3B Ian Stewart says hes re-signing with Cubs
(Yahoo! Sports)

CHICAGO (AP) — Third baseman Ian Stewart says he is re-signing with the Chicago Cubs.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2012/12/07/3b-ian-stewart-says-hes-re-signing-with-cub
s-yahoo-sports/

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Diamondbacks complete deals with Hinske, Nieves
(Yahoo! Sports)

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Diamondbacks completed one-year contracts with free agent Eric Hinske and catcher Wil Nieves on Thursday.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2012/12/07/diamondbacks-complete-deals-with-hinske-nie
ves-yahoo-sports/

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Long Necklace Wholesale

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Hall Of Fame Debate: Gimme Five!!!

Hall Of Fame Debate: Gimme Five!!! I thought that this would be a fun way to start off the ‘Hall Of Fame Debate’ at 30-Year Old Cardboard. What I am seeking is your list of five eligible players that you would give … Continue reading →

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http://bapple2286.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/hall-of-fame-debate-gimme-five/

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Mock Winter Meetings (Thursday Update)

I've been remiss in getting an article up on this for the last couple days. Check back, because I will update as events unfold.

Last weekend, we were asked to participate in a Mock Winter Meetings exercise hosted by our SB Nation sister site, Royals Review. I was lucky enough to jump on last minute to serve as the Co-GM of the Houston Astros with Royals Review contributor KCTiger. KCTiger and I have been swinging deals and signing free agents for the last couple days. Next week, we will collaborate on an article talking about our experience as Astros "GM" for the week.

The rules of the game, along with a running update of league-wide transactions, may be found here.

For now, I'll list the moves we've made so you can discuss them. I will explain our goals and reasoning behind the moves in the next post. We operated under a budget of about $35 million, not including the $5 million owed to Wandy Rodriguez.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, Dec 04:

Trade 1: The Astros trade Bud Norris to the Royals in return for OF Jeff Francoeur, RHP Yordano Ventura, RHP Mike Montgomery, LHP John Lamb, and RF Elier Hernandez

Boy, did KCTiger and I love this trade, and our acumen was validated by the immediate outrage of Royals fans on the message boards. There was a lot of early action on Norris, and we were able to use that to maximize our return.

Trade 2: The Astros trade Jeff Francoeur and $2.5 million to the Cubs for LHP Eric Jokisch.

Francoeur's inclusion in the Royals deal was at the insistence of the Royals. The Cubs trade was a salary dump. As a bonus, we added a guy whose last name is "Jokisch."

FA Signing 1: The Astros sign Jair Jurrjens for 2-years, $11.5 million, plus a $6 million club option

We struck early when Jurrjens was non-tendered, and it's a good thing we did. The pitching market went nuts shortly thereafter. We saw deals like Brandon McCarthy for 4 years $55 million, and Zack Greinke signing for 6 years, $175 million. We liked the risk that Jurrjens would bounce back to be the almost 2-WAR pitcher he was in 2011.

FA Signing 2: The Astros sign Ryan Raburn for 2-years, $4.5 million

And we have our DH. There are mixed opinions on Raburn, but we liked his price, positional flexibility (OF, 1B, 2B, 3B, DH), and we truly believe he's closer to the guy who hit .280/.340/.475 in 2010 than the guy who only hit .171 last season. With the budget so tight, we feel like this was a strong catch.

Wednesday, Dec. 05:

Trade 3: The Astros trade Wilton Lopez and Fernando Rodriguez to the Phillies for C Sebastian Valle and 3B Mitch Walding

This is another trade I love. Lopez' value is at its peak, and F-Rod is one year away from arbitration. The inclusion of F-Rod allowed the return to be two of the Phillies' top 10 prospects. Valle was the prize here - he is the #7 prospect catcher in all of MLB according to MLB.com. He immediately is the top catching prospect in the Astros' system, and has a ceiling as high or higher than Jason Castro's. Walding is a powerful young 3B who has a major league future.

FA Signing 4: The Astros sign Shaun Marcum for 5-years, $52 million

Our biggest priority was a rotation anchor, and we landed one. Marcum is actually a very reasonable cost for this sim, though he has injury worries. We felt the injury thing overblown, as he has averaged 173 innings per season since missing all of 2009. Marcum hasn't posted an ERA over 4.00 since 2007 (4.13).

Thursday, Dec 06

UPDATE! FA Signing 5: The Astros sign Roy Oswalt to a 1-year $2.5 million contract with a $500k bonus for reaching 125, 150, 175, and 200 innings.

We liked the way our budget lined up, but still felt we could make a smart addition to the roster. Roy-O will bring fans back to the park, but more importantly we feel he has what it takes to be a sub-4.00 ERA pitcher still. His maturity, professionalism, and experience will be a good example for Jurrjens and Lyles (or whoever comes up mid-season to take their shot). Make no mistake: we aren't giving up on our top prospects. But a bit more time in the minors won't hurt them, and with injuries and the uncertainties surrounding those prospects, Lyles, Jurrjens, and Keuchel, we thought this was a smart roster move.

Current 25-Man Roster:

To Be Continued...

The deals will continue through the end of the week. What do Astros fans think of these moves so far?

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D-Backs complete deals with Hinske, Nieves
(Yahoo! Sports)

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Diamondbacks completed one-year contracts with free agent Eric Hinske and catcher Wil Nieves on Thursday.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2012/12/07/d-backs-complete-deals-with-hinske-nieves-y
ahoo-sports/

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Twins sign reliever Burton for 2 years, $5.5M
(Yahoo! Sports)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins have agreed to terms with right-handed reliever Jared Burton on a two-year, $5.5 million contract that includes a club option for the 2015 season.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2012/12/06/twins-sign-reliever-burton-for-2-years-5-5m
-yahoo-sports/

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Rumor: Yankees listening to offers on Granderson,
Hughes, and Nova

[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://bronxbaseballdaily.com/2012/12/rumor-yankees-listening-to-offers-on-grande
rson-hughes-and-nova/

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What is happening with the Kansas City Royals
(Update)

The Kansas City Royals have actually done very little this off-season in terms of substantive moves, which makes the amount of discussion they have managed to generate these past few days particularly impressive.

After everyone had a nice Wil Myers induced panic attack last night, things appeared to be trending positively after Bob Dutton reported that the Myers for James Shields talks appeared to be on hold.

Then Dutton released an article today stating the Royals break-even point for their finances is $70 million dollars, which is not in line with what we had been told.

In a previous article, David Glass stated that the $70 million dollar break even point was for major league player salaries, and now it is for total payroll, including draft and international standing.

Dutton explained the consequences of the new information, writing:

That reduces the break-even point for the 25-man roster - the figure generally used for comparison purposes in public discussions - to roughly $57 million. The draft and international limits under the new labor agreement comprise about $10 million.

It also means, as things currently stand, the Royals are already over budget since the projected payroll for their 25-man roster is roughly $65 million.

If we stick our head in the sand and take Glass' word as gospel (you shouldn't), this means that the Royals have essentially no money left to acquire an expensive pitcher. It should also make you question why Kansas City is interested in trading a young, talented and cheap player for an older and more expensive one.

With essentially no money left over, it seems like the Royals should target cheaper free agents. This new information helps explain the following tweets:

Source is also insistent that the Royals are not in the Anibal Sanchez market -- not at five years and $70M-plus, where it stands now.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 6, 2012

#Royals exploring a group of free agent starters that includes Brett Myers, Kevin Correia and Jair Jurrjens, source says.

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) December 6, 2012

But then Dutton sends out the following tweet, which only muddles the picture further.

Have been told repeatedly the #Royals have no intention, for now, of pursuing any pitcher who wouldn't front their rotation.

— Bob Dutton (@Royals_Report) December 6, 2012

In conclusion, the Royals are already "over budget," so they want to trade their cheap players for expensive ones. They are not interested in Anibal Sanchez, but instead are targeting cheaper options. But they are not interested in bringing in a pitcher who will not front the rotation.

There has already been some active discussion about today's news in the other thread, but the question needs to be asked again; what in the world is going on?

UPDATE:

It looks like someone gave Mr. Dutton some incorrect information. Dutton sent out the following tweets explaining the error:

OK, #Royals fans, just got off the phone with club officials who say they gave me bad info; $70 million payroll is for 40-man roster but...

— Bob Dutton (@Royals_Report) December 6, 2012

...it doesn't include the signing bonus budgets for the draft and international signings. Am correcting story.

— Bob Dutton (@Royals_Report) December 6, 2012

So the Royals are essentially at their "budget limit," not over. The larger issue of not understanding what the Royals are doing still stands.

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Miami Marlins Traded Yunel Escobar Because Of
Third Base "Change of Heart"

The Miami Marlins successfully traded Yunel Escobar only a few weeks after acquiring him from the Toronto Blue Jays in the mega-trade involving both teams. Not only did the organization decide to deal Escobar, but the team felt it was their primary objective in the winter meetings, according to what Larry Beinfest told Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post and other reporters.

"Recently he came back to us and said he was not comfortable playing third base, so we were not comfortable moving forward with him as our third baseman," Beinfest said.

"So, we came here to the meetings with the intention of moving Yunel."

Now, this comes as news to us, as previously the Marlins had spoken to Escobar and he was on board with moving to third base. There was still speculation that the Marlins would trade him anyway, but it seemed that speculation was not high until the winter meetings began and the grumblings about a trade became louder. Now we are aware of the reason why the grumblings were so loud.

This unfortunately changes the dynamic of the Marlins' offseason. Even though the Marlins may have still considered dealing Escobar, his balking at playing third base in 2013 represented a potential problem for the team. In 2012, the Marlins had a similar situation with Hanley Ramirez potentially not wanting to move to third base. I said that year that the Fish held all of the right arguments and all of the power when it came to Ramirez.

That is how Ramirez will likely feel once he agrees to move positions for the Marlins. Not only is it in the best interest for the Marlins to have Ramirez move positions rather than be traded, but the club has no reason to be pressured by a Ramirez trade demand. The team holds all the leverage over a player who refuses to play while under contract, so the Marlins would have all the power in this regard. And again, while going all the way with the threat of a disqualified list move would be disastrous from a public relations standpoint, it is unlikely that Ramirez would even contemplate going an entire season without receiving pay. In this particular case, his hands are ultimately tied, which is why the Marlins would ultimately not trade Ramirez because of this particular problem.

How is Escobar's situation different? For the Marlins, there is far less at stake in Escobar's case than there is in Ramirez's. With the 2013 season already lost, there is no reason to run into further problems with a player with potentially only one season left to play with the Fish. In Ramirez's case, the Marlins had few other options left to them in terms of filling the third base position to the degree they wanted. The team's entire offseason plan was based on eventually making this position switch, especially since Ramirez was already well on the decline at shortstop anyway. For the team, it was either get Ramirez to play third base or receive inferior talent and risk losing out on a competitive 2012 year. Given the leverage the team had, it was easy to see why they would rather convince Ramirez, especially since he had a long history with the team.

With Escobar, the Marlins were likely a lot less inclined to get into a fight over moving to third base. Escobar still had no power over the situation, so eventually he also would have had to make the move. But if he became an issue, the Marlins really had no reason to put up a fight with 2013 not on the line. In this case, the alternative was to simply trade him as a shortstop and go in another direction, as the difference in talent level between Escobar and another option would not have been the difference between contention and missing the playoffs.

In light of this news, I can understand the Marlins wanting to make a trade instead of dealing with Escobar, who also has known character issues. Rather than risking further problems, the team went the safe route and dealt him before the issue escalated. The only problem now is that the team needs to find a replacement at the position because the Marlins are bereft of talent at third base. The team's options are weak, but if they can find a cost-controlled player for whom to trade rather than signing a short-term option like Jack Hannahan, the team may come out better than initially expected.

The Escobar trade makes a lot more sense now with the information that he was less interested in playing third base than initially expected. It still does not excuse the relatively meager return on the trade, nor does it make the future third base situation any better, but at least the Marlins had a reason to make the move outside of cutting further salary, which is what the team appeared to be doing at first.

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