Top News:
Ben Nicholson-Smith / MLB Rumors:
Rays To Sign Carlos Pena — The Rays have agreed to sign Carlos Pena to a one-year deal that will bring the powerful first baseman back to Tampa Bay, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports on Twitter. He'll obtain approximately $7.25MM, Heyman reports. Yahoo's Tim Brown reported earlier …
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Associated Press:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)— The Tampa Bay Rays have added a familiar bat to the middle of their lineup. — A person with knowledge of the agreement tells The Associated Press that slugger Carlos Pena has agreed to a $7.25 million, one-year contract to return to the team he posted impressive power numbers for four seasons.
Discussion:
MLB Daily Dish
Marc Topkin / St. Petersburg Times:
Tampa Bay Rays re-sign first baseman Carlos Pena — The Tampa Bay Rays have re-signed first baseman Carlos Pena, the Tampa Bay Times has confirmed. — Pena is pumped about the move, writing, “Sooooo excited ... !!!!!” in a text message and saying he's finalizing details now.
Discussion:
FanGraphs Baseball and MLB Daily Dish
Associated Press:
Brewers OF Aoki cashes in on longtime ‘dream’ — TOKYO — Even with a significant cut in salary, Japanese outfielder Norichika Aoki is pleased to be a Milwaukee Brewer. — “I'm just happy to get the opportunity to play in the major leagues,” Aoki said at a news conference on Friday.
Discussion:
HardballTalk and JSOnline
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Tom Haudricourt / JSOnline:
Brewers' payroll pushing $100 million
Discussion:
Baseball Prospectus and MLB Rumors
NY Daily News:
Brewers' Ryan Braun, NL MVP, pleads case to special panel Thursday trying to avoid 50-game suspension after failing drug test with elevated testosterone level — Brewers slugger wants to start season — Ryan Braun is trying to avoid a 50-game suspension from Major League Baseball.
Discussion:
HardballTalk, JSOnline, Yahoo! Sports, SI Tracking Blog and Brew Crew Ball
Chris Haft / MLB.com:
Romo, Giants avoid arbitration with deal — SAN FRANCISCO — Right-hander Sergio Romo avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $1.575 million deal, the Giants announced on Friday. — Romo's accord left right-hander Tim Lincecum as San Francisco's only unsigned arbitration-eligible player.
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports and McCovey Chronicles
Fox Sports:
Indians' Carmona released from jail — The Cleveland Indians pitcher known as Fausto Carmona made issued a tearful apology Friday as he was released following his arrest for allegedly using a false identity to play baseball in the U.S. — “I ask for the forgiveness of my fans …
Discussion:
HardballTalk and MLB
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Aaron Gleeman / HardballTalk:
Fausto Carmona arrested in Dominican Republic for using false identity
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports, MLB Daily Dish, NESN.com, Let's Go Tribe, Baseball Nation, MLB Rumors, The Big Lead and baseballmusings.com
Maury Brown / The Biz of Baseball:
As 2012 MLB Season Approaches, Blackout Policy Likely to Remain — File this one in the “broken record” department: prepare for yet another season of MLB's blackout policy remaining in place. — The reason for the broken record? This story has been written repeatedly for years.
Discussion:
Where Have You Gone …
Ben Nicholson-Smith / MLB Rumors:
Indians Acquire Kevin Slowey — The Indians have acquired starting pitcher Kevin Slowey and cash considerations from the Rockies for right-handed reliever Zach Putnam. The Rockies announced the moves, which Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports first reported on Twitter.
Discussion:
HardballTalk, Baseball Nation and MLB Daily Dish
Angela Wittrock / MLive.com:
Detroit Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski: Prince Fielder ‘not a good fit’ — LANSING — After the season-ending injury to Victor Martinez, speculation has turned to whether the Tigers would sign free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder to fill the void. — Martinez hit .330 and drove in 103 runs for the Tigers last year.
Discussion:
HardballTalk and Beck's Blog
Michael Baron / MetsBlog.com:
Mets among four teams interested in Jeff Francis — Jerry Crasnick of ESPN says the Mets are among four teams “keeping tabs” on LHP Jeff Francis. — Francis, 31, went 6-16 with a 4.82 ERA 183 innings over 31 starts for the Royals last season. Although he allowed 224 hits, he allowed just 39 walks while striking out 91.
Discussion:
MLB Daily Dish and Drunk Jays Fans
Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com:
‘Lach’ finds special place back with Angels — Halos happy to draw on former pitching coach's expertise … ANAHEIM — Like he'll say about so many of those on his first staff, general manager Jerry Dipoto calls Marcel Lachemann a baseball treasure. More specifically, though, Lachemann is an Angels treasure.
Jonathan Mayo / MLB.com:
Prospect Watch: Top 10 catchers — Recently traded to Mariners, Montero heads list again … The name atop this year's Top 10 catching prospects list is the same as in 2011, but the team isn't. The biggest offseason prospect splash happened recently, with Jesus Montero going from the Yankees to the Mariners.
Discussion:
Drunk Jays Fans
Ian Browne / MLB.com:
Cherington confident about Red Sox's rotation — BOSTON — The Boston Baseball Writers' Association of America dinner, which took place Thursday night, is always the first hint that Spring Training is finally in the not-too-distant future. And when it comes to the 2012 Red Sox …
Discussion:
Boston Globe and Yahoo! Sports
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