Saltalamacchia To Catch In '08

Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels told the media that indeed star catching prospect Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be a full-time catcher next season instead of bouncing between catcher and first-base as he did in the second half of this year. Jarrod was traded along with 4 minor-leaguers in return for first-baseman Mark Teixeira and left-handed reliever Ron Mahay. Saltalamacchia hit .266 with 11 HR's and 33 RBI's in 93 games with the Texas Rangers.

This news puts the Rangers in a prime position to sign either Sean Casey or Tony Clark, as both can provide veteran leadership and still handle themselves with the bat. Casey's got to be a better choice, as he's younger than Clark and plays very good defense over on the right-side of the infield.

D-Backs Want To Retain Clark

Josh Byrnes, GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks, made it clear that they will try very hard to keep veteran first-baseman Tony Clark this offseason. Clark hit .249 with 17HR's in 221 AB's and had much needed leadership for the extremely young team. He just finished up a 2-year $2M contract, so it will probably be a 2-year $3-4M deal for the 38 year old. This will be a very good deal for the Diamondbacks, as its almost a no-brainer than they need to retain Clark, who served as almost the "team captain" this season. It should be even easier as the Diamondbacks will have a huge revenue boost in '08 for making it all the way to the NLCS this year.