FrontRowSportsReport.com: Sports Blog

Once the Minnesota Twins traded Johan Santana to the New York Mets for basically some mid-level prospects, I was curious to see what their next move would be. Well today we found out that the Twins just signed 54 year-old right-hander Livan Hernandez to a one year deal. Hernandez, whose real age no one knows, signed a 1 year deal worth $5 million plus the chance for another $2 million in performance bonuses.

“If we could find the right guy, we were going to add that,” Twins general manager Bill Smith said. “We certainly weren’t afraid to go in without veteran starters, but it’s going to be give those young players someone to look to.” Well they certainly proved with this move that they weren’t afraid of going with a veteran. The Twins have always been fond of bringing in low-cost veterans – do the names Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson ring a bell?

Last year Livan went 11-11 with a 4.93 ERA for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Livan has played in the major leagues for 10+ years for numerous teams – his role, if anything, has always been a inning eater. For his career Livan is 134-128 with a 4.25 ERA. He has been a All-Star twice in his career and won the World Series with the Florida Marlins in 1997

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Erik Bedard was traded to the Seattle Mariners for five prospects today - the deal has been on the table for awhile. In exchange for the left-hander the Orioles received outfielder Adam Jones, reliever George Sherrill and pitchers Chris Tillman, Tony Butler and Kam Mickolio.

The Mariners now have a solid pitching core that will feature Bedard, newly signed Carlos Silva and current Mariners Felix Hernandez, Jarrod Washburn and Miguel Batista. Last season Bedard went 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA and 221 strikeouts.

The Orioles continue their push towards youth and rebuilding - last month the Orioles traded former AL MVP Miguel Tejada to the Houston Astros. Without Bedard the Orioles will be without an ace pitcher and will go with young unproven pitchers.

By far the biggest prize in the MLB trade market this off season was Minnesota Twins lefty Johan Santana - well it is just reported that the New York Mets won the sweepstakes.

The deal for Santana, which is pending a contract extension and physical, consists of the Mets sending outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins for what many people feel is the best pitcher in baseball.

Because Santana had a full no-trade clause in his contact he was able to control what team he would be willing to be traded to. Over the past few months only a couple of teams have actively been talking with the Twins - the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox being the top two contenders. The Mets were willing to part with whatever the Twins wanted, something the Yankees and Red Sox wouldn’t do, and will probably sign Santana to a huge extension - my guess would be the deal would cover 6 years and about $160 million. The Twins offered Santana a 4 year deal worth about $80 million which he rejected.

Adding a healthy Santana to their roster, the Mets will become a division favorite right off the bat - the only question is, did they give up to much talent and will suffer in the long run?

The Philadelphia Phillies have signed free-agent third baseman Pedro Feliz to a two-year deal - pending a physical. The deal was reported by ESPN.com last night.

Feliz, who previously played with the San Francisco Giants, batted .253 with 20 home runs and 72 RBI’s last season. Feliz was unlucky with the Giants as he usually batted behind Barry Bonds and will probably bat lower in the order for the Phillies.

Phillies manager Charlie Manual is a big fan of Feliz who feels that he will be not only a offensive upgrade but a defensive upgrade as well. “We got better,” Manuel said. “He’s a good defensive player. He’s got power. He’ll hit probably sixth, seventh, somewhere in there. I think putting him down in our lineup will help him. He was called on to hit in the middle of the lineup in San Francisco. A couple years ago, he might’ve been pressing to do too much because they had Barry Bonds there.”

The Phillies had used at third a trio of players last season - Greg Dobbs, Wes Helms and Abraham Nunez all split time on the hot corner - combined the three players batted .255 with 11 home runs and 76 RBI’s.

Don Mattingly will not be the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ next year and will be moving to a role as special assignment coach - Mike Easler will replace Mattingly as hitting coach. The Dodgers made the announcement this evening saying that the move was due to family reasons.

Mattingly released the following statement through the Dodgers: “I’m very grateful that the Dodgers have allowed me to take care of these family matters and I hope that everyone can respect our privacy during this time. I truly appreciate the support of all Dodger fans since joining the organization and I look forward to helping the team win in 2008 and beyond.” Mattingly’s agent had this to say about the former Yankees 1st basemans decision: “Donnie is prioritizing his family first. The Dodgers have been very supportive, creating a position so Don can still make a contribution to the team throughout the year!”

Mattingly was a top contender for the New York Yankees manager job once Joe Torre headed to the Dodgers. However, after Joe Girardi was given the position, Mattingly followed Torre to Los Angeles and was initially named the Dodgers hitting coach.

Right handed closer Octovio Dotel has signed with the Chicago White Sox today for  $11 million over 2 years.  The White Sox had one of the worst bullpens in baseball last year and will look to improve with the signing of Dotel. Last year the White Sox blew 23 saves and posted a 19-25 record with a ERA of 5.49 - hardly numbers that will win you a games, let alone a World Series.

Dotel, who is 34 years old, played last season with the Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves. However,  Dotel suffered from a shoulder injury last year that limited him to 33 appearances and 30 innings.  Dotel is no stranger to injury as in 2005 he had reconstructive elbow surgery while playing with the Oakland Athletics.

Dotel has played in the majors for 9 seasons and has collected 82 career saves. His best year came in 2004 when he had a 3.70 ERA and 36 saves in 77 games. In comparison after he had his elbow surgery in 2005 he had only 18 saves and a 5.14 ERA.

Dotel can help the White Sox but he is not the solution to their bullpen needs.

Big day in arbitration deals in baseball today, some stars signed some are getting closer - in total 62 of the 110 players who filed for arbitration settled on terms.  Colorado Rockies outfielder Matt Holliday and Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera agreed to deals a couple of hours before todays  deadline to swap figures, Justin Moreau, Carlos Pena and Scott Kazmir are some other big names that avoided arbitration.

Holliday was the NL MVP runner-up last year and agreed to a multi-year deal ( a rarity in arbitration) worth $23 million over two years. Holliday made $4.4 million last year. Cabrera and the Tigers agreed to a 1 year deal worth $11.3 million.

On the other side, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and Los Angeles Angels closer Francisco (F-Rod) Rodriguez were not able to agree on terms and swapped figures with their respective teams in arbitration. Howard and the Phillies are $3 million apart and F-Rod and the Angels are $2.5 million apart. Those players and teams that went to arbitration will have their hearings during the first few weeks of February in St. Petersburg Florida.

Additional players who reached terms with their teams are:  Chris Capuano, Juan Rivera, Jose Bautista, Jimmy Gobble, Jason Kubel,  Jonny Gomes, Marcus Thames, Tim Redding, Matt Treanor, Joe Crede, Jason Frasor, Alex Rios, Brian Tallet and Gustavo Chacin.

Former Chicago Cubs top prospect Mark Prior, who was released by the Cubs earlier this month, has signed a 1 year deal with the San Diego Padres. The contract has a $1 million base salary, no option and incentives that could bring the total value to about $3 million.

San Diego General Manager Kevin Towers has this to so about the deal…”Mark Prior is a competitor and is working hard to regain the form that made him one of the great young pitchers in the game. We are confident he is going to help us in our rotation this season. It’s exciting that Mark is coming home to San Diego to pitch for the Padres.”

Mark Prior, who is now 27 and last pitched in the Majors in 2006, was considered one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball a few years back - he was the 2nd overall pick in the 2001 MLB draft. However, due to surgery, being over-pitched and just bad luck Prior was never able to keep up to the hype. That is not to say Prior wasn’t a good big league pitcher, in 2003 he went 18-6, had a 2.43 ERA, was selected to the All-Star game and finished 3rd in the CY Young voting. However, after the 2003 season Prior went 18-17 and had a 4.27 ERA.

If Prior can remain healthy he has the ability to be a decent 3rd or 4th starter - but the Padres pitching staff will have to watch his pitch count. I will be rooting for the guy but he just doesn’t have what he used to have when he was younger and healthier.

The Oakland A’s finally traded ace pitcher Dan Haren yesterday, the NL West champs Arizona Diamondbacks were the lucky winners. The Haren trade also sent A’s right-hander Connor Robertson to the Diamondbacks in exchange for a full stable of young propects, including: left handers Brett Anderson, Dana Eveland and Greg Smith; infielder Chris Carter and outfielders Aaron Cunningham and Carlos Gonzalez.

The Diamondbacks, who are coming of a good year, now have a decent 1 - 2 punch with 2006 NL Cy Young Award winner Brandon Webb and Haren, plus often injured Randy Johnson whenever he can play. Haren was 15-9 with a 3.07 ERA last year, the win totals would have been higher if the A’s were able to put more runs on the board. The real number to look at is his low ERA. A question has to be asked why teams like the Met’s who are in desprate need of a inning-eating right-hander, didnt land Haren.

In other player dumping news the A’s, who are going through a rebuilding effort (did they ever stop their last one?) also traded MLB saves leader Jose Valerde to the Houston Astros for…young prospects.

Remember when Miquel Tejada was considered to be one of the best shortstops in all of baseball? Remember when he hit 34 Homer’s, 150 RBI’s and batted .311 in 2004? Remember him winning the 2002 AL MVP award? Seems like a long time ago doesn’t it? The Baltimore Orioles seem to have that same mind set because today they announced a trade with the Houston Astros for the fomer all-star. In exchange for Tejada the Orioles are getting 5 young prospects from the Astros, including: outfielder Luke Scott, thirdbaseman Michael Costanzo, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate.

Tejada has had a rough go with the Orioles the past couple of seasons and never quite lived up to his promise that the organization would end its losing ways. But that shouldn’t be put on Tejada’s shoulders…

Tejada has seen his numbers decline steadily since that 2004 season, with his worst year stat wise since his rookie season coming in 2007. Tejada started his career with the Oakland Athletics and played there for 7 seasons before signing with the Orioles in 2003.