News and Notes: “Rafael Fur-real?”

Furcal continues to spin his agent's wrong doings (Malingering/Flickr).

• The Pittsburgh Pirates have reached a three-year deal with catcher Ryan Doumit that will lock him up through his arbitration years. Last year Doumit had a fantastic year out of nowhere hitting .318/.356/.501 with 15 homers and 69 RBI. While my former MVN co-worker Cory Humes at Pirate Revolution believes the Pirates should trade Doumit (or hear his podcast about it), I personally believe that Doumit is an example of the type of player they need to begin to build around. With players like Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez coming up through the system as well other bright youngsters the Bucs need to start now rather than continuing to hit the “reset” button. I do however agree 100% with Humes that the Pirates should sign slugger Adam Dunn as part of the solution.

You know what you will get with Dunn (SD Dirk/Flickr).

• Speaking of the giant slugger Adam Dunn, why aren’t more teams interested in bringing him aboard this winter? Yes I know he had a strikeout rate of 25.9% last season and yes I know he won’t be winning any Gold Gloves in the outfield any time soon, but who couldn’t use his presence in the lineup? While his career average is .247, more importantly his career on-base is .381 and career slugging at .518. Plus you know he will be healthy and you will get 40 homers and 100+ RBI. So why do I keep hearing about teams not too interested in him or preferring a player who is a head case and will most likely miss 20-40 games a year? I would personally rather have Dunn or Pat Burrell over both Bobby Abreu and Milton Bradley. Call me crazy.

• I’ve already covered the Mark Teixeira saga enough on here by discussing where his options are as well as my annoyance about all the back and forth about who’s in and who’s out. I really hope Jon Heyman’s report on Teixeira’s decision coming by Christmas day is true as I can’t take much more. I think the scorecard has the Orioles, Nationals, Red Sox, Bears, Knicks and three teams from the WNBA as the top contenders.

• The New York Yankees and pitcher Chien-Ming Wang have avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a one-year, $5 million contract thus insuring the Yankees the first ever 11-man starting rotation heading into the 2009 season. Awesome.

• And finally more on the Furcal vs. Braves situation as Furcal continues to lie about his agent’s dirty tricks. Even our poll on this site last week showed 100% of people believe Furcal and his agents screwed the Braves. Just stop talking about it Furcal, we know its not true.

By Matthew Whipps
“The Diamond Cutter“
Major & Minor League Baseball Columnist
mlbdiamondcutter@gmail.com | thefranch15e

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News and Notes – “Jack the Ripper”

Wilson voiced his frustrations for thousands of Bucs fans everywhere (urbansaddle/flickr).

As a new feature here on “The Diamond Cutter” we will be reviewing some of the things that are happening in baseball and around the blogosphere. You’ll see this pop up from time to time as I come across items in the news. It’s also a quick way to voice my opinions and ideas on topics without writing an entire column. So without further ado…

· As eager as I am to see where Mark Teixeira ends up, I’m getting a little tired of the whole hoopla around it. Now I know this is a big decision for him as its planning out where he will play for the next 7 or 8 years, but I really wish he’d hurry up and decide. I talked about his options earlier this week along with reasons why he should or shouldn’t sign with these teams. And of course ESPN chimed in yesterday saying Boston is out and today saying Boston may still be in. Please pick soon, Mark.

Furcal better watch himself in Hot-lanta (dizzy-eyed/flickr).

· The Atlanta Braves are furious with Rafael Furcal’s agents calling them “despicable” for the way they handled things. Brave’s Blog also chimes in on the status of the Braves and their need to reassess their team. Personally I have to agree with the Braves. It does sound as if Furcal’s agent pulled a screw job on Atlanta and threw a HUGE wrench in their off season plans. It was lining up to look as if the Braves had the ability to trade Yunel Escobar to the Padres now for Jake Peavy. This was especially important after losing AJ Burnett to the Yankees. Even if they didn’t trade the shortstop they still would have had another good bat in their lineup and burner on the base paths. I feel for Braves fans, I really do as they have had a giant disappointment this winter after having such high expectations.

· Jack Wilson let his frustrations be heard regarding the Pirates’ lack of competition for the past 17 seasons. His actions voiced frustrations of Pirates fans everywhere as well as indirectly asked the question of “why the hell haven’t you people traded me yet?!?!” The Bucs Dugout chimes in on Wilson’s rambling with a funny twist.

As a life long Twins fan, I'd love to see DeRosa in Minnesota (chicagoenergy/flickr).

· In the yearly quest to fill in a huge hole at third base, the Twins appear to be still showing interest in bringing in free agent Ty Wigginton to plug it until some prospects are ready. Both La Velle E. Neal III and Nick Nelson discuss this option and Nick brings up Mark DeRosa’s name as a potential trade target (which I would love). All I know is the Twins need to figure something out as this has been a problem for years ever since Corey Koskie left after the 2004 season.

That was a quick recap of some of the happenings around baseball and the internet. Let me know your thoughts on these stories and this new feature too. Also make sure to chime in on our poll below on the Braves/Furcal situation.

By Matthew Whipps
“The Diamond Cutter“
Major & Minor League Baseball Columnist
mlbdiamondcutter@gmail.com | thefranch15e

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