Announcement in the media room: “Folks, we’re aware of the Internet problems here in the room.  We’re working on it. But if you could, please try to refrain from streaming any audio or video for the time being.  Thanks.” I’ve got a Verizon card that’s going at about a million miles an hour, so it…

Houston has an opening at closer after Jose Valverde declined arbitration and an empty setup spot with LaTroy Hawkins is headed to Milwaukee, so the Astros are reportedly pursuing trades for Matt Lindstrom of the Marlins and Rafael Soriano of the Braves. Soriano surprisingly accepted Atlanta’s arbitration offer and because the Braves have already rebuilt…

Randy Wolf just signed for $29.75 million over three years.  Jayson Stark is reporting that Joel Piniero thinks the he’s the No. 2 starter on market behind Lackey.  That means that he wants more than Wolf, which sets him up at about $10 million bucks a year. You have to figure he wants three years…

Jim Leyland just sat for his press conference and had a couple of good lines. When asked about what losing Placido Polanco to the Phillies means, Leyland said “He’s like an old shoe. You know, sometimes you wanna go out and get some shiny new shoes, but you’re not gonna have anything more comfortable than…

UPDATE:  The Brewers have signed LaTroy Hawkins. It’s a two year deal. Not sure on the money yet, but it’s all done but for the physical. 11:29 A.M. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (and others) are reporting that the Brewers are getting close to signing setup man LaTroy Hawkins.  Nightengale says that the Brewers have a…

The Red Sox claimed the other Ramon Ramirez off release waivers from the Rays on Wednesday, giving them two right-handers pitchers with the same name. The newcomer, Ramon A. Ramirez, was claimed off waivers by the Rays last month, only to be released four weeks later. The 27-year-old was previously ditched by the Reds, even…

Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun reports that the Orioles are “very close” to acquiring Kevin Millwood from the Rangers in exchange for Chris Ray. This morning the newspaper noted that Baltimore would assume the bulk of Millwood’s remaining contract, which pays him $12 million in 2010, so that’s presumably why Texas is willing to…

The Tigers would “love” to come up with a three-team trade that would result in them surrendering Carlos Guillen and landing Juan Pierre, says FOXSports.com’s Jon Paul Morosi. Now, we’re still rather skeptical about Morosi as a national guy, but he did work for the Detroit Free Press before joining FOX. He should know about…

Question: What did you think of Hideki Matsui’s World Series performance? Another question: Would you like to have a player like Hideki Matsui in your lineup? That’s a question my buddy from the Japanese press corp. is going to be asking Bob Geren soon based on this report from John Shea about Matsui maybe going…

To me the most surprising aspect of the big three-team Curtis Granderson trade is that the Diamondbacks were willing to give up on Max Scherzer, who just moments before the deal was talked up by Arizona manager A.J. Hinch as a future ace and has always looked to me like a potentially dominant starter. Scherzer…

An hour or so ago Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman said that the Mets were talking to John Lackey, Matt Holliday and Jason Bay “with renewed hopes to sign 1 of big 3.”  This contrasts with the general consensus here in Indy — especially among the New York writers – that the Mets aren’t really players…

Randy Wolf has had a three-year offer on the table from the Brewers for at least 48 hours and after unsuccessfully shopping around for something better the free agent left-hander has finally decided to sign with Milwaukee. He’ll reportedly get $29.75 million over three years and the deal also includes a fourth-year team option for…

Earlier this week there was speculation that Boston would be interested in Adrian Beltre if he declined arbitration from Seattle, and now that he’s done so WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford reports that “the Red Sox might be trying to position themselves to make a run” at the free agent third baseman. In order for Beltre to…

Ever since his famous falling out with Scott Boras, Gary Sheffield has acted as his own agent.  He informed the Globe’s Pete Abraham this morning that four teams have contacted him with interest for 2010. Sheffield thinks he can still play the field a bit, and he seems to think that he can hang around…

It’s not super serious yet — Smoltz is talking to a lot of teams — but his people did meet with the Phillies contingent here at the Marriott this morning. And of course, in light of Jamie Moyer’s health problems, Philadelphia does have an opening for an ancient-swingman.

UPDATE:  The deal is now confirmed at $11.75M Heyman tweets that the Yankees are about to sign Andy Pettitte to a one-year, $12 million deal (UPDATE: Joel Sherman says it’s actually $11.75m — we’ll see who’s right later).  The deal will be finalized today.  $12 million is about what he got last year once all…

Kevin Correia said last night that he expects to be non-tendered by the Padres if the two sides can’t agree on a contract for 2010 by the end of the week. Correia is arbitration eligible for the first time after going 12-11 with a 3.91 ERA in 33 starts and the Padres are worried about…

If the rumors and tweets and deals aren’t your cup of team lar at Wezen-Ball has a fun feature up today. He went back through contemporaneous newspaper accounts of every single person who was considered the highest paid player in baseball, if even he only held that status for a day or so like Mark…

Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus is the first person I’ve seen defend the Pudge Rodriguez deal: But it many ways, this deal isn’t about Pudge at all. If you are the Nationals, who is the most important player on your roster? It’s Stephen Strasburg, and it’s by a country mile. Could there really be anything…

There has been varying amounts of chatter regarding a possible Luis Castillo trade this week, but it’s probably time to put the kibosh on it.  The Post’s Joel Sherman: [The Mets] told agt for 2B they were interested in that they now think dealing Castillo unlikely: “Don’t hold your breath” was the exact term. If…