MLB Bullets Has Been Rescued

The only good thing about having a sick kid was that I got to sleep in on Sunday and skip going to church. The rest is brutal.

• Jerry Crasnick says the big story this offseason is going to be whether big arms get traded, headlined by AL Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer. He also mentions the Rays' David Price and the Cubs own Jeff Samardzija as pitchers who could be on the move.
• Buster Olney explains why the Tigers are considering trading Scherzer, but why he probably won't be. (video)
• Anthony Castrovince says trading Scherzer doesn't make sense for a team trying to win now like the Tigers.
• Scherzer, for his part, wants to stay in Detroit.
• There was a lot of talk that the Tigers were interested in free agent closer Joe Nathan, but the latest reports are that Brian Wilson is their first choice. I guess they don't mind the live squirrels living on his chin.
• James Shields is interested in staying in Kansas City long term. I don't know whether KC has the money, but when you give up Wil Myers, it really ought to be for a guy you want on your team for a long time. Shields is a good pitcher, so I'd start the negotiations if I ran the Royals. They haven't yet.
• Robinson Cano will sign a big free agent contract this offseason, but he's not in a hurry to sign before the new year.
• People in the industry think the Padres will trade Chase Headley this winter. Hmmm... Nah.
• The Padres, along with the Giants and the Twins, are interested in free agent pitcher Ricky Nolasco. Other teams may be in on the former Cubs farmhand as well.
• Nolasco isn't the only free agent pitcher the Twins are interested in and they seem determined to sign one this offseason. They're also interested in Bronson Arroyo and even bringing back Matt Garza. It's odd to see the Twins on the free agent market, but the Twins starting rotation was wretched last year.
• Brewers GM Doug Melvin thinks he can make a deal with the Mets.
• Tyler Kepner thinks the Mets, as well as the Yankees, need to be very aggressive this winter.
• Cormac Gordon agrees that the Mets have to go big this winter because the Yankees have left a window open to allow the Mets to become relevant in the NY sports scene.
• Joe Torre is not the Yankees manager anymore and he hasn't been since 2007. But he does think that if Joe Girardi asked Derek Jeter to take a reduced role for the good of the team, he would.
• There's been some talk that the Orioles might trade Matt Wieters. Jay Jaffe thinks that would be a mistake.
• The rumored trade of Jose Bautista for Domonic Brown got shot down, but the Blue Jays are reportedly interested in trading Bautista for pitching. Let's see, I've heard the Blue Jays are interested in Samardzija. Hmm. . .Nah.
• The Cardinals need to make a change at shortstop. Christina Kahrl looks at their options.
• She also believes that the Rangers need to sign Brian McCann and trade Ian Kinsler.
• The Red Sox probably have no interest in Mark Trumbo.
• Matthew Kory explains why your brilliant trade proposal is probably stupid.
• It's an ESPN Insider article, but Dave Cameron thinks that Jacoby Ellsbury is likely to age well and could be a big free agent bargain this winter. ($)
• In the light of the Jonathan Martin/Richie Incognito scandal in the NFL, J.P. Howell said that Yasiel Puig had been bullied. However, a couple days later he explained that he meant that he'd been bullied by fans and the media, not the other members of the Dodgers. I'd say that Howell doesn't understand what bullying is, except apparently his wife wrote a book about bullying. So I have no idea what he meant.
• The Dodgers are going to give away a Babe Ruth Dodgers bobblehead, celebrating the one year he was a first base coach in Brooklyn.
• In the light of Joe Mauer leaving catching to play in first base, Giants GM Brian Sabean said that Buster Posey is not moving to first base.
• I have no idea who Stephen Mast is, but he wrote a rather bizarre column arguing that Paul Goldschmidt got robbed of the NL MVP award. I suppose one could make that case, but to say that Goldschmidt, a first baseman, had more putouts than McCutchen, a center fielder, is evidence of that is crazy. The fact that John McCain agrees with him is evidence of nothing.
• Peter Gammons says that Mike Trout should have been the AL MVP.
• This won't surprise anyone here, but St. Louis MVP voters have been the biggest homers since they started revealing ballots in 2011.
• There have been a lot of accusations made by the Alex Rodriguez and his team against MLB in the Biogenesis scandal, but now officials with the State of Florida say that MLB officials actively hindered their criminal investigation by purchasing documents they knew had been stolen.
• No, it's not your imagination. Pitchers are throwing harder than they did even back in 2007.
• John Manuel has a profile of Cubs minor league pitching coordinator Derek Johnson.
• The Nationals are looking to bounce back in 2014.
• Bryce Harper, however, has learned that oral agreements aren't worth the paper they're printed on. In any case, the issue of whether he's going to be arbitration eligible is likely going to be determined by an arbiter.
• Here's 25 minutes of fielding porn, starring Andrelton Simmons. If this doesn't get you excited, you don't like baseball. Although I must admit the Chip Caray commentary does rather kill the mood.
• Finally, you've probably heard by now how "Batkid" foiled the Penguin and the Riddler and saved the San Francisco Giants mascot Lou Seal. Here's the San Francisco Chronicle's complete coverage of the little hero.