The Fukudome Waiting Game

The Padres winter activity has been put on temporary hiatus as they wait on Japanese 30 year old outfielder Fukudome's decision. Late last night, Fukudome informed his Japanese team that he is coming to the Majors. Let the bidding begin. According to Kevin Towers, the Padres made an offer that ranks in the top "two or three offers in club history" and is believed to be around $10 million a year for 3 years. While the Padres wait, the rest of the Padres potential moves have been put on hold. And what moves do the Padres need to make?

- Milton Bradley turned down the Padres offer leaving the Padres without a left or center fielder. With Mike Cameron yet to accept arbitration and believed to not be accepting the Padres arbitration, the current look of the outfield is: Scott Hairston, ?, Brian Giles returning from knee surgery. This, obviously, is not going to get it done. Fukudome will solve one problem (presumably left) but center remains empty and no major move was made at the winter meetings to fix the problem. It's a unique position normally, but center field in Petco is a live or die position due to the dimensions.

- The current 5th starter is Justin Germano...probably would like to have something more consistent than that.

- Second base: After opting not to resign Marcus Giles, the Padres current plans for second is to have 2006 first round draft pick Antonelli start there. By most scouts accounts, he is at least a year away however. Other options have been: David Eckstein (wants multi-year deal), Tadihito Iguichi (likely to expensive).


But other than that their fine!!!!!



Oh boy!

Winter Meetings Start in Nashville

It is that time of year again where the movers and shakers of baseball front offices convene in one area for a high stakes baseball convention. This year the focus in Nashville is directly on Johan Santana, the Minnesota Twins ace that has the Yankees and Red Sox continually upping their ante. In the past week, "untouchables" Phil Hughes of New York and Jacoby Ellsbury of Boston have both been mentioned as no longer "untouchable," each time in response to the other teams offer. The end game is this, Johan Santana will get traded and will then sign a multi-year deal making him the highest paid pitcher in baseball.

How is this important regarding the Friars? Between last years ridiculous Barry Zito contract and the impending Johan Santana contract, not to mention the major deal Carlos Zambrano made with the Cubs during the season, the market for pitchers is moving out of the Padres price range. That's why the best news of this week were reports that Jake Peavy and the Padres were nearing an extension keeping Peavy in San Diego until 2012. Barry Axelrod meet with Kevin Towers on Sunday night and it appears that they are both close to a deal, one that would pay Peavy $17.5 million a year. For the caliber of pitcher Peavy is, this is a bargain if the current pitching market continues to increase like it currently is doing. I don't think I need to tell you that having a top of the line starter is key to a teams success. An ace pitcher can be built around and at worst gives you a great chance to win every 5th day.

In other news, the Padres did sign lefthander Randy Wolf. Wolf is recovering from shoulder surgery and is expected to fill in the vacant spot left by David Wells.

Mike Cameron and Michael Barret were offered arbitration. It is believed that Cameron will turn it down, making him a free agent and giving San Diego 2 compensatory picks by virtue of Cameron's Class 2 free agent classification. As the search for a centerfielder continues it may be that Cameron will come right back here. Cameron will miss the first 25 games of next season due to his amphetamine test.

That's all for now. If anything comes out of the winter meetings, I will post it here.