River Ave. Blues posts an interesting graph showing the ups and downs of the Yankees offense and pitching in 2008.

Eight teams are not scheduled to appear on the national broadcasts of ESPN and Fox this year.

Blue Jays, Marlins, Padres, Nationals, Pirates, Reds, Rockies, Royals- 0

I'm guessing the Rockies will be good enough to appear on a broadcast before the season is over.

It's Jackie Robinson's 90th birthday anniversary.

Here's a picture of the Redoubt Volcano in Alaska at sunrise this morning:

There are rumblings under this cone and they are expecting it to erupt any time.

The Giants' plan to land Manny Ramirez seems to be to wait until Manny is so upset at the Dodgers he's willing to take below market deal someplace else.

Executives with other teams do not believe the Giants are serious players in the Manny bidding. They think San Francisco's real intent is to keep the Dodgers honest, to force them to give Ramirez at least a two-year deal. And if somehow Ramirez gets angered by the Dodgers' level of interest and decides to deliver himself to their division rival, well, all the better for the Giants.

I'm somewhat surprised that a team like the Nationals or Orioles, who were in the bidding for Mark Teixeira, wouldn't commit some of that money to a two-year deal for Manny just for the publicity.

Alex Belth interview Tom Verrducci about his new Joe Torre book at SI.

I have a friend who has a rule for determining how young a person you should date. Take your age, divide by two, then add seven. So if you're 30, the youngest person you should date is 22. If you're 50, a 32 year old is as young as you should go. If you're 59, the person should be no younger than 36 1/2. John Henry doesn't come close.

Red Sox owner John Henry is engaged to girlfriend Linda Pizzuti.

...

It will be the first marriage for Pizzuti, who has been dating the millionaire businessman since she was introduced to him last summer at Alibi, the bar at the Liberty Hotel. Henry, the 59-year-old founder of the Boca Raton-based investment firm John W. Henry & Co., has one daughter from his 14-year marriage to Peggy. He was also married once before.

Pizzuti, 30, is from Lynnfield, and she and her family are in the real estate development business. She's been a near-constant companion of the Sox owner in recent months, traveling with him to Europe and hosting parties on his 164-foot yacht.

At least she'll be a rich widow before she's too old.

Heh.

The Texas Rangers sign Marlon Byrd, and clear their arbitration docket.

The Yankees reach a contract agreement with Brian Bruney. He's the last of the outstanding contracts, and New York won't need to deal with the arbitrator this season.

Jason Varitek blinks, returning to the Red Sox for $5 million dollars:

Varitek, who turns 37 on April 11, will earn $5 million in 2009, according to baseball sources, with the club holding a $5 million option for 2010. If the Red Sox do not pick up that option, Varitek has the choice of remaining with the club on a $3 million deal. In '10, he can earn another $2 million in incentives based on playing time, beginning at 80 games started.

The incentives apply to the player option only and come increments of $400,000 payable to Varitek for reaching plateaus at 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 games started in 2010.

I actually think the Red Sox would have been better off letting Jason go and hoping they get a draft choice out of a team that was willing to sign him. I guess $5 million was better than nothing for Varitek, and this will make his Boston fans happy.

Razzball looks at the effect a high volume of pitches has on success the next season.

Tuffy R sent me this link, as the Brazilian curling team calls out the Americans:

"We knew they were out there playing," Patzke said, "but we didn't really have them on our radar until they made the challenge."

The best-of-five match against the United States team, beginning Friday in Bismarck, N.D., will be Brazil's international curling debut, an appearance about as unlikely as that of the Jamaican bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

"When I mention it to friends and family, the first question they ask is, 'Are you going to Brazil?' " said Todd Birr, the skip, or captain, of the United States team. "No, we're going to Bismarck. But it should be fun."

The World Curling Federation allots two berths in the 12-team world championship to countries from the Americas, and in the 50 years of the event the lone representatives have been the United States and Canada. Only two other countries in the Americas belong to the federation: Brazil, which joined in 1998, and the United States Virgin Islands.

Canada can't be bumped as host nation and world champs, so the Brazilians get a chance to knock off the US. It looks like you can follow the event here. Does anyone know if there will be live television coverage?

Mets fans rallied for Manny Ramirez outside the SNY studios (owned by the Mets). It was called the Million Manny March, although they were about 999,970 people short.

Should teams listen to their fans? If the Mets sign Manny and still fall a game short of the playoffs, would Omar Minaya get to fire the Manny maniacs? (Not to be confused with Yacko, Wacko and Dot.)

There's some confusion on the Varitek deadline. Is it Eastern or Pacific time?

Update: Or maye there's no deadline at all.

Every time I see an ad for Taken, I think of this.

A former teammate of Barry Bonds is going testify against the slugger:

It looks like Barry Bonds has more than just a failed urine test to worry about when his perjury trial gets underway on March 2nd. According to ESPN, Bobby Estalella, a former Giant who admitted using steroids provided by Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson, is prepared to provide "significant testimony" to back up the government's claim that Bonds knowingly took steroids.

Estalella admitted using the same substances, as well as human growth hormone, during the same BALCO investigation that led to the Bonds statements being questioned by federal prosecutors. He's reportedly able to provide first-hand knowledge of Bonds' steroid use, something that would be quite damning to Bonds' case.

The spoilers keep coming. They're taking all the drama out of the trial!

Update: Add the Giambis to the list of people called to testify.

Specifically, the prosecutors want to use the Giambis' testimony to establish that Anderson created doping calendars for both men. If the Giambis testify to that effect, the prosecutors will then be free to argue that Anderson created similar calendars to monitor Bonds's use of banned substances, according to a person briefed on the government's evidence. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardize his access to sensitive information.

The trial continues to leak like a sieve.

Lyflines examines the idea that Jason Varitek improves the Boston pitching staff.

Athletics Nation takes an indepth look at the A's propensity to strikeout looking. The team does rank high in the stat, but more interesting are the player charts. There are players like Sweeney and Crosby who get called on the edges, but there are also players like Cust and Hannahan who just takes hittable pitches.

Jason Varitek is threatening to sit out the 2009 season. Given the environment for free agents, I suspect the Red Sox would be happy to take him up on the offer.

The Twins buy out the last two years of Jason Kubel's arbitration and are down to one arbitration case.

Carlos Pena underwent abdominal surgery over three weeks ago, but should be ready for spring training. He won't play in the WBC, but should be ready for the season. I wonder why they didn't announce this earlier?

Joe Christensen reports the latest news on Joe Crede.

New York Baseball Hack Dan Graziano offers his take on A-Rod:

A-Rod is actually an interesting guy to talk to about baseball. He loves the game and works so hard at it that he has a great deal to offer in terms of analysis -- of his own game and other people's. I have had many one-on-one conversations with him about baseball, and they're almost always educational. We've discussed technical aspects of playing third base and of basestealing. We've talked about the perception of him as a poor "clutch" player, what he thinks of that and how he copes with it. When you ask him a good question about the game, he can help educate you about the game. The hardest part is finding him. Or getting him to take those stupid headphones off and talk to you.

Are we really surprised to hear, from Torre, that A-Rod "needs people to make a fuss over him?" This couldn't be more obvious to anybody who watches the guy. Every movement is measured, every ounce of attention absorbed. When all the Madonna stuff was going down last year in late June and early July, I talked to a person in the Yankees' clubhouse and asked how he was handling it. The answer: "Are you kidding? He loves this stuff. He loves being a big enough star to be on the cover of US Weekly. This isn't going to bother him one bit."

The sense I get is that A-Rod is trying to put on a front. If the real A-Rod needs attention all the time, isn't he better off not being himself?

The Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to a three-year contract extension with Paul Maholm. There's no word on the money yet, and the Pirates hold an option for a fourth year. This buys out Paul's three years of arbitration, always a good move for a club, and possibly his first year of free-agency. Paul does a good job of limiting walks and home runs, and is coming off the best season of his career.

Zog's Point reveals what Joe Torre left on the cutting room floor.

Torre almost ruined David Cone's perfect game in 1998 by trying to bring in Tanyon Sturtze, before realizing Sturtze was on the White Sox.

There's plenty more.

Baseball Time in Arlington comments on Joaquin Benoit's surgery:

Benoit, coincidentally, is set to earn a base salary of $3.5 million in 2009. Toss in Frank Catalanotto's seemingly immovable $4 million salary (coupled with a $2 million buyout for 2010), and that's suddenly more than 10 percent of the projected 2009 payroll sunk into either damaged or superfluous goods.

With the injury to Hurley, I'm betting Texas is being pushed more toward signing Ben Sheets.

I agree with this post 100%.

The headline made me laugh but this paragraph slayed me:

"It's not Ben's Spanish-speaking ability that interests me," Minaya said. "I'm interested in Ben for other reasons. I mean, look. Here's a pitcher who is not getting any younger, who deals with severe arm injuries on an almost annual basis, who has never fully reached his potential for an extended period of time and could likely end up being a high-priced bust signing. Those elements are all more interesting to me than his Spanish."

Was this really necessary?

What to do on a snow day.

Dave Cameron doesn't like the Jon Garland deal and thinks the DBacks should have signed Randy Johnson instead.

The Marlins released drawings of their proposed stadium. It's a bit antiseptic for my taste, but at least it gets away from the brick that seems to dominate the new parks.

South Side Sox relates optimistic reports about Josh Fields coming from the White Sox coaching staff.

Jon Garland agrees to a one-year contract with the Diamondbacks for between $6 million and $8 million dollars, likely with a mutual option for 2010.

That Garland is available at a price that's manageable for the Diamondbacks is likely a result of the sluggish economy a down year in 2008 for Garland. Last season with the Los Angeles Angels -- his first year away from the Chicago White Sox -- he posted a 4.90 ERA and saw an increase in base runners allowed and a decrease in his strikeout rate.

Given that, his decision to decline arbitration from the Angels was viewed as a surprise in the industry. In arbitration, he only would have received a one-year contract, but it would have been worth more than the $12 million he made in 2008.

Players certainly overestimated demand for their services at arbitration time. Garland's not a great pitcher, but he's not all that bad either. I would guess he'd regress more toward his mean in 2009. The problem is, that mean can't be all that good due to Jon's low strikeout rate. With that many balls in play, he needs a very good defense behind him. His real fluke year was 2005, when he posted a 3.50 ERA. He allowed a .261 BA with runners in scoring position that year, compared to .279 for his career.

This is a good deal for the Diamondbacks. Garland is a dependable starter who should be able to post an ERA in the low 4.00s. He'll come close to 200 innings, helping to take pressure off the bullpen. In the past, that's been worth well over $10 million a season and a multi-year deal. The DBacks should make sure, however, they have their best defense on the field when he pitches.

Aaron Heilman spends only about six weeks with the Mariners as they trade him to the Cubs for a shortstop and a pitcher.

In exchange for Heilman, the Mariners received shortstop Ronny Cedeno and left-hander Garrett Olson. Heilman, long coveted by Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, will compete for the Cubs' fifth-starter job or pitch out of their bullpen.

Cedeno will challenge both second baseman Jose Lopez and shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt for starting jobs, Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik told FOXSports.com.

So Zduriencik puts pressure on his middle infielders. Given Cedeno's poor career offensive numbers, however, there might not be that much pressure. Garrett Olson has horrible major league walk numbers, but good ones in the minors. The people who commented to this post on Olson's trade to the Cubs don't think much of him as a major league pitcher.

Hanley Ramirez is the only Marlin getting a long term contract for a while. FishStripes questions the placement of blame for this, however.

Bob Sikes worked for the Mets when Dwight Gooden took his drug tests and doubts Kirk Radomski's story on the subject:

Gooden returned to the Mets in June after serving a suspension. As part of his return, he was required to take mandatory tests administered by the commissioner. Tests were adminsitered both on the road and at home. A witness for the ballclub was required along with the commissioner's adminsitrator. From the years 1987 through the end of the 1991 season that person was either me or my boss, Head Trainer Steve Garland. We signed a document after Gooden supplied the sample in our presence. No person would have been able to swith a sample afterwards as they were sealed in our presence and we signed the sealed packaging afterwards.

I was let go after the 1991 season and Gooden's time with the Mets ended after the 1994 season - Garland's last. Sam McCrary served as assistant - a man I know well. Although I was not there, I'm comfortable in saying that Garland - or Gooden for that matter would have allowed anyone besides Garland or McCrary to witness Gooden's drug test for the ballclub. That person would never have been a man who served as a clubhouse attendant as Kirk Radomski is quoted as saying in an interview with ESPN.

Joba Chamberlain and Jon Lester participated in a Q&A at Sacred Heart University Tuesday night. For the most part, the questions to them were softballs, but the two still managed to show their humor and provide some insights into their lives.

Both players were given a chance to criticize others. Joba was asked about Joe Torre and Alex Rodriguez. Joba basically said that none of the players have read the book, so he couldn't comment on that, but he was glad to start with Torre as his first manager. Chamberlain talked about Rodriguez's work ethic, the intensity he brought to the game, intensity to the point of being obsessed. Asked if he thought Alex should tone down his personal life, Joba pointed to A-Rod's stats and said there wasn't a problem.

Lester described how Alex was the toughest hitter to face on the Yankees. Jon praised Alex for having a plan at the plate and sticking to it. Jon was given a chance to dis Manny Ramirez, but didn't take the bait. He also praised Manny's work, and said he was a great teammate.

Lester also praised his manager, Terry Francona. He's been impressed with Terry's preparation, how he even anticipates reporter questions and writes down possible answers before he takes questions. That kind of preparation goes into the game as well.

Lester also talked about how his bout with cancer changed his outlook. Before, the game he played was work. He worried about every pitch, worried about his place on the team. Now, it's just fun. That's a good change in perspective.

Joba says as far as he knows, he'll be a starter this year. When asked if he has a preference to start of relieve, Joba simply said, "No."

Chamberlain was also asked about the DUI. He came out honestly and said he made a mistake and was very lucky no one was hurt. He didn't give any excuses, said it's easy to call for a ride or give up your keys, and pledged not to do it again.

Lester was very humble about his fight with cancer, saying that he didn't do anything different from anyone else faced with the disease. He kept his focus on Feb. 1, the day to report to spring training. He was also lucky to come down with a very treatable form of cancer.

Both men were gracious in their praise of each other and the other team. The Harvard-Yale effect was shown off last night, however. When asked about the rivalry, Lester said Red Sox players were well into it in single-A ball. Joba noted he wasn't aware of it until he got to the majors, noting it hit him right away with his first ejection.

It was difficult to hear at times at it took the technical crew a while to adjust the sound system to the auditorium. Also, I tried to cover the event with just my Blackberry storm. Unfortunately, I could not get my camera to zoom, and the lighting precluded me from getting decent pictures. The twitter updates worked very well, however, with the exception my phone changed Manny to nanny.

I'm in the bleachers front and center. Will try to post pictures later.

Joe Torre talks about his book with the New York Times.

The Red Sox gave Jason Varitek until Saturday to agree to a deal. It appears the deal on the table could easily pay Jason less over two years than he wanted for a single season.

I'll be headed to Bridgeport, CT for tonight's forum with Joba Chamberlain and Jon Lester. I'll try to blog live from my phone, however, I may go with Twitter.

If you have any questions you'd like ask, please feel to leave them in the comments.

Update: If this works, Twitter updates will appear here:

Update: That works, you just need to refresh the page.

Brian Cartwright developed a probabilistic model of catcher caught stealings. The three Molina brothers all come out near the top of the list in 2008.

Why I love Rob Neyer. On Joe Torre's reign with the Yankees:

Beginning in 1996, the Yankees won four World Series in five years. In those five years, they averaged 97 wins.

In the eight years since, of course, the Yankees have won zero World Series. Incidentally, in those same eight years they've averaged 97 wins.

There's no question that mistakes were made after 2000. Every franchise makes mistakes. There's also no question that they've picked up some prima donnas, some of whom didn't play much defense.

But until someone can explain to me why those same factors that produce 97 wins a season work so well from April through September but suddenly fall flat in October, I'm going to assume that the Yankees were (1) overly lucky from 1996 through 2000 and (2) overly unlucky from 2001 through 2007.

The Royals will try Mark Teahen at second base. He started as a third baseman and played the outfield in 2008. This is an unusual move because it's to a tougher defensive position. At least the Royals are trying to think a bit outside the box here.

Joe Posnanski (in a post about Jeff Kent that's well worth the read) likes the move:

And so, I have to admit, I'm kind of excited that the Royals are going to try Teahen at second base. I mean, hey, I don't know how seriously they will try. And I don't know if it can work. But I think this is precisely the sort of risk-reward thinking the Royals should be doing right about now. Teahen doesn't really have a place on the Royals at the moment. He doesn't fit in the outfield. The Royals are overloaded with first basemen. Alex Gordon needs to be at third base every day -- he looks to me poised for a breakout season. And the Royals even have their super sub (hopefully) in Willie Ballgame, who plays seven positions, including all three outfield spots.

But second base -- hey, why not, right? Teahen's a good athlete. He has a good and accurate arm. He likes playing the infield. And -- this is just my opinion -- I've always felt like if the Royals would just give him a role and leave him alone and not expect him to be things he ain't, he could really emerge as a good offensive player.

So far, the offense he's generated in his career works better at second than at third or as a corner outfielder.

Andy Pettitte reaches a deal with the Yankees to be their fifth starter:

It's a $5.5 million deal that could balloon to as much as $12 million based on innings pitched and roster time. As I've written here for weeks, it makes complete sense and creates great flexibility in the rotation.

It's an unusual contract from the Yankees, as they tend to not give out incentive laden contracts. This, however, is a case where it makes sense. Pettitte wanted more than $10 million, and now he'll have to earn it.

Zack Greinke signs a four-year contract.

Correction: Fixed the spelling. That's what I get for trying to blog from my phone.

Update: Here are the numbers on Greinke:

Under the contract, Greinke will receive a total of $38 million: $3.75 million in 2009, $7.25 million in 2010, and $13.5 million each year in 2011-12.

It's a very nice turnaround for someone who looked like he was going to be out of baseball a few years ago. It's also, however, the kind of contract that makes the pitcher very tradable.

From the reports I'm seeing today, yesterday's Torre controversy was a bit overblown.

Not only were the Film Actors Guild awards presented Sunday night, but the baseball writers handed out trophies as well. Buster Olney reviews the event.

Kirk Radomski rebuts allegations that there is a glaring inconsistency in his story:

Sunday, The New York Times reported that Radomski may have damaged his value as a witness with a sentence on page 196 that the newspaper said contradicts McNamee's sworn testimony to congressional investigators last year. But for Radomski, the controversy is manufactured, and he suggests that the Times reread the page.

On page 196, Radomski and his co-author David Fisher wrote: "In fact he (McNamee) told me that in 1998 he'd begun injecting Roger Clemens with Winstrol that Clemens had gotten for himself."

As The Times reports, McNamee told congressional investigators in February that he never informed Radomski that he had injected Clemens with steroids or human growth hormone. Radomski says that's right. McNamee told him about the 1998 injections in 2008 - as he and Fisher were preparing the book, which the Daily News obtained Sunday from the publisher, Hudson Street Press.

"He only recently told me about the Winstrol," Radomski said.

I would think writers for the Times could better parse that sentence.

Via The Detroit Tigers Weblog, Lynn Henning does a good job of explaining the defensive statistics the Tigers are using to evaluate players and improve the left side fielders.

Dombrowski talked about defense as coverage during Saturday's TigerFest at Comerica Park.

"A lot of guys can make the stationary play, but they have no range to their left or right," Dombrowski said. "(Those balls) are base hits, not outs. Brandon Inge and Adam Everett get not only the stationary ball hit at them, but they have range."
Much more range, in fact, than their predecessors, Guillen and Renteria. In plus-minus rankings by Dewan that document how many more, or how many fewer, ground balls are gathered by a particular fielder, Renteria was 28th among shortstops in 2008.

Guillen, who was being asked to adjust to his second new position in one season, was 23rd among third basemen.

It's nice to see these statistics working their way into newspaper articles. However, I'd like to see something on the offensive tradeoffs here.

Dustin Pedroia's brother Brett gets arrested for child molestation. Tom Ziller, the author, lives in the Pedroia's home town and documents the reaction.

Joe Morgan gets harrassed by the police at LAX. I hope Joe sues them.

Since it took place in LA, you have to wonder if the former writers of Fire Joe Morgan fingered the Hall of Famer.

Via Purple Row, Bay Bridge Baseball does some interesting research on Matt Holliday:

The point to all this is that you can't just take Matt Holliday's career splits (.357 at Coors Field and .281 on the road) and say: "Well, he's really a .281 hitter." That .281 average is the sum of a lot of games in which Holliday was trying to get acclimated to sea-level pitching. In theory, if you took Holliday (or any Colorado hitter) and put him at sea level all the time, he'd be a much better hitter than he was wearing the Rockies' road grays.

So if my theory was accurate, I could look at Holliday's road games with the Rockies and see that his performance would improve the longer the team was on the road, because there would be more time to adjust.

Using the Day by Day Database, Jeff Fletcher shows that Holliday gets better the longer he spends on the road. I would not have expected that. After all, athletes train at high altitude so they can perform better at oxygen rich lower elevations. I would think after spending 10 days playing in Denver, a hitter's bat would be a little quicker playing at sea level in Los Angeles or San Diego.

Fletcher's implication is that hitters should be better on the road when they're not playing for the Rockies than when they sit on the Colorado roster. The following table lists batting averages for players with at least 600 AB on the road while playing for the Rockies and at least 600 at bats on the road for other teams:

Road BA	With Rockies	With Other Teams
Charles Johnson	0.233	0.248
Willy Taveras	0.281	0.284
Aaron Miles	0.288	0.289
Yorvit Torrealba	0.250	0.250
Kirt Manwaring	0.247	0.245
Mike Lansing	0.274	0.270
Jamey Carroll	0.275	0.271
Juan Uribe	0.258	0.251
Preston Wilson	0.269	0.261
Joe Girardi	0.274	0.264
Juan Pierre	0.308	0.297
Walt Weiss	0.266	0.252
Eric Young	0.295	0.276
Ellis Burks	0.306	0.286
Quinton McCracken	0.291	0.269
Jeff Cirillo	0.320	0.290
Neifi Perez	0.282	0.251
Jay Payton	0.309	0.271
Andres Galarraga	0.316	0.274
Charlie Hayes	0.298	0.254
Vinny Castilla	0.294	0.249
Dante Bichette	0.316	0.269
Larry Walker	0.334	0.282
Jeff Reed	0.286	0.233
Mike Kingery	0.306	0.251
Terry Shumpert	0.282	0.220

There's not much support for the adjustment theory in this data, although we should probably study a few more players on a game by game basis.

Jordan Schafer says he didn't cheat, but he was suspended anyway:

Schafer said he's guilty of hanging around the wrong people.

"I've never failed a test. I've taken 20 drug tests, and I've never failed one. I didn't take anything," Schafer said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Schafer did not test positive for HGH. Rather, he was suspended after Major League Baseball probed anecdotal evidence of HGH use by Schafer, two sources familiar with Schafer's case told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney last year.

Human growth hormone is a banned substance under the current drug-testing agreement between the owners and players, but the sport, like other professional sports leagues in the U.S., does not test for HGH.

But Major League Baseball does have the authority within the agreement to pursue specific information about possible violations. Schafer was the first casualty of MLB's new Department of Investigations.

So MLB has someone who says Shafer did take HGH? It's not clear from this article.

Wezen-ball is updating the all-time uniform number list and would like you help.

Via BBTF, Susannah Cahalan and James Fanelli get an advanced look at Joe Torre's new book. It's not a kind look at the Yankees:

Scorned skipper Joe Torre is blasting the Yankees - calling many of his former players prima donnas, confessing he stopped trusting the powers that be years before he left the team and charging that general manager Brian Cashman betrayed him.

In an explosive new book called "The Yankee Years", Torre gets most personal in his attacks against Alex Rodriguez, who he says was called "A-Fraud" by his teammates after he developed a "Single White Female"-like obsession with team captain Derek Jeter and asked for a personal clubhouse assistant to run errands for him.

I'm a bit surprised by this. Not that these things went on, but that Joe would make them public. Torre's reputation is all class, and this calls that into question.

Update: Here's another post that agrees Torre is losing some of his classiness here.

Kat O'Brien gets a look at the slimmer Robinson Cano:

Cano looked very trim for all of you concerned about him after a poor 2008. He said he's at about 208 pounds right now after playing last year at 213. He may have wound up at 213 last year but I would guess he began a good bit heavier. Anyway, he looks slim and said he's been working hard. Playing winter ball helped him, as did having Kevin Long down for a week to work on his hitting stance. He's also excited about playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.

"I've just been working on my new stance," Cano said, "just getting ready mentally and physically. ... I know that I have to start in April, not in May or June."

The Oakland Athletics avoid arbitration buy agreeing to a one-year deal with Justin Duchscherer.

A two-time All-Star, sidelined by a strained right hip late in the season that later required arthroscopic surgery, went 10-8 with a 2.54 ERA in 22 starts for Oakland last season -- his first year as a full-time starter after spending most of his career as a setup man. He also had hip surgery in July 2007.

Healthy, Dustin shows great control, walking just one batter every four innings. His health will be a key to the success of the A's pitching staff this season.

Even if you don't agree with the rankings, this is a great reference for Beatles songs. I like his top five. He picks the meaningful and experimental songs rather than the most popular ones.

The Red Sox made an offer to Jason Varitek, although the details are not clear:

According to a baseball source, the Sox have formally presented an offer to Varitek's agent, Scott Boras, that could appease the catcher's desire for a second guaranteed season. While the precise value or term of the proposal was unclear, the Sox could ensure Varitek a second year by guaranteeing it outright or making it attainable through an option.

I'm not sure what the Red Sox are doing. Will Varitek catch most of the time instead of Bard? Have they abandoned trying to acquire a young, good hitting catcher from Texas? Resigning Jason may make the fans happy, but does it really improve the team? I don't think so.

King Kaufman sums up the move by ESPN of putting Steve Phillips in the booth with Jon and Joe:

Phillips is the new kid, introduced to give a little goose to a program that's gone flat, that has -- if I may use a catchphrase that has MySpaced -- jumped the shark.

Steve Phillips is Seven on "Married ... With Children." He's Olivia on "The Cosby Show." He's Chachi.

There's nothing wrong with bringing in new characters to a show, if the show is more about the story than the characters. That's why Law and Order lasts so long. King, however, is right about just adding a fresh face, especially when that fresh face isn't all that good.

The Mets appear to be close to signing Oliver Perez.

According to Jon Heyman, also of SI.com, the Mets have increased their initial offer, believed to be worth $30 million over three years.

Yesterday, Andrew Marchand of 1050 ESPN Radio said: "The Mets will eventually be willing to go to four years for Perez."

Verducci believes Minaya would prefer to sign Perez to a three-year deal, worth roughly $10 million per season.

Minaya is willing to guarantee a fourth season, like Marchand said, but only if the annual salary is reduced.

Another example of why it's a lousy year to be a free agent. If I were Perez, I might ask for a shorter contract, with the thought that in two years the market might be a lot better.

Carlos Silva must be thanking his lucky stars he was a free agent last year.

Baseball Time in Arlington sums up the latest news on the Rangers pursuit of Ben Sheets. Extra points for the use of "penultimate." :-)

Looks like a number of Angels season ticket holders aren't returning. On top of that, Red Sox single game tickets are about to go on sale on the internet (10 AM EST). I don't remember getting emailed about that before, only lotteries to get a chance to get in line to buy tickets.

Elijah Dukes paid up his child support.

Sports Radio Interviews is a new blog dedicated to sports radio interviews. Stop by and say hi.

Rich Lederer ranks pitchers by strikeouts per 100 pitches, which he feels is a better measure of pitching ability than K per 9.

The link comes via River Ave. Blues who notes:

Three Yankees finished in the top six, as Joba came in third (6.90), CC Sabathia fourth (6.58) and AJ Burnett sixth (6.33).

This is why I like those two signings. They move the Yankees back to their successful days of the late 1990s and early aughties when the staff struck out batters from top to bottom. With a poor defense behind them, a high strikeout staff covers that weakness, allowing for the strong offense to dominate.

Eric Seidman at FanGraphs spoke extensively with the late Bill Weber and remembers him in this post.

The Yankees move into their new digs.

The Cubs make it official. Chicago picks Tom Ricketts's bid to buy the team:

Tom Ricketts once lived across the street from Wrigley Field and met his wife in the bleachers.

Now that his billionaire family is set to purchase the Chicago Cubs and their historic ballpark from Tribune Co., he's about to get a closer view of his favorite team.

I hope he hires a GM named Scurvy. :-)

Ben Sheets met with the Texas Rangers. That's good to hear. The AL West is wide open, and if Sheets is healthy, he's someone who can really help the Rangers.

If the Phillies can't pick up Nomar Garciaparra, they may go for Moises Alou instead.

The Good Phight reacts here.

It looks like Freddy Garcia signed a contract with the Mets.

Reports indicate the Mets have come to terms with Freddy Garcia on an incentive-laden deal that could net him as much as $9 million. Garcia, of course, was once a middle-of-the rotation anchor, but he has made just 14 starts the last two seasons because of a torn labrum.

Gacia showed very good control over his career. He's worth a one-year risk.

The title of oldest living player gets handed down:

Bill Werber, who was the oldest living former major leaguer and a former teammate of Babe Ruth, has died at age 100.

Werber's son, Bill Jr., said his father died Thursday morning of "old age" after moving into an assisted care facility three weeks ago.

Good for Bill. One century is very impressive, and to have spent part of it playing with the greats of the game makes it that much more special.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Update: Tony Malinosky appears to be the oldest living player now.

"They want Ricketts, and it's always been Ricketts," a source said.

Jay McGwire's ex-fiancee confirms Jay's story about supplying Mark McGwire with steroids. It looks like the story wasn't satire. Maybe it's finally time for Mark to come forward and talk about the past.

Rebecca Glass conducted an instant messenger interview of me this afternoon. You can find the transcript at This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes.

The Brewers, having not spent money on CC Sabathia, ink Prince Fielder to a two-year deal. He'll earn $18 million with the contract:

Fielder, eligible for arbitration for the first time in his career, asked for $8 million earlier this week, and the team countered with $6 million. Over the past three seasons, Fielder has hit .278 with 112 homers and 302 RBIs.

Given that arbitration salaries are growing fast despite the downturn in free agent money, this was a smart deal. Prince is entering the prime of his career, and he already has a 50 home run season. He could easily win his case this year and then look for a Ryan Howard like increase for 2010. This will keep that from happening. The Brewers could save anywhere from $2 million to $6 million with the deal versus going to arbitration two years in a row.

The Padres sign Henry Blanco and Paul DePodesta gets to make a little joke:

Throughout the off-season we have been discussing the idea of bringing in a veteran catcher who could help mentor both our young catchers and our young starting pitchers. We feel that Henry fits the role perfectly, especially since he has maintained an 86.2 MR (mentor rating) over the past three seasons.

Paul does get serious and points out what great job Henry does of stopping the running game. Of course, in a year in which the Padres are unlikely to compete, why not bring in a good defensive catcher and see what he can teach your youngsters?

The Hardball Times publishes the best outfield arms of 2008.

Troy Glaus underwent shoulder surgery which will sideline him for three months:

Glaus will begin physical therapy next week following Wednesday's surgery in Los Angeles. The 32-year-old hit .270 with 27 homers and 99 RBIs last season, his first with the Cardinals.

It wasn't immediately clear why the 2002 World Series MVP waited until now to have the surgery, which likely will cause him to miss the Cardinals' opener on April 6. Glaus appeared at the team's annual Winter Warmup event last weekend and made no mention of an injury or a need for surgery.

Glaus had two cortisone shots and missed a few games in September due to what was described as a strained right shoulder. But an MRI at the time showed no significant problems.

That's certainly a blow to the Cardinals offense, at least opening the season. This will be the fourth year from 2003 on in which Troy lost significant time due to injury.

Andy Kessler looks at the price of the Cubs through the eyes of Mark Cuban. It's a lesson how how the availability of financing helps increase the price of an asset, or lack thereof drive the price down.

Jeff Kent announces his retirement today. Kent starts his Hall of Fame clock, and presents good credentials for his induction:

Kent's 351 career home runs as a second baseman are 74 more than Ryne Sandberg's total.

Kent spent 17 years in the majors -- the last four with the Dodgers -- tying for 20th on baseball's all-time list with 560 doubles, while ranking 47th with 1,518 RBI and 62nd with 377 home runs.

When Kent's name first came up as a Hall of Famer, I was a bit surprised. A reason for that is Jeff's early career was good, but not overly impressive. Through seasonal age 29, the 1997 season, Kent's career OBA came in at .327 with a .450 slugging percentage. That was good for a second baseman, but not Hall of Fame numbers. Coming out of his peaks years, he didn't look like someone destined for enshrinement. The last eleven seasons were a different story, however.

The next year, 1998, saw about a 30 point jump over Kent's career OBA and an 80 point jump in his slugging percentage. He maintained that high level of performance for most of the rest of his career, with an OBA of .370 over his last 11 seasons and a .520 slugging percentage. For a second baseman, those should get the attention of voters.

This is a highly unusual career. There have been players who hit better in their 30s than their 20s, but most crossed that decade at a point where the game changed; think of Paul O'Neill turning 30 just as offense explodes in the majors. Kent's career pretty much covers the entire offensive explosion that started in 1993. I suppose this insulates Kent from charges of PED use:

Kent was known for his intense approach to the game and he endorsed improved testing, criticizing players who used performance-enhancing drugs.

So what happened? This article suggests it was maturity.

Kent--the oldest kid, the cop's son, the ultimate problem-solver--went to work on solving what was perhaps his most difficult problem: remaining calm. And once he conquered calm, the RBI just started coming.

"Jeff learned to control his temper," Baker says. "When the bases were loaded, Jeff tried to get all of them in with one swing. He changed his approach. He doesn't frustrate himself as much as he used to at the plate."

Kent is the first to admit that. In describing his emotional makeup in crucial plate appearances, Kent offers an answer that might seem surprising, given his intensity.

"I don't care," says Kent. "I don't care if I strand a runner. It doesn't phase me."

Meaning: Kent won't tear up a clubhouse anymore. He cares, but not so much now that he becomes unglued, making the poor, innocent water cooler a victim. "I wasn't as mature (in New York) as I am now," he says.

The other interesting thing about Kent's career stems from his similarity scores. He matches Hall of Famers, but Hall of Fame catchers. His top five comparisons are five of the great offensive catchers. Fisk, Berra and Bench are in the Hall of Fame and Ivan Rodriguez made a good case for himself. The only second baseman on the list, Ryne Sandberg, is ninth.

In a way, Kent doesn't fit the mold of a Hall of Fame second baseman. Hornsby, Morgan and Sandberg were as slick with their gloves as their bats. Kent was a good second baseman, but not an outstanding fielder like the three above.

Kent also wasn't afraid to take on his teammates. I don't make too much of that, as sometimes the large egos of great ballplayers do collide. However, Kent won't get points for lying about a motorcycle accident, or dissing Vin Scully.

Jeff was never boring. We'll see how his positives and negatives sit with the Hall voters. He may end up like Jim Rice, waiting for the sports writers of his day to get diluted by writers who just see the numbers.

Thanks to the Tufts Baseball Analysis group for being such gracious hosts last night. We talked baseball for an hour, and the group brought a number of great questions to the discussion. I look forward to visiting them again.

Rumors on the Internets publishes the obscenity laced tirade one small bat manufacturer emailed to baseball over new bat regulations. The blogger takes an in-depth look at MLB's research on bats and how they appear to be trying to drive out the start ups in the bat business. A great post well worth the read.

This is a joke, right?

Jay McGwire grew up idolizing his older brothers, became hooked on steroids, crashed, found God, now wants to share his story with the world. Oh, and he also claims he introduced Mark to 'roids.

The picture looks like they photoshopped a head that looks like McGwire on a body builder. How come we've never heard that Mark had a body builder brother? We know one played football.

There is a Jay McGwire fitness center. So maybe this is real. However, the story seems to contradict Jose Canseco injecting McGwire since Jose was out of Oakland in 1992 and Jay says he introduced steroids to McGwire in 1994.

Lone Star Ball notes the disconnect between the money paid to arbitration eligible players and free agents and wonders if these types will be non-tendered next year.

Dunn is also a free agent, unlike Howard. Dunn can market himself to any team, and any team can sign him and pay him whatever they want to pay him, without regard to putting on a case for an arbitrator. And he's still unsigned, with one agent saying he won't get more than $5 million for one year, although Ken Rosenthal thinks Dunn could maybe get 2 years at $20-24 million.

Regardless, Dunn isn't going to come close to the $18 million for one year Howard is asking for, or even the $14 million the Phillies are offering, despite the fact that they are almost the same player (even down to the huge strikeout numbers). The market has spoken, and it has decided Dunn isn't worth the big bucks.

Is there any reason to believe the market would treat Ryan Howard any differently? If the Phillies had simply non-tendered Howard, would Howard get $18 million a year for 2009? Would he get an annual salary twice what Pat Burrell (2 years, $16 million) got from the Rays?

My answer is no.

No details yet, but Jayson Werth signed a multi-year deal with the Phillies. Werth is a solid player who gave the Phillies two excellent seasons. It's nice to see his success rewarded. He is a bit older, however, so I hope it's not too long term a contract.

It's always a good day when Rob Neyer links to your blog. :-) I'm curious about the pronunciation of Wangdoodle. Is it with a long A, like the defunct computer company, or with the O in gone as in Chien-Ming Wong. I'm guessing the latter.

Five points to the person who recognizes the unintentional My Fair Lady reference.

Rocco Baldelli thanks the Tamps Bay fans for all their support.

Jeff Francoeur is spending the winter working on his hitting:

What makes him think things will be so different? Changes he made this offseason to his stance. After nonstop tinkering last summer, Francoeur has locked into one approach he thinks will work. Using some advice and video recommended by former Braves Mark DeRosa and Mark Teixeira, Francoeur adopted a more balanced position at the plate, with his hands farther back and a shorter stride. He's been working it into his muscle memory, hitting four times a week since Nov. 15.

Chipper Jones likes the look of what Francoeur has been doing at Jones' indoor hitting facility in Suwanee. "His weight distribution is right where it needs to be and his mindset is right where it needs to be," Jones said. "His mindset is from gap to gap. You can't be out on your front foot the way he was all year last year, and head moving up and down, and his stride was too long, and thinking about pulling the ball around the left field foul pole. His weight distribution is allowing him to think right center to left center and he is killing balls, just absolutely crushing it. ...

"If what he's doing now translates to game time at-bats, then he's going to have a really good year," Jones said.

Okay, but where are the pitch recognition drills? There's no doubt Francoeur can crush a ball in the strike zone, but the opposition knows there's no reason to throw a pitch over the plate to Jeff. Until he learns to wait for his pitch, he'll be a limited offensive player.

John Brattain criticizes the Toronto Blue Jays for being Selig loyalists:

To be a Selig loyalist one must view players as an expense (something to keep to a minimum) rather than an investment (a vehicle that can be used to increase profits). Right now, the Jays' current payroll is based (they say) on projected revenue. However, little thought is given to how wise expenditure might improve that projection.

The reason for that is because an expenditure is viewed as just that--an expense, a loss; it is not viewed as something that might bring a return.

If teams want fans to come out, they need to win. Sometimes, that means spending more money than a team takes in. It worked for the Jays in the early 1990s. No reason it can't work again.

ESPN adds Steve Phillips to the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast booth. That should be enough to bring Fire Joe Morgan out of retirement. It's unfortunate that this move likely means more idea discussions of issues and less calling of the game.

I believe I'm a rare person in the baseball blogosphere who likes Joe Morgan better than Jon Miller. Miller brings the great voice to the game, but he's an impressionist and comedian at heart and has no feel for statistics. When ESPN pairs Joe with someone who taps Joe's strengths, Morgan speaks with more intelligence about the game.

I understand ESPN feels they need their national broadcast to cover more than just the game (despite 12 to 14 hours a week of studio shows devoted to baseball). Maybe they feel that Phillips's management experience brings a different view to those stories. I just want to watch the game, however.

River Ave. Blues makes some good suggestions for improving the way teams are compensated for losing free agents. However, I would argue that compensation should be eliminated. The point of free agency was to allow the players to move wherever they wanted. The compensation system came into being as a way to thwart free-agency, which we can see clearly this year in the case of Jason Varitek. Teams have six years to use the stars they develop at below cost. Why do they need more? Make free agents truly free!

Tom Glavine is throwing pain free and feels he will pitch in 2009.

The Red Sox sign Jonathan Papelbon to a $6.25 million deal. The raise is $5.5 million for one of the games premier closers. Along with a Javier Lopez signing, Theo Epstein keeps his streak alive of not going to an arbitration hearing.

Even Melky Cabrera got a nice raise.

Ryan Howard is asking for quite a raise:

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard asked for $18 million in salary arbitration Tuesday, the third-highest figure submitted since the process began in 1974.

Philadelphia offered $14 million to the 2006 NL MVP, a raise of $4 million. Howard hit 48 homers and had 146 RBIs last year, helping the Phillies win their first World Series title since 1980.

That's quite a request after a 60 point drop in OBA. The Phillies are willing to give him a $4 million raise after a down year. Imagine what he'd be getting if he played better than in 2007!

Prince Fielder, with a better year batting, is only asking for $8 million. Prince needs to dream a little bigger.

With such a large difference between Howard's figure and the Phillies, my guess is that it goes to a hearing again. Unlike last year, the Phillies have a good case for the lower number. They're offering Howard Albert Pujols numbers for less production, both at the bat and in the field than Pujols.

The Pirates settle with Adam LaRoche, signing him for $7 million in his final year of arbitration. Could that be his top salary? Teams are talking about offering Adam Dunn $5 million a year, and Dunn is a better hitter. LaRoche is not a defensive wizard either. I have to believe this signing either helps Dunn's case this year, or really hurts LaRoche going into free agency.

Correction: Fixed the second link.

The two Indian pitchers signed by the Pirates meet Barry Bonds to talk about Pirates City. I'm not sure if that's the spring training facility or Pittsburgh.

We going on computer and seeing many Pirate players. We learning Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Roberto Clemente. We learning coaches.

We liking Barry Bonds best.

That's very cool that these players have an interest in the history of the team.

Sky Kalkman improves on evaluating the cost of a marginal win by comparing expected number of wins based on payroll with the actual number of wins earned. In other words, if you spend more, you're expected to win more. The Angels score very well in this analysis, although the Rays remain head and shoulders above the rest of the league.

The Tampa Bay Rays sign Jason Bartlett to a $1,981,250, one-year contract. I'm curious as to how they settled on such an odd number. If Tampa didn't want to pay him $2 million, why not $1,999,999? Come on, Rays, cough up the extra $18,750!

Josh Kalk uses PITCHf/x to study umpires strike zones and finds as a group MLB umpires are excellent ball-strike callers:

If you do this for all umpires, then you can start studying them as a group. You can ask how often they correctly identify a pitch compared to the MLB rule definition (accuracy), how often they correctly identify a pitch compared with their personal strike zone (precision), and how large these strike zones are compared to the MLB strike zones (size) for both left- and right-handed batters. When you do this, the first thing that jumps out at you is just how accurate and precise major league umpires are as a group. While they tend to give the outside corner a bit too much and are a bit stingy near the top and bottom, for the most part a pitch over the plate is called a strike and almost always a pitch that is thrown within a specific umpire's zone is called a strike. Of the 82 umpires who were behind the plate when the PITCHf/x cameras were working last year, even the least consistent was very consistent.

That's good to know. PITCHf/x should also prevent an NBA type scandal. We should be able to tell if an umpire becomes inconsistent at key points in a game, throwing it to one of the opponents.

Michael Schmidt at the New York Times weaseled a copy of Kirk Radomski's new book posts a review. Craig Calcaterra reviews the review:

In any event, after reading Schmidt's article, I hope that none of you feel an overpowering need to go buy Radomski's book. There is so much garbage being published these days that we shouldn't be in the business of encouraging any more of it.

I actually find it interesting that Radomski names names that aren't in the Mitchell report, but Schmidt leaves them out of his article. If we knew those names, there would be no reason to buy the book.

Here's a consice summary of the players who avoided arbitration Monday. That leaves 77 players still on the track for a hearing.

Registration is open to the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. I've attended the conference the last two years and enjoyed it each time. I hope to see you there.

Todd Wellemyer gets a nice contract for one year of good starting pitching:

Pitcher Todd Wellemeyer agreed Monday to a $4.05 million, one-year contract with St. Louis Cardinals, who also struck an $825,000 deal with outfielder Chris Duncan.

It seems like lots of players and teams are on the same wavelength as to salary this season.

Another arbitration eligible closer agrees to a contract:

The Atlanta Braves avoided arbitration with relief pitcher Mike Gonzalez on Monday, agreeing on a one-year, $3.45 million contract.

Mike only pitched half a season in 2008 but is likely to serve as the Braves closer in 2009. It's been a great day for closers getting contracts.

Update: It's even a good day for setup men as the Phillies reach a three-year deal with Ryan Madson.

Reliever Ryan Madson and the Philadelphia Phillies avoided arbitration by reaching a preliminary agreement on a $12 million, three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations said Monday.

Madson keeps his walks low and posted a 3.05 ERA in consecutive seasons.

Update: Kevin Gregg also receives a very nice contract, $4.2 million. Gregg doesn't have the best control, but batters find him difficult to hit.

It's a very good day for players avoiding arbitration, as Bobby Jenks receives a $5.6 million contract from the White Sox. It also shows where service time gets a player. Jenks has been much more successful than Street over the last two seasons, but with Street in his second year of arbitration, Jenks is only getting $1.1 million more.

Nick Markaksis gets his big payday from the Orioles:

The Balimore Sun, citing unnamed sources, reported Monday that the Orioles and outfielder Nick Markakis agreed to a six-year, $66 million extension, pending a physical.

That's his three years of arbitration and three years of free agency. Markakis first three years show a nice rise in skills; better batting average, OBA and slugging percentage. He'll be 25 in 2009, so the Orioles get his prime at a very nice price. This is a very good deal for Baltimore.

Larry Stone starts beating the drum for Edgar Martinez's Hall of Fame election:

Martinez's credentials, qualitatively superb but lacking in the quantity department, are guaranteed to spur a spirited debate over his worthiness. Throw in the designated-hitter factor, and the Edgar Question shapes up as one of the bigger conundrums in recent years.

Martinez has my unequivocal support, but I'm afraid he faces a steep uphill battle to win over the necessary 75 percent of my BBWAA brethren.

The Martinez candidacy should engender a debate similar to the one about closers. Does a player with a limited role deserve to make the Hall of Fame. For closers, that answer is yes, but at a much higher level than starters or position players.

I'm in favor of Martinez entering the Hall. Martinez is by far the best designated hitter in the history of the game. Baseball created this position to make the game more popular. Ignoring the contributions of these players seems somehow unfair. A DH needs to be extra special to reach the Hall of Fame, and Edgar fits that bill.

If there were no DH, I believe Edgar would have thrived in the majors anyway. A bat like that is tough to ignore. He might of spent most of his career butchering balls at first base, but on the other hand, playing the position day in and day out might have improved his skills as well.

There's more than enough room in the Hall for one DH every 30 years. I hope Edgar is the first.

Maury Brown looks at the ways baseball teams receive value from MLBAM and MLB Network.

Both of these assets are used for matters such as league-based credit. For example, Fitch Ratings, which sets the bar for the creditworthiness of businesses around the world, recently affirmed an 'A' rating for MLB based in part on the league's economic structure.

It is not widely reported, but the majority of the clubs in MLB borrow money against a league fund - its credit facility called the Major League Baseball Trust. Last month, the league was able to refinance most, but not all of the credit facility, which translated into $30 million in principle payments to lenders as the portion that was not refinanced turned to debt. That turned into a bill that averaged $1.5 million for 20 of the clubs this off-season, according to the SportsBusiness Journal. While one might say that the league's economics don't appear to be some advantage when clubs are paying $1.5 million in debt before the season starts, consider that the NFL -the most popular league in the U.S. - was unable to refinance even a portion of their credit facility this past year.

The other way to view MLBAM and MLBN is what they are worth in net value, which in turn trickles down to increase franchise value. If projections remain true, MLBN would have a net value of over $1 billion by 2015. As for MLBAM, in 2005, MLB engaged in the possibility of an initial public offer for the digital rights asset. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, First Boston and J.P. Morgan tried in vain to get the owners to go forward with the initial public offering (IPO). After all, they had good reason to want to see it happen, as these analysts predicted the value of the IPO at the time to be $2-2.5 billion, or approx $2.7 billion in 2008 based on inflation.

So, let's say that MLB befalls some incredible headwinds. Let's say that in 2-3 years the country is still in the throws of a recession. The league could then offer up MLBAM and/or MLBN as an IPO and reap the benefits - the two act as a security blanket for MLB.

Just like regional sports networks (RSN) add value to teams, these league wide entities do the same for the league. As they increase the equity of the teams, owners will have more room to borrow and build up their franchises.

The Rockies avoid arbitration with Huston Street, signing him to a $4.5 million dollar contract.

With the money players are making in arbitration now, I wonder if pre-free-agency long term contracts are looking as desirable. Take this Street deal. After taxes, dues and agent fees he'll take home around $2 million. If he sticks that in something relatively safe, he can probably make about $100,000 a year off it. So if he never works in baseball after this year, he would have a very tidy yearly income. Street certainly isn't a superstar closer. If he's making this kind of money now, imagine what he'll make if he saves 40 games for the Rockies this season.

I used to think long term deals were win-win for players and teams. As salaries grow, however, I'm starting to believe players are better off with one-year deals until they get to free agency.

The Mariners avoid arbitration with Felix Hernandez this year by signing him to a $3.8 million contract.

The Mariners and the right-hander have explored multiyear deals over the last two offseasons, but without success. Hernandez can't become a free agent until after the 2011 season.

Is Hernandez iffy enough that one-year contracts might be the smart way to go? He's had flashes of brilliance, and he's still very young. Of course, if he puts it all together this season and pitches like a Cy Young winner, it's going to cost the Mariners a lot of money to keep him around.

Felix must be very confident of his future to refuse a long-term deal at this point. If he believes he'll stay healthy, then staying on one-year deals will make him more money, as he'll hit free agency early in his professional career. Only time will tell if the Mariners are being too wary or Hernandez is being too confident.

On Martin Luther King Day, this photo from the Baseball Hall of Fame seems appropriate. Here's a few book suggestions on baseball and race:

Jackie Robinson's opening day.

Two books on Curt Flood.

My favorite, Brushing Back Jim Crow.

The Orioles traded for Felix Pie because that Corey Patterson deal worked out so well.

A year after they couldn't get Felix Pie from the Chicago Cubs in the failed Brian Roberts talks, the Orioles acquired the multi-tooled outfielder today for starting pitcher Garrett Olson and Single-A pitcher Henry Williamson.

Pie, who the Orioles have coveted for the past couple of seasons, was out of options and going to have a hard time making the Cubs' Opening Day roster after their additions of outfielders Milton Bradley and Joey Gathright. With the Orioles, Pie, who turns 24 next month, is expected to be used in an outfield platoon with Ryan Freel. Luke Scott, who started 100 games in left field last season, will likely move to designated hitter with Aubrey Huff becoming the team's everyday first baseman.

Pie is someone who never translated his good minor league numbers into major league success. In this way, he's very similar to Corey Patterson. You would think the Orioles would have learned their lesson.

Of course the same can be said of Olson. He's a high K, low BB pitcher in the minors, the opposite in the majors. However, at age 24, I suspect he's just coming into his own as a pitcher. I'll go on record as saying I don't like this deal for the Orioles. I'm betting Olson has a lot more upside than Pie. Williamson also looks like he has some upside as well. Maybe the Orioles should have allowed Pie's options to expire and then pick him up off waivers.

This is one of my favorite blog post headlines ever:

The End Of The MLB Coin Flip: Minnesota Twins Suddenly Unhappy With Random, Chaotic Outcomes

The whole post is very amusing.

There seems to be some question about the health of Rich Harden:

''His arm action's good; he's throwing free and easy,'' Rothschild told a roomful of fans during the Cubs Convention, the day after watching Harden throw for the first time since October. But then he added: ''He's not close to throwing off a mound yet. There's some issues there, no question.''

Huh? Nobody around the Cubs expected Harden -- who gutted out the final month of a 10-2 season with shoulder discomfort -- to be the staff's 230-inning horse or even to provide more than about 25 starts, given his history of arm troubles and the handle-with-care tag the club has put on him.

And even in the wake of Rothschild's comments -- and manager Lou Piniella's subsequent evasive response to specific questions about Harden's condition -- Cubs insiders say Harden is right on schedule toward a strong, on-time and well-conditioned start to spring training and the season.

But sources also confirmed Saturday that Harden has a tear in the joint, just severe enough that some players might seek surgery but slight enough to be in a range often treated effectively with a strengthening program, therapy and a well- managed work schedule.

All this sounds a little too much like what went on with Mark Prior.

Lone Star Ball links to a story summing up the Michael Young situation in Texas. I love description of seamheads (emphasis added):

One side held that the Rangers owed Young more respect than to simply order him to move. The other said Young is a highly compensated employee who needs to simply do what he's told. That group was bolstered by the "seamheads" -- ardent fans of baseball statistics -- who judge things almost strictly by the numbers, and thus tend to disparage Young because of his lack of range at short, and ignore the intangibles he brings to the organization.

Maybe seamheads should take a course is quantifying things that aren't capable of being appraised at an actual or approximate value. Here's the syllabus:

1. Guessing.
2. Defending the guess with anecdotes.
3. Adding smugness.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

My nephew drums in the Trumbull High School band (Connecticut) and they'll be performing in the inauguration parade. They've been receiving lots of publicity, and made today's New York Times. If you're from southern Connecticut and want to follow the band on their trip, here are some links:

• The Connecticut Post set up a blog. (I delivered the paper when it was the Bridgeport Post.)
• Photo uploads are found in this directory.
• Three people are Twittering as well.

Good luck to the band. I watched in 2000 when they marched in the parade. My cousin's daughter was drum major that year, and we caught about 1 second of her on TV.

Chris Carpenter is feeling fine:

Carpenter said the procedure in November to move the nerve "did wonders for my elbow. A lot of the problems I was having with my elbow are gone. ... All of them are."

He continues to condition his shoulder while stretching out throwing sessions at Busch Stadium.

"The first week, every day you wake up it's a little cranky, a little sore," Carpenter said. "You get it going, you start working it every day and it's like anything else. Each day you progress and hope it gets stronger, and that's what it's done."

No doubt the Cardinals are looking forward to getting their ace back.

Leo Mazzone says he made a mistake leaving the Braves, and takes down the Orioles while he's at it:

To hear Mazzone tell it, his firing was a relief. "Once I got there and saw how they operated compared to the Braves, I knew I made a mistake the first week of spring training," he said, before chuckling and adding, "I said to myself, 'You know what? I done messed up.'

"The lack of organization. The lack of discipline. The lack of overall professionalism. I was shocked, and I couldn't believe it."

Here's another vote for the Twins signing Adam Dunn.

Via BBTF, the Phillies buy out Cole Hamels arbitration years:

Hamels will receive $4.35 million in 2009, $6.65 million in 2010 and $9.5 million in 2011. Though a long-term contract, this deal buys out none of Hamels' free-agent seasons. But it does allow the Phillies to avoid salary arbitration with their ace at a time when they are still facing cases with Ryan Madson, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth and - most notably - Ryan Howard, who could earn $15 million or more in the process.

Hamels, 25, went 14-10 for the World Series winners last year, and then excelled in the playoffs by going 4-0 in five starts with a 1.80 ERA. He was the MVP of both the NLCS and World Series.

Wow. Hamels gave up a lot; I would expect he'd make at least $8 million in arbitration this year. I guess it's worth it to be able to become a free agent at a young age.

Update: I hand't realized Hamels was a super-two. He'll have one more year of arbitration after this deal expires. I suspect if he's still pitching well, that will give Philaldelphia a good reason to sign him to a long term contract.

Rebecca Glass writes on the magic of being a baseball fan.

Carlos Zambrano decided to undergo corrective surgery on hist eyes:

Which makes the news Friday that he plans to have corrective laser surgery on his right eye early next month one more eyebrow raiser, if not a full-blown concern, as he tries to rebound off a split-personality finish to a 2008 season that included his first shoulder-injury scare.

''I'm not blind,'' said Zambrano, who has an eye-doctor appointment today and seemed to suggest the Lasik-type surgery is no big deal. ''Just something wrong in my eyes that has to be corrected.''

Zambrano, the highest-profile active player attending Friday's opening events at Cubs Convention downtown, said things looked ''fuzzy'' at times when he pitched last year -- which matched attempts to explain his demeanor in the second half as his performance declined.

This is pretty common now. Are people really worried about it?

The latest has Omar Vizquel headed to the Rangers as a backup for Elvis Andrus. I would also note that if Texas signs Vizquel, they should also use him as a shortstop coach for Andrus. Who could possibly be better at showing the young player the tricks of the trade?

The Phillies avoided arbitration with Greg Dobbs for two years, signing him to a two-year, $2.5 million contract. It just goes to show that the ability to hang around in the majors for three years can lead to security for life. Dobbs is a decent utility player, and he's going to make millions of dollars in his career.

The Twins seemed to time the opening of their new stadium correctly:

With the lure of seats for the first year at Target Field, Minnesota Twins fans are on pace for a franchise record for season tickets in 2009.

Combine the new stadium with a successful season in 2008, and fans are buying tickets even in a recession. Maybe they should use the extra money to buy one of the remaining quality hitters to serve as their designated hitter. Adam Dunn might fit very well between Mauer and Morneau.

Kevin Youkilis and Mark Teixeira have something in common: each plays where his wife wants him!

John Henry and Jason Varitek are meeting one on one. I guess the Red Sox really won't negotiate with Boras, only with his clients.

Don Zimmer is recovering from a stroke. I hope he recovers quickly.

Recently, Dave Studeman introduced the Drama Index (DI) to measure the importance of a game. He now combines that with Win Probability Added (WPA) to create a new stat, Postseason Probability Added, PPA. For every game, Studes multiplies together a player's WPA and his DI, then sums them over a season. Hitters and pitchers who contribute the most to their team winning (high game WPA) in dramatic games (high game DI) do very well over the season.

The point of this stat should not be to determine post-season awards, but to explain post-season voting. The PPA of Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols show why MVP voters had them so close, and why we liked Dernard Span so much.

It's interesting that the perception of the writers about Howard performing well in big games was correct. If it matters is another story. Dave isn't trying to sell this as a new way to judge who should be MVP. Stats like this are like RBI and wins; as much team stats and individual stats. If Howard hit well in games with a lower drama index, then there's likely a lot less drama down the stretch. If Albert Pujols plays on a better team in 2008, there might be more drama in his season. If a great players is on the roster of a great team, there's fewer chances for him to win games in dramatic fashion. These stats (WPA, PPA) explain perception more than they judge ability, in my opinion.

Give the post a read, however, because the results are quite interesting.

I've been invited to face questions from the group Baseball Analysis at Tufts next Wednesday, January 21st. The talk will take place in Pearson 106 from 7 PM to 8 PM. Here's a map with Pearson highlighted. The meeting is open, so if you are a reader in the area and would like to attend, please feel free.

The Orioles reached an agreement with Greg Zaun on a one-year contract:

Baltimore needed a veteran catcher to replace Hernandez, who was traded to the Cincinnati Reds last month for utilityman Ryan Freel and minor leaguer infielders Justin Turner and Brandon Waring.

The Orioles expect Zaun to fill the void at catcher until top prospect Matt Wieters proves he can be consistent at the big league level. Zaun has 14 years of experience to draw upon in working with a young pitching staff and newcomer Koji Uehara of Japan.

Despite his low batting average, Zaun is above average at getting on base. It's a very good move by the Orioles, who now have a very solid back up if Wieters proves he can play. Matt certainly has nothing left to prove at the lower levels of the minors.

Tim Sullivan wastes no time getting to the toughness of David Eckstein.

Though his arm is barely adequate, Eckstein was twice an All-Star shortstop in St. Louis. Though he has hit only 32 major-league home runs, he led both leagues with three grand slams in 2002. He has made a career out of making do, compensating for his physical limitations through competitiveness and craft, toughness and tenacity.

I love Eckstein since we share a name and height, but at this point, he's just not that good.

It appears our modern day pitchers were not descended from Neanderthals.

She explained to Discovery News that modern athletes, like baseball pitchers and handball players, often show a characteristic backward displacement at the shoulder joint. Usually just one joint shows this, since most people have a preferred throwing arm.

The anthropologists found this telltale skeletal characteristic in the early modern European fossils, but not in the Neanderthals.

They need to work this into a GIECO ad somehow.

Red Reporter does a nice graphical breakdown of Jay Bruce's swings and power.

Home Run Derby examines why we don't play baseball in the winter. :-)

Bob Tufts sends a link to this article by Jonathan Littman on the unsealed court documents surrounding the Barry Bonds perjury case. The gist of the article is that the clear (THG) was not classified as a steroid at the time:

Neither Conte nor Anderson was charged with distributing THG. In fact, nobody in the seven-year BALCO investigation has been charged with possession or trafficking of the drug. Less than $2,000 of drugs was found in the highly publicized raid of the Burlingame, Calif., laboratory in 2003.

Besides the staggering amount of taxpayers' money the investigation has cost, BALCO spawned Congressional hearings, countless television news accounts and the best-selling book "Game of Shadows." Yet the lack of a federal criminal punch made it difficult for the government to bring traditional charges against athletes for taking drugs.

The paucity of illegal profits and drugs raises the question whether prosecutors realized that the only potential for criminalizing the behavior of athletes who took banned substances was to set perjury traps or bait athletes into lying to the grand jury or to a federal agent.

"It sounds like a misuse of the grand jury," said John Bartko, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in San Francisco who has tried perjury cases. "They go and try to trip the guy into lying."

The government believes it has tripped Bonds, but whether he falls will be determined in court. The fact that the key drug he is accused of taking was legal and not recognized as a steroid under federal law could complicate the case, experts say.

"I don't understand why the government would seek an indictment after obtaining Catlin's expert testimony that the Clear was not a steroid," Cannon said. "Why come up with an indictment based on an ambiguous definition?"

I'd like to hear from the lawyers on this article. It seems to me that the clear was not a steroid because someone hadn't tested it properly yet. Was Bonds told it was a steroid? Was Bonds told it would act like a steroid?

The article talks about the cream being a masking agent, but it certainly contained steroids. We'll see how this case goes. I agree to a great extent that it was a waste of money. However, if Bonds wins, he'll at least be able to try to recover some of his lost prestige. To him that will be worth all the money spent by prosecutors.

Mark Parzych writes:

I used excel and created a W/L ratio which lumps "luck" into 1 number and created a graph. I think it might give readers a better picture of where Blyleven stands. In the graph it's interesting to note that if you look at the 1.2 and .8 data points, it's easier to be lucky than unlucky making Blyleven even more impressive. Morris is added to show that he is lucky, but not to an extreme like Blyleven is unlucky.

Mark took the data in this post and divided the Win Ratio by the Loss Ratio. The lower the number, the unluckier the pitcher.

Here's the graph. Click for a larger version:

Stop by and say hello to Sliding into Home and Baseball from Wrigley.

Michael Young accepts the move to third base:

While the 32-year-old Young said Thursday he doesn't think it's the right time in his career to switch positions again, he said he's ready to focus on preparing for next season and he didn't want the pending switch to be a distraction to him or the team.

"After some careful consideration over the last month or so and in an effort not to let this thing drag out," Young said during a conference call, "I decided to put an end to this and start bearing down on playing third base."

That's good. When someone is being paid millions of dollars, they should be very willing to make moves like this. As much as I dislike Pete Rose, he played anywhere the Red decided to place him. If he were in the lineup, it didn't matter what glove Pete wore. More players should be that open to these types of moves.

The Boston Red Sox lock up Kevin Youkilis four for years:

The Sox and Kevin Youkilis [stats] have a four-year extension in place that will become official when Youkilis passes his physical tomorrow, an industry source confirmed. The deal will be worth at least $41.25 million, with a $1 million signing bonus, and salaries of $6 million in 2009, $9 million in 2010, and $12 million each in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

The Sox also hold an option for 2013 -- thought to be worth approximately $14 million -- with a buyout of $ 1.25 million.

It's a good signing. They buy out his arbitration years and his first year of free agency. As an older player, there's not reason to go beyond that. We'll be hearing Pedroia to Youkilis for a four more years at least.

A new blog keeps track of the actions of Scott Boras and his clients, Boras Blog. Stop by and say hi.

John Heyman made a comment during the MLB Network Hall of Fame show that cut both ways for me. Rich Lederer, long time advocate for Bert Blyleven's Hall of Fame induction transcribes Heyman's remarks:

"I never thought [Bert Blyleven] was a Hall of Famer when he was playing, and I saw him play his entire career."

"[His popularity] is based on a lot of younger people on the Internet who never saw him play."

"It's not about stats...it's about impact."

- Jon Heyman on MLB Network, 1/12/09

Patrick Sullivan, another writer at Baseball Analysts, looks into poor award voting and its effects on Hall of Fame ballotting. Bert didn't do well in the Cy Young voting, and that's held against him as well.

The question for me is, why is there such a huge difference between the stats and the perception? This query is especially important to me, because to a certain extent I sympathize with Heyman on this one. Unlike Heyman, I can be convinced otherwise.

The Minnesota factor doesn't ring true to me. Yes, it was a small market, but growing up during the 1970s I was well aware of players like Tony Oliva and Rod Carew, both who more than got their due winning batting titles. With 12 teams in the AL at the time, the Twins would play the big markets in the east four times during the season, giving someone like Blyleven the possibility of three or four starts. Sports writers in the east saw him pitch more than enough. They just weren't impressed with what they saw.

The biggest reason stems from the disconnect between Blyleven's ERA and his winning percentage. Were his stats deceiving? Was there something about the distribution of his runs allowed that is fooling the "younger people on the Internet who never saw him play?"

I decided to look at games scores in a probabilistic fashion. Given a particular game score, or range of game scores, what is the probability of winning that start? The probability of losing that start? If Blyleven's expected wins and losses are in line with his actual wins and losses, then the people unimpressed when they saw him play have a point. If his game scores indicate Bert should have won a lot more, or lost a lot less, then his Hall candidacy looks much better. I took all games in the Day by Day Database, currently from 1957 through 2008, and built the following model, using Game Score divided by 10 to smooth things out.

GameScore/10	GS	W	L	WPct	LPct
11	7	3	0	0.429	0.000
10	33	16	3	0.485	0.091
9	894	794	16	0.888	0.018
8	8383	7637	192	0.911	0.023
7	21795	16957	1898	0.778	0.087
6	36189	20852	6748	0.576	0.186
5	43254	16691	12548	0.386	0.290
4	37996	8322	16215	0.219	0.427
3	31137	2399	18185	0.077	0.584
2	19781	380	14386	0.019	0.727
1	5943	25	5016	0.004	0.844
0	1045	0	952	0.000	0.911
-1	13	0	12	0.000	0.923
-2	1	0	1	0.000	1.000

The two percentages are per start, not per decision. Now this is not a perfect model. It should probably be adjusted for era, but with over 50 years of data, I suspect those things even out. With this data, we can take each individual start, add up the probabilities for each game score, and get expected wins and expected losses. I did this for every pitcher who collected 200 starts between 1957 and 2008. I also calculated the ratio 100.0*Wins/PredWins and 100.0*Losses/PredLosses. A value over 100 for wins indicates the pitcher won more game than expected. A value over 100 for losses indicates the pitcher lost more game than expected.

Note that at very high game scores, pitchers don't win that often. That seems counter intuitive until you realize that really high game scores often happen in extra-inning games. Once the scores get into the 80s, there's a nice downward progression of winning percentage, and a nice upward progression of losing percentage. A score of 50 is neutral, and you can see that above 50, pitchers win more often than they lose, and below 50 pitchers lose more often than they win.

Three hundred fifty five pitchers qualified, and here they are the top 20 ranked by Win Ratio. For the full list, click here.

Pitcher	GS	W	L	PredWin	PredLoss	WRatio	LRatio
Mark Mulder	203	103	60	75.9	75.1	135.75	79.85
Andy Pettitte	426	214	126	159.7	152.2	133.96	82.79
Darren Oliver	228	82	77	62.7	99.7	130.84	77.26
Bill Lee	225	97	79	74.6	86.5	130.05	91.31
Aaron Sele	352	144	109	111.7	141.3	128.90	77.11
Ramon Ortiz	210	81	78	63.4	87.3	127.75	89.38
Charles Nagy	297	128	102	101.0	114.9	126.73	88.73
Kenny Rogers	474	198	134	156.6	184.2	126.43	72.76
Russ Ortiz	253	109	82	86.8	96.5	125.56	85.01
Bartolo Colon	313	149	97	118.9	110.7	125.29	87.60
Kirk Rueter	336	129	92	103.5	136.1	124.60	67.60
Scott McGregor	309	136	104	109.2	116.3	124.54	89.41
Jon Garland	255	104	88	83.6	101.3	124.47	86.90
Paul Byrd	250	101	89	82.1	98.9	123.09	90.02
James Baldwin	202	79	69	64.2	82.7	123.09	83.48
David Wells	489	221	144	180.0	177.8	122.77	81.01
Scott Erickson	364	142	136	117.2	149.3	121.20	91.10
Warren Spahn	296	156	102	128.9	93.1	121.07	109.56
Lew Burdette	251	112	87	92.5	94.0	121.06	92.51
Pat Hentgen	306	126	110	105.0	115.7	120.00	95.06

Blyleven ranked 309th in Win Ratio, 92.46. He started 685 games, and compiled a record of 286-248 in those games. His expected won-loss record was 309-205. The loss number is somewhat more interesting. Not only did Blyleven fall short on wins, but his ability to go deep in games while his team didn't score saddled him with an extra 43 losses, a Loss Ratio of 121.03. If he puts up those 286 wins with 220 losses, my guess is that he would have been in the Hall a long time ago.

The person just ahead of Bert in Win Ratio is Don Sutton. Don compiled a 321--253 record in his starts, when he should have been 347-224. By reaching the magic 300 level, Don made the Hall, but there were quite a few people who felt the same way about Sutton that they did about Bert.

Of course, next to Nolan Ryan, Bert can't complain too much. Ryan ranked 348 out of 355, and his predicted record was 384-209! (He compiled a 318-291 record in his starts.) That's a Win Ratio of 82.91 and a Loss Ratio of 138.97. The only person in the study with a worse Loss Ratio than Ryan was Bob Gibson at 139.71. My guess is if we adjust for era and parks, Gibson's prediction might be more in line with his record.

Of the 300 game winners in the study, only one pitcher is shown as being undeserving, Tom Glavine. His record of 305-203 in starts should have been closer to 267-232. Glavine will go down as the anti-Blyleven, someone good but not great who makes the Hall because he played on very good teams during his career.

In conclusion, it's fairly obvious that Blyleven pitched well enough to win 300 games, and other factors not only kept his win total low, but greatly inflated his loss total. Seen in this light, there's no doubt Bert should get the Hall call.

Update: See an interesting graph based on the data here.

My sympathies go out to the crew of Bronx Banter who lost Todd Drew at way too young an age:

It is with a heavy heart that I pass along the news that our colleague and friend Todd Drew passed away last night. According to his wife, "Todd lost the last game of the season in the bottom of the 9th inning just after midnight. His dear friend Michael and I were with him and he went very peacefully. While we were sharing the ipod listening to Regina Carter (jazz violinist), he opened his eyes for just a moment."

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Dave Sheinin reports that a deal between the Athletics and Nationals is close. Nick Johnson would be going to the A's:

It is unclear what players the A's would be willing to give up for Johnson, but the Nationals have shown previous interest in 23-year-old first baseman Daric Barton, and a deal centering upon Johnson and Barton would make sense for both sides.

The Nationals, who made a failed run at free agent Mark Teixeira this winter, are searching for a young first baseman with upside, and Barton, a former A's top prospect who is under club control until 2013, fits the bill. He hit .226/.327/.348 (batting average/on-base/slugging) with nine homers and 47 RBI in 523 plate appearances last year, but was a .299/.410/.456 hitter as a minor-leaguer.

While I love Nick Johnson, he takes forever to heal after an injury. Maybe Oakland can invent an airbag uniform that inflates whenever there's a chance of a collision. :-) That said, a four man lineup of Johnson, Cust, Holliday and Giambi should generate a bit of offense for Oakland.

The Dodgers are expected to release Andruw Jones today. That means we might see action in the Manny Ramirez market. I wonder how much Adam Dunn is being held up by the Jones situation. Manny's is unlikely to sign before he sees how much the Dodgers are willing to offer. Any other team interested in Ramirez might have Dunn as a backup plan, or possibly Abreu. Once the Dodgers offer becomes clear, will the Giants try to counter? We might have a very interesting upcoming weekend.

Former pitcher Frank Williams died. I had him on my Strat-o-Matic teams at some point. He had a great three-year stretch, throwing 105 2/3 innings, all in relief in 1987 (the Reds were wearing out relievers in those days). His end at age 50 was not a good one:

The Times Colonist reported that Mr. Williams had lost all the money he made playing baseball (his salary peaked at $442,500) and ended up an alcoholic living on the street and in shelters. He died after having a heart attack.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

The dimensions of Citi Field seem to indicate it will suppress home runs, but Will Leitch talked to the players:

The obvious target seemed to be Derek Lowe, a big-game, big-city pitcher whose deadening ground-ball presence might be especially needed at the new Citi Field, which Mets players who have tried out the stadium say is a "launching pad." (Perhaps the most underreported story of the Mets off-season: That Citi is expected to be a homer-happy park.)

You never know how the shape of the stadium will effect things. However, there's good reason to believe it will not be a launching pad. Shea was never known as a home run haven, and this park is a bit bigger. Since they are built right next to each other, and on the water, both parks are at sea level. The orientation is slightly different, as seen in this photo. Citi also is somewhat more enclosed, so there might be less wind blowing in. My bet is that a few swings in the middle of winter can't describe the park. I'm betting on a tough field for home runs, but we'll see.

Hat tip, BBTF.

The Angels deny they're interested in trading for Jermaine Dye.

Goodbye, Riccardo.

New York Yankees Update offers a simplified look at the financing of Yankee Sadium, and comes down on the Yankees side.

B.J. Upton's continues his recovery from surgery on his left shoulder, but it looks like he won't be ready to play until sometime in April.

There's a rumor that the Padres will sign Omar Vizquel soon. He never seemed to lose his ability to field, so at least he'll plug a hole in the infield.

Hat tip, Gaslamp Ball.

The Orioles signing of Koji Uehara is already generating buzz:

Uehara, who passed his physical and finalized a two-year, $10 million, incentive-laden deal with the Orioles, has been followed closely by the Japanese media since landing in the United States on Sunday. There were 25 reporters who awaited his arrival at Washington Dulles International Airport and a handful of television crews that waited outside Camden Yards on Monday while the 33-year-old was taking his physical elsewhere.

The Orioles have gotten such a significant response for today's noon news conference that they moved it to a bigger room on another floor in the warehouse to accommodate the media.

The Orioles are going to use him as a starter, although two years ago he was moved to the bullpen. His innings were down in 2008 due to his participation in the Olympics. He's going to be the Orioles #2 starter, and if his control is anything like it was in Japan, he'll be the exact opposite of Daniel Cabrera. I just wonder if he's going to have the stamina to last the season given lack of work the last two years.

Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson present a funny top ten list on Letterman. Numbers 2 and 3 are the best.

Hat tip, BBTF.

Metsgrrl posts four alternative Citi Field logos submitted by one of her readers. They're better than the original, but they use traditional Mets logos in the middle circle. The feature that sets Citi Field apart is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. The logo the Mets designed tried to capture that, where the blue diamond represents the field and the orange rectangle the rotunda. A great logo would make the rotunda the centerpiece, the reason to visit the park. It's certainly the reason I'd like to drive to Queens this year.

Maury Brown interviews Ed Wyszumiala of NSF International, a company that certifies nutritional supplements for MLB.

Long time baseball man Preston Gomez has died:

Gomez, who worked in the sport as a scout, coach, manager and executive, was part of the Angels organization for the last 28 years. He most recently served as a special assistant to the general manager.

"His influence and impact on so many throughout the industry is impossible to measure," Angels general manager Tony Reagins said. "The Angels family has lost one of its invaluable members, and one of baseball's truly great ambassadors."

Gomez was born in Cuba, so I have a question. Was he the first Hispanic manager? According to his obituary, he was inducted into the Hispanic Baseball Heritage Museum's Hall of Fame. Does Preston not get the recognition because he was light skinned enough to play in the majors before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier?

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Jamey Newberg offers a thoughtful take on the Michael Young situation.

A couple of people pointed me to this article today about an investigation into the funding for the new Yankee Stadium. What? Corruption in a billion dollar New York construction project? Who would have thought it possible! Rodney Dangerfield explained it best:

Here's Randy Levine's explanation of the deal:

The New York Yankees, not the taxpayers, are paying for the construction and operation of the new stadium. All of the money to finance the construction of the stadium is from the Yankees. Those who keep repeating that the city is paying are either deliberately misrepresenting the facts or simply do not understand the financial mechanism that is available to build large scale projects.

The mechanism is: An entity controlled by the city issues bonds to build a new stadium. Those bonds are purchased by private investors, not taxpayers. The Yankees have a long-term lease with the city entity that owns the building. That city entity pays no taxes. The Yankees make a payment-in-lieu-of-real-estate taxes (called a PILOT) and this amount - and only this, and nothing from the government or the taxpayers - pays back the private bondholders. Since the city entity, not the Yankees, owns the stadium, this use of PILOTs does not cost the city anything. The city does not lose anything because city entities do not pay property taxes; the city does not collect property taxes now, and without this financing the Yankees would not have built a new stadium, and thus no taxes would have been received.

In addition, the city saves money because in the old building, the city was responsible for tens of millions of dollars in maintenance costs, an amount that grew as the stadium aged. In the new stadium, the Yankees have that obligation. Under the deal between the city and the Yankees, the city is receiving a building it does not have to pay to construct or maintain.

What the Yankees are getting from the city is a sweetheart financing deal. Corruption? No doubt, but what are they going to do, tear down the stadium? Make the bond holders pay taxes on their investments? The worst thing that will happen is some scape-goat goes to jail, and the deal continues as is. If people want this to stop, leave government out of the building process entirely.

Somehow I'm on a FoodNetwork mailing list, but I'd thought I'd pass this along anyway. They're looking for cooks from the Los Angeles area to grill along side Bobby Flay on Grill It. Here's the casting page, and they're looking for a three-minute video audition.

Peter Bernstein looks at the impact of opening day payroll on winning. The Athletics and Twins did the best over the last ten years, the Orioles and Tigers the worst. I do disagree with his take on the Yankees, however:

In the Yankees' case, despite their success and ability to get into position for title runs, they are in the bottom half of the league over the last 10 years in terms of wins per dollar spent. When they lock up Mark Teixeira at $180 million, a player whose stats are equal to or worse in many cases than Milton Bradley, who the Cubs just secured for a sixth of that total ... Well, you get the idea.

According to the chart, the Yankees are slightly negative in expected wins per salary. In other words, the Yankees got their money's worth. They weren't terribly efficient, but they didn't waste money either. The Twins and A's use young players effectively, but they're constantly rebuilding. The Orioles and Tigers didn't spend well on their stars. The Yankees get it just right; when they pay for a win, they get a win, no more, no less. Nothing wrong with that.

Bernie's Crew analyzes the Brewers starting pitching as it stands now. He comes away hopeful.

It seems the other 27 people who didn't vote for Rickey Henderson are staying in the closet.

It looks like Derek Lowe agreed to terms with the Braves on the four-year, $60 million contract. At least by trading Smoltz for Lowe, the Braves got younger.

Hat tip, Sabernomics.

Jose Valverde and the Houston Astros avoid arbitration with an $8 million contract.

Valverde, 30, who will be a free agent at the end of this season, led the National League in saves for a second year in a row with a club record-tying 44 in 2008. He was 6-3 with a 3.38 ERA in a career-high 74 appearances.

Jose provided a great example in 2008 of the danger of small sample sizes. He got off to a terrible start with Houston after coming over from the Diamondbacks. I remember being interviewed on a talk radio station in Houston, and the Astros fans wanted him gone. He turned his season around just fine, giving up just six home runs the rest of the way after allowing four in his first two weeks. Now he gets a nice payday for his efforts.

The Braves offer Derek Lowe four years, $60 million. I thought that's where he'd end up with the Mets, so now New York will need to top that if they're going to land the starter.

The makers of the supplement that caused J.C. Romero to test positive for PEDs says the product can cause false positives. That should boost sales!

Cyril Morong graphs power at the eight defensive positions over time by league. The most interesting result is that power is much more important at shortstop in the AL than the NL, and while the NL concentrates power in the corner outfield positions, in the AL the three positions are converging.

Bob Tufts sends me this story about US Marshals being used to transport Fox broadcasters to and from big events:

In an IG interview, the marshal who chauffeured Aikman and Buck at the Super Bowl recalled telling a colleague afterwards that he thought "the whole thing was silly" and "an inappropriate use of his time." Usually, federal marshals hunt fugitives, guard federal judges, courts, and protected witnesses, and transport prisoners.

I'm sure there are some people who would like to see Buck and McCarver in a witness protection program. :-)

Rickey Henderson makes the In the News Blog of the New Yorker magazine. There's a link there to David Grann's 2005 profile of Rickey done while the future Hall of Famer was playing independent baseball.

South Side Sox suggests a way to get a player without giving up a high draft pick. I think if that happened, the commissioner would step in and void the deal.

Mike Scioscia gets a ten-year extension from the Angels.

"It's a significant commitment from myself, (Angels owner) Arte Moreno and (general manager) Tony Reagins," Scioscia said Monday. "I think it reflects on their confidence that we're moving in the right direction and will continue to move in the right direction until we get back to the World Series and win a championship. That's our goal."

The Angels announced last Monday that the parties agreed in principle on a multiyear extension. Previously, Scioscia was under contract through next season with a club option for 2010 for about $2 million per season. Reagins would only say the extension "goes well beyond" 2010.

I'm all for long-term contracts in general, but a team's view of their manager can change quickly. Look what happened to Joe Torre in New York. Four years seems enough for any manager given the turn over. Still, Mike and that organization have been in sync for quite some time, and it's nice to see his success rewarded.

Sully Baseball suggests a way to get unanimous Hall of Fame votes and bring totals for Jay Bell down to zero:

And the only way writers will end this stupid habit is to have a wonderfully insane scenario happen that isn't 100% farfetched.

- Enough voters leave off a sure fire Hall of Famer to make sure they aren't unanimous that it takes them off the Ballot completely. (Mike and Mike brought this up on their show pondering how someone like Greg Maddux would be left off the ballot forever due to this stupid mindset.)

- Enough voters throw a sympathy vote to a non deserving entity that they get elected into the Hall of Fame.

This is the way Jesse Ventura ended up governor of Minnesota. An old Tank McNamara comic strip did something like this with the All-Star game, where lots of random fans decided to write in Marv Throneberry.

I don't have a problem with Jay Bell getting a couple of votes. Two writers liked Jay Bell enough to give him a vote. Big deal. I just don't understand the ones who leave players like Henderson off the ballot.

Lone Star Ball pens an excellent column on how the Rangers treated Michael Young differently than most of their players:

And from Young's standpoint, I have to think that part of the frustration is that he doesn't understand why now, all of the sudden, after everything that's gone on historically with this franchise, he's the one they draw the line in the sand with.

I'm sure he remembers when he first was coming up, and had to move from shortstop to second base because of the Alex Rodriguez signing. He remembers when Mark Teixeira came up, and had to DH because Rafael Palmeiro was here and wanted to be the first baseman. He remembers how the Rangers wooed Carlos Delgado, promising that if he'd sign with Texas, the organization would make Teixeira go back to DHing again. He remembers how Alfonso Soriano threw a fit over moving to shortstop, and how he defused the Soriano situation by volunteering instead. And how the organization went ahead and simply traded Soriano two years later, rather than force the situation by making him change positions. And how the organization seemingly decided that, since Jarrod Saltalamacchia didn't like playing first base, they weren't going to make him play first base anymore, but would just let him catch.

I'm sure he looks at this past season, and sees Milton Bradley, who played when he felt like it, didn't play when he didn't feel physically up to it, but refused to go on the d.l. and forced the team to play short-handed, sees a guy who was here only one season that the manager catered to. I'm sure he looks at Vicente Padilla, and sees a guy who couldn't be counted on to go take the mound every fifth day, whose neck was hurting or who had a twinge or who otherwise couldn't be counted on, but who again was catered to and not put on the d.l.

I'm sure he sees this organization as historically, during the time he's been here, bending over backwards to cater to and coddle players, particularly (but not always) veterans. And I'm sure he's now wondering why it is that, all of the sudden, they decide to take a hard-line position with him, the guy who has sacrificed and done all the right things and played hurt and played hard and done everything the team wanted.

A Jermaine Dye for Chone Figgins rumor surfaces at the Chicago Sun-Times.

According to a major-league scout, the Angels are the latest team to express interest in acquiring Jermaine Dye now that the Mark Teixeira ship has set sail to New York. Unlike the talks with the Reds that stalled during the Winter Meetings, the Sox and Angels actually have a fit.

The South Siders covet speed - with Williams telling the Sun-Times back in June that Figgins was "interesting.'' The Angels want a power bat to offer some protection for Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter.

The one problem is Los Angeles has a surplus of outfielders in Hunter, Guerrero, Gary Matthews and Juan Rivera, but could convert someone to first base, as well as platoon Guerrero and Matthews in the designated hitter spot.

Or maybe they can make it two for one with the White Sox taking Matthews off the Angels hands, with LAnaheim kicking in some money.

Alex Rodriguez is now dating Kate Hudson.

Ben's reaction: "Dammit. I want to date Kate Hudson." Mike's reaction: "You know, i never (thought) that she was all that hot." I'm definitely siding with Ben on this one.

I'm more in Mike's corner here. Kate and Gwyneth Paltrow are both pale comparisons to their mothers.

The Mets patch for their first year at Citi Field is not inspiring a lot of praise.

Peter Abraham quotes Willie Randolph on Rickey Henderson:

"Rickey and I have been friends for a long time, and I am ecstatic for him. I've been fortunate and blessed to have played with a great number of phenomenal baseball players but pound-for-pound, Rickey Henderson is the best player I've ever played beside. No one was able to impact the course of a game in as many ways as Rickey. This is a great day for him, and I can't wait to hear his acceptance speech."

Willie was also a great leadoff hitter. He knew how to work the count and his .373 career OBA was just what you wanted from the position. He pales in comparison to Henderson however, as Willie had no power, and while he was a successful base stealer, never really ran that often.

Congratulations to Rickey Henderson on his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rickey remains one of my favorite players of all time. One of the reason I liked Rickey so much is that people in the sports media didn't like him. That's clear from this vote, in which Henderson was left off 28 ballots. Rickey was a unique ballplayer. He was a leadoff man who could generate power. He stole bases often and successfully, losing little of his ability to swipe a bag as he aged. He balanced his hits and walks, so a bit in batting average had little effect on his OBA. He was a showman in the outfield with his one-handed snatches.

He did things reporters didn't like, however. He would always show up to camp on-time, but later than the club requested. He didn't appear to work hard, but one look at his body through the years and it's clear he held off aging by a tough workout regimen. He was loved by his teammates, ones who were considered class acts like Gwynn and Mattingly. There was absolutely no reason to leave Henderson off a ballot, and anyone who did should be ashamed of themselves.

By the way, I have Rickey's rookie card:

Jim Rice also finds his way into the Hall of Fame in his last year of eligibility. When I was a teenager living in southern Connecticut, I was a big Yankees fan and therefore a big Red Sox hater. I disliked Fred Lynn because he turned everything into a circus catch, Carlton Fisk becuse he received more publicity than Thurman Munson (in hindsight, it was deserved) and Yaz because even the Red Sox fans booed him. Rice, however, I always respected. Boston would come into Yankee Stadium and hit like it was Fenway Park, going to left field to hit an imaginary wall, just to see the ball fall into the glove of Mickey Rivers. The stadium still had a death valley back then. Rice, however, would go the other way, hitting home runs to right center, an easier reach. He struck me as a smart hitter at that time.

I also found Rice a frustrating hitter at times. When I lived in Boston, I'd sit in the centerfield bleachers on weekends. Rice would wow us with scorching line drives up the middle and monster home runs, but he would also drive me nuts in the following situation. The pitcher would be wild, walking Boggs and Barrett on eight straight pitches. Rice would come up, and he had to be thinking, "This pitcher has to throw me a strike." He'd swing at the first pitch and ground into a double play. I really wanted him to let the pitcher fall behind in the count first, but Jim liked swinging early in that situation.

Like Rickey, Jim was not liked by the press. If he were, I believe we would have seen his election a long time ago. I'm on the fence about Rice. I'm happy to see him in the Hall, but I would not have been upset to see him left out. Congratulations to Jim Rice on finally getting the call!

Correction: Changed extremely unique to unique.

Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice get voted into the Hall of Fame. More in a little while.

Update: Wow. Rickey was no where near unanimous:

In the BBWAA election, 539 ballots, including two blanks, were cast by members with 10 or more consecutive years of service. Players must be named on 75 percent of ballots submitted to be elected. This year, 405 votes were required. Twenty-seven votes were needed to stay on the ballot.

Henderson was listed on 511 ballots (94.8 percent) to win election in his first year on the ballot. He becomes the 44th player to be elected by the BBWAA in his first year of eligibility.

I guess there are a lot of Corky's in the world.

Rice just make it by the skin of his teeth, getting 412 votes, seven more than needed for election.

Just when you thought there would be no more cutely named prediction systems, the men at Walk off Walk come up with the BONILLAs, Based On Nothing Interesting, Let's Look At Age. They group players by age and take an amusing look at the major players in those groups. Today they start with the 35 year olds.

Sean Casey, 1B: Often noted as the nicest guy in the game. So nice he refuses to make pitchers feel bad by hitting home runs. Hasn't hit more than 9 in a season since 2004. Unemployed at press time.

They do a good and entertaining job of summing up players in a nutshell.

Unlikely Words rounds up some great stories about Rickey Henderson.

Bill James' response to Rickey setting the single season stolen base record in 1982 was exactly what you would expect. Curmudgeonly grumbling about how the stolen base isn't an extremely effective offensive weapon and then plenty of statistics to back it up. The early Bill James byline was an exciting find, though. Though, in 2001, James made his feelings for Rickey's game clear, "Somebody asked me did I think Rickey Henderson was a Hall of Famer. I told them, 'If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers.'"

I remember that James story. Bill was pointing out that Rickey was thrown out a lot that season in an effort to break the record, and Bill was objecting to wasted outs in pursuit of a record. If you look at Rickey's career, his stolen base percentage goes way up after that season. In his first four years, Henderson posted a 75.95 stolen base percentage (which is very good). For the rest of his career, his stolen base percentage was 82.29. Sandy Alderson was reading Bill James at the time. I wonder if he showed the article to Rickey?

You can watch the Hall of Fame announcement on your computer at 2 PM EST at the Hall of Fame web site.

Update: It will also be on the MLB Network. The lead in is Game 2 of the 1989 ALCS in which Rickey Henderson stole four bases.

Michael Young asked the Rangers to trade him.

The Rangers would like to move Young to third to make room for highly touted prospect Elvis Andrus at shortstop. Andrus came to Texas in 2007 in the trade that sent Mark Teixeira (Mount St. Joseph) to the Atlanta Braves. Young, a career .300 hitter who has played nine seasons with Texas, earned his first American League Gold Glove award last season.

Young was okay at shortstop last year but didn't deserve the Gold Glove. A team picks him up for his offense at the position. Young is one of those players whose value lies mostly in his batting average. A career .300 hitter, his OBA is .346. If his batting average drops 20 points, he's suddenly below average at getting on base. He's lost some power the last two seasons also, so a team trading for him would be getting a shortstop on the downside of his career who is likely not to age well because he is too dependent on his batting average. (He did bring his walks up a little last season, so maybe he's adjusting.) In a trade, he's a short term fix.

He would help the Athletics, but I'm not sure Texas would trade in the division. The White Sox might be an option also.

Jeff Moorad's buy of the Padres doesn't look like a real buy to Shysterball.

So Moores is still going to call the shots and still be Selig's man in San Diego. I'm no expert, but from where I'm sitting, this is less a sale than it is a simple cash infusion for the Padres. I wonder if Moorad's bid would have been approved if he actually wanted to run the team now. I kind of doubt it, and all of this strikes me as Moorad being allowed to enter a kind of ownership training program in exchange for bailing out the cash poor Moores. As everyone knows, the impetus for the sale is Moores' divorce. In light of Moores selling but kinda not really selling, I wonder if the Mrs. Moores divorce attorneys won't try to blow up or at least slow down this deal so that they might determine if any financial shenanigans are involved.

I have to agree here. While I would think Mrs. Moores would be happy to get the cash equivalent, she may want to inflict as much pain on her husband as possible and get him out of the Padres altogether. The drama is not over.

BBTF posts the transcript of an XM interview with Kim Ng, assistant Dodgers general manager. She puts a very positive take on the Manny negotiations.

MetsGrrl finds a reason not to want Derek Lowe on the Mets. She also likes the way Omar Minaya is approaching negotiations:

Right now, waiting is the best thing to do, because the bottom is dropping out of the market, and if you think that's going to change soon, you're wrong. Being desperate is just going to waste money. What's your hurry? It's not like anyone else is walking around with the cartoon suitcase of money with dollar bills hanging out of it. And even if Derek Lowe wanted to sign with us for three sacks of baseballs and a box of Bazooka, I'd say no. We don't need that.

DRays Bay examines the reasons for Jason Barlett's defensive decline in 2008.

Joe Posnanski comes up with a new use for the Lineup Analysis tool.

*According to the Baseball Musings Lineup Analysis -- one of my favorite toys -- a whole team of 2008 Adam Dunns would average 6.67 runs per game -- so that's 1,080 runs per season.

A whole team of 2008 Willie Bloomquists, meanwhile, would average 4.177 runs per game -- 677 runs per season. So using the Musinator, Dunn is 400 or so runs better offensively than Bloomquist. That sounds about right to me. Of course, it's downright frightening to imagine how two Adam Dunns would turn the double play.

Not only is it an honor to appear in a Pozerisk, but I also get a new nickname, the Musinator. That joins Pintometer, the name they called me in the ESPN research department.

Paul Sullivan is working on a series in which he comes up with the all-time teams for all 30 franchises. He'll define two teams, however, the home grown and the acquired. Here's his entry for the Athletics.

Gaslamp Ball agrees that Sandy Alderson's tenure with the Padres will be short if Jeff Moorad buys the team:

There are too many people in charge in the Padres front office. If and when Moorad arrives, there will be at least one more person in charge. A business does not operate well that way. Empowering employees is one thing. Having 10 different bosses is Office Space.

That statement leads me to belief others will go along with Alderson. The DBacks just cut staff, and the Padres will likely follow suit.

The Atlanta Braves beat out the Baltimore Orioles for the services of Kenshin Kawakami:

Cox said he has watched Kawakami on film "and he looked very good. He was able to throw the ball right where he wanted to with three or four pitches."

Kawakami has great control. He walked just 1.9 batters in Japan. Compare that to Kei Igawa, who walked 2.9 and Daisuke Matsuzaka who walked 3.2 per 9. He doesn't strike out as many as those two did , but his 7.3 per nine is okay. We'll see which end of the spectrum he falls into.

Bleeding Blue and Teal looks for some positive things to say about pitching prospect Nathan Adcock. Unfortunately, he notices a similarity to an oft injured pitcher.

New York Newsday is running a Hall of Fame poll. Feel free to go vote and work against the New York bias of the readers.

The Braves are going after Derek Lowe, but won't offer a fourth year:

...in other words, now Scott Boras has cover to return to Omar Minaya and say, 'If you want Lowe, pony up $15 million per season, and four guaranteed years,' which, so far, the Mets have quietly been saying is not an option...i guess now we'll see...

I figured the Mets and Lowe would end up there. Now we wait to see.

Jack Curry sums up Rickey Henderson is this New York Times article:

The voice-mail message on Rickey Henderson's cellphone is unusually wordy and quirky. He says hello and pauses, presumably to confuse callers into thinking he has actually answered, that it is not a recording. After some silence, Henderson repeats the gag by saying, "How are you doing?" and pausing again.

By then, callers should realize that Henderson is not on the line. But that does not mean he is finished speaking. He offers more pleasantries, explains that he is unavailable, wishes callers a "wonderful day" and ends with "bye-bye for now."

The message takes 30 seconds, but it is fraught with excess. It is a message that befits the flamboyant Henderson, who is the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history. Even in retirement and even on voice mail, he is still trying to entertain. He is still trying to be Rickey.

Don Mattingly, Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor praise Rickey as well. I loved watching him play and can't wait to see him inducted. I used to sit in centerfield at Fenway Park, and Rickey was the only fielder I saw stretch between each pitch. He knew where he wanted to play, and just before the ball was delivered he went into a crouch, looking like he was ready to attack any ball hit to him. On television, viewers only saw the one-handed catch. Watching him live, you saw the intense preparation that went into each pitch. I hope the one vote we know he didn't get is the only one.

The Red Sox picked up another pitcher recovering from an injury, agreeing to a contract with Takashi Saito. YFSF sees this as a reflection of Boston's medical staff:

But I think one of the statements Theo is making with this signing and the others is that he has a lot of faith in the team's medical staff, which is one of the better ones in baseball per BP's Will Carroll. If there's a drawback to the recent flurry of depth signings Boston has made, I don't see it.

The other day I actually got in an argument with a friend over the Yankees and Red Sox moves this winter (we almost always agree on baseball). He liked Boston's moves more because, in his words, they were artful. The Yankees were just throwing money at their problems. I disagreed with the term artful.

There may be no drawback to Boston's signings, but have they really improved the team? Yes, they picked up Ramon Ramirez to help in the bullpen, but that's about it. If Josh Bard ends up the starter at catcher, there's a bit of an improvement there. This, however, isn't a much better team than last season, a year in which they didn't finish in first place nor make the World Series.

The moves they are making strike me as answering the question, "What can we do with the money we didn't spend on Teixeira?" They've decided to go for injured players, who may or may not pay off. Now, if one of them plays well during 2009, the investment in all four will be worth it. However, there's no guarantee that any of them will be decent.

Artful to me is improving the team through smart trades (Beckett, Schilling) or smart free agent signings (Ortiz). Just picking up a bevy of recovering pitchers doesn't do much for me. At this point, the Yankees have a much higher probability of being a better team. And while it's nice to see a team win without spending lots of money, they don't get extra wins for low spending.

Chone Smith makes the case for the Angels signing Adam Dunn:

The Angels have an opening at either DH, 1B, or LF, the easiest spots to hide a lumbering power hitter. Signing a bat would not even block Juan Rivera or Kendry Morales. Get a 1B, Kendry plays DH. Get a DH, Kendry plays first. If Vlad needs to DH, Kendry plays OF instead and the new slugger plays first. Get a LF, Rivera plays right and Vlad gets to DH. It's easy. Angels also have no lefty bat on the roster. Perfect opportunity to sign Dunn. What are they waiting for? Sign him now, and you don't have to give up anyone in a trade later.

The move makes sense, especially if you don't want to deal with Manny Ramirez. However, Dunn strikes out a lot, which somewhat goes against Mike Scioscia's offensive philosophy of putting the ball in play.

Team USA for the World Baseball Classic is shaping up to be young and good. The rotation of Peavy, Oswalt and Lackey is a 1-2-3 any team would love to trot out every five days.

The eleven voting members working at ESPN all voted for Rickey Henderson. If this group is representative, Jim Rice will get in and the vote will be very close on Bert Blyleven. Andre Dawson is rates highly as well. I still don't understand how someone votes for Dawson but not for his teammate Tim Raines.

Mark McGwire splits this group, getting five votes. We'll see if that's a trend across the voting. If McGwire rises to close to 50%, he might actually get elected in a few years.

Henry Schulman is getting into blogging. It's good to see a veteran newsman understand the concept. He continues to be the source on the Giants negotiations with Manny Ramirez:

So here is today's entry: I am told that Scott Boras is spreading word that the Giants are going to make a big push for Ramirez in the next day or two. The Giants' reaction to that was laughter on the other end of the phone line.

Henry also points out that waiting on Ramirez is the Giants best bet, since Manny's leverage goes down the closer they get to spring training.

There seems to be an epidemic of ADHD is major league baseball:

"This is incredible. This is quite spectacular. There seems to be an epidemic of ADD in major league baseball," said Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of the committee that determines the banned-substances list for the World Anti-Doping Agency.

He recommended an independent panel be established - WADA recommends at least three doctors - to review TUE requests in what he termed "a sport that grew up on greenies."

"I've been in private practice for a lot of years. I can count on one hand the number of individuals that have ADD," he said. "To say that (7.86 percent) of major league baseball players have attention deficit disorder is crying out of an explanation. It is to me as an internist so off the map of my own experience."

Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president of labor relations, said it would be a mistake to compare ADHD in baseball with statistics for the general population.'

"We are all male. We are far younger than the general population, and we have far better access to medical care than the general population," Manfred said.

I'm not a Gary Wadler fan, as he's a first class scold, but it looks like he's right here. Manfred's statement doesn't pass the smell test, unless, for some reason, there is some link between ADHD and playing baseball.

Long suffering Royals fan Rob Neyer comes down on the Royals for signing Willie Bloomquist to a two-year deal. Dayton Moore describes the .322 OBA hitter as "an on-base guy."

Really? He's a hustler and he hustles? Do you get double-secret extra credit for that? And this might be the first time that a player with a .322 career on-base percentage has been described as "an on-base guy." At least by a modern, (presumably) Web-equipped baseball man. Why not also describe Bloomquist as a "doubles guy"? After all, he did hit one double last year.

As a commenter here points out, the Royals have now committed $11.4 million in 2009 to Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Jacobs, Horacio Ramirez and Willie Bloomquist. For $11.4 million you can actually get a good player. But of course this is one of the things foolish organizations do: They complain that they can't afford good players after spending millions of dollars on not-good players.

I had hope for Dayton Moore, but this winter shows either he's not allowed to build the team the way he wants or that he's simply all talk. He's quickly moving into the Dave Littlefield school of GMs. I hope he doesn't do as much damage as Dave did in Pittsburgh.

Daniel Cabrera took out Melky Cabrera by hitting him with a pitch in a winter league game. It's not clear if this is good news or bad news for the Yankees. :-)

Dave Roberts, the pitcher from the 1970s, died of lung cancer. Roberts didn't strike out many batters in his career, but he was stingy with walks and home runs. Part of that might be attributable to pitching many years in San Diego and Houston, but in 1976 he allowed just 16 home runs in 252 innings for the Tigers.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Replacement Level Yankees Weblog is running simulations of 2009, and the Yankees are coming out seven games better than any other team in baseball. Also, the Indians, Tigers and Rockies all rebound nicely from their down 2008 seasons, and the AL West is bad but very competitive.

Bleeding Blue and Teal looks at the market for Orlando Hudson and believes the Mariners might be able to land him for a good price. I thought he would be a popular free agent. Maybe one club needs to show interest to get others involved.

Red Reporter plays off a Walt Jocketty quote to try to determine if the Red really will be better base runners in 2009. The Jocketty quote reminds me of the direction George Steinbrenner took when the Yankees sign Dave Collins away from the Reds:

The signing of Dave Collins in December 1981 epitomized the change in the Steinbrenner system. Changing Styles

With the Yankees having thrived forever on power, the owner decided the team should change to a running game. Collins was the speediest free agent available, and it didn't matter that the Yankees already had solid players at the positions he played.

The Red play in a home run hitters park. They are playing against their strength by going for speed.

R.J. Anderson at FanGraphs wonders if the Orioles will repeat with the worst rotation in baseball.

Corky Simpson admits he goofed leaving Rickey Henderson off the Hall of Fame ballot. In doing so, he gets in some digs against Rickey:

"If I had properly researched the situation, I would have voted for Rickey Henderson if for no other reason than he played for nine ball teams," he said. "Imagine that. He'll be the first Hall of Famer to have a bronze bust with nine caps stacked on his head.

He also told his editor he would vote for Rickey next year, as if Rickey weren't going to get in. This reminds me that Henderson wasn't very popular with the press. If his greatness wasn't so obvious, more would be leaving him off the ballot.

Bobby Tolan's son Robbie was shot by police at the end of 2008, for no good reason:

Tolan happens to be the son of a former major league baseball player, and is in the early stages of his own pro baseball career. The police department initially denied racial profiling played a role, but has now stopped talking about the case publicly, saying only that "they're investigating how the officers on the scene mistakenly determined that the SUV Tolan and his cousin were driving had been stolen."

Even if there had been an SUV reported stolen that night that looked like the one Tolan's cousin was driving, you first have to wonder why the cops wouldn't run the plates before ordering everyone out of the truck at gunpoint. And that's before you start looking at the shooting, and the confrontation with Tolan's mother.

If there wasn't an SUV reported stolen that resembled the one Tolan was in, this is going to get really, really ugly.

That goes along with this shooting of a handcuffed suspect in Oakland the same night. What is going on?

It appears the Brewers are seeing revenue growth despite the down economy:

The Brewers announced a presenting sponsorship agreement with Potawatomi Bingo Casino on Thursday, part of the team's expected double-digit percentage gain in sponsorship revenue. And despite the economy, other areas of the Brewers' business are looking up too.

"We are very sensitive to what's going on, and we're very careful in what we're looking at," said Rick Schlesinger, the Brewers' executive vice president for business operations. "But I will tell you that ticket sales, suite sales, sponsorship -- we're seeing growth in all areas."

Winning gets fans interested, and the advertisers want to capture those eyeballs. Maybe they could have offered Sabathia $25 million for five years and kept him. Then they'd have a better chance of keeping this winning way alive. I wonder if they'll try to resign Ben Sheets at this point?

Chipper Jones is a bit miffed at the Braves over John Smoltz leaving:

Q. Fans are questioning why the Braves didn't offer Smoltz more money when this is an offseason when the Braves have said they had money to spend. Do you agree?

A. For Smoltzy! That's what I don't understand. That's what's frustrating. I'm trying to be as diplomatic and as upbeat as I can possibly be and it is being made very hard on me to be that way. John Smoltz has been one of the faces of this franchise for 20 years. There's no reason for him at 41 years old to be playing anywhere but here.

Q. How was he when you talked to him last night?

A. He was upset, as well he should be. You can liken it to a breakup. This organization is all we have ever known. We all have these dreams of playing our last game in this uniform and it goes back to what I've said all along. Every dog has his day. And everybody's got that day that's coming when a shot of reality sets in. The business of baseball goes on, and no matter how loyal you are as a player, no matter how much you sacrificed as a player for a particular organization, there comes a time when that organization wants to go a different direction. And that time is now for Smoltzy, and I would imagine that my time is not too far off in the distant future.

Chipper has the realities of the game down.

The Brewers make a deal official with closer Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman's walks are still low and his strikeouts are still high. He should fill the role in Milwaukee just fine.

Boston officially signed John Smoltz and Rocco Baldelli today (Thursday). Rocco, a Rhode Island native should be very popular at Fenway. I was sort of hoping that Smoltz would retire to see if Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz would all go into the Hall of Fame together.

Sabernomics defends the Braves decision to apparently not sign John Smoltz:

The Braves supposedly had offered $2 million with incentives increasing the total to $7 million. I would not recommend that the Braves offer more than this. It's easy to forecast Smoltz being on the hill in October, but there's also a decent chance that he'll be sitting on a gold-plated butt cushion in the dugout.

I don't think Frank Wren deserves the heat that he is going to get for this. The Braves have paid Smoltz $130 million over his career. Smoltz wanted more, and I don't blame Wren for passing. Signing and not signing Smoltz both have risks, and I think he gambled on the right side.

I'm somewhat surprised in this down market that teams are willing to pay for injury risk. Pavano is getting over $1 million, and now the Red Sox are taking on Penny and Smoltz for about $5 million each. I guess without Teixeira, the Red Sox have a lot of money to throw around.

Tampa Bay Rays Fan wants David Price to become the ace of the team this year:

In the five regular season games that Price spent some time on the mound, he tossed 14 innings, struck out 12 en route to notching a 1.93 ERA. Not bad for a rookie, playing in the toughest division in all of baseball.

If you combine that with what he was able to do in the postseason, it is even more impressive.

Price appeared in five post season games, pitching 5.2 innings, striking out 8 and posting a 1.59 ERA. Price also picked up a win and a save during the Rays first post season run.

Be careful what you wish for. Red Sox and Yankees fans had similar hopes about Clay Buchholz and Phil Hughes after stellar short stints in 2007. Unfortunately, it's a long way from small sample size to major league star.

Nico at Athletics Nation wonders if the signing of Jason Giambi will lead to Oakland trading an outfielder for a shortstop.

Joey Matschulat uses the Lineup Analysis tool to get a handle on the Rangers 2009 lineup.

Ken Rosenthal reports Trevor Hoffman is likely to sign with Milwaukee.

Don't build homes equal to the contract of a superstar you're not trying very hard to sign.

Congratulations to Tom Tippett, the new Director, Baseball Information Services, for the Red Sox.

Bill Center starts a series on the Padres by position at first base. The title says it all, "At one position, at least - first base - the Padres organization is flush." Let's face it, that's not a position where a team wants to be deep in their organization. The Diamondbacks were busy making themselves deep at shortstop, and were able to turn one of those into an outfielder. If you have a log jam at shortstop, you can move the player to another position, or trade for some value. If a player is stuck behind a good first baseman, there isn't much room to maneuver. Sure, the Padres can trade one of them away, but it looks like there's not much of a market for first basemen right now. This is a surprising organizational mistake by a group of pretty smart baseball people.

Jason Giambi officially returns to the Athletics:

Giambi, who turns 38 on Thursday, follows a line of aging and injury-prone designated hitters in recent years with the A's -- Frank Thomas, Mike Piazza, Mike Sweeney and then Thomas again. Giambi also could play some first base to give Daric Barton a break from time to time.

Giambi doesn't like to DH, so I wonder how that will play with the A's management.

Henry Schulman notes the truth and baloney in what we're hearing about the Giants and Manny Ramirez. The Giants can sign Manny if they are willing to increase their budget is the bottom line.

Manny Acta doesn't seem to be too worried about his job security. I would suggest that because Manny is a good manager, if the Nationals fire him he'll land a plum job somewhere else. If I were in his position, I'd almost want the Nationals not to extend my contract.

It Is About the Money, Stupid presents a very detailed timeline and summary of the Sergio Mitre/J.C. Romero drug suspensions. What's most interesting is the conflict between Romero and the MLBPA:

Friends, that is the general counsel of the world's most powerful union effectively calling "bullsh*t" on one of its members. Do not take this lightly. Weiner is essentially calling Romero (and his claims) a liar. I cannot believe, for a second, that the senior attorney for the union would publish a comment like this without it being a bulletproof statement.

Hat tip, The Hardball Times.

Rickey Henderson's Hall of Fame vote won't be unanimous. Corky Simpson left him off the ballot, yet voted for Tim Raines. If Tim is a Hall of Famer, Henderson certainly deserves a vote. Home Run Derby takes Simpson down pretty hard, especially for not providing an explanation for leaving Rickey off the ballot. I have a feeling Mr. Simpson is going to get a lot of requests for interviews out of this.

The J.C. Romero case shows why I liked the original system of punishing players for using PEDs. The first time caught was a private reprimand.

My feeling is that, if Romero did in fact break the rules, he deserves to be punished. Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. feels the same way, as his recent statement seemingly backed major league baseball as opposed to his own supposedly wronged player. Ouch. This case, however, features some extenuating circumstances, as Romero did buy the product prior to its banning.

And, on top of that, while newer bottles display a warning that the supplement may cause positive drug tests, the bottle presented by J.C. in his hearing did not. It really feels like he is getting jobbed here, or made an example of. Perhaps he should never have bought the supplement, but if it was legal at the time of the purchase, and the purchase date can be proven, 50-games seems very excessive. Then again, the MLBPA did issue a revised list that apparently did show OXO-6 as banned.

I'm a bit torn here. This seems like an excessive punishment given the case presented by Romero, but it really seems like he could have exercised a bit more caution. Then again, he did speak to several different sources that cleared the supplement as safe. Either the Phillies training staff needs to be re-evaluated or Romero is receiving unfair treatment. After all, he spoke with just about everyone on his team whose job is to ensure this does not happen, and yet it did happen.

Under the original set of penalties, we wouldn't even know about it, and the issue would be properly taken care of. Romero would know if he used something like this again, he would be suspended, and he would be a lot more careful about the supplements he purchased. The original system gave the players a chance to make a mistake and not have their names dragged through the mud. It was fair. Too many people wanted heads to roll, however, and now the Phillies are without a good reliever for 50 games.

AOL is buying up sports reporters like the Yankees are buying free agents. They add Lisa Olson to the list, and she gets the scoop on the Yankees version of Thanksgiving with the Schillings:

Then there was Boston, forever a Yankee thorn. The Red Sox drafted Teixeira out of high school, but his father John reportedly became irked at a Boston scout and urged his son to instead attend college. Now the Red Sox were again heavy on the scene; Cashman figured he might as well play along.

So he did a bit of research, discovered Teixeira had a fondness for Twisted Sister, the iron men of '80s rock. Sometimes it really is this simple, this high-stakes recruiting game. Sure, it helped that the Yankees eventually offered $180 million over eight years, but what really wowed Teixeira was the super cool video Cashman revealed when he came to visit in the middle of December.

Shot in the new stadium, with digitalized images of what Teixeira might look like as he ran out of the dugout and onto the grass, the crowd at a froth, the New York skyline in the distance, the sound track blared "I Wanna Rock." Cashman pressed play.

"Hey, that's my song!" Cashman recalled Teixeira saying as he and I walked through the old stadium hallways. "I was like, yeah, we know that."

And at that point, with Twisted Sister on blast, Leigh, Teixeira's college sweetheart who is now his wife, said, "I want you to be a Yankee."

I'd love to see that video, but for now, this one.

Neidermeyer, dead.

It seems most of the country think the Yankees are going to win the AL East this year.

Braves Blogger Mac Thomason is fighting cancer. Stop by and wish him well.

Nationals Journal posts some comments from Mark Teixeira related to his negotiations with Washington:

Teixeira on Nats: "With Ted Lerner and his family -- man, what an impressive guy. That guy is a very successful businessman and he's trying to make the Nationals a successful team. The Nationals and Orioles were definitely up there -- a chance to play close to home. But my goals as a ballplayer, to be a world champion, the Yankees were just so far above and beyond everyone else in that realm."

Jason Giambi reached an agreement with the Oakland Athletics:

Jason Giambi has agreed to a one-year deal with the Athletics worth $4.5 million. Oakland has a team option for 2010 at $5 million with a $1 million buyout. The deal is pending a physical that will take place tomorrow.

Giambi did not receive much interest in the free-agent market. The A's and Rays were the two teams considering signing the 37-year-old. But Tampa Bay signed ex-Phillie Pat Burrell yesterday to a two-year, $16 million contract. So Giambi's decision to return to Oakland was not a difficult one.

Giambi is still a good hitter, his main problem is staying healthy. At seasonal age 38, those concerns are multiplied enough that Jason is taking a huge pay cut to keep playing. Except for the stars the Yankees hired, this has proved to be a very poor year to be a free agent.

The Cleveland Indians sign Carl Pavano to a one-year contract:

Financial terms were not disclosed. Sources told ESPN.com that the deal was worth $1.5 million plus incentives. Pavano can earn an additional $5.3 million based on starts and innings pitched.

"Carl was very impressed with everything when he visited Cleveland,'' agent Tom O'Connell said. "He's excited to be there and he feels like this is a tremendous opportunity.''

Pavano, 32, is looking to rehabilitate his career after suffering numerous injuries in four seasons with the Yankees. He posted a 9-8 record in 26 starts after signing a four-year, $39.95 million contract with New York in December 2004.

I'm surprised the Indians were willing to guarantee that much money given Carl's recent history. It's Pavano's rehabilitation deal. If he pitches well, he can cash in on the free agent market next season. If not, at least he gave it a try.

If Pavano pitches great and Sabathia ends up injured for most of the season, I suspect a lot of Yankees fans will be sore from banging their heads against a wall. :-)

Hat tip, Lone Star Ball.

Kat O'Brien attended Mark Teixeira's news conference and liked what she saw:

Mark's extremely well-spoken. I knew that from Texas, but seeing it at a big press conference is reassuring that he can continue that in a larger media market. He's not going to embarrass anybody. Brought much of his family, including wife Leigh, parents John and Margie, and sister Liz and her husband (who live in Hoboken). I think it's going to be a good fit. Mark wanted to be here, is an excellent offensive player and a superb defensive player, a positive force in the clubhouse and will turn 29 in April. As for how he comes across to the media and through the media to the fans, I'd say it's some combination of Derek Jeter, David Wright and Andy Pettitte. Not controversial, available to talk, rational and articulate thoughts, and very clean-cut.

Tampa Bay Rays Fan is a new blog about the Rays. Stop by and say hi.

We've Got Heart continues their series on Women in Baseball with a profile of Tatiana Tchamouroff, massage therapist for the Washington Nationals. The players love her work:

Tatiana arrived to meet us a few minutes after the game started, just after her baseball duties were completed for the evening. Her twelve hour days start at 8:00 am in her Bethesda office, where she sees clients until noon before heading to the park. The players fight for spots on her schedule, especially after long road trips. They will bargain with each other for those open slots; others will just schedule a morning appointment at Tatiana's Bethesda practice. "It's pretty funny the arguments that take place outside the door with guys trying to get on the list. I mean, I do everything I can to see everybody." They are fighting to see her because she's one of the best.

She was widely credited for relieving Dmitri Young's debilitating back pain in the early part of the '08 season. She was an integral part of Cal Ripken Jr.'s rehab team, and the trusted personal massage therapist to Brady Anderson. Despite having dozens of professional athlete clients, it wasn't until 2008 that Tatiana had her first real opportunity to work for a professional team, something she's been dreaming about for a long time.

She's led a very interesting life in addition to her work with athletes.

Sergio Mitre and J.C. Romero each were handed 50-day suspensions for a positive drug test. Mitre is upset:

Romero earned two wins in Philadelphia's World Series victory over Tampa Bay last season. He has called the penalty unfair, ESPN.com reported Monday night. He contends the supplement he took during the season was legal because he bought it over the counter at a nutrition store in the United States. An arbitrator decided against Romero in November.

Mitre is with the New York Yankees' Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Triple A team.
The arbitrator ruled Romero was guilty of negligence. The penalty will cost the left-hander $1.25 million in salary, ESPN.com said.

"I still cannot see where I did something wrong,'' Romero told the Web site. "There is nothing that should take away from the rings of my teammates. I didn't cheat. I tried to follow the rules.''

I wonder if other players took this supplement? If so, why is he the only one testing positive. It was my understanding that players knew OTC supplements are risky.

Mike Scioscia received a long term contract extension from the Angels. He'll be under contract through 2014. No word if there is a no-squeeze clause in the document. :-)

This is a good move by the Angels. I like teams that reward success, and Mike certainly helped turn LAnaheim into perennial contenders. He gets the most out of his pitchers, and "put the ball in play" philosophy on offense works for this group of players.

Nico at Athletics Nation wonders if Oakland signs Giambi if they'll use a shift of infielders to make up for Jason's lack of range. Chase Utley appeared to shade toward first base to help out Ryan Howard this year, so it just might work.

Chris Jaffe predicts Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice make the Hall of Fame.

South Side Sox looks at how and why Ozzie Guillen developed a fast hook for his starting pitchers in 2008.

Carl Pohlad died today, Monday:

When Pohlad paid Calvin Griffith $38 million for the Twins in 1984, he was widely credited for saving baseball in Minnesota. With the purchase, he inherited a promising group of young players including Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek and future Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett.

"I live and die by every pitch," Pohlad once told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "I want so badly for them to win. ... If it isn't competitive and you don't have a team with character, it won't be any fun."

Minnesota won World Series championships in 1987 and 1991, triumphing in tense seven-game showdowns against the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves. Fans filled the Metrodome, waving Homer Hankies, but the ballpark, built inexpensively to open in 1982, quickly became shunned by many for its stuffy, artificial atmosphere.

Revenue streams were also limited, which hurt the Twins' ability to keep up with bigger-spending teams in bigger media markets.

Pohlad never went out of his way to help the team with his own money, however. Injections of cash could have helped keep some stars in town. Having paid $38 million for the team, Forbes valued the Twins at $328 million last year. Pohlad could have used some of that equity to keep Santana around, for example, rather than just the yearly revenue the Twins produced.

Still, Carl does get credit for hiring good baseball people who brought two World Championships to the Twin Cities and have kept the team highly competitive in this decade.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Beyond the Boxscore examines a very good year for the Verducci effect and looks at which pitchers may experience the decline in 2009. Tim Lincecum and Cole Hamels are the biggest names on the list.

If Lincecum comes through 2009 unscatched, I wonder if youngsters will start imitating his mechanics? If he can pitch that much without injury, it's work a go.

There are reports that Milton Bradley is close to a three-year, $30 million deal with the Cubs. Bradley, in a short season in 2008 was a legitimate MVP candidate, posting a .436 OBA and a .563 slugging percentage. For his career, he's not quite as good a hitter as Pat Burrell, but he can still play the outfield. Since Jim Edmonds was unlikely to repeat his 2008 batting stats, the Cubs now have a very solid outfield with Soriano, Bradley and Fukudome for frankly a very good price. It looks like teams are starting to grab the bargains.

Hat tip to River Ave. Blues, who makes the case the Yankees were right not to offer arbitration to Abreu, because if he accepted he would have been overpaid.

Thinks keep getting worse for Andruw Jones as he's asked to leave winter ball. Hat tip, Sabernomics, who thinks Andruw may have something left.

Fox reports Pat Burrell agreed to a two-year contract with the Tampa Bay Rays:

The Rays, filling their need for a power hitter, are close to signing free-agent Pat Burrell to a two-year, $16 million contract, according to major-league sources.

Burrell, 32, will serve as the team's designated hitter. The Rays, nearing their payroll limit, could use some combination of Ben Zobrist, Gabe Gross and Fernando Perez in right field.

It's a great signing for the Rays. Burrell is taking a pay cut here (his former deal was six years, $50 million), yet his OPS+ was consistently in the 120s for the last four years. He brings another great on-base average to the Rays, who keep moving away from the hacker model they used for so many years. Pat's big draw back in Philly was his defense, and that won't be a problem at designated hitter. I'm very surprised they got him for so little money, if indeed that number is correct. That's not good news for Abreu, Dunn and Manny Ramirez.

Hat tip, BallHype.

Players with three years of service can file for arbitration starting today. The Phillies have quite a few who are likely to get big raises this season:

Players can file for arbitration starting today, and seven Phillies are eligible to make more in 2009 through this process (Eric Bruntlett and Clay Condrey have already agreed to extensions). The heavy seven are Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Ryan Madson, Greg Dobbs, Joe Blanton and Chad Durbin. And each of the seven can write his case on why he deserves the money he seeks.

Luckily, the Phillies are now a successful team, putting plenty of fans in the ballpark. Now's the time to control their costs by buying out arbitration and a year of free agency as much as they can.

Tyler Kepner puts together a pretty good team from the remaining free agents:

The number of prominent unsigned free agents is staggering. You could make an impressive team from the list: Jason Giambi (1B), Orlando Hudson (2B), Orlando Cabrera (SS), Joe Crede (3B), Manny Ramírez (LF), Ken Griffey Jr. (CF), Bobby Abreu (RF), Jason Varitek (C), with names like Garret Anderson, Rocco Baldelli, Pat Burrell and Adam Dunn left over. And the free-agent rotation would be at least six strong: Derek Lowe, Oliver Perez, Jon Garland, Andy Pettitte, Braden Looper and Randy Wolf, with Juan Cruz and Brandon Lyon in the bullpen. This could be the busiest January in years as frustrated agents deal with the economic downturn.

I'm not sure that's a playoff team, but it would finish over .500. The infield defense would be okay, but lots of balls would drop in the outfield.

ShysterBall comments on the law firm used by Major League Baseball:

That aside, this reads like a sales brochure for Foley. Or for any other large firm, really. My experience working for such places tells me, however, that whenever lawyers talk to you about how they'll "think proactively" for you and serve as "facilitators" it really means that they'll continue billing you at a healthy clip when there aren't any deals on the table and there isn't much pending litigation. Personally speaking? I'd rather hire smart salaried people in-house to, in Braza's words, "think about the next thing I have coming down the road" and have my expensive, outside, hourly lawyers on stand-by for bigger problems.

It's always a buyer's market for legal services as long as you at least try to approach it as such. The days where you can just hire the biggest firm in town and delegate all of your thinking to them like Major League Baseball seems to have done with Foley is a thing of the past.

Update: He also catches Selig using a Yogi Berra quote that doesn't appear to have come from Yogi.

Update: It appears they found the quote!

Testing phone.

The Evil Jon Weisman ruins his daughter's near perfect Chutes and Ladders game. At least she kicked his butt in Candyland. :-)

Tom Tango will be consulting for the Mariners this year. Excellent news for Seattle fans. Congratulations to Tom!

Tom Krasovic cites evidence that Jeff Moorad will be more likely to spend money on drafted players to bring young talent to the Padres than the current ownership.

Tim Wakefield seems to have disappeared.

Derek Lowe is looking for four years, $16 million a year. So that's closer to the Mets offer than the 5 years, $18 million being talked about before. My guess is the Mets come back with $14 million a year for three years. Of course, other bidders might come in at that level as well.

If you are a member of Facebook, the group Seamheads is holding a vote on the Hall of Fame. Join the group, then click on this link to go to the voting thread.

Matthew Carruth notes the Phillies are getting good value out of Ryan Howard, but also thinks a long-term deal is a bad idea:

This is not to say that a long-term contract for Howard would be a good idea; the Phillies have an incredible opportunity thanks to Howard's advanced age at premier to squeeze most, if not all, of his fruitful years out while under team control and then let him become some poorly-run team's mistake during his mid 30s. This is, however, to provide yet another illustration of just how valuable getting team-controlled players is.

I think there is an impression that Howard is a young player because he hasn't been on the scene that long. He's the same age as Albert Pujols, however. Albert came up three years earlier than Howard, and played another full season before Howard won the Rookie of the Year. For Albert, a long term contract was a no-brainer, because he would have become a free agent in his prime. That's not the case for Ryan. A four-year deal last season would have been fine for the Phillies first baseman, but now the Phillies are just fine playing out the arbitration game.

It appears the Dodgers will pay Andruw Jones all the money he is owed, just over a longer period of time.

The agreement will allow Jones a fresh start elsewhere after a nightmare of a first season and provide the Dodgers with additional payroll flexibility that could be used to re-sign free-agent outfielder Manny Ramirez.

The Major League Baseball Players Association approved the unusual agreement because Jones will receive his entire salary, as well as the possible benefit of free agency should he be released.

So what team is going to take a chance on Jones? I would not pay him much, as the Dodgers are being more than generous.

Here's more on Jeff Moorad buying the Padres:

Fifteen years after Texan software mogul John Moores bought the Padres, Moores and his wife Becky have reached "an agreement in principle" to sell the club to a group led by Jeff Moorad, an Orange County resident with wide-ranging experiences in the baseball business.

Moorad was the general partner of the rival Arizona Diamondbacks the past 4 1/2 years and for 20 years prior was a powerful agent to baseball stars such as Manny Ramirez and Mo Vaughn.

If the sale of the Padres goes through, the price will exceed $400 million, according to a major-league source. Moores put up about $80 million to buy the Padres in December 1994.

"It's a jewel of a franchise," Moorad said.

I like the people Moorad hired to rebuild the Diamondbacks, and the way they went about it. With some luck and a weak division they were able to become competitive faster than I thought. The Padres are at a similar point. Moorad already has a smart group of people running the team, so maybe he can accomplish the same thing in San Diego.

Jeff Morad resigned as CEO of the Diamondbacks:

"Jeff was an integral part of the D-Backs' many achievements on and off of the field since joining the organization in 2004. However, it was necessary for him to tender his resignation with the organization as he pursues the acquisition of the San Diego Padres."

Morad started as an agent. That's a pretty interesting career, seeing the game from both sides of the negotiating table.

Update: Gaslamp Ball says the sale is done.

Joe Posnanski takes an in-depth look at the players on the Hall of Fame ballot. He also posts an all-time team by lineup position. Ruth should bat third and Gehrig fourth, however.

As time passes, I find Hall of Fame arguments less interesting. Maybe the Hall should be dynamic. At any given moment, the Hall of Fame contains the 100 greatest players ever. So every year, voters (and you can expand the number of voters) rank their top 100 players. It would consist of the current Hall of Famers, the players appearing on 5% of the previous ballots, and the new players as done today. So Rickey Henderson comes into the picture, who obviously belongs in the top 100, and someone leaves the Hall. This allows for mistakes to be corrected. It might not be very nice, and I suppose you can recognize these temporary Hall of Famers in some way.

The Hall can then allow for growth. Players appearing in the top ten for ten consecutive years become permanently enshrined. They come off the ballot, and room is made for that many new players. In a way, this would create a tiered Hall of Fame, which others have recommended in the past. Any comments?

Chone Smith projects how Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa might do in 2009 if teams actually pick up their contracts.

Dave Cameron explains how they arrive at dollar values for Win Values.

Joe Mauer underwent minor kidney surgery to relieve an obstruction.

Smith stressed that Mauer's situation, " is not serious," and is expected to be ready to go when Twins pitchers and catchers report for duty on Feb. 14. Mauer had the surgery on Dec. 22.

"It's something he's had since he was a kid," Smith said. "It is something that has bothered him more lately. Everything went fine and he will be ready for the season."

I wonder if all the squatting at catcher made the problem worse?

The LA Times reports that the Dodgers are working on a deal to unload Andruw Jones, possibly by buying out his contract. I don't see how that is possible. A player's contract is guaranteed, so the Dodgers owe him what the contract says. Remember how the union nixed the A-Rod to Boston deal because Alex would make less money than guaranteed? They won't let this happen to Andruw, either.

Don Larsen said something very interesting last night. When he completed his perfect game, he didn't realize it was that special. He knew he threw a no-hitter, he knew he retired every batter, but he didn't know about the concept of a perfect game. There were only five perfect games in Major League history before Larsen's, and none since 1922. Vin Scully, obviously knew, as he had the 1922 Charlie Robertson game as soon as Larsen was walking off the field. I wonder, however, if Larsen's feat propelled the idea of a perfect game as something extra special into the public consciousness? Do any historians care to comment?

SportingNews.com interviews Chipper Jones. He criticizes both the Mets and Phillies for their trash talk:

We won for 14 consecutive years, and you never, ever saw any bulletin board material. And now that these two teams are on top of the division, they can't keep their mouths shut. Just go play baseball. It's Cole Hamels now. It was Jimmy Rollins and Carlos Beltran the past couple of springs. These two teams are constantly going at each other verbally. You know, win with class, lose with class. Just keep your mouth shut and go play your game.

For 14 years, Atlanta was the most boring champion around. When I was at the World Series in 1999, the Yankees fans at Turner Field, greatly outnumbered, still managed to be louder than the Braves fans. Let the Mets and Phillies talk trash, and let them go down to the wire every year. Fans love this.

Henry Schulman knocks down the rumor about the Giants pursuing Manny Ramirez. I looked at how Manny would help the Giants in my latest SportingNews.com column.

Nick and Nick are running out of patience with Twins general manager Bill Smith:

I've gone out of my way to go easy on Bill Smith, but even I'm starting to lose patience. As bad as his trades and free agent signings from last winter are looking, and as stunning as his inability to upgrade the bullpen over the course of the 2008 season was, and now as pathetic as his display on the DeRosa bidding war (if we can even call it that -- it certainly doesn't seem like the Twins made much of an effort here) has been, Smith is running out of slack.

Coming within a game of making the playoffs earns a GM slack, especially after trading away the best pitcher in baseball. The team could use another big bat in the lineup, and there are a few of those still available via free agency.

I'm enjoying the broadcast so far. The kinescope distorts the image of Yankee Stadium, making it look smaller that the current field. Yet, a catch was made in left, and you could see a 402 FT sign in straight-away left. That park was deep, and they just showed the 461 FT sign in left center.

The other thing I'm noticing is the umpires calling the high strike.

Update: Mantle is first shown batting in the fourth, since the first inning of the game in missing. The first pitch to Mickey appears to be low and outside, but it's called a strike. How much of that is distortion, I don't know. The Dodgers, however, put on a shift very similar to what we see today against the big left-handed pull hitters, except the second baseman wasn't in the outfield.

Update: Mantle homers to end the at bat. That's the first hit and base runner of the game. I tried to back it up and watch the homer frame by frame, and discovered the frame rate was different back then. We're only seeing 1/3 the frames.

Update: Gillette sponsored the game, and so you see a shaving ad between each inning. At the time, Gillette was giving away a pocket baseball encyclopedia with a purchase of a razor. Does anyone have one of those?

Update: Mantle comes up with men on first and third and one out in the bottom of the sixth. Maglie has given up three straight hits. Mickey homered earlier, his third of the series, but Vin Scully suggests the Dodgers should be wary of a squeeze play. Instead, Mantle grounds into a double play to the first baseman.

Update: A great reaction at the end of the playback by Larsen and Berra, who were in the studio with Bob Costas. Both were smiling ear to ear. Both were also very complimentary of the other. Larsen thought Yogi called a great game, Berra said Larsen hit the right spots with all of his pitches. A very nice broadcast by MLB network.

I didn't realize until I saw Yogi and Don standing together how much bigger Larsen was than Berra. No wonder Yogi was able to jump into Don's arms so easily.

Pete Rose makes the great moments montage at the start of the show. Bud, of course, had to do the introduction.

The studios look nice. They have studio three numbered for Babe Ruth, where they'll do the studio show. They also have studio 42 for Jackie Robinson. It looks like a ballpark, and they'll do how the game's played pieces from there.

So far, so good.

Update: Reynolds, Larkin, Leiter and guest Jimmy Rollins just did an excellent analysis of Jackie Robinson stealing home in the World Series. They looked at the contributions of the pitcher, the third baseman, the batter, and the catcher's glove in making the steal possible. I actually learned something there.

Carlos Guillen returned to action in the Venezuelan Winter League. His back appears to be better.

Squawking Baseball looks at the finances of the MLB Network and is disappointed in the numbers.

But this also isn't a ringing endorsement of MLB Network's business model, at least not for 2009. $200 million is significant, but it's not even half of what MLB Advanced Media will bring in this year. Find another cable network that is making more online than it is through their traditional revenue streams.

With startup costs, this will probably deliver another $5 million to each team. Studio television tends to be fairly cheap to produce. This strikes me as a nice piece of cash for not that much work.

As for online vs. broadcast, I bet MLB got the model right. Television is changing, and might even be dying. I find myself watching more shows on Amazon these days, where I can pay a small fee to watch anytime I'm in front of a computer without advertisements. I'd much rather own the online world right now that the broadcast one.

Update: Maury Brown posts an inteview with Tony Petitti, the CEO of MLB Network.

The Nationals are interested in free agents Milton Bradley, Adam Dunn and Orlando Hudson. Signing all three would certainly remake this team quickly.

The Dodgers sign Claudio Vargas to a one-year deal, guaranteeing him the minimum $400,000. Vargas's seasonal age will be 31 in 2009, and he hasn't pitched a good season since his rookie year of 2003. Why are the Dodgers wasting even $400,000 on him, when they really need to replace Penny and Lowe?

Derrick Turnbow reached a minor league agreement with the Texas Rangers, choosing the team due to the presence of Mike Maddux.

Turnbow pitched one great year in 2005, but a steady rise in his walk rate negated his high strikeout rate. Injuries held him to just 6 1/3 badly pitched innings in 2008. He's a reclamation project.

Barry Bonds underwent hip surgery. That's just another reason why teams won't sign him.

I'm somewhat surprised the Cardinals were not willing to eat Adam Kennedy's $4 million dollar contract to keep Aaron Miles.

Here's wishing everyone a successful and prosperous 2009!