Colorado Rockies’  Troy Tulowitzki, arguably one of the top five shortstops in baseball off of a monster rookie season was rewarded by the NL Champions with a $31 million, 6-year deal as the Rockies tossed service time to the wind.  It was Tolowitzki’s first full season in the major leagues.   The deal includes a a club option for 2014.

AP Sports Writer Pat Graham reported for Yahoo sports;

Runner-up for NL Rookie of the Year last season, Tulowitzki said he’s just getting over the sting of being swept by the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

However, the team’s success played a big role in committing to a long-term deal.

“The guys on this team are great baseball players, but more than that they are great guys, great people,” Tulowitzki said. “I took that into consideration. I looked at that and said, ‘Wow, if we can keep the core guys together, we have the makings to be something special.”‘

Tulowitzki gets $750,000 in each of the next two seasons, $3.5 million in 2010, $5.5 million in 2011, $8.5 million in 2012 and $10 million in 2013. The Rockies have a $15 million option for 2014 with a $2 million buyout.

Although Tulowitzki finished a close second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, two points behind Milwaukee third baseman Ryan Braun, he wasn’t disappointed. Colorado’s long postseason run meant more to him than awards.

“Braun had an excellent (season). His offensive numbers were unbelievable,” Tulowitzki said. “But the Rockies made it farther than the Brewers. I’m sure he would’ve traded in his Rookie of the Year trophy to get into the playoffs.”

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Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ first baseman Carlos Pena, who languished through the first six seasons of his career, suddenly broke out in 2007 with a huge 46 homer, 121 RBI, .282 BA season.

The Devil Rays rewarded him by finalizing a 3 year deal worth $24.1 million deal upon Pena’s passing his physical.

Pena’s previous high year for homers was 2004 when he hit 27 dingers and drove in 82 runs.  His 46 homers in 2007 was the fourth-highest total in the majors behind Alex Rodriguez, Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard and it equaled his combined homer total for the previous 3 seasons.

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The Minnesota Twins opened up their coffers to the tune of $104 million in multi-year deals with lefthanded hitting 5 year veteran first baseman  Justin Morneau and 7 year rightfielder Michael Cuddyer.

AP Sports writer Jon Krwczynski reports for Yahoo sports;

Morneau, the 2006 AL MVP, received the most lucrative contract in Twins history — an $80 million, six-year deal. Cuddyer got three years and $24 million.

For a Minnesota Twins fan base that has watched Torii Hunter and Carlos Silva leave in free agency and worried about the possible trade of two-time AL Cy Young winner Johan Santana, it had to be a welcome sight.

The first baseman hit .271 with 31 homers and 111 RBIs last year, becoming the first Twins player since Gary Gaetti in 1987 to have back-to-back 30-homer seasons.

The Twins also added slugger Delmon Young in a trade with Tampa Bay, a move that may have been the key to keeping Morneau in Minnesota for the long run.

“If we didn’t make that move to get Delmon Young, I might have looked at it a little differently,” Morneau said. “To bring in him, he’s got a chance to be one of the best hitters in the game. To be in the lineup with him and Joe and now Cuddy, it helps my decision. It showed me that they want to get better and want to win.”

In the meantime, Philly.com’s Paul Hagen reports that the Phillies and Ryan Howard await a February 20th arbitration hearing date with a $3 million gap to bridge.  The two sides hope to come up with a long-term deal before the arbitration date.

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The Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday traded MLB’s saves leader Jose  Valverde to the Houston Astros for 3 players in a separate, but connected deal under which the Oakland A’s traded their ace and 2007 All Star Game starter Dan Haren to Arizona for 6 players with the Diamondbacks getting 3 players back from the Astros in a massive 3 team, 12 player pair of transactions.

The other players who went to the A’s, the Astros and the D’backs in the dual deals, aside from reliever Chad Qualls and utility 2nd baseman/centerfielder Chris Burke, are mainly young prospects, although  Baseball Prospectus raves about 4 of the 6 prospects shipped to Oakland for Haren.

However, the aspect of these deals to watch is the impact upon both the D’backs and Astros’ pitching.

Valverde’s arrival in Houston solidifies the closer role in an already potentially strong bullpen.  However, Houston’s starters, after their ace  Roy Oswalt, are adequate at best.

With the acquisition of Haren, the D’backs boast an awesome and imposing starting rotation; Haren, with 18 game winner Brandon Webb, young Micah Owings and lefthanders Doug Davis and 44 year old veteran  Randy “Big Unit” Johnson.
 
In the twin deals, the Diamondbacks also bolstered their bullpen after the loss of Valverde by acquiring Astros’ set-up man Chad Qualls, thus setting up a 3 man battle for the D’backs’ closer role between Brandon Lyon, Qualls and Tony Pena.

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The San Francisco Giants announced on Wednesday that they have acquired free agent former Phillies centerfielder Aaron Rowand in a $60 million, 5 year deal.

MLB.com’s Chris Haft outlines what Rowand’s acquisition means for the Giants;

With Wednesday’s acquisition of free agent Aaron Rowand, the Giants received a huge infusion of the “warrior spirit” manager Bruce Bochy sought for next year’s club.

“Boch’s goals, as far as the way he wants to play the game, the kind of persona he wants this team to have, really lends itself to the way I’ve gone about doing my business throughout my career,” Rowand said. “For me, it’s about bringing everything I have to the table every day and laying it all out there.”

“He’s the type of guy who’s going to hold everybody accountable to doing the same thing he’s doing — that’s playing the game right and playing it to win,” Bochy said.

Bochy plans to hit Rowand fifth, filling at least part of the void in the middle of San Francisco’s batting order. The right-handed batter, a career .286 hitter, recorded a .309 average last season with Philadelphia while reaching personal bests in hits (189), runs (105), doubles (45), RBIs (89), total bases (315) and games (161). As the roster currently stands,  Randy Winn and Bengie Molina would bat third and fourth, respectively.

As a reigning Gold Glove winner, Rowand will strengthen the outfield, thus underscoring the Giants’ renewed emphasis on pitching and defense.  Dave Roberts will move to left field and Winn will play right.

AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley reports General manager Brian Sabean’s reactions to making the deal for Yahoo sports;

When evaluating Rowand and the other available center fielders this offseason, Sabean said he met with his staff and checked off the many boxes where Rowand could help the club.

“Then it was just a matter of striking a chord with a contract,” Sabean said. “He’s a winning player. It’s a pleasure he’s coming to our organization. The timing is great. It will allow us to do other business without busting up our pitching.”

The Giants, who lack a bona-fide power-hitting clean-up hitter, had 33 homers last season from their projected 3rd and 4th hitters, so Rowand’s stats in the #5 spot will be big.

The Phils, on the other hand, will sorely miss Rowand’s numbers from last season.  It seems likely that the “Flyin’ Hawaiian” Shane Victorino will   start in centerfield unless the Phils pull deals out of the hat.  Beside him on either side will be leftfielder Pat Burrell and rightfielder Jayson Werth.  The question is, can Victorino up his numbers and stay healthy the entire season?  And can his outfield mates Burrell and Werth pick it up?  Can Burrell add about 40 points to his BA and cut his strikeouts below 100?  Will Werth’s numbers increase by playing full time than next season?

As a sideline, I happened to pass through Phillies Nation and Brian Michael has quite a thought about Tadahito Iguchi and the 3rd base situation.  What if Chase Utley moved to 3rd base leaving Iguchi at 2nd?  But however you call the hand, Iguchi said no to 3rd in November, the Phils released him and, as per the terms of his previous contract, the 15 day deadline is long-since passed.  If Iguchi wants to re-sign with the Phillies, both sides have to wait until May as the Commissioner’s office wouldn’t issue a waiver on the previous contract terms.

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I started hearing about this Fukudome about a month ago and thought that it was a name for a new domed stadium.

Only when I did searches on google and wikipedia did I discover that Fukudome is not a name for a domed ballpark, but is the family name for one of the premier outfielders in Japanese baseball; lefthanded hitting Kosuke Fukudome.

But mistaking a baseball player’s name for something else is nothing new for me.  It was only a year ago when I mistook Lastings Milledge for a turnpike freight hauling fee, and not so long ago that I thought Coco Crisp was a Kellogs cereal, that Prince Fielder was royalty from a foreign country and that Eric Gagne was one of Vince McMahon’s WWF wrestlers.

Be that as it may, Fukudome made his move to become a Major Leaguer on Tuesday and promptly nailed down a four-year, $48 million deal with the Chicago Cubs, pending results of a physical to be taken next week.  The addition of Fukudome gives the Cubbies a potent lefthanded hitter to join their already dangerous, yet righthanded tandem of All Star leftfielder  Alfonso Soriano, 3rd baseman Aramis Ramirez and 1st baseman Derrick Lee.

AP Sports reporter Rick Gano reports for Yahoo sports;

Fukudome was the 2006 Central League MVP, batting .351 with 31 homers and 104 RBIs.  The 30-year-old slugger was a key member of the Japan team that won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March 2006.

He had surgery on his right elbow in August and sat out the Japan Series, but has 192 homers and a .305 batting average over nine seasons with the Chunichi Dragons, who won their first championship in 53 years on Nov. 2.

He is expected to play right field for the Cubs, who traded outfielder Jacque Jones to Detroit this offseason and declined their contract option on veteran Cliff Floyd.

MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat adds;

Fukudome, 30, had considered multi-year deals from the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants and his former team, the Chunichi Dragons.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella said scouts have described the outfielder as a cross between Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki.

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After the upstaging, the opting-out and all of the one-upsmanship, posturing and the circuitous route travelled toward an upcoming 10 year marriage, 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees finally seem to be walking the isle in easily the most mutually lucrative deal in all of organized professional sports history.

The deal; $275 million for 10 years, plus another $30 million if he cracks  Barry Bonds’ all-time home run record.  But that is just the simple take on the depth and breadth of this deal.

Vince Gennaro, noted MLB consultant, author of “Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball” and former billion-dollar CEO  provides insightful glimpses behind this deal and it’s structuring.

Gennaro writes;

The true economic value of A-Rod is based on the Yankees’ revenue growth and asset appreciation that we can attribute to him. Economists call this a player’s marginal revenue product, but I’ve expanded it beyond revenue to include the marginal value of the Yankees’ assets – their ownership stake in the YES Network and the value of the franchise.

Rodriguez has two sources of value: performance and marquee. Performance value is determined by the impact of his playing performance on the Yankees’ win total and the resulting financial gains from the team being more successful because of his contribution We derive marquee value from A-Rod’s persona, image and even the more tangible value of drawing fans to watch him chase future personal milestones.

By adding his performance and marquee values for each year, we can assess the full 10-year value of A-Rod to the Yankees and prove why the $275 million salary with the potential for $30 million more in incentives negotiated by Rodriguez made a lot more sense than the $350 million his agent, Scott Boras, originally postulated.

Now, all A-Rod needs to do is to produce, both in the regular season and in the post-season; he’s not exactly been Mr. October, and avoid Bond’s alleged fix with steriods. 

To read the full piece on the dimensions of the A-Rod, Yankees deal, click here.

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Diminutive 5′ 8″ Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who walked the walk Big Time to back up the talk — his bold February prediction about the Phillies winning the NL East, was awarded the NL MVP award in a close contest with  Colorado Rockies leftfielder Matt Holliday.

MLB.com’s Ken Mandel provides the voting results and background;

Of the 32 ballots submitted by two writers in each league city, Rollins was listed first on 16, second on seven, third on four, fourth on four and fifth on one for a total of 353 points. Holliday’s breakdown was 11 first-place votes, 18 seconds, one third, one fourth and one sixth for 336 points.

The 17-point differential between Rollins and Holliday made the 2007 election the 20th closest overall and ninth in the NL since the current format was adopted by the BBWAA in 1938.

Rollins gives the Phillies their seventh MVP award, joining  Chuck Klein (1932), Jim Konstanty (1950), Mike Schmidt (1980, 1981, 1986) and Ryan Howard (2006). With Howard, the Phillies become the first club with back-to-back MVPs since San Francisco’s Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds in 2000 and 2001.

Everything Philadelphia accomplished in 2007 focused on Rollins, starting with his January boast that the Phillies were the “team to beat” in the NL East. That disregarded the  Mets, who captured the division the previous season and the  Braves, who won it seemingly every year before that.

Despite taking flack after Philadelphia’s 4-11 season-opening stumble, Rollins remained at the center of the Phillies’ resurgence. He batted .346 (28-for-81) with six homers, 15 RBIs and 15 runs in 18 games against those Mets and started all 162 games at shortstop, playing all but 17 innings. Batting in the leadoff spot for most of the season, he kept the offense churning.

He committed just 11 errors, enough for his first Gold Glove, though his fielding percentage was second to Colorado’s  Troy Tulowitzki.

When closer Brett Myers hurled his glove in the air following a called strike three against Washington’s Wily Mo Pena — securing a 13-4 finish that earned the Phillies their first postseason appearance since 1993 — Rollins’ MVP credentials were cemented.

Rollins became the first player in history to collect at least 200 hits, 25 homers, 15 triples and 25 steals in a season. Overall, the switch-hitter batted .296, with 38 doubles, 20 triples, 30 homers, 94 RBIs, 41 stolen bases, 212 hits and 139 runs scored.

The 139 runs scored and 88 extra-base hits were league records for a shortstop. He also set a Major League record with 716 at-bats, and became the third shortstop in history to have at least 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in a season, after Barry Larkin in 1996 and Alex Rodriguez in 1998.

Holliday, meanwhile, captured the league’s batting and RBI titles, and led the Rockies into the postseason for the first time since 1995. The left fielder was the focal point of the team’s 15-1 run to get there, batting .442 with five homers and 17 RBIs.

Overall, he batted .340, with 50 doubles, 36 homers, 137 RBIs, 216 hits and 120 runs scored. He also led the league in hits, total bases, doubles and extra-base hits.

The statistics only told part of the story. The voters went with the player who backed up a bold prediction. On a team with Howard and Chase Utley, who himself had an MVP campaign despite missing five weeks with a broken hand, Rollins simply was the team’s most valuable.

So now, Rollins adds the most coveted NL MVP award to his other 2007 booty; Golden Glove and Silver Slugger awards.

Milwaukee Brewers slugging first baseman Prince Fielder came in a not- so-distant third in the balloting, despite his huge 50 HRs, 119 RBIS and .288 BA, with five first-place votes and 284 points.

Jimmy, thanks for some great 2007 thrills and memories.  Let’s go in 2008 — Phillies; NL East champs and beyond.  Don’t let up!

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Yankees closer Mariano Rivera apparently has accepted the team’s $45 million, 3-year deal pending the standard results of a physical.  The Yankees are the only club Rivera haas played for in his  year career.

AP Sports reporter Ronald Blum notes for Yahoo sports;

Rivera, who turns 38 on Nov. 29, gets an average salary more than $4 million above what any other reliever currently makes.

Rivera was coming off a three-year contract that paid him $31.5 million. He had hoped for an extension before the start of this season, but the Yankees decided not to discuss contract extensions with any of their players until after the 2007 season was over.

“Mariano is obviously someone that we can’t live without because he’s one of a kind and he’s so unique in what he does for us,” Rodriguez said during a conference call after he won the AL MVP award for the third time. “He’s such an unbelievable force in our clubhouse. In many ways he’s kind of the voice for a lot of people in there.”

“I was certainly hopeful,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s a good offer and an offer that was made because I wanted him back.”

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