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MLB Trade Rumors had over a million visits and two million pageviews during the Winter Meetings – nice job everyone!  Thanks for reading.  If you’re new here, I hope you stick around.  So, how did people arrive at this site during the Meetings?

About 49% came directly, maybe they have it bookmarked or just type it in.  Another 35% came from search engines.  The other 16% or so came from other websites.  I strongly encourage you to visit these guys, show ’em a little love back.

• Orioles Hangout
• MetsBlog
• LoHud Yankees Blog
• Viva El Birdos (Cardinals blog)
• Boston Herald
• Bleed Cubbie Blue
• RotoWorld (fantasy/general news aggregator)
• South Side Sox
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• StrikeTwo.net (news aggregator)
• River Ave. Blues (Yankees blog)
• McCovey Chronicles  (Giants blog)

Time for me to go grab some lunch.  Feel free to drop any new rumors into the comments here.

I’ve written something in the neighborhood of 11,000 words today.  That’s not a typo.  Insane, isn’t it?  In my opinion the Winter Meetings have been awesome so far; a constant flow of hot stove to discuss. Yesterday MLBTR had 490,000 pageviews, our second best day ever (can’t top this year’s trade deadline).  Thanks for reading.  We’re not even halfway done with the Meetings.  I should note that I’ve written so much today that it all doesn’t fit on the page (I think the front page has 25 posts or so).  If you want to read more than you see, click on the December archive and you’ll get the entire month of posts.

I know we have a lot of new visitors here today.  I wanted to re-post this info, the MLBTR basics.

• My name is Tim Dierkes, and you can learn a little bit about me here.  If you’ve got a rumor you haven’t seen on the site, feel free to email me here.  Sometimes my inbox fills up quickly, so don’t be offended if I don’t reply.  I read ’em all.
• MLBTradeRumors.com began about two years ago; read The Origins of MLBTR here.
• If you need help finding info on a certain player or just finding your way around the site, check out this post.  I highly encourage you to add my feed to your feed reader.  Google Reader is a nice, feed reader if you don’t have one. 

I need to run an errand, get a little fresh air.  While I’m out for the next half hour or so please feel free to link to any pertinent rumors in the comments of this post.

For some reason Gmail is not allowing me to send emails to those with hotmail or msn email accounts.  Not sure what I did to cause that, but if you have one of these types of accounts that may be why I haven’t replied.

I’d like to take a brief pause mid-rumor to recommend Baseball Prospectus.  A BP subscription is easily worth $39.95 to any baseball fan; I use mine daily and I’d happily pay more for it.

You always see me quoting guys like prospect guru Kevin Goldstein or injury expert Will Carroll; their columns are just the tip of the iceberg over there.  They post over 1,000 articles per season.

They’ve got every stat under the sun, and you can customize reports and download them in Excel.  I use this all the time too.  The stats range from the basic ones to ridiculous-sounding ones.

And then there’s PECOTA, the state of the art player projection system.  When the new set of PECOTAs come out it’s like Christmas for baseball geeks.

Again, I wholeheartedly endorse spending $39.95 on a BP subscription.  Click here to read about the benefits and features in more detail and to sign up.

The next four days will be a ridiculous time for baseball rumors.  How does a hot stove junkie stay on top of it all?  By constantly refreshing MLB Trade Rumors, of course!  We’ve got you covered.  In case you’re new to the site, here are the basics.

• My name is Tim Dierkes, and you can learn a little bit about me here.  If you’ve got a rumor you haven’t seen on the site, feel free to email me here.  Sometimes my inbox fills up quickly, so don’t be offended if I don’t reply.  I read ’em all.
• MLBTradeRumors.com began about two years ago; read The Origins of MLBTR here.
• If you need help finding info on a certain player or just finding your way around the site, check out this post.  I highly encourage you to add my feed to your feed reader.  Google Reader is a nice, feed reader if you don’t have one. 

In about ten minutes I’ll be appearing on Ken Broo’s radio show on 700 WLW out of Cincinnati.  Click here to listen live.

Those spamming comments with URLs to crappy websites, please stop.  Everyone hates you and you are wasting everyone’s time.  I patrol the comments as best I can but would prefer to be writing instead of policing little kids trying to promote lame websites.

99.9% of the MLBTR community is awesome, it’s just those bad apples I have to weed out.  If you’re a comment contributor or a comment reader, drop me a line right away if you see something resembling spam.  Also let me know if there’s a commenter making personal attacks or an ad that is inappropriate.  On that note, I have weeded out a few of the more annoying/inappropriate ads to appear here recently.  Sorry for the distraction, let’s get back to the hot stove.

UPDATE, 11-30-07 at 10pm: It’s been decided: the Yanks will put Hughes in their offer.  John Harper and Bill Madden feel that it was Brian Cashman who needed convincing.  Cabrera remains in the package, which will be rounded out by an additional pitching prospect.  This collection of youngsters apparently puts the Yankees in the lead for Santana. 

UPDATE, 11-30-07 at 6pm: The Yankees’ front office has been debating whether to surrender Phil Hughes in a trade for Santana.  Buster Olney reports that they’re leaning toward doing it.  Melky Cabrera and one other prospect would be sent over as well.  The Yankees, as well as the Red Sox, are hedging their bets by talking to Billy Beane about Dan Haren at the same time.

UPDATE, 11-30-07 at 11:25am: David Andriesen says the Mariners are not serious players on Santana.  However, Geoff Baker says the Ms have inquired but not made an offer for him.  However Baker talked to a friend of Santana’s who indicated the ace wouldn’t be jazzed signing a contract extension with a West Coast team.  U.S.S. Mariner recommends against a Santana acquisition.

FROM 11-30-07 at 8:45am:

I think it’s time for a new Johan Santana thread.  We’ll start today with a Peter Gammons report today on Mike & Mike In The Morning.  This comes from a trusted MLBTR reader.

Gammons favors the Yankees in the Santana derby, because he feels that Hank Steinbrenner could overrule Brian Cashman and include Phil Hughes in the deal.  Some feel that the Red Sox are just trying to pump up the price and would then turn to the A’s to get Dan Haren.  Getting Haren instead of Santana may have the added benefit of not pissing off Josh Beckett about his salary.