He receives a $150,000 signing bonus as well as $200,000 which is for college if he ever decides to go to school. He's also scheduled to have TJ surgery right out of the gate.

Just came across this interview with Minnesota's assistant GM Rob Antony. Apparently, the Twins are one of the last teams to bring someone in to solely focus on statistical analysis. It contains quite a few peculiar comments ... such as:

"With Blackburn we looked at him and his body of work over two seasons. He averaged 200 innings, been a .500 pitcher both years and his ERA has been 4.02 or 4.05 or something like that. You look at him and then say okay, if he does that for the next three or four years, what would he make each year? Now it becomes a business decision of if you go year-to-year, what would he stand to make in arbitration next year and if he backed that up where would he go the next year? You start putting down the numbers and all the comps that he has and you base it off of if he just does what he has done. You don’t project that he is getting better – although we believe there is more in there. Instead of being an 11-11 guy, we believe he could easily be a 15-9 guy."

Now I hate the Twins even more.

Done by Tony Lastoria.

Just thought I'd share this everyone. Payroll looks really good for the next couple of years. Obviously things will change with possible extensions as well as FA pickups and/or trades, but there's a lot of flexibility after this season.

Includes 5 Tribe players:

#10 Santana
#31 Chisenhall
#44 Hagadone
#64 Knapp
#65 White

Their lack of faith in Rondon is disturbing. He'd be in the top 50 if it were up to me.

Andy Seiler has posted a draft preview for the Tribe, looking at the past 2 drafts and trying to figure out what to expect in June. It's a good read.

1-year deal for $1.5M

Terms of the contract haven't been revealed yet, but Castro reports it's first major league free agent we've signed.

So no Toregas as backup.

[UPDATE]: Anthony Castrovince (same link) is now reporting that the Indians will be paying Redmond a base $850K salary with $10K more for each 10 games he starts, capping at 70 games (Ryan).

I like the move. Gives us out backup middle infielder (though he hasn't played alot of shortstop). Still a good defender at 2nd base.

1. Carlos Santana, c
2. Lonnie Chisenhall, 3b
3. Nick Hagadone, lhp
4. Nick Weglarz, of
5. Michael Brantley, of
6. Jason Knapp, rhp
7. Carlos Carrasco, rhp
8. Hector Rondon, rhp
9. Alex White, rhp
10. Jason Kipnis, 2b

Agree, disagree?

Both signed minor league deals.

Duncan's B-Ref and FanGraphs page:

B-Ref

FanGraphs

Austin Kearns:

B-Ref

FanGraphs

Very strange move. I'm not the biggest fan of Brown, but his play does merit a look this month.

He'll start for Lake County tonight according to Tony Lastoria.

I know Shapiro had some interest in him and Nelson apparently had included Cleveland in his "top 4". Do you think we'll traget any other relievers?

Interesting list -- Santana no. 1, which is somewhat expected, but Rivero, De La Cruz and Brantley cracking the top 10 is a surprise to me. Also, Chisenhall and Weglarz were higher than I expected. The biggest top 10 MIA is Hodges. After ranking 4th last year, he completely fell out of it this year, though it shouldn't be because of performance. Perhaps BA has some concerns about his ability to stay at 3rd, thus reducing his value. I guess Rondon just fell short of the top 10, but I'm sure he's in the top 15.

I was also surprised by their 2012 lineup with Peralta playing 2nd base. If he's able to do that, then I wonder if the Tribe FO will try it.

If you look at the top 10 and consider which guys are behind them, then it's obvious how deep the farm system is. We may not have the sexiest top 5 or anything, but we can compete with anyone as far as our top 15/top 20 goes.

Pretty cool interview in which Sowers is talking about politics and over-thinking on the mound.