Baseball

Today, Red Sox traded first baseman Casey Kotchman to the Seattle Mariners for veteran utilityman Bill Hall and a prospect.

Last season, in limited playing time, Hall hit just .218 with a homer and seven RBI.

So, why is this deal so great from a Sox perspective?

Hall will earn $8.4 million in the final year of a four-year deal he signed with the
Milwaukee Brewers. But as part of the deal, the Mariners will pay approximately $7.65
million of remaining salary, meaning  Hall will cost the Sox about $750,000.

The other day, I published a piece about the first-year eligible players on this year's Hall of Fame ballot (seen here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/319445-among-first-timers-alomar-mcgriff-martinez-stand-out ). In that article, I stated that Roberto Alomar, Fred McGriff, and Edgar Martinez should be inducted to the Hall of Fame this year.

The New England Patriots are set to begin their quest for another Lombardi Trophy this weekend and the Boston Celtics are firmly entrenched in another battle for NBA supremacy, and yet if one’s only outlet for information was sports talk radio in Boston, he or she might come away believing it was the middle of July.

Recently, the Boston Red Sox traded utility first baseman Casey Kotchman to the Seattle Mariners for a minor league player and Bill Hall.

Hall hit .201 last year between the Mariners and the Milwaukee Brewers and is scheduled to make $8.4 million in 2010.

In other words, Bill Hall is a complete waste of money.

I'm definitely no Casey Kotchman fan (the worst trade of 2009 was LaRoche-Kotchman trade, in my opinion), and I was begging for his trade all offseason, but is Bill Hall really all that Theo can get in return?

Since free agency began in November, Matt Holliday and Jason Bay have been the consensus two best hitters on the free agent market.

The general thought seems to be that while Bay is a great hitter, Holliday was the more desirable free agent for several reasons:

* Age: Holliday is almost 30 years old and should be entering his prime years. In contrast, Bay will be 32 years old this season.

January 6, 2010. If you're a baseball fan, chances are you know what that date means.

It is a great day for anyone who loves baseball. On January 6, 2010, the Baseball Writers Association of America will announce who, if anyone, they will bestow the greatest honor any baseball player can receive, induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

The San Francisco Giants announced Tuesday that infielder Juan Uribe will return for a second season by the bay, a one year deal worth 3.25 million dollars, much more then he made last season.

What does this mean you ask? It means that Uribe will see much more time on the field then he did last season, which makes the typical Giants fan like you and me jump up for joy.

Because of this, GM Brian Sabean deserves some applause. However, only Sabean knows how to screw up a good thing.

To commemorate Randy Johnson's retirement, here are some details about his earliest days in the majors, pitching for the Expos. The Big Unit made his major league debut on September 15, 1988 as the tallest player ever to play in the majors, supplanting 6-foot-9 Johnny Gee, a left-handed pitcher who played for Pittsburgh and the New York Giants during the Second World War.

A newspaper reported:

Twins left-handed relief pitcher Jose Mijares has long been a highly-rated prospect, with a low-90s fastball and an excellent slider. He appeared to live up to the hype as a rookie in 2009, posting a 2.34 ERA.

Ah, but wait.

Mijares' FIP was 4.01 last year. His xFIP was even worse at 4.43.

Those numbers suggest that Mijares was one of the luckier pitchers in baseball last year.

So, is Mijares a very good pitcher, or is he just an average pitcher who benefited from good fortune in 2009?