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MLBTR Podcast With Lefty Wade LeBlanc

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After catching up on the league’s pre-Thanksgiving Day trades and signings, host Jeff Todd welcomes veteran left-hander Wade LeBlanc to the show.

The 31-year-old says that he’s healthy and looking for an opportunity with a major league organization after spending the 2015 campaign with Japan’s Seibu Lions. LeBlanc, a seven-year MLB veteran, talks about his hot stove experiences as well as his approach on the mound and dedication to the game. He also shares a great story about an unlikely source of a valuable pitching tip.

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

AL Central Notes: Thornton, Rondon, Tribe, Tigers

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Here’s the latest from around the AL Central…

  • The Twins don’t have interest in free agent southpaw Matt Thornton, 1500 ESPN Twin Cities’ Darren Wolfson reports (Twitter link), though in a subtweet, Wolfson said “seven or so” other teams are interested.  Wolfson speculated that Thornton could be a fit in Minnesota due to the team’s familiarity with him as an AL Central rival in Chicago for so many years.  The Twins are also in need of bullpen help and the 39-year-old Thornton has posted a 1.98 ERA over 77 1/3 innings in 2014-15 (though advanced metrics aren’t as bullish about his performance).
  • In today’s mailbag, a reader asked Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer about the Indians’ decision not to protect Hector Rondon in the Rule 5 draft after the 2012 season.  Thanks to injury troubles, Rondon didn’t pitch much in the three years leading up to that Rule 5 draft.  Beyond that, Rondon was asked to pitch in relief in after returning from elbow surgery and the Tribe’s bullpen was already stacked.  Of course, Rondon would go on to break through with the Cubs and become their closer.
  • Also from Hoynes’ mailbag, he discussed a bit of trade speculation and said he personally doesn’t think the Indians will end up dealing Carlos Carrasco.
  • Tigers GM Al Avila said the team extended a contract offer to Rajai Davis before deciding to trade for Cameron Maybin instead, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes.  “At the end of the day, we felt [Maybin] was the best option for us,” Avila said.  With Maybin now in the fold, Davis will almost certainly be with another team in 2016.
  • Tigers executive vice president and GM Al Avila has followed through on his promise to beef up the club’s scouting and analytics staffs, Chris McCosky of The Detroit News writes.  The Tigers announced several new additions to both departments and their international scouting staff earlier this week, all of which are listed in McCosky’s piece.

MLBTR’s Zach Links also contributed to this post

MLBTR Podcast: Alden Gonzalez On The Halos

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MLB.com’s Angels beat writer Alden Gonzalez joins host Jeff Todd to discuss the latest on the Halos. Just-tabbed GM Billy Eppler has already swung a major deal to add shortstop Andrelton Simmons, but there are plenty of needs and less resources available after that move.

What does the Simmons swap tell us about the new chief baseball decisionmaker? What can Eppler and co. do next to address the team’s other priorities? Will the team sign a major free agent or two? What will happen to C.J. Wilson? Those are among the many topics covered in today’s podcast.

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.

Last Chance To Enter The MLBTR Free Agent Prediction Contest

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The Yankees have nowhere to put Jason Heyward.  The Giants will steal Zack Greinke away from the Dodgers.  The Cardinals would never sign a player like Chris Davis.  The Rangers are going to add a big bat.  Do you have strong opinions like these on MLB’s top free agents?  Then enter into the MLBTR Free Agent Prediction contest and prove your genius!

The closes tonight at 11:59pm central time.  The only requirement is a Facebook account.  The winners will receive cash prizes and, more importantly, bragging rights over MLBTR’s writing team and other contest participants.  Your picks can be saved and edited up until the deadline.  Try it today!

Three Players Accept Qualifying Offers; 16 Decline

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After three straight seasons in which no player accepted a qualifying offer, and a record twenty offers extended this offseason, perhaps something had to give. For the first time, we saw players land in favor of taking the one-year offer — valued this year at $15.8MM — rather than entering the market with the burden of draft pick compensation attached.

We’ve covered the rules in some detail previously. For those players that accepted a qualifying offer, their once-and-current teams may not trade them without consent until June 15, 2016. (That’s the same rule that applies to any other free agent signing.) And no draft compensation changes hands.

That’s the situation for these three players who accepted qualifying offers:

For the seventeen declining players, their former teams will stand to receive a “sandwich” round draft pick as compensation. New teams that sign those players will have to forfeit their top unprotected draft pick (or picks, if they sign multiple QO-rejecting players). If a player rejects a QO but ultimately re-signs with the same team, no draft pick shuffling occurs.

Here’s that list:

That only accounts for 19 of the 20 offers, of course. The other player to receive a QO was righty Marco Estrada, who agreed to a multi-year pact with the Blue Jays before being forced to accept or reject the offer. Toronto will neither gain nor lose draft choices.

 

 

MLBTR Podcast With Peter King Of CBS Radio News

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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.

Podcast: Talking Top 50 Free Agents With Tim Dierkes

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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.

Visit ProFootballRumors.com For NFL Trade News

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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!

MLBTR Podcast: The Qualifying Offer Episode

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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.

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