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Gary Sheffield has been out peddling his I’m-in-the-best-shape-of-my-life and I-want-to-reach-3000-hits stuff for a while. The latest target? Tampa Bay, where a random note in the St. Petersburg Times has him saying that he wants to play two more years and finish his career with the Rays. I was going to make a joke about how…

Via Matthew Cerrone’s MetsBlog is word from Newsday’s Ken Davidoff that “According to a Mets official, if the team fails to secure [Jason] Bay, it will strongly consider raising its offer to Molina.  But if Bay signs, the Mets will hold a harder line with Molina.” Which is profoundly stupid. Bengie Molina is probably not…

Some fun Adam Dunn chatter in the past few days, with Nationals’ President Stan Kasten saying that if Dunner wants a contract extension in Washington, he’ll have to improve his defense at first base, where he’ll probably be assigned on a permanent basis going forward. Dunn, who is a pretty agreeable fellow, agreed, saying that…

A revealing quote from Scott Boras in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  When asked about the timetable for Matt Holliday signing somewhere: “The acquisition of a franchise talent is not about a wristwatch. That’s about all I can tell you. It’s not a particular time. It’s about the club recognizing the benefit of having that player…

The Cubs need a centerfielder. The Yankees arguably have an excess of centerfielders in Melky Cabrera, Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson. I say “arguably” because as things currently stand one of those dudes has to play left. But the Yankees may or may not be done making moves this winter, they may still yet bring…

The Boston Herald’s Mike Silverman tweets that Mike Lowell needs thumb surgery and that the deal with the Rangers is dead. Rob Bradford of WEEI — not subject to 140 characters because he blogged it rather than tweeted it — says that it’s a torn radiall colateral ligament, that surgery will happen after Christmas, and…

I hope Bert Blyleven makes the Hall of Fame this year. I’m happy Bert Blyleven writes for NBC Sports.com.  I also wish I had some of what Bert Blyleven was smoking when he went on the radio this afternoon and gave us the Carlos Silva scouting report: “What the Cubs got is, if he’s healthy,…

It’s early to be doing this, but $8.5 million for Rollins is a really good deal, even if he’s not the player he was a couple of years ago. FanGraphs’ magic-player-value-contraption has him being worth north of $10 million in 2009, and that was probably his worst year since he became a regular, at least…

Chicago had been waiting to move Milton Bradley before bringing in someone else to take his place in the outfield. Now they’ve moved Bradley, and according to Dallas Morning News blogger Evan Grant, they’re close to signing Marlon Byrd. Grant says what a lot of others have said: the Cubs were interested in both Byrd…

Outside of the Big Bust Challenge Trade, there isn’t a lot happening in baseball today, so let’s look at little stuff. Stuff like Firestone becoming the Official Tire of Major League Baseball.  I just left the business world, so I don’t care about the synergies and cross-promotional opportunities involved here, but there were still a…

Due to the vagaries of geography and time zones and stuff, we easterners don’t get to hear a lot about what happens in Seattle. Oh, we get the big stories: Ichiro is good, Steve Largent has sure hands, the Denny Party has found a new place to settle — but the little stuff often escapes…

Anyone who has a strong enough constitution to be able to follow the Washington Nationals on a day-in-day-out basis knows that the only nice thing about it is getting to read Chico Harlan, who covers them for the Washington Post. He writes one of your better big-paper-affiliated baseball blogs, and always seems to have his…

Jim Bowden left his last baseball job under a cloud of incompetence and corruption, and the last time we heard from him he was wearing bright-seamed designer jeans and taking the Nationals to task for signings he himself made.  But hey, a rumor is a rumor, right! Take it away Jim: Despite denials…Yanks are in…

I usually wait for the blogs to start updating before I’ll write a “What they’re saying about . . .” post, but this Milton Bradley business has brought out everyone’s inner-Henny Youngman, and the one-liners are flying.  A sampling: Jesse Spector: “Cubs getting rid of a guy because he’s a pain in the ass. Mariners…

Larry Stone of the Seattle Times tweets that the Cubs are actually going to trade Milton Bradley to the Mariners for Carlos Silva.  An announcement could come later today. Holy Moses, it was more than just a rumor. Now all Seattle has to do is figure out where to play him. Left field seems the…

Monday through Wednesday, MLB.com was running a series about fixing the draft, dealing with international free agency, trading draft picks and hard slotting of draft pics, which I talked about here, here and here. It’s possible that I’ve gone temporarily insane, but I am certain that earlier in the week they had been scheduled to…

Cliff Lee thought he’d spend the rest of his baseball playing life in Philadelphia, saying “[a]t first I didn’t believe it. I thought we were working out an extension with the Phillies. I thought I would spend the rest of my career there.”  Ruben Amaro had other ideas, obviously, and it sounds like he was…

Yesterday we relayed word that the Dodgers and Reds were discussing a trade for Aaron Harang. Last night Yahoo!’s Tim Brown reported, based on word from a team source that such a deal was “not happening.” Probably for the best, at least from L.A.’s perspective. Because really, why would a team in the Dodgers’ financial…

That’s what Mark Feinsand of the Daily News reports, however it still wasn’t enough to get a deal done for Damon as the Yankees wouldn’t pay him $13 million per, even for two years. Assuming this is true, this is a case of Boras seriously misreading the market for his client, and ultimately doing him…

Not the San Francisco Giants. The City of San Francisco: City Attorney Dennis Herrera gave Major League Baseball a little chin music on Thursday, firing off a letter suggesting San Francisco would sue the league if it approves moving the Oakland Athletics to San Jose . . . “I need to make sure the interests…

Angelswin.com (found via MLB.com) reports that the Angels are interested in Braves’ starter Javier Vazquez.  That’s well and good, but the article only makes brief mention of Vazquez’s limited no trade clause that allows him to veto a deal to western division teams. A very personal clause for Vazquez, as the entire reason for it…

SI’s Jon Heyman writes that, despite the fact that that all of the other teams that need a left fielder are not really interested in Jason Bay, there is a “mystery team” in the running for him, making life harder for the Mets.  At the risk of falling into conspiracy theory land, I’m going to…

Yesterday I noted that Roy Halladay’s 9 year-old son is the one who allegedly pulled the trigger on the deal sending him to Philly and agreeing to the contract extension.  According to Baseball Prospectus’ Joe Sheehan, little Braden Halladay really made a bad deal: The story here is that one of the best players in…

If you happen to be in the greater Champaign, Illinois metroplex, I will be on WDWS 1400 with host Brian Moline talking about the St. Louis Cardinals and all things baseball in, oh, about ten minutes.  If you’re otherwise indisposed but just can’t get bear to miss me, they’ll have a link up to a…