MLB Bullets Hits The Tepid Stove

There’s really no point in calling it the Hot Stove at this point. I assume things will pick up soon because as the first few links point out, there is still a lot of work to be done by the time camps open.

• Richard Justice has seven questions yet to be answered this winter in the “Hot Stove” league.
• Craig Calcaterra has the remaining top ten free agents on the market and some thoughts on each one.
• Cliff Corcoran has the best five remaining free agents and where they would find the best fit. Corcoran does have five “honorable mentions” so he makes out a list of ten in case you want to compare lists.
• Paul Lebowitz tries to find the perfect home for the top ten best remaining free agents.
• Mike Bates picks the winners, the losers and the incompletes for the offseason.
• Anthony Castrovince lists the MLB teams who still have a lot to accomplish before the season starts.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks the Phillies are poised to pounce on some free agents sluggers if their prices continue to fall.
• Jonah Keri thinks the Blue Jays are suffering from an identity crisis that is hindering the team this winter, and perhaps in the long term.
• Dave Cameron draws up a plan to rescue the Blue Jays winter. (Essentially, it’s “bring back Jose Bautista.”
• And because you don’t want to wait until July, Tom Verducci has the top ten storylines of the 2017 MLB season. Man, I did not see that (spoiler redacted) would turn out to be a (team redacted) spy the whole time. That explains some of (different team redacted) failures lately.
• Tommy Stokke thinks 2017 is the year of the Indians. That’s nice, since they really haven’t had a good year since 1491.
• Andrew Marchand comes up with a dream season for the Yankees that ends in them beating the Cubs in the World Series. More like a delusion season.
• Some minor deals. The Athletics agreed to a one-year, $6 million deal with Rajai Davis. That man’s name still scares me and I even know how 2016 turned out.
• David Schoenfield doesn’t see the point of the A’s signing Davis.
• The Diamondbacks and Royals made a minor deal, with Arizona sending outfielder Peter O’Brien to Kansas City for pitcher Sam Lewis.
• Jack Magruder notes that O’Brien went from untouchable to gone in just a few months. That can happen when a new general manager steps in.
• The Reds signed reliever Drew Storen to a one-year deal.
• The Orioles signed DH Jesus Montero to a minor league deal. Who says the O’s have done nothing this winter?
• And the Diamondbacks signed Rubby De La Rosa to a minor league contract.
• Gary Phillips believes that Brett Gardner will soon be ankling the Bronx.
• The Diamondbacks are suing Maricopa County to get out of their lease with Chase Field. You can read the particulars, but essentially, the D-Backs want what the Braves and the Rangers got, and they want the taxpayers to pay for it. One thing you can always count on in MLB is the greed of the owners.
• Jon Heyman shares his Hall of Fame ballot and his reasoning behind it. He goes into a lot of depth on it. Heyman obviously agonizes over these votes and while I may not agree with all of his choices, the Hall would be a better place if all the voters put in the work that Heyman did here.
• South Korean World Baseball Classic manager Kim In-sik is likely to leave Jung Ho Kang off the WBC roster because of his DUI arrest. Or arrests, more accurately.
• Mark Bowman thinks that the Braves are getting their money’s worth out of Freddie Freeman.
• Sam Miller breaks down the new trend of pitchers swinging on 3-0 counts.
• Mark Armour has an interesting look at the baseball card boycott of 1967-68. If you’ve read Marvin Miller’s book, the details of the boycott are familiar, but what was new to me was how Topps tried to compensate with the 1968 and ‘69 sets.
• And finally, last time I mentioned that St. Louis Blues goalie Carter Hutton wore a Cardinals-themed mask for the NHL Winter Classic. He received an autographed Stan Musial baseball from Musial’s family as a thank-you for putting “The Man” on his mask.

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