Archives › 2010 › January

Jim Thome’s name hasn’t come up much this offseason, which is somewhat surprising for a guy who hit .249/.386/.481 with 23 homers in 434 plate appearances last year and yet not all that surprising given that he hasn’t played first base regularly since 2005. Thome still crushes right-handed pitching, but as a 39-year-old designated hitter…

I don’t have HBO so I missed this, but apparently on Tuesday night Bryant Gumbel ended his “Real Sports” show by reading an open letter* to Mark McGwire, taking him to task over his apology.  While it was silly because it (a) was premised on the notion that anyone should care what Mark McGwire thinks…

Jim Bouton wrote my favorite baseball book of all time, so he could say just about anything at this point and remain on my good side, but it was still nice to see him give the following answer when asked recently what he thinks “about today’s emphasis on pitch counts”: I think it’s smart. If…

Bill Baer of Baseball Daily Digest thinks it was pretty damn bad: In essence, the Angels have swapped gimpy designated hitters, downgraded from Lackey to Piniero, lost Figgins and gained Rodney. Meanwhile, Roy Halladay went to Philadelphia, Cliff Lee went to Seattle, and Aroldis Chapman went to Cincinnati. The Angels wanted an ace pitcher and…

Yesterday afternoon I wrote about how the Phillies were sending a scout to Arizona to watch Eric Gagne throw, but now Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports reports that the 34-year-old former Cy Young winner also has “tentative workouts planned” for the Rockies, Dodgers, and Blue Jays. Gagne starred for Los Angeles from 1999-2006 and he’s…

You can buy a ten pound bag of regular old grass seed for, oh, $12-15 or so. Or, you can buy a ten pound bag of regular old grass seed with a Boston Red Sox logo on it for $22: The Scotts Co. yesterday unveiled a grass-seed product that “contains actual varieties” used for the…

Charlie Manuel may be the biggest loser this offseason, but he has some competition in Geovany Soto: Soto didn’t wait for the new year to change his eating habits. He has dropped 40 pounds since the 2009 season ended on Oct. 4. He’ll need a new uniform. Soto went from a size 42 waist to…

Matthew Carruth at FanGraphs wants you to vote on it.  His candidates: Barry Zito, Alfonso Soriano, Vernon Wells, or the write-in candidate of your choice. I think I’ll write in FOX’s broadcast contract with Major League Baseball, though in that case neither of the parties to the deal are its biggest victims. If we limit…

If you looked washed up when you left baseball in 2008 and are now trying to make a comeback, the Rockies are your huckleberry: The Rockies signed Payton, who didn’t play in the Majors in 2009, to a Minor League contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, Rockies player development director Marc Gustafson…

The Astros have signed Cory Sullivan and the Blue Jays signed Jeremy Reed yesterday, both to minor league deals.  Both Sullivan and Reed played in the Mets’ nightmarish outfield mix last year. Sullivan once hit two triples in one inning.  It was the first time anyone had done that in over 50 years. In 2007…

Former New York Times baseball writer and current curmudgeonly ass-clown Murray Chass, responding via his blog to a reader who disagreed with his Hall of Fame ballot: Does that make him right and me wrong? Of course not. Am I right? Yes. Why? Because my opinion counts and his doesn’t. My ballot was one of…

Dejan is reporting that the deal is finally done. The financial terms are still unknown, but Dejan thinks it will be for around $3 million. Not to be a big jerk about it or anything, but CTB was the first place that linked these two kids last month when we reported that the Bucs had…

According to SI.com and various other sources, the Angels and Joel Pineiro have come to terms on a two-year, $16 million contract. The signing settles as Angels rotation that lacked a fifth starter behind Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders, Scott Kazmir and Ervin Santana. Matt Palmer and Sean O’Sullivan were set to be the primary competitors…

This is part of a 30-article series looking at each team’s depth chart headed into spring training. Milwaukee Brewers Rotation 1. Randy Wolf 2. Yovani Gallardo 3. Doug Davis 4. Manny Parra 5. Jeff Suppan 6. Dave Bush 7. Chris Capuano 8. John Halama 9. Kameron Loe 10. Carlos Villanueva 11. Chris Narveson 12. A.J.…

ESPN’s Jayson Stark reports that Preston Wilson is on the hunt for a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. Wilson, 35, played for the Long Island Ducks along with fellow former major league outfielders Lew Ford and George Lombard last year and hit .302/.344/.474 with seven homers in 48 games. He had…

Jon Heyman wonders how the Giants may make their arbitration case against Tim Lincecum in the event they don’t settle. After noting how easy it would be for Lincecum — two Cy Youngs, babies — he passes along a potential team strategy: The Giants could claim Lincecum’s second Cy was a “fluke” (a word I…

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that the Brewers and left-hander Doug Davis have agreed to terms on a one-year, $5.25 million contract with an option for 2011. The deal will pay Davis $4.25 million in 2010. The option for 2011 is worth $6.5 million and includes a $1 million buyout. It will be Davis’ second stint…

Arizona designated Eric Byrnes for assignment over the weekend and officially released the 34-year-old outfielder this afternoon. Byrnes was in the final season of a three-year, $30 million contract, so the Diamondbacks are eating $11 million by letting him go. Byrnes signed that deal after a career-year in 2007 that saw him hit .286/.353/.460 with…

Look kids, a trade:  Reliever Merkin Valdez was just sent to Toronto for cash considerations. The Giants had DFA’d him to make room for Aubrey Huff. Hard to believe that he’s only 28, because Valdez — who used to go by the name Manny Mateo — feels like he’s been around for years. I mean,…

On the same day that he filed an arbitration request of $13 million, Tim Lincecum was ordered to pay $513 in fines to resolve October marijuana charges. Lincecum was originally charged with two misdemeanor counts of marijuana and drug paraphernalia possession following an October 30 traffic stop in Washington, but the incident has been reduced…

I was never a big Tommy Lasorda fan back when he was a manager, but I kind of like retired old man Tommy Lasorda. He was a hoot working the room and telling war stories at the Winter Meetings. Reminded me of my late father-in-law, who also happened to be a large and jolly Italian…

While appearing at a Cardinals charity event earlier this week Jim Edmonds challenged manager Tony La Russa to consider him for a comeback, saying that he’d play for the minimum salary after sitting out all of 2009. It was tough to tell whether Edmonds was half-joking or not, but apparently he’s serious. St. Louis radio…

UPDATE:  Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets “I’m told by someone who knows Damon well that he’s not considered retiring.”  That makes more sense, of course, as many of you in the comments have suggested that this could very well be a negotiating ploy. The real question is whether O’Brien knows this because the…

MetsBlog.com’s Matthew Cerrone wrote an interesting article about Bengie Molina’s surprising decision to return to the Giants yesterday after seemingly being all but signed with the Mets. Molina inked a one-year, $4.5 million deal with San Francisco, but Cerrone reports that New York’s offer–which was made in mid-December–included $1 million more in salary for this…

As we’ve passed over several dozen million dollar contracts these past few days for players I’d wager a plurality of baseball fans have never even heard of, it’s probably worth remembering how the other half live: Baseball’s minor leaguers are getting a small raise–in the form of meal money. MLB team owners last week approved…