Frayed Knot

Player1st2nd3rdPoints Longoria2800140 Ramirez (2B Chi)018559 Ellsbury07526 Also: Mike Aviles - Royals (9) Armando Galaraga - Tigers (9) Joey Devine - Oakland (3) Denard Span - Twins (3) Nick Blackbrun - Twins (1) Joba Chamberlain - Yanx (1) Brad Ziegler - A's (1) Player1st2nd3rdPoints Soto3110158 Votto121876 Jurrgens061634 Also: Edison Volquez - Reds (9) Jay Bruce - Reds (7) Kosuke Fukudome - Cubs (4)

Jon Heyman (SI/WFAN) is reporting that the Rox are on the verge of dealing OFer Matt Holliday to Oakland. Not known at this time who would be going in return. If true it would certainly be a departure for Oakland, trading for a 1-year rental as opposed to under-control players who they then deal when they're on the cusp of FA-gency. St Louis, and possibly Philly, were considered the front-runners.

Evan Longoria and Geovany Soto

]... one of the fears I have about the new place is that it will a hitters ballpark. They claim they designed it to be, like Shea, a fair to somewhat pitcher-friendly park -- but you never really know until you play there for a while. Both Philly & Cincy supposedly failed to account for how the winds would affect things and got a lot more HRs than they anticipated.

or does it look like the foul lines are going to run into the stands about 75 feet behind each base?

]I'm sure it'll be changed (by me or someone) ... We may cajole, browbeat or humiliate you into changing your vote but no one will change it for you. And besides, your list is closer to the overall consensus than anyone's. That said, you may want to explain how you have Feliciano with his 24 ER, 57 Hits & 26 BBs ranked ahead of Wagner and his 12, 32 & 10 in almost the same amount of IPs (53 v 47)

Latest rumors concerning our incoming Prez's favorite team have them making OFer Jermaine Dye available also. I wasn't so sold on this guy earlier in his career. After he took more than a year to come back from that broken leg he suffered during a playoff game against the Yanx I kind of prematurely put him into the older, fragile and on the decline category. But he's put together some nice seasons since (500+ ABs for 5 years running - almost none as DH) including last year's .292/.344/.541 w/41 2Bs & 34 HRs He'd be a different kind of player than Swisher: older (35 in Jan), RH hitter (that's good), more expensive initially ($11.5mil) and less versatile & athletic. But in some ways less of a risk in that he's not coming off a bad year, would only be one year (there's a mutual option for 2010) and maybe less expensive in terms of trade bait. Think of him as a younger, less injury-prone version of Alou. He has at least partial no-trade rights so that may factor into things.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: "former New York Mets head coach Willie Randolph" Anyone who calls a baseball manager a "head coach" isn't much of a baseball follower. Like ESPN, who ran a graphic a few weeks back identifying Charlie Manuel as Philly's "Head Coach"

Carter upon arriving at the Ducks home park (Citibank Park) for the press conference: "On man, I thought I was getting the job at CitiField"

The Shack got Tootise-rolled

I'm not even sure the Dodgers are guaranteeing the 3rd year at this point. Tim Kurkjian mentioned something about 2-for-$45 with an option for a 3rd year, not a whole lot more than he was due to get from Boston (2x$20). Boras says he wants 6 years ... um yeah.

Seems to me that I've heard 'Yanx skimping on their rent' stories crop up every couple of years for about 1/4 century now and nothing ever comes of any of them.

AL: P - Mussina C - Mauer 1B - Pena 2B - Pedroia SS - Young 3B - Beltre OF - Ichiro, Hunter, Sizemore

Lunchbucket goes high (higher than anyone) on Feliciano after trashing him all year as Mr. Put-the-Leadoff-Batter-On. High also on Heilman; low (lowest actually) on Church

They're not even planning on wrecking it for a while and I think it'll still be up as the season starts next year (hey, it's only parkland they're taking up). As it is they've got some carry-the-dirt to the new joint ceremony planned in the near future.

Iubitul wrote: That is eye-opening. I never would have thought Maddux would have been at the top of the assists list with the number of innings he pitched. Lotsa grounders, fewer Ks

It's not bad - interior is better than the exterior IMO which is basically what I thought of the old one. It's just that it's not anything new or different as compared to the old joint and, as mentioned, what exactly about it costs double (or more) what every other stadium seems to cost?

Yeah, that was the only one where Beltran was at least top 3 as VCFC's was the lone one where Santana wasn't either 1st or 2nd. Other than those, the ones I listed were those which varied from the current consensus by at least 4 slots one way or the other. Perhaps not surprisingly, the relievers are more over the map than most others. Wagner: as high as 25, as low as 13 Murphy: 21 - 11 (PotG) Feliciano: 14 - 4 Heilman: 19 (PotG) - 1 Pedro: 18 (PotG) - 2 Stokes: 13 - 4 Figueroa: 11 - off list Ayala: 10 - off

If you want some argument starter-offers then these could serve as a jumping off point. As compared to the emerging (but as yet incomplete) consensus: - Transmonk is noticably high on Pedro & Marlon Anderson low on Castro - Vic Sage is high on (possibly various things) but also Ayala low on Feliciano - Vince Firecracker is high on Murphy, Stokes, Figueroa & Vargas low on Santana, Heilman, Feliciano & Easley - FMan is high on Evans low on Sanchez - AG/DC is high on Wagner & Casanova low on Murphy & Pedro - Smg58 is high on Wagner, Murphy, Heilman & Ayala low on Perez, Sanchez, Feliciano, - NYmr is high on Stokes & Casanova low on Castillo & Heilman - Grimm is high on (pop tarts) plus Feliciano, Stokes & Ayala low on Castro & Heilman - GWreck is high on Alou low on Pedro _ Frayed Knot is high on Pedro low on Schoeneweis ... so you can take those variances to either review your vote to see if it needs adjusting or to make a case as to why others should be seeing things your way.

Such a deal would save the ChiSox (and therfore cost the Mets) approx $20+mil over the next 3 years: $43mil (2 seasons of Vaz, 3 of Swish) minus $18mil (3 seasons of Castillo), + $3 ? (Arb-decided $ for Heilman/Sanchez) + Minimum for Kunz

The pigtails (IIRC) was how they gathered it in order to get a good hunk to chop off. I don't think he ever played that way. IOW, that picture may be from the day he publicly got it snipped. Papa Steve did the cutting.

Excerpts from Dave van Dyck - Chicago Tribune: Could the White Sox trade Javier Vazquez and Nick Swisher, their two biggest disappointments last season? -- according to the rumor mill at baseball's general managers meetings Tuesday, Ken Williams is actively shopping both. Williams was cryptic when asked about Swisher. - Does he expect Swisher to come back and perform well? -- "Yes" - Does he expect Swisher to hit more than .219? -- "Yes." - Will Swisher play center field? -- "No." - Then what happens to him? -- "It's a long off-season." - Has he listened to offers for his veterans? -- "A lot," he replied. So what could the Sox get in return? While that is not completely clear, the feeling about Vazquez seems to be someone else's big contract, offsetting his $23 million for two years. The Mets might offer disappointing second baseman Luis Castillo, who is owed $18 million over three years. The Sox could use a second baseman, with Alexei Ramirez slated for shortstop. What Swisher would be worth is unknown, but he hit only .133 in his final 27 games and was mostly a failure as a leadoff man. He also is owed $21 million for three years.

Hey, he wasn't just somone who stumbled onto a gold glove, he was one of the chosen!

I'm not sure if it's a wig in that picture or not - but he did at one point grow his hair for an entire winter and into the next spring before donating it to a cancer-related charity which uses it for wig-making.

Brad Penny's option NOT picked up by Dodgers.