nationals. Just be advised before commenting that there may be some residual bad blog blood between users of our sites after our snarkiness during the season series got on their nerves, so please be on your best behavior.
One thing that I think that Ed Chigliak's post makes clear is that I think Nationals fans and Rockies fans share a common appreciation for Marquis, probably based on our realistic expectations for him, that seems to be absent with many fans elsewhere around the majors.
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Huston Street, then a member of the Athletics, was one of several MLB players treated by Anthony Galea, a doctor under investigation by the feds for the possible illegal distribution of performance enhancers to athletes. Street visited Galea to rehab a right elbow ulnar nerve that had been causing him issues. The NY Times article seems to suggest a guilt by association course of action. As fans then, I think we don our righteous outrage and demand justice. Let us string Street up on the hanging tree at dusk.
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This article seems to confuse the professional careers of Chih-Chia Chang, who never played in the United States although he was sought after by a few MLB teams before signing with Seibu, with Chin-Hui Tsao, who did play with the Rockies and Dodgers. At any rate, both Chang and Tsao are still embroiled in the Taiwanese professional baseball league game fixing scandal the article talks about.
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Finally, Patrick Saunders at the Denver Post writes about how the Rockies are looking less likely to sign Yorvit Torrealba as the off season progresses after being so close last Friday that a deal seemed imminent. It seems that Torrealba will either need to concede the final $400,000 between the two sides or look elsewhere for employment. The article goes on to also talk a little more of the Rockies interest in Matt Capps. While we can generally rule out the Rockies winning a pitcher that has as much interest as Capps supposedly does, his relationship with Tracy, the team's contending status, the reputation of Bob Apodaca and at least the strong possibility of closing after 2010 (which also implies a willingness to give Capps a multi-year deal) should work into the Rockies favor, but given the heavy interest, I wouldn't put us as front-runners by any means.
The way Pirates GM Neil Huntington misjudged the market on Capps seems to be the chink that finally ends his honeymoon phase with the media and fans in Pittsburgh, as Dejan Kovacevic takes him to task. I'm speculating that the Pirates GM probably had better deals for the reliever on the table last July than he did in November, and was trying to build interest back to that level but apparently didn't realize how the trade value of small and mid market players due healthy raises can drop substantially in the period immediately leading up to the non-tender deadline. It's a lesson Huntington probably won't forget, and I think it's further evidence that there's probably a learning curve for most new GM's.