Top News:
Jeff Passan / Yahoo! Sports:
Rangers win Darvish rights with record bid — The Texas Rangers won the rights to negotiate with star Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish by placing a record $51.7 million bid in a posting auction, sources told Yahoo! Sports. — Darvish's team in Japan, the Nippon Ham Fighters, will accept the bid …
RELATED:
Tim Brown / Yahoo! Sports:
Loyal Kuroda too expensive for Dodgers — The Los Angeles Dodgers hoped to sign Hiroki Kuroda, a good man and a good pitcher who once returned to the Dodgers in part because he felt like he owed them more. — Weird, I know. — The problem was, Kuroda is one of the better starters on the market …
Discussion:
MLB Rumors, Bronx Baseball Daily, It's About The Money and The LoHud Yankees Blog
Fox Sports:
Determined Texas wins rights to Darvish — The night the Rangers lost the World Series, general manager Jon Daniels stood just outside the clubhouse and told me quietly, “We've got to get better.” — I thought, better? C'mon. Nelson Cruz catches David Freese's drive in Game 6, and the Rangers win the Series.
Discussion:
MLB Rumors and MLB Daily Dish
Jeff Passan / Yahoo! Sports:
Massive Darvish bid worth the risk for Rangers — Yu Darvish celebrated the announcement that the Texas Rangers had spent $51.7 million just to talk with him by doing what he does often: He worked out. There is a training ethic in Japanese baseball, one passed down from previous generations …
Discussion:
MLB.com, Lone Star Ball, Purple Row and MLB Daily Dish
Mark Zwolinski / Toronto Star:
Yu Darvish sweepstakes: Blue Jays no sure bet to win
Discussion:
Bluebird Banter
Fox Sports:
Nats working hard to land Gonzalez — The Nationals, continuing their quest to add a left-handed starting pitcher, are pushing hard to land the Athletics' Gio Gonzalez, according to major-league sources. — Gonzalez, 26, is perhaps the hottest pitcher available on the trade market …
Discussion:
Federal Baseball, MLB Daily Dish, NESN.com and MLB Rumors
RELATED:
Ben Nicholson-Smith / MLB Rumors:
Nationals Pushing Hard For Gio Gonzalez
Discussion:
Federal Baseball and MetsBlog.com
Andy Martino / NY Daily News:
Gio Gonzalez to Mets unlikely
Discussion:
Beaneball, MLB Daily Dish, MLB Rumors, MetsBlog.com and River Avenue Blues
MLB.com:
Padres announce dates for 2012 FanFest & Annual Awards Dinner — The San Diego Padres today announced Padres FanFest presented by Bloomberg will return to Petco Park on Saturday, February 11, 2012. The daylong event is free and open to the public. Details surrounding FanFest …
Discussion:
Gaslamp Ball
Nancy Phillips / Philly.com:
Four say Philly Daily News writer Bill Conlin sexually abused them as children — Three women and a man say they were molested as children by Bill Conlin, a Hall of Fame baseball writer and Philadelphia Daily News columnist. — In vivid accounts, the four say Conlin groped and fondled them …
Discussion:
Deadspin, Baseball Nation, NESN.com and baseballmusings.com
MLB.com:
Luhnow chats with season ticket holders — New general manager fields questions online — During a live web chat with Season Ticket Holders, Astros new General Manager Jeff Luhnow fielded questions about his goals for the 2012 season and beyond. — Jeff Luhnow: Hello everyone.
Discussion:
Getting Blanked and THE BOOK
Associated Press:
PA. COURT TOSSES SEX-FOR-TICKETS CONVICTION — PHILADELPHIA (AP) - An appeals court has overturned the attempted prostitution conviction of a Philadelphia woman who was accused of offering sexual favors for World Series tickets. — Authorities had alleged that Susan Finkelstein posted a racy online ad …
Discussion:
Bronx Baseball Daily and HardballTalk
Freakonomics:
A Free Market Solution (from Europe) to the Labor Problems in North American Sports — The following is a guest post by David Berri, a Professor of Economics at Southern Utah University. He is also the lead author of Stumbling on Wins, the general manager of the sports-economics blog Wages of Wins …
Discussion:
baseballmusings.com
Michael Baron / MetsBlog.com:
Today is David Wright's birthday — Today is David Wright's 29th birthday. — I am very much looking forward to watching Wright in 2012. It's a big season for him in a lot of ways, and he has numerous incentives to have a strong year for both himself and the team.
Discussion:
baseballmusings.com
Ben Nicholson-Smith / MLB Rumors:
Oswalt Seeks One-Year Deal; Interest Picks Up — Roy Oswalt was looking for a three-year deal earlier in the offseason, but he has since told teams he only wants a one-year contract, according to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (all Twitter links). The right-hander wants to prove that his back is healthy …
Discussion:
Federal Baseball, River Avenue Blues, NESN.com, Bronx Baseball Daily and Twinkie Town
