MLB Chatter
In somewhat disappointing news, the Rangers signed Joe Nathan last night to a two year, $14.5 million contract. That's a bit rich for a player with some serious concerns about his effectiveness...but then again, he is Joe Nathan. His upside is pretty unreal, and the Rangers have the bullpen depth to take a flyer on a guy like Nathan. Even if he doesn't pan out, they still have Mike Adams and Koji Uehara in the wings.
I was hoping that Nathan would slip through the cracks and the Rays would get him for cheap, but no such luck.
In other transaction news, Ty Wiggington was traded to the Phillies yesterday. Oh, Wiggy, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for you. You may have played all over the majors at this point, but you're still a Devil Ray to me.
How good is Matt Garza? And is there a trade market for Jason Bartlett? Apparently yesterday was analyze-former-Rays-players day at FanGraphs.
Pete Rose is such a fascinating character, and this story from Big League Stew fleshes out his day to day life these days. If you're in Vegas anytime soon, here's one place that's worth a stop.
A breakdown of the changes in the CBA and the impact each has on the game from our friends over at Bless You Boys (Tigers)
Rays Talk
Jake Larsen over at Rays Prospects finished his interview with Chaim Bloom yesterday, and the Bloom touches upon Tim Beckham, Robinson Chirinos, Tyler Bortnick, and Stephen Vogt.
Scott Kazmir is pitching in winterball in the Dominican Republic, in an apparent effort to restart his career. It's amazing to me that he's turning 28 this season, yet he's at risk of falling out of baseball already. Talk about rough luck.
Oh, and as Collette pointed out on Twitter, the second part of Mike Fast's research on BABIP and quality of contact is up at Baseball Prospectus now. So go check it out.