Jan 6th 2009 2:50PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
It’s really going to happen: Jason Giambi is going home. Mike Puma of the reports that Giambi has agreed to return to the A’s on a one-year deal worth $4.5 million, with a team option for 2010 worth $5 million or a $1 million buyout. Once he passes his physical tomorrow, the deal will become official.

The A’s now have a logjam at first base and DH with Giambi, Jack Cust and Daric Barton, who’s now the odd man out. Still, it’s not hard to see why the A’s jumped on bringing Giambi back.

Pat Burrell, whose offensive numbers were nearly identical to Giambi’s last year, looked like a bargain when news broke that he agreed to a two-year, $16 million deal. Billy Beane, king of capitalizing on market inefficiencies, should get the same production for almost half the price. Granted, Burrell is six years younger than Giambi, but Giambi has shown little sign of decline the last few years, at least at the plate.Continue Reading

Jan 6th 2009 3:10PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
For the second straight winter Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts is at the center of a number of trade rumors. Roberts has been linked with Cubs both last winter and this one, but more recently, the White Sox have engaged the Orioles in talks about the two-time All-Star.

In those talks, Chicago offered pitcher Gavin Floyd for the second baseman, but negotiations broke down when the O’s asked for more, according to SI.com’s Jon Heyman.
“They wanted Floyd plus,” one person familiar with the talks said.

While the talks aren’t necessarily considered dead, White Sox GM Ken Williams said to Chicago media outlets through a spokesman that he hasn’t spoken to the Orioles since November. And one other person told SI.com that the chances for a deal were “pretty iffy,” based on Baltimore’s requests.Floyd is six years younger than Roberts and coming off of a 17-8 campaign in 2008, so it might seem silly for the pitching-starved Orioles to request more than a young top-of-the-rotation starter in return for Roberts, who is only under contract for one more season.Continue Reading

Jan 6th 2009 3:25PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
See the end of the post for the final update.

Numerous reports are placing the Cleveland Indians as the front-runner to land former Expos, Yankees, and Marlins starting pitcher, Carl Pavano. Pavano would likely slide into the back-end of the Tribe’s rotation alongside Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers, while Fausto Carmona and reigning Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee anchor it.

I don’t believe there’s much of a market for Pavano, so the Indians won’t be overpaying for him. It’s a good thing, too, because if you look at Pavano’s track record, he’s been a less than average pitcher with the exception of one season. In 2004, Pavano went 18-8 with a 3.00 ERA in 222 1/3 innings of work. This was following an average-ish 2003 season, though he was lights out in the postseason as the Marlins won it all.

In the wake of those performances, the Yankees signed Pavano to an absurd contract, which has now — four years and $38 million later — finally concluded. That’s only $4.22 million per win, so I guess it was worth it.Continue Reading

Jan 6th 2009 3:42PM by Eamonn Brennan (author feed)
Sports Business Journal recently did its annual year-end list of sports media predictions. Typically, it’s stuff like “the NFL Network will grow in share,” or “ESPN will continue to be a typically boring monolith.” That sort of thing. And after all, these are just predictions. It doesn’t mean they’re actually going to happen. Face value, with a grain of salt, and so on.

But! There is one prediction that has this early riser, after a 2008 postseason of incredibly late baseball, pretty excited:
Postseason baseball games will start earlier this year: First Fox announced that it is canceling its pregame show during baseball’s regular season. Now look for the broadcaster to start World Series games a half-hour earlier, closer to 8 p.m. ET. Fox has always maintained that later starting times helped ratings, which meant more people were watching. But this year, the World Series games went so much longer (average length for the three non-rain-delayed games was 3 hours, 15 minutes) and ended so late (average ending time was 11:43 p.m. ET) that ratings couldn’t keep up.
To be fair, late baseball games are hardly the worst thing in the world, and the arguments about kids not being able to watch their favorite teams are usually overstated. But MLB could stand to end its games a bit sooner, and beyond making the game shorter (something Bud Selig has tried to do for years now), this is the best way to do so. I’ve got to say: It’s pretty exciting. Sports Business Journal, a nation of bloggers turns its bloodshot eyes to you.

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Jan 6th 2009 4:04PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
The Arizona Diamondbacks are showing a bit of interest in right-handed reliever Chad Cordero. According to Nick Piecoro of , the ‘Backs will watch Cordero throw sometime this week and may decide to sign him to a cheap deal. He’s coming off surgery for a torn labrum — which he had July 8 — so conventional wisdom states that he won’t likely be effective until sometime in the middle of the season.

Considering the Diamondbacks have a stable of guys who can close, but none who really stands out as a top-of-the-line closer, I think this would be a great gamble. They likely won’t have to pony up much of an offer at this point, and can do so in the form of a one-year contract.

If Cordero returns to form by August, they will have a very solid closer. He put together a truly dominant season in 2005 as a 23 year-old, accruing 47 saves with a 1.82 ERA and 0.97 WHIP. In the following two seasons he was good, but not great. Still, he saved 66 games in two years for a terrible Nationals team, compiling ERAs in the low 3s each time.

At age 27, his career is far from over. Again, this has the potential to be a significant bargain.

Jan 6th 2009 8:15PM by Randy Kim (author feed)
Fresh off of yesterday’s announcement that Jay Mariotti had penned (typed?) his debut column for AOL Sports/FanHouse, we are now extremely pleased to introduce our next big “get” of this young 2009, as former New York Daily News sportswriter Lisa Olson has written her first column for FanHouse. Her topic? The Yankees’ megabucks signing of Mark Teixeira, natch.

Yes, Olson got exclusive access to Yankees GM Brian Cashman in the article (who knew that Twisted Sister was such a key ingredient in the Bronx Bombers’ recruitment process?) And yes, she was wise to bring up the Yankees’ gala signing of another certain No. 25 just a few years back. But honestly, what we are most excited about is what Olson’s contributions will mean to the ‘House down the road. You might be familiar with Olson’s story already, but if you aren’t, I encourage you to check out her Wikipedia page. Besides being known for quality sportswriting, Olson’s principled approach to her craft has broken down barriers for women sports journalists the world over.

So welcome to the ‘House, Lisa. We’re happy to have you here. And now that you’ve made yourself at home, please try to find out what’s up with that gray-bearded gunslinger who may or may not be starting at quarterback for the Jets next season. We’re kind of curious around these parts.

Jan 6th 2009 11:11PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
Planet Manny continues to spin into an unknown galaxy this offseason. Much like hanging curveballs thrown to Manny Ramirez, each rumor concerning his destination in this free agency season is promptly knocked out of the park. The latest? We heard the Giants were the front-runner to land Manny, and now — a day later, mind you — there are reports surfacing the rumors have no foundation.

ESPN’s Jayson Stark discussed the rumor with several front office executives and not one of them stopped believed the idea was even remotely feasible. The Giants payroll this season will be the close to the highest in team history, so there’s no way they could add on a $25 million per season deal. “If a million things came together over the next few weeks, would it be possible? Maybe,” the source told ESPN.com. “But for where [Boras] is right now and where the team is right now, it doesn’t make sense economically and it doesn’t make sense for how the team fits together.”Continue Reading

Jan 7th 2009 2:15AM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
Baltimore entered the offseason with exactly one rotation spot filled, so to say it needs pitching help would be an understatement of epic proportions. The Orioles signed journeyman Mark Hendrickson last week. Now they’ve erased another of the question marks after Jeremy Guthrie by agreeing to two-year deal with Japanese pitcher Koji Uehara, according to Dan Connolly of the .

Uehara, who will be 34 on Opening Day and who has an outstanding international resume, will be the first Japanese player in franchise history — a strange thought considering the impact talent from the Far East that currently resides in the AL East.

The signing certainly could pay future dividends, as Peter Schmuck writes, but the question in the short-term is just how he’ll fit in at Camden Yards and how he’ll cope with pitching in the toughest division in baseball.

His agent thinks he’ll be outstanding:
“I have a lot of confidence in this guy. He’ll take the ball every fifth day and can be a No. 2 or 3 in a very difficult division,” [Mark] Pieper said. “This will be a challenge for him but he is clearly up for it.”Of course, agents are paid to think and talk like that about their clients.Continue Reading

Jan 7th 2009 6:00AM by Mullet (author feed)
It’s almost as if teams are looking at the calendar and saying “hey, let’s start signing these players before spring training gets here”. The market was almost dead in December, traditionally when the pieces start to fall into place. But now that it’s 2009, the pieces are starting to move a bit. Proof: there are two teams interested in Trevor Hoffman. We found out about the Brewers earlier, but now the Dodgers have entered the fray by offering Hoffman a one year deal.”He’s got three young boys, so he could go home a lot more if he signs with Los Angeles,” Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “That’s what free agency allows a player to do — pick where it’s best suited for him to play.”

Hoffman made $7.5 million last season with the San Diego Padres, who withdrew a $4-million offer to him in November. The Dodgers’ offer exceeds $4 million.I gotta say I’m a bit surprised that the Dodgers, who have Jonathon Broxton in tow, would go after Hoffman to close games. That being said, Hoffman didn’t have such a bad season considering he played for an awful team. He had a WHIP of 1.04 and only walked nine batters and blown four saves in 45.1 innings. Of course your walks and blown saves will go down if there aren’t any games to pitch or saves to blow.

Jan 7th 2009 8:00AM by Mullet (author feed)
I guess this counts as politicians doing their part to give back during these trying economic times. But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration, against a backdrop of economic turmoil, are giving up their luxury boxes in both the new Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field.

All together now: Awwwwwwwwwwwww.Senior Bloomberg aides had fought hard to get the luxury boxes, describing the perk in internal e-mails as “a big issue to the mayor” during negotiations with the teams in 2006. (…)

Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent said the new agreement means the city will receive cash payments for the use of its Yankees box. Future mayoral administrations will have the option of using the box or being paid for it. (…)

State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who accuses the city of conducting the stadium negotiations behind closed doors, said the Bloomberg administration is clearly worried about how it looks to be haggling over luxury boxes now that the city is grappling with dramatic budget cuts, job losses and tax hikes.

“This whole thing has been an embarrassment,” Brodsky said. “I think they were scared about the public reaction to this entire fiasco.”Any chance that money the city is getting could be put towards a halfway decent transit system so my fare doesn’t go up to five bucks per round trip? Yeah, I thought that might be too much to ask. With my luck, that money will probably go towards a new flat screen television so the mayor can enjoy baseball in the comfort of Gracie Mansion so he doesn’t feel so bad about losing his luxury box.