Agreed. I don’t pay close attention to other teams FA maneuverings, but did the Phillies have any serious discussions with Burrell before signing Ibanez to that 3/$30 deal?

get used to it. there are a lot of FA’s out there that will sign for steals as this drags on. i have a sneaking feeling we will make a TrotNixonTypeSigning out of nowhere when shapiro looks around and sees all the clearance merchandise still on the shelves towards the end of spring training.

Matt at fangraphs made the point that DeRosa has been more valuable than Bradley the last three years, all things considered.
Earlier fangraphs pointed out that Bradley was more valuable than Burrell.

Probably. Burrell is pretty bad.

its the extra year at 10M that really makes you wonder.

my reaction too. Is there any doubt that this is a great deal for the Rays and would have been for the Indians?

and remember, he only cost you a few million $s more

And what worthless veteran can we send them?

I think you have a problem by assuming we had a certain amount of money to spend. Shapiro has made it clear that we spend when the opportunities present themselves. I doubt there was or is a hard number of what we will or will not spend. Sure, there is some sort of maximum that Dolan has, but I don’t think it went anything like:
Shap: “How much can I add to payroll?”
Dolan: “15 M”
Shap: “Ok”

I think Dunn would be a great signing for 15M for 4 years. I think it would be a smart move for the INdians now, and I think it would have been before we signed Wood and DeRosa. Is it less likely after those moves? yes. But are you saying if Dunn’s agent asked Shap if he would take a 2 year 18M deal on done right now, Shapiro would be totally hamstrung? The Burrell deal shows that a 8-11M for 2-3 years is very possible for a Dunn-type. It does validate this type of thinking. Ibanez signing was a bad one. Maybe Bradley’s deal means that Dunn has the possibility to get 12M, but then again, Dunn’s first choice was the Cubs, and it seems pretty clear they aren’t going to sign him- another team off the Dunn market.

That leaves who in the running? Washington, Boston, Dodgers, maybe Baltimore? Dunn is also just part of a group that those teams are looking at like Manny and Abreu.

“But this deal doesn’t validate the "Dunn fanatics" arguing that we could’ve afforded/signed Dunn.”

WD – I was trying to point out that the market seems to be more in line with what some of those who were saying a Dunn signing was feasible, compared to what I originally thought the market would be going into the offseason. I’m surprised a guy like Burrell only received a 2 year deal, I thought going into this offseason that he would get a 3 year deal. I think our resources are pretty much tapped at this point, and that, not only for monetary reasons (we also have a glut of guys on the ML cusp who can play similar positions), we will not be pursuing Dunn.

nice insight, andrew. the baldelli angle is an interesting one, too, isn’t it?

The Reds remain interested in free agent Rocco Baldelli, and held talks with his agent – Casey Close – over the weekend.

“We understand what his limitations are, we think, and have to decide,” Jocketty said. “He’ll have to decide if it’s something he’s interested in. He might decide to stay in the American League so he can DH. It’s a unique situation and we’ll have to be cautious.”

if baldelli has now actually been accurately diagnosed (by the Cleveland Clinic, no less) might he be on the indians’ radar? would he be a good fit, in place of benfran, or is the money (if any room remains in the budget) best used elswhere? not quite a TrotNixonTypeSigning, but …

drop, market, drop!

meant as a reply to andrew …

Ohh, those who tend bars have the potential to be just fine, provided they take it easy on the booze. They’re hard workers. I was talking about the ones who sit by themselves at the Photo Hunt station.

You’ve got it all wrong Chuck. Bartenders are A OK in my book.