Uncategorized News & Rumors

At the end of November, 16 American League free agents declined their teams' offers of arbitration. In doing so, they forfeited the chance to settle on one-year deals with their former clubs through the arbitration process and launched themselves into free agency.

If the players below had accepted arbitration like Frank Francisco and Jason Frasor did, they would have signed one-year deals with their former clubs. While the players wouldn’t have been guaranteed raises, those who go through the arbitration process rarely take significant pay cuts.

The chart below will help examine the decisions that players and their agents made in November. It shows the players' 2010 salaries and, if applicable, the new deals they've agreed to. 

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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 amazing 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.

Only 11 of MLBTR's top 50 free agents remain unsigned. Johnny Damon checks in at number 11 and here are the top ten, with their original rankings in parentheses and their rumored suitors to this point in the winter:

1.  Rafael Soriano (7) – The Yankees might be in, but the White Sox, Rangers and Cardinals don't appear to have interest. Are the Angels going to step up after a relatively quiet winter?
2.  Carl Pavano (13) – The Twins are closing in on a deal with the right-hander.
3.  Jim Thome (18) – Thome will play in 2011, but it's hard to predict which team will sign him. To vote on the slugger's future, click here.
4.  Vladimir Guerrero (19) – The Orioles, Angels and Rays are reportedly interested in Vlad.
5.  Manny Ramirez (20) – Predicting Manny's next team isn't much easier than predicting his next quirky move. There's a good chance he ends up DHing on a one-year deal.
6.  Andy Pettitte - (25) – The veteran lefty is still undecided about his future, so the Yankees are still in limbo.
7.  Brian Fuentes (33) - The Pirates aren't pursuing Fuentes, but the Blue Jays and Rays are among the lefty's many suitors.
8.  Kevin Millwood (38) – The Rockies, Cubs and Royals have been linked to Millwood this offseason.
9.  Grant Balfour (42) – Balfour, a Type A free agent, will cost a draft pick. The O's expressed interest before signing Kevin Gregg, but it's not clear if the team is still considering Balfour.
10.  Scott Podsednik (44) – The Angels are in on Podsednik and the Reds maintain interest, though they added the left-handed hitting Jeremy Hermida.

A third of the teams in baseball won between 80 and 89 games last year. None of them made the playoffs, but all of them were within striking distance of a postseason berth. The ten teams have had wildly different approaches to the 2010-11 offseason – at least so far. I've broken the clubs down into three groups, with their 2010 win totals in parentheses and links that send you to the club's offseason transactions summary:

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We decided to come up with a punchier name for our Odds & Ends posts, and Quick Hits is the winner.  Thanks to MLBTR's Zach Links for the suggestion.

One other change you will notice is that we will be bolding the team names in the Quick Hits posts so that you can more quickly jump to the bullet that pertains to your club.

MLBTR recently introduced an Arbitration Tracker, which is permanently located under the 'Tools' tab at the top of the site. The tracker allows advanced sorting, so you can narrow your searches. If you're curious about which players have already settled on 2011 salaries or which Giants have yet to settle, you're just a few clicks away from knowing the answer.

As teams and players resolve arbitration cases in January and February, we'll keep the tracker updated with all the information you need to know. Check out MLBTR's Transaction Tracker and Free Agent Tracker while you're at it.

We're looking to get a sense of which posts you read, so please take a minute and fill out this poll. You can check multiple boxes and posts are listed alphabetically.

Congratulations to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven, who were voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame today by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. 

Alomar was one of the most complete players in baseball for 17 years, making spectacular plays at second base and adding value at the plate and on the bases. He played on the World Series Champion Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993 and also spent time on the Padres, Indians, Orioles, Mets, White Sox and Diamondbacks. Alomar won ten Gold Gloves and made 12 All-Star teams. He posted a career .300/.371/.443 line and retired with 210 home runs, 474 stolen bases, 504 doubles, 2724 hits and 1508 runs scored.

Blyleven first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1998 and has steadily gained support; he was just 0.8% short of the 75% threshold last year. He retired with a 3.31 ERA (118 ERA+) in 4970 innings. Blyleven ranks 14th all-time in innings and fifth all-time in strikeouts (3701). His 287 wins place him 27th in baseball history.

MLBTR features tons of ways to follow an individual team.  Using the Dodgers as an example, we have the regular team archive, team Twitter, team Facebook, team RSS, and a team forum.

If you're a social media and MLBTR junkie who would like to contribute to the site, please apply for one of the 30 "team coordinator" positions.  Your duty will be the promotion of the five team feeds named above for one specific club.  You'll be in charge of the team Facebook page, moderating and adding relevant hot stove links and polls regularly.  This is an unpaid position, so if it sounds like work to you there's no need to inquire.

If you are interested, please email mlbtrcoordinators@gmail.com with your team(s) of choice in the subject line and a few sentences explaining your qualifications in the body.  We can't guarantee a response, but we appreciate all inquiries.

Only 15 of MLBTR's top 50 free agents remain unsigned. Here they are, with their original rankings in parentheses and their rumored suitors to this point in the winter:

1.  Adrian Beltre (3) – The Angels, A's and Rangers have been linked to Beltre, but it sounds like the A's are no longer bidding for the Scott Boras client.
2.  Rafael Soriano (7) – The market has been quiet for Soriano – at least publicly – but the Angels are a fit and it wouldn't be surprising to see the Orioles or Yankees jump in.
3.  Carl Pavano (13) – The Twins and Nationals are in; the Rangers and even the Mariners have been linked to the right-hander.
4.  Jim Thome (18) – The Twins have said they're interested in bringing Thome back. The Orioles, Rays, Blue Jays and Rangers could add a DH.
5.  Vladimir Guerrero (19) – Like Thome, Vlad could be a fit for the Orioles, Rays or Blue Jays. He's had continued dialogue with the Rangers about a return to Texas.
6.  Manny Ramirez (20) – When MLBTR's Tim Dierkes examined the market for Manny this week, he concluded that the Rays and Rangers are legitimate possible matches.
7.  Derrek Lee (23) – The Orioles and Nationals appear to be the strongest suitors for Lee.
8.  Andy Pettitte – (25) – It's Yankees or retirement for the veteran lefty.
9.  Brian Fuentes (33) – Eleven teams appear to have some interest in Fuentes.
10.  Adam LaRoche (34) - The Orioles and Nationals also appear to be the strongest suitors for LaRoche.
11.  Kevin Millwood (38) – The Rockies, Cubs and Royals have been linked to Millwood this offseason.
12.  Grant Balfour (42) – Baltimore appears to have legitimate interest in Balfour.
13.  Scott Podsednik (44) – The Angels and Reds are two of the teams in on Podsednik.
14.  Johnny Damon (47) – Damon would reportedly prefer to sign with the Rays, Angels or Yankees.
15.  Kevin Gregg (48) – The Orioles are one of the teams in the mix for Gregg.