Uncategorized News & Rumors

A look at the first round of the Rule 5 draft…

• Joel Sherman of the New York Post says that the Yankees will take outfielder Jamie Hoffmann from the Dodgers with the first pick, which they acquired from the Nationals for Brian Bruney earlier this week.
• The Pirates selected outfielder John Raynor from the Marlins, tweets MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch.
• The Orioles picked lefty Benjamin Snyder from the Giants, and he'll go to the Rangers as part of the Kevin Millwood deal tweets Evan Grant.
• The Royals selected lefty Edgar Osuna from the Braves, tweets Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.
• The Indians selected righty Hector Ambriz from the D'Backs, tweets MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince.
• The D'Backs took lefty Zach Kroenke from the Yankees, reports MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.  The Marlins took Kroenke from the Yanks in the Rule 5 a year ago but returned him.
• The Mets took righty Carlos Monasterios from the Phillies, tweets Ken Davidoff of Newsday.  Monasterios was then traded to the Dodgers for cash, reports Newsday's David Lennon. 
• The Astros took third baseman Jorge Jimenez from the Red Sox, and they'll ship him to Florida as part of the Matt Lindstrom deal reports Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald.
• The A's took righty Bobby Cassevah from the Angels, says Ben Badler of Baseball America.
• The Jays took righty Zech Zinicola from the Nationals, says MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.
• The Brewers took lefty Chuck Lofgren from the Indians, says Castrovince.
• The Cubs took pitcher Mike Parisi from the Cardinals, says Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  He had Tommy John surgery in August of '08.
• The Rays took lefty Armando Zerpa from the Red Sox, says Baseball America's John Manuel.  The Dodgers then acquired Zerpa for cash, says Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times. 
• The Giants took Orioles righty Steve Johnson, reports Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News.  Johnson was part of the George Sherrill trade with the Dodgers.
• The Cardinals took lefty Ben Jukich from the Reds, says MLB.com's Matthew Leach.
• The Phillies took righty Ken Herndon from the Angels, reports MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
• The Mariners took pitcher Kanekoa Texeira from the Yankees, says Marc Carig of the Newark Star-Ledger. Texeira was part of the Nick Swisher trade with the White Sox.
• J.J. Cooper of Baseball America has blurbs on each of the 17 players chosen.

10:23pm: Gammons will join MLB.com, the MLB Network and NESN.com. He gives MLBTR a shout out in this Boston Globe article, saying "I love stuff like MLBTradeRumors.com." We sure look forward to watching his broadcasts and reading his work.

2:08pm: Surprising press release today: legendary journalist Peter Gammons will leave ESPN to pursue other endeavors after the Winter Meetings.  Hopefully Gammons will continue writing for another outlet.

MLBTR is pulling out all the stops for our fifth time covering baseball's Winter Meetings, which are taking place in Indianapolis this year.  For the first time, we've got 24/7 coverage of the Meetings.  If news of a signing breaks at 4am, we'll be on it just as if it had broken at 4pm.  Below is a refresher on how to use the site and important links.

If you want to take it old school, just refresh the page to see the latest stories up top.  If you get to the bottom of the website you can hit Previous Entries for more. Other ways to get your MLBTR fix:

• Go to MLBTradeRumors.com and check out Top Stories on the right-hand sidebar for a quick overview.  This will be important as posts will be coming in fast and furious.  We're also trying out a new Top Stories ticker right above the first post. 
• Use our contact form to send in a link or make a business inquiry. 
• Follow us on Twitter.
• Start a discussion at the brand new MLBTR Forums.
• Discuss deals and rumors with other fans on Facebook.
• Bookmark the mobile version of our site on your phone.
• Sign up for our RSS feed.
• Check out the Transactions-only RSS feed.
• Check out our list of the Recent Trades.
• See who is currently a free agent, updated to the minute.  The list includes Type A and Type B statuses as well as who was offered arbitration. 
• Check out Tim Dierkes' Top 50 Free Agents with destination predictions.
• Click here to see who's eligible for free agency after the 2010 season.
• Fun links: Ben Nicholson-Smith's Trades of the Decade series, Scott Boras clients, non-tender candidates, offseason outlooks by team, free agent market analysis by position, trade market analysis by position, and important dates.
• We recommend Cot's Baseball Contracts if you want to look up a player's contract details.  We like Baseball-Reference for stats.
• Learn more about MLBTR at About MLB Trade Rumors.
• Please be aware of our Commenting Policy.

Looking to start your own hot stove discussions with other MLBTR fans?  Try our new MLBTR Forums!  We've got sections for trade rumors, free agents, the amateur draft, general baseball, fantasy baseball, and each of the 30 teams.  You can even use the off-topic section to talk about other sports, movies, or whatever.  Sign up today! 

Here's a link to our current free agents list, which lost Brad Penny, Ivan Rodriguez, Adam Everett, Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Soriano, and Carl Pavano yesterday but gained Saul Rivera.  We'll keep it up-to-date, as always.

We are trying out something new here at MLBTR: a Top Stories ticker.  As you can see there is a ticker above the first post, where the top headlines fade in and out.  For the time being the Top Stories section on the righthand sidebar will remain as well.  As always, MLBTR is best viewed with Firefox.

What are your thoughts?

If you're not following @mlbtraderumors on Twitter, you're missing out on the full hot stove experience!  If you become one of our 17,000+ followers, you'll find out about all breaking news immediately, have information passed along from your favorite journalists, and read our instant short-form analysis on trades and signings.  You'll also learn about MLBTR radio appearances and new features first, and have the opportunity to ask questions.  Follow @mlbtraderumors today!

Basic info about using MLB Trade Rumors:

If you want to take it old school, just refresh the page to see the latest stories up top.  If you get to the bottom of the website you can hit Previous Entries for more. Other ways to get your MLBTR fix:

• Go to MLBTradeRumors.com and check out Top Stories on the right-hand sidebar for a quick overview.
• Use our contact form to send in a link or make a business inquiry. 
• Follow us on Twitter.
• Discuss deals and rumors with other fans on Facebook.
• Bookmark the mobile version of our site on your phone.
• Sign up for our RSS feed.
• Check out the Transactions-only RSS feed.
• Check out our list of the Recent Trades.
• See who is currently a free agent, updated to the minute.  The list includes Type A and Type B statuses and whether the player was offered arbitration. 
• Check out Tim Dierkes' Top 50 Free Agents with destination predictions.
• Click here to see who's eligible for free agency after the 2010 season.
• Ben Nicholson-Smith's Trades of the Decade series is a great read.
• Other fun links: Scott Boras clients, non-tender candidates, offseason outlooks by team, free agent market analysis by position, trade market analysis by position, and important dates.
• We recommend Cot's Baseball Contracts if you want to look up a player's contract details.  We like Baseball-Reference for stats.
• Learn more about MLBTR at About MLB Trade Rumors.
• Please be aware of our Commenting Policy.

23 free agents were offered arbitration this year, one fewer than last year.  If you're not sure what offering arbitration means, click here to read our free agent arbitration primer.

The following players were offered arbitration today, and now have until December 7th to decide whether to accept:

Type A (10 players)

Chone Figgins
John Lackey
Jose Valverde
Marco Scutaro
Mike Gonzalez
Rafael Soriano
Matt Holliday
Billy Wagner
Jason Bay
Rafael Betancourt

Type B (13 players)

Justin Duchscherer
Rod Barajas
Joel Pineiro
Mark DeRosa
Adrian Beltre
Ivan Rodriguez
Marlon Byrd
Brian Shouse
Gregg Zaun
Jason Marquis
Brandon Lyon
Fernando Rodney
Carl Pavano

Regarding my predictions made yesterday, I guessed wrong on 12 of the 70 players.  I was particularly surprised by Randy Wolf, Brian Shouse, and Jason Marquis.  Which decisions surprised you?

All 70 of the arbitration decisions are noted in our 2010 MLB free agents list, which is constantly updated.

Having trouble keeping track of the arbitration offers?  Our 2010 MLB free agents list is constantly updated with the latest and will be all night.  Three teams' decisions remain; we'll sum it all up with a post at the end of the night.