Cincinnati Reds acquire infielder Aaron Miles from Oakland Athletics for Adam Rosales, Willy Taveras  —  The Cincinnati Reds acquired infielder Aaron Miles in a trade with the Oakland Athletics, swapping young infielder Adam Rosales and outfielder Willy Taveras.

Some gut feelings and hot tips from TwinsFest  —  Everybody I spoke with during TwinsFest believes the team soon will have Joe Mauer signed to a contract extension.  Two people, who have their own information pipelines, claimed that the deal's basic framework — the number of years and guaranteed money …

A radical idea on realignment in baseball  —  Each season divisions would change, increasing fairness and hope for more teams  —  In this article, I explained why baseball's competitive balance is better than you realize, actually on par with the NFL's.  —  This does not mean baseball is …

Mariners agree with Garko for $550K, 1 year  —  SEATTLE — Ryan Garko and the Mariners have agreed to a $550,000, one-year contract, as Seattle tries to address its need for a right-handed hitter.  —  Terms of the contract obtained Monday by The Associated Press show the 29-year-old …

Jon Miller named Frick Award winner  —  Nationally renowned announcer Jon Miller has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for major contributions to baseball broadcasting.  —  The San Francisco native has been the primary voice of the Giants since 1997 …

Former Arizona Diamondbacks closer Byung-Hyun Kim to attempt comeback with San Francisco Giants  —  Former Arizona Diamondbacks closer Byung-Hyun Kim has come out of retirement and agreed to terms on a minor league deal with the San Francisco Giants, said his agent, Paul Cobbe.

Ranking MLB team nicknames  —  Wanna read something stupid and pointless?  Lucky you, because I'm in that kind of mood.  —  I like lists.  Anyone who reads my columns on a semi-regular basis may even have noticed it already.  I recently had a random (if unoriginal) idea: a column ranking the nicknames for all 30 MLB teams.

Mets passed over truly Amazin' baseball exec  —  Early in the fall of 1997, at the outset of his first offseason as Mets' general manager, Steve Phillips restructured his front office.  He lured Omar Minaya from Texas to be his assistant GM and hired a friend, Jim Duquette, as the director of pro personnel.

First baseman Kevin Millar, Chicago Cubs agree with 1-year minor league deal  —  Veteran first baseman Kevin Millar has reached agreement on a one-year, minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs and will try to win a job on the team's bench as an invitee to major league camp, he confirmed in an e-mail to ESPN.com on Monday.

Analyzing the MLB draft using WAR  —  There has been plenty of work published regarding the value of draft picks, most recently the work done by Victor Wang.  Wang's previous studies (part 1 and part 2 ) on the draft were a major help for me in conducting this study.

Yankees doubt team will find another “Godzilla”  —  TOKYO (Reuters) - New York Yankees executives paraded the team's World Series trophy on the first leg of an Asian tour on Monday, saying championship MVP and Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui would be difficult to replace.

Agent: Damon wants to play for Tigers  —  Johnny Damon, the free-agent outfielder who helped the Yankees to a world championship in 2009, would be happy to talk with the Tigers.  —  “Johnny believes the addition of him to Detroit's lineup would make the Tigers a winner,” Scott Boras …

How a Reed Johnson signing in the outfield would seal the verdict against Blake DeWitt at second base  —  If the Dodgers are about to sign Reed Johnson as their No. 4 outfielder, as Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com says is the case, I think you can firm up what we speculated about earlier this week …

Blogging from “On Deck”  —  Thousands of Brewers fans lined up early this morning at Milwaukee's downtown Midwest Airlines Center for “Brewers On Deck,” a day-long fanfest that features autographs, photo sessions, memorabilia booths and a big corner stage for question and answer sessions and other events.