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There’s no CC Sabathia available this offseason, but between John Lackey, Roy Halladay and Javier Vazquez, there are at least three options available for a team looking to upgrade the rotation.  ESPN’s Buster Olney looks at possible landing pads for each of them. There are no perfect fits, but Olney likes Lackey in Milwaukee of…

Because there hasn’t been a ton of baseball news in recent days, a lot of folks were talking about Sammy Sosa’s complexion: as in, he looked like a cross between later period Michael Jackson and a zombie when he showed up at the Latin Grammy Awards over the weekend.  No worries, says a friend of…

We’ve had a lot of blow by blow of the McCourt divorce, but today comes some added flavor in the form of a background piece on the power couple from the Boston Globe, their former hometown newspaper.  Lots of interesting detail, including one passage regarding their earlier bid to buy the Red Sox, which I…

There are a metric butt-ton of third basemen on the market this winter, so the Phillies decided that it was not worth paying their current one $5.5 million: The Phillies have declined the option for 2010 on third baseman Pedro Feliz’ contract, general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. announced in a press release. The Phillies had a…

At least to the San Jose Mercury News, he is: Though it won’t be on the same epic scale as a Jackie Robinson or a Muhammad Ali, who sacrificed considerable parts of themselves to bear necessary torches, Lincecum’s contribution will stand as part of another movement. When marijuana is fully decriminalized and legalized sometime in…

That’s one of the three proposed rule changes Nico of Athletics Nation makes this morning. He’s not just talking about manager visits: catcher and infielder pow-wows would be limited too.  His reasoning on that one is that conferences in every other sport are limited by the number of time outs and natural breaks in the…

There hasn’t been any definitive statement to this effect, but the Tribune’s Paul Sullivan says that the Cubs “are focusing on re-signing John Grabow in the next two weeks,” and that no one with the Cubs has said a word about Harden.  If John Grabow is at the top of the priority list, you have…

Sure, that’s an incendiary quote from Jerry Green’s latest column in the Detroit News, but it’s said in the service of a pretty interesting and slightly more nuanced “the Yankees are all that is wrong with baseball” column than we’ve seen in the past few days. Go beyond the headline and read the article.  The…

Fox’s Ken Rosenthal’s latest column has all kinds of tidbits to last you until kickoff this afternoon: An unnamed exec can’t feature the Red Sox pulling off a trade for Adrian Gonzalez that makes it worth the Padres’ while.  I agree with Rosenthal: the Padres shouldn’t be in any hurry to trade Gonzalez. Given that…

Last week rumors were circulating that Don Mattingly was negotiating with the Dodgers to become Joe Torre’s heir apparent.  I thought it was a bad move for Donnie Baseball to bypass offers and interviews from other teams because one never knows what the future might hold. For instance: the man you’re supposed to be succeeding…

The former Dodger (and six other teams’) pitcher is an Ohio native who has worked for the Tribe for several years now in one of those amorphous “special assistant” jobs. Mostly he’s been acting as a spring pitching coach, scout and traveling instructor. His mission, which he has now accepted: (a) try to get Fausto…

Here at CTB we’re going to hit you with news, rumors and commentary all offseason, so if you want, you can simply lock the page in, hit “refresh” over and over again between now and April and never miss a thing. But if you’re one of those types that just has to see what’s ahead, here’s a handy…

Girardi famously selected number 27 to serve as championship inspiration when he was hired last year. Yesterday he said that he may make a move to 28: That’s something I talked to Brian Cashman briefly about today. I think I will. I’ve got to talk to Shelley Duncan to see if he allows me to…

Seventy-nine players filed for free agency yesterday. The two teams with the most filers: the Cardinals with seven and the Dodgers with six. For the Cardinals: Rick Ankiel, Mark DeRosa, Troy Glaus, Khalil Greene, Matt Holliday, Jason LaRue and John Smoltz.  Off the top of my head in terms of “would I sign them-a-bilitiy”: yes, yes,…

It’s been five years since Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez were less-than-perfectly-friendly teammates, yet old bloody sock can’t seem to let things go. After talking about how he didn’t care all that much for Pedro’s sense of humor and laid back personality back in Boston, Schilling brought some seriously oblivious irony to the table: “You…

“Andy, I think you left for three years to go run a Dairy Queen or something.” – David Letterman to Andy Pettitte last night, subtly reminding everyone that the “Core Four” weren’t all with the Yankees since 1995. It’s a cheap shot, though.  Dairy Queen at least has Blizzards. In contrast, there’s very little enjoyment…

For those of you who think that tooth-and-nail competition ended with Victorino’s groundout last night, you couldn’t be more wrong. The McCourts will have the first of what are sure to be many offseason hearings in there divorce battle cum power struggle later today, and unlike some of the stuff that will come later, this one…

Here are the first two I’ve seen of what I am sure will be many sour grapes reactions to the Yankees’ title today: Kevin Cowherd of the Baltimore Sun: I hate the Yankees. I feel like crying whenever they win. Still, it was inevitable that the season finish this way. The Yankees were the best team in…

Take it away Jimmy: “They were the better team this series. Do I think we’re the better team? I really do. They just executed.” Um, yeah. Look, I wasn’t critical of Rollins’ prediction before the Series, because if I was the manager of a team I’d want my players to think they’re going to win.…

Let’s take a trip around the blogosphere: Baseball Prospectus: “Maybe Joe Girardi does overmanage. Maybe Alex Rodriguez really is a choker Centaur. Maybe the new Stadium doesn’t have ghosts. What they all have now is a new championship banner and a set of rings on the way. Whether this was for George (as Selig said) or for…

Anyone else feel that the post-clinch champagne celebrations feel scripted and rote by now?  Like it’s something that players feel obligated to do as opposed to something done spontaneously? Are you telling me that a guy like Nick Swisher couldn’t, if baseball’s social conventions allowed it, find a more interesting way to celebrate than by…

You saw it, and even if you didn’t, Matthew has told you all of the details (any he missed can be found here). Now’s the time for some random impressions: An obviously gutsy performance from Andy Pettitte on short rest. He didn’t seem to suffer much for it, which is amazing considering the mileage on…

I do my best to avoid Mike Lupica whenever possible, but my buddy Jason alerts me to the latest bit of wisdom from the New York Daily News’ alpha dog: Joe Girardi knows the deal as well as he knows his way out to the mound. He’s right about using only three starters in the…

Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Inquirer offers five possible explanations for Ryan Howard’s struggles during the World Series: (1) He’s putting too much pressure on himself; (2) That’s just baseball. Slumps happen; (3) The time off between the NLCS and World Series cost him his “mojo”; (4) The Yankees pitchers are just executing; and (5)…

Or, if they’re tied or losing, who comes out of the pen late?  Lidge? Madson? Even when his usage suggested that he was going with the hot hand (or, in this case, the less cold hand) Charlie Manuel has at least verbally insisted for most of the postseason that Brad Lidge is still the guy. Now? He’s…