Jim's got a big test coming up, so he's MIA today, but that didn't stop him from getting in his #4 prospect for the day. That man is a machine. Also, make sure you check out the new contest.
Major League News:
It's been a fairly quiet couple of days on the blogosphere and in the world of the Brewers. Pretty much the only thing that's worth noting is that the Brewers are, for the 17th time, not connected and uninterested in their former ace, Ben Sheets. And let's be honest here, while the Brewers would love to be interested in Benny, Jim's run down of the Crew's payroll makes it pretty obvious that they can't afford to offer a multi-year, double digit per contract.
With that being said, the Brewers are apparently open to signing a reclamation project like Mark Mulder. Rosenthal says Melvin's just lukewarm on Mulder, but not on any one else, which doesn't make much sense to me. Worst case scenario, you throw Jennings or Zambrano to the minors to work with your younger pitchers for cheap. What is interesting, though, is Rosenthal gives a little cred to Seth McClung.
Mark Attanasio is still out talking about getting a salary cap. I suppose this time he was kind of goaded into it by Sporting News though. Attanasio really lays out his reasoning, which is essentially competitive balance. He seems pretty genuine about it not being the money, but you never know. The comments are particularly harsh and naive, but worth a read.
In minor league news the Brewers reported seven one year deals with Mitch Stetter, Angel Salome, Alcides Escobar, Tim Dillard, Mat Gamel, Casey McGehee and Brad Nelson. This is obviously news worth reporting, but seeing as the team owns full rights to these guys for the first three years of their big league careers, these type of signings are somewhat of a formality. They're not making big bucks in the minors anyways.
Other Baseball News:
It's a little busier outside of the Brewers organization. In probably one of the more interesting articles I've read this offseason, it appears the Yankees cannot sign any more Type A or B free agents this off season based on a quota system from the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The rule basically states that the number of Type A or B signings a team can have is based solely on the number of Type A or B free agents. So basically no Ben Sheets or Manny Ramirez to the Yankees. But that won't stop them from signing the best three Type A free agents each year. Haudricourt says the report is wrong based on comments from Brian Cashman. I don't think any one knows what's going on now, especially because the source in the original article is from an MLB official familiar with the agreement.
Jack Z keeps making moves left and right. This time he's moved Aaron Heilman for the Cubs' Ronny Cedeno and recently acquired Garret Olson. And with this move, the fans have apparently already given up on the 2009 season. It's not time to go that far yet, but the Cubs have been pretty putrid this off season. Sure they signed Milton Bradley, but he's a big risk if he actually has to run in the outfield. They moved Mark DeRosa, who was fantastic at the plate and versatile in the field for them, and replaced him for a weak Aaron Miles. They even gave up Felix Pie for almost nothing. Every move the rest of the way down is pretty menial. And they say the Brewers had a bad off season.
The A's and Russ Springer have come to terms with a $3.3M plus incentives deal. Springer had a great year last year in the NL, but with pretty rough peripherals, will that project to the AL? They say Billy Beane is supposed to be smarter than that. Also in that MLBTR post, the A's are apparently going after Orlando Cabrera. No one really wants to lose their first round pick for the O-Dog, but somebody will eventually sacrifice it.
Juan Uribe got himself a minor league contract with the Giants worth about $1M, and are still looking into Joe Crede. Any one else from the White Sox on their plate? On top of that, how do you even consider picking up a guy who hit .247/.296/.386 last season? Brutal.
The big signing this week was the D'Backs pick up of Jon Garland. Dave Cameron from FanGraphs asks why? Considering the offer they made to Randy Johnson and then to Garland, the D'Backs don't make much sense and I've officially dubbed them incompetent this season. This article just alienates the crap out of them and makes outstanding points across the board. Dave nails it.
Lastly, the Pirates made news that's not about Eric Hinske, after agreeing to a three year contract with an option for the a fourth year with Paul Maholm. Maholm shows flashes of brilliance quite often, but was a disappointment in 2007 before bouncing back to have a solid season in 2008, so this is a great deal for the Pirates, who are probably getting a discount after buying out his three years of arbitration.
Lastly, keep an eye out today. I wrote Braun's season review like a month ago and never published it. I'll do a quick proofread during my lunch hour and get it up for you then.