Uncategorized News & Rumors

With the trade deadline nearing and rumors flying all over the Internet, I’m sure many of you are finding MLB Trade Rumors for the first time.  Welcome!

My name is Tim, and I comment on this site as RotoAuthority and occasionally RumorMonger.  Here you’ll find all variety of baseball trade rumors that I find interesting and worthy of a look.  The rumors may originate from other websites or blogs, newspapers, radio reports, or my own sources (the source will always be clearly labeled).  I’ll also provide trade analysis and suggestions, free agent info, and useful links.  Also, if you scroll down the left-hand sidebar, you’ll see a Browse All Rumors section.  Here you can easily find certain players or teams and everything I’ve posted on them.  I try to write something daily on MLB Trade Rumors, so bookmark www.mlbtraderumors.com and come back every day.

Also, if you’re interested in fantasy baseball, check out one of our partner sites, RotoAuthority.  RotoAuthority is a fantasy baseball blog with a helpful community and daily fresh content for most types of fantasy baseball leagues.  I do all the writing for RotoAuthority currently, though we’ve got an advice guy behind the scenes and a guest writer on the way.

Finally, I’ve got a team of writers contributing to a blog aptly named AllCubs.  If you’re a fan of Chicago’s National League ballclub you should definitely take a look.

According to RotoWorld, you can get a sneak peek at this year’s All-Star roster before the names are officially released.  Just check out the available players for the customized jerseys at MLB.com’s merchandise shop.  It looks like Derrick Turnbow snuck in there somehow. 

UPDATE: Turnbow did indeed make the cut.  Official rosters available here.  Pretty cool to see guys like Jose Lopez, Alex Rios, Gary Matthews Jr., Bronson Arroyo, Dan Uggla, and Freddy Sanchez earning berths.  Who could’ve seen that coming?  Pretty uncool to see Mark Redman on the squad.  He has a 5.59 ERA in 13 starts.  Somebody’s gotta do it though.

If you live in the St. Louis area, I will be making an appearance on 1380AM around 10:30pm.  We’ll discuss the Cardinals’ left field situation and possible upcoming trades this summer.  Check it out!

A few months ago, I joined SportsBlah’s fantasy baseball league.  It’s generally been good times, though it could use more trash talk.  I figured I was pretty much playing against people I didn’t know, aside from exchanging the occasional email with CubDumb or the Blah or GameFour.  Then yesterday I came to realize that one of the league members I hadn’t talked to before, Baseball Mike, works at the same company as me in Chicago.  Not only that, but on the same floor as me.  Not only that, but on the same side of said floor, like thirty feet away.  I find this to be a bizarre coincidence.  Anyway, check out Mike’s site.

Another one to check out is BookWorm Baseball.  Run by a 23 year-old stathead?  Hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar.  Actually I turned 24 recently.

I know Braves fans are desperate for an encouraging trade rumor, so here’s one that landed in my inbox.  You be the judge.

Does anyone know what the deal is with Kyle Drabek?  Seems like everyone knows about his big, bad "makeup issues" besides me.  Does this kid have the Mark of the Beast or something?  I tried asking Jeeves what Drabek did but all I got was a bunch of scouting reports. 

The Baseball Card Blog is counting down the best sets ever in their usual amusing style.  I’d like to throw my vote in for Pinnacle’s Cards in a Can.  A truly odd innovation.  What’s this?  Andy?  Hideo?  MO???  They’re all here!  For only 99 cents! 

Barry Zito makes a peculiar trade demand.

Sign a petition to put an end to the new Mets song…

23 year-old Cubs prospect Carlos Marmol has the best ERA in the Southern League (0.52 through 17 innings).  Perhaps that’s why no one discusses his past transgressions.

I think it would be awesome if an MLBTradeRumors reader could come up with the new name for Dan Haren‘s new blog.  Right now it’s called Haren’s Heat…c’mon now, that’s even lamer than "Roto Authority."  I know there a few clever readers out there.  If we can name Danny’s blog, maybe he’ll pass us some sweet Zito rumors or at least some LOST rumors.

UPDATE:  So far the best submission to rename the blog:  Haren’s Harem, by my friend Jonathan.  Danny probably has a harem, right?  I know I do.

What’s with this new trend of calling Travis Hafner Papi’s equal this year?  Any forecaster worth his salt would’ve busted out that declaration before the season.

I told you the Sox were pissed about this… 

SportsBlah makes a plea to managers.

Ugly Ex-Cubs…a history lesson.

A blog dedicated entirely to Dodgers pitcher Yhency Brazoban.  With Yhency on the shelf for the season, I’m not sure if this guy has a reason to get up in the morning.

I highly recommend GameFour, a sports blog written by a friend of mine, Conor.  Several other fine writers contribute over there as well.  Conor is currently beating me in our SportsBloggers fantasy league.  I have only myself to blame for having Emil Brown in my outfield.

Conor recently interviewed me, so check that out if you’re so inclined. 

How about a little something different?  Check out this amusing article over at Batter’s Box courtesy of Leigh Sprague. 

In my personal experience, I’ve been able to lure my fiance to baseball games with the promise of ballpark hot dogs and proximity to Michael Barrett.  Plus, thanks to me, she can slip right into a baseball conversation at the office and casually flex more knowledge than any of her coworkers.

I love a good brawl.  And I hope these two teams really mix it up.  I heard Julio Franco is really pissed off at Ryan Zimmerman showing him up by being 30 years younger.

But the problem is that the umps are going to be so prepared when Jose Guillen steps up that no one will get any good swings in.  Bodyslams are unlikely.  We’ll see.

Upon reading a Gary Gillette chat at ESPN today, Gillette mentioned something that I had never heard or considered before: 

"I believe that it is very likely Mike Piazza used steroids, but I have no proof. But I’m also not trying to suspend him, put him in jail, or strip him from the record books, either."

I think Gillette is a fine author and he’s one of my favorite columnists at ESPN.  I was surprised to hear him say this so bluntly.  However, it appears that this kind of speculation has been floating around for years.  I found this blog post from two years ago, where the author quotes Piazza commenting on steroid testing way back in 1997:

"I think it’s unnecessary in baseball. I mean, would you drug-test billiard players or chess players? You can take a .200 hitter and give him all of the drugs you can find, and would that make him a .300 hitter? No."

It almost seems like one of those weird non-denial type things that we’ve seen in recent years.  Like when Barry Bonds regularly tries to divert us by telling us that the world has bigger problems and that we should all be spending our time trying to cure cancer instead of investigating him.

Many sportswriters have recently pondered:  does Bud Selig realize the possible unintended consequences of the Mitchell investigation?  That perhaps "nice guys" like Piazza will be revealed as steroid users as well?

DailyBaseballPicks is now up and running!  I only had one choice for a game today, but I made my pick anyway.  Go Tribe!

Learn about that future dynasty, the Florida Marlins, at Hardball Times.

The Juice’s Under the Radar Players for ’06.

Richard Justice makes an important point – again.  I’m still seeing misinformation reported about this everywhere.

The gold standard of April Fool’s jokes.

MetsBlog makes some sort-of predictions for the upcoming season.

Finally, I will be appearing tonight on Sports Talk, WICB‘s weekly sports talk show at Ithaca College.