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Respected journalist Peter King of CBS Radio News has reported on some of the world’s most important news stories. He’s also a hot stove junkie who once followed transactions by way of newspaper and now regularly visits MLBTR.

King joins host Jeff Todd to discuss the roots and growth of his particular blend of fandom, chat about the recent rise of the Mets — the club he’s rooted for all his life and covered in this year’s World Series — and tell us more about his interesting career in broadcast journalism. Listen in here:

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

Our top 50 free agents list with team and contract predictions came out on Friday.  Today, I chatted with MLBTR readers about all things related to players on that list.  Click here to read the transcript.

MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes joins host Jeff Todd to discuss the site’s annual top 50 free agent predictions. Listen in to learn more about how and why the list is compiled, along with a breakdown of some of the most interesting and hardest-to-call free agents on this year’s market.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

The NFL trade deadline is today at 3pm CT and ProFootballRumors.com (@pfrumors on Twitter) is your one-stop shop for every rumor and breaking deal.

On Monday, the Broncos made a splash when they acquired two-time Pro Bowler Vernon Davis from the 49ers.  Today, there are several big names who could potentially come up in discussions, including Chargers safety Eric Weddle and 49ers wide receiver Anquan Boldin.  Contenders like the Cardinals might start working the phones and Broncos GM John Elway says that he’s not necessarily done dealing, either.

Will your favorite team make a move before the buzzer?  Stay tuned to ProFootballRumors.com and follow us on Twitter @pfrumors to find out!

After catching up on moves around the league, Jeff welcomes MLBTR’s Steve Adams to the show to discuss his philosophy on liberally extending qualifying offers. The discussion then moves into this year’s market, covering a host of possible QO recipients — including players such as Marco Estrada (Blue Jays), Daniel Murphy (Mets), Denard Span (Nationals), David Freese (Angels), Matt Wieters (Orioles), Ian Kennedy (Padres), and Colby Rasmus (Astros).

If you’re in need of a refresher on how the qualifying offer process works, and why it’s so important, check out this post from yesterday for a primer.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

MLBTR is seeking people to test out our Android app, Trade Rumors.  This free app has been available in the Play Store for a year now, but our upcoming release adds the ability to read and leave comments on the posts.  We’re looking for people specifically to test the commenting feature.  Also, it might be best if you’ve already been using the app for a while.

If you’d like to help out and test the new commenting feature within the app, please email us at mlbtrandroid@gmail.com.

It’s time to give the free MLBTR email Newsletter a try! We’ll deliver an exclusive article to your inbox every week – no strings attached! I’ll be weighing in on deals, rumors, and all the hot stove-related topics MLBTR has been known for since I launched the site a decade ago. These articles will be exclusive to MLBTR Newsletter subscribers and will not appear on the website. I may also provide occasional updates on what’s next for MLBTR. It’s completely free.

I’ll be honored if you give us your email address and join the thousands of MLBTR readers already enjoying the Newsletter. We will never sell your email address or market anything to the mailing list, and you can unsubscribe easily. My newest post, coming this afternoon, compares and contrasts free agent starters Jeff Samardzija, Wei-Yin Chen, and Mike Leake. Sign up now! Those of you viewing this post in our app can use this link.

Back to the Future Day finally arrives tomorrow, and as big fans of the trilogy here at MLBTR we’ve got a special treat for this week’s podcast.  Host Jeff Todd spoke with Back to the Future screenwriter and longtime Cardinals fan Bob Gale, who discussed why Doc Brown is a baseball fan, the ballplayer inscribed on Griff’s bat, his 1989 prediction of the Cubs topping Miami in the 2015 World Series, and much more.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review!  Those using our app can go here to listen.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly.

The 2015-16 free agent season’s qualifying offer value has been set at $15.8MM, according to a tweet from Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal. That represents an increase, of course, but the rise isn’t nearly as great as it has been in the past.

The QO system used a $13.3MM number in its first year, which increased to $14.1MM and then to $15.3MM last fall. The qualifying offer value is determined by averaging the 125 contracts leaguewide that have the highest average annual values.

Here’s a quick refresher on how the qualifying offer system works: Teams can offer their departing free agents a one-year deal, at the established price tag, within five days of the conclusion of the World Series. Over the next seven days, players who receive the offer are allowed to talk with other teams and decide whether to take the single-season pact. If they reject it, then draft implications attach: their former team stands to gain a compensation pick in the following year’s draft, while a new signing team must give up their highest non-protected draft choice.

There are plenty of other elements of the system, of course, and you can check out this old-but-good overview for more. For an understanding of why the qualifying offer matters so much, read this great explanation of why “avoiding the qualifying offer” is so important for a free agent’s value.

Players traded in mid-season are not eligible to receive a qualifying offer. So, for example, the Royals can make a qualifying offer to Alex Gordon but cannot extend one to Johnny Cueto or Ben Zobrist.

And remember: we still have yet to see a player accept a qualifying offer. While several QO-declining players have seemingly experienced market impacts after being saddled with draft compensation, the opportunity to test the open market in search of a multi-year pact has thus far proved compelling.

This week, Jeff runs through the end-of-season news around the game before welcoming MLBTR’s arbitration guru Matt Swartz to the show. Swartz, of course, just released his yearly projections for each arbitration eligible player’s salary. He’ll also be reviving his Arbitration Breakdown series this offseason, in which he examines some of the most unique arb cases and details whether or not those players’ atypical platform seasons will lead to an inaccurate projection from our model.

Among the topics discussed on this episode are the specific arbitration cases of Aroldis Chapman, Trevor Rosenthal, Josh Donaldson and Jake Arrieta. Additionally, Swartz explains why Dontrelle Willis still holds the first-year arbitration record for a starting pitcher ($4.35MM in 2006) and whether or not Dallas Keuchel can set a new first-time record this winter.

Those unfamiliar with MLBTR’s model may first want to check out Swartz’s explanation of the arb process, our model, and, of course, the above-linked projections.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.