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Some players in compensation-pick purgatory
The prices for free agents are dropping far enough that suddenly teams that haven't made moves in the offseason may be in a position to nab a player they might've thought of as out of their price rang...
Burrell adds to Rays' offensive depth
The Tampa Bay Rays won 97 games in the 2008 regular season and made it to the World Series, in spite of a lineup filled with guys who go into 2009 seemingly capable of doing a lot more. Carl Crawfor...
Ten things to keep a close eye on
After the players' strike that began in August 1994 ended with a new Basic Agreement in early April 1995, an entire offseason of free-agent signings and trades and budget adjustments was crammed into ...
Jones' career in jeopardy
It is strange, but true, that Andruw Jones' career is in jeopardy, even before he turns 32 years old. Even with the Dodgers restructuring his contract so he is owed about $5 million for 2009, there do...
Questions about sale of Padres to Moorad
Jeff Moorad has reached an agreement in principle to buy the San Diego Padres from John Moores , and within the organization -- within the major leagues, for that matter -- there is probably enormous ...
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 N...
Non-Yankees spending down significantly
We are fortunate at ESPN to have outstanding researchers such as Mark Simon. He has generated a review of this offseason's free-agent spending that speaks for itself. From Simon: "We know that free-...
Owners could make power play against union
At the time I started covering Major League Baseball, in the early '90s in San Diego, the Padres' player representative to the union was Andy Benes , a genial guy not reflexively inclined toward confr...
Free agents worth a second look
This year, there are general managers who are conducting their business like savvy, unsentimental holiday shoppers. They aren't rushing to make deals to meet some artificial deadlines. No, they're con...
Manny solely to blame for his current plight
The day after Manny Ramirez golfed an ankle-high pitch halfway up the bleachers in Wrigley Field in the National League Division Series, Dodgers manager Joe Torre chatted with reporters about the slug...
Big names have tough choices to make
Baseball's looking glass offseason is halfway over, and there are still more than 100 free agents unsigned. Looking for a future Hall of Famer? Well, you can pick from an array of choices: Ken Griffey...
Winners and losers from Yanks' signing of Teixeira
Every so often, there are transactions in baseball that send ripples throughout the sport, and beyond. Connie Mack 's sale of the Philadelphia Athletics' stars early in the 20th century. The sale of B...
Sources: Teixeira, Yanks agree to $180M deal
Mark Teixeira has reached agreement with the Yankees on an eight-year contract worth $180 million, three sources involved in the negotiations tells ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.
At this point, Brewers very much a work in progress
If the season started today -- and thankfully it doesn't, because the wind-chill factor here in the Northeast is below zero, or about what it might be for those April games in the Twins' new ballpark ...
Red Sox still in the driver's seat to sign Teixeira
Mark Teixeira told Red Sox owner John Henry the other day that he has offers higher than what the Red Sox offered, but as Boston gauges the market, it's clear that club executives now must have seriou...
Fuentes may land in offseason bargain bin
Brian Fuentes began the offseason as, theoretically, the second-most-coveted reliever, following a season in which he earned 30 saves and a 2.73 ERA . He also held left-handed batters to a .184 averag...