Top News:
Dejan Kovacevic / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Hot Stove: Cold, hard data is McLouth's best friend — There is no more objective guide to Major League Baseball than the annual Bill James Handbook, a detailed compendium of way-inside-the-game numbers. No fluff, no conflicting observations from scouts and no talk of promise or potential.
Discussion:
Pittsburgh Pirates, Where have you gone …, Pittsburgh Lumber Co., Bucs Dugout and Honest Wagner
RELATED:
Shawn / Squawking Baseball:
The Pirates Are Doing Nothing... And It's Working — We're just over three months into the Neal Huntington/Frank Coonelly administration in Pittsburgh, and they're taking a pretty gutsy approach to this offseason: they're doing nothing. Barely a peep. — And it's hard to say that they're not on the right track.
Discussion:
Baseball Musings
ESPN:
Debate: Is Andre Dawson a Hall of Famer? — Andre Dawson fell short of reaching the 3,000-hit plateau, but he did hit more than 400 home runs and drove in over 1,500 runs. — In this, his sixth year on the ballot, will Dawson get enough votes to become part of the Class of 2008?
Discussion:
Bleed Cubbie Blue
RELATED:
Evan Grant / Rangers:
Revealing my Hall of Fame ballot — I've spent far too much time over the holiday week analyzing my Hall of Fame ballot and not nearly enough time on the important things like sleeping, gorging myself and buying lots of price-reduced wrapping paper for next year. — But the winner of all that self-analysis is you.
Discussion:
Baseball Musings
Matthew Leach / MLB.com:
McGwire looking for more Hall support — Slugger garnered 23.5 percent of vote on first attempt — Mark McGwire's Hall of Fame candidacy looked drastically different in December of 2006, when he first appeared on the ballot, than it did when he retired following the 2001 season.
RELATED:
Malia Rulon / USA Today:
Bill would've called for letting Rose back into baseball — WASHINGTON — What would have happened if Congress had called on Major League Baseball to allow Pete Rose back into the game? — As far flung as that scenario sounds, it was actually something that an Ohio congressman …
Discussion:
ShysterBall
David Zingler / The Bleacher Bums:
Santana Situation shows exactly what's Wrong with Baseball — Johan Santana is still a Twin - for now. The Big Market Teams (BMT) are low-balling the Twins with offers that won't include another star player (like Jose Reyes or Robinson Cano) or two-top shelf prospects (like Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester).
ESPN.com:
Reports: Canseco finalizes deal for ‘Juiced’ sequel — Jose Canseco has finalized a book deal for his sequel to “Juiced” and it is expected to hit bookstores by Opening Day of the 2008 season, two New York newspapers reported Sunday. — Robert Saunooke, Canseco's lawyer …
RELATED:
Warren Goldstein / The Huffington Post:
Steroids in Baseball: What's New York Got to Do with it? — As I've written before, I don't think there's any reason to think that the Mitchell report snared most of professional baseball's juicers. Just on logical grounds, if a couple of accidental low-level distributors looking …
Discussion:
River Ave. Blues
RELATED:
Tyler Kepner / New York Times:Theo Epstein — Right before the final game of the World Series …
Discussion:
WasWatching.com
John Perrotto / Beaver County Times & Allegheny Times:
Pirates Notes: Thrilled with Garcia — It is only fitting that Carlos Garcia has been hired as the Pirates' minor-league infield coordinator. He was an infielder with the Pirates from 1990-96 and was the home team's only representative in 1994 when the game was at Three Rivers Stadium.
Eduardo A. Encina / St. Petersburg Times:
Cost to keep Kazmir may grow prohibitive — Even though he is entering his first year of arbitration eligibility, there's already talk that Scott Kazmir's days as a Ray are numbered. — Kazmir is coming off his best season, reaching career highs in wins (13), innings pitched (2062/3) and strikeouts (an AL-high 239).
Joel Currier / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
KTVI exec who oversaw Pujols coverage leaves — Kingsley Smith, the KTVI (Channel 2) news director who devoted the bulk of a newscast to a false rumor that Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols would be named in the Mitchell report on performance-enhancing drugs, is leaving to run …
NY Daily News:
Hall-worthy 5 — Hall of Fame ballots are due Monday. I'm voting for five players: Goose Gossage, Jim Rice, Jack Morris, Bert Blyleven, and Dave Concepcion. — Gossage, denied too long, should finally make it; Rice might benefit from steroids-weary voters taking another look …
Matthew Cerrone / MetsBlog.com:
Buzz: The Mets and the Pitcher's Market — ...MLB Offices are closed through January 2...my sense is that the off-season may pick up steam again during the middle of this month, since pitchers and catchers will be only four weeks away from reporting at that point...
Discussion:
MLB Trade Rumors
NY Daily News:
Family of woman who died in Jim Leyritz car crash tries to cope with loss — The young son of a Florida woman who cops say was killed by ex-Yankee Jim Leyritz in a car crash went to bed with tears in his eyes after his father broke the horrible news to him.
