This should come as no surprise to anyone here, but the Rays' contract negotiations with Joe Maddon are progressing well. Maddon's deal is set to expire at the end of 2012, but there's been little to no talk of him going elsewhere -- he wants to be back and Friedman & Co. want him back. It's a perfect match, so the only question has been what the terms of the contract would be. Maddon last deal was for 3 years and would have paid him around $1.4 million for 2012, so I've got to imagine his next deal will be similar.

In other news, the Miami Marlins have possibly the best offseason strategy ever: "Aggressive right to the point of stupidity, but not quite there." That's how team president David Samson characterized the Marlins' plan for pursuing soon-to-be-free-agent Yoennis Cespedes, and honestly, couldn't it also apply to everything else they've done this year? It's the perfect tagline.

If the Marlins do plan on being so aggressive with Cespedes, then I imagine this will push the bidding up into the $50-60 million range, well beyond anything the Rays should be involved with.

• Tommy Rancel at ESPN Florida wrote up a bit more analysis on Luke Scott, and he also took a look at Friedman's recent statement that the Rays are looking beyond just first basemen in order to find their final hitter. I dunno, they can expand the free agent pool all they want, but it still looks to me like many of the best bets still on the market are first basemen. Unless Friedman is talking about a trade?
• Bud Selig got a three-year contract extension yesterday, surprising no one. The only thing that surprises me is how much money he brings in as the Commish. $25 million a year? Holy cow.
• So wait... Alaskans won't be able to get Seattle Mariners games next year? Yay for MLB's ridiculous blackout policy! Granted, baseball is probably quite low on most Alaskan's list of priorities right now, as they're getting absolutely pummeled with snow.
• Eno Sarris put together a reminder on hitter aging curves. Gotta say, I'm surprised by how early power peaks (on average). I had always assumed it peaked around 27 years old, but it turns out it's slightly earlier than that.