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When productive veteran outfielders like Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye are having trouble finding work it makes sense that not-so-productive veteran outfielders like Darin Erstad may be headed for retirement. Bill Plunkett of the Orange Country Register recently spoke the Erstad, who “sounded like a happy father, perfectly content if he never plays another major-league…

As someone who gets all kinds of cool stuff from being a Society for American Baseball Research member I feel it’s my duty to let everyone know that SABR is now offering a PDF version of the annual “Emerald Guide to Baseball” absolutely free to members and non-members alike. Edited by Gary Gillette and Pete…

My entry earlier this week about Lenny Dykstra’s financial situation received 142 comments, so I figure everyone is interested in a follow up via some nice digging by SportsByBrooks.com. In addition to filing personal bankruptcy after reportedly losing up to $100 million, Dykstra apparently was given control of the $737,000 signing bonus that his son…

Brendan Ryan underwent wrist surgery Tuesday and won’t be cleared to swing a bat for 2-3 weeks, putting his status for Opening Day in some question. Ryan told MLB.com’s Matthew Leach that he’s “done everything” to alleviate what’s being called “persistent discomfort in his right wrist” for several years and just recently learned that surgery…

Let go by both the Nationals and Brewers last season after allowing 18 runs in 21 innings, Jesus Colome has agreed to a minor-league contract with the Mariners. His numbers last year weren’t pretty, but 21 innings is small sample, Colome’s average fastball still clocked in at 94.7 miles per hour, and his ERAs in…

MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that the Braves “have made a one-year offer to” Johnny Damon that includes “some money that would be deferred.” (UPDATE: That one-year offer “is believed to be worth at least $5 million.”) Along those same lines, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote this afternoon that the “Braves’ interest in…

CSNBayArea.com’s Mychael Urban reports that the Giants have signed Todd Wellemeyer to a minor-league contract with an invite to spring training. Wellemeyer was briefly one of Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan’s many success stories after being claimed off waivers from the Royals in mid-2007. Purely a reliever at that point, Wellemeyer moved into the Cardinals’…

Craig’s love for Braves prospect Jason Heyward is so strong that he’s forcing himself not to write something about him every hour of every day, so I’m trying to pick up the slack. He’s arguably the best prospect in baseball, after all. Heyward, that is. Calcaterra is slightly lower in most rankings. Anyway, the latest…

Sometimes in life, the joke is on you. Two months ago I poked a little fun at Jacque Jones attending the winter meetings in search of a job, suggesting that he was washed up and would “be lucky to secure a minor-league contract with an invite to spring training.” It turns out I was absolutely…

Scott Schoeneweis struggled with depression following the death of his wife last May, but was able to successfully return to the mound in September and this afternoon signed a minor-league contract with the Brewers. An autopsy later revealed that Schoeneweis’ wife (and the mother of his four children) passed away from an overdose of cocaine…

Michael Brantley made his big-league debut last September filling in for the injured Grady Sizemore in center field, but now that Sizemore is healthy the Indians are thinking about starting Brantley alongside him in left field. Here’s manager Manny Acta: What he did in September gives him a leg up on the position. That being…

Last week the A’s acquired Willy Taveras in a trade with the Reds only to designate him for assignment literally minutes later, so it comes as no surprise that they outright released him today after failing to find a taker for even a fraction of his $4 million salary. Taveras is now free to sign…

Scot Shields was perhaps the elite setup man of the aughts (we really need a better name for 2000-2009), posting a 2.98 ERA from 2002-2008 while averaging around 90 innings per season, but ended the decade on a low note with an injury wrecked 2009 campaign and is now unlikely to be ready for spring…

There was a brief moment a couple years ago when a not-insignificant number of people believed that Lenny Dykstra was a financial genius capable of picking winning stocks like some sort of baseball Rainman. Real Sports on HBO did a relatively fawning profile piece focused on Dykstra’s lavish lifestyle, Jim Cramer famously called him a…

For much of the offseason the assumption has been that the Yankees would sign a right-handed bat to platoon with Brett Gardner or Randy Winn in left field, and now SI.com’s Jon Heyman reports that they’ve found their man in Marcus Thames. Thames actually came up through the Yankees’ farm system after being a 30th-round…

Craig already wrote about Steve Phillips’ apologetic appearance on The Today Show, but here’s the actual video of his interview with Matt Lauer:

Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes that Carlos Beltran is “furious with the Mets” for how they’ve handled his knee surgery publicly and may let that impact his return timetable: He wonders if he should have been playing last year (in other words, was he properly diagnosed?). More important, he pushed to initially…

Last season Ty Wigginton started 38 games at first base, 35 games at third base, and 23 games at designated hitter for the Orioles, but with offseason signings Miguel Tejada and Garrett Atkins now manning the corner infield spots MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko speculates that Wigginton could be traded before Opening Day. Tejada, Atkins, and Wigginton…

Over the weekend D.J. Short wrote a lengthy, interesting article about whether or not the Mets have rushed Fernando Martinez’s development. I think the answer is a resounding “yes,” but you should definitely read his piece and decide for yourself. As a follow-up to that, Martinez was named MVP of the Caribbean Series after hitting…

Yesterday at an auction in California an anonymous bidder paid $103,579 for the ball Alex Rodriguez hit for his 500th career homer. Rodriguez hit the homer off Kyle Davies of the Royals at the old Yankee Stadium in August of 2007, and has since hit another 83 bombs. Generally speaking the 500-homer club has lost…

He’s not quite in Russell Branyan territory, but we now know that Yorvit Torrealba cost himself a bunch of money by turning down a good offer early in the offseason. Six weeks ago Torrealba reportedly turned down a two-year deal from the Rockies worth around $5 million, with talks apparently breaking up over a difference…

Last month a Braves source told Craig that the team’s lack of interest in Johnny Damon was largely due to their confidence in stud outfield prospect Jason Heyward being ready for the majors at some point this season. David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote more about that scenario today, reporting that “Braves officials…

Orioles pitching prospect Brian Parker received a 50-game suspension yesterday due to his second positive test for a drug in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Testing Program. Parker, who was a 19th-round pick out of Lewis & Clark College in 2007, had a 4.31 ERA and 64/26 K/BB ratio in 64.2 innings…

This morning a couple of Orlando Hudson’s new teammates used Twitter to offer their thoughts on the Twins signing the veteran second baseman late last night. First, here’s a tweet from reliever Pat Neshek: Love the O-Hud signing, what a team! And now here’s one from center fielder and leadoff man Denard Span: Wake up…

Earlier this week I wondered why the Twins weren’t making a stronger push for Orlando Hudson, so it pleases me to see this report from Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi at FOXSports.com: The Twins have intensified their pursuit of free-agent second baseman Orlando Hudson, one major league source told FOXSports.com on Thursday morning. ……