Quick Pitch

• The New York Mets have re-signed 2008 sensation Fernando Tatis to a 1-year extension worth $1.7M. The 33-year old hit at a .297/.369/.484 clip
• Wily Mo Pena has exercised his $2M player option and will remain with the Washington Nationals.
• The Detroit Tigers have declined short-stop Edgar Renteria's $12M option, making him a free-agent.
• Ken Griffey Jr. is now a free-agent, as the White Sox elect to buyout his $16M option at a $4M cost.
• The Milwaukee Brewers have chosen their new manager: Ex-Oakland Athletics skipper Ken Macha. Ken was introduced to the media today and signed a 2-year pact.
• Cincinnati might have interest in signing 33-year old Mark Mulder, who is quite the health risk. Seems like he could be a good low-risk, high reward type pitcher.
  

Royals Add Power, Land Jacobs

It didn't take long for the transactions to start being made this offseason, as the Kansas City Royals and Florida Marlins have already made a swap. The Royals will acquire first-baseman Mike Jacobs from Florida, while the Marlins will land reliever Leo Nunez from KC. The Royals injected quite a bit of power with Jacobs now in their reigns, as the 28-year old Jacobs hit 32 HRs and drove in 93 last season. As for Florida, Nunez had a career year in 2008 while posting a 2.98 ERA in 48.3 innings. He seems to get hurt often, but is only 24 and seems to be growing rapidly.

The deal seems pretty equal, as no matter how bad Jacobs fields over at first 30+ is superb and the 24-year old Nunez seems to be a closer candidate for the Fish in 2009. This move also seems to push one of Ryan Shealy or Ross Gload into the trade-market as the Royals have far too many first basemen.

Photo Courtesy: (Ben Margot/AP)

Angels Extend Guerrero/Lackey, Buyout Anderson

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim make quite a few decisions today corresponding to the 2009 club. They have agreed to exercise right-fielder Vladimir Guerrero's $15M option for next year, as well as right-hander John Lackey's $9M pact. Neither were unexpected, especially since they are both key players for the Angels and love Anaheim.
On the other side of the coin, the Angels paid left-fielder Garrett Anderson's $3M buyout instead of exercising his $14M option. This will be quite the move for the Halos, especially if Anderson resigns with the club for cheap. They will possibly save $8M with the move if G.A. agrees to a deal worth $5M or less.

Photo Courtesy: (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Kenny Rogers To Pitch Next Year?

When asked if he could pitch in 2009, Detroit Tigers left-hander Kenny Rogers replied positively and made it clear that he knows he can pitch. The 44-year old had a terrible 2008 campaign, as most Tigers did, going 9-13 with a 5.70 ERA. He seemed to have lost his touch, but admits that he would sign for much cheaper if the Tigers wanted him back in '09. "The Gambler" earned $8M this year, and hinted at a new deal in the $3M range. He might be a good fit for some other clubs if Detroit wanted to go into rebuild mode.

Photo Courtesy: (G. Newman Lowrance/Getty Images)

Dodgers Let Berroa Walk

The Los Angeles Dodgers have decided to pay short-stop Angel Berroa's $500,000 buyout instead of agreeing to his $5.5M option for next year. Berroa was acquired June 6th from the Kansas City Royals, and was the 2003 American-League Rookie of the Year. The Dodgers also have to make a decision on their other short-stop, Rafael Furcal.

Angel will definitely get a minor-league deal, but he could help some clubs out with his ability to play all 3 infield spots. He hit .230 with 16 RBI in 84 games for the club, but provided some very solid defense.

Cardinals Decline Mulder's Option

The St. Louis Cardinals are ridding themselves from the health-risk of starter Mark Mulder, informing his agent that they were declining his $11M option for next season. Mark will receive a $1.5M opt-out in the shuffle.

St. Louis received a mere six appearances, four of those starts, for their 2-year/$13M pact made in 2007. There wasted money should now go to a much more durable type, just as they did last year signing workhorse Kyle Lohse.

Photo Courtesy: (AP)

Oakland Close To Retaining Ellis

Update: The deal is done, its a 2-year pact worth $10-11 guranteed million plus incentives.

According to ESPN's Buster Olney, the Oakland Athletics are very close to re-signing 2B'man Mark Ellis. Ellis is a tremendous fielding second-baseman, and is at least average with the bat when healthy. He wasn't healthy last year though, as you can tell by his .233/.321/.373 line.

Mark and his family are very happy in Oakland, so a huge discount might be in effect for the Athletics. That would leave Orlando Hudson as the main second-baseman on the open market.

Photo Courtesy: (Phil Carter/US Presswire)

Brewers To Make Pitch To Sabathia

The Milwaukee Brewers have switched gears and have now decided to try hard to retain their amazing acquisition, left-handed free agent CC Sabathia. "At least we have a chance" newly signed GM Doug Melvin said when asked their chances of retaining the big hurler.

Milwaukee eclipsed the 3 million fan mark last year, mainly to the fact that they acquired Sabathia in early July. It will probably be an extremely smart financial and baseball decision to open up the pocket books for him.

Photo Courtesy: (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Phillies Punch Ticket To World Series

The Philadelphia Phillies, with quite a bit of help from Dodgers' short-stop Rafael Furcal, have won the National League Championship Series and will continue on to the Fall Classic. Leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins hit a lead-off HR and Los Angeles had a back-breaking 5th inning which saw Rafael Furcal commit an astonishing 3 errors.

Cole Hamels had another strong start for the Phillies, showing why he's now one of the best 3 left-handers in baseball. 7 strong innings for the San Diego native, allowing 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5. Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge saved yet another game, and has yet to blow one all year.

Congratulations to the city of Philadelphia and their beloved Phils.

Photo Courtesy: (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Tempers Flare, Dodgers Take Game 3

The Los Angeles Dodgers, tired of being pushed around and thrown at by the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS, attacked Philadelphia tonight taking a 7-2 victory with them. After Manny Ramirez was thrown behind to for the second consecutive game and catcher Russell Martin was also hit, Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda threw a fastball behind the head of outfielder Shane Victorino and caused the benches to clear.

The hero of the night was rookie second-baseman Blake DeWitt, who hit a bases-clearing triple in the first inning to give LA an early 5-0 lead. Rafael Furcal homered later in the game, and Kuroda won his second start of the postseason. 16-game winner Jamie Moyer was the victim of the offensive onslaught in the first, only lasting 1 1/3 innings before being taken out by manager Charlie Manuel.

The series continues tomorrow night as Dodgers ace Derek Lowe faces Joe Blanton of the Phillies. Blanton pitched very well against the Brewers in the first-round, but definitely has his work cut out for him against the now hot-tempered Dodger club.

Photo Courtesy: (AP)

Indians/Carroll Close In Negotiations

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer is reporting that the Cleveland Indians and infielder Jamey Carroll are "close" to a deal. The 34-year old infielder hit .277 in 402 plate-appearances, seeing more time than expected thanks to the struggles of Asdrubal Cabrera. Jamey plays second and third adequately well, and holds a $2.5M club option for 2009. The talks might mean that the two sides are talking about agreeing to a slightly smaller figure, maybe in the $1.5M range.

Phillies Stun Lowe & Dodgers, Take Game 1

The Philadelphia Phillies ruined starting-pitcher Derek Lowe's night, blasting 2 home-runs off of the right hander in the 6th inning to swing the game from a 0-2 defecit to a 3-2 lead. Both Chase Utley and Pat Burrell went yard, and the Dodgers offense couldn't come back on Cole Hamels and their studded bullpen.

The series continues tomorrow with a day-game between the two clubs. Right handers Chad Billingsley and Brett Myers will go at it at 4:35 EST. Expect Billingsley to mow down the Phillies hitters and even out the series.

Photo Courtesy: (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Hudson to Mets?

According to MLB.com beat writer Marty Noble, second-baseman Orlando Hudson "yearns" to play for the Mets. This would be a perfect fit, as long as the Mets can somehow distance themselves from Luis Castillo and the wad of money still owed to him.

Noble goes on to list some variables, including whether or not Hudson wants to play in new Citi Field and of course the money aspect. I'd have to agree that the Mets should sign Hudson, as he would fit perfectly in their 2-hole and give them very solid defense.

Photo Courtesy: (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Cubbies Extend Harden

Chicago will be seeing more of Rich Harden, deciding to exercise the 26-year old's $7M option for next year. Harden was spectacular for the Cubs, going 5-1 with a 1.77 ERA and 89 strike-outs. The move was made one-day after tests had shown that there was no structural damage in Rich's pitching shoulder.

Despite having a disappointing post-season, Chicago has quite a bit to look forward to next year with Milwaukee losing Sabathia as well as their own club keeping the mighty rotation intact.

Photo Courtesy: (ESPN)

Cubs-Dodgers Hold Decisive Game 3

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few weeks guys, been pretty busy. Let's move on to some of the news:

The Chicago Cubs will attempt to keep their season alive tonight, as they send Rich Harden out to the hill to face the Los Angeles Dodgers and Japanese-import Hiroki Kuroda. The Cubbies were embarrassed in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field as they lost both of their games by decent sized margins and now face a 2-0 deficit in this best-of-5 series. Speaking of Japanese imports, Chicago manager Lou Pinella made it clear that Kosuke Fukudome will not be the team's right-fielder for the remainder of the series. Seems like a smart move, as Kosuke declined each and every month of the year.

I have to give the edge to Chicago in this one as Harden is a very tough pitcher to be facing in Game 3 of any series, especially when you see guys like Dave Bush starting Game 3's elsewhere. Rich is going to have to keep pounding the strike zone, as Los Angeles has been working the count quite a bit against those Cubs and don't figure to let up in front of their home crowd.

Photo Courtesy: (ESPN)