Ron Coomer will be new Cubs radio analyst

Ron Coomer will be the Cubs’ new radio analyst. The Tribune has confirmed he agreed to a two-deal that will be announced Friday to replace Keith Moreland in the WGN-AM 720 booth alongside play-by-play man Pat Hughes.

He became the clear front-runner as the other reported finalist, Todd Hollandsworth, took a full-time position with the MLB Radio Network, according to industry sources.

Coomer, 47, played for the Cubs in 2001 during a nine-year career mostly as a corner infielder. The Lockport ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-13-2013

Toledo News-Bee, December 13, 1913:

[Christy Mathewson] was chinning the other day and made a crack about the carrying of grips around the country. You know, ball players have to do quite a bit of lugging in the summer. As a rule, the right-handers invariably tote the bag in their right mitt and the southpaws with the left hand. Not so with Matty. He makes his lazy wing do all the heavy work. And he has for 10 years.

Matty also spring the argument about the amount of energy wasted by flingers ...

McCoy: Pete Rose against eliminating collisions

Rigid body motion, if ever.

That’s a great question, so I called Rose. As you might expect, he had more than a few syllables to say about the subject.

“First of all, if they can eliminate concussions, I’m all for that,” said Rose. “But I’ve thought and thought about it. The only concussions I can remember recently in baseball is Justin Morneau, and he got that sliding into second base. I know this is mostly about Buster Posey, but he got hurt when he got his ankle caught and ...

The Constant Gardener: Walking the Vineyards with Mets great Tom Seaver

A portrait of the artist as an old man

Tom and I have known one another for 40 years, over many stories I have written about him. He’s 69 years old now; I’m 73. We used to see each other once in a while in our 30s at the Greenwich (Conn.) YMCA, bump into each other in our 40s and 50s at Mets or Yankees games, call each other now and then. I asked him once to send my grandson his autograph, and he sent him a laminated photograph of himself as a Met. Tom had scrawled at the bottom, From Tom ...

Report: Detroit Tigers to sign reliever Joba Chamberlain for one year, $2.5 million

Joba rules Detroit.

Joba Chamberlain was once for the Yankees what Bruce Rondon now is for the Tigers: the young hard-throwing right-hander who is seemingly capable of long-term dominance out of the bullpen.

As in his first full season in 2008, Chamberlain struck out 118 hitters in 100 1⁄3 innings.

Now, for 2014, the Tigers hope Rondon can be an eighth-inning fireballer like that to set up closer Joe Nathan.

But Rondon must prove he has the health, ability and savvy to do so over a full ...

Mariners’ Logan Morrison suggests Twitter troll is gay while arguing

Not that there’s anything wrong with it.

One Twitterer was ready to take a jab at first baseman and left fielder Logan Morrison who is on his way from the Miami Marlins to the Seattle Mariners. Two teams that have struggled to find any success recently.

So the creative Twitter troll made a “never makes the playoffs” jab and Morrison responded by suggesting he is gay. Real mature guys.

Not that there’s anything wrong with it.

Former Expo Warren Cromartie hopes investors jump on idea for team in Montreal

Damn, that was quick! Jonah Keri just got his BBWAA badge.

Former Montreal Expo Warren Cromartie is just waiting for the right investors — or ‘‘power hitters’’ as he puts it — to step up to the plate in the city and hit one out of the park.

‘‘There are two things in baseball that never change: history and numbers,’’ said Cromartie, who is spearheading a drive for Montreal to get a Major League Baseball team.

‘‘Montreal, we have the history for baseball in this town. We have the numbers ...

2014 Rome Braves Field Staff Announced

It seems like just yesterday that the Braves were wasting a 37th round draft pick on Schuerholz.

The 2014 Rome Braves field staff has been announced and Jonathan Schuerholz becomes the team’s new manager. Schuerholz, who will be entering his fourth season as a minor league manager, returns after playing in Rome in 2003 and six minor league seasons. He managed the Danville Braves for three seasons as well as the Gulf Coast League Braves. Previously, Schuerholz spent two seasons (2009-2010) as the ...

Bleacher Report: Seahawks QB Russell Wilson Selected in MLB Rule 5 Draft by Texas Rangers

The Star-Telegram reporter quoted Rangers assistant general manager A.J. Preller on why his team decided to draft the QB given his current status in the NFL:

From a baseball standpoint, we feel like if he ever decided he wanted to come back to play again that he’d be a guy we’d want in our system

And presumably from a football standpoint, it would help the Cowboys.

Deadspin: MLB’s Biogenesis documents are so, so dirty.

Boca Raton police announced the arrest of Reginald St. Fleur, a tanning salon worker with a criminal record. He’s an occasional associate of both Fischer, the former Biogenesis employee, and Gary Jones, the man who sold the clinic records to MLB. The exact path of those documents, which MLB used to pressure a dozen players into copping pleas and amounts to the bulk of the evidence against Alex Rodriguez, isn’t precisely known, but there are only two possibilities: a criminal conspiracy, or a ...

Phillies Agree To Deal With Pitcher Roberto Hernandez (Formerly Fausto Carmona)

The Phillies have agreed to a contract with starting pitcher Roberto Hernandez, according to several media reports.

Comcast Sportsnet’s Jim Salisbury was the first to report the signing, and was confirmed by several other media sources.

Heranadez, a 33 year old right handed pitcher, formerly played under the assumed name Fausto Carmona until 2011.

Hernandez has pitched in eight MLB seasons, most recently with the Tampa Bay Rays. He has a career record of 59-82, with an ERA of of 4.67 and a ...

Marlins send Justin Ruggiano to Cubs for Brian Bogusevic

Possibly the most letters used in a two-person trade?

On Thursday, the Cubs send outfielder Brian Bogusevic to the Marlins in exchange for outfielder Justin Ruggiano. The Cubs announced the move on Twitter.

Bogusevic, 29, is a career .236/.313/.370 hitter (86 OPS+) with 17 home runs in 773 career plate appearances in the majors. He’s capable of manning all three outfield positions, though he’s a bit of a stretch in center.

As for Ruggiano, age 31, he owns a career slash line of ...

The Marc Maturo HOF Ballot

Maturo’s full 10 + 1 HOF ballot.

Maddux, Glavine, Bonds, Clemens, Piazza, Biggio, Kent, J. Morris, Raines, E. Martinez…and Mr. Pete Rose.

This year’s ballot again features such players (chiefly Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens), but generally recognized “clean” performers such as pitchers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux are eligible for the first time and likely to receive strong support, especially Maddux.

Members of the BBWAA are permitted to vote for as many as 10 players. This scribe, for ...

Giants find their left fielder, sign Mike Morse to one-year deal

San Fran is imposing a Morse code.

On the way out of Orlando, the Giants finally found their left fielder. The club agreed to a one-year deal with slugger Michael Morse on Thursday morning, pending a physical.

Morse, 31, is coming off a down year with the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners. He hit just .215 in 88 games, with a .270 on-base percentage and 13 homers. The Giants are hopeful that Morse can find the 31-homer form he showed for the Washington Nationals in 2011 and the power ...

Tigers agree to two-year deal with Rajai Davis

The Tigers and free agent outfielder Rajai Davis have agreed to a two-year contract. CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman reports that the deal will pay Davis a total of $10 million.

Davis, 33, hit .260/.312/.375 (88 OPS+) while going 45-for-51 in stolen base attempts in 108 games for the Blue Jays in 2013. Over the last three seasons with Toronto, he’s hit .252/.299/.369 (81 OPS+) with 125 steals in 155 attempts.

Detroit is likely to platoon the right-handed hitting Davis with the left-handed hitting ...

Parking-lot altercation steals the show at winter meetings

While it remains unclear who the men were, context clues from two witnesses to the altercation indicated that the fracas, which featured at least one kick, a handful of wild haymakers and intervention from both a local sheriff and hotel security, happened after one player agent accused another of trying to poach a client.

Stay the [expletive] away from my guy!” one man yelled, according to witnesses who described the chaotic – and amusing – scene to Yahoo Sports in exchange for ...

Janish: Why Curtis Granderson Could Be the Next Jason Bay After All

The Homerun Length Argument

...So, in addition to Granderson’s batting average taking a 30-point nosedive (.262 to .232) in his age-31 season, his homerun distance and balls-off-the-bat speed dropped by almost one MPH. And, according to the overlay, about 8 of his 43 homers would have been swallowed by Flushing Cavern. Maybe closer to a dozen, as I’m not sure whether outfield wall height is factored into the overlay? In fact, although “true distance” takes into account atmospheric ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-12-2013

Joe Tinker quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune, December 12, 1913:

Should any club other than the Cubs or Pirates land me I can only say I feel sorry for the magnate who made the transaction. Under no consideration will I play next season for New York, Brooklyn, Boston, St. Louis, or Philadelphia.

I’m sick of these star ballplayers like Joe Tinker and Albert Belle refusing to even consider playing in New York or Boston.

Baseball America: 2014 Tampa Bay Rays Top 10 Prospects

You’ve got Emeel Salem...still?

TOP 10 PROSPECTS

1. Jake Odorizzi, rhp
2. Hak-Ju Lee, ss
3. Taylor Guerrieri, rhp
4. Enny Romero, lhp
5. Alex Colome, rhp
6. Andrew Toles, of
7. Nick Ciuffo, c
8. Ryan Brett, 2b
9. Tim Beckham, ss/2b
10. Kevin Kiermaier, cf

The Rays also are deep in position players up the middle—including such prospects as shortstops Hak-Ju Lee and Tim Beckham, center fielder Andrew Toles, catcher Nick Ciuffo and second baseman Ryan Brett—thanks in part to a plethora of ...

Keith Olbermann: We Need A New MLB Hall of Fame

Everything was going along fine…until Gil Hodges (tosses stripped Jokers jacket into dumpster).

Heyman: Corey Hart to Seattle on a one year deal.

Don’t switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh no.

Tomo Ohka reportedly has a minor league deal with the Blue Jays

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports that the Blue Jays have reached a verbal agreement on a minor league contract with Tomo Ohka, who has reinvented himself as a knuckleballer since he last appeared in the majors in 2009. The expectation is that he’ll begin the year with Double-A New Hampshire.

Mets agree to two-year/20 million contract with Bartolo Colon

The Mets and right-hander Bartolo Colon have agreed to a two-year contract worth $20 million, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com has confirmed. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports first reported the deal, which is still pending a physical.

Solid move. He’ll give the Mets some innings and the contract isn’t so big that it’ll be a big deal if they have to eat it. I do worry that he’ll give a lot of his value back with baserunning and hitting.

‘Bull Durham’ musical to debut in Atlanta in 2014

It took 20 years to bring the movie to the stage? You know what I call them? Lollygaggers.

Producers announced Wednesday that the new musical will have its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in September 2014. The musical features a script by Ron Shelton, who directed and wrote the original movie, and songs by Susan Werner.

The original movie, which starred Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, follows a minor league veteran who is sent to Durham, N.C., to coach a ...

Calcaterra: MLB rules committee decides to eliminate collisions at home plate

Joe Torre and Sandy Alderson just announced that the MLB Rules Committee has voted to outlaw collisions at home plate. The decision is now subject to approval by the players.  If the players do not approve the rule change it will not go into effect in 2014, but MLB would be able to unilaterally implement it in 2015. It is expected, however, that the players will approve the change.

The rule has yet to be formally defined or drafted, but the upshot of all of this will be that base runners will ...

Video: Andrew McCutchen Proposed To His Girlfriend On “The Ellen Show”

This whole thing was pretty damn sweet, and it was made all the better by the presence of a sweet-ass top hat. Now, do you have a mom? She probably wants to see this.

Yahoo Sports: Pirates sign RHP Charlie Morton to 3yr/$21 million extension

Solid deal, given the current market.

The Pittsburgh Pirates signed right-hander Charlie Morton to a three-year, $21 million contract extension Wednesday that could be worth up to $30 million, betting on the 30-year-old to continue a successful return from Tommy John surgery and hedging against the increasing price of starting pitching, sources told Yahoo Sports.

Morton’s extension represents the biggest deal given out at an otherwise-slow Winter Meetings and the largest for a pitcher in ...

Encina: Buck Showalter realizes challenge of replacing Jim Johnson is about more than just saves

And get that sabermetrics off my Johnson!

At the Swan and Dolphin Resort during this week’s winter meetings, there are a lot of baseball experts talking about talent, resorting to on-base percentage and WAR to evaluate value.

But how do you measure chemistry? How does having a good clubhouse guy improve your team and your ability to win on the field? And how do you rebound when you lose one?

...So how do you replace chemistry? You can’t measure it on Baseball Reference or FanGraphs, but ...

As Bloomberg departs, a soccer arena deal emerges

No word yet on how Mariano Rivera be honored during the ceremonial implosion of the garages.

According to a confidential outline of the formative deal obtained by Capital New York, the 10-acre site would encompass three of Yankee Stadium’s financially troubled parking lots, a portion of 153rd Street, and a building on the same street now occupied by an elevator parts company called GAL Manufacturing that employs about 400 people.

BBHOF: Eric Nadel Named 2014 Ford C. Frick Award Winner for Broadcasting Excellence

Happy for him, but why not Bill King???

Eric Nadel, who has spent the last 35 years as the voice of the Texas Rangers, has been selected as the 2014 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Nadel will be recognized during the Hall of Fame Awards Presentation on Saturday, July 26, as part of Hall of Fame Weekend 2014. Nadel becomes the first primary voice of the Texas Rangers to be honored with the ...