Deadspin gets to keep the coke jokes acoming.

Looks like Red Sox won't be able to avoid arbitration with David Ortiz with nothing set until at least next week for the earliest date between both groups. Alfredo Aceves is the only other player on the team with arbitration rights although the team is still undecided on to give him an offer, go to a hearing, or just release him.

MLB is having problems finalizing the new playoff structure to be ready for the 2012 season although both sides think a decision will be made before the final March 1st deadline.

Evening round-up (from mlbtraderumors.com):

As MVP stated, it's pretty much bargain bin shopping until the last 2 big free agents, Edwin Jackson and Roy Oswalt find homes. Well, that and who's gonna pony up for Cespedes. Here's the notables.

Micah Owings to the Padres. 1-year deal.

Yankees sign fromer Cubs GM Jim Hendry to the front office. He's a "special assignment scout".

Os signed Casey Fossum to a minor league contract.

DD must have a crush on him or something...

ZUBAZ PANTS MAN

Edwin Jackson to the Nationals, 1 year for 10 million

Os were offering 3 years and the guy takes 1 year from the Nats. ugh

Nice deal for only 1 year. Can't believe the Red Sox wouldn't up their offer to $10M when its only a one year deal.

I can't imagine Lester-Beckett-Buchholz-Bard-Aceves strikes a ton of confidence in Red Sox fans.

Nationals have a nice rotation - Strasburg-Zimmerman-Gonzalez-Jackson-Lannon/Wang/Detwiler.

The most annoying thing ever is that Peter Angelos can sit back and watch the Nats slowly turn into a playoff contending team while the Orioles somehow keep finding ways to sink further down into the depths of "out of contention by the end of May" hell and he still makes money off the Nats because of the stupid MASN contract.

Nats are not turning into a playoff contending team

I could see it happening, if not this year next year definitely

NL East is pretty loaded this year.

#lolmets

Yeah, I really can't see how the Mets avoid the cellar this year. Everybody else in the division has improved, especially in pitching. The Mets have easily the worst rotation in the division and even though they keep saying they expect Johan to go on Opening Day, a bunch of writers are expecting him to be out until like July...just because it's the Mets and their medical track record is horrid.

Gonna be a rough year. Hopefully the Giants can win on Sunday and tide me over until September.

In more important news, Josh Hamilton had alcohol on Monday and relapsed. Damn. There goes his long-term deal.

Stop it, do not drag Big Blue into your hopes on the Mets. DO NOT DO THAT TO ME.

Reading some articles on Hamilton. Legit want to kill these fucking bloggers and reporters. No compassion.

You have the annual Yankees playoff appearance to look forward to whether the Giants win or not...I don't.

Go Big Blue

#NewYorkProblems

#ALLIN

The LA Times has this to say about the Best/Worst FA Starting Pitcher contracts:

Starting pitcher

I cant believe that DD and the Os made an actual sensible FA contract..of course they get panned for signing Betemit in the same article despite the fact that hes not playing 3b and there were only 3 FA 3B that signed major league contracts so far..

Pfft. They obviously forgot about Kei Igawa.

You guys hear what's going on with Brian Cashman?

Looks like Cash was a naughty naughty boy.

Rockies hose the O's for Jeremy Guthrie, giving Baltimore Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom as compensation. What a terrible, terrible deal for the Orioles.

Rockies made good here. Guthrie has put respectable numbers despite pitching in a supercharged division. Coming over to the NL will help shave his ERA down. Add to that he gets to pitch in 3 of the best pitcher parks (Dodger Stadium, AT&T and PETCO) and it looks even better. I could see him knocking nearly an entire run off his ERA.

Meanwhile, Baltimore loses it's most reliable pitcher for a starter who's only going to get worse pitching in the AL East, and middle reliever who throws hard and could be a setup man. I am baffled as to what the point of this was. Hammel and Lindstrom have about as much team control as Guthrie, and while Guthrie makes more money, he's far more reliable and the Orioles got zero long term value for their best pitching asset.

woooooooooooooo Guthrie

WAR DAN O' DOWD

also praise Satan for getting rid of Jason Hammel

Guts is a curse to the offense on the day he pitches. Just you watch.

People are pointing out that Hammel pitched better on the road than at Coors Field, his ERA was almost full run lower (4.28 vs 5.20). Not sure if that matters much since OPACY is probably on even par with Coors Field..

Evening round-up (from mlbtraderumors.com):

Since there hasn't been anything newsworthy these past few days look for this to start winding down as Spring Training gets closer and closer. I'll still get the major bits in.

Just that one trade went down today. Here's a few other dodads.

Brad Penny is taking his talents to Japan. Signed a 1-year, $4.5 mil. deal with and extra $3.5 mil. in incentives. There's also a $4.5 mil. option attached. It's mutual for now, but if he hits 150IP or wins 12 games it becomes a player option.

Mariners sign Hong-Chih Cuo to a 1-year major league deal.

Finally, Yankees are in serious discussion with Raul Ibanez. He'll take less money to come play. That should wrap up their offseason if they get a deal with him.

I cannot believe the Os are considering Manny Ramirez.



The only Manny that should be coming to baltimore.

I'm guessing that's Machado. And why is Guthrie a curse? This how I looked at the trade before deciding I liked it (A LOT) better for the Rox;

Guthrie has been a steady innings eater with decent or slightly better numbers pitching in not only a hitter's park but a ridiculously talented division and was arguably the O's most reliable pitcher.

Hammel, despite getting to throw in a division stacked with pitcher friendly confines, has put up lackluster numbers to the point that he was demoted to bullpen duty last year and was a non tender candidate waiting to happen. He's not going to all of a sudden do even marginally better in a much more demanding division.

I read that the O's GM feels that Hammel will replace Guthrie's innings, even though Hammel has never even totaled 180 innings in a single season.

I would rather see the O's put Tommy "Big Game" Hunter in the rotation and put Hammel in the pen.

If I had to guess, the Os rotation will now probably look like this:

Britton/Hunter/Wada/Arrietta/Chen rotation now if I had to bet with Hunter/Britton flip flopping depending on whether Buck wants to reward performance (Britton) or experience (Hunter) with the #1 spot.

Outside of Chen/Wada who have 88 starts in Japan each, Hunter has 55 career starts and Eveland has 59 starts..but I doubt Eveland sniffs the rotation out of ST, all the rest have way fewer.

Britton is no joke

Thinking about it, if Im Eveland/Galaraga/Hammel and I can't even make the Os rotation out of ST, I think I might just retire lol.

Evening round-up (from mlbtraderumors.com):

Yoenis Cespedes may have residency at the Dominican Republic, but the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control still has him blocked. As of now, he can agree to a major league deal. But he can't sign one.

Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw avoid arb. 2-years, $19 mil.

Yankees sign Bill Hall to a minor league deal. He gets a $600k salary if he makes it to the bigs plus incentives on plate appearances. He can opt out if he isn't on the major league roster on April 4th.

Finally, Beaneball continues in Oakland. A's GM Billy Beane and President Mike Crowley have agreed to extensions that will keep them in Oakland (or San Jose if the stadium deal goes through) until 2019.

Os are close on Nick Johnson to a minor league deal.

*shakes head*

Rich Harden out for 2012 following shoulder surgery. Why does he even bother trying at this point? Probably should just retire.

hey if people would wanna keep throwing those guaranteed MLB contracts at me, I'd keep playing too

If Mark Prior is gonna keep trying, why not Harden?

Forgot about Brandon Webb too. That fucker fell off the face of the planet.

Ben Sheets

Gorgeous Mark Mulder