Just 111 days until pitchers and catchers report.
Josh Hamilton and Zach Greinke are the big free agents.
Ervin Santana just traded to the Royals for a minor leaguer.
Rafael Soriano opts out of his contract, will hit the market.
Gold Gloves handed out - list.
Is it too early to start the “First Annual San Francisco Giants Repeat as World Series Champions” thread? 
Their entire starting pitching rotation will be back (barring trades), as will 5 of their starting position players. After their postseason appearances, Marco Scutaro, Angel Pagan, and Hunter Pence will all probably dip their toes in the free agency pool.
I’ll be interested to see how much interest there is in Melky Cabrera. Will he get a big contract based on his performance-enhanced numbers over the last couple years, or will he be considered ‘damaged goods’? I wouldn’t be totally shocked to see him in a Giants uniform next year if they can’t hold on to one of their outfielders, especially if they can pick him up at a deep discount.
The Marlins just hired former major league catcher Mike Redmond as their new skipper - he’s their 5th manager in less than 3 years!
Mariano Rivera has told the Yankees he wants to pitch next season. He’ll be 43 and coming off a torn ACL so it remains to be seen what he’ll have left, but I’m glad he didn’t go out on an injury.
In probably their biggest move of the offseason, the Astros have changed their uniforms. They’ve gone back to the old blue-and-orange color scheme. No rainbow gut, though.
The Blue Jays not only traded their manager to Boston, but their third base coach went with him. And one of their best major league managers now manages Miami.
A team that a year ago looked like they had a neat plan has in a year completely fallen off the rails… or, at least made it appear to the general public that they have fallen off the rails. Alex Anthopolous is naturally the sort to hold his cards close to his chest but fans in Toronto are becoming irritated; nobody knows what his plan is, nor are they doing anything that would even suggest a plan through action. Attendance and optimism, which were both way up in 2012, will drop like a stone in 2013.
I’m not going to miss Farrell, but the team either needs new hitting coaching or new hitters. A lot of batters under current management seem to get worse in terms of their ability to control the strike zone; Cody Rasmus, for instance, is posting much worse K/BB ratios than he did in St. Louis. Most of the team’s home grown players are strikeout machines, to the extent that some of them will never be plus hitters; J.P. Arencibia seems like a nice guy but the list of players who have become good hitters while striking out six times as often as they walk is zero names long.
So what are they gonna do this winter? Beats the hell out of me. The team seems paralyzed. Unless a total blowup is planned there are no excess assets to trade. They haven’t expressed interest in any free agent, through the team is flush with cash. The roster has a lot of untradeable deadweight. Boy, things have gone so horribly wrong.
I am still pisssed at the D-backs for trading for Heath Bell. Heath Bell??? JJ Putz is an average to good closer, Bell will probably benefit from getting out of the Miami circus and getting to play more games in SD and LA, but I still think this deal stinks for the D-backs.
I’m dying to see who wastes money on Josh Hamilton. There is no way he’ll survive in a major market like NY or Boston.
I think he’d look good in Dodger Blue…
I don’t think they’ll go for it, but I think he’d be a good fit in Washington, if the money isn’t crazy. He wouldn’t be the biggest star, and Washington isn’t as nuts of a media circus as NY/Boston/Chicago/Philly.
Read an article saying that “finalists” have been chosen for the MVP/Cy Young awards. Never heard of this–does this mean that voters can only choose from the guys who’ve been selected at this point? Or that the voting has been concluded and these are the top votegetters?
The only changes from the World Series Chamionship lineup I’d like to see are Melky in left, with Blanco as backup, and Michael Bourn in center. Pagan will command, IMO, more than he’ll be worth - maybe as much as 5/$75 million. Bourn will be more, but is better, and worth it. I want to see Melky with a couple million in base salary, with lots of incentives. If he tanks, it’s cheap, and Blanco is obviously a capable backup.
Such a shame about Brien Taylor. Looks like he’ll spend more time in prison stripes than he ever spent in pin stripes. First overall draft pick, made by a guy that I thought was a great GM - Gene Michael, though I thought he made a huge mistake then, right when it happened.
I do remember following that draft very eagerly, I was living in the Bronx then, and there was an outfielder at George Washington High School that was putting up some monster numbers - and was the City Player of the year; it would have been perfect, and the tabloids would’ve been all over this story. Local kid, playing at a field less than 2 miles from Yankee Stadium, would have been awesome to see Manny Ramirez playing with the home town team. Man did I agonize for years while Manny would breeze into town and simply dominate entire series, whether he was with the Tribe or the Sox.
Back to Brien…what a real pity. Who knows what might’ve happened had he not got in that bar fight?
Well it had been a couple years since the last Marlin fire sale. I’m sure the people of Miami are glad they paid for a shiny new stadium.
Feel better now? 
And to think I defended these scumbags from “fire sale” allegations when they traded Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, and Omar Infante. These guys are THE WORST.
I don’t understand what the Marlins are doing at all. Or rather, I wish I didn’t, because I assume the fact that their 2011 spending spree didn’t work is giving them cover to slash their payroll back to nothing and will allow them to profitably suck for several more years.
Is it me or does this trade keep getting bigger? Now it’s supposed to be Reyes, Josh Johnson, Buehrle, Buck, and Bonifacio to Toronto for Escobar and at least two prospects.
Holy shit.
Whil the MArlins would be getting some fine prospects, this is clearly a salary transfer. Hechevarria is an A-list prospect and MArisnick is potential A-list (still a bit young) but obviously Miami is doubling up at one position and not getting value for value; they are dumping money, and Toronto is taking salary in an effort to dramatically improve really fast.
As a Jays fan I’m thrilled. The team has added big talent when they really needed it, and the owners can afford it.
But make no mistake; Alex Anthopolous just walked up to the roulette table and put all his money on “even.” If this trade pays off the way it could, the Jays could be the best team in the AL East. If it fails, Anthopolous is toast. This must have been sold to ownership as a pennant-winning move.
The only problem is that this talent did not do much to help the Marlins make the playoffs.
Such an insulting move by Loria. If there are any Marlins fans left (or if they came back for the new stadium) I hope they consider rooting for the Rays instead (or hell, they can pay for MLB.tv and become Cardinals fans - at least I can sleep easy knowing that ownership would never intentionally blow my team up just to make more money).
And I can certainly see the logic for the Blue Jays. They just watched the Orioles make the playoffs. The Yankees seem pretty done with spending money for now. The Red Sox are a mess. When will they have a better shot an making the playoffs for a few seasons in a row?