Fantasy Notes: D-Backs After Mulder
Damn…it’s been like forever since we did any Fantasy Notes so I thought I best drop a few this afternoon.
- Arizona, which just added lefties Doug Davis and Dana “Scully” Eveland in last week’s deal with Milwaukee, is talking with a third southpaw — Mark “Fox” Mulder. There’s something truly paranormal going on in the desert as the normally tight-fisted D-Backs are actually thinking about spending some money. St. Louis offered Mulder arbitration, but he said ‘no thanks.’ That doesn’t mean he still won’t be back with the Cards, but there are other teams looking at the lefty, one of the best in the biz until his absolutely horrible season last year. He’s coming off shoulder surgery and will likely miss the first month or two of 2007, so expecting a big rebound may be unwise. Still, it would be hard for Mulder to be worse. Apparently, St. Louis may be willing to give him a multi-year deal (albeit, heavily incentive based), while most other teams are probably going to offer him a one-year contract.
- Boston only has another 12 days to try to sign Daisuke Matsuzaka. CEO Larry Lucchino, however, says just because it may go down to the wire, doesn’t mean Boston is trying to pull a fast one, something that may people have suggested and a topic we have covered of late: “Our interest is obviously sincere. There is a fallacious assumption that this is a defensive maneuver. I tried to squash that while I was in Japan. We have until Dec. 14. Knowing the way the agent [Scott Boras] works, it will probably happen on the night of the 14th.”
- How bad do the Jays hate Russ Adams? Well, they have signed Royce Clayton to a $1.5-million contact ostensibly to take over short and push Aaron Hill to second base and Adams to the minors. But now GM J.P. Ricciardi is saying that Clayton may not be the man at short. “It’s not defined right now that he’s our everyday shortstop,” he said. Ricciardi says that John McDonald will play a lot of shortstop and that Hill will see plenty of time there too. He said the Jays may sign another middle infielder too. It’s good to see that the uncertainty of Toronto’s middle infield picture in 2006 has been so well clarified. The only thing I truly extract from the Clayton signing is that his presence just pours another shovel of earth onto Adams.
