Thanks to the curly mullet, the swing-from-his-heels approach and the big postseason homer in Philly last year, Matt Stairs would be awesome even if he didn’t have a street named after him.  Now, however, he has a street named after him: On Saturday, the free-agent rightfielder, who played for the Phillies the past two seasons,…

Mike DiGiovanna and Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times write that both the Dodgers and the Angels are limited in what they can do this offseason due to payroll restrictions.  The Angels have roughly $12 million to work with.  The Dodgers have their own problems of course, but even if you don’t look at the…

An unnamed executive is telling Rosenthal and Morosi that, even though the Red Sox continue to negotiate with Jason Bay, they probably don’t want to sign him as long as Matt Holliday is out there. Why?  Compensation pick politics.  If they lose the type-A free agent Bay, they get two picks — a first round…

The Diamond Notes blog translates an article from El Nuevo Herald (a McClatchy-published Spanish language paper published in Miami) in which it is reported that Jose Contreras, late of his apparently unsuccessful workouts for the Softbank Hawks — is likely to end up with the Rockies, Diamondbacks or Dodgers. The paper also reports that two…

Well, I didn’t actually, but someone did: Indians center fielder Grady Sizemore says legal action has been taken after pictures of himself in various stages of dress and undress appeared on an Internet site Sunday morning. “These pictures were stolen illegally from my girlfriend’s email,” Sizemore told The Plain Dealer on Sunday night. “It’s now…

For those of you who have lost track of the Oakland A’s stadium saga, know that you haven’t missed a ton.  Owner Lew Wolff still wants to go to San Jose — he calls it “the only option” in a recent San Jose sales pitch masquerading as a profile on the A’s situation — and…

WEEI’s Alex Speier breaks down Roy Halladay’s recent workload in light of his age and asks whether teams considering trading for the guy are taking on more risk than they think: While Halladay’s performance over the last 10 seasons has been little short of remarkable, that is no guarantee of what he might contribute over…

Marlins GM Michael Hill told 790 The Ticket’s Hot Stove Show that there was no chance Josh Johnson would be traded this winter. “Yes, I can say with certainty, yes,” Hill said when asked if Johnson would remain with the team into next season. Johnson trade speculation started nine days ago, when he and the…

“He has always made it clear that his drive is to win. That’s why he’s the great player he is. But you can’t do it alone. He knows that. We know that. He wants to be sure that we’re going to have a competitive team, and that is our objective every year. We do have…

Eight teams, including the White Sox, Cubs, Braves and Mets, have interest in free agent Takashi Saito, according to a Sponichi report passed along by Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker. Saito, who turns 40 in February, posted a 2.42 ERA, 1.35 WHIP and 52/25 K/BB ratio in 55 2/3 innings with the Red Sox in…

December 12th is the deadline for teams to decide whether to tender contracts to unsigned players on their 40-man roster. With that in mind, this is the second in a series (here’s the first one) regarding some of the most likely non-tender candidates and where they may find new homes. Though this assessment is based…

Looking to upgrade your club this winter, but aren’t thrilled with the available options in free agency? Well, the cost-conscious Tigers could be baseball’s one-stop-shop. In his latest piece for FOXSports.com, Jon Paul Morosi conjures up 10 clubs as possible fits for Detroit’s three most talked about stars – Curtis Granderson, Edwin Jackson and Miguel…

What happens when baseball writers are bored during the Thanksgiving holiday? They try to find out if two million people actually attended the Phillies’ World Series parade in 2008. Here’s a sampling of some of the investigative work of Peter Mucha of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Along that four-mile stretch – about 21,000 feet – crowds…

In his Sunday “Whispers” column, Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune writes that the Cubs are serious about acquiring Curtis Granderson from the Tigers but have made it known that they will not give up closer Carlos Marmol or prospect shortstop Starlin Castro. Rogers speculates that the Tigers could ask for 23-year-old right-hander Andrew Cashner…

The Pirates got all extension-happy last offseason, but according to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, don’t look for it to happen again this winter: Do not expect any multiyear extensions this offseason. Unlike last year, when the Pirates went long term with Paul Maholm, Nate McLouth and Ryan Doumit, management has no plan to…

Bill Madden of the New York Daily News put together a Thanksgiving themed “Top 10 Baseball Turkeys” of 2009. If you really care, he names former Mets VP of player development Tony Bernazard as the top turkey, however the most interesting passage was about Marlins president David Samson, who finished sixth on his list: The…

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe is back with his latest batch of Hot Stove morsels. While his Sunday column is always worth a complete read, here’s just a few items of interest. – General manager Theo Epstein would prefer not to give up Clay Buchholz and Casey Kelly for Roy Halladay. The Red Sox…

The reaction was largely positive at the time. Positive from Twins fans, that is. The Rays didn’t even have fans yet. On this day two years ago, the Twins acquired Delmon Young, Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie from the Rays for Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett and Eduardo Morlan. It was the first big move for…

The unintended fallout from Saturday’s report in Venezuelan newspaper Diario Panorama regarding free agent Marco Scutaro is yet another cautionary tale of what can happen when Hot Stove news is misinterpreted. Augusto Cardenas, who conducted the interview with Scutaro, wrote in a series of “tweets” that the Red Sox, Dodgers, Mariners and Rangers were among…

“I’d be less surprised if Elijah showed up at my parents’ house this Passover than if they trade him before the start of the season.” – Josh Johnson’s agent Matt Sosnick, during an interview with FOXSports.com. According to two sources with knowledge of the club’s intentions, the Marlins do not plan to trade the 25-year-old…