Boston won't be rebuilding. Their situation (as far as aging veterans is concerned) isn't nearly as dire at the Phillies'. They'll let Youkilis go this year and maybe Ellsbury if he becomes too expensive as a free agent and will have the cash to pursue whomever they please.

Exactly. None of the known or suspected PED users are being pursued by the feds except two who are/were suspected of lying or obstructing an investigation. The other two suspected of lying in front of Congress were Tejada and Palmeiro. Tejada fessed up and was put under probation but avoided going to court. There was not enough evidence against Palmeiro to prosecute him even though he is known to have used steroids after the hearings. I think asking whether or not the congressional hearings were anything other than grandstanding is a valid one. Once the hearings are held though, the rules are clear. You testify under oath and are expected (by law) to tell the truth.

Lawrie should get a suspension. I'm not sure if he intended to hit the umpire, but he did. Miller needs to be suspended as well for blindness or selective strike/ball calling. The fan who threw the cup at Miller though, needs a long ban to any sporting event and possibly more.

Great read!

Love these articles!

Excellent article! Thanks.

Love it! Especially the Ed Wade comment.

Very nice! As an added bonus, by renaming 'The BP First Take' to 'What you need to know' you won't be reading comments about how the First Take occasionally got posted last.

New title to your daily entry Dan?

Votto for $200 mil or Teixeira for $180. If Votto played on a coast or in Arlington, he'd be a superstar.

Maybe your column is just growing on me, but I feel like the BP First Take is getting better and better. Thanks!

Thanks! I just checked out Vlad Guerrero though and noticed that on his bio his 2012 projections how no Batting avg and no tav (both are included in his forecast further down though).

Why do I picture a raggedy old RV when you refer to; 'Jason Park's spring training rental home in Surprise, Arizona.' Needless to say, I'm sorry to miss it.

Particularly liked the Triunfel portion of the article. Thanks,

And this comment shows why I think you're one of the best sports writers on the planet!

But leaking details to the press by MLB might ultimately have the exact opposite effect of what they're trying to achieve here. They've handed the MLBPA a nice little pile of chips to bring to the bargaining table the next time the CBA or drug policies are discussed.

Chain of Custody.

All of these guys are included in Kevin's write-up of each teams Top 11 Prospects as well.

Another great article Steven.

The paragraph about sports radio appearances made me laugh. Thanks.

Congratulations Mike! A big loss for BP and its readers but a big gain for the Astros front office. Good luck in helping winning baseball return to Houston.

Very well written (again) Jason, my condolences to you and his loved ones.

I get your point, but disagree. I think that Daniel's column is informative and while not providing deep analysis maintains enough of the BP style and content to make it very much worth the read. Just look at today's piece.

Interesting. When will Houston be able to sign a new tv deal?

I think there are plenty of reasons to report on a perceived or real salary dump by a team. This column, is called the first take. It's not common for an upper echelon baseball team to dump a good player for salary considerations, that's a practice usually reserved to the NBA. That alone makes it worthy of discussion. Both sides of this trade are discussed in Transaction Analysis.

I actually remember providing some edits to the Dutch version. I just went back and noticed the Dutch winning the IBAF World Championships in 2011 has not been added yet. Or maybe I should just get to work....

To add to that, Blyleven was active during this entire period and doesn't show up on this list at all...

I agree. I'm really enjoying the First Take series so far.

Great read and hopefully articles like yours will open people's eyes to the importance of Mimoso in baseball history. I know it did with me.

Great article! Especially liked the part about Betancourt being on the Price is Right.

Sounds like great improvements are forthcoming on your already excellent work. Thanks!

If you can run like Crisp, who cares? That hair's worth it!

Look! This may be the first time I see anything other than the standard Excel 97 graphs in an article at BP. Looking forward to the new year with BP. Oh yeah, good article. Thanks!

Looks great!

I don't think the scouts are short selling him at all. Twice in the last 4 years has Greinke been out with non-baseball related issues/injuries. Make-up is a huge part of this equation and there will always be some when it comes to Greinke.

I was going to make a comment similar to Bubba's. I don't expect any production out of my $1 players. The worst that can happen is that a you end up using a bad $1 for a couple of weeks before you discard and replace.

Great article. Both the baserunners and batters that lead those lists don't really come as too much of a surprise I guess.

They could have done that, but didn't.

I had the same thought.

Another awesome piece Jason. Too bad you didn't put some names with the categories. :-)

I agree. Great piece.

I for one secretly and selfishly hope you won't make it into any of those impenetrable forts, because it would mean we'd have to miss your excellent writing. From what I can tell you are already good at scouting, you aim to get better and know you have weaknesses, which means you very well may reach your goals as far as baseball is concerned. But man, you've got a special talent yourself which goes beyond recognizing a baseball prospect and it is writing.

PTSD comes in many forms and is definitely not restricted to veterans. If anything, I'd have a bigger problem with referencing PTSD in relation to the Dodgers because of the very real violence and presumably associated health affects that have occurred in the past year as a result of supposed "fan-dom". You may not find this particular joke funny, but that's no reason to become the moral police. The intend is obviously to be lighthearted here not to make light of anyone's personal situation. Just stop reading and move along. I do hope you found a laugh elsewhere. It's good for your health you know..

Love the Coletti - Anthopoulos conversation. Thanks!

Enjoyed the article very much. Thanks!

Oh, just look at what the addition of Jason Parks to the BP staff has done....

Since we seem to be doing requests; Matt Garza, Randy Wells, Felipe Paulino, Charlie Morton are a couple of interesting guys that come to mind.

That's why we all come here time and again, right? For that prophetic insight....

Even if they trade one or two of those top pitching prospects for a LF or SS they'd still have a good pitching staff.

Is this the biggest difference in best and worse case scenarios of the teams discussed so far? I mean, a win-loss record of 94-68 or 68-94 is a huge swing.

Unless you have hands of steel, that's physically impossible. A 95 mile per hour fastball in the palm of your hand (while trying to keep that hand still) may be fine once or twice. Do it 20 times in a game and your hand will swell up like you won't believe. Also, almost every ball these guys throw has a tremendous amount of movement on it. You try to catch the ball in the web every time. Plain and simple.

Always love reading your articles Jason especially this one.

Nice article. With the way the media has always covered the two, you would think that Beckett would have a higher WARP than Zambrano.

Now that even ESPN watchers know what OPS is, maybe that number should be thrown around more in that context.

The Casilla at bat is almost painful to watch.

Great start to my Friday. Thanks

Zobrist is the only offensive threat the Rays have? How about Longoria?

Steven, thanks for the perspective, the great words, and the impetus to think about what's important and how to nurture and cherish it.

That rule is mostly to avoid people taking a second swing at a hit ball (for instance on a ball hit into the ground) and I was always told it was to prevent injury to fielders from that second swing.

Great article Jay.

"It's like he drank from the fountain of youth." That phrase will never sound the way it did 25 years ago...

A 200lbs 15-year old? That's almost more than Colon weighed when he broke in with the Indians!

A challenge for you maybe, but a joy to read. Thanks!

Was thinking the same thing. It seems to have almost evolved into a game, where the person leaving tries to bury it as deeply into an article as they possibly can.

Good luck in your future endeavors Marc.

Any possibility that he just has more faith in his bullpen?

Great article. Thanks!

Congrats Christina! Glad to read you will still be contributing to BP. In addition to your move showing an acceptance of saberheads in the baseball community it also signifies an acceptance of something much larger and more important. It is people like you who help our society overcome our prejudices one by one. Thanks!

"if Dewon Brazelton accomplished nothing else, he proved that The Trop does not restrict perspiration" great line!

I try to read most and at least browse every article on BP. Lately this has become a problem because of the increased content. I love it! But, is there a support group for people whose productivity is waning and/or are stressed out about all this reading material?

Wow, the Yanks didn't crack the top 10 in that list.

Playing time, I think.

Me too.

Exactly my thoughts! Very exciting.

Where were you when I had a prospect draft in early December? Enjoyed the article and welcome to BP!

New additions to the BP staff help ramp up my excitement for the new season!

Hear hear!

Interesting to see that the likelihood of drafting a major leaguer of any ilk is about equal between spots 30 and 90.

I hope you're right on Soto. He's my starting catcher this year.

It seems like the Mets should pounce on an opportunity like Galarraga being available.

How about you guys listen to Schilling's call to the station from last week: http://audio.weei.com/a/36130536/curt-schilling-on-what-steve-buckley-will-face-in-clubhouses-as-an-out-journalist.htm It's pretty clear from what Schilling said that he doesn't expect Buckley to change regardless of his orientation and if players know. It might be good to know that Schilling and Buckley have a history of, lets call it, disagreeing on baseball matters. Buckley is tenacious and has written a few columns that ticked Schilling off. That's all he's referring to here in my opinion.

Nice. Know this song Mike? http://bit.ly/ho154g

Thanks for the great series of articles on this year's HOF ballot. I enjoyed it a lot!

I really enjoyed the fantasy baseball articles. Looking forward to next year's.

I think the main reason for the big deal (Gonzalez) and this big signing has been that tv ratings were down and ownership was afraid that their sell-out streak would come to an end. It took some major efforts to maintain that streak last year. They were simply afraid that people were losing interest, being good was just not good enough and doing it without big name players would mean decreased revenue. They spent the money to keep the fans excited, keep them watching tv, and keep them coming to the park.

What a contrast with Jay's piece from today. Thanks for the good read!

Iglesias in 2012 is what I meant to say. :-)

Why would they do that? Jeter (at this point in his career) is not an upgrade over Scutaro and they're hoping to have Iglesias at short next year, as well as a seemingly adequate short term solution like Lowrie in house. Also, the Red Sox have not exactly been forthcoming with their money when it comes to giving thirty-somethings big contracts (Victor and Pedro Martinez, Ortiz, Manny, etc).

Agreed

For some pitchers, depending on where they might want the ball to go, up/down or inside/outside may cause variation in release point as well. I also think PITCHf/x is far from perfect when it comes to differentiating between four and two-seamers, which might be another cause. I think we're still a ways away from using this data for individual pitchers, although teams probably should be investing in getting this type of info to prevent injuries.

Thanks Will for providing six years (in my case) of good and informative reading. Good luck in your future life travels.

It's trois.

Great analysis. Thanks!

Wilson just went from not really being on my radar as a player I watch to one of my favorites.

I think the linkt to the Earl Weaver interview made my day.

This is exciting news! Thanks BP!

Great read! Looking forward to the next installment.

This was a good one Joe.

'I’d rather drive back to Chicago and the 21st century and finish up there' Ouch. Will's going to like that one. :-)

I figured I missed something when it didn't add up in my head. ;-)

"Guerrero's on pace for just 1.9 WARP this year, which pushes him up to 60.0 JAWS." I think it should be 61.0 (his JAWS through 2008 was 59.1).

4 teams in that division better than any other in the AL.

I don't know why this showed up here. I was trying to reply to today's update.

Dice-K and Matsuzaka? :-) The sentence before referred to pitches instead of pitchers, making it even more interesting.

hmmmm... like Will's own database? :-)

Yep. 4 years.

Joe, I don\'t usually write in, but I think you\'re off your game today. If Maddon had done all the things you wrote about and still lost, wouldn\'t today\'s article be about how he \'overmanaged\' the game? A six run lead does not call for a situational reliever. especially if the next hitter up is hitting .105 or thereabouts. If Balfour gets the out he can go another inning. Gross played both balls hit to him by the book. Occasionally you get beat by balls hit directly at you. The throw was bad, but didn\'t lose them the game. I think you\'re trying too hard to find something to write about. How about: \'What an awesome game! The Rays were better (again) for the first seven innings and then the Red Sox managed the unthinkable.\'?

What do you think the chances are they trade young arms (albeit with diminished value) for a center fielder? Or do you think they haven\'t given up on Cabrera quite yet?