Jason Heyward casts a pretty massive shadow, but the NL East is home to three more terrific right field prospects in Philadelphia’s Domonic Brown, New York’s Fernando Martinez and Florida’s Mike Stanton. Stanton may even have a chance to become the best of the bunch. Heresy? Perhaps. I’d certainly take Heyward, but Stanton’s incredible strength…

It’s safe to say I’ve given up on my hopes of becoming a major league GM. But if a reader hits the lottery, buys a team and decides to give me a shot, know that there’s a couple of rules I’d live by: 1. Never give multiyear deals to bench players 2. Don’t re-sign veterans…

I’ve made some comments this afternoon about Ryan Howard likely declining. I’m not a stats guy, though, so I’m just making some guesses, albeit guesses informed by history.  Bill Baer at the Phillies’ blog Crashburn Alley is a stats guy, however, and in the course of assessing the wisdom of the Howard contract extension, he…

“If Howard is worth $25 million, Pujols is worth $50 million a year.” – ESPN’s Keith Law on the Ryan Howard extension. Hyperbole? Sure, but not as much as a lot of folks think.  If I represent Pujols I start the bidding at $35 million, though I’d probably be willing to come down to $30…

The Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman made a pinch hitting appearance yesterday, but his hamstring is still bothering him and he won’t start in tonight’s game against the Cubs. Zimmerman hasn’t played a full game since last Wednesday. Adam Kennedy is taking his place at third. You have to figure, though, that if he can’t go soon,…

I’ve not yet seen any statements from the Phillies on this, but in light of the Howard extension, is it at all likely that they’ll be able to sign Jayson Werth once he hits free agency this fall? As of now, the Phillies’ contractual obligations for 2012 are $87 million for a mere eight players…

Anytime something big like the Ryan Howard extension goes down the repercussions can be felt all throughout the Greater Baseballosphere.  The extension was announced scarcely an hour ago, but it’s probably worth tallying up the winners and losers of the deal: Winners Ryan Howard: Now that he has his extension, he will no longer have…

Longtime catcher and current television announcer Kevin Kennedy was taking a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Florida over the weekend when a fellow passenger rose from his seat and threatened to blow up the plane. What happened next is … well, I’ll let Kennedy explain: Wow. I’ve never thought much of Kennedy as an…

Ryan Howard is making $19 million this year and will get $20M in 2011.  Now, courtesy of the extension he just signed, he’ll make $20 million in 2012 and 2013 as well, and $25M per year for 2014, 2015 and 2016. There’s a team option for 2017 at $23M with $10M buyout. He also gets…

After pitching for the Giants in the second half last season Brad Penny shut out his former teammates for seven innings last night, improving to 3-0 with a 0.94 ERA on the year. Penny looks to be the latest in a long line of veteran starters who turned things around and had more success than…

UPDATE:  Done deal. 5 years, $125 million. It kicks in starting in 2012.  This seems like a really bad, really unnecessary move for the Phillies. More later on this, of course. 2:20 P.M.: Part of what we do here is pass along rumors. When it’s one that I’m really dubious about, I make extra sure…

Earlier today I made a comment about how talk radio would go crazy on Javier Vazquez. I haven’t listened to any New York talk radio today to see if they have, but regardless, I owe the radio people an apology for suggesting that they have a monopoly on overreaction. Web writers are just as capable…

When he signed a minor-league contract with the Red Sox during spring training Alan Embree had the right to opt out of the deal if he wasn’t on the major-league roster by April 15. Once that date arrived and the Red Sox had no plans to promote him Embree extended the deadline to April 30,…

1. Rays:  Ho-hum, another two of three in each of their series last week. It’s exactly that kind of tick-tock boredom that is the stuff of division titles. 2. Yankees:  If one bum starting pitcher is your biggest problem, you’re doing pretty well. 3. Twins: Beating up on the Indians and the Royals may not…

Sidelined since the end of spring training with an oblique injury, Joe Blanton is scheduled to make his third and final minor league rehab start Wednesday. Blanton threw just three innings in his previous outing, so he’ll need to increase his pitch count significantly in order to rejoin the Phillies’ rotation as planned next week.…

It’s the only time Bombers are allowed there: Jeter and his teammates will make the trip from Baltimore to Washington to visit wounded veterans Monday morning at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, then proceed to the White House to meet with President Obama Monday afternoon. My understanding is that only those players who were…

Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports that the Red Sox have signed Cuban catcher Adalberto Ibarra for $4.3 million. According to Abraham he gets a major-league deal, which means the 22-year-old Ibarra will immediately be placed on the 40-man roster and his options clock will start ticking. I haven’t been able to find much…

The White Sox’ Andruw Jones has gotten off to a fantastic start: .292/.404/.708 with six home runs, including the walkoff job on Friday night.  Is the guy who once wowed us with his defense back to being a productive player after years in the wilderness? Not so fast says FanGraph’s R.J. Anderson, who notes that…

Usually when we talk about “tools” on this blog, we’re talking about those players who are able to run fast, throw hard, hit the ball far and be almost completely unable to actually play the game of baseball. Sports Business Journal has an article up about tools today, however, and they sound like something that…