On this date in 1998, the Tigers traded Luis Gonzalez to the Diamondbacks for Karim Garcia. Gonzalez would hit 224 home runs in eight seasons with Arizona, including 57 homers during the team's 2001 Championship season. Here are tonight’s links…
- Jim Bowden ranks the top ten contracts in baseball (from a team perspective) at ESPN.com and Rays players (Matt Moore, David Price and Evan Longoria) occupy three of the top four spots.
- The Brewers started negotiations with Norichika Aoki in the $1-1.5MM range, according to a Sanspo report relayed by Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker. Milwaukee won the bidding for the Japanese outfielder with a bid of $2.5MM earlier this month.
- The Chiba Lotte Marines announced that they signed former big league first baseman Josh Whitesell, according to a Sponichi report passed along by Newman.
- Newman also relays a Sponichi report indicating that Softbank is working to acquire former big league lefty Renyel Pinto. The Orioles had some interest in Pinto this offseason.
- Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus lists ten prospects who will look to turn their careers around in 2012 after disappointing 2011 campaigns. Wilmer Flores of the Mets, Aaron Hicks of the Twins and Jose Iglesias of the Red Sox appear on the list.
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs attempts to determine which active players are future Hall of Famers and considers Major Leaguers such as Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, Carlos Beltran and Joey Votto along the way.
