Offseason Notes for January 30th

Experts are pretty sure that one of these pitchers is Kyle McClellan.

Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Offseason Notes.

1. Assorted Headlines
2. Superfluous Video: Kyle McClellan
3. Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: Pittsburgh Television

Assorted Headlines
St. Louis May Trade McClellan
The St. Louis Cardinals have interest in trading right-hander Kyle McClellan, reports Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The move would serve to clear some payroll space for a team (i.e. the Cardinals) that appears to be among the most likely to sign Roy Oswalt. McClellan will make $2.5 million in 2012. He split time in 2011 between starting and relieving, actually posting a better xFIP in the former role (4.25 in 104.2 IP) than the latter (4.59 in 37.0 IP) and showing almost no platoon split (4.32 xFIP against 247 LHBs, 4.36 against 360 RHBs).

Baltimore Pursuing McClellan, Uehara
Apropos that last note, it appears as though the Baltimore Orioles are among the teams most interested in McClellan, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports — and have an interest in bringing back reliever Koji Uehara, too. As noted above, McClellan had a 4.25 xFIP in just under 105 innings as a starter in 2011 — a figure that, even after adjusting for league, would’ve still easily placed him among Baltimore’s top-five starters. As for Uehara, the popular narrative appears to be that his stint with Texas was a disaster. Certainly, neither his ERA (4.00) nor his FIP (4.25) suggest “relief ace,” but even the latter figure isn’t poor. Moreover, both his SIERA and xFIP with Texas (1.46 and 2.03, respectively) were actually lower than with Baltimore.

Tampa Bay in Market for Catchers?
Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times thinks the Rays might use their surplus of starters — specifically, Jeff Niemann or Wade Davis — to upgrade at catcher. Currently, the team has just Jose Molina, Jose Lobaton, and Robinson Chirinos on the 40-man roster. The most interesting/likely name invoked by Topkin is Oakland’s Kurt Suzuki. After acquiring catching prospect Derek Norris from the Washington Nationals, the A’s might feel that Suzuki, owed ca. $10.5 million over the next two season, is expendable — although, that’s not necessarily to say that either Niemann or Davis is the answer.

Superfluous Video: Kyle McClellan
This video of Kyle McClellan is largely unnecessary.

Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: Pittsburgh Television
This offseason, FanGraphs is asking readers to rate the broadcast teams for all 30 major-league clubs. (Click here for more on this project.)

Rate other teams: Arizona / Atlanta / Baltimore / Boston / Chicago (AL) / Chicago (NL) / Cincinnati / Cleveland / Colorado / Detroit / Miami / Houston / Los Angeles (AL) / Los Angeles (NL, Home Games) / Los Angeles (NL, Away Games) / Milwaukee / Minnesota / New York (AL) / New York (NL) / Oakland / Philadelphia.

Image courtesy ESPN.