As the Sammy Sosa (and other) rumors have been flying, I've been putting 'em here.
And my friend Mike noticed something about that, as he e-mailed me:
seems the best way to dispose of rumors is to publish them in the blog. Doesn't take long, either.
With that in mind, here's a NON Sosa rumor that I'd like to debunk: Kyle Farnsworth to the Orioles for Jorge Julio.
Julio's a "closer", in that he's been the primary Oriole pitcher with saves the last three years. In only one of those years -- 2002 -- did he have an ERA under 4. I wonder if Jim Hendry's been scouring baseball-reference.com for closer possibilities, because if you look up Julio's career record there, scroll down to the bottom, who do you find as the "most similar" to him?
That's right, the guy the Cubs tried to trade for, Danny Kolb.
Julio is fairly young -- 26 next March -- and strikes out a lot of guys. He also walks a lot of guys, and gives up too many homers.
The Tribune article linked above says the deal was being held up because the Cubs also wanted Jerry Hairston. I can't quite figure out WHY the Cubs would want Hairston, who is primarily a second baseman, except when he's spending half the season on the DL, as he's done the last two years. Is the thought here to get a platoon partner for Todd Walker? I would hope not.
Anyway, I hope Mike is right. If Julio is the target, might as well try to straighten out Dr. Tightpants and use him as the closer, rather than trade him, so I hope posting this rumor will quash it, maybe even today.
Or, who knows. Maybe this is part of another Sammy rumor, as the Orioles were supposedly one of the teams that spoke to Hendry about Sosa at the Winter Meetings.
We, as always, await developments.
And my friend Mike noticed something about that, as he e-mailed me:
seems the best way to dispose of rumors is to publish them in the blog. Doesn't take long, either.
With that in mind, here's a NON Sosa rumor that I'd like to debunk: Kyle Farnsworth to the Orioles for Jorge Julio.
Julio's a "closer", in that he's been the primary Oriole pitcher with saves the last three years. In only one of those years -- 2002 -- did he have an ERA under 4. I wonder if Jim Hendry's been scouring baseball-reference.com for closer possibilities, because if you look up Julio's career record there, scroll down to the bottom, who do you find as the "most similar" to him?
That's right, the guy the Cubs tried to trade for, Danny Kolb.
Julio is fairly young -- 26 next March -- and strikes out a lot of guys. He also walks a lot of guys, and gives up too many homers.
The Tribune article linked above says the deal was being held up because the Cubs also wanted Jerry Hairston. I can't quite figure out WHY the Cubs would want Hairston, who is primarily a second baseman, except when he's spending half the season on the DL, as he's done the last two years. Is the thought here to get a platoon partner for Todd Walker? I would hope not.
Anyway, I hope Mike is right. If Julio is the target, might as well try to straighten out Dr. Tightpants and use him as the closer, rather than trade him, so I hope posting this rumor will quash it, maybe even today.
Or, who knows. Maybe this is part of another Sammy rumor, as the Orioles were supposedly one of the teams that spoke to Hendry about Sosa at the Winter Meetings.
We, as always, await developments.