Pirates Don’t Get Putz; NL Central Buzz

AP

JJ Putz was mentioned as a possible pitcher the Pirates would pursue.  It didn’t happen.   $3 million dollars and perhaps because of the efforts and comments like “if you’re a free agent you want to go to a winner,” from his bromance  recruiter, Sox reliever Matt Thornton, Putz will be getting the call from Ozzie in 2010 for the Chicago White Sox.

The move gives the White Sox serious bullpen options.  A one, two punch as setup men or Thornton  and Putz can fight it out for the closer role if the Sox try to move Bobby Jenks.

The move would have made sense for the Pirates too.  But in the end, it was a little too rich and gutsy for their blood.

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Bobby Crosby got a lot of attention this week in the blog.  This is Getting Old never fails to pay attention to the more important Crosby coming to town.  The better half.Southern drawl you think?

Ronny Cedeno got paid.  Dejan reports 1.125 million.  A bump from his $822,500 this season, his first in arbitration.  Zach Duke and Matt Capps are up next in the arbitration line and the Bucs say they will tender them new deals.  Midnight is the deadline.  Curious how much Duke gets offered aren’t you?

Fan Graphs calls the three position players taken in the Rule 5 draft, (our new speedy OF Raynor would be one of those) ‘replacement level at best.’

The Cardinals Viva El Birdos has an excellent post on Scott Boras.  Most of you know that we adore the art of sales at RumBunter.  Scott Boras is old school sales.  A twisted blend of Zig Ziglar and Jeff Gitomer if you will. 

One minute you will see him land big money for his clients, the next minute he will field calls from teams and laud them for overpaying for someone elses client.  The sales shtick is never in the off position.

Blog Red Machine  has some quick points on the Arthur Rhodes tradetalk.  The Reds also have a new play-by-play announcer

The Brewers  Reviewing the Brew talks about Chuck Lofgren who was in the mix as a Pirate Rule 5 possible pick.

The Astros Crawfish Boxes discusses all things indifferent, the bad, and the ugly surrounding the busy week of signings which included Pedro Feliz, Matt Lindstrom [Fan Graphs liked the signing in this post due to the ability to suppress the HR and Marlins Maniac had a few thoughts too] and lastly, the head scratching check written for Brandon Lyon.

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In AL News, Jason Kendall will wear Royal blue this season because as Kendall said, “they called me the first day I became a free agent.”   We just wonder just exactly what they called the jerk, before they overpaid him?  Kings of Kauffman has said he may or may not have changed his opinion on Kendall.  Come on man, really?   As Keith Law and Rocco DeMaro RT today:  Kendall is the only player in MLB history to post a negative ISO. 

The Red Sox bringing in Beltre now that Mikey is gone?  BoSox Injection takes a close look in the Bye Bye Mikey post.  Nice pic of John Kerry at the game in his Members Only jacket.