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Craig will be thrilled to know that new Indians manager Manny Acta wore another awesome hat while holding a “town hall meeting” for fans (and television cameras) last night. MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince reports that Acta won over the audience with his outgoing personality, but a) what else is an MLB.com writer going to say? and…

Riley Cooper was picked by the Rangers in the 25th round of last June’s draft as an outfielder at the University of Florida, but he was also Tim Tebow’s second-favorite target as a wide receiver for the Gators and said yesterday that he plans to pursue a football career: Football’s definitely the route I want…

Dustin McGowan missed all of 2009 following shoulder surgery and general manager J.P. Ricciardi went so far as to suggest that his career was in jeopardy, but now he’s former general manager J.P. Ricciardi and MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports “the hope is that McGowan will be ready to join the rotation competition” in spring training.…

MLB.com’s Kelly Thesier reports that side-arming setup man Pat Neshek is “a little anxious” but “on track to be ready for the start of spring training” 14 months after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery. “I just want to face hitters to see where I’m at and get that in my head,” Neshek said. “I want…

When viewed in isolation missing out on Bengie Molina last week wasn’t really a bad thing for the Mets, because he’s old and overrated and fairly expensive. However, this report from Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News regarding the team’s fallback plan at catcher may have Mets fans thinking differently: Jerry Manuel suggested…

It remains to be seen whether the Rays are interested in giving B.J. Upton a long-term contract, but Tampa Bay did sign Stepan Havlicek over the weekend. Who is that, you ask? Well, he’s a 16-year-old left-hander who pitched for the Czech Republic’s junior national team and now he’s the first European player ever signed…

B.J. Upton and the Rays are only $300,000 apart in their arbitration filings, so the two sides should be able to find a compromise before the hearing. Along those same lines Upton told Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times that he’d be “all for” working out a long-term contract this offseason. Upton is arbitration…

Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune did some investigating after a rumor began circulating out of Chicago that Jim Thome is close to signing with the Twins and much to my surprise he found that … well, there’s actually some truth behind it: I called a Twins official, expecting to hear that this is…

Indians third base coach Steve Smith and his 23-year-old daughter will be among the 11 teams competing for $1 million in the upcoming season of “The Amazing Race” on CBS. The show was actually taped last year, but Smith has kept a lid on the results and episodes premiere next month. He joined new manager…

FOXSports.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reports that A’s outfield prospect Grant Desme is retiring from baseball at age 23 “in order to pursue the priesthood.” Seriously. Baseball America recently ranked Desme as the team’s eighth-best prospect following a breakout season that saw him hit .288/.365/.568 with 31 homers and 40 steals in 131 games between two…

Still no word yet on the money involved, but ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports that the Angels’ return for Gary Matthews Jr. is reliever Brian Stokes, who has a 5.02 career ERA. Stokes was fairly useful over the past two seasons, posting a 3.82 ERA in 103.2 innings, but he’s basically a 30-year-old, run-of-the-mill middle reliever.…

Hideki Irabu came out of retirement last season to pitch for the Long Beach Armada in the independent Golden Baseball League and looked decent enough to sign on with another independent league team in Japan. Unfortunately his comeback was short-lived when a wrist injury led to his release and now the 40-year-old Irabu is retiring…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Colby Lewis was one of the game’s best pitching prospects while coming up through the Rangers’ farm system, with Baseball America ranking him as their No. 32 overall prospect in 2003, sandwiched between Adrian Gonzalez at 31 and Josh Hamilton at 33. That season he made 26 starts for the Rangers as a 23-year-old rookie,…

Eric Gagne told a French-Canadian radio station that he has a tryout scheduled for today with the Phillies, but general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was unavailable for comment when Philadelphia Daily News reporter David Murphy tried to get in touch with him about the former Cy Young winner. Gagne signed a minor-league deal with the…

Here’s video of the incident that got Jose Offerman suspended for life from the Dominican winter league: Not that the quality of the punch should really matter when it comes to Offerman’s suspension, but it sure seems like the umpire took a dive. Click here to contact Aaron Gleeman or follow him on Twitter.

MLB.com Mets beat writer Marty Noble, responding to criticism of his Hall of Fame ballot: And those who have their noses pressed against their computer screens and think VORP is a valid means of measuring a player’s performance ought to get a life and a credential that would allow them to see and hear the…

With the deadline to submit figures for arbitration looming, the Rockies have agreed to multi-year deals with arbitration-eligible relievers Huston Street and Rafael Betancourt. According to FOXSports.com’s Tracy Ringolsby, Betancourt will get $7.5 million over two years while Street’s deal is worth $22.5 million over three years with an option for 2013. Colorado had previously…

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told NBCPhiladelphia.com that he’s lost 56 pounds since signing a deal to do advertisements for Nutrisystem. He’s never going to be svelte, but the 65-year-old Type 2 diabetic has gone from 286 pounds to 230 pounds in less than a year, and as you can see from the photo there’s definitely…