Baseball

After a full week of reporting the happenings of Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings, I resolve to finally put this subject to bed. But before I do, I wanted to add a few final thoughts from this year’s meetings.

With the exception of ”The Trade,” this year’s Winter Meetings were fairly uneventful. There were a few minor deals, but overall, the meetings were relatively quiet.

On Friday morning, the White Sox signed free agent reliever J.J. Putz to a one-year, $3 million deal. The contract reportedly has incentives that could make it worth as much as $6 million.

The Cubs were reportedly interested in Putz, among other teams, but have been handicapped by their inability to move Milton Bradley.

Putz likely replaces the departed Octavio Dotel in the Sox bullpen but could close if the Sox decide to move closer Bobby Jenks.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Mike Lowell for Max Ramirez is a deal that leaves everyone but the Red Sox puzzled. Why would the Red Sox pay up to three-quarters of Lowell's 2010 salary, amounting to $8 or $9 million, to play for Texas?

Yes, Lowell has been hobbled by his surgically repaired hip, but he has told both reporters and the Red Sox that he feels better than at any time since the injury that led to the surgery.

Welcome to another edition of Thaddeus' Tampa Bay Rays Offseason Report. Each and every Friday, we're going to recap the moves, trades, signings, and other nonsense of the previous week in the wonderful world of Tampa Bay baseball; keeping you, Dear Reader, up to date with the team until Opening Day in April 2010 against the Baltimore Orioles.

Jason Bay or Matt Holliday? This was the debate on WFAN radio in New York yesterday, and nearly everyone was leaning in favor of Bay. The discussion occurred on Miked Up, a show hosted by Mike Francesa that can also be seen on the YES Network in the afternoon.

I mention Francesa because he's one of the better-respected sports radio men in the business, and yet I found myself completely disagreeing with him—a phenomenon which is not at all uncommon for me. 

There’s a reason why Derek Jeter is still in pinstripes.

Sure, he’s good, but the Yankees could do better. Alex Rodriguez could be moved back to shortstop. The Yankees could have signed Chone Figgins to man third base, for example, or pushed Mark Teixeira back to the hot corner.

It’s the same reason why the Mariners used a roster spot on an aged Ken Griffey, Jr. last year, and why the Rangers parted with a solid prospect in exchange for 28 games of wrinkled Ivan Rodriguez.

It’s called nostalgia.

I’ve come out of the woodwork for a brand new blog, because I’ve come across some interesting data, and I think it’d be just plain selfish of me not to share it with my Mets brethren.

While the media is busy debating whether or not the Mets' less than aggressive move for Jason Bay is purely a PR ploy, of greater interest to me personally is the assertion that Mets brass might actually prefer Bay to free agent Matt Holliday.

It seems that the Mets are—gasp—using statistics to evaluate how each hitter might fare in their cavernous ballpark.

Originally published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com

If all goes as planned in the medical exams this week, Mike Lowell has played his last game as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

Last night, Lowell, affectionately known as Treebeard by SMC, was sent to the Rangers for 25-year-old catcher Max Ramirez. The trade is the first significant move by the Sox at this year's winter meetings, and is hopefully a prelude to another big move.

This year's winter meetings seemed to be a lot more active than last year's, didn't they?

This may have had a lot to do with its location.

In 2008, the event was held in Vegas. This surely presently all sorts of obstacles in terms of getting actual work done.

I'm not sure Scott Boras ever ducked out of Spearmint Rhino long enough to hold his annual messianic press conference. And then there were the rumors about the Hendricks Brothers, a young redhead, and a snapper fish.