If the Red Sox are willing to move Craig, the Brewers might be just the team for him.

The Red Sox are very likely to trade Yoenis Cespedes to help end their outfield logjam, but there is still another outfielder to be moved after that since rosters only go up to 25. As it stands, Mookie Betts would need to be optioned to Triple-A, or one of Shane Victorino or Allen Craig would need to be dealt to make sure there's room for Betts on the big-league roster. The Brewers are reportedly hoping for the latter, as the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo reports that they are interested in acquiring Allen Craig if the Sox are interested in moving him.

The Brewers did trade for Adam Lind at the start of the offseason, but Lind is horrific against lefties and doesn't have the glove to make up for it were he to start a full season. Adding Craig to the mix when he's earning just $5.5 million in 2015 makes all kinds of sense for the Brewers, as a platoon of the two players would cost them just $13 million. Craig also has the possibility of rebounding and being the better player going forward, so the Brewers don't necessarily need to have them and their salaries coexist for more than a year, either.

The Brewers could also want Craig for their outfield. but that seems a little more unlikely unless they plan on moving Ryan Braun or Khris Davis somewhere else on the field or, in the case of the latter, in a trade.

Just what the Red Sox get back for Craig is in question. The Marlins have reportedly asked in on him as well for their own first base platoon, so there is a market there, but the Red Sox shouldn't feel forced to deal him when he's under contract for two more years plus an option for 2017 if his performance merits picking it up. He's coming off of a tough season where the damage from 2013's foot injury was apparent in both his performance and swing, but before that occurred he was a well above-average threat that would fit in snugly in the Sox or just about any lineup: Crag batted .312/.364/.500 for a 136 OPS+ from 2011 through 2013, and that was with half of his games coming in a pitcher-friendly home park. Someone will have to be moved at some point, though, regardless of how good they once were, if the plan is to make Mookie Betts a starter. Don't expect this to be the end of Allen Craig rumors.

The 30-year old outfielder and veteran lefty were signed to minor league contracts and will compete for roster spots in Spring Training.

Miami has had luck with minor league free agents in the past, and is hoping for some of the same after signing outfielder Cole Gillespie and pitcher Chris Narvesonto minor league contracts. The pair will have the opportunity to win roster spots in Spring Training, and joins James Leverton and Reid Brignac as veteran players the Marlins signed to minor league deals this offseason.

In Narveson, the Marlins added a veteran left-handed arm who might have a chance at winning a rotation or bullpen spot. He has made 63 starts in his major league career, and boasts a career 4.65 ERA and 4.18 FIP in 396.2 total innings. Narveson has spent most of his major league career with the Brewers, and has posted 150 walks and 326 strikeouts over that span. As Juan Rodriguez of the Sun-Sentinel notes, he has been particularly effective against left-handed hitters, which likely made him attractive to the Marlins.

The Cardinals’ second-round pick in 2000 out of T.C. Roberson High School in Asheville, N.C., Narveson has held left-handed hitters to a .231/.320/.342 slash line in 387 plate appearances.

Just as Casey McGehee did before the Marlins signed him, Narveson spent the 2014 season in Japan. He went 4-11 with a 4.53 ERA, but has proven to be durable and continued to be last season, tossing 137 innings for a Yakult Swallows squad that finished the season 21 games under five hundred. The Marlins are looking for balance within their rotation, but even if Narveson doesn't win a starting job, he would likely be a valuable asset coming out of the bullpen or can give Miami depth as the season progresses.

While Narveson spent last season in Japan, Gillespie saw time in 35 major league games, almost all of which came with the Seattle Mariners. He posted a .243/.300/.311 to complement one home run and five RBIs, and could be a candidate to win a spot on Manager Mike Redmond's bench as a fourth outfielder.

Gillespie is versatile in that he has major league experience in left, center, and right field, although with a career .230 average, it will likely have to take a solid spring to win a roster spot.

Today's lessons include news from day 1 of the Winter Meetings.

Cram Session

Winter Meetings

• The White Sox have made several big moves already this offseason, but could they make another? Noah noted that the White Sox are pursuing Francisco Rodriguez for their bullpen.
• Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker has several notes from the Winter Meetings, including the potential for Scooter Gennett full-time at second base, the ZiPS projections, and more.
• If you're hoping for a big move during the Winter Meetings, don't expect much. Adam McCalvy notes that any additions to the team will likely happen after the Winter Meetings.
• Manager Ron Roenicke answered a variety of questions at Day 1 of the Winter Meetings, and believes that the team can bounce back from the late-season collapse in 2014.

Other Notes

• The ZiPS projections came out yesterday, and Noah looked through the projections and offered his thoughts on each of them.
• The Brewers are helping with an auction initiative to raise money for lung cancer research, and have three packages up for bid: a meeting with Bob Uecker and a game-worn sweater, a photo session with Hank the Ballpark Pup, and a private pottery-making session with Scooter Gennett.
• Cait Covers the Bases notes that Brewers manager Ron Roenicke is set to go to New Zealand as part of a MLB initiative to promote baseball around the globe.
• Noah has a FanShot of Carlos Gomez dancing at a wedding.

NL Central Update

• The Cubs have re-signed starting pitcher Jason Hammel to a two-year, $18 million deal. Ryan Romano of Beyond the Box Score breaks down the deal.

Around Baseball

• The White Sox made the big moves on day one of the Winter Meetings. They signed reliever David Robertson to a four-year, $46 million contract, and also traded for starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija from the Athletics for three players. MLB Daily Dish has details on the deals.
• Also at the Winter Meetings, the Indians acquired Brandon Moss from the Athletics for infield prospect Joe Wendle.
• The Golden Era Committee vote for the Hall of Fame was yesterday, and no new players were elected to the Hall of Fame. A few players were within a few votes of getting elected.
• The Rays are finally making progress on finding a new stadium site. Mark Townsend of Big League Stew notes that the Rays have received approval to search for a new site in nearby counties.

Would you vote Gary Sheffield into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

I'm going to skip Jason Schmidt. He had a nice career, with some good seasons late in his 14 year career. He was 130-96, with a 3.96 ERA in 323 games. Not someone I'd try to make a case to make the Hall.

Looking at his stats, Gary Sheffield was a better player than in my memory. Sheffield, nephew of Dwight Gooden (who was a one and done in Hall of Fame voting, getting just 3% of the vote) was a first round pick in the 1986 draft by the Brewers. He went on to have a 22 year major league career, playing for 8 different teams (apparently he wasn't that easy to get along with.

He played 2576 games, hitting .292/.393/.514 with 509 home runs, 1676 RBI and 253 stolen bases thrown in for good measure. He made 9 All-Star teams. He won 5 Silver Slugger awards. He received MVP votes 7 times, finishing 2nd once and 3rd twice. His career WAR is 60.2.

He came up as a shortstop, was moved to third base and then the outfield, he was never much of a defensive player, but then he could hit.

He was pretty interesting off the field too. He called the Brewers 'racist' when they moved him off short to play third. He felt racism was behind anything bad that happened to him. And he figured there were more Latin players in the majors than African-Americans because Latin players were 'easier to control'. He claimed that manager Joe Torre treated black players different then white players.

He was also named in the Mitchell report as someone that used PEDs.

The Cubs' rotation now looks quite good against their division rivals.

With the signing of Jon Lester, the Cubs' rotation -- which was at least decent in 2014 -- vaults to the top of the heap in the National League Central division, the place where the team will play most of its games in 2015.

The Cubs' rotation now reads, in likely "order," though rotation order is overrated in my view:

Jon Lester
Jake Arrieta
Jason Hammel
Kyle Hendricks
One of: Edwin Jackson/Travis Wood/Tsuyoshi Wada/Jacob Turner/Felix Doubront

... with others being in the Iowa rotation to provide backup or injury replacement. The Lester signing takes a lot of pressure off Arrieta, who did a great job as the Cubs' top starter after May 2014. Arrieta now can settle in as a solid No. 2; Hammel is well suited at No. 3, and Hendricks looks like a very good No. 4 guy. Perhaps Jackson will be traded; at this point I'd think Wada has the inside track to the No. 5 spot, but it's very likely going to be an open competition in spring training.

Interestingly, if Wada, Doubront or Turner takes the No. 5 spot, there will be only one 2015 Cubs rotation starter who was in the Opening Day rotation in 2014 -- Hammel. And he left and came back.

Let's take a quick look at the other four N.L. Central rotations as they stand right now.

Cardinals

Adam Wainwright
Lance Lynn
John Lackey
Jaime Garcia
Michael Wacha

The Cardinals, by swapping Shelby Miller to the Braves, have put their emphasis on rebuilding their offense rather than concentrating on pitching this winter. Of course, they could always make deals adding to their rotation, but these five are likely to be St. Louis' five starters on Opening Day. It'll likely be Wainwright vs. Lester on Opening Night at Wrigley (though Jake Arrieta has a claim to an Opening Day nod too, after his great 2014).

This is a very solid rotation, though the Cardinals need Garcia and Wacha to return from injuries and for Lackey to forget that he's 36.

I rate the Cubs' rotation as at least the equal to this one and perhaps slightly better.

Brewers

Yovani Gallardo
Kyle Lohse
Matt Garza
Wily Peralta
Mike Fiers

The Brewers also have Jimmy Nelson, who made 12 starts for them in 2014 and who could beat out Fiers for the No. 5 spot.

This reads like a list of No. 3 and No. 4 starters with only Gallardo being above that level, though Gallardo wouldn't be more than a No. 2 or maybe even No. 3 in the Cubs' rotation at this point. Garza is coming off another injury; he hasn't made more than 30 starts since 2011. The Cubs' rotation is clearly superior.

Reds

Johnny Cueto
Mat Latos
Homer Bailey
Mike Leake
Alfredo Simon

This is a pretty good rotation, actually. Apart from Cueto -- who has been the subject of trade rumors this winter -- the pitcher who had the best year among those five in 2014 was Simon, who transitioned quite well from the bullpen to the rotation. Whether he can continue that is an open question. Bailey is coming off season-ending forearm surgery and this article from last September suggests he could begin 2015 on the DL. The Reds have Tony Cingrani to take Bailey's place if needed.

The Cubs' rotation also appears better than this one.

Pirates

Francisco Liriano
Gerrit Cole
Vance Worley
Jeff Locke
A.J. Burnett

The Pirates return their 2014 rotation more-or-less intact with the re-signing of Liriano and Burnett. They have to hope Liriano stays healthy and Burnett, who's returning to a place where he had two fine seasons in 2012 and 2013, doesn't suddenly fade out at age 38. Charlie Morton, who made 26 starts for the Pirates last year, had hip surgery in September and will likely start the year on the disabled list.

Worley was an excellent under-the-radar acquisition by the Bucs last March, showing that injured guys like this can actually pick up their careers where they left off. I would have liked to see the Cubs take a chance on Worley.

The open question for the Pirates is whether their staff will still be as effective without Russell Martin behind the plate. Martin was given a lot of credit for the Pirates' pitching resurgence in 2013 and 2014.

The Cubs' rotation is better than the Pirates', I believe, with the addition of Lester. In summary, it appears the Lester signing has instantly given the Cubs the best rotation in the N.L. Central. Along with a bullpen that got more solid as 2014 went on, the Cubs ought to go into 2015 with one of the best pitching staffs not only in the division, but perhaps in the entire National League.

Today's lessons include more from the Winter Meetings.

Cram Session

Winter Meetings

• Mark Attanasio met with the media at the Winter Meetings yesterday, and answered some questions about the team going into 2015. He believes that the team is mostly set as is and expects them to bounce back.

Scooter Gennett

• Yesterday, one of the reports that came out for the Brewers is that they will give Scooter Gennett a chance to play second base full time. Noah broke down the decision and what he thinks about the decision.
• Meanwhile, over on Disciples of Uecker, Jonathan Judge has a more positive view on the decision, and explains why he thinks it is the right move.

Other Notes

• While the starters tend to be the most valuable players on a team, that doesn't mean that there's no value from the replacement-level players. Derek explained why it's important to get value from the fringe players.
• Steven Jewell of Reviewing the Brew put together his projections for Mike Fiers in 2015.
• Would Gaby Sanchez be a good fit for the Brewers? Steven Jewell of Reviewing the Brew argues that Sanchez would be a good fit for the Brewers.
• Seth Trachtman of Rotoworld lists Jimmy Nelson as one player who will be an ERA sleeper in 2015.

NL Central Update

• The Cubs were the big movers of the day yesterday. They started the day by acquiring Miguel Montero from the Diamondbacks for two minor-league pitchers.
• The Cubs then finished the day by signing Jon Lester to a six-year, $155 million contract. The Cubs beat the Red Sox and Giants in the race to get Lester.
• Francisco Liriano is staying with the Pirates after he signed a 3-year, $39 million contract yesterday.
• With all of the moves that the Cubs have made this offseason, Mike Oz of Big League Stew has a reminder for you: The Cubs won the 2015 World Series in Back to the Future 2.

The Cardinals are reportedly kicking the tires on the two former Milwaukee Brewers infielders.

The St. Louis Cardinals came into the Winter Meetings with their team by and large set. There was the potential to add a complementary piece or two, either at the Winter Meetings or later in the offseason. One of the Cardinals' priorities entering this week and for the remainder of the offseason, according to MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch, was a righthanded-hitting bench bat to complement Matt Adams and, perhaps, Jason Heyward:

While the Cardinals see this as an opportunistic approach, there is more of a definitive need to add a right-handed-hitting first baseman. That would address the final deficiency on the position player side. The pool to pick from is thin, however, and the Cardinals are finding it tough to sell a part-time role to players who are seeing if an everyday job is available elsewhere.

Finding a player who can bring power and/or positional versatility in this role would be a plus.

"I think that's a tough market right now," Mozeliak said. "When you look at how many at-bats we can offer, where we can get them from excluding any injury, it's not a lot. It's a tough message that we're sending."

As reported by STL Baseball Weekly's Brian Stull, manager Mike Matheny expanded on what Mozeliak shared regarding the club's desires for a bench bat:

"I think any help we can get from the right side, coming off the bench or being able to maybe spell definitely at first base, and possibly in right field, but that may be something we have internally as well," said Matheny. "We have a couple of good candidates. Randall (Grichuk) has shown that he can put together a very good at‑bat if that’s the way our team breaks. So I think we have more coverage in the outfield than we do necessarily at first base. So that is something that we continue to try to open all of the doors that are out there."

Joe broke down on Wednesday, the Cardinals' intra-organizational discussions about trying top prospect Stephen Piscotty out at first base. But, as Langosch shares, that hasn't stopped St. Louis from exploring alternatives:

Even amid dialogue about in-house candidates, the Cardinals continue to focus their free-agent search on bringing someone else in from the outside. Mozeliak met with multiple agents representing right-handed hitters on Tuesday as he continues that pursuit.

The club is not near an agreement with any of them, nor did the Cardinals sound like a team expecting to act during their two remaining days in San Diego.

"I think everybody is sort of in that exploratory mode right now," Mozeliak said. "Everybody is trying to feel everybody out with what's going on. So subsequently, time will tell how some of these things shake out."

Reporting from the Winter Meetings,*St. Louis Post-Dispatch beat writer Derrick Goold indicated that the Cardinals had kicked the tires on two former Milwaukee Brewers infielders:

Sources have described the Cardinals as interested in two former Milwaukee Brewers who would bring different skills to the role — Rickie Weeks and Mark Reynolds. Both are free agents.

Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweeted about the Cards' interest in Weeks and Reynolds as well.

Cards not only showing interest in Rickie Weeks but also Mark Reynolds. They certainly saw a lot of the former #Brewers.

— Tom (@Haudricourt) December 10, 2014

I'm interpreting this as Goold and Hauricourt confirming one another's reports.*

Both Weeks and Reynolds fit the bill of a lefty-mashing complement to the Cards' lefthander-heavy lineup of position players.

• Over his 11-year career, Weeks had notched 1,274 plate appearances against portsiders, hitting .261/.385/.448 (.370 wOBA, 128 wRC+). That 14.5% career walk rate versus lefthanders is pretty remarkable.
• In many ways, Reynolds is the antithesis of the Cardinals' offenses of recent vintage: power (.228 Isolated Power in his career) and strikeouts (career 31.9% K rate). But he has taken 1,199 plate appearances versus lefthanders and posted a line of .231/.351/.458 (.352 wOBA, 114 wRC+).

The infield-centric nature of these reported inquires indicates that the Cards are intent on having Grichuk as the fifth outfielder come opening day with Stephen Piscotty, who is not on the 40-man roster, starting the year in Triple-A. If Weeks is willing and able to man first base, as well as potentially second and third (if not the outfield) on occasion, I think I'd prefer him to Reynolds. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. The talks are likely only in the exploratory phase and perhaps even of the same due-diligence nature as the communication with Jon Lester's representatives. Nonetheless, they merit monitoring.

*

Today's lessons include a quiet day on the Brewers front at the Winter Meetings, but plenty of action from other teams.

Cram Session

Winter Meetings

• While there are still spots to fill in the bullpen, Adam McCalvy notes that Doug Melvin is waiting until later in the offseason to fill those spots. McCalvy also notes that despite the big moves by the Cubs, the Brewers won't be swayed to respond with big moves of their own.
• The Brewer Nation blog noted that there were some talks going on between the Red Sox and Brewers yesterday, but appear to be off after the Red Sox acquired Wade Miley.
• The Rule 5 Draft is this morning, and Derek looked through the list of available players for some interesting ones that the Brewers could draft. However, it appears that the Brewers will not make a selection this morning.

Other Notes

• Extensions during Spring Training may be coming to an end for the Brewers. After Segura's drop in production in 2014 following some Spring Training contract negotiations, Doug Melvin says that he won't be offering extensions during Spring Training anymore.
• "Santa Hank" made an appearance at the Wisconsin Humane Society earlier today to deliver toys & supplies. Cait Covers the Bases has some pictures from his visit.

NL Central Update

• The Pirates made a trade yesterday, acquiring Antonio Bastardo from the Phillies. Scott Gelman of MLB Daily Dish has the details.
• Mike Bauman of MLB.com believes that the NL Central could be a five-team race in 2015 following the series of moves that the Cubs have made.

Around Baseball

• The Dodgers shifted into overdrive yesterday and dominated the Winter Meetings, and MLB Daily Dish has the full details on the moves. In a busy day of trades & signings, they acquired:
  - Brandon McCarthy (free agent signing)
  - Jimmy Rollins (from Phillies)
  - Howie Kendrick (from Angels)
  - Yasmani Grandal (from Padres)
  - Joe Wieland (from Padres)
  - Zach Elfin (from Padres)
  - Chris Hatcher (from Marlins)
  - Austin Barnes (from Marlins)
  - Kike Hernandez (from Marlins)
  - Andrew Heaney (from Marlins)
  
  In addition, they traded away:
  - Dee Gordon (to Marlins)
  - Dan Haren (to Marlins)
  - Miguel Rojas (to Marlins)
  - Matt Kemp (to Padres)
  - Tim Federowicz (to Padres)
  - Andrew Heaney (to Angels)
  - Two unknown pitching prospects (to Phillies)
  
  
• Mark Polishuk of MLB Trade Rumors also notes that the Dodgers and Phillies had discussed a Chase Utley trade as well, but those talks didn't go anywhere.
• Another deal was finalized this morning as well. The Tigers acquired Yoenis Cespedes from the Red Sox for Rick Porcello. Other players figure to be involved in the deal as well.
• The Red Sox also acquired Wade Miley from the Diamondbacks for three minor-league prospects.
• The Angels made another trade on Wednesday as well, acquiring Josh Rutledge from the Rockies for right-hander Jairo Diaz.
• The Astros signed two relievers, adding both Luke Gregerson and Pat Neshek to their bullpen.
• MLB.com has 30 notes for the 30 MLB teams as the Winter Meetings come to a close.
• How did the implementation of instant replay affect ejections in 2014? Scott Lindholm of Beyond the Box Score compares the ejection numbers from 2013 & 2014.

Let's pull together the last few nuggets from Day 4 of the Winter Meetings.

Ervin Santana

Santana contractual details: 4/54 can become 5/68 with the vesting option. $1M buyout makes the guarantee $55M. #MNTwins

— Darren Wolfson (@DarrenWolfson) December 11, 2014

Our coverage so far: Twins interested in Ervin Santana |  Santana would make the Twins better but looks like Nolasco |  Twins to sign Ervin Santana to four-year contract |  How much better does Santana make the Twins?

Even if you traditionally think of Santana and Phil Hughes as number three-type starters, which is how their profile plays, having two mid-rotation pitchers with some upside is a good change of pace for the Twins. A baseball team cannot be fixed with one player, but by making the rotation better the Twins have made this team one step closer to being a contender.

Can't wait to #SmellBaseball with the @Twins!!!!

— Ervin Santana (@ErvinSantana_54) December 11, 2014

Justin Masterson

Told #MNTwins tried to get a meeting on Masterson yesterday, but it was too late. They never made him an offer.

— Darren Wolfson (@DarrenWolfson) December 11, 2014

This lends credence to my speculation yesterday that, if the Twins were waiting on someone before they focused fully on Santana, they were perhaps interested in landing Masterson in the first instance. Both pitchers would make Minnesota's rotation better, but no doubt a shorter term contract to Masterson would have been the preferred route. Instead, Masterson returns home his original organization in Boston.

Mark Reynolds

Cardinals sign Mark Reynolds. Heard the Twins were sniffing around him this week.

— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) December 11, 2014

I made note earlier this week of LEN III's comment that the Twins were "sniffing around a position player with pop." Turns out that man was Reynolds, who I was hoping would have come to Minnesota last winter when the team needed a backup corner infielder. He ended up heading to the Brewers, where he batted just .196/.287/.394 - although he did smash 22 homers. In spite of being a major risk considering his lack of contact (31.9% career strikeout rate and 65% contact rate since 2007), he still put up 1.6 fWAR in 2014.

And that effort earned him more interest this year. He'll back up first, third, and right field for St. Louis, and he'll probably get a look-in as their DH during interleague games. He's a nice bench bat, at the very least. It will be interesting to track whether the Twins continue to focus on a bench bat who can back up at a couple of different positions.

The outfield

Colby Rasmus, Nyjer Morgan, Endy Chavez, Emilio Bonifacio, and Ezquiel Carrera lead the list of free agent center fielders still available; Rasmus is the only one that piques my interest at all. Nori Aoiki and Melky Cabrera are both still on the market, but they're corner outfielders and I doubt Minnesota would, at this point, want to offer any of them the multi-year offer they're no doubt expecting. (Nor should the Twins follow that train of thought, either.)

On the trade market, I'm still very much interested in Peter Bourjos and Jon Jay from the Cardinals.

Surplus pitching

Candidates for the 2015 rotation now include Ervin Santana, Phil Hughes, Ricky Nolasco, Mike Pelfrey, Kyle Gibson, Tommy Milone, Trevor May, and Alex Meyer. Don't bother counting: that's three too many starting pitchers. While a team can never have too much pitching, A) you can only stash so many starter's arms in the bullpen, B) returning May and/or Meyer to Triple-A to start 2015 feels counter productive for the long-term, and C) having a surplus of starting pitchers who have years of team control remaining is a luxury. If teams come calling on Gibson or Milone with a tempting offer, it would be hard to say no if it's a move that makes sense.

Frankly, my dear, I don't link a dump

It's Friday! Friday's a good day to dump some links, so let's do that.

Madison Bumgarner accepts 2014 Sportsman of the Year award
Madison Bumgarner won an award this week that will go on a shelf with all his other awards from this year. It's not a small shelf.  This was Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year, and there was a ceremony, and he had to wear (and buy!) a suit, and give a speech. He was preceded by Bill Clinton, who has a little more public speaking experience, but Madison did a good job, and somehow his nerves didn't get the best of him on that stage. Weird. I'd have thought he panics when the pressure's on. Shows what I know!

Also, Royals fans weren't happy about Bumgarner being chosen by SI and lol lol lol.

Joe Panik returns home to community honors
Madison Bumgarner wasn't the only one to, uh, attend an event recently. Lay off, man, I don't use my good segues on Fridays. But Joe Panik recently came home to John Jay High School in Poughkeepsie for his high school jersey to be retired, and it was by all accounts a dignified, professional ceremony. But I bet when all that was over, Panik really let his hair down, went wild. I'm sure he went out and, like, had a beer, and studied film for half an hour less than he otherwise would have. It was probably the craziest shit he's ever done.

"Oh, Say Can You Sing": the greatest album featuring MLB players singing that you'll ever hear
Did you know that there was a 2005 album featuring the vocal talents of both Omar Vizquel and Aubrey Huff? It was called "Oh, Say Can You Sing" and it was glorious. The shocking part is how well Huff acquits himself. If you lived in a world where you hadn't heard of Aubrey Huff and knew nothing about country music, and someone played you his song and said he was a really popular singer, you'd go, "Yeah, I could see it" and never think about it again. It's tough to be that good!

As I Was Saying . . .
Oh, hi, Brandons blog. It's been a while. Anything new with you? Just some stuff about winning the World Series, huh? Cool, cool. Here at McCovey Chronicles, we decided to change it up and complain about the front office. Hard to believe, but true!

Brewers, Hank raise more than $150,000 for Humane Society
This proves that Hank is a true five-tool talent. Obviously he's smart, since he apparently survived on the streets of Maryvale until the Brewers adopted him. Clearly, he's adorable. We know he's fast. He sells a lot of merchandise. And now it turns out that he's generous too, raising all that money for charity. Hank's accomplishments put us all to shame.

Today's lessons wrap up the final day of the Winter Meetings.

Cram Session

Winter Meetings

• The Winter Meetings wrapped up yesterday with the Brewers abstaining from making a choice in the Rule 5 draft. They did lose Sean Halton to the Orioles and Kentrail Davis to the Angels in the minor league phase of the draft.
• While the Winter Meetings were active elsewhere, they were quiet on the Brewers front. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel notes that the Brewers will wait to pick up relief help.
• Adam McCalvy notes that the Brewers quiet meetings are a result of the early moves that the Brewers made during the offseason.
• The Brewers released Jeremy Hermida yesterday, allowing him to sign a one-year deal in Japan.
• Over on Disciples of Uecker, Nicholas Zettel breaks down the moves made in the NL Central and what it means for the division.

NL Central Update

• The Reds were active on the trade market during the final day of meetings. They sent Mat Latos to the Marlins for Anthoy DeSclafani and Chad Wallach, and sent Alfredo Simon to the Tigers for Eugenio Suarez and Jonathon Crawford. MLB Daily Dish has the details on the moves.
• Mark Reynolds is heading to the Cardinals after signing a one-year deal with them.
• Mark Polishuk of MLB Trade Rumors has some notes on the NL Central.

Around Baseball

• MLB Daily Dish has all of the big moves from the last day of the Winter Meetings covered. In addition to the Reds trades above, here are some of the other big transactions from the final day:
  - The Twinssigned Ervin Santana to a four year, $55 million deal.
  - The Royalssigned Kendrys Morales to a two year, $17 million deal.
  - The Red Soxsigned Justin Masterson to a one year, $9.5 million deal.
  
• Adam Berry of MLB.com rounds up the Winter Meetings with a list of all of the transactions made during the Winter Meetings.
• Tom Singer of MLB.com has a quote from all 30 MLB managers from the Winter Meetings.
• Andrew Heaney ended up being traded twice yesterday, going from the Marlins to the Dodgers and then the Dodgers to the Angels. He was a Dodger for five hours, and thanked the Dodgers for those five hours.

Come into this post for the best baseball-related picture of a dog you'll ever see.

Braves news

Hart: ‘It’s not like I’m breaking up the ’27 Yankees’

Braves President of Baseball Ops and apparent best friend of the media John Hart talked to the AJC's Jeff Schultz about the team's offseason moves thus far. Hart acknowledged that some decisions have been questioned by fans, but pretty much said why not, given how last year went:

"We had a tough year, and I know there was a lot of speculation about us going into this winter," Hart said. "We had the 29th-ranked farm system in baseball. We had some bad contracts. Everybody felt there would be some players we would definitely unload — become a seller, if you will. But we’ve never felt like there was something we had to do. Obviously we’re contractually obligated to some players who aren’t performing well. But just because 2017 is coming, it doesn’t mean we’re going to throw a hand grenade on the club and blow it up. That wouldn’t guarantee success for 2017, either."

Curaçao becomes unlikely supplier of major league players

Surely we all remember the heartwarming story of how Andrelton Simmons grew up idolizing fellow countryman Andruw Jones, but we may not know that much about the country that produced such talents. The New York Times has a lovely look at just how Curaçao has become such a hotspot.

MLB News

Melky Cabrera signs with the White Sox

By far my least favorite Brave of all time Melky Cabrera signed a three-year, $42-$43.5 million deal with Chicago. I have no words other than the day his suspension was announced I was in the Dallas airport and cackled like an idiot and it was glorious. And also he remains the worst.

Santa Hank spreads holiday cheer

Milwaukee used Hank, the dog the Brewers rescued during spring training, and his preciousness to make even more people happy this December, as he visited the Wisconsin Humane Society to help other pups get adopted. I can't even at his face:

You might have forgotten about Allen Craig, but the rest of the league has not.

Allen Craig doesn't have a very specific or guaranteed role with the Red Sox right now. He's one of their backup outfielders and also their backup first baseman, but the roster space for that gets a little cloudy when you realize Daniel Nava is out of options and can also do those things while Mookie Betts should probably be in the majors. The rest of the league realizes this, and according to ESPN's Jerry Crasnick, the Red Sox are receiving "lots of calls" for Craig from the ones hoping to make a trade. At this time, though, nothing is "brewing" on that front.

Crasnick probably wasn't making a joke about the Brewers' interest there, but they have been tied to Craig already this winter. The Marlins are presumably out on him given their outfield is full and they signed Mike Morse to play first base for them, meaning a Craig platoon with Garrett Jones is unnecessary. Other teams could end up needing Craig: for instance, the Mariners keep whiffing on their targets for outfield help to the point where Brad Miller, Major League Outfielder is in serious consideration. With very few hitters with upside left on the free agent market at this stage -- Alex Rios was considered one of the last ones, if not the last one -- offers for Craig should start coming in shortly even with his obvious downsides.

The 2014 season was a problem for him thanks to a late-season foot injury in 2013. It messed with Craig's swing and production, but he's now in the middle of a regular offseason with regular healing and regular preparation. He could be a valuable hitter once more, much like the one who slugged. 500 for the Cardinals with a 136 OPS+ for a three-year stretch prior to last year: the Red Sox aren't going to just give that away, not when he costs all of $6.2 million in average annual value, and teams desperate for an impact bat aren't going to shy away from the risk at that cost, either.

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers acquired minor league catcher Shawn Zarraga from the Brewers on Thursday in exchange for outfielder Matt Long and pitcher Jarret Martin. Long was acquired on Thursday from the Angels as the player to be named later in the trade of catcher Drew Butera to the Angels on Dec. 9.

Zarraga, who turns 26 in January, hit .309/.416/.389 with 18 doubles and one home run between Double-A Huntsville and Triple-A Nashville in 2014. He was promoted to Triple-A in late June, but after hitting .213/.304/.255 (10-for-47) in 17 games was demoted back to Double-A for the final month of the season.

In the last three years, the switch-hitting Zarraga has hit .314/.414/.404 as a left-handed batter and .263/.325/.350 from the right side. Here is video proof of his existence from July, with Nashville:

After nine passed balls in only 44 games behind the plate in Double-A in 2013, Zarraga improved to two passed balls in 67 games in 2014, and threw out 16 of 47 runners trying to steal (34.0 percent).

Zarraga was drafted by the Brewers in the 44th round in the 2007 draft. He is not on the 40-man roster, but will add to the catching depth in the organization, which is razor thin.

Martin, 25, was 1-1 with a 3.29 ERA in 46 games for Double-A Chattanooga in 2014, with seven saves. He struck out 64 batters in 54⅔ innings, but also walked 48 and the left-hander was passed over by the Dodgers for a September promotion to the big club.

"I was falling off the mound on the side, which I had never done in my career. I've always been a step straight, drive toward home kind of pitcher," Martin said. "I was frustrated because I knew I was doing it but I had to do it. I wanted to stay on the field, I wanted to keep pitching, hopefully put a good streak together and get a call.

Martin also had two stints on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation, though he said it hasn't affected his offseason program.

"Last year was a step back," Martin said. "It's unfortunate and it's disappointing, because I know I'm better than that."

The Dodgers designated Martin for assignment on Nov. 22, removing him from the 40-man roster, and he was outrighted to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Dec. 1.

"The Dodgers are trying to win right now and they are looking at bringing guys in. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole for a roster spot. I understand the way the business works," Martin said. "It just makes me more motivated to work harder."

Long, who turns 28 in April, hit .249/.340/.384 with 19 doubles and 10 home runs in 116 games, all but two with Double-A Arkansas and Triple-A Salt Lake in 2014. He played 91 games in center field, nine games in left field, four in right field, six games at third base, one at second, and seven games at designated hitter.

We know where the Reds stand, but with (probably) the majority of the dominoes fallen, how does the rest of the NL Central look?

Chicago Cubs

In: Jon Lester, David Ross, Jason Motte, Jason Hammel, Miguel Montero, Tommy La Stella
Out: Justin Ruggiano, Carlos Villanueva, a bunch of prospects

Obviously, the big move here was the Cubs' signing of free agent starter Jon Lester. They also brought back Jason Hammel for their rotation, and look to have significantly upgraded their catching situation. Motte helps provide depth in the bullpen, but the biggest move the Cubs made was hiring Joe Maddon as manager. This is a team with a lot of youth that will have to produce for the Cubs to contend in this division, but they've been bringing in pitching and depth and probably aren't done.

St. Louis Cardinals

In: Mark Reynolds, Matt Belisle, Jason Heyward, Jordan Walden, Dean Anna
Out: Daniel Descalso, Shelby Miller, Justin Masterson, A.J. Pierzynski, Jason Motte, Mark Ellis, Pat Neshek

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Cardinals aren't done, but they've already gotten better. Jason Heyward adds another bat to a strong lineup, but they'll likely be relying on their surplus of young pitching to fill the holes left by free agency. I think they'll grab another arm, though.

Milwaukee Brewers

In: Adam Lind, Juan Centeno, Luis Jimenez
Out: Marco Estrada, Rickie Weeks, Francisco Rodriguez, Tom Gorzelanny, Zach Duke, Mark Reynolds, Lyle Overbay

Here's a team who have done less than the Reds have, so far! The Brew Crew may still have something up their sleeves, but for now, Adam Lind looks to be their only acquisition who will play everyday. They've done a couple of other scrap heap moves, but haven't really lost too much. They need a bullpen, probably.

Pittsburgh Pirates

In: Corey Hart, Radhames Liz, Sean Rodriguez, Antonio Bastardo, Pedro Florimon, Francisco Cervelli, Jake Elmore, Jung-Ho Kang?
Out: Gaby Sanchez, Ike Davis, Justin Wilson, Russell Martin, Edinson Volquez, Clint Barmes

The Buccos have been busy, especially now that it looks like they won the bidding for SS Jung-Ho Kang. That'll be an upgrade of Clint Barmes, and it looks like they'll move Pedro Alvarez over to 1B and install Josh Harrison as their everyday 3B. They didn't really have a ton to do, but they could still use another starting pitcher or two.

Looking around the rest of the division, how much better do the Reds need to get to challenge for the title?

Sometimes, scouts are accurate in their reports. Other times, they are not. Here are two case reports on former MLB catcher and current manager Mike Matheny.

Back in January, Eric penned a short, but quite informative piece on the 20-80 player evaluation scale. If you have not yet read it or are in need a quick refresher, I strongly suggest checking, but either way, I will bring up some of the highlights so that we can better understand some pre-draft scouting reports on Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. In short, 50 is considered MLB average, so a 60 rating would be considered one standard deviation above MLB average, and a 40 rating is one standard deviation below MLB average. The first number listed for each attribute is the current rating, and the second number is the projection of the given player's skill set, in the scout's opinion, of course.

Something to keep in mind when looking at the following scouting reports is that both occurred while Matheny was still in high school. Turns out, he was apparently drafted in the 31st round of the 1988 MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. However, in this terrific, must-read article from The Michigan Daily, Matheny had his doubts about the Blue Jays' commitment to him as part of their future:

"Finally, two days [after the draft was complete], this guy generously called me and said, ‘Oh by the way, we drafted you.’ I said, ‘Well thanks for letting me know now,’ after I’d been glued to the sofa for three days."

The team on the other line was the Toronto Blue Jays, who took Matheny in the 31st round — a detail they didn’t want him knowing.

"He refused to tell me what round it was, so I figured out that it wasn’t very high," Matheny says. "Even when I asked him, he wouldn’t tell me, but he just kept telling me that, ‘You have the opportunity to sign if you want to.’ He was really standoffish, so I knew he wasn’t too serious about me coming."

Matheny remained committed to the University of Michigan, performed well for the Junior Olympic team, and sustained a growth spurt. The Blue Jays took note of the latter two parts of this series:

Shortly before his freshman orientation, Toronto’s offer became more serious. But while the proposed contract grew more lucrative, one thing remained the same.

"They still wouldn’t tell me what round I was drafted in, so I’m going with, ‘I think I was the last pick in the draft,’ " he says.

I would love to include even more from this article because the story is so interesting to me, but to be fair to the author, here's another opportunity to check it out yourself. After a solid collegiate career with the Wolverines, Matheny was selected in the eighth round of the 1991 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers and quickly agreed to a deal on June 5, 1991. Let's now take a look at two pre-1988 draft scouting reports and see how they turned out with 13 seasons of statistics available to us.

A California Angels pre-draft scouting report by Bob Gardner

via the Baseball Hall of Fame

The first thing to make a note of is the fact that Matheny used to be a switch hitter. I found this quite intriguing as the only thing I was able to uncover on the topic was a Rick Hummel piece shared in the Cards Clubhouse forum over ten years ago. In his piece, Hummel talked about how Matheny worked on his left-handed swing with teammate Andy Van Slyke in the weeks prior to 2002 spring training. Despite some encouraging remarks from Van Slyke (i.e."Some of his mechanics lefthanded were better than righthanded"), quotes from Matheny made it clear that this hitting project didn't end up going very far.

Next on the list of things to talk about is the fact that Mr. Gardner projected Matheny to have a 55 power rating (slightly above average) and specifically included that he "shows power on contact" in his physical description. Well, in 4,287 career MLB plate appearances (3,877 at bats), Matheny hit a grand total of 67 home runs, or one home run every ~58 ABs. Taking it a step further, his career ISO was .105—39 points lower than the league average for position players over the last five seasons. It appears that Mr. Gardner's comment on Matheny's supposed poor eyesight was a much more accurate assessment on this one.

Finally, the league average projection (a 50 rating) of the fielding component of Matheny's game was particularly interesting. In thirteen MLB seasons as a catcher, Matheny won four Gold Glove Awards (2000, 2003-2005), and while the voting for this award can be seen as skeptical at times (and rightfully so, in my opinion), his career defensive WAR (dWAR) of 9.6 (per Baseball-Reference) provides some statistical backing to his merit behind receiving these awards. It probably helped that he found himself worthy of the nickname "The Toughest Man Alive" as well. Plus, his career 35% caught stealing percentage would be considered top five in all of baseball were he still an active player. (For perspective, in 11 MLB seasons, Yadier Molina has accrued a dWAR of 18.7 and a CS% of 44.77%).

A second scouting report, this one from Jim Martz in April of 1988

via the Baseball Hall of Fame

In the physical description section, Mr. Martz did not mention Matheny's eyesight, something in which Mr. Gardner brought special attention to in his report. He also talks about Matheny's left-handed swing stating that it was a "better stroke" with "more power."

In terms of defense, Martz classified Matheny's arm strength as "close to average" and that he was "slightly awkward and crude behind the plate." He concludes his thoughts by saying that Matheny "can be [an] adequate receiver with a productive bat." Per Baseball-Reference, Matheny's career oWAR was -3.4 while his dWAR was 9.6. It is safe to say Matheny's didn't turn out as the scout projected.

One final thing of interest in this scouting report is the specific mentioning of how Matheny "could show more leadership." Say what you want about Mike Matheny, but his career as a catcher was defined by his leadership, especially when realizing his role in the clubhouse after the tragic death of Darryl Kile.  One of the main reasons General Manager John Mozeliak hired him as manager after the 2011 season was the fact that he was classified as a "leader of men." This has come into question at times, especially when things got tough last season, but as I wrote back in October, he is exactly who the Cardinals need as the organization deals with and moves on from the devastating loss of Oscar Taveras.

Bottom line

I am wholeheartedly aware that the job of a scout is nearly impossible and that any given scout is wrong far more often than they are correct. That's the nature of projecting human beings with very little reliable statistical data available. Both Mr. Gardner and Mr. Martz were correct in projecting that Matheny had the "overall ability to play" in the majors, but both stressed that his bat would likely play more than his glove. In hindsight, this part of their reports was proven to be very much incorrect, but the end result of him being an adequate-to-successful big leaguer was correct. Both scouts should be applauded for that, especially given that both reports occurred before more information and data became available during his years at the University of Michigan.

For access to many historical scouting reports, visit the following from the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

P.S. I am contemplating turning this post into a series of posts if I am able to dig up scouting reports on notable past or current Cardinals. If even slightly interested, please make a note of it in the comments.

The right fielder had a ballsy year.

When the Royals traded Will Smith for a high-contact right fielder named Nori Aoki before the 2014 season began, the reaction was swift and just. "He's terrible!" "We should have kept Will Smith!" "Dayton should...."

Wait a second. I'm relatively sure no one said those things. In fact, I'm fairly sure people had the opposite reactions. I can't really be sure because I can't find an article on Royals Review about the trade when it happened. I guess that's how excited Royals Review was. Google and the search function have failed me. Tyler Drenon says we loved it, so we loved it. I wasn't writing for this site when the trade happened, but I probably would have written things like, "This is a trade" and "The guy we got in return for the guy we gave away is a player".

All this serves to highlight the mixed opinions about Aoki's performance in 2014. On one hand, he hit a 104 wRC+ with decent baserunning and defense for 2.3 fWAR. On the other hand, Aoki wasn't really all that good until the selective endpoints that I'm about to show you. Through August 24th, Aoki was sporting a .261/.330/.332 line for a 90 wRC+. We expected better. After August 24th, Aoki hit .370/.419/.463 for a 153 wRC+. We didn't expect this much better, but Aoki was an integral part of the Royals' September run into the playoffs.

Aside from his performance on the field, which was perfectly acceptable when it was all said and done, there was his performance on the field. Aoki is a walking gifustration both for his routes taken to catch baseballs in the air as well as routes taken to the ground after being caught by baseballs in the air. Aoki is made of whatever material attracts the material out of which a baseball is made. You know, like a magnet and metal, but with baseballs.

I'll try to illustrate Aoki's typical route to a ball later, but this video will suffice for now.

Even the Royals fan after this catch is thinking, "lolwut".

This one was actually just pretty cool.

Not so much "nice grab" as "ball fell into glove while glove was falling down".

Screams like an eagle?

He's not safe anywhere.

At least something good comes out of his getting hit by the ball. Sometimes.

Are there dance classes opening up?

Obviously, this one has to be included. Nutshots get extra points.

Seriously, Aoki's not safe anywhere.

OK, really, Aoki can't be on the field anymore, regardless of where the foul lines are. He needs a helmet at all times, and he must be pitched to in the dugout.

When I initially started going through some of his highlights videos, I had no intention of showing so many. However, I feel like I really need to show the evidence here. Aoki gets hit a lot, and it literally doesn't matter where he is. I'm sure you know of things I missed.

Anyway, I promised an illustration of Aoki's typical route to a ball. What follows is a completely legitimate rendering of a randomly chosen fly ball.

Here come the strikeout, walk, and batted ball data. 100 is average, less than 100 means he did less of the thing than league average, and more than 100 means he did more of the thing.

Aoki strikes out a lot less than league average, but he walks at about a league average rate. This gives him some leeway in terms of production on contact. He has a decent performance floor. He was no different than usual in 2014.

Aoki hits a lot of ground balls, as you would expect. Aoki traded some fly balls for line drives in 2014, which is good because Aoki stinks pretty hard at hitting fly balls. Aoki's HR/FB cratered in 2014; the Brewers' home park is very homer friendly, so I'm not surprised that his home run totals dropped. His one home run of 2014 was pretty awesome, and even though it looked like a squeaker line drive homer that barely cleared the fence in Arizona, ESPN's Home Run Tracker says it would have been out of 27 parks out of the 30. Kauffman stadium would still have allowed that.

Here's Aoki's production by batted ball type. Rel PRD is calculated by (1.7*BA+SLG)/(1.7*lgBA+lgSLG).

His fly ball relative production fell even further in 2014. It's really, really low. It's terrible. His line drive production fell. Luckily, his ground ball production rebounded a bit. In case you didn't already know, Aoki is not a power hitter who can hit the ball hard in the air. Thusly, the ridiculous ground ball rate. Is this getting repetitive? Aoki sounds like Jarrod Dyson and Lorenzo Cain. How is he not a Royal4Lyfe?

Overall, Aoki provided exactly what the Royals needed. He was a relatively stable contributor on both offense and defense for a position at which the Royals had a glaring hole. His red hot September did save his grade from being worse, but he didn't need to be GianJustin Stupton. All the extra entertainment was really an added bonus.

Grade: B

After getting numerous positive remarks on my Mike Matheny scouting reports post, I have decided to create a series, or a mini series at least. Now up: Albert Pujols.

In my time as a baseball fan (24 years and counting), I have yet to witness a player better than the great Albert Pujols. Sure, Mike Trout is almost certainly the better all-around player, but I have not yet seen him play in person, and he only has three full seasons "under his belt" while Albert has 14. As the 16th player picked by the Cardinals in the 1999 MLB Draft (13th round, 402nd overall), it is safe to say no one projected him to be the 26th (and counting) best position player of all time in terms of fWAR (90.5), except maybe Fernando Arango of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (hat tip to Wagonbaker for sharing this must-read article by the ever-terrific Jonah Keri) who quit his job as a scout after the Devil Rays passed on Albert in the draft.

Before I get into the professional scouting reports on Pujols, I want to bring up an urban legend that was introduced to me back in 2007 when I was a member of the Crestwood American Legion baseball team. We were in a tournament at the historic Liberty Park Stadium in Sedalia, Missouri, and before games commenced, the stadium owner/curator took our team on a mini tour of the facilities. At one point, he stopped and pointed at a photograph of a very young Pujols on the wall. Though I do not remember his exact quote, it paraphrased as: "When we get out to the field, take a good look at the tree beyond the fence in left center. Because Albert put one over it back in the day." At the time, I'm not sure if any of us realized that it had been at least ten years since Albert played there, and ten plus years is a lot of time for a tree to grow. Either way, it is a story I will remember forever.

The first scouting report I reviewed was completed by Russ Boveprior to the 1999 MLB Draft. At the time of the report, Bove was a scout with the Milwaukee Brewers. Upon completing my review of his work, it's probably a good thing he didn't see much in Albert because having the Cardinals face him regularly as a National League Central would have been a chore.

via the Baseball Hall of Fame

As you can see, Bove gave the 19-year-old a "D" in terms of "impact" and projected him to be eventually be a major league utility player. Overall, Bove believed Albert was a 9th round value, which, considering he fell all the way to the 13th, would have been quite a steal for the Brewers. In terms of tools, I found it surprising that Bove rated Albert's fielding, both currently and projected, higher than his hitting. A projected 40 rating with hitting meant that Bove thought he would be one standard deviation below average. His career slash of .317/.403/.588 and wRC+ of 159 suggest otherwise.

Projecting Albert as a future weight problem seems a bit harsh to me, especially given the pictures I've been able to uncover from his time at Maple Woods Community College. Sure, 210 pounds is above the supposed ideal body weight for a 6'3" male, but in no way does it scream a weight problem, especially for an athlete. Bove was right in classifying him as an "aggressive hitter," but there is a good chance at least a handful of his 520 career home runs came on good pitches, not just mistake pitches. His career strikeout rate of 9.8% also rebuts the "hacker" and "chases" classifications as well.

Full disclosure, I realize that this scouting report was produced after Bove saw Albert play in one game, on May 21, 1999. And yes, even the best players in the world have the ability to look bad in one game, just ask Matt Holliday. That's baseball. Still, it is fun to look back and see just how wrong Bove was in his report, especially given how critical he was in his evaluation.

According to Baseball-Reference, Jim Pransky was a scout with the Oakland Athletics at the time of the following scouting report (August 23, 2000):

via the Baseball Hall of Fame

The increased sample size (three games seen instead of one, saw him in college as well), combined with it being a few months into his professional career, helped make Pransky's job a whole lot easier. Pujols crushed the ball when he was with the 2000 Peoria Chiefs (low-A). He smacked 17 home runs and slashed .324/.389/.565—an impressive enough performance for him to see a promotion to the A-Advanced Potomac Cannons followed by a splash with the AAA Memphis Redbirds for three games.

Projecting Albert's hit tool as a 7 (aka 70) and his power tool as a 6 (aka 60) has been proven pretty accurate, though he has also shown to be slightly better than just an "above average ML player." Pransky, like Bove, mentions Albert's weight/large frame, but admits that he appears to have it under control—something that was actually probably pretty easy given his work ethic and the fact that he was surrounded by a terrific training staff.

My favorite part of Pransky's scouting report is clearly his comments on Albert's hitting: "power to all fields - hits ball well to right center. Aggressive at plate, but makes contact...Feel this guy's bat will make him an eventual ML All Star." This description was spot on. His career .208 ISO on balls hit to the opposite field provides backing to the "power to all fields" classification. Though his glove has been quite good at first base, his bat definitely helped make him "an eventual ML All Star." Nine times to be exact.

Albert Pujols will go down as one of the greatest players to ever live, and as Cardinals fans, we are truly lucky to have been around to experience his best years in terms of overall performance. He may be with the American League's Los Angeles team now, but you better believe I keep a close eye on his statistics and highlight videos.

Credit to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Fangraphs, and Baseball-Reference.

Adding a right-handed bat off the bench seems like a worthwhile goal for 2015, but realistically what's out there?

One of the remaining items on Rick Hahn's holiday list is getting a capable right-handed bat for the bench for the White Sox for next season.  Like all the fixer-upper shows, we have to start with our ideal lefty masher. This is the guy that would tick off several things we'd like to see. For me, the ideal lefty masher has a couple of key characteristics.

• Excellent splits against lefties. Although the slugging part of masher is nice, a good wRC+ works too.
• Position flexibility with a focus on the infield. Since Melky Cabrera and Avisail Garcia are both righties and Adam Eaton had a 108 wRC+ off lefties, having a lefty masher in the outfield isn't that much of a bonus.

For me, this ideal guy looks a bit like Scott Van Slyke. He hit .315/.415/.630 against lefties. That's a 193 wRC+ against, good for fourth behind Victor Martinez, Jose Abreu, and Jose Bautista. He can play all three outfield positions and can fill in a first base too. Center field is a bit of a stretch, but, to give Eaton the occasional day off, he'd do OK. The problem here is that this is like the fixer-upper TV shows. The Dodgers still have four years of control. Even after the Matt Kemp trade, the Dodgers have a full outfield, but Van Slyke would still be expensive give that wRC+ against lefties. This would certainly cost the Sox a top prospect which seems to be something that Rick Hahn is trying to avoid.

Of the outstanding remaining free agents, Nori Aoki has the wRC+ against lefties of 150 last season is the highest. There are some problems here. First, he's a lefty. Second, his .360 slugging percentage isn't going to wow anyone (I can already hear the "jabroni" cries). He can probably be best described as "pesty" against lefties. Last season, he hit .363/.428/.435 against lefties and is .319/.371/.405 for his career against lefties.

Up next, is a true right-hander and an infielder.  Rickie Weeks had a $14.5 million option declined by the Brewers at the end of the season making him a free agent. Over his three-year deal, he's made $31 million but put up -1.3 bWAR and 1.7 fWAR.  Last season, he became the right hand side of a platoon at second for the Brewers. That was fairly successful since he hit .256/.361/.504 against lefties with a wRC+ of 142 against lefties. For his career, he's hit .261/.385/.448 with a wRC+ of 128 against lefties.  There is a down side to all of this.  Weeks' defense at second base has degraded to the point that he had -62 defensive runs saved (think -6.2 WAR) over the previous three seasons.

After Weeks, the free agent infielder with the highest wRC+ of 2014 against lefties is Gordon Beckham at 118.

So, if a free agent is available that can fill this role, we're back to the trade route again. While Ben Zobrist is full-time player and a switch hitter, he had a wRC+ of 153 against lefties last season. As someone entering his 34-year-old season, he could take the right-handed platoon at second base with Sanchez and fill in somewhere else against righties. This is all assuming he's gotten past this.

Overall, there isn't a great answer to the lefty-masher problem. The best available free agents all have serious drawbacks.  There are probably some available for trade, but they could require the Sox to part with some of the top prospects they've been working to build up.  On the positive side, we're all worrying about a bench player that might not start as often as the backup catcher.

The year ahead is an important one for a surging M's franchise seeking their first postseason berth in over a decade. But we are the ones that have to watch it all.

The last week in December is undeniably an awful time to be a baseball writer. With the industry on a week-long hiatus, required news posts are unfortunately relegated to either contextualizing completed moves (like, what the hell is going on in San Diego?) or guesstimating the next steps of the offseason through a look at roster holes and remaining free agents (seriously, what is A.J. Preller's deal?). It's not that you want anyone to get The Call while they are opening presents with their kids, but...I mean...a little news would be nice, wouldn't it?

To solve this conundrum, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune recently posted an article looking ahead to the biggest unanswered questions for the 2015 Seattle Mariners. It's a great analysis of what Jack Z and crew have left to do before the 2015 season officially begins, from deciding what to do with Brad Miller, to finding a backup for the injury-prone Logan Morrison, and of course, solidifying a fit for the newly acquired Justin Ruggiano into their to-be completed outfield plan. Dutton's informed insight is very valuable, and it makes me wish I had front-office connections to know that Jack Z is, in fact, interested in someone like Seth Smith to fill a gaping hole in the outfield.

I, of course, have no such connections. I also do not have decades of baseball analysis under my belt, nor an ability to put a bunch of numbers together on a spreadsheet and tell you why X player is a poor investment for the future of the club. Instead, I have a television and a computer through which I subject myself to hours upon hours of Seattle Mariners baseball every season, mediated through Dave Sims, Mike Blowers, and the ROOT Sports broadcast crew. I also have a handful of games inside Safeco each year, and the experience of following a bumpy road with the same 25 guys throughout a better part of the calendar year.

There are, to be sure, many unanswered questions about the future of this roster as it tries to chase its first postseason berth in over a decade. But I have a couple of unanswered questions about our experience of the Mariners that I would like answered before the start of 2015. So here we go:

1. Can we ban the goddamned wave already?

Now, sure. The Mariners would never do it. Safeco's M.O. has been a "family friendly" experience since day one, and Howard Lincoln got a whole bunch of flak for admitting as much in last year's bizarre post-season sit-down session with Ryan Divish. There are stories of people getting booted by security for little to no reason, beyond possibly upsetting a family of four inside a stadium that serves people gallons of alcohol while they sit out in the blistering sun. Banning the wave is just not in the cards.

But the days of selling the Safeco experience simply as a "family event" are over. The Mariners are winning, games in September have stakes, and nobody needs to be distracted by a bunch of overgrown frat kids trying to distract themselves (and the players) from an on-field product that nobody wants to be paying attention to. I don't care if it was "invented in the Kingdome." The wave needs to stop, and the only way it will is if someone actually does something about it.

I hate the Texas Rangers. One of the reasons I hate the Texas Rangers is because their stadium experience seems to stand for everything I hate about modern commercialized baseball (which Safeco is by no means immune to), from a $30 dollar two-foot heart-attack hot-dogs to ubiquitous beer ads championing liquid pee from a company that insidiously tries to destroy their competition rather than adapt to a shifting market. But in 2011, these very same Texas Rangers started posting an Anti-Wave warning (above) on their video screen that jokingly discouraged fans from participating in the most obnoxious behavior imaginable by claiming participants would be sold to the circus or break their arms in the process. The Rangers' senior vice president was on board, inspired by fan reaction and Royals' reliever Greg Holland's website, www.stopthewave.net. Even the Rockies and Brewers have gotten in on discouraging the action. This is what the Mariners need to do to make the experience of competitive baseball better than the experience of begging people to come watch a shitty team lose games under the auspices of "family entertainment."

I don't want to claim that any of those teams "get" it, or that their fans somehow care more about winning than getting plastered on $10 beers while sitting in plastic chairs. But for fuck's sake, there is a way to do this without actually banning the wave and pissing people off, because people and players are already pissed off to have to sit through such asininity in the first place. Ban the wave.

2. Is Dave Sims OK?

Nobody wants a robot on their team's call, especially in a sport where each game lasts longer than the extended edition of the Return of the King and its requisite 9,000 endings. But during last season, Dave Sims had a few on-air moments that were legitimately terrifying, and had many viewers concerned our beloved fedora man may be at his wits' end--awkward silences, misread names, unintelligible sequences and of course, a rapidly diminishing ability to judge the distance of fly balls compared to home runs. Was our beloved announcer having strokes on air? Was his programming set to Harrelson mode? Is senility kicking in too early? Does he get all his announcing powers from his hats, left to wither without a skull-shaped battery in tow?

Look, we could all use another "Kyle Ackley" or three this season. I'm not asking for a new announcer here or anything. I just want to make sure Sims is ready to go every day, and I'll take anyone in that booth to give Sims a day or two off. Well, except for Jay Buhner. Either way, we should be concerned about the Sims, and make sure to give him his needed rest during what is supposed to be the best season of Mariners baseball in years.

3. Can we cool it with those awful AMPM commercials?

Money is money in live television broadcasting. I get it. Advertising dollars keep the lights on, and I'd rather have baseball with an obnoxious ad or two than not have any baseball at all. But my god, you guys need to fucking cool it with these AMPM commercials that play during every pitching change, inning end, trip to the mound, bobbled ball, wiped brow, and throat clearing. Twice a week is enough to drive a man crazy. But when you watch 162 games of baseball and hear these as much as you do, your brain starts to push out other, more important things in favor of inscribing a gravely NOW DRINK THEM ALL onto the neurons floating around in your head. Just look at these:

Whoever uploaded this onto YouTube titled the video "HILARIOUS!!," which makes me feel incredible pity for their lifelong humor intake. It's not hilarious. No, it's incredibly stupid. Nobody would ever go into a convenience store an order four drinks for themselves, that's why they invented those gigantic BIG GULP cups in the first place! Do they even know how their own business model functions?

No, this abomination of an advertisement is what happens when a production company sits in a meeting with a bunch of crusty old execs who want to dictate the content of the ads that....they hired the production company to write for them in the first place.

EXEC: What if...haha...now get me here...

WRITER: Um okay,

EXEC: So a guy goes in to the store, right? And he tries to sample a number of our products that...

EXEC 2: Good good, yes, we have to highlight our coffee and soda fountain selections. As a subsidiary of British Petroleum and the provider of highly processed garbage food to thousands of Americans refuling their vehicles on a daily basis, our profitability can only function through an effort at total market saturation

EXEC: Right, right, so what if he comes in and wants ALL THE DRINKS? All of em. Two coffees, two sodas--

WRITER: Wait, but

EXEC 2 (laughing uncontrollably): By jove, you've done it again!

WRITER: But why would he

EXEC: Yes, Yes, Richard, this is certainly one for the books.

WRITER: I still don't see why h

EXEC: Alright, three down, what's the next one you got for us?

This one is THE WORST. No one has ever stood waiting in front of a self-serve hotdog topping table at a gas station and told another human being, "Man, you are taking forever." Ever. In the history of the world. Then again, maybe that's why the Roman soldier walks into the frame, just to add to the impossibility of the whole situation. I don't want to watch these every day when I watch baseball. I can do two, maybe three. But that's it. Not what has happened over the past couple of years, no.

ROOT: Please, PLEASE think about getting some new ads this season. Get rid of this AM PM shit and maybe even give Vern Fonk another couple of seconds of airtime. Yes, it's that bad. You won't, and my question has been answered. But maybe just think about it for a minute.

4. Is it time for new ballpark traditions?

This one is more of a legitimate question. Experiencing the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field over the past decade or so has been a turbulent ride, one that I'm sure has given the marketing team headed by Kevin Martinez any number of headaches over promoting such an unstable product. There have been really great traditions started at Safeco, ranging from the grandiosity of the King's Court and Hall-of-Fame inductions to fan-favorites like the Hydro Race and Beard Hat Night. But many of Safeco's traditions started during an era when going to see baseball meant literally everything other than "seeing baseball." I mean, the guy that designed the Hydro Races actually said "It's the thing that gets the most response from the fans every night" once, and that was on a team that had 93 wins, with Ichiro, Edgar Martinez, and Mike Cameron on their roster.

I don't want to suggest the M's retire the Hydro Race or anything. But most ballpark traditions come and go with the ebb and flow of time: the Ichimeter lady was forced to start making new cardboard messages in the middle of 2012, Ichirolls became simple Sushi, and you can't really chant Ed-Gar when you don't have someone on your team named Edgar. But just as many of us grew sick of the constant 1995 nostalgia over the past few years, I wonder if it could be time to start carving out new traditions rather than simply rely on recycled ones, despite the fact that we can never fully ignore the team's past. What do you think? What goes, what stays? What should be relegated to the dustbin of history?