Only major news bits today are Red Sox get Brad Emaus from the Rockies for a PTBNL and the Giants sign Ryan Vogelsong to a 2-year, $8 mil. deal.

I don't know about your clubs, but the there's 40 days until pitchers & catchers report for the Yankees. Oswalt already dropped his asking price, but I'll bet Fielder, Jackson, and Kuroda will drop their asking prices within the next couple weeks.

<font color=goldenrod>lol Emaus :( thought he was gonna wind up being a great pickup for the Mets when they got him in last year's Rule 5 draft</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Astros claim Fernando Martinez off waivers from the Mets, thus ending the tenure of one of the biggest bust prospects in Mets history. He's still only 23 but he'd been hyped heavily since being signed at 16. He also has an arthritic knee already.</font>

hey what's Lastings Milledge doing these days

He's going over to Japan. Good for him!

wanna go to so many spring training games this year

like 3 a week would be great

Evening round-up (from mlbtraderumors.com):

Cubs fans, rejoice. Kerry Wood is staying in Chicago. No details on the numbers yet.

There are rumors going around that the Red Sox offered Jason Varitek a minor league deal with an invite to spring training to compete with Salty and Shoppach for a spot on the main roster. Ben Cherington denies it.

Mets sign Ronny Cedeno to a 1-year, $1.2 mil. deal with incentives.

Brave keep Jack Wilson around. 1-year, $1 mil. deal with $500k in incentives.

Finally, asking prices have apparently dropped for Roy Oswalt, Hiroki Kuroda, and Edwin Jackson. Oswalt will take 1-year, $8 mil., Kuroda wants $10-$11 mil. for 1 year, and Jackson still wants his 5 years but no word and how much he went down in value.

Uh, apparently the Yankees just traded Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda.

I dunno, I definitely think its fair for both sides but the Yankees homer in me would have loved to keep Montero since the team has pitching options in the minors, but no hitting options even relatively close.

Whoa

Ditto to that.

So, uh, who's catching?

Russell Martin.

Who's DHing?

God I hope not Prince.

Really have no idea. It'd make sense for A-Rod to start getting more days at DH. I'd imagine they go for a cheap signing like Damon or something like that.

LOL. Yankees sign Hiroki Kuroda to a one year deal.

Love this move, been thinking he'd be a great move all winter.

What a difference one night makes in the look of their rotation. Sabathia-Pineda-Kuroda-Nova-Hughes/Garcia/Burnett.

Most likely "NO CHANCE" not unless we can get Fielder for a nice 2-3 year contract. NOT GONNA HAPPEN.

As the days pass I still think Fielder is gonna end up on the same team as Darvish will end up on.

I think it makes sense for the Rangers to sign Darvish and Fielder. Some say the Rangers don't have the money but I think they can manage.

Let's go.

Pineda. Meh. Had a bad second half.

Fielder is most likely going to the Rangers considering he's currently having discussions with the team and no other big money club has shown any interest in getting him. Rangers are probably his last chance at getting a large deal unless the Cubs make a serious offer or the Nationals really go overboard in a deal to lure him.

Shocked at the Yankees moving Montero considering how much hype and development they put into him especially as their future catcher now that Posada is gone.

They said the same thing about Teixeira.

HOT FUCKING STOVE

<font color=goldenrod>Feel like Fielder can pretty much be penciled in as the Yankees DH. Just seems like it would be a classic Yankee move to still wind up getting one of the top free agents, except this time they'll get him for less than expected.</font>

Don't make me sound the Vito suicide watch alarm.

<font color=goldenrod>Nah, the Yankees being really good on paper is a given every year and it doesn't even register at this point. Ditto for the Red Sox. Those two teams may not always make the playoffs and they might have absurd collapses, but they are the two teams who you know will at least be in serious contention all season. Barring a massive overhaul in the way baseball is structured I can't envision a scenario in which one, nevermind both, of those teams go into a season expected to suck.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>Come to think, the Vito Suicide Alarm can probably be put away for the entire 2012 season. It's the first year I can remember in which the Mets not only had a bad team on paper, but EVERY team in the division looks markedly better. At least in 2004 the entire division looked bad outside of the Braves. Anything that goes right this season is absolute gravy.

It'll probably gonna be good for my health that I'll be able to laugh off terrible Mets play instead of having it ruin my night.</font> :o

hope Prince signs with the Rangers

also hope the Rangers keep signing huge free agents every year until they win the World Series

Carrie Muskat @CarrieMuskat 18m

#Cubs announce new patio deck in RF bleachers at Wrigley. Will add 70-foot LED board


____________________


Fucking awful.

eww

The only thing that makes me feel good, as a Red Sox fan, about the Yankees getting Pineda is their history of acquiring young pitching phenoms. Jeff Weaver, Javier Vazquez, Carl Pavano, etc.

http://www.metsblog.com/wordpress/wp...ilmanjaro1.jpg

<font color=goldenrod>R.A. Dickey</font> :love:

Now he just has to get down.

Evening round-up (from mlbtraderumors.com):

Another day closer to spring training, more players cut their deals.

The storyline for this week is wether the Rangers will the able to sign Yu Darvish by the tuesday deadline. Both sides agree on the money, but the big sticking point is the years. Rangers want him for 6, Darvish wants 5 so he can get back on the free agent market ASAP.

Brewers sign Cesar Izturis to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.

Twins sign Joel Zumaya. 1-year, $800k. He can get $1.7 mil. altogether with incentives.

Blue Jays and Colby Rasmus avoid arb. 1-year, $2.7 mil.

A's sign Bartolo Colon. 1-year, $2 mil.

Red Sox and Jarrod Saltalamacchia avoid arb. 1-year, $2.5 mil.

Phillies sign Joel Pinero to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.

And finally, Gio Gonzalez is going to be staying in D.C. for quite a while. He signed a 5-year extension worth $42 mil. Along with 2 option years, he could make $65 mil. alltogether.

Good move by the Red Sox considering he's their catcher for the future now and Shoppach was mainly brought in as a backup. The only other ones they have are from Pawtucket and not ready for the main roster.

Really thought the Yankees would have kept Colon until they made the recent trade for Kuroda.

Darvish seems dumb if he wants to get on the free agency market "ASAP" considering its very unlikely a future deal will be as great as the one he's getting with the Rangers right now. Past history involving Japanese pitchers almost proves it won't occur.

<font color=goldenrod>Ron Washington announces Colby Lewis as his Opening Day starter. Earliest confirmation ever.</font>

LOL wat? Is this real life?

Not even going to wait on Yu Darvish?

Red Sox putting together a nice 2003 Phillies rotation of Vicente Padilla, Carlos Silva, and Brandon Duckworth.

Kuroda is a free agent isn't he? The only guy we traded for is Pineda. I still wonder what we will do about the DH. Will we trade for another hitter or maybe Pena. All those Red Sox fans better be thankful we didn't get Felix instead of Pineda.

From what I heard the Yankees were ready to give up a Montero/Banuelous/Betances package for Hernandez. And Seattle flat out said no. I really hope that this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass. All ready I am having doubts about this and wish we kept Montero. That's not a good sign.

<font color=goldenrod>Athletics acquire Seth Smith from the Rockies in exchange for Josh Outman and Guillermo Moscoso.

The A's rotation is looking rather dreadful. Dallas Braden, Brett Anderson, Brandon McCarthy, Bartolo Colon.....all have injury histories. Could see them losing 100 games.</font>

Could also see each of them rebounding and getting 15 wins each so who knows