Football will dominate today's sports headlines, but ESPN.com's Jayson Stark tweets some good news for baseball fans – Super Sunday also represents the start of the last week without baseball until November! Here are today's links, as the Packers and Steelers prepare to square off in Texas….
- The Diamondbacks could hit it big in the draft this year, a rival scout tells Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Arizona will hold the No. 3 and No. 7 picks this June.
- It's time to give Peter Angelos and the Orioles credit for signing Vladimir Guerrero, writes Kevin Cowherd of The Baltimore Sun. The big ticket signing is the latest move made by the O's who will see their payroll jump from $73MM in 2010 to $93MM in 2011.
- Francisco Liriano's $4.3MM salary could impact the Brewers' negotiations with Shaun Marcum, writes MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. Both pitchers submitted a $5MM figure. Milwaukee countered with $3MM while the Twins offered Liriano $3.6MM before settling on a $4.3MM mark last week.
- An arbitration hearing for Hunter Pence and the Astros has been set for February 18th, reports Stephen Goff of the Houston Astros Examiner. As MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker shows, Pence is Houston's last remaining case, and the two sides' figures are $1.75MM apart.
- Within a piece on the Rays' bullpen, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune writes that the team is waiting until early this week to make roster moves to free room on the 40-man roster for Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez.
- The Yankees' hunt for starting pitching and the Mets' financial issues will get more attention, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post thinks the more intriguing stories in New York involve the futures of the two starting shortstops.
- John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer previews some storylines and poses some questions for the Reds as they prepare for the season.
Until November? You mean SINCE November? Cause if it was UNTIL November, i’d be crying my eyeballs out right now
No, it means that after next week, there will be baseball until November.
Actually, it’s both. No baseball since November (’10) and until November (’11).
i think it works either way. since november obviously makes sense but “the last week without baseball(no baseball up until this point) until november” look at it this way. first week with baseball next week, until november(there will be baseball until november starting next week). hope that made sense and that i didnt piss anyone off by being the grammar nazi
Who’s on first, come November?
Who
If Sizemore is traded, I don’t know how much time Cleveland fans will have to wait to have another caliber team. In their playoff push in 2007, they had Sabathia, Lee, Westbrook, Betancourt, VMart, Peralta, Gutierrez, Belliard, Garko, Blake…
I can’t believe that 3 years later, only Sizemore, Carmona, Pronk and Cabrera are the only ones remaining on the roster.. Yeah, it was that kind of year that Perez and Lewis pitched great but it was ONLY 3 years ago..
Belliard was already gone. I mainly know that because I remember his tongue from the Cardinals’ 2006 playoff push. But hey, if they stay in the cellar long, maybe we’ll get to see Major League 3!
Yeah I remember, that’s why Cabrera had been on the team in the final weeks.
I’d like to see Wild Thing close the games
If they’d traded for Jason Motte instead of Chris Perez, that would be the case.
Yeah, I’d love to see Charlie Sheen close out games with his entourage of Porn Stars swarming him as he gets the final out! Lol!
LOL what the hell…
there already was a major league 3
I could see Sizemore going to the Dodogers in a trade
Dodgers dont have the prospects to make it happen or money to lock up Sizemore. Dont bet on that trade happening.
How about that crazy Paul Hoynes stealing Nick Cafardo’s scoop on Sizemore and Carmona! As usual a Cleveland writer gets the scoop on his own team a month after a real writer prints it first! Yeah, I’m baiting those Indian fans who said Cafardo was a hack for insinuating that Sizemore would be shopped! How’s that egg on your face feel now that your own writers are saying the same?
Ah. I understand now
Here’s my AL Central predictions:
Tigers-95-67
White Sox-92-70
Twins-90-72
Indians-68-94
Royals-59-103
The Royals might have the best minor league system, but this year won’t be any better than the last 24 seasons. Expect a big three-way race at the end of the season between the Tigers, White Sox, Twins.
im a tigers fan, but im curious who your favorite team is. im not sure if your biased or not. just askin.
Bet nobody in that division wins 90 games.
Even as a Tigers fan I think this projection is rather generous. I suspect there to be less wins and less of a gap between all three teams. They’re all going to be around 87-91 wins because they’re all going to be beating themselves up, and if the race isn’t as exciting as everyone is anticipating in the AL Central, I will be very very surprised.
Although I’d like to see the Tigers finish first, a lot has to go right for them and a little has to go wrong for Chicago and Minnesota. Not trying to hate against my own team here, but realistically, they’re not as complete as Minnesota and they don’t have the offense Chicago does.
On the plus side though, they do have potentially the best rotation and best bullpen, so that’s something you can take from it. I expect all three teams to be in it until the very very end.
Arizona had the number 6 pick last year and used it to select a guy who by most boards was slated to go in the early supplemental rounds. Although i suppose they have had good drafting overall.
The O’s deserve credit for signing Guerrero? I guess. After all, Vlad should take them from fifth place to an outside shot at fourth.
i know, and who else would get credit for signing him?
Its not even worth replying to these lame comments anymore . . oh wait, darnit.
I’m not trying to be snide. I’m just saying that saying the O’s “deserve credit” for paying full retail value (and then some, arguably) for a guy who is unlikely to change their place in the standings, is maybe overselling it.
awww the superbowl is over. back to baseball!
yay superbowl is over
Not so sure Orioles should be congratulated for spending $20 million more to end up in 4th or 5th place again.
you cant fill a ballpark with scrubs year after year. eventually you gotta make it look like you intend to compete to fill the seats
I wonder if the Yankees have prospects to offer the Dodgers for Clayton Kershaw…
Yes but the Dodgers probably aren’t interested in trading him.
Don’t tease me like that.
The Yanks will go with what they have until mid season, then they will hope to get a upgrade in Carpenter, Dempster, Jackson, Kuroda, or Buerhle. Long term they have 8 young pitchers that could develope into a good starter. Brackman, Noesi, and Phelps we will see sometime this year with Betances, Banuelos, Warren, Stonebuner, and Mitchell next year. I look for 2 or 3 of these players to help the Yanks next year. It’s tough to be counting on AJ but when I look at his stats I see 11 yrs 3.99ERA. His only bad year was last year. If he pitches to that ERA the Yanks will be fine. The same goes for Beckett with the Sox. These two players could be the keys to their seasons. Scary for the Yanks.