The novelty of reading and writing about baseball still hasn’t worn off, but I know that within a couple of weeks some of the themes coming out of the Florida parks will make eyes glaze like a bad convenience-store donut. Relief pitcher wars, for example. And third base. And Joe Mauer’s health. And anything about A-Rod that doesn’t move his story forward. (By the way, my quick take on the A-Rod press conference is that it oozed with a pathetic and oily insincerity that only raises more doubts about him. That puts me at odds with Joe. C’s view, but if that’s A-Rod’s best shot at explaining, then he doesn’t deserve a shot at giving a speech in Cooperstown.)

I am intrigued, for now, about the Joe Crede negotiations. In the current economies (baseball and real-world) I don’t fault the Twins for not giving him a base-salary raise based on his last two half-seasons of work. Crede made $5.1 million in 2008 and there’s no logical reason for the Twins to offer a deal with $7 million guaranteed. I sense that his agent, Scott Boras, is trying to do something to make a statement on behalf of the non-superstar players who have been on the market this winter — and that his price may eventually get reasonable. Remember when Ty Wigginton was supposedly talking three years/$20 million and ended up banished to Baltimore at two years-and-six?

The era of fat deals (like the Carlos Silva monstrosity) is on hiatus. Some of the players who are “testing the market,” which used to be a euphemism for getting a fat raise from someone, are now truly failing the test. Speaking of Silva (and fat deals), the biggest news out of Mariners camp until the Ken Griffey deal was that he reported to camp having lost 30-35 pounds — after ending last season at 285. So Seattle readers will be treated to a preseason filled with talk similar to the Boofimisms that we were throwing around last season.

Is anyone else rolling their eyes that a guy signed for 4 years/$48 million and then let’s himself go all to donuts and just happens to go 4-15 with a Livan-like ERA (6.46)? So much for entertaining fans with new faces, eh.

If Crede signs with the Twins — and I hope he does — he should view getting the same salary as in 2008 ($5.1 million) as a victory. Look how the Eric Gagne thing played out. The Twins were supposedly offering $3 million with another $500,000 in incentives (although I don’t know what part was guaranteed) and after those talks fell apart, he ended up staying with the Brewers on a minor-league deal that’ll pay $1.5 million if he makes the Brewers with another $3 million in potential incentives.

Gagne, who signed for $10 million and stunk for much of last season, seems to understand what’s happening better than a lot of people. He told mlb.com: “You look at your paycheck every two weeks and it’s like, ‘Man, that’s crazy what I get paid for,’ and you put pressure on yourself. I felt bad about it. I want to pitch good. I was happy with the season, because we made the playoffs, but I was disappointed because I knew [Brewers general manager Doug Melvin] took a chance on me last year, he stuck his neck out. … He gets judged on all his moves, [especially] the big moves, and it didn’t work out with me.”

The Twins signed Luis Ayala for half of what they would have spent on Gagne, and i think he’s a better bet to contribute.

Yes, I’m disappointed that the Twins haven’t made a couple of roster moves to put themselves in better position for 2009. But make moves for the sake of making moves and you have fat potential for short-term gain and long-term pain. Wasn’t Livan great?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 9:42 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.