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Though GMs are flying into Milwaukee today, the GM Meetings will take place in earnest on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Today MLB's focus is on the Rookie of the Year awards, which will be announced by the BBWAA at 1pm central time.  MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith will be reporting from Milwaukee Tuesday and Wednesday.  Here are a few potential stories to watch:

• Owners meet on Thursday, at which point the sale of the Astros to Jim Crane is expected to be approved.
• With significant progress last week, a new collective bargaining agreement could be announced at the meetings.  The Astros are expected to move to the American League in 2013, creating two 15-team leagues each with three five-team divisions.  Two more playoff teams are expected to be added.  Changes are also expected in free agent draft pick compensation and perhaps draft spending.
• The Cardinals named Mike Matheny manager yesterday, while the Cubs and Red Sox still have openings.  The Cubs are considering Sandy Alomar Jr., Pete Mackanin, Mike Maddux, and Dale Sveum.  With a second interview coming this week, Sveum is the frontrunner for Boston's job, though Alomar, Mackanin, Torey Lovullo, and Gene Lamont are also in the mix.
• The Miami Marlins have offers out to Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols, and Mark Buehrle.  Will any of them sign on the dotted line this week?  The Marlins were active at last year's GM Meetings, trading Dan Uggla and signing John Buck.  Assuming they're not bringing him back, the White Sox wouldn't mind Buehrle signing before November 23rd, because that would guarantee them a supplemental draft pick.
• Click here to see the remaining free agents.  Aside from the Marlins' targets, big names include Prince Fielder, Aramis Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, C.J. Wilson, Edwin Jackson, and Carlos Beltran.
• The Chunichi Dragons are up 2-0 in the Nippon Series over the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.  If the series concludes this week, will the Nippon Ham Fighters post Yu Darvish shortly thereafter?
• Look for a couple of trades at the GM Meetings.  Last year we had trades involving Uggla and Rajai Davis, as well as the Felipe Paulino–Clint Barmes swap.  Paulino and Barmes were non-tender candidates.  I've got some tentative candidates in this spreadsheet, but my list will be published this week.
• Last year the Joaquin Benoit contract, signed during the GM Meetings, shook up the market for free agent relievers.  Jonathan Papelbon's record deal with the Phillies has done that for the high-end of the market already, but will it have a ripple effect for all decent free agent relievers?
• Six teams have new GMs: the Orioles (Dan Duquette), Red Sox (Ben Cherington), Twins (Terry Ryan), Angels (Jerry Dipoto), Cubs (Jed Hoyer), and Padres (Josh Byrnes).  Former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein is now president of baseball operations for the Cubs.  The Dodgers' Ned Colletti and the Astros' Ed Wade are operating under uncertainty with ownership changes on the horizon.

Players and owners are in near-agreement on draft-related issues, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.  A deal could be struck as soon as today or Monday but other significant issues remain, making it possible that the negotiations will stretch into the latter part of the week.

The two sides would like to reach an agreement Sunday or Monday as the general managers’ meetings start Tuesday in Milwaukee, the owners meet Thursday, and the union is holding meetings for agents Monday through Wednesday.  The new deal is expected to put a lid on the amount of money teams spend on draft picks and overhaul draft-pick compensation for free agents.

The current deal expires on December 11th but it would be a shock if the two sides did not hammer out a new five-year deal before then.  Significant progress was made in the talks last week.

If you're a regular MLBTR reader, you'll be familiar with our chats, our Week In Review posts and Mike Axisa's Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature. Here's some more detail on when you'll see our weekly features and exactly what to expect from them:

• MLBTR Chats – Come by every Wednesday at 2pm CDT to chat about the latest trades, signings and rumblings around the Major Leagues.
• Baseball Blogs Weigh In – Every Friday morning, Mike Axisa directs you to some of the best writing on baseball blogs around the web. Whether it's opinion, stats or something else entirely, you can connect to the best of the blogosphere once a week on MLBTR. If you want to send Mike a post of yours, reach him at: mike@riveraveblues.com.
• Week In Review – It's remarkable how much happens in seven days. Every Sunday night, we summarize the week's biggest stories in our Week In Review posts.
• MLBTR Originals – We gather all our original analysis and reporting in one place every Sunday night.

The MLBTR Forums are hopping, with 9,175 members to date.  If you'd like to expand your baseball discussions beyond the comments section at MLBTradeRumors.com, the forums are the perfect place.  We've got sections for actual trade rumors, speculative trade situations, free agents, the draft, prospects, general baseball, fantasy baseball, and each of the 30 teams.  Start or join a discussion in the MLBTR Forums today!

Did you know MLB Trade Rumors has a Spanish-language sister site with a focus on Latin American players?  Rumores De Béisbol features human-translated MLBTR posts every day, and can be followed on Twitter here.

As any Cubs, Red Sox, Angels, Padres or Orioles fan will tell you, the last few months have featured more than their share of general manager turnover. This summer’s trade deadline doesn’t seem so long ago, yet six teams have replaced their GMs since then. MLB's ‘new’ GMs include two first-time general managers and two others who have been at it for decades.

Thanks to Baseball America's executive database, I’ve compiled a list designed to show when and where each team’s top executive got his first GM job (not including interim positions). I'm using the term 'GM' loosely; many of the executives below have different titles on their business cards. Apologies to Michael Hill and Jed Hoyer, the two GMs who report to their clubs’ respective presidents of baseball operations. They aren’t on this list below, but interim Twins GM Terry Ryan appears because of his previous experience running Minnesota's baseball operations department.

Here's the list of baseball's longest-tenured general managers, plus the teams with which they got their first GM jobs:

1. Sandy Alderson, Athletics, 1983
2. Dave Dombrowski, Expos, 1988
3. Dan Duquette, Expos, 1991
4. Doug Melvin, Rangers, 1994
5. Terry Ryan, Twins, 1994
6. Walt Jocketty, Cardinals, 1994
7. Kevin Towers, Padres, 1995
8. Brian Sabean, Giants, 1996
9. Billy Beane, Athletics, 1997
10. Brian Cashman, Yankees, 1998
11. Ed Wade, Phillies, 1998
12. Frank Wren, Orioles, 1998
13. Dan O'Dowd, Rockies, 1999
14. Kenny Williams, White Sox, 2000
15. Larry Beinfest, Marlins, 2002
16. Theo Epstein, Red Sox, 2002
17. Jon Daniels, Rangers, 2005
18. Andrew Friedman, Rays, 2005
19. Ned Colletti, Dodgers, 2005
20. Josh Byrnes, Diamondbacks, 2005
21. Dayton Moore, Royals, 2006
22. Neal Huntington, Pirates, 2007
23. John Mozeliak, Cardinals, 2007
24. Jack Zduriencik, Mariners, 2008
25. Ruben Amaro, Jr., Phillies, 2008
26. Mike Rizzo, Nationals, 2009
27. Alex Anthopoulos, Blue Jays, 2009
28. Chris Antonetti, Indians, 2010
29. Ben Cherington, Red Sox, 2011
30. Jerry Dipoto, Angels, 2011

Brian Sabean has spent the most time running his current team. He, Billy Beane, Brian Cashman, Dan O’Dowd and Kenny Williams are the five GMs to have held their current positions for at least a decade.

Your window to make picks for MLBTR's first-ever free agent prediction contest is coming to a close.  Tonight at midnight central time, picks will be locked.  Only ballots with picks made for all of the top 50 free agents will be counted; incomplete ones will not be eligible.  Be sure to update and save your picks by tonight's deadline!

For information about the contest rules and prizes, click here.

Determining an MLB player's representation was once a challenge for baseball fans, but MLBTR's agency database changed everything.  We've compiled agency data for nearly 1,500 players, mainly through regular contact with dozens of agencies.  Updates are made every week as players change agents.  The database allows you to search for individual players and filter by team or agency.  Check out MLBTR's agency database today!

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Dust off your crystal ball, it's time for MLBTR's first-ever free agent prediction contest!  Predict destinations for our top 50 free agents, with the chance to win fantastic prizes and bragging rights over your friends and the MLBTR writing team.

How To Play

• Click here to make picks for our top 50 free agents.  For each player you can choose any of the 30 teams, as well as Retirement or Japan.
• A Facebook account is required to participate in this contest.  You can log in with the button up top, or by using the Save Your Picks button at the bottom.
• Feel free to leave your picks incomplete for now, as long as you save them using the button at the bottom.  The contest is open now and runs until midnight central time on Sunday, November 6th.  Make sure to have something chosen and saved for all 50 players by the Sunday deadline, or else you will not be eligible for the contest.
• The leaderboard will rank contestants by "batting average" on correct picks, once players start signing.  The leaderboard will show everyone's full names and Facebook profile picture.

Rules

• Final picks must be saved by November 6th at midnight central time – no exceptions.
• MLBTR writers are not eligible for prizes.
• One entry per person, please.
• With regard to prizes, ties in batting average will be decided by totaling the ranking number of each correctly-guessed free agent and taking the lowest total, rewarding contestants for being right on better free agents.  If people are still tied after that method is applied, prizes will be distributed at MLBTR's discretion by choosing among tied contestants randomly.
• Prize winners must respond to an email message within 48 hours.

Prizes

• $1,000 in cash prizes to be distributed among the top five finishers
• Three Baseball's Greatest Games DVD sets from A&E
• One-year digital subscription to Baseball America, 2012 Prospect Handbook, 2012 Almanac, 2012 Great Parks Calendar
• Three copies of Baseball HQ's 2012 Forecaster book, three copies of Baseball HQ's 2012 Minor League Analyst book
• $50 coupon code for American Needle headwear
• One-year subscription to Baseball Prospectus
• One year unlimited services at Fantasy Judgment
• Three 2012 Bill James Baseball IQ iPhone apps