Tulo focusing on rehab, not trade rumors | rockies.com

Isn’t Tulo always focusing on rehab?

Yankees will pay for education of children of NYPD cop Ramos - NY Daily News

Yankee owner George Steinbrenner died in 2010, but his appreciation for the men and women in blue who protect New York City lives on.

For 32 years, Steinbrenner’s Yankee Silver Shield Foundation has provided for the education of the children of New York City police officers, firemen and Port Authority employees who died in the line of duty, and will do so for the family of NYPD officer Rafael Ramos, gunned down by a cold-blooded killer Saturday along with his partner, Wenjian Liu.

Free Agent Spending By Division – MLB Trade Rumors

The difference between the AL East and NL East is striking.

Getting ready to gamble on Jung-Ho Kang | FOX Sports

Nobody is sure what to expect of Kang. We’ll find out soon enough.

The easiest way to summarize the risk is this: Kang just finished second in the league in home runs. In third, with 37, was one Eric Thames. Thames also finished with a four-digit OPS, and in North American Triple-A, he slugged .506. Thames, in the majors, has slugged .431. Meanwhile, Yamaico Navarro just hit 31 homers in Korea, with an OPS of .969. He was worse than that in Triple-A, and he never did anything in the bigs. This ...

Determining Hall vote is no easy task | New York Post

Joel Sherman talks about his Hall of Fame ballot.

JUNICHI TAZAWA & CULTURE OF DENIAL

Jim Allen is back writing about Japanese baseball on his new blog.

Someone old, someone new are Cards’ best : Sports

Who are the Cardinals prospects of the year?

A Salute to Sy Berger, From a Card-Carrying Fan - NYTimes.com

When you grow up with a singular focus, whatever it is, you may find yourself relating to Will Ferrell’s character in “Elf.” Explaining his eating habits to his new family, the man-child from the North Pole says he sticks to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.

For me, the diet was baseball, baseball games, baseball cards and pitching. That was my sustenance, and I suppose I should thank Sy Berger for his role as a vendor. I emptied my pockets of quarters ...

Sunday Notes: Low Strikes and Winter Deals | FanGraphs Baseball

More good stuff from David Lauria.

“When I coached in Detroit, our game plan was to be patient,” said McClendon. “It was to take pitches and get to the other team’s middle relief. Well, middle relief is now throwing 98-99 mph. You’re not in such a hurry to get to it, and as a result, I think you’ll see hitters more on the attack and trying to score early.”

Marty Noble’s HOF Ballot

Noble’s votes: Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and John Smoltz

This is without a doubt the worst HOF ballot and article I have ever seen. It would be well worth stripping the BBWAA of the vote just to get rid of this guy…

The Jeff Jacobs HOF Ballot: Keep The Voting Serious And Fair

The Jeff Jacobs HOF Ballot (10) P. Martinez, R. Johnson, Smoltz, Biggio, Bagwell, Piazza, Schilling, Raines, E. Martinez and Mussina.

That means no vote for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Alan Trammell, Larry Walker, Fred McGriff, Lee Smith, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Nomar Garciaparra or Gary Sheffield.

With full disclosure, comes this, too: If Bonds or Clemens is voted into Cooperstown by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, without a loud and official ...

AP sources: Umpires, MLB reach 5-year agreement

NEW YORK (AP) — Several people familiar with the deal say Major League Baseball and its umpires have reached agreement on a five-year labor contract.

The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because both sides still need to ratify the deal next month.

Dodgers biggest spenders in payroll

The Los Angeles Dodgers have ended the New York Yankees’ 15-year streak as Major League Baseball’s biggest spenders and owe more than $26.6 million in luxury tax.

RIP George Steinbrenner.

Ranking the 12 prospects the Padres dealt | padres.com

MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo lays the groundwork for future complaints for Padres fans.

Ruben Amaro Jr. says it would be best if Phillies move on from Ryan Howard

“We’ve talked to Ryan,” Amaro said in an interview with 97.5 The Fanatic’s Mike Missanelli on Friday afternoon. “And I told him that in our situation it would probably bode better for the organization not with him but without him. With that said if he’s with us, then we’ll work around him. We’ll hope he puts up the kind of numbers that we hope he can and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Full audio available at ...

The Yankees’ plan in case A-Rod can’t play at all

The Yankees already have said that Alex Rodriguez will not be their third baseman. But just as interesting is that if he is not healthy enough to play in 2015, the Yanks are currently planning to use the roster space to go with platoons at both second base and shortstop.

Giants acquire McGehee to fill third-base spot

The Giants filled their third-base vacancy on Friday night, announcing they obtained Casey McGehee from the Marlins for a pair of Minor League right-handers.

School of Roch: Wieters on his rehab and opening day

“Right now, it’s my goal and I want to be ready to start the season on opening day, but at the same time, we’re too early to know,” Wieters said. “This is not something where we want to set a deadline date where I need to be ready. I don’t want to rush it and have a setback.
“I think everybody’s end goal is for me to get back healthy and be full go and be ready to go. That’s my goal. I want to play as many games as I can and catch as many as I can, but at the same time I need to see what kind ...

Angels, Red Sox discontinue pension plans for non-uniformed personnel - LA Times

Any experts on pension plans have a comment?

Padres’ faith in GM A.J. Preller leads to big week | UTSanDiego.com

“We just didn’t see the kind of tenacity and the kind of leadership that we’ve seen in the last five months from the baseball-operations side. We just felt a great deal of confidence in A.J. and how prepared he is. I’ve worked around other great GMs in my baseball career, and all of them had an eye for talent and worked hard. But when everybody else maybe kicks back for the night, A.J.’s like, ‘I’m going to hang back here,’ and then he’ll look at another hour-and-a-half of ...

The right — and wrong — way for Mets to get Tulowitzki | New York Post

That’s crazy.

In the Mets’ most recent conversations with the Rockies, during last week’s Winter Meetings, the Rockies wanted three or four top players — some current major leaguers, some prospects still in the minors — and also wanted the Mets to assume the entire $118 million that Tulowitzki has guaranteed through 2020.

OC Register | Former Angels prospect Ryan Bolden shot to death

Ryan Bolden, a former top draft pick of the Angels, was killed in a shooting at an apartment complex in Atlanta on Wednesday night, according to reports.
Bolden, who was 23, was reportedly killed after an altercation that began with children arguing about candy.

Zuckerman - Trea Turner Named Now, Plays Later

Actually, I can’t say his name or I have to kill you.

They may not be allowed to announce that player’s name yet, but he does have a name: Trea Turner. The 21-year-old shortstop isn’t allowed by MLB rules to be traded until 12 months have passed since he was drafted. Thus, Turner (the 13th overall pick this summer out of N.C. State) will remain a member of San Diego’s organization until mid-June 2015, at which point he’ll officially join the Nationals and complete the transaction, ...

Full Count » Source: Red Sox close to deal sending Will Middlebrooks to Padres for Ryan Hanigan

He should have played winter ball.

“€œI want to stay in Boston; I want to play in Boston,”€ Middlebooks said a few weeks ago at David Ortiz‘s charity golf event. “I came up here, and I know it’€™s pretty rare for someone to stay in one place their whole career. I understand that. But I’€™m still going to try. I don’€™t really fit the mix right now. It doesn’€™t seem that there’€™s a place for me now. But it’€™s a long time until April and a lot of things can ...

Amazin’ Avenue - Cohen: Mets and Rockies discussing Troy Tulowitzki deal with Noah Syndergaard as the centerpiece

Quietly, behind the scenes the Mets and Rockies have been talking about a blockbuster trade that would bring All-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to New York according to Jon Heyman.

Top pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard would be the centerpiece of the deal, which would also likely include a few other high-level Mets prospects. The talks are thought to be in the early stages, as the two teams have been exchanging names in a possible deal for weeks now. While there has been progress throughout ...

Vin Scully lost his 1988 World Series ring

With the holiday season comes holiday shopping, the most chaotic shopping season of the year. Holiday shopping affects even the greatest of people. People like Vin Scully. The legendary Dodgers broadcaster apparently lost his 1988 World Series ring while shopping for the holidays and the Dodgers were asking Twitter to help find it.

Trading Justin Upton means the Braves are in full rebuilding mode | Mark Bradley blog

Another report says:

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the trade between both clubs.

Left-hander Max Fried, shortstop Jace Peterson, third baseman Dustin Peterson, outfielder Mallex Smith will be heading to Atlanta in exchange for the 27-year-old outfielder and a low-level player, per Heyman. Upton spent his first six seasons in the NL West and has a career .291/.359/.541 slash line at Petco Park. He is coming off a season in which he hit .270/.342/.491 with 29 homers and 102 RBI over ...

How the Rays lost the City Council vote - DRaysBay

Naked greed is never appealing.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-19-2014

Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 19, 1914:

There wouldn’t have been any general war in Europe if baseball was played there as generally as it is in America, according to a Harvard Graduate, who spent several years abroad.

Writing to the Harvard Alumni Weekly, he said, in part: “If there had been a regular baseball league in Europe with teams in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Antwerp, like we have in the big cities here, the fans never would have tolerated the breaking out of this war during ...

Q&A: Nick Ennis, Director of Baseball Operations, San Diego Padres

Being first and it not being a good idea, that is not a good outcome. Having a ####-ton of ideas and putting them all in place — they’re not all going to be good ideas. And some of those you’re not going to realize why they are bad ideas until it’s too late. From an ideation standpoint, new ideas is not really the challenge for the industry. It’s just making sure that the stuff that is good that we do develop, making sure that we have the ability to implement it. Which isn’t really ...