MLB Bullets Is Off To Spring Training

And spring training is officially underway.

• Because they're making a trip to Australia in March, spring training officially started for the Dodgers and Diamondbacks on Friday. David Schoenfield is excited.
• The Dodgers can welcome Paul Maholm to training camp, since he just signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the team.
• With MLB getting ready to gear up, that means the winter leagues are finishing up. The Perth Heat won the Australian Baseball League championship, their third title in the four years the league has been in existence. (They lost the championship series last year.) Of course, it's summer down in Australia, so it's a winter league that actually plays in the summer. Odd.
• And Mexico's Naranjeros de Hermosillo won the Caribbean World Series. It was the second straight win for a Mexican team.
• Getting back to the Diamondbacks, they signed Bronson Arroyo to a two-year deal for $23.5 million.
• Grant Brisbee doesn't think the move makes the Diamondbacks any better. In fact, he thinks all the moves they made this winter leaves them in the same place they started.
• Despite signing Arroyo, Arizona GM Kevin Towers says top prospect Archie Bradley still has a chance to make the opening day starting rotation.
• The Diamondbacks did make one good move this winter. They are going to supply 33 Phoenix-area Little League teams with replica D-Backs jerseys. Of course, that means that every Little League team in the area is going to be called the Diamondbacks. So kids will have to identify the team they play for by saying "I'm on the 2008 alternate jersey Diamondbacks." (h/t Big League Stew)
• I'm hoping this is the last time I have to mention Alex Rodriguez this season, but somehow I doubt it. Cliff Corcoran thinks Rodriguez dropping his lawsuit brings an end to the Biogenesis scandal.
• Gwen Knapp begs to differ. She thinks Rodriguez still needs to apologize and begin to mend fences with both executives and his fellow players before he'll be accepted back into the game.
• Peter Gammons has a sad and somewhat sympathetic portrait of Rodriguez. He argues that Rodriguez's massive insecurity led him to take the actions that have destroyed his place in the game.
• Johnette Howard thinks that Rodriguez made an unconditional surrender.
• Speaking of someone whose legacy is unassailable, Hank Aaron turned 80 over the weekend. When I was first watching the game, Aaron was just breaking Ruth's record and to me, he was the greatest player who ever lived. Maybe he wasn't, but as David Schoenfield points out in the article above, Aaron never really got the credit for being as good as he was. Until the early seventies when he got close to Ruth's record, he was always in the shadows of players who played in bigger markets, like Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. Mays may have been a little better, but just looking at their career WAR on Baseball Reference (Mays' 156.1 to Aaron's 142.4) shows the difference wasn't a great as the difference in their reputations.
• For Black History Month, Fox Sports has profiles of Larry Doby and Frank Robinson.
• Grant Brisbee tried to figure out what superstars of the past would have made if they hit the free agent market today. Honestly, I don't think any team today would offer a contract to a 69 year-old Tom Seaver, let alone a multi-year deal.
• Dave Cameron looks at the trend in baseball to give the big money to players when they're young, rather than after they hit free agency at 30 or above.
• The Reds and Homer Bailey are far apart on a contract extension. That sounds familiar.
• The last remaining free agents are finally starting to draw some interest. Ervin Santana sounds like he's about to sign somewhere soon. The Orioles and the Blue Jays are the two teams rumored to have an interest in Santana.
• The Pirates are interested in Kendrys Morales.
• Andrew Cashner won his arbitration case, while Vinnie Pestano lost his.
• Ben Reiter looks at the new trend among some baseball teams to refuse to negotiate after arbitration figures are exchanged. The idea is the force players to negotiate a deal before each side declares a number rather than after.
• Yoenis Cespedes "guarantees" the Athletics will make the playoffs in 2014. He'd also like to sign a long-term extension with the A's.
• Jorge L, Ortiz thinks Jose Abreu could be the best Cuban yet to come over to the majors.
• Tim Lincecum said he "couldn't say no" when the Giants offered him a deal.
• The Yankees see quite a bit of Thurman Munson in new catcher Brian McCann.
• Josh Johnson feels good heading into spring training. So I guess he won't hit the DL until April 30 this season.
• The Phillies are counting on a rebound by a healthy Ryan Howard in 2014. Could be a long season, Ryno.
• Howard Megdal ranks the top ten promotional giveaways this upcoming season.
• The Red Sox are making a minor change to their road uniform and the Athletics are reversing the colors on their alternate uniforms.
• Joe Maddon wants you to know he's a man! He's 60! He also wants you to buy Rays tickets in this commercial.
• Finally, Tyler Kepner has what each GM in baseball would say after their team wins the World Series in 2014. Jed Hoyer's quote is classic.

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