MLB Bullets Is On The Comeback Trail

The news is still thin when the biggest baseball story is a blogger fight. But I'm not going to lead with it because I still have some self-respect. But only a little.

• In the absence of any real news about Masahiro Tanaka, we go to the rumors of where the Japanese ace might end up. Ben Badler lists the top ten contenders to sign Tanaka. The Cubs do check in at number four, but at number one, and he's not the only one saying this, is the Mariners. They have the money and the need. They have a lot of Japanese connections and Hisashi Iwakuma was Tanaka's teammate with Rakuten.
• Ken Rosenthal says the Diamondbacks are serious bidders for Tanaka.
• The Angels are in on Tanaka as well.
• Cee Angi looks at how many years Tanaka might get and why it's probably a bad idea.
• Mike Bauman thinks that Tanaka will make a smooth transition to MLB.
• The Angels have signed Mark Mulder to a minor league contract that could be worth $6 million if he pitches in the majors and reaches all the incentives. Mulder last pitched in 2008.
• Mike Oz thinks the Mulder signing is the most interesting signing of the offseason.
• Alright. On to Murray Chass' continued temper tantrum. Chass responds to Rob Neyer and Craig Calcaterra, both of whom wrote columns criticizing his Hall of Fame ballot and his listing Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio as steroid abusers. He also found a blog entry that Calcaterra had written three years ago where he quoted someone else saying that Biggio used steroids. Oh, and Chass is also taking back his promise to stop voting after this season in order to "annoy" Neyer and Calcaterra. He says he may just send in a blank ballot year after year.
• Calcaterra responds to Chass and essentially says "Whatever."
• Neyer gives a slightly more detailed response to Chass, arguing that Chass isn't making an argument at all.
• Deadspin says that Chass is one reason that the Hall of Fame is broken. Of course, Deadspin claims to have purchased a Hall of Fame ballot to show how broken the process is.
• Let me ask you this, Murray. You're not voting for the Hall of Fame because of any desire to honor the game but because you want to use your ballot to settle scores against people whom you dislike? So it's not a ballot to you, but a weapon? That's far more corrupt than what Deadspin is doing. This must stop now. Jane Forbes Clark, I'm calling on you to strip Murray Chass of his Hall of Fame ballot because of Chass' misuse of the ballot. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for you or anyone else at Cooperstown to do the right thing.
• Grant Brisbee wants Mike Piazza to get elected to help alleviate the backlog on the Cooperstown ballot.
• The Alex Rodriguez arbitration decision is now expected sometime next week.
• Calcaterra also wrote a piece of satire arguing that football is dying as baseball increases in popularity.
• Ben Reiter lists ten worthwhile free agents that are flying under the radar this winter.
• The White Sox signed Scott Downs.
• The Twins are thinking about signing Matt Garza, but only if they can keep the number of years low.
• Free agent shortstop Stephen Drew is finding very little interest in his services, despite the fact that both New York clubs could use him.
• The Tigers are more likely to sign Max Scherzer to a long-term contract than pursue another free agent.
• Matthew Kory plays Red Sox GM for a day.
• The Phillies signed a new long-term mega-contract with Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. And the channel is still not available on DirecTV or Dish Network despite FCC and orders from judges that the channel be made available to satellite broadcasters.
• Adam Eaton responds to quotes from anonymous Diamondbacks players saying that he was a "selfish me-me player." The Diamondbacks are sounding more like a clique than a team these days.
• Blue Jays manager John Gibbons contract got extended one year through 2015.
• Mark Saxson wonders how much Hanley Ramirez is worth to the Dodgers.
• Joseph Werner looks at what the Indians need to do to contend again in 2014.
• Jonathan Bernhardt looks at Nick Castellanos, George Springer and Oscar Taveras, three rookies he expect to shine in 2014.
• Peter Gammons looks forward to 2014 and lists five players he expects to become superstars. He also quotes Brad Ausmus saying a bunch of really nice things about Rick Renteria.
• Finally, getting back to the Hall of Fame, someone made a video listing the many reasons Craig Biggio deserves to be elected to Cooperstown. Beyond his statistics, the video argues Biggio should be elected for, among other things, saving someone buried under rubble after a tornado, foiling a comic book store hold up and for his heroic actions during the zombie apocalypse of 2010. Hell, if Biggio took PEDs and the only reason was to stop a zombie apocalypse, then Chass is really being an ass.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.