Winter Meetings Update, Rule V Tomorrow

Let's start this up with a rumor brought to us by Dick Kaegel of mlb.com. He is reporting that the Royals have shown interest in lefty free agent Mark Mulder. Man, if you thought Bedard was an injury give this guy's career a glance, the man hasn't been healthy for an entire season since 2005. While healthy he once was a very solid pitcher, but he has had so many arm and shoulder injuries that this may not hold true anymore. I wouldn't mind signing Mulder to an extremely cheap deal with some incentives but I would much rather the Royals go a bit further and offer Bedard a deal with similar incentives and a large enough base salary to get it done. What do you think would you rather have Mulder for 3 mill guaranteed plus incentives or Bedard for an extra 2 guaranteed? Not sure what the market would warrant for each of them but that would seem to be on the high end of what I would be willing to pay for.

Now I would like to talk about two players that I have slight man crushes on that both could be available to the Royals and perhaps even for a small price. Both are centerfielders that can cover some ground and so both could fill a major need for the Royals. Also, both are "1-3 year guys"
so they would not hurt the Royals financially and could come cheap for several years.

First I will discuss Bret Gardner. According to Jayson Stark of espn.com after the completion of the Granderson deal the Royals contacted the Yankees about their fleet foot centerfielder. Now besides the fact that Gardner seems like one of the better guys to ever don the pinstripes he is also a burner on the base paths and in centerfield. On top of his speed and defensive abilities he has displayed a knack for getting on base which is what this team is really starving for right now. He has almost no power, but if he can get on base, steal bases, and display above average range in center then he would be a great centerfielder for the Royals.

The second player I am going to mention is a player named John Raynor. John Raynor would cost nearly nothing out of David Glass' pockets, because he has been left unprotected for the Rule V draft which occurs tomorrow. This season he put up a pedestrian .257/.327/.360 triple slash but for his minor league career he has posted a line of .299/.383/.452 line with 142 steals in just 4 seasons. Unless the Royals make a trade for a centerfielder by the time the draft starts tomorrow, they absolutely have to draft this guy and if you do find someone else, you simply return him back to his previous club and you are out 25 grand. When you consider that Dayton Moore has blown several times that amount simply by non tendering players at the wrong times (Gathright, Gobble) then a $50,000 purchase of Raynor seems like a brilliant back up plan. If the Marlins don't pay you back the $25,000 and allow you to keep him if he doesn't make the major league team then that is fine as well and he provides some depth.

Coming into the season Raynor was ranked 11th in the Marlins system according to Baseball America, which is stocked full of elite hitting prospects. Baseball America also said Raynor was the fastest player in the system and possessed the tools to one day be a top notch lead off hitter. I am begging that the organization draft this guy tomorrow and throw the Marlins $50,000. I may be wrong and he never turns out to be anything, but in the grand scheme of things that amount of money is chump change for a professional baseball team.