Contraction, Anybody? And Other MLBullets

The latest from around the league as you sashay into your weekend...

• White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf tends to take positions on issues from a certain, specific perspective. His White Sox never spent much in the Draft, and he actively supported the spending limitations that kicked in this year. He hopes baseball will soon implement an international draft, which will further reduce costs to teams disinclined to spend a whole lot of money pursuing and signing international free agents. And, unsurprisingly, he supports contraction - why pick up the tab for dead weight, I suppose, is the theory. At a fundraiser this week, Reinsdorf raised the specter of contraction, a subject dead for some 10 years, saying, "I don't see any baseball expansion right now. If it were up to me, I would contract two teams. But I certainly don't think expansion [is] on the horizon." Al takes a look at which two teams Reinsdorf might have been referencing, if he had two teams in mind (you can probably guess them), and looks at the practicalities of contraction (and expansion).

• Doug Melvin, the Brewers' GM, has confirmed that he expects his team to deal ace Zack Greinke before Tuesday's non-waiver trade deadline. With Cole Hamels locked up in Philly, and Matt Garza on the shelf, Greinke is the undeniable top pitcher available on the trade market at this point, and the Brewers are in the catbird seat.
• Speaking of midseason trades, FanGraphs takes a look at the value of the marginal win, gained from trading for one of those pieces. It turns out that it's higher than you might think - for teams in contention, the marginal win in the second half of the season is worth considerably more than in the first half. Let FanGraphs explain.
• A magnificent piece from Jeff Passan, in which he kneecaps Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and team president Mark Samson for snookering the people of Miami into a new stadium, and then buying and selling pieces so rapidly that the fans the team doesn't have didn't have a chance to develop. If the new stadium is already having trouble attracting fans in year one, following an offseason spending spree, how are things going to be in year two after the team sells those players off?
• Your feel good story of the day is a 29-year-old pitcher, who worked in the minors for ten years, finally getting the call by the Brewers. Congratulations, Jim Henderson.
• Mets pitching prospect Matt Harvey stepped into the rotation yesterday and struck out 11 in just 5.1 innings of work. Good debut.
• Blue Jays catcher JP Arencibia is out six weeks after breaking his hand. The Blue Jays already lost top catching prospect Travis D'Arnaud earlier this year.

Brett Taylor is the Lead Writer at Bleacher Nation, and a Contributor here at Bleed Cubbie Blue.