MLB Bullets Wants To Come To America

Let's just go straight to the stories and hope no one interrupts me.

• Masahiro Tanaka has reiterated his desire to play in MLB next season, asking the Rakuten Golden Eagles to post him. The team is still upset about the new posting agreement and has not committed to letting him leave yet. However, they have until February 1 to post him.
• Cliff Corcoran looks at the new posting system and says the big winners in this are the Japanese players, who now get something pretty close to full free agency. MLB teams are the other winners whereas Japanese teams are the big losers.
• Mark Saxson thinks that it's worth it for the Dodgers to wait out the Tanaka saga and try to land the Japanese hurler.
• Here's some video of Tanaka humiliating himself on a Japanese variety show. Would David Price ever do that? I think not. America has once again fallen behind the Japanese.
• Speaking of David Price, the Indians called the Rays about a trade and Tampa Bay pretty much told them to give them everything they got short of Jason Kipnis. It sounds like Price may be a Ray for a while.
• The Yankees signed reliever Matt Thornton for $7 million over two seasons.
• The Yankees also signed former Cubs second baseman Brian Roberts to a one year, $2 million deal. Wait. I'm being told now that Brian Roberts never played for the Cubs. I could have sworn he did.
• Tim Brown wonders what the already old Yankees are doing signing the 36 year-old Roberts and the 37 year-old Thornton.
• Next up on the Yankees' to-do list is to get younger by re-signing the 30 year-old Mark Reynolds.
• Rany Jazayerli says that the Yankees are likely to be mediocre for a long time, calling it "the new normal" for the Bronx Bombers.
• Roberts' actual former team, the Orioles, signed former Oakland closer Grant Balfour to a two-year deal, since they traded their former closer, Jim Johnson, to the Athletics.
• David Schoenfield doesn't see the point of the Orioles off-season moves.
• The Braves signed Gavin Floyd to a one-year deal worth $4.5 million plus incentives. He's coming off Tommy John surgery and is expected to miss the start of the season.
• Floyd signed with Atlanta only after he turned down a bigger offer from Baltimore. It wasn't so much a snub of Baltimore as it was a desire to sign only a one-year deal (the Orioles deal was for two years) so he could get back on the free agent market next winter.
• The Giants decided against signing Mark Mulder, who is attempting a comeback after not having pitched since 2008, because he wants a major league contract. Good luck with that.
• Cliff Corcoran thinks newly-signed second baseman Omar Infante is a perfect fit with the Royals.
• On the other hand, Corcoran thinks the Rays will regret re-signing James Loney for three years.
• The Dodgers have re-signed J.P. Howell.
• The Diamondbacks got White Sox closer Addison Reed for third baseman Matt Davidson.
• Phil Rogers thinks this move, along with others the Sox have made this off-season, has the team moving in the right direction. I really hate to agree with this on so many levels.
• The Phillies would like to trade Jimmy Rollins. Once again, good luck with that.
• The Pirates are likely to decline in 2014.
• The Athletics rejected a proposal to build a new ballpark in Oakland because the site is on a toxic waste dump, among other reasons. I'm sure you don't need my help coming up with a joke there.
• Rob Neyer thinks that efforts to bring baseball back to Montreal are doomed to go nowhere until someone or something can force them to return.
• Jay Jaffe looks back at Greg Maddux's career and his case for the Hall of Fame. He also examines the chances that Maddux will surpass Tom Seaver's record for the highest vote percentage.
• Tom Verducci says that of the new players on the Hall of Fame ballot, five deserve to go in, although he thinks only three will. I'm glad to see him banging the drum for Mike Mussina.
• This guy isn't on the ballot yet, but this young reindeer has what it takes to make a Hall of Fame career. Seriously, he hit .312 in the Holiday League, stole 33 bases, hit 12 home runs and he's only seven? (h/t Hardball Talk)
• Do the Mets have a cursed Santa Claus suit? (h/t Big League Stew)
• Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston wants a career in MLB as well as the NFL.
• According to Maury Brown, it was a record year for revenues in MLB in 2013, pulling in over $8 billion. Imagine how much they'd make if the sport wasn't dying.
• The head of the Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy praised MLB for taking action to prevent and to limit the effects of concussions.
• Finally, this isn't baseball related, but it is Chicago and WGN related and I found it fascinating. Chris Knittel tries to figure out what happened in 1987 when someone in a Max Headroom mask hijacked the airwaves of WGN and WTTW. I remember this making the national news briefly back then, but I'm sure you native Chicagoans have much better memories of the incident. Twenty-five years later, it's still a mystery.