Top News:
Keith Law / ESPN:
Ranking the top prospects (Nos. 1-25) … Welcome to the third annual ESPN.com ranking of the top 100 prospects in baseball. The No. 1 prospect for 2008, Evan Longoria, ended up winning the American League Rookie of the Year Award, and last year's No. 1 prospect, Matt Wieters …
RELATED:
Jonathan Mayo / MLB.com:
Breaking down the Top 50 Prospects — Pitchers, premium position players make grade in 2010 — MLB.com's Top 50 Prospect list is now public for all to see. Let the opinions fly. Should the game's top prospect be Braves outfielder Jason Heyward or Nationals fireballer Stephen Strasburg?
Joel Sherman / New York Post:
Yankees give last $2M to versatile veteran OF — Once the Yankees determined Johnny Damon was unlikely to return as their left fielder, club officials considered a group of free agents they believed would accept the $2 million allocated for their fourth-outfielder role.
RELATED:
Fox Sports:
Yankees, Damon would've been a solid fit — Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005. He appears weekly on MLB on FOX. — Talk about a dumb divorce. — The Yankees need Johnny Damon. Damon needs the Yankees. But so much for happily ever after.
Discussion:
NY Post: Hardball, It's About The Money, No, You're a Towel, Detroit Tigers, DRaysBay and River Avenue Blues
Joel Sherman / NY Post: Hardball:
Rays have interest in Damon — A darkhorse has emerged in pursuit of Johnny Damon, and it is an AL East rival of the Yankees. — The Tampa Bay Rays have been in regular contact with Scott Boras about adding Damon to be their primary DH, The Post has learned.
Discussion:
Rays Index, Jorge Says No!, The LoHud Yankees Blog, MLB.com, DRaysBay, The iYankees Blog, TYU, Bottom9 Baseball, MLB Rumors and New York Post
Mike Puma / NY Post:
Mets close to re-signing Tatis — Omar Minaya is deep into negotiations with Fernando Tatis for a return engagement, and could have a deal complete within a matter of days, according to a baseball source. — That development would seem to eliminate the possibility of Carlos Delgado returning …
RELATED:
Craig Calcaterra / Circling The Bases:
Yankees picked to finish third, miss playoffs — PECOTA — or “Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm” for those of you who don't like clever acronyms — is the statistical projection system owned and operated by the good people at Baseball Prospectus.
RELATED:
Ben Nicholson-Smith / MLB Rumors:
Brewers To Sign Jim Edmonds — The Brewers have agreed to sign Jim Edmonds to a minor league deal that will pay the outfielder $850K if he makes the team and up to $1.65MM more in incentives. Edmonds will come to Spring Training with a chance to make the club as an extra outfielder.
Tim Dierkes / MLB Rumors:
Yankees To Hire Kevin Towers — The Yankees will announce the hiring of former Padres GM Kevin Towers before spring, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today. ESPN's Buster Olney had been predicting this since October. — Towers planned to meet with the Yankees, Mets, Mariners …
Dan Connolly / Baltimore Sun:
Orioles, reliever Hendrickson agree to terms — Left-hander returns for one-year, $1.2 million deal — The Orioles shored up their bullpen and likely put the final touch on their 40-man roster before they head to spring training by agreeing to terms Wednesday with reliever Mark Hendrickson.
Ken Gurnick / MLB.com:
Dodgers sign Perez, Koronka to Minors deals — Pair along with Lindblom, Mitchell invited to Spring Training — LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have signed outfielder Timo Perez and left-handed starting pitcher John Koronka to Minor League contracts with Major League Spring Training invites …
Discussion:
MetsBlog.com
Jon Weisman / Dodger Thoughts:
Dodger Thoughts moves to ESPN.com/LA next week — On Monday, it will have been 365 days since Baseball Toaster closed and Dodger Thoughts moved to the Los Angeles Times. The past year has been an interesting one — in some ways fun and rewarding, in other ways extremely humbling.
Tom Layman / Full Count:
Gammons on The Big Show: Sox were ‘scared to death’ of Bay's knees — Hall of Fame writer Peter Gammons of the MLB Network said that the Red Sox reduced their offer to Jason Bay from four years to two years because they “were scared to death of his knees” after a physical revealed the possibility of surgery.
