Dodgers Sign Yusniel Diaz & Omar Estevez

The Dodgers have come to terms with two top Cuban prospects. According to industry sources, outfielder Yusniel Diaz, 19, ranked No. 3 on MLB.com's Top 30 International Prospects list, and second baseman Omar Estevez, 17, have agreed to a bonuses worth $15.5 and $6 million, respectively, pending physicals.

MLB Official Site

Dodgers, Giants Scheduled Workouts With Eddy Julio Martinez

It's been exactly one week since the international signing period began, and Cuban outfielder Eddy Julio Martinez remains on the market.

San Francisco Official Site

Dodgers Sign Dominican SS Damaso Marte, Jr For $300K

Jesse Sanchez Twitter

Yankees May Find Interest In Randy Flores

With Pedro Feliciano and Damaso Marte both on the DL, the Yankees are looking for some left-handed bullpen help. A possible candidate is Randy Flores, who can opt out of his minor-league deal with the Padres on Sunday. Flores has spent eight years in the majors. He is 0-2 with a 3.12 ERA for Triple-A Tucson this year.

NY Post

Joe Girardi To Address Cubs Managing Vacancy On Friday

Joe Girardi plans to visit his ailing father, Jerry, during Thursday's day off in Chicago, one of his highlights during his annual voyage to the Windy City.

NY Daily News

Yankees Have Little Interest In Miguel Tejada

The Yankees have spoken to the Orioles about utility infielder Ty Wigginton. The Orioles are dangling right-handing hitting infielder Miguel Tejada, but reaction in the Yankees organization is lukewarm at best.

NY Post

Joel Pineiro, Angels Subdued By Yankees

Pineiro made it through six innings, giving up six runs on 11 hits. He'd surrendered a total of 10 hits in his first two starts, against the Twins and Yankees, in 13 innings.

Angels Official Site

Final Rule 5 Musings

Baseball is the only draft of amateur talent where teams are not allowed to trade draft picks. I’ve never been an advocate of trading picks—after all, sports such as basketball and football don’t trade minor leaguers, since they don’t have any. Prospect deals in baseball are the equivalent of draft-pick deals in other sports.

Baseball America

Jason Bay Better Then Matt Holliday?

Joe Urbon, the CAA Sports agent for Jason Bay, called his client "the most complete player on the market'' in a phone interview, a startling claim in that the more-celebrated Matt Holliday is also in a free-agent class that's otherwise lacking in-their-prime everyday stars.

Sports Illustrated

Arizona Fall League 2001 Retrospective

I own a few baseball books, and from time to time, I'll scour the shelves for inspiration. Usually I end up lost in one of Bill James' Baseball Abstracts or an old STATS Baseball Scoreboard, but the other day I stumbled onto a thin volume I'd forgotten: The Arizona Fall League 2001 Media Guide.

The Hardball Times

Prospectus Today: Post-Season Bullpens

The more you watch the likely post-season teams close out their seasons, the more you think we might be in for some very long nights next month. The number of teams with questions about their bullpens seems to be awfully close to the number of teams who will get to play in October.

Baseball Prospectus

Massive Tie Scenario 9-12-09

The National League massive tie scenario became less likely as the top three teams in the NL East/NL West/NL Wild Card race all won and the bottom two teams lost. The Rockies came back from a 1-0 deficit with four runs in the top of the ninth against Padres closer Heath Bell. Yorvit Torrealba doubled with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth to drive in the Rockies first three runs of the night, and enough for a 4-1 Rockies win. The Padres pen pitched four innings, allowing one hit, before Bell came on.

Baseball Musings

Todd Wellemeyer: Bad Pitching Or Bad Luck

The Cardinals' Todd Wellemeyer was not making excuses when he told reporters on Monday, "I'm not getting any breaks whatsoever. It's a cross between either bad pitching or just bad luck, and that's not a good combo to go through. And this is three months of it."

The statistics support Wellemeyer's contention; the hitters facing him are batting .349 on balls in play, 53 points above the National League average. In 2008, when Wellemeyer went 13-9 with a 3.71 ERA, his opponents' batting average on balls in play was .270.

Fox Sports

Checking The Numbers: LOOGYing Around

Over the last several decades, with the platoon effect becoming more widely understood and exploitable, a flood of pitchers with otherwise weak skills in the broad strokes have found employment in the major leagues. No aspect of the sport has undergone as thoroughgoing a transformation as bullpen usage, and while the idea of a structured relief corps may in fact be inefficient in terms of roster management, it has certainly paved the way for the rise to prominence of a number specialist relievers.

Baseball Prospectus

Grand Slams On Record-Shattering Pace

Major League Baseball has been more grand than ever this season.

MLB

Pirates 2009 Season Preview

The final installment of our NL Central season can also be a preview of the season’s opening series as it takes a look at the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Viva El Birdos

82 Dominican Players Make MLB Rosters

A total of 82 players were finally Dominicans scattered on the payroll of the 30 major league franchises, waited circuit tonight at Citizens Bank Park will no longer named a new campaign with the opening of the party in the Atlanta Braves to visit champion Philadelphia Phillies. (Translated)

Listin Dairio
Google Translate

DSL Prospects: Projecting Pitchers

After looking back at the performance records of current big league hitters when they were in the Dominican Summer League, let's turn our attention to trying to find the next Bartolo Colon, Edinson Volquez or Johnny Cueto.

Baseball America

Yankees Hand Brett Tomko The Ball

Brett Tomko will start the Yankees' spring opener on Wednesday in Dunedin against the Blue Jays, while Phil Hughes will get the ball for the Bombers' home opener Thursday at Steinbrenner Field.

NY Daily News

Down The Rabbit Hole: Looking At 2009 Free Agency

With Spring Training arriving, we can start to peel back the layers of the onion we call free agency and look at some trends. To begin with, I started by taking a look at total spending in the FA market this season. I created a table with total club spending and the percentage of spending by each club against that total.

The Biz Of Baseball/MLB Trade Rumors