Top News:
Chris Haft / MLB.com:
Giants showing interest in Manny — SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants have signed four free agents this offseason, but it's too soon to tell if left fielder Manny Ramirez will become the fifth. — Needing a productive hitter for the middle of their batting order, the Giants certainly could use Ramirez …
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SFGate
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Henry Schulman / SFGate:
More on Manny — From beat writer Henry Schulman: — I have not yet been able to confirm a report from KPIX that the Giants have offered Manny Ramirez a contract. That report seems to suggest a two-year offer with a third-year vesting option and fourth-year team option.
Dennis O'Donnell / KPIX-TV:
Giants Offer Slugger Manny Ramirez 4-Year Deal — The San Francisco Giants are pursuing free-agent slugger Manny Ramirez and have offered him a four-year deal, a well-connected source told CBS 5. — Financial terms of the contract offer were not immediately known.
Arizona Republic:
Diamondbacks CEO Moorad resigns — Moorad looking to purchase San Diego Padres … The Diamondbacks announced Friday that Jeff Moorad, general partner and chief executive officer, resigned. Team President Derrick Hall was promoted to President and CEO. — “Derrick has clearly demonstrated …
Joel Sherman / Hardball:
3 UP: BOSOX HITTER SEARCH, MANNY AND LOWE — Checking in from vacation once more. I figured it was a new year, so I would offer a new post. It also gives me a chance to tell those that are interested that I will be co-hosting a show on Sirius (channel 210)/XM (channel 175) all next week …
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Daniel Barbarisi / Providence Journal:
Clay Buchholz a top trade prospect for Red Sox
Clay Buchholz a top trade prospect for Red Sox
Discussion:
Lone Star Ball
Jon Heyman / Sports Illustrated:
Jon Heyman: The Top 20 remaining free agents … This star-studded free-agent market is reminiscent of Bengie Molina on the base paths. That is to say, it's not moving too swift. Despite one of the best groups of free agents in years, a vast majority of those available players remain unsigned into the new year.
Ken Bradley / Sporting News:
Chipper: Braves can't compete in free agency — Sporting News Today's Ken Bradley recently spoke with Braves third baseman Chipper Jones about all topics baseball. In Thursday's edition, we included Chipper's favorite memories of recently retired teammate Greg Maddux.
Discussion:
THE BASEBALL SAVANT, Mike's Mets, Hot Foot, Talking Chop, MLB FanHouse and Baseball Musings
Jerry Crasnick / ESPN:
Source: Clark to re-sign with D-backs … First baseman Tony Clark has reached preliminary agreement on a one-year contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks for a salary of about $800,000, a baseball source told ESPN.com. — The deal is pending completion of a physical exam.
Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com:
Win or lose, filing period to commence — Arbitration's 10-day window begins Monday, with Howard again a focal point — Major League Baseball's 10-day salary arbitration filing period begins on Monday and will last until Jan. 15. — And unless the Phillies break a well-constructed pattern …
Buster Olney / ESPN:
Cubs making offseason mistakes — The Cubs played 161 games, pitched 1,450.2 innings and had 5,588 at-bats in the regular season, and through all that, they were the best team in the National League, winning five more games than the NL East division winner, 13 more games than the NL West winner.
Discussion:
Another Cubs Blog, Cubs f/x, A League of Her Own, wrigleyville23, San Diego Union-Tribune and Gaslamp Ball
Joe Posnanski:
Ten good years — One knock you hear all the time about certain Hall of Fame candidates is that they were just good players who assembled impressive career numbers simply by sticking around for a long time. I have always thought that undersells longevity, the ability to stay healhy …
Chad Finn / Boston Globe:
Bard deal official — Josh Bard is back with the Red Sox. — The Red Sox formally announced today that they have signed the veteran catcher, who had a brief stint with the club in 2006, to a non-guaranteed one-year contract for the 2009 season with a club option for '10.
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports
Mark Newman / MLB.com:
It's here: MLB Network is under way — Commissioner delivers address to estimated 50 million households — With a surprise greeting from Commissioner Bud Selig that called it “the ultimate television destination for baseball,” the MLB Network went on the air Thursday at 6 p.m. ET amid great anticipation …
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Dave Cameron / FanGraphs Baseball:
Win Values Explained: Part Six — Over the first five parts of this series, we've discussed all the components of what makes up a Win Value. Today, we tackle the conversion of that win value into a dollar value. — First off, a little background. Since we've set replacement level …