MLB Bullets Is In A Retiring Mood

OK, I'm not really retiring, although some days I wish I could.

• Michael Young will announce his retirement today. He's apparently going to sign one of those one-day contracts and retire as a Texas Ranger. He's having a news conference in Arlington at 4 pm this afternoon.
• Young plans to dedicate himself to being a father to his three children for now, although he does hope to get back in the game with the Rangers in some capacity.
• Richard Durrett has an appreciation of "one of the greatest Rangers to ever play the game."
• Ken Rosenthal also has an appreciation of Young and calls him a competitor and a great teammate.
• Young came 625 hits short of 3,000, and Matthew Pouliot notes that it's becoming increasing rare for players to reach that magic number.
• Young isn't the only player most associated with a Texas team to hang them up. Longtime Astros great Lance Berkman is also retiring.
• Cliff Corcoran notes that while Berkman's career most likely falls short of induction into Cooperstown, he was still a great player who left a positive legacy on the game.
• Grant Brisbee parodies what the thought process that some BBWAA voters will go through when trying to decide to vote for Berkman for the Hall.
• This article is behind the Baseball Prospectus paywall, but I'm listing it now because it caused a bit of a stir in the web over the past couple of days. Russell Carleton notes that two "sabermetric" teams, the Athletics and the Rays, spent a lot of money on relievers this off-season. ($) He wonders if relievers might be the next market inefficiency. If you can't read the article, David Schoenfield will give you the gist of it.
• Jeff Sullivan says we need to stop thinking something is smart just because the A's or Rays do it.
• Tom Verducci says that while baseball has never been healthier, he has some ideas to make the game better. Two of them, enforcing the time clock between pitches and funding college baseball, are good ideas. The rest are either irrelevant (who cares about the Home Run Derby?) or just idiotic. (A bonus batter? Why not ghost runners?) One of his ideas even he thinks is a bad idea.
• There was a bit of a kerfuffle in Boston this week when David Ortiz said that while he wanted to stay in Boston, he also wanted a multi-year contract and would go elsewhere if the Red Sox didn't offer him one. Jonathan Bernhardt examines the whole situation.
• The Mariners are reportedly getting serious about signing Nelson Cruz.
• The Mets, on the other hand, are not likely to be interested in Stephen Drew.
• Bronson Arroyo hasn't signed with anyone, and he's not happy about Masahiro Tanaka getting a big contract while he remains unemployed.
• Bruce Chen re-signed with the Royals on a one-year deal. The idea that Bruce Chen is still in the majors and still pitching effectively just blows my mind.
• Shin-Soo Choo doesn't mind getting hit by a pitch and like Coach on Cheers, he's good at it.
• Before he was traded to the Tigers in the Prince Fielder deal, Ian Kinsler vetoed a trade to the Blue Jays. No word on who the Rangers would have gotten back.
• Doug Fister thinks the Nationals starting rotation could be better than the Tigers rotation he left.
• David Schoenfield ranks the top ten rotations in baseball. He still has the Tigers at number one. Somehow, the Cubs didn't make his list.
• Because of Texas' lack of a state income tax, Vernon Wells would lose about a million dollars if he signed with any other team this season. Wells was released by the Yankees earlier this winter.
• Manny Machado may soon be cleared to resume baseball activities.
• Chad Tracy signed a minor league deal with the Angels on Wednesday. And Chad Tracy signed a minor league deal with the Orioles on Wednesday. How is this possible?
• The Dodgers are introducing a new alternate road uniform. Don't worry, it's not much of a change at all.
• The Dodgers high-profile Cuban signing, infielder Alexander Guerrero, may have to start the season in the minor leagues.
• Terence Moore is excited to see what Billy Hamilton can do this season.
• Matthew Kory tries to logically decide who the best fielder in the majors is, but he finds out that it's not an easy task. In the end, he just says it's probably Andrelton Simmons, which is a safe guess but not one he came to very logically.
• The Marlins are apparently a trendy pick in the NL East with some scouts. They do have some nice young talent. Not much else though.
• Vin Scully doesn't normally travel to Dodgers away games outside of California or Arizona, but he's making the trip to Australia this March.
• Bob Uecker is also going to cut back on the number of away games he calls. He's still most likely coming to Wrigley for every Cubs/Brewers game though.
• Jim Caple is really excited that the 2014 Topps Baseball cards have been released. The season's getting closer.
• Aaron Hill's Diamondbacks teammates had a very odd way of supporting him as he played in the Phoenix Open Pro-Am Golf tournament. Let's just say it involved a few Fatheads. I see a new commercial coming up.
• Finally, let's say you're an All-Star first baseman for the Atlanta Braves and you're stranded on the highway for 11 hours in a snowstorm (this is Atlanta, remember), who could possibly rescue you? A friendly tow-truck operator? Batman? Dudley Do-Right of the Canadian Mounties? Ted Lilly? No, it's Chipper Jones to the rescue on his four wheel ATV. Jones picked up Freddie Freeman and delivered him safely to Jones' house. I wonder what it means that Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was stuck on the road for 13 hours and no one picked him up.

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