Bucs acquire Decker, Mikolas from Padres

The Pirates on Monday traded outfield prospect Alex Dickerson to the Padres in exchange for outfielder Jaff Decker and right-hander Miles Mikolas. In a corresponding move to make room for the pair on the club’s 40-man roster, the Pirates designated Garrett Jones and righty Kyle McPherson for assignment.

Short-term Coliseum deals for A’s, Raiders

The stadium is so bad, fans are jumping from the upper deck to get out of it!

The A’s would remain at O.co Coliseum for at least two more years - and not get shoe-horned into AT&T Park with the Giants as baseball had threatened - under a proposed lease extension on which stadium officials are scheduled to vote Monday.

The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority also will consider a one-year lease extension for the Raiders. The deal leaves the door ajar for the team to move out of Alameda ...

Robothal: It pays to cheat, at least in Jhonny Peralta’s case

“It pays to cheat,” Arizona Diamondbacks reliever and player representative Brad Ziegler tweeted Sunday. “Thanks, owners, for encouraging PED use.”

Ziegler was referring to the willingness of clubs to reward drug cheats, but he knows the players are just as responsible for the Joint Drug Agreement (JDA) as the owners.

The pitcher said in a separate tweet, “We thought 50 games would be a deterrent. Obviously it’s not. So we are working on it again.”

Indeed, if players are going ...

Alex Rodriguez and Bud Selig attend memorial service for Michael Weiner

Hundreds of mourners, including commissioner Bud Selig and embattled Yankee Alex Rodriguez, journeyed to Paramus, N.J., on a bitterly cold Sunday and packed Robert Schoem’s Menorah Chapel for the memorial service of Michael Weiner, the late executive director of baseball’s Players’ Association.

Weiner, who died Thursday at 51 from brain cancer — he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in August 2012 — was eulogized by his wife, Diane Margolin, and Rabbi Mary Zamore in a ...

Yellon: Cubs Rumors: Blue Jays After Jeff Samardzija

Levine tweet:

Teams have inquired about StarterJeff Samardzija. Source: Toronto putting together package of young players.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 11-25-2013

Milwaukee Journal, November 25, 1913:

Harry Hooper, right fielder of the Boston Americans, failed by a single point to attain a batting average last season which would have brought him an additional $1,000. When the official averages were published yesterday it was found that Hooper had batted .289. In his contract it was provied that he would receive a bonus of $1,000 if he succeeded in making an average of .290 or better.

Hooper was 159-for-586 in 1913, which is .2884. 160-for-586 is .2901. ...

Dan Haren agrees with Dodgers

Dan Haren agrees with the Dodgers? On what topic?

Former All-Star Dan Haren and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a one-year deal worth $10 million, according to FOXSports.com.

Oh.

Rays To Sign Jose Molina

The Rays have reached a two-year, $4.5MM agreement with catcher Jose Molina, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSsports.com...

Molina is expected to be Jose Lobaton’s backup after starting a career-high 87 games behind the plate in 2013, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times...

Molina batted .233./.290/.304 in a career-best 313 plate appearance (99 games) for the Rays last season, his lowest offensive output in the past four years. However, the 38-year-old is regarded as one of the game’s ...

Angels to Sign Joe Smith

Who knew the Mets traded nearly $48 million worth of players for J.J. Putz?

Smith’s deal is worth $15.75MM over three years, according to Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter)...

Smith, 29, has been with the Indians since 2009 and is a seven-year major league veteran. The righty has a lifetime 2.97 ERA and turned in a 2.29-ERA, 63-inning campaign in 2013.

Cardinals To Sign Jhonny Peralta: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

The Cardinals have reached agreement with Jhonny Peralta on a deal, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). It’ll be a four-year contract worth a little more than $52MM, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter).

NY Times: Kepner: Teams Are Learning to Keep Their Best Players Off the Market

When the Detroit Tigers traded Prince Fielder to Texas last week, they still owed him a staggering $168 million. Only one player had ever been traded with more money still owed to him: Alex Rodriguez, from Texas to the Yankees in 2004.

Rodriguez was 28 then, a year younger than Fielder is now, and had seven years remaining on his contract at the time. So does Fielder, who joined the Rangers on Wednesday with $30 million for second baseman Ian Kinsler.

The Rangers, essentially, made a ...

NHL teams are slowly embracing the idea analytics have real value

I once sat next to Rod Gilbert at a Father & Son dinner. That’s all I got.

So what, exactly, are advanced stats and what do they have to do with the game that’s unfolding before you at the rink or on TV? It boils down to this: The core assumption is that a team that spends more time in possession of the puck than its opponent has a better chance of scoring more goals and, therefore, winning a game.

Certainly, most hockey people would agree that possession is a good thing, but here’s where it ...

AZ Central:  Piecoro : Hunt is on for hitters as pitchers rule

A high-ranking baseball executive noticed something early this off-season in his conversations with rival officials. They all were in search of the same thing.

“A lot of teams are saying, ‘We need our offense to get better,’ ” said the executive, who works for a National League team. “It’ll be interesting to see, with the amount of teams unhappy with their offense, how they go about finding more.”

Spoiler alert: They won’t all be satisfied, not in this day and age. But there ...

McCaffery: Phillies are returning to their old tricks

McCaffery: Phanopticon.

While carefully keeping Veterans Stadium a filthy dump, pretending to be a “small market” franchise and standing on Pattison Avenue with a styrofoam cup for coins to build a new stadium, the Phillies should have been positioning themselves for what they are about to lose.

They should have been positioning themselves for a baseball ecosystem that would provide sustainable, consistent success.

Instead, they are showing every sign of having settled for a ...

Yankees to sign Brian McCann to five-year, $85M deal

The Yankees are in agreement on a five-year, $85 million contract to sign free agent catcher Brian McCann, according to multiple reports, including CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman. There’s also a vesting option for a sixth year, that would make the contract worth $100 million.

This deal is the largest average annual value contract ever given to a free agent catcher (Joe Mauer’s contract was an extension to stay put). McCann has also been given a full no-trade clause, per Heyman.

McCann, 29, hit ...

Sabermetrics expert Bill James talks Jim Thome & Hall of Fame

Jim Thome, “country-boy strong”...much like Wesley Shermantine, but that’s another story.

So where does Thome rank all-time?

We asked Bill James, senior baseball operations adviser for the Boston Red Sox, father of sabermetrics and author of several baseball analysis and history books including “The Politics of Glory: How Baseball’s Hall of Fame Really Works.”

  “I wouldn’t think that he was one of the top 10 power hitters in the history of the game, but probably was one of the top 25 pure ...

Yellon: MLB Recommends Metal Detectors At Ballparks

...the terrorists (and Rapiscan Systems) have won.

There’s been no official word from the Cubs on what they plan to do regarding security at Wrigley Field in 2014, but this report indicates metal detectors might be in your ballpark-visit future:

  Major League Baseball security director John Skinner said on Friday that all 30 teams are expected to screen all fans entering their ballparks next season. Some aspects of the screening will be left to individual teams, but the commissioner’s ...

Former Texas Rangers GM John Hart hired by Atlanta Braves

Listen… and Look…

His long contract as an advisor with the Texas Rangers having expired at the end of the season, former GM John Hart has moved on to the Atlanta Braves in a senior advisors role.

Thus ends a 12-year association with the Rangers, the last eight of which have been in a very loose senior advisor’s role. The last couple of years Hart had visited spring training in Surprise for a week or two and had occasionally visited the team when it came to Tampa Bay.

Hart, 65, has spent ...

NY Post: Davidoff: Team A-Rod ready to dive into treacherous waters: a courtroom

Two sources confirmed Rodriguez and the Yankees probably won’t learn the status of the player’s 211-game suspension until early January. Here’s the timeline:
1. Both MLB and Rodriguez have until Dec. 11 to file written briefs to independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, and another 10 days after that to file replies to each other’s briefs.
2. Once Horowitz has received all of that information, he has 25 days to issue his decision. [...]

Back to Rodriguez and his complaining about “The ...

Buzzfeed: The Godfather Of Sabermetrics Has A Novel Theory On JFK’s Death: It Was An Accident

He does, however, have a very interesting theory about why Kennedy actually died. More to the point, Bonar Menninger and Howard Donahue have the theory, which is laid out in Menninger’s book Mortal Error. James enthusiastically endorses the theory in his own book Popular Crime. (Popular Crime, James’ obsessive study of pretty much every notorious American criminal case of the last three hundred or so years, is highly recommended.) …

It’s a detailed argument, obviously, but it boils ...

1st Day In Zambia, Our Cup Runneth Over

Today was hands-down the best Zambian reunion we have ever had.
...
We started our day off by visiting Destiny Community School, which is our next big project with Kershaw’s Challenge

Also, pictures of Clayton Kershaw’s Zambia adventures included.

Barron: Astros owner sues Drayton McLane, Comcast and NBC claiming fraud

The suit accuses McLane, who sold the Astros and his CSN Houston share to Crane in 2011 for $615 million, of selling “an asset (the network) they knew at the time to be overpriced and broken.” It also says Crane was “duped” when he bought McLane’s network interest based on what have been proved to be “knowing misrepresentations” and “falsely inflated subscription rates.”

“Ultimately, fans of the Houston Astros have been injured because defendants’ misrepresentations leave ...

Cardinals send David Freese to Angels for Peter Bourjos

Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com reports that the Cardinals have acquired outfielder Peter Bourjos from the Angels. On the other side, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports that in exchange the Angels will receive third baseman David Freese. As well, at least one prospect may also be involved in the deal. You’ll recall that Rosenthal previously reported that a Freese-for-Bourjos trade was being discussed.

The 26-year-old Bourjos is a career .251/.306/.398 hitter (98 OPS+) across parts ...

Bill James Online: The Expansion Era Ballot (Registration Required)

This is the conclusion of a four-article series behind the payroll.  To summarize:

• James explains that his guidelines for Hall of Fame induction are either 300 Win Shares, or 100 more Win Shares than Loss Shares.  He comments on the coincidences, or “maybe we should describe them as harmonies”, that great players’ career totals are similar to those of a team, and that the standard deviation of seasons within players’ careers is similar to the standard deviation of players on a great team; ...

Mets ink potential power bat in Chris Young

Buster Olney says its for $7.25 mill.

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever Young

The Mets just like having guys named Chris Young on the roster.
With a need for bats, the club has reached agreement on a one-year contract with the veteran outfielder Young, pending a physical, an industry source confirmed Friday. Full terms of the ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 11-22-2013

Pittsburgh Gazette Times, November 22, 1913:

Formation of a fourth big league to aid in a reported fight of organized baseball against the Federal League and its invasion of protected territory is underway, according to a story printed [in Chicago].

The new circuit has the backing of organized ball, says the story, and is to have teams in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Chicago.
…
George Tebeau of the Kansas City Association club is named as ...

ESPN: Union leader Michael Weiner dies

Condolences to his family.

Baseball players’ union head Michael Weiner has died 15 months after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He was 51.

The union says Weiner died Thursday at his home in Mansfield Township, N.J.

Weiner was a plain-speaking labor lawyer known for his casual dress and easygoing manner. He took over as head of the powerful union four years ago and helped smooth its often-contentious relationship with MLB management.

A succession plan was put in place last ...

Kirk Gibson is fired up, envisions a title run

“I’ll give you an example,” Gibson said. “Look at the guys who went down (on a goodwill tour of) Australia for us. Why did they do it? It’s who we are. It’s who the Diamondbacks are. We’re committed to the game of baseball. We’re committed to the community. I’ll put our organization up against anybody’s in terms of doing the right thing.

“We had Goldy go down there, along with Patrick Corbin and Derrick Hall, our president and CEO. Who’s the other team got down there? ...

Ian Kinsler-Prince Fielder trade eerily foreshadowed in 2010 ESPN commercial | Dallas Morning News

Creepy.

Royals sign left-hander Jason Vargas to four-year deal

Meh.

The Kansas City Royals signed left-handed starter Jason Vargas to a four-year, $32 million contract Thursday, committing a significant number of years to a pitcher with a career 4.30 earned-run average but the ability to eat significant innings, sources close to the negotiations told Yahoo Sports.

The 30-year-old Vargas went 9-8 with a 4.02 ERA with the Los Angeles Angels last season after coming over from Seattle, where he threw 611 innings from 2010-12.

The signing cements the loss of ...