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Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll is a Twitter tease: I know of two HUGE announcements coming at the Winter Meetings. I expect both will be bigger than any player signing or news made during. Best guesses in the comments. Here’s mine: they’re going to four outs. You know, because it’s one better than three.

Tony La Russa is saying that Mark McGwire is going to make himself available to the media sometime soon. Likely not at next week’s Winter Meetings — really, why would Mac want to come to Indianapolis in December? — but probably before Christmas. I still don’t know what the big deal about all of this…

Now that their bullpen is sorted, the Braves have three things to sort out before spring training: leveraging their pitching surplus via a trade of a starter; filling their hole at first base; and adding an outfielder.  MLB.com’s Mark Bowman — after first telling what have to rank as some of the lamest Tiger Woods…

Rosenthal (or is it Tracy Ringolsnby? Is he crashing Robo’s space?) is reporting that Colorado is showing interest in second baseman Orlando Hudson. The idea would be to move Clint Barmes into a super utility role, for which he is better suited (hmmm, where did I hear that before?).  This runs counter to that rumor…

Gregg Zaun is expected to sign very soon — maybe today — and MLB.com’s Brew Beat blog is saying that it will be with Milwaukee, based on the team and Zaun talking about him coming to Milwaukee for a physical.  Zaun’s a type B who was offered arbitration, by the way, so if he signs…

The Washington Nationals are talking to John Smoltz, and both sides seem interested in doing a deal. The only holdup is that Smoltz would rather play for a contender, but I think we’ve passed the point in Smoltz’s career where he has a ton of choices in the matter. You have to think that a…

James Paxton is a left-handed pitcher for the University of Kentucky. He was taken with the 37th overall pick by the Blue Jays in the draft last summer. He decided that he’d rather return for his senior year, however, and did so. Beginning in October, the NCAA started contacting UK about Paxton. It’s still unclear what about,…

A lot of us have been giving the Phillies crap for going in at $6 million a year over three years for Polanco, citing Adrian Beltre as a younger, better option.  According to Buster Olney, however, Beltre’s asking prince is $10 million per, and you’d have to figure that starts at three years. Yes, Beltre…

There’s a reason why the Yankees focus on free agent veterans: kids these days just won’t listen to Joe Girardi. The Yankee skipper tried to teach the Jets’ quarterback how to slide after getting his left knee banged up while pulling a Jim McMahon last week. So what happens last night? He forgets what Girardi…

While the Angels’ baseball people are said to have moved on from the idea of keeping John Lackey around, owner Arte Moreno is not letting go: Club officials had all but decided to part with Lackey during the team’s organizational meetings at the end of the regular season, according to multiple major-league sources. But Moreno,…

While Pittsburgh is sniffing around Rick Ankiel and Hank Blalock, they’re also thinking about Xavier Nady, according to Dejan Kovacevic: An X-Man sequel? The Pirates have made initial inquiries on free-agent outfielder Xavier Nady, as well as reliever Ron Villone and shortstop Bobby Crosby, though none of those inquiries is known to have moved past…

It’s being reported that Rangers owner Tom Hicks has had a falling out with Dennis Gilbert, the guy who, just two days ago, was called the front runner to take over the team.  This is good news, reports Randy Galloway of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, because if Gilbert had come on board, Nolan Ryan was…

Rosenthal and Morosi report that the Royals are open to trading Gil Meche and David DeJesus, likely waiting until most of the free agents sign, making their market out of the teams who don’t have a chair when the music stops on the Randy Wolfs and Marlon Byrds of the world. Meche’s season ended early…

From MLB.com’s Winter Meetings preview piece: What will Scott Boras wear? This one’s easy to answer. The agent who always seems to have a handful of hugely important clients during these Meetings rocks a blazer, a button-down shirt and jeans, in addition to plenty of smiles when his players get their deals. Glad to know.…

Neither Aaron, nor Matthew nor I are all that thrilled with the Polanco deal, but via Rosenthal, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. defends the length of the deal thusly: 1. “I think he’s going to be in shape — he takes care of himself. 2. “He’s versatile, he can move around. If he’s not playing…

The Yankee Universe is a blog run by some guys I know. It’s also the name of the Yankees’ little Red Sox Nation wannabe fanclub.  You can see where this is heading: Accordingly, demand is hereby made that you immediately cease and desist from using the YANKEE UNIVERSE name and the Logo, any other Yankees Mark…

Yesterday’s report of hard feelings between Jason Marquis and the Rockies is being denied by both parties. Dan O’Dowd: “There was no falling out. He was extremely professional about it. It wasn’t an issue at all.”  Marquis says that not getting a start in the NLDS was no big deal: “I was prepared to pitch…

Baseball America’s annual ranking of the farm systems is out. The top five: Rangers, Rays, Giants, Phillies and Indians.  The bottom five: Nationals, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Cardinals and Astros. The Giants at number 3 seems like an empty ranking to me.  While they still technically count, the two blue chippers they name — Buster Posey…

You think you got Scott Boras figured out? Think he’s the Antichrist?  If so, check out this profile of the Uber Agent from FanHouse’s Jeff Fletcher: Boras, 57, grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Elk Grove, Calif., just outside of Sacramento. In this case “farm” isn’t just another word for “country.” It was…

MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian says that if Marco Scutaro accepts the Jays’ arbitration offer, he’ll play some outfield and lead off. Setting aside the fact that Scutaro is totally not going to accept the offer to begin with, how could such an “enticement” appeal to him? He’s way more valuable as a shortstop. And name a…

People with the Twins have said that they want to make a Joe Mauer extension a Christmas gift for Twins fans. The word right now from LaVelle Neal of the Star-Tribune, however: “A person of influence in the Joe Mauer contract talks: 1. No serious negotiations have begun. 2. Absolutely no deadlines have been set.”…

Jon Heyman tweets that Jason Marquis and the Rockies had a falling out over “his reaction to him not getting playoff start” so he’s not likely to accept the arbitration offer he got from Colorado. I’m guessing the reaction involved a flaming bag of dog poop on Jim Tracy’s porch. Whatever the case, his departure…

Your 2010 Braves bullpen is brought to you by: the 2009 Boston Red Sox. CBS Sports is reporting that the Braves are close to signing reliever Takashi Saito to a one year deal worth $3 million. We’ll have more analysis on this later. In the meantime, we can say that this all but ensures that…

It’s usually hard to detect sarcasm on Twitter, but not so much here: Polanco is Beltre without power, experience at third, and a few more years of age. I can totally see why Amaro would prefer Polanco . . . I agree with Cameron. A year at $6 million or a couple of lower dollar…

From an NPB Tracker tweet, the Mets have asked Hideki Matsui’s agent for the results of his latest physical. Matsui’s that is, not his agent’s. Those would be rather scary, I’d imagine, what with all of the cigar chomping those sorts of fellows do. Probably just idle curiosity on the Mets’ part, but is it…