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My buddy Jason at IIATMS has a rule:  you can’t complain unless you offer a solution. Terrible rule. If I followed it I would be deprived of all kinds of self-satisfying complaining. Ideas are hard. Bitching cleanses the soul. But he lives by it, and because of that he decided to come up with a…

The Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League have signed Blue Jays’ righty Brian Wolfe.  Wolfe had a 8.22 ERA in 14 games in relief with the Jays and had a 5.05 ERA in 34 games at Triple-A Las Vegas. I don’t really care about the signing that much, but it does make me wonder…

That’s what Boras called Beltre’s deal with the Red Sox a little while ago. When the roomful of reporters couldn’t grok his meaning, he explained what he meant: “A pillow contract is, basically, you lay down, it’s comfortable, it’s soft, it’s there. But the fact of the matter is it’s not with you all the…

They pay him to pitch, not study, but it is rather fun to learn that CC Sabathia got creamed in a game of Yankees trivia by Denzel Washington on the Jay Leno show last night. I suppose his saving grace is that between the BCS game and the fact that not too many damn people…

This isn’t a “best shape of my life” article, it’s simply David Wright talking frankly about his bad 2009, his approach at Citi Field and talking confidently about 2010: “I felt very uncomfortable in the batter’s box . . .I think one of my greatest strengths as a hitter is going the opposite field and…

Buster Olney and Ken Rosenthal were on the same page with their Hall of Fame voting pieces this morning. They’re likewise on the same page in passing along disdain for the Matt Holliday deal too.  First was Robo talking about Boras’ bluff and now here’s Buster passing along two quotes regarding the Cardinals’ overpayment, the…

Ken Rosenthal doesn’t mince any words when it comes to the Hall of Fame electorate: Our membership is too bloated, too riddled with voters who do not take the process seriously enough to educate themselves properly . . . Virtually every voter I know is honored to participate in the process. Virtually every voter I…

Depending on who you believe, the Rangers have offered Vald Guerrero either $5 million or $7 million.  According to T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com, however, it doesn’t really matter as “one source said Guerrero wasn’t particularly happy with the Rangers offer.” Let’s say it’s $5 million. That’s what Bobby Abreu got to be Vlad’s teammate in…

On December 23rd, I reported that the Pirates had made a $3 million offer to Octavio Dotel to be their closer. The team denied it. Today, however, Dejan Kovacevic says that “Dotel is one of several relievers the team has offered a contract,” and that they have “zeroed in” on him.  He notes that that…

If I had any skills I’d create some sort of interactive bingo card for the right-hand margin on which we’d put chips every time a player is reported this spring to (a) be in the best shape of his life; (b) be working on a new pitch that he thinks will make the difference; (c)…

I and others suspected that the Cardinals were bidding against themselves in the Matt Holliday negotiations. Ken Rosenthal suggested yesterday that they had some help via some Boras bluffing: Would Scott Boras have pulled an Adrian Beltre with Matt Holliday, taking a one-year deal in search of a better free-agent market next off-season? The Cardinals…

9:21 A.M. UPDATE: Rosenthal now reports that Podsednik is saying he has a deal with a club and that the Royals are saying they have a deal with an outfielder and that we should “put 2 and 2 together!”  UPDATE: Now Jerry Crasnick has a source confirming this and that a formal announcement will come…

On the occasion of Andre Dawson’s election to the Hall of Fame, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times has a nice story up about the Montreal Expos.  Definitely worth checking out.  I rarely get too nostalgic about the Expos — in their latter years they were most bothersome competition for my Braves — but…

“Our view of it is that with our ballpark coming online, there’s no question in my mind we’re the team of the Americas.” – Florida Marlins’ President David Samson, getting a little too excited about playing a random series in San Juan instead of the Miami suburbs this June. I’m not at all certain that…

After a couple of months of looking like the guy who would be left without a seat in the great closer musical chairs game of 2009-2010, Jose Valverde finally has some offers according to Yahoo!’s Tim Brown. Four to be precise, including one from the Tigers and one from the Diamondbacks. MLB Trade Rumors notes…

UPDATE: A source tells Jerry Crasnick that, no, the Rangers aren’t going any higher than $5 million on Vlad.  I love this: battling ESPN stories. I met both Crasnick and Arangure in Indianapolis. Crasnick has the reach, but Arangure is no doubt quicker.  Anyway, even $5 million is a good offer for a guy in…

Because the sign-the-former-Brave strategy worked so well with Tom Glavine, the Mets are taking a look at John Smoltz, according to Matt Cerone of MetsBlog.com. OK, that’s not fair. Smoltz is someone the Mets should be looking at.  Lots of upside and very little risk, I would imagine.

It’s generally accepted that having fallen five votes short this year, Bert Blyleven’s induction in 2011 is a foregone conclusion.  That’s certainly the sensible position. And if I had to bet, I’d wager that he makes it. Part of me still wonders, however, if we haven’t seen his candidacy’s high-water mark — that place where…

Remember when I said that the Yankees and Mets should be treated like movie slashers when it comes to the pursuit of a free agent? That you can’t count them out until they’re truly, truly dead, and that even then you should pour gasoline on the corpse and light it just to be sure? I…

Jack Cust knows that it’s hard out there for a DH. According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, he’s about to re-sign with the A’s for $2.5 million with incentives that could take it up to $3 million.  He made $2.8 million in 2009. Cust was non-tendered by the A’s.  If he had…

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick caught up with Brandon Webb, who’s down in Arizona preparing for a comeback season with the Diamondbacks. He says he feels fine and is ready to pitch, but of course guys always say that.  We’ll see once he starts to face live hitters in spring training. More interesting were the Kentucky native’s…

Jonathan Papelbon sat down for an interview with ESPN Boston’s Gordon Edes and the subject of his soon-to-arrive son came up.  And I gotta tell ya, I’m really starting to take a shine to Jonathan Papelbon: Papelbon’s wife, Ashley, is pregnant with the couple’s second child, a brother for toddler daughter Parker. The child is…

If you wait long enough, even the lamest stuff becomes cool again.  Tell me Astros fans, wouldn’t you give up the comforts of Minute Maid Park if you could hang out in a place like this during a ballgame, drinking brandy Alexanders and Gibson Martinis and stuff?

Everyone’s favorite complaint heading into the 2010 season will be about how cold and rainy and icky it’s going to be in Target Field and why oh why they didn’t put a roof on the joint. Baseball Daily Digest’s Joe Hamrahi throws cold water on that talk, however, noting that of all of the cold…

Commenter ralphdibny was a young Cubs fan in the late 80s and supports Dawson’s enshrinement even if he agrees that maybe he falls a smidge short, objectively speaking. He may be on to something with this: Perhaps there should be a line on his plaque that reads “While his statistics aren’t quite Hall of Fame…