Uncategorized News & Rumors

ACES, Inc., home of the Levinson brothers, is off to a great start this offseason.  The agency has already brokered $57.25MM worth of contracts with the deals for John Buck, Joaquin Benoit, Brandon Inge, and Jhonny Peralta.  The Tigers have been aggressive, signing three of the four.  Last winter ACES authored big contracts for free agents Chone Figgins, Jason Marquis, Placido Polanco, and Fernando Rodney.

The Levinson brothers are far from done; they also represent free agents Grant Balfour, Javier Vazquez, Randy Choate, Aaron Harang, Eric Hinske, and Melky Cabrera.  They'll also need to dedicate time to big arbitration cases for clients like Heath Bell, Nelson Cruz, and Jonathan Papelbon.

This post is a reminder that MLBTR now has team Facebook pages.  We were already on Facebook, of course, but now we have 30 separate pages for those who are only looking to receive and comment on rumors related to their favorite club.  Click your team below, hit the Like button to sign up, and enjoy!

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Baseball's GM Meetings kick off today, and MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith is on the scene in Orlando.  He'll be digging up quotes and providing commentary through the @mlbtrorlando Twitter account, so be sure to give him a follow!

An explanation of the many ways to enjoy MLB Trade Rumors:

• If the main site doesn't load perfectly on your cell phone, try the more mobile-friendly mlbtraderumors.mobi.  It's a simple page that shows you just the headlines and lets you click through to what you want to read.
• If you're an iPhone user, be sure to pick up our app for the latest news and rumors.
• If you want only the hard news in the form of transactions, our transactions page is the ticket.  You can also get only the transactions via Twitter or RSS. 
• To return to the main page at any time, just click on the title or the Home button on the navigation bar below the title. 
• The navigation bar will cover many of your needs.  Use the About dropdown to learn about this site or any of its writers. 
• The Contact button takes you to a page where you can write an email message to the MLBTR writers.  If you have a link to a rumor we've missed, please send it in through the Contact page!  Also use the Contact page to inquire about advertising on MLBTR.
• The Archives dropdown shows you 15 months worth.  If you need to go back further, click on Site Map at the very bottom of the page.  Site Map also lists out every MLBTR post category, including players, teams, and features.
• The Widget button takes you here, where website owners can easily add to their sites a constantly updated box with all of MLBTR's headlines.
• The Forums button takes you here, to a message board community of MLBTR readers with over 5,500 members.  You can discuss any baseball-related topic on the Forums, and start your own thread too.
• Feeds By Team is a very useful dropdown.  Hover over it to see all 30 teams.  Click on the team name to bring up a page of every post containing information about that team, with the latest on top.  These are the same pages you'll find if you go to the Rumors By Team section on the sidebar and select A's Rumors, Angels Rumors, etc.  Also under the Feeds By Team dropdown, you'll find RSS and Twitter buttons.  Those links allow you to follow a single team's rumors via RSS or Twitter.  Did you know we have a separate Twitter account for each of the 30 teams?  For example you can follow @mlbtrtigers, where you would get the latest Tigers updates. This week, follow @mlbtrorlando for updates on the GM Meetings.
• On the far right of the Navigation bar, you'll see buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and RSS.  MLBTR has over 47,000 Twitter followers, over 25,000 Facebook fans, and over 32,000 RSS subscribers.  Sign up for these and you'll be the first to receive all of our posts.
• Be sure to check out your favorite team's MLBTR page on Facebook so you can receive and comment on the latest rumors.
• On to the sidebar.  It begins with a list of our Top Stories, which our writers update any time major hard news occurs.  Go here for a quick update on the most important stories.  Below that is the site's Search Box, where you can type in any player's name and get the latest on him. 
• MLBTR Features has all kinds of goodies, including our free agent lists, 2011 draft order, list of Scott Boras clients, official 2009-10 Elias Rankings and GM-related stuff.  Many of the MLBTR Features are constantly updated by our writers, so be assured that our free agent lists are always fresh. 
• Below Features you've got headlines for all the Recent Posts, in case you'd rather not scroll to see all the headlines.  Then there's a box for our Mailing List, where you can sign up to receive a daily email containing MLBTR's posts.  Use this option if you don't need the news as soon as possible.
• Next we have Featured Posts, where you'll find original work from MLBTR writers we consider noteworthy.  For example, read about the reasons young starters are not extended.

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.

Baseball America's Matt Eddy lists this offseason's 533 minor league free agents.  Tons of familiar names here, take a look.

You've seen my Top 50 Free Agent predictions.  Now it's time to add the opinions of our other writers.  Below are side-by-side predictions from Steve Adams, Mark Polishuk, Ben Nicholson-Smith, and Mike Axisa for the same 50 free agents.

Just in time for the offseason, our iPhone app is now available!  It is listed as Baseball Trade Rumors in the app store and costs $2.99.  You can search the store or just click this link.  The app has been described as "beyond belief" by legendary journalist Peter Gammons.

The bread and butter of the app is the customizable push notifications.  By default it sends an alert to your iPhone for all transactions, and you can also add alerts for any combination of players, teams, and leagues you desire.  If you want to be the first to know where Cliff Lee is headed, who the Tigers are looking at, or anything else hot stove-related, this app can accommodate you.

The headlines page of the app shows our 25 latest posts, no ads, easily refreshed.  Individual posts with hyperlinks can be viewed, of course.  You can also leave comments on MLBTradeRumors.com through the app.  Check it out today!

Please note: Version 1.0.1 fixed a bug that was affecting iPhone 3G and iPod Touch users.  If you have one of these devices and already purchased the app, just take the steps to buy it again and you will be able to download the update for free.

A look back at the first half of November 2009 reveals interesting parallels with what we've seen so far this month.  Last year the offseason began on November 5th, three days later than this year.  However, the offseason deadlines have been moved up for 2010, so we're still on a similar pace.  Burning up the hot stove a year ago:

Teams Extending Their Own Free Agents

• The Mariners signed Jack Wilson to a two-year, $10MM extension.  Perhaps Jhonny Peralta's recent two-year, $11.25MM deal is the parallel.  The Mariners do deserve credit for resisting Russell Branyan's demands for a two-year deal a year ago.
• The Braves signed Tim Hudson to a three-year, $28MM extension.  One of the few early deals that worked out, this could match up with Ted Lilly's three-year, $33MM extension.
• The Cubs were close to an extension for John Grabow, who ultimately signed for two years and $7.5MM.
• The Red Sox signed Tim Wakefield to a two-year, $5MM extension.
• The Angels signed Bobby Abreu to a two-year, $19MM extension, and also locked up GM Tony Reagins.
• The White Sox signed Mark Kotsay to a one-year, $1.5MM deal.  The Sox jumped out early this year too, re-upping Omar Vizquel.
• Several of these early extensions were at inflated prices, and in most cases teams would have been better off waiting.

Trades For Near Non-Tender Candidates

Mark Teahen, J.J. Hardy, and Jeremy Hermida were dealt.  Akinori Iwamura fits here as well, as a player the Rays would have cut loose but the Pirates found worthwhile.  None of them panned out.  A few who could be dealt prior to the December 2nd non-tender deadline this year: Mike Napoli, Russell Martin, James Loney, Leo Nunez, Jason Bartlett, and Carlos Quentin.

Under The Radar Pickups

The Royals signed Wilson Betemit to a minor league deal, and the Nationals claimed reliever Doug Slaten off waivers from the Diamondbacks.  Both were more useful than expected.  The Royals have already made a couple of low-profile pickups this year in Joaquin Arias and Lance Zawadzki.  Willie Eyre, Travis Blackley, Brent Dlugach, Joe Mather, and Justin James also changed teams this month.

Free Agent And Trade Rumors

• The Nationals showed early interest in Mark DeRosa and Mike Gonzalez.  It appears they're being aggressive early this year too.
• The Yankees were focused on whether they'd retain Andy Pettitte, Johnny Damon, and Hideki Matsui.  This year they've got bigger concerns with Pettitte, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera.
• There were plenty of early suitors for Aroldis Chapman, who had not yet switched agents.  The Reds weren't known to be in the mix.  Of course, John Lackey, Matt Holliday, and Jason Bay were filling up our pages too.  This year it'll be about Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford, Jayson Werth, Adrian Beltre, Adam Dunn, and Victor Martinez.
• The big trade candidates were Roy Halladay, Curtis Granderson, Edwin Jackson, Milton Bradley, and Dan Uggla.  This year it looks like Prince Fielder, and Zack Greinke.  Matt Garza, James Shields, Matt Kemp, Mark Reynolds, Josh Willingham, and Uggla could also be popular rumor subjects.

Free agents can now negotiate with any team, but it would be a surprise to see more than a few Type As sign in the next two weeks. Clubs forfeit a top draft pick if they sign Type A free agents before the deadline for teams to offer arbitration to departing free agents. That means teams are probably going to wait until after November 23rd to sign Type A free agents who aren't guaranteed offers of arbitration. If the player's former team doesn't offer arbitration he won't cost anything despite his Type A ranking, so the signing team gets to keep its draft pick.

Some Type A free agents – Carl Crawford and Cliff Lee, for example – are definitely getting offers of arbitration from their former clubs. But the group of Type As below won't necessarily see offers of arbitration, so it seems likely that teams will wait until after the 23rd to finalize deals. Their patience could allow them to hold onto picks in the 2011 draft.

Grant Balfour, Frank Francisco, Jason Frasor, Vladimir Guerrero, Matt Guerrier, Ramon Hernandez, Paul Konerko, Derrek Lee, Bengie Molina, Magglio Ordonez, Carl Pavano, A.J. Pierzynski, Manny Ramirez, Arthur Rhodes, Takashi Saito, Miguel Tejada and Dan Wheeler could certainly re-sign with their former clubs in the next two weeks, but it seems unlikely that they'll reach deals with new teams before November 23rd.