Happy Valentine's Day, baseball lovers. Let's take a look back at the past week:
- With a $5MM gap to settle, Tim Lincecum's arbitration hearing with the Giants loomed on the horizon, but was avoided last minute on Friday. "The Freak" signed a two-year, $23MM deal, so Giants fans can rest easy for now anyway. Earlier in the week we also heard that a three-year, $37MM offer was on the table.
- Not all arbitration cases were avoided, however, as Corey Hart won his case against the Brewers, while B.J. Upton lost his with the Rays.
- One of the most feared hitters of the 1990s and 2000s hung it up this week, when Frank Thomas officially announced his retirement. The Big Hurt will finish up with 521 home runs and a .301/.419/.555 line to his credit. I don't know about you, but a career .974 OPS is pretty good in my book. Congrats on a phenomenal career, Frank.
- Thomas wasn't the only big name from in recent history to officially retire. Tom Glavine also announced his retirement this week. For his career, Glavine notched 305 wins, a 3.54 ERA, two Cy Young Awards and four other Top 3 finishes in the voting. Glavine will take a job as a special assistant to Braves team president John Schuerholz.
- He may be getting up there in the years as well, but Carlos Delgado's not calling it quits just yet. The free agent slugger won't retire, and may sign somewhere midseason. It looks like Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz might take similar routes. Hey, it worked pretty well for Pedro last year.
- Earlier in the week, we looked at whether or not Scott Boras had failed some of his clients, such as Johnny Damon, Jarrod Washburn, or Felipe Lopez. Apparently Lopez thinks the answer is "yes," because he fired everyone's favorite super-agent this week. Lopez is still without work, despite great offense and defense in 2009. Maybe Boras will have better luck with his newest client, Kendry Morales.
- Anyone looking for an all-speed fourth outfielder? The A's released Willy Taveras this week just days after taking on the veteran center fielder in a trade with the Reds in order to get Adam Rosales as well.
- Chien-Ming Wang has offers and will make a decision in the near future. It's looking like the Nationals are the clear front-runner for the right-hander's services. Wang would join Jason Marquis and provide a clear upgrade and some stability to the Nats' rotation if healthy.
- Adeiny Hechevarria, a 19-year-old Cuban shortstop that ESPN's Jorge Arangure has dubbed "the next big thing out of Cuba," is generating a lot of interest. Six teams recently watched Hechevarria, who could receive an offer in excess of $10MM.
- The Orioles have been active this offseason, and may not be done yet. They have some interest in free agent lefty Jarrod Washburn, who is said to be content to wait for the right offer. Tough to say if Washburn presents a clear upgrade over a youngster like Chris Tillman, but at this point, you have to figure the price tag would be pretty minimal.
- Minor league deals were handed out like candy this week. Just to name a few: Marcus Thames with the Yankees, Will Ohman in Baltimore, Hisanori Takahashi with the Mets, and Jacque Jones is back with Minnesota. To see the rest of the deals, check out our Transactions section.
this is like our second week in review over the past month.
Forgot about Tom Glavine and Ruiz and also Scott Schoenweiss.
Theres still a few lonely free agents. Hopefully we can get them home soon.
Uh, actually they’ve had a week in a review including this one for 2/7/10-2/13/10, 1/31/10-2/6/10 then they missed the 1/24/10-1/30/10, but I don’t see to many others they’ve missed.
Not to be an ass about it, but we’ve only had two this month – they’ve both been posted. In January, they only missed one. It just seems like they do because there is so much baseball news in between each week.