Marlins Deal Uggla to Braves

The Florida Marlins said they were serious about trading 2nd baseman Dan Uggla and they weren't kidding. This afternoon Uggla was sent to division rival Atlanta for infielder Omar Infante and left-handed reliever Mike Dunn.

Uggla had recently turned down a four year, $48M contract extension and was immediately put on the trade market by the Marlins' front office. He's a three time All-Star, who averaged 30 home runs over the past five seasons and just won his first Silver Slugger award. The 30-yr old Uggla is expected to remain at 2nd base while current Braves 2nd baseman Martin Prado could move to a corner position. That is at least until the 2010 trade deadline arrives when Uggla could be dealt again.

Infante was a surprise All-Star selection this past season, in which he hit a career high .321 and played in the second highest number of games (134) in his career. Dunn just completed his first full season in the majors after being acquired from the Yankees in a deal that sent Javier Vazquez to New York in Dec. '09. He was 2-0, 1.89 with 27 strikeouts and 17 walks in 19 innings pitched.

No to Replay

With all of the bad awful horrendous mind blowing wrong calls in this year's post-season, there was no question that expanded use of instant replay would be discussed in the November general managers' meetings. Well apparently not everyone felt that way.

“I know there are some who have talked off line about the expansion of instant replay,” said Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner’s office. “Right now, the commissioner doesn’t see any reason to consider it.”

The commissioner must not have been paying attention this post-season when the supposedly best umpires in baseball got one call wrong after another. And they weren't always simple safe/out calls either.

Phil Cuzzi's foul ball call on Joe Mauer's clear double was a game changer in the Yankees-Twins series. And Tim McLelland made not one, but two bad calls at third base during the Yankees-Angels series. They were clear cut calls that were blatantly wrong. All the umpire conferences in the world aren't going to make those problems go away. Instead you have people questioning the integrity of the game, especially in light of the Tim Donaghy NBA scandal.

All that being said, I don't really like the idea of games constantly being interrupted for replays/reviews. But at least it should be discussed, not summarily dismissed.

Accusations of Collusion

It wouldn't be the first time major league owners were accused of collusion. In fact, a court one time said they were. But player's union rep Donald Fehr is seething over what took place at this past week's General Managers meetings.

An idea was spawned by Sox GM Theo Epstein and Marlins prez of ops, Larry Beinfest.... Let's have all the GMs sit around and talk about their plans for the coming season, what players might be available and what their free agent intentions might be.

In other words, let's find out how many teams want to spend 'X' amount of dollars on big name free agents. Should a team sign a free agent if they know that a player may become available via a trade?

While no state secrets were released (e.g. Epstein saying he'd like to keep Mike Lowell), Fehr was furious and released a statement in response to the GM's actions:

“We expect to look into the situation, and are prepared to take the appropriate action to respond to any collusive behavior, and to make sure that the rights of free-agent players under the Basic Agreement are fully protected.”

This was Theo's take on it:

“It’s increased our efficiency tremendously and has saved us a lot of time.” Epstein told USA Today. “Some teams are specific; others are more guarded. Everyone I’ve talked to thought the idea was beneficial.”

“We asked before we did it.” Epstein said. “We had two different officials from Major League Baseball there — one from baseball operations, one from labor relations. They felt that would meet all the requirements for a proper meeting.”

Did Theo really think the MLB, run by a former owner, would turn the request down? Now we'll just have to wait and see what the implications and ramifications are down the road.

Source

Accusations of Collusion

It wouldn't be the first time major league owners were accused of collusion. In fact, a court one time said they were. But player's union rep Donald Fehr is seething over what took place at this past week's General Managers meetings.

An idea was spawned by Sox GM Theo Epstein and Marlins prez of ops, Larry Beinfest.... Let's have all the GMs sit around and talk about their plans for the coming season, what players might be available and what their free agent intentions might be.

In other words, let's find out how many teams want to spend 'X' amount of dollars on big name free agents. Should a team sign a free agent if they know that a player may become available via a trade?

While no state secrets were released (e.g. Epstein saying he'd like to keep Mike Lowell), Fehr was furious and released a statement in response to the GM's actions:

“We expect to look into the situation, and are prepared to take the appropriate action to respond to any collusive behavior, and to make sure that the rights of free-agent players under the Basic Agreement are fully protected.”

This was Theo's take on it:

“It’s increased our efficiency tremendously and has saved us a lot of time.” Epstein told USA Today. “Some teams are specific; others are more guarded. Everyone I’ve talked to thought the idea was beneficial.”

“We asked before we did it.” Epstein said. “We had two different officials from Major League Baseball there — one from baseball operations, one from labor relations. They felt that would meet all the requirements for a proper meeting.”

Did Theo really think the MLB, run by a former owner, would turn the request down? Now we'll just have to wait and see what the implications and ramifications are down the road.

Source

Winter Meetings Lite

They don't have the impact of the winter league meetings, but beginning today in Orlando, Florida, the league's general managers will have their annual get together. With new GMs in place in St. Louis, Houston, Atlanta, and LA/Anaheim, the meetings allow relationship building and the chance to start up trade talk on a face-to-face basis.

Unlike the winter meetings, you won't have as many players and agents shopping for jobs, but Scott Boras is sure to be there to lay the initial ground work for any upcoming deals, the obvious one in particular.

Source

The use of instant replay will be a very large part of the meetings. We're still against it though. The games are slow enough as it is.

Trade rumors will begin to pick up steam with so many GMs shooting the shit. Rumors like...

Johnny Damon to the White Sox for Joe Crede. We absolutely hate the idea of this deal. Crede is not the answer for the Yankees 3rd Base issue and if Damon is to be dealt, it should be for pitching.

Brian Cashman will try to get deals done with Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada before they go on the open market.

Atlanta could look to the Reds and Ken Griffey Jr. to replace free agent Andruw Jones.

The Red Sox will try to move Coco Crisp to open a permanent spot for rookie Jacoby Ellsbury. They've already contacted the Padres, who seem to have become their permanent trading partners. Just don't be trying to get Cla Meredith back, Theo.
Update 1:35 pm- The Twins have apparently approached the Red Sox about Crisp, should they not be able to re-sign Torii Hunter. Source

Miguel Cabrera rumors will be sure to intensify, especially now that one of the Marlins beat guys has backed up the story that Peter Gammons reported earlier.

The D-Rays may be looking to move lefty Scott Kazmir now that he is arbitration eligible.

Winter Meetings Lite

They don't have the impact of the winter league meetings, but beginning today in Orlando, Florida, the league's general managers will have their annual get together. With new GMs in place in St. Louis, Houston, Atlanta, and LA/Anaheim, the meetings allow relationship building and the chance to start up trade talk on a face-to-face basis.

Unlike the winter meetings, you won't have as many players and agents shopping for jobs, but Scott Boras is sure to be there to lay the initial ground work for any upcoming deals, the obvious one in particular.

Source

The use of instant replay will be a very large part of the meetings. We're still against it though. The games are slow enough as it is.

Trade rumors will begin to pick up steam with so many GMs shooting the shit. Rumors like...

Johnny Damon to the White Sox for Joe Crede. We absolutely hate the idea of this deal. Crede is not the answer for the Yankees 3rd Base issue and if Damon is to be dealt, it should be for pitching.

Brian Cashman will try to get deals done with Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada before they go on the open market.

Atlanta could look to the Reds and Ken Griffey Jr. to replace free agent Andruw Jones.

The Red Sox will try to move Coco Crisp to open a permanent spot for rookie Jacoby Ellsbury. They've already contacted the Padres, who seem to have become their permanent trading partners. Just don't be trying to get Cla Meredith back, Theo.
Update 1:35 pm- The Twins have apparently approached the Red Sox about Crisp, should they not be able to re-sign Torii Hunter. Source

Miguel Cabrera rumors will be sure to intensify, especially now that one of the Marlins beat guys has backed up the story that Peter Gammons reported earlier.

The D-Rays may be looking to move lefty Scott Kazmir now that he is arbitration eligible.