Quite a bit happened this morning.

• The Milwaukee Brewers officially exercised the team's $10MM option on Mike Cameron this morning.  Despite his obvious shortcomings, Mike produced better than the majority of center fielders in the major leagues last season.  If you believe Doug Melvin's "statistical analysis," Cam came in as the 6th best CF in the league.  I am not sure he should have ranked that high on the list of center fielders, but the point remains: Mike Cameron plays a good center field and is a power/speed guy.  Plus, the center field market is weak in 2009.
  
  Just as a side note, watch for this development.  The Milwaukee Brewers could start shopping Cameron to the New York Yankees.  This is certainly not substantiated, but the Bronx Bombers covet Cameron.  The move would also give the Brewers some payroll flexibility going into the winter.  I have not pondered over the possibility too much.  Just pay attention.
• The Brew Town Beat says whether or not you like Mike Cameron, he will be patrolling center field next season in Miller Park.  The post also says that they are surprised by how quickly Doug Melvin decided to pick up Cam's option.  No one should be surprised, as the Crew only had a few days after the World Series to make a decision.
• Mike Maddux, Milwaukee's pitching coach, accepted an offer he could not refuse from the Texas Rangers.  While the terms have not been announced, he is likely to be one of the highest paid pitching instructors in the league.  I have heard that the Crew could promote Bill Castro from the bullpen coach, but Doug Melvin probably will hire someone from the outside.  This jives with his "experience first" approach he took with Macha.
• Baseball Musings is not sure the Texas Rangers are better off with this experimental program to develop pitchers from the ground up.  Time will only tell, but Maddux certainly has the skills to get the job done if Nolan Ryan gives him the freedom to work.
• While it has been reported that the Milwaukee Brewers offered CC Sabathia a contract of $100MM over four years, Ken Rosenthal from FOX Sports believes otherwise.  He says that Doug Melvin and company sent in a contract worth $100MM over five years.  There is almost no way CC will accept that deal, as it is way below market price.  You can expect the New York Yankees to come calling rather soon.
• Ken Davidoff rates the Top 10 GMs of 2008.  Doug Melvin comes in at number five.  It is nice to see DM get some recognition, even if the press ignores every other deal and focuses on the CC Sabathia trade.  
• Jerry Crasnick from ESPN.com asks various GMs their opinions about seven big offseason questions.  You should note that not a single GM predicted the Milwaukee Brewers would resign CC Sabathia.  The overwhelming majority believe the big lefty is heading to the Big Apple.  Be sure to check out the rest of the article for more questions and answers.