http://www.ballbug.com/ MLB Buzz Bot en-us Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:10:15 -0500 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:10:15 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p30#a100208p30 Steven / FJB:
If You Care about the Nationals, Please Read this Post Now  —  Mark Zuckerman, the excellent Nationals beat writer recently laid off by The Washington Times, is asking for our help to send him to Viera to cover the Nationals this spring training on his new site, Nats Insider.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:10:01 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p30#a100208p30 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p29#a100208p29 Bob Dutton / Kansas City Star:
Royals sign reliever Marte, infielder Bianchi  —  The Royals reached one-year contract agreements Monday with reliever Victor Marte and minor-league infielder Jeff Bianchi.  —  Terms were not disclosed, but both deals are believed to split contracts with the major-league portion at or near the $400,000 minimum.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:25:03 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p29#a100208p29 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p28#a100208p28 Thunderbaseball / Mike Ashmore's Thunder Thoughts:
Yankees Announce Spring Training Invites  —  (Yankees PR) Marcus Thames, 32, was originally selected by the Yankees in the 30th round of the 1996 First-Year Player Draft.  He owns a .243 career batting average with 75 doubles, 101 home runs and 261 RBI in 522 Major League games over parts …

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:20:00 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p28#a100208p28 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p27#a100208p27 Sports Illustrated:
Schumaker agrees to deal with Cardinals  —  ST. LOUIS (AP) -Second baseman Skip Schumaker and the St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to a $4.7 million, two-year contract, avoiding an arbitration hearing.  —  Schumaker will earn $2 million this season and $2.7 million in 2011.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:15:03 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p27#a100208p27 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p26#a100208p26 Bill Ladson / MLB.com:
Inbox: How will shortstop shake out?  —  Beat reporter Bill Ladson answers Nats fans' questions  —  What do you think about Cristian Guzman?  Do you think he is on the way out before Opening Day?  —  I think Guzman has had a nice career with the Nationals.  I believe he made up for the bad year he had in 2005 — big time.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:10:05 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p26#a100208p26 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p25#a100208p25 AdamMcCalvy / Brew Beat:
Players out of options  —  Tim Dierkes from the terrific site mlbtraderumors.com e-mailed this morning asking for a list of out-of-options Brewers for a project they are working on.  I, in turn, went to the equally-terrific Brewerfan.net because the guys there spent a lot of time this winter coming up with an accurate list.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:10:05 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p25#a100208p25 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p24#a100208p24 Associated Press:
New York Yankees sign Randy Winn, add Marcus Thames to fray  —  NEW YORK — Marcus Thames agreed Monday to a minor league contract with the New York Yankees, who also finalized a $1.1 million, one-year deal with Randy Winn to give themselves more left field options.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:00:00 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p24#a100208p24 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p23#a100208p23 Associated Press:
White Sox unretiring Aparicio's No. 11 for Vizquel … CHICAGO (AP) — Omar Vizquel will wear the No. 11 of former White Sox shortstop and fellow Venezuelan Luis Aparicio this season.  —  The White Sox say they have unretired Aparicio's No. 11 for the 2010 season, with his blessing.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:55:04 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p23#a100208p23 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p22#a100208p22 Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com:
Yanks sign Thames, make Winn official  —  Left fielders expected to be compete with Gardner for time  —  On the day the Yankees finalized a one-year deal with a potential left fielder for the 2010 season, they reportedly reached agreement with a man who could give him even more competition.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:35:02 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p22#a100208p22 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p21#a100208p21 Joel Sherman / NY Post: Hardball:
3UP: Jeter, Beltran and Damon  —  The Super Bowl is out of the way, so there is nothing but clear field between here and pitchers and catchers - unless the slam dunk contest is just too much for you to resist.  —  So I figured I would open this week with three questions on my post-Super Bowl mind:

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:25:03 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p21#a100208p21 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p20#a100208p20 Marc Topkin / St. Petersburg Times:
A look at the new sky blue jersey  —  UPDATE, 3:54: And now it appears mlb.com has taken the jerseys down.  —  DEVELOPING: The Rays were planning on waiting to unveil this new sky blue alternate jersey, but, as raysindex.com noted, since they are for sale on mlb.com (for just $219.99 generic …

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:45:03 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p20#a100208p20 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p19#a100208p19 Tim Dierkes / MLB Rumors:
Yankees Sign Marcus Thames  —  The Yankees signed Marcus Thames, tweets SI's Jon Heyman.  Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that it's a minor league deal worth $900K if he makes the team.  Thames originally came up through the Yankees' system but was traded to the Rangers in '03 for Ruben Sierra.

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:15:01 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p19#a100208p19 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p18#a100208p18 Baseball Prospectus:
Introducing SIERA  —  Part 1  —  Baseball fans who have no use for advanced metrics can realize the flaws in evaluating pitchers by their won-lost records, but may struggle to understand the inherent flaws in the more commonly used earned run average.  Henry Chadwick invented ERA …

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:00:12 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p18#a100208p18 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p17#a100208p17 Jeff Figler / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
A call for neater autographs  —  Youngsters in particular treasure a signed baseball by their favorite player.  Of course, sports cards are always valued, but not like a ball signed by an Albert Pujols or a Yadier Molina.  —  It always angers me that some athletes will go to great lengths to sign legibly …

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:30:01 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p17#a100208p17 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p16#a100208p16 Associated Press:
Milwaukee Brewers building statue of Bud Selig outside Miller Park  —  MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers are erecting a statue of baseball commissioner Bud Selig outside Miller Park and will unveil it on Aug. 24.  —  Selig  —  Selig headed a group that bought the Seattle Pilots …

]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:30:01 -0500 http://www.ballbug.com/100208/p16#a100208p16