Sullivan: The Hall of Fame ballot…Ron Santo belongs and other matters.

While the Neyer Law remains in effect…

Some criterion:

1. I prefer - but don’t demand - to see ten “Hall of Fame” years. That being ten seasons that were truly excellent years.

2. I prefer that a player’s Hall of Fame credentials be spelled out in three sentences or less. Guys who need a full page to have their credentials explained lose me.

3. I like 20-win seasons and Cy Young Awards. I prefer guys who win games.

4. I like Gold Gloves. I know the Gold Glove Award can be suspect at times but I like players who were outstanding on both offense and defense.

5. I like the No. 100. As in 100 runs scored and/or 100 RBI. Look, you have to have some kind of cutoff point. 90 is good too. So is 18 wins. But I like 20 wins and the No. 100.

Bert Blyleven - I spend more time on him each year than any other player. Far more. Far, far, far more. I still don’t see it and I really agonize over this. I see one 20-win season. I see no Cy Young Awards and just two All-Star appearances. Two? I see just four seasons where he was at least five games above .500. I don’t buy the “bad teams” argument. Between 1977-80, his teams averaged 90 wins a season. Over that same period, he averaged 12 wins per season. He won 12 games for the Pirates in 1979 when they won 98 and the World Series.

Somebody explain to me what I’m missing?????

XM MLB Chat: Teixeira would be perfect for the Red Sox,’ Verducci

Suzyn Susan reunited with Steinling Steinducci!

Verducci on with Charley Steiner says Teixeira is perfect for the Red Sox while noting the team has been fairly quiet so far about its moves. On Sabathia, Verducci is another who thinks he won’t go to the Yankees:

* ‘Sabathia is looking for a reason not to go to the Yankees,’ which would most likely be either the Giants or Angels. That he’s basically ‘pleading for someone’ to come up with some kind of structured deal whether with deferrals or incentives that would be in the ballpark.

Verducci notes the Red Sox have focused more on run prevention in the past few years but are now concerned with getting more hitting.

* On current state of offensive shortstops, there are a few good ones, but the A-rod, Jeter, Garciaparra era output from that position is proving to be an anomaly.

FOX: Talkin’ Baseball With Ed Hardiman!

Found this on the new Friends “The Asylum for Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason” Hospital of Philadelphia site. 

9. You gained some notoriety on the internet last year thanks to your “Slobbermetrics” article. In all seriousness though, what do you really think of Sabermetrics?

As a viable interpretation of the past it’s OK, as a predictor of the future, not so hot. Moneyball hasn’t changed baseball. Influenced it perhaps and improved Boston, but what has it done for the A’s? I think Charlie Lau’s contact hitting sytem has had a far greater impact than Sabermetrics. It’s like believing in fortune tellers. If you exclude the failures it looks great, when you factor them in it resembles flipping a coin. Why wouldn’t a Kansas City just hire the brightest SABR guy if it was so infallible? I’m OK with people who live and die by it, but don’t try to cram it down our throats or claim it’s the last word in understanding baseball. Even Bill James refutes that notion. It’s math that can’t pass any rigorous testing. If the player doesn’t conform he’s underperformed? How about the math underperfomed and individual humans can’t be expressed mathematically? What about the 2008 Mets? Sabermetrically, that team was better than the Phillies. Just grade out the pitching staffs and the Phillies shouldn’t have been a speck in the Mets’ rearview mirror. The Cubbies should’ve beaten the Dodgers SABR-metrically, what happened? That’s why I take it with a grain of salt.

Joe Posnanski Blog: A Hall of Fame Manifesto

The 10 Eddie Planks of the Posnanski Manifesto...and many, many more!

And now … we can start categorizing. The first group on the list I call, “The Willie Mays Hall of Famers.” You will appreciate that one of the things that happens anytime I suggest that, say, Alan Trammell is a Hall of Famer is that some people will angrily write in to say that I am trying to water down the Hall of Fame with mediocrity. They will inevitably say, “Alan Trammell? Come one. That’s not a Hall of Famer. Willie Mays, that’s a Hall of Famer. Babe Ruth. Guys like that. …”

Well, of course, there aren’t ANY OTHER guys like that — if Willie Mays and Babe Ruth were the standard for the Hall of Fame … the Hall of Fame would have … Willie Mays and Babe Ruth in it. Maybe Mickey Mantle. Ty Cobb.

But I do appreciate the point … and I’m going to say that there are exactly 52 Willie Mays Hall of Famers. That would be the number of players who, I suspect, the casual fan thinks are in the Hall of Fame. The might not be thinking about THESE 52 players, exactly, but this would be the inner circle, the slam-dunk choice, the no-doubt Hall of Famers.

I didn’t just choose these 52. There are the 45 first-ballot Hall of Famers — including Lou Gehrig and Roberto Clemente — and then another seven I think who were not first-ballot Hall of Famers only because of timing or some odd quirk in the voting. Lajoie, Speaker, Ol’ Pete and Cy Young were all on the first Hall of Fame ballot and sort of had to wait for the monsters of the game to get in first. Hornsby was on the ballot three times, but there was already this sense that a player should wait until five years after he retired — five years after Hornsby retired he was voted in. Grove was on the ballot during World War II which held him up. And the DiMaggio Hall of Fame balloting was a mess — they put him on the ballot just two years after he retired, nobody was quite ready for him, it didn’t go the way anyone wanted.

Rosenthal: A’s still after Furcal, but may chase Big Unit too

WTF? (throws bad pressback chair)

The A’s remain the front-runner to sign free-agent shortstop Rafael Furcal, but that might not be their last major off-season move.

Picture Randy Johnson in the green and gold, winning his 300th game in an Oakland uniform.

The idea is not as bizarre as it might sound.

The A’s are targeting Johnson to be their fifth starter, major-league sources say, figuring he would give their rotation a veteran presence while commanding only a one-year deal. At the moment, the A’s top four starters are Justin Duchscherer, Dana Eveland, Gio Gonzalez and Sean Gallagher. None of them threw as many innings last season as Johnson did for the Diamondbacks — 184.

Johnson, who is only five victories short of 300, could boost attendance as he approached that milestone. With Johnson, Furcal and left fielder Matt Holliday, the A’s would gain not only star power, but also the chance to contend.

Don’t look for free-agent designated hitter Jason Giambi to join that group. Rather than bring him back, the A’s might prefer to take a chance on a trade for Nationals first baseman Nick Johnson, who missed most of last season with a right-wrist injury.

Schmuck Discusses Putz

Baltimore Sun columnist Peter Schmuck dishes on his failed attempt to establish rapport with reliever JJ Putz.  In his Sports Media Guide interview, Schmuck, the longtime baseball writer, recounts a debate over steroids with Jose Canseco.

Tigers acquire Jack Wilson

Its not just the Big Three in Detroit making questionable management decisions.

It seems to be the week for shortstop roulette on the Hot Stove, and the latest is that the Pirates have sent Jack Wilson to the Tigers.

The teams had been in discussions for a while, but according to a person familiar with the deal, it is done. It’s unclear what the Pirates get in return.

Kurt Streeter: Jamie McCourt should be thanked for raising some valid questions

Make no mistake, what she said came out jumbled, but what she said also raised important questions.

Here’s one: Manny Ramirez is said to want roughly $30 million to hit home runs and make us forget our troubles for a few hours at a time roughly 162 days a year. All of this is fine and dandy, but really, in this day and age, is any athlete worth that much?

I look at players as figurative CEOs, heads of their own private companies. Well, with the economy having tanked, we now get the willies when reading studies such as the one showing the CEOs of the biggest U.S. companies hauling in an average of $10.8 million a year—346 times what the average worker was paid. Some say executive pay should be somehow controlled or regulated.

How about thinking a little harder about the largesse dished out to top athletes?

And while we are at it, let’s not forget about the real CEOs: fat-cat owners like Frank and Jamie McCourt.

Last I checked, it’s not as if baseball has struggled the last few years. Revenues have rocketed, revenue sharing has been a boon—just ask the Tampa Bay Rays.

Better yet, just ask the McCourts, who, according to reports, recently purchased side-by-side estates on the Malibu beachfront for just over $50 million.

I’m thinking aloud here, but maybe as we dive into this issue, an idea, maybe a crazy one, takes form: If baseball owners got together and discussed player salaries, they’d be accused of collusion and we’d soon see the mother-of-all sports lawsuits. So perhaps out of all the questioning comes a series of public, well-televised, cyber-connected symposiums involving owners from all of the major sports, players’ representatives and even fans. (Yes, it’s true that nothing real in the way of change may come of this, but sometimes talk leads to action. Besides, I’m a dreamer.)

T.J. Simers: Dodgers can ignore economy as long as fans keep pouring in

“We’re seeing more and more teams remaining static on ticket increases and trumpeting it, even though they raised ticket prices a year ago,” said John Greenberg, the baseball expert for the Team Marketing Report. “For example, the Dodgers raised the price on a number of tickets a year ago, in some cases as much as $15 a ticket.

“But you can’t very well raise ticket prices every year if you’re not going to the World Series regularly, so some teams elect not to raise prices every other year while telling their fans, ‘Look what we’re doing for you.’ “

In the five years the McCourts have been in charge, the cost for a family of four to attend a Dodgers game, according to Team Marketing Report numbers, has increased almost 57%.

Dodgers fans haven’t objected, though, more than 3 million every year buying tickets, the quality of the team or the cost of the experience seemingly given little consideration.

Buster Olney: Tough call coming for Manny

Executives around baseball wonder if that will change in the next few days, because they are having a difficult time envisioning how Ramirez would make more in salary in 2009 than if he accepted arbitration. He made $20 million last season—although the present-day value was just a little more than $17 million—and following a historic performance in which Ramirez hit .396 for the Dodgers in two months, driving in 53 runs in 53 games, his arbitration award would be breathtaking. Boras would be in position to set a new and stunning standard through that process, and could ask for A-Rod money.

But accepting arbitration would represent a staggering surrender for Ramirez, who had hoped for a nine-figure contract, and for Boras, who has been talking a deal for as long as six years for the 36-year-old outfielder. One year for $28 million is a long way from 4 years, $100 million, or six years, $150 million. Some friends of Ramirez do not believe that he will allow Boras to take arbitration, as tempting as it may be. “This is not going to be an easy time for Scott,” a friend of Ramirez said.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Boras during this hard time. Actually, they aren’t. But it’s the thought that counts.

N.Y. Observer: Megdal: Time for the Mets to Close on a Closer

A Sedgwickander if you will..

The Mets have casually approached the free agent closer market, and rightfully so. Both Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Fuentes are top choices, but it appears that only the Mets have both the money and the inclination to spend it on a closer, leaving them free to choose.

So New York has let the market come to them, and while Rodriguez, who set the all-time record for saves in a season in 2008, once expected a five-year, $75 million deal, the Mets may sign Rodriguez for as little as three years. Fuentes, meanwhile, appears to be asking for three years as well.

But now it’s time to get serious. The temptation will be there to trade talent for a lesser commodity. But the truth is that signing one of them is a must if the Mets are going to seriously address their disastrous bullpen. Still, many baseball people are apprehensive about signing relievers to long-term contracts, and the Mets in particular have been burned by such deals. After all, Billy Wagner broke down in the third of his four-year deal in 2008, which is why they need to seek a closer in the first place.

PPG:  Kovacevic:  Mientkiewicz giving Pirates “the final say”

Reason #1 why Minky is great:

“It’s a typical Mientkiewicz offseason. I’m everybody’s B and C plan,” he said. “If they two guys they want to sign get hit by a truck, then they think about me.”

Reason #2 why Minky is great:

(talking about complications stemming from his wife’s heart sugery)

“She told me I caused heart to fail because she had to watch me playing third base.”

Reason #3 why Minky is great:

(Third base)was where Mientkiewicz, playing a position mostly foreign to him, committed all seven of his errors in 2008.

With the team shopping the elder LaRoche, Bautista already gone, the jury still out on the younger LaRoche, the general consensus being that Walker is not ready for MLB, and Pedro Alvarez expectedly waiting in the wings, why not Minky?

Tim Lincecum, motion capture star

So for some of the mo-cap technicians, the best part of bringing in someone like Lincecum was the opportunity to be able to build a digital model of “The Freak” in motion, something that they see as a very cool piece of digital data.

All of which is to say that even if the mo-cap guys at 2K Sports had had experience with a pitcher, Lincecum would still have presented a singular experience for them.

That said, Park explained that, in fact, pitching is actually easier to mo-cap than hitting.

That’s because batters have very distinctive stances that begin with “waggles,” or nervous tics they express with their bats, as well as differing stances that can be wide or narrow, depending on the player.

And because Lincecum does take the occasional turn at bat, the mo-cap guys had to film him hitting as well.

I asked Park how many other major league players they bring in for the creation of their baseball game, and he said that, in fact, the number is very small.

“Part of the problem is that our development cycle is actually during the baseball season,” Park said, adding that the players are contractually prohibited from doing the kind of extracurricular work that Lincecum was doing Tuesday during the season. “I don’t know what our goal is...but it’s always a challenge for every sport.”

This means that while 2K Sports will bring in a Lincecum or a Nash as their cover athletes, in order to capture their signature styles, most of the players in the games are actually represented by actors, guys who have played their respective sports at probably a high amateur level, such as college, and who can be trusted to look like they know what they’re doing.

Inside getting Lincecum’s mo-caps.

Players Caught for Online Gambling (in Korea)

Prosecutors are investigating more than 10 pro-baseball players suspected of having habitually bet tens of millions of won on illegal online gambling. Some top-class players are also on the list.

Prosecutors have confirmed that 12 to 14 baseball players played Baccarat on an Internet site.

The site was different from the one that baseball player-turned-show host Kang Byung-kyu used, a prosecutor said. Kang was earlier booked for gambling on an Internet site which broadcast Baccarat games live from a casino in the Philippines. He allegedly bet 2.6 billion won and lost about half of it.

Baccarat?

Bradford: For Dustin Pedroia and Red Sox, They Were Unique Negotiations For a Unique Player

The Pride of Pipsqueakannock, N.J.!

From the player’s side of the negotiating table, the name that kept coming up was Derek Jeter of the Yankees. It was pointed out that, like Pedroia, Jeter had established himself while playing on those late 1990s New York teams without the benefit of the kind of stats being thrown up by the star shortstops of the time, Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada and Alex Rodriguez.

Jeter had the intangibles that Pedroia was starting to ooze. It was no accident that the Sox second baseman made it a point to spend as much time with the Yankees’ captain during the 2008 All-Star Game, wanting to see how that pinstriped machine was made.

It was with this in mind that one of the first portions of the Pedroia contract to be broached and settled on was the escalator if he won another MVP. While his previous contract offered no pay-off for winning the award, if he does claim it again there will be a $2 million payday. And if he does it in 2014 or ’15, his option year also jumps up to $13 million with a $100,000 bonus to boot.

Pedroia understood making up as much money as he would have liked in exchange for the security most likely wasn’t going to be an option. But this allowed for an opportunity to define his worth to a certain degree.

Ringolsby: Welcome to the Hall, Rickey. What took so long?

Since it works so well with Judge Florentino Floro...let’s try BALLFAN’S HOF BALLOT.....BALLFAN’S HOF BALLOT (shakes out of disturbing Gale Sondergaard trance).

That’s why the Jim Rice phenomena is so puzzling. Rice could slip into the Hall this year, his 15th and final year of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot. A year ago, he came up only 16 votes shy of receiving the required support from 75 percent of the voters. The puzzle is how in a four-year span he could go from being on 54.5 percent of the ballots cast to 72.2 percent.

Rice will be one of the more interesting debates, and the decision on him will expand past his own merit, but also to the worthiness of Andre Dawson, Dale Murphy and Tim Raines. It would seem that each of those three is at least as qualified as Rice, if not more so.

But then Ozzie Smith was elected and Alan Trammell has never even received serious support. He was on only 18.2 percent of the ballots a year ago.

There won’t be any debate about Henderson.

And at least one ballot will also include Jack Morris, Lee Smith, Trammell and Bert Blyleven, holdovers from past elections, in addition to the game’s all-time theft king.

Gotham Baseball: Healey: Mets: Three-Headed Monster

Milland, Grier...and Bernazard?

There’s lots of theories out there as to why the New York Mets – and plenty of other big league clubs – haven’t made many moves prior to next week’s Winter Meetings. The economy.  Everyone’s waiting on Tex and C.C.  The MLBPA and its “Get Every Penny Or Else” mantra.

Could be all three for most teams, but there’s some feeling around some baseball circles that the New York Mets inactive offseason has more to do with the fact that there are now three voices in the room with a definitive opinion about how the team needs to move forward.

“First of all, everybody loves Omar (Minaya, the Mets’ GM), and Jeff (Wilpon, Mets’ COO ) has made a lot of progress in his dealing with other clubs,” said one baseball executive, who spoke with Going Nine on condition of anonymity.  “The other guy (Mets’ VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard) is tough to deal with, but we haven’t really spoken with him that much in the last few weeks.

“It’s like they can’t make up their minds what direction they want to go.”

Primer Dugout 12-4-08

Happy Birthday to Jesse Burkett.

THT: Tango: Tim Raines’ case for the Hall of Fame

Tired of reading things like...”Tim Raines? Sounds intriguing, but like the Hawk (Andre Dawson), I just can’t quite pull my finger on Rock.”? Well, here’s Tango.

The difference between comparing to groups, as opposed to one-on-one comparisons, is that we are no longer fascinated by milestones like 3000 hits, or .300 batting average. Immortality is not about achieving some arbitrary rounded-number milestone. This is especially true in this case, since baseball is not about getting hits, but about generating runs. It’s runs that leads to wins, not hits. Hits is just one component of creating runs. Extra base hits, walks, and steals are the other main components.

While individually, Raines is unlike his peers, overall, it’s hard to distinguish them. Any time we compare Raines to a reasonable group of Hall of Famers, we always end up with the same thing: Raines is just like them. If you have a group of players worthy of the Hall, and an individual player compares very favorably to that group, you have a Hall-worthy player by definition. That is what Tim Raines is: the definition of a Hall of Famer. Whether Raines is compared to the best of the best leadoff hitters or the best No. 3 hitters or the best players of his era, he stands among them. And they stand in the Hall of Fame.

N.Y. Post: SEX SUIT HITS EX-MET SHAMSKY (RR)

SEX ART! Even Dwaine Tinsley would be disgusted.

The ex-wife of Art Shamsky claims the Mets legend gave her a sexually transmitted disease after repeatedly cheating on her with both men and women.

In a sordid lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Kim Shamsky says that during their 13-year marriage the famed outfielder and first baseman “engaged in acts of adultery with both men and women,” without her knowledge. His romps included “acts of ‘unprotected’ sexual and deviate sexual intercourse,” according to the suit.

The court papers state that Kim, suspecting her hubby was fooling around, submitted to a number of medical tests. After one examination, she was informed by her doctor she had contracted the human papilloma virus (HPV). Medical experts say HPV can cause problems such as genital warts and cervical cancer.

The suit claims Shamsky continued to have sex with her although he “knew that an individual or individuals with whom he had engaged in sexual relations had contracted HPV or that he had contracted HPV.”

Thanks to Can’t Stop the Bleeding.

Cards trade for Khalil Greene

Well...at least St. Louis has a Surf & Sirloin.

The Cardinals apparently have addressed their question at shortstop by acquiring one of the league’s largest enigmas.

Hours after formally agreeing to a one-year deal with free agent reliever Trever Miller, the Cardinals traded for San Diego Padres shortstop Khalil Greene Wednesday night.

The Cardinals have yet to confirm the deal, but Greene is believed to have cost the Cardinals two players, at least one a righthanded reliever.

Kidnappers Kill Henry Blanco’s Brother

Once again we’re reminded why it can suck to be a professional athlete, high-profile or not, in Venezuela.

CARACAS, Venezuela - The brother of major league catcher Henry Blanco has been killed in Venezuela.

Police believe that 39-year-old Carlos Simon Blanco was murdered by kidnappers after they abducted him on Sunday in Guarenas, a suburb of Caracas.

Police found the victim’s bullet-riddled body on Monday.

Authorities believe the kidnappers were seeking ransom for Blanco’s release, according to a statement released on Tuesday by Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office.

Kidnapping and murder are becoming more frequent in Venezuela. Over 13,000 homicides were reported last year, making Venezuela one of Latin America’s most dangerous countries.

The victim’s brother, Henry Blanco, played catcher for the Chicago Cubs last year. He is currently a free agent.

Halos Heaven: Angels Roster Decisions and WARP

Below is the list of players in order of wins that they hypothetically add to the 2009 Angels. For position players,I used a conservative projection of Gary Matthews Jr’s and Maicer Izturis offensive output as the “Replacement Level” floor. I do not account for defense, because really, we’re looking for corner outfielders and/or first basemen who mash. For pitchers, I used a conservative projection of Nick Adenhart’s and Dustin Moseley’s combined output as the replacement level floor, assuming that Jon Garland’s slot is the only one to be replaced.

Mark Teixeira - 6.4 wins above Izzy-GMJ (without incorporating defense)
CC Sabathia - 4.7 wins above Aden-Mose
Jake Peavy - 4.7 wins above Aden-Mose
Adam Dunn - 4.3 wins above Izzy-GMJ
Milton Bradley - 3.3 wins above Izzy-GMJ
Manny Ramirez - 3.3 wins above Izzy-GMJ
Nick Johnson - 2.9 wins above Izzy-GMJ
Ben Sheets - 2.7 wins above Aden-Mose
Randy Johnson - 1.8 wins above Aden-Mose
Juan Rivera - 1.4 wins above Izzy-GMJ
Jon Garland - 1.1 wins above Aden-Mose
Garrett Anderson - .9 wins above Izzy-GMJ (and I’m being optimistic with Anderson)

Mark Teixeira clearly leads the board here. Milton Bradley could be much better than the projection, since it assumes regression and only puts him down for 400 at bats.  Manny Ramirez isn’t as high as I would have thought, but again, this is assuming he comes down quite a bit from his ’08 high.  I couldn’t help myself from throwing in Nick Johnson’s name - he could be a terrific “buy-low” opportunity.

Thanks to Triggers in Leash.

Stereogum: MV & EE - “Anyway”

Warren Zevon, when sober, was usually comprehensible.

And, what was the spaceman’s master plan?

The spaceman could be Bill Lee. In his “space” the main aim to the end of the game is not allow anyone “on” base. That’s the key, like salts to alchemists and the Masonic depth to baseball, turning “on” has always been where it is at. Tesla, the energy monopolies ... dig the idea of standing tall, as in the indian chief, or the inverse of laying low. You “can’t stand” can be many rooms, mebbe the Velvets said it best ..."I Can’t Stand It Anymore.” Dig their castle, we are just a mere moat in this thing, swimming as best we can. This song is about a river and a life raft.

Dewan: Which is the best situation to score?

You’re the manager of a major league baseball team in 2008 and you have a choice to make. Which of the following situations would you prefer?

1. Man on first and third, two outs
2. Man on first, one out
3. A clean slate—no one on, no outs

Go.

SNY: Berg: Mets’ new home impressive, but how will it play?

Berg takes in Citi Field...(sorry, no discovery of a buried Wonderful Willie Smith jersey or anything like that)

Speaking of foul territory: There’s a lot less of it in play. That seems to me like a big plus for hitters. Fewer foul outs mean fewer outs. Like the Mets, I’d prefer a pitcher’s park, but given how much closer the lack of foul territory puts the fans, it seems like a worthy compromise. Plus, that massive left-field wall should turn plenty of home runs into doubles, balancing out the absence of foul ground.

But then again, who knows? I’m sure there are any number of factors I’ve failed to consider that will affect the way games are played and watched at Citi Field. The only sense I’m sure I took away from the tour is one of longing.

It will be four months of hot-stove nonsense until Citi Field opens and I’m not sure I can stand the wait. And whether you believe that stadiums like the Mets’ new home are lasting signs of societal achievement or merely temples where we can worship superhumans named Wright, Reyes, Beltran and Santana, if you’ve read this far you’re no doubt anticipating Citi’s opening as much as I am because it will accompany something inexplicably awesome:

They’re going to be playing baseball.

KHALIL GREENE ON THE BRINK OF BEING MOVED (RR)

You know, we left this San Diego place ‘cause it was bogus.

In a continuing attempt to reduce payroll, the Padres were closing in on trading their starting shortstop, Khalil Greene, who is due to make $6.5 million next year in the final season of his contract.

The expectation is that Greene will be moved even before the Winter Meetings start in Las Vegas on Monday. The sources who revealed that the 29-year-old will be dealt did not divulge to which team. But the Orioles and Cardinals are among a small group of clubs that is working hard to find a shortstop.

ESPN: Agent: Renteria, Giants closing in on deal

Sweeny Murti emerges. Wipes brow.

The agent for shortstop Edgar Renteria said Wednesday that he’s making significant progress toward a deal that would bring the five-time All-Star to the San Francisco Giants.

“We’re working on it and we’re certainly much, much closer, but nothing is done,” said agent Barry Meister.

A source told ESPN.com that Renteria is looking at a contract in the two-year, $18 million range with San Francisco. WFAN radio in New York reported 10 days ago that Renteria had agreed to a deal with the Giants. But Meister had characterized that initial report as untrue.

Tom Krasovic: Dodgers gathering information on free-agent Hoffman in pitching search

As part of their search for a veteran to bring leadership to a young pitching staff, the Los Angeles Dodgers have identified former Padres closer Trevor Hoffman among several candidates.

The Dodgers have been gathering information on Hoffman, the all-time saves leader, according to a baseball source not connected to Hoffman.

One of the Dodgers’ top baseball officials has inquired about Hoffman’s intangibles and what value he might bring to young pitchers, a role that veteran pitcher Greg Maddux filled last season after Los Angeles acquired him from the Padres.

The Dodger have an exceptionally young bullpen, plus a youthful starting rotation. They are interested in veterans who can contribute on and off the mound.

Takashi Saito has been the Dodgers’ primary closer the past three seasons and, like Hoffman, is a free agent. Saito has outperformed Hoffman the past three years in terms of ballpark-adjusted ERA. But an elbow injury caused Saito to miss two months of the 2008 season, and the Dodgers left him off their roster for the National League Championship Series. Elbow injuries such as his often require surgery.

Hoffman converted on 88 percent of his save attempts this year – tied for second in the NL – and compiled his best strikeout rate since 2002. His 3.77 ERA was his highest since 1995. He also gave up home runs at Petco Park far more often than in previous years.

Rosenthal: Dodgers are worrying about infield first

The Dodgers are trying to sort out their infield before they address their starting pitching.

The solution remains elusive.

Re-signing Casey Blake would solidify third base and enable the Dodgers to keep Blake DeWitt at second, leaving shortstop as the team’s remaining infield question.

However, if the Dodgers lose Blake, they would put DeWitt back at third, creating an opening at second. Signing free agent Orlando Hudson would be one option, but the Dodgers more likely would pursue an inexpensive veteran such as Mark Loretta, Ray Durham or Mark Grudzielanek.

At that point, the Dodgers still would need a shortstop. They’ve maintained contact with Paul Kinzer, the agent for free agent Rafael Furcal, but they’re not going to sign Edgar Renteria, who is headed to the Giants, or Orlando Cabrera, in whom they have little interest.

Trade talks for the Pirates’ Jack Wilson, meanwhile, remain stalled.