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The Cubs and Carlos Marmol have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $2.125 million deal that splits the difference between their competing demands. Marmol stunk on ice as the setup guy last year, but once he took over for Kevin Gregg as closer in August he stopped hitting as many guys and throwing the…

I’m not a fanatic about it — I think some of the more unique interpretations of the National Anthem are kinda neat — but MLB.com’s Mike Bauman has a point: “The Star-Spangled Banner” has been trivialized, tortured and trampled upon at ballparks throughout America. Obviously, there are completely acceptable renditions of the anthem sung before…

But . . . but what excuse will I use to get out of mowing the lawn now? For the first time in the network’s 15 years of broadcasting Major League Baseball games, FOX has scheduled two nights of regular-season games as part of its 2010 Saturday schedule, according to a news release issued Wednesday…

If the Yankees are hellbent on keeping Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes in the pen, David Pinto has a great idea of how to maximize their value: It strikes me that both in the pen could radically alter the Yankees roster. The Yankees would only need nine pitchers, maybe ten. The starting staff is more…

Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch, in response to a reader’s question about why the Cardinals front office has been so quiet since the Holliday signing, says “Though the club won’t confirm talks, negotiations with Pujols are also taking up time.” That’s got to be encouraging for Cards fans, though I wonder if any real progress…

That’s not just some jerky Braves fan saying that, according to Murray Chass, the people that try to deal with them are saying it: But more than one agent cited the Mets’ inability to deal with more than one free agent at a time as the primary reason they lost out on free agents. “We’re…

So, how are those pre-arbitration negotiations goin’, fellas? To say the recent discussions between the Giants and Thurman [Lincecum's agent], who exchanged arbitration numbers featuring the largest gap in the history of the process, have not gone well is an understatement. According to several sources, what’s been going on between the Giants and Lincecum/Thurman shouldn’t…

On Tuesday Andrew from NYaT imagined what it would look like if every bat in the Yankee lineup went sideways.  Yesterday he moved on to the pitchers: CC Sabathia: What it would look like: Alex Fernandez after Marlins won the 1997 World Series. In December of 1996, the Florida Marlins General Manager Dave Dombrowski brought…

You’ll recall there was a bit of a hubub last spring when it was revealed that Manny Ramirez’s contract with the Dodgers required him to donate $1 million to Dodgers’ charitable foundation.  At the time Frank McCourt said that, going forward, all Dodgers contracts would contain similar provisions. It was later revealed that over 100…

We had some fun with Adam Jones earlier today, but I just received a comment that provides much more in the way of background.  Except where the Mets are involved I’m nothing if not fair, so take it away Mrs. Bradley: Let me clarify any misconceptions that are currently out there with reference to my…

Steve Bisciotti owns the Baltimore Ravens. He also either doesn’t know jack about baseball or is so blinded by salary cap politics that he feels he has to pretend that he doesn’t. Here he is today talking about the Yankees’ payroll advantages: “It certainly doesn’t show up in the standings. If I’m a Yankees fan,…

Senators McCain and Dorgan introduced some new legislation today that proposes to more closely regulate the supplement industry in the wake of reports that many products contain designer steroids and other such nasties which aren’t disclosed to the public.  Bud Selig just released a statement on it: “On behalf of Major League Baseball, I would…

UPDATE: Street reports that the deal is for $3.5 million.  Hmm, that’s $17,500 on the high side of the midpoint!  I hereby declare this a resounding victory for team Kotchman! And I get the fail of the day for getting my math wrong. This is why I am a blogger. 2:29 P.M.: Casey Kotchman and…

Orioles’ outfielder Adam Jones was being interviewed via telephone on XM Radio’s MLB Home Plate show a few minutes ago. Not just via telephone, but via cell phone, and not just via cell phone, but via cell phone while driving down the freakin’ highway.  MLB Home Plate producer Brent Gambill tweets the details: Adam Jones…

Russel Branyan doesn’t have a job yet. Neither does Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye and a bunch of other corner outfielder/DH types.  Brian Giles’ agent, however, says that he’s probably gonna sign a deal soon: Brian Giles’ agent said Tuesday that he’s optimistic his client will have a contract for the 2010 season soon . .…

As far as pre-spring training time-wasters go, this is one of the better ones:  lar from Wezen-Ball ranking the best baseball statues on a ballpark-by-ballpark basis. He has the Pirates’ first, and it’s hard to disagree with that.  Nice statues with clean lines and bold poses. A lot of generic, no-name ballplayer statues bring up…

If it weren’t for that “the Braves shouldn’t have kept Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz” thing earlier this morning this would have been the silliest thing I read all day: [Manny] Ramirez complained toward the end of last season that playing the outfield wore down his legs. He seriously considered opting out of his contract to…

Really he may be Scott Boras’ only hope, as outlined by Morosi in his latest FOX column.  After recounting the well-known story about how Boras failed to accurately read the market for Damon, Morosi traced Boras’ steps: Boras retreated to a bunker in his Newport Beach lair and broke the emergency glass over a seldom-used…

Cito Gaston, on the Blue Jays’ closer situation: “It’s going to be between [Scott Downs and Jason Frasor] and anybody else that Alex brings into camp.” I get what he’s saying — the Jays may, for example, bring in Kevin Gregg before the end of the day — but there has to be better way…

So tweets Buster Olney, saying that San Diego and Torrealba are “on the verge” of a deal. Torrealba hit .291/.351/.380 with two homers and 31 RBI last season with the Rockies, and for a while there seemed poised to sign with the Mets. But then again so have a lot of dudes this winter, and…

Jimmie Lee Solomon is MLB’s Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations. Based on this passage from today’s MLB.com feature about him, I like the cut of his jib: Solomon enrolled at Harvard Law School, and after 10 years at a Washington law firm, where he worked his way up to partner, he left to become…

Washington has signed former Rangers outfielder Kevin Mench to a minor league deal. When last we saw Mench he was leaving the Hanshin Tigers in the middle of the season after hitting .148 and “dealing with fatigue and anxiety issues,” and before that it was a couple of lost seasons in Milwaukee and Toronto. In…

There will be new fake grass for the Rogers Centre this year.  It’s supposed to look more like real grass and have fewer seams, but the real impetus for it is that it can be removed and replaced faster than the old turf, thereby allowing the good people at Rogers Communications to book more concerts…

Deep thought:  when Darryl Strawberry is saying you’re messin’ up, you need to take a look in the mirror: Darryl Strawberry was asked for his assessment of the Mets’ offseason changes Tuesday night, and he gave an answer that will be hard for anyone to argue. “I’ll put it like this: It could’ve been better,”…

We’ve heard about guys coming to camp in the best shape of their life, but Red Sox’ utilityman Bill Hall doesn’t want any part of that. Why? Because he thinks his workout program was a large part of what caused his post-2006 swoon: Hall traces his problems since – he batted just .201 last year…