Ron Santo :love:

ESPN had some interesting stats abut the Marlins spending in how they already have spent more on 5 players ($65 million) than their team salary last season ($60 million) and if they get Pujols, they reach about $100-$110 million in overall salary.

Starting offer for Pujols is around $198 million based on what the Cards offered in Spring Training.

Mets could potentially trade away David Wright but the GM right now says it is not an option.

Red Sox management denies Bobby Valentine's request of getting Bill Buckner as part of the coaching staff.

One can only dream.

Dodgers continue to sign every utility infielder they can find to a multi-year deal. Just signed Jerry Hairston Jr. to a 2 year deal.

So Valentine replaces Francona, and rumor has it that Francona may replace Valentine on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.

That would be pretty sweet.

It's confirmed on ESPN.

Marlins put in a 10 year offer to Albert Pujols.

poor Gaby Sanchez :(

Where is all the Hate on the Marlins? If this was the Yankees or BoSox Free Spending there would be all sorts of Hate.

That is ridiculous. Don't they get a bump in payroll with the new stadium though?

Even so, still unreal.

History would say that Reyes and Pujols would both miss decent amounts of time, and the Marlins still don't have the greatest pitching staff, but the NL East is looking to become quite scary in the next few years.

Jays deal prospect Nestor Molina to the White Sox for Sergio Santos.

White Sox trade Sergio Santos to the Blue Jays for Nestor Molina. Molina's numbers while be it in Class A are interesting 148 K's 14 walks in 130 innings pitched. Short term Blue Jays are winner. Long term could be interesting. Either way Gertner must be thrilled

Molina was a beast in AA/High A last year, but we have sooo much depth at pitching that I can live with this,.

Shores up your closers position for sure

Our bullpen is pretty sad so anything is better than nothing.

This is not even close to the same thing.

People hate on the Yankees and Red Sox because they're always the teams that spend money to get the big names year after year after year. They destroy the competitive balance of the sport. The Marlins are just trying to become one of the haves instead of being one of the have nots.

That being said, if the Marlins become consistent spenders, people will start to hate them. It happened to Philadelphia pretty quickly. It'll happen to Miami too.

If the Marlins sign Pujols, the Mets' draft pick compensation drops to a 4th rounder. Thank god they're getting rid of Elias rankings cause I still don't see how Heath Bell had a better rating than Reyes.

Explain this...why does the Mets Comp Pick drop in that case? Like why does the Marlins spending EVEN MORE and taking away from others then cause the Mets compensation to drop?

Because Bell and Pujols if they get him are higher on the whole Elias rankings list. Pretty positive the Marlins first round pick is protected next year because of where they ended the season record wise. If they got Pujols their next available pick (2nd rounder) goes to the Cardinals, 3rd rounder goes to the Padres for Bell and 4th would go to the Mets. Its all based on how the players rank in the Elias thing which is kind of stupid.

woooo Kevin Slowey up in this motherfucker

<font color=goldenrod>The Mets are now no longer looking for a veteran right hand hitting catcher to tutor Thole and help the pitching staff, despite there being many affordable options on the market. Instead, they will go with Mike Nickeas who has subpar defense and has hit .190 in his 2 stints with the Mets.

LOL jesus christ. Can't even afford a backup catcher. :| The best thing that can happen to this franchise is that they have the worst record in baseball in 2012. May as well just go all out on the rebuild and get the #1 pick in 2013.</font>

Evening round-up (This is gonna be a long one):

A third team is in the mix for Albert Pujols' services. The Cardinals and Marlins put 10-year, $200+ mil. offers to him. No word yet on which team it is, but there's a longshot this could go down tonight.

Mark Buehrle's suitors are down to a teams. 1 unknown, the others are the Marlins, Rangers, Nats, and Twins.

Mets were combing the reliver market and settled in Jon Rauch. 1-year deal pending physical.

Roy Oswalt wants a 3-year deal. But he already told his agent to wait for Wilson and Buehrle to make their deals first.

Cardinals are open to trading Jake Westbrook and Kyle Lohse.

Finally, an MLB team won the bidding for Hiroyuki Nakajima. As of now, it ain't the red sox.

Wouldn't make sense for the Red Sox to go after Nakajima considering they are stacked at the SS spot with young players and its guaranteed to be Jose Iglesias spot once he's ready.

Wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs are the third team in the Pujols sweepstakes.

<font color=goldenrod>Not excited about the Rauch deal, but whatever. He should be able to bounce back in spacious Citi Field. BUT...

Giants get: OF Angel Pagan
Mets get: RP Ramon Ramirez, OF Andres Torres

Now that is a trade I can sink my teeth into. Ramirez was awesome last year, Pagan needed a change of scenery, and this frees up room for Captain Kirk to be in center field at some point in 2012.</font>

Now add Frank Francisco to the mix.

Already been reported that the Cubs made an offer. No details on offer. I think Pujos his staying in St. Louis.

Rauch is garbage. Francisco had a nice second half for my Jays.

Angels are after Pujols now, kind of hoping they get him

Hanley Ramirez says he's not moving to 3rd base. Probably should've asked him before they signed Reyes.

Alright Skip, I follow the Rockies every year all year during the regular season, but never pay attention to baseball's offseason. Are they consistently this jewy? I mean, obv they shelled out cash to Tulo and Gonzales, but I don't think I've ever heard of them paying for a FA I've ever heard of. EDUCATE ME BRO

Just let them play right next to each other.

They generally don't like to spend too much on Free Agency, they're mostly more interested in keeping their own guys locked up and making more small moves in Free Agency. I think it's mostly because of the Mike Hampton signing and not wanting to overestimate free agents.

Should be making a few trades in the next couple days at least though.

So Pujols wants no-trade protection for the first five years of his deal.

Marlins president, David Samson: “We don’t do no-trade clauses.”

I think the best hitter in the game would warrant an exception.

Read that here: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/a...t-offer-120611

Before I thought Hanley had said he had no problem moving to third for Reyes. I wonder what changed his mind.

MLB is the first pro-sport in North America to issue dress guidelines for all media.


http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/73...-media-members

<font color=goldenrod>9th: Francisco
7th and 8th: Ramirez/Rauch

Potentially bumping Bobby Parnell to a middle reliever, where I think he might thrive more since he just doesn't have the proper closer mentality. Parnell in the 6th is a good problem to have.

I seem to be the only Mets fan excited about Ramirez. He's been a quality reliever for 4 straight seasons now. I think the fanbase in general is just conditioned to good relievers coming to NY and just flaking out...but he's still better than what we have now so I like it.</font>

Padres aquire Huston Street from the Rockies for a PTBNL.

Yankees end up winning the bidding for japanese SS Hiroyuki Nakajima. Only bid $2 mil. As usual, the team has 30 days to negotiate a deal.

Chatter going around is A. Nakajima wanted to land with a west coast team. And B. will he play second fiddle to Derek Jeter?