There's some buzz now that despite the $60 million pricetag that was floated around earlier this offseason, Chapman may get less than $20 million. If this is the case, he could very well become one of the better high-risk fits for a team like the Mets. The problem presented with matching up a different high risk guy, say Sheets or Bedard, with a lower upside "innings eater," is that it forces someone, most likely John Maine, out of the rotation right away. Then if they did get hurt, Jon Niese and Nelson Figueroa would essentially be the only replacement options. With Chapman, who would be in his first year of service time, he could be out-righted to the minors after the spring if he didn't look quite polished enough yet. Maine could keep his spot warm, and Niese and Chapman could essentially compete in Triple-A to be the guy who forces Maine to the pen eventually.

According to multiple sources. The Yankees would receive Curtis Granderson, the D'Backs Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy, and the Tigers would get Max Scherzer, Austin Jackson, Phil Coke, and Daniel Schlereth. I'm personally hoping this deal goes through, so we can stop hearing about how "great" Austin Jackson is from Yankee Fans.

According to Joel Sherman, he's been hired as a Major League scout. Just one more manager waiting in the weeds for Jerry to let Pedro Feliciano pitch to Matt Diaz again.

All it ever got him was a championship.

Hat tip to arnec at BtB for the link.

Projectprospect.com has been running a series on the top prospects in the minors for each position, going 15 deep at each position and 30 deep for pitchers. The Project Prospect philosophy is more about giving credit for high floors than some other big prospect pundit, though upside is still obviously considered. Here are the Mets farmies who appear in the rankings (rank on respective list in parenthesis):

John Niese, P (16)
Jenrry Mejia, P (18)
Fernando Martinez, CF (3)
Ruben Tejada, SS (13)
Reese Havens, 2B (5)
Ike Davis, 1B (7)

The Mets had no ranked players on the Catcher, Third Base, or Corner Outfield lists.

How come whenever we all agree on an idea here at AA, it seems like the Red Sox or Rays are the ones to pull the trigger on it?

Apparently he's getting his $2 million, once again guaranteed, this time with some type of vesting option.

After going 2 for 4 with his third HR of the season, in 37 games, Thole is now hitting .392 / .493 / .584. He leads the league in AVG, OBP, OPS, and doubles, and has a crazy 24/13 BB/K. He's sixth in walks, and his 3 HR are more than he's hit in any stateside professional season save his 2008 in the FSL. He's also among the league leaders with 17 total XBH. He's essentially the Joe Mauer of the VWL.

For those of us who go a little stir crazy in the baseball offseason, Mock Drafts are a good way to pass the time until, at the very least, the Fantasy Draft season starts. Mock Draft Central is the most commonly known resource for Mock drafting, especially this early in the year, but non-premium users are limited to one per day, and even for premium users, they're only running two drafts each day anyway. Couch Managers appears to be completely free, but no one uses it, so I figured I'd pimp it out a bit and see if I could get some traffic over there so I'm not just competing with 9 auto-draft slots.