When you look at his tenure this way, it really makes you wonder how he's survived. Definitely his final year.

Our guy is the starting SS on Starks All-Underrated team. He has some good things to say, and only really worries about his day-to-day focus. Thinks he's going to be a star. Nice.

This gives the Cardinals a little over a month to get a deal done. A deal that may cost them anywhere from $25 to $30 million a year. Can they afford it? Can they afford not to?

I cringe at what we might be giving up. I like his makeup, but worry that one of Archer/Cashner/McNutt are in the deal...

If this has been posted elsewhere, I apologize. Couldn't find it. Better option than Laroche, IMO.

Wow, Ned Colletti continues to show absolutely no regard for the bottom line. I know Uribe had a great year and was a big part of the Giants World Series victory, but a 3 year deal at his age? Ridiculous.

I know Al will post his and Mike's SBN Picks for AJ Cy Young in a little while, but I thought I'd post what the ESPN stat heads have to say about one of the most intriguing votes ever.

We all know there's way more to a starting pitchers value than just wins, but is it enough for King Felix? They seem to think he's a lock. What about you?

In this case, his Canada Dry celebration! After reading his book, and finding out all that he's overcome, it's great to see his teammates respect that. Love that about baseball.

In amongst this story on deadline deals by Jerry Crasnick, he mentions how good Kerry Wood has been for the Yankers. He's given up just 1 run in 23 innings, with 26 K's.

As much as I despise the Yankees (almost on par with the Cards and White Sox) it would be nice to see Woody get a ring. Am I insane?

Bad fundamentals - Bob pretty much nails it. I will say that guys like Ramirez and Lee have been at or above average defenders and baserunners. However, it's pretty fair to say that as a team, this has been a troubling area to say the least, even the team that won 97 games had its issues.

About 4 months ago, my boss gave me and three of my co-workers a similar vote of confidence. Well, about a week later our boss was fired, then two weeks after that, my three cohorts were let go.

Sori's #1! And we have two in the honorable mention list. Yay!

Love the comment Stark makes about Carlos Lee having a lower OPS than 13 pitchers with at least 10 AB's.

Enjoy!

The positives I take from this Gene W. article are that Soriano is working hard, has a good attitude, and is embarrassed of his past few seasons. I think Gene is pretty fair in his assessment of the situation, and all we can hope is that Jaramillo can work some kind of voodoo magic on the guy, and that he can stay remotely healthy.

With his pedestrian numbers, and after only playing 115 games, I can't believe he won the case. What a joke. The Brewers were offering almost a million dollar raise, but the panel gave him $1.5M. No wonder teams try to settle.

Assuming the guy is healthy, and past his shoulder issues from last year, I think he would be a good addition to the pen, as he can set up Marmol, along with Grabow.

Now the Red Sox are trying to find a home for Lowell, and one rumour has them dealing with the Mets for Castillo, then flipping Castillo to another team. Lowell would play 1st base for New York. Lowell should be fine by ST after the surgery on his thumb.

The long talked about, all-show-no-go deal is mentioned a little ways down in this piece. Didn't know about the $3 donation to dump his salary...where do I send my money!!!

I know the Cubs were interested in this guy. Gotta hand it to Frank Wren and the Braves, who saw a need in their bullpen, and nailed it down with Wagner and Saito even before the Winter Meetings!

This article by Sullivan just went up a few hours ago. I'm not thrilled with Castillo, but he fills a hole at 2nd and adds some speed at the top.

Really, just getting rid of Bradley would make this deal successful.

Steve Stone strikes again...apparently the man everyone loves to hate started the Bradley rumor.