MLB Bullets locks up his lizards

Nope. Shohei Ohtani still doesn’t have a team and Giancarlo Stanton is still a Marlin.

• We’ve all been waiting for that big pitcher from Japan to decide which team he’s going to sign with and now we have an answer: Yomiuri Giants pitcher Miles Mikolas has signed with the Cardinals. Mikolas last pitched in MLB for the Rangers in 2014.
• Jeff Sullivan explains what Cardinals fans can expect out of Mikolas.
• Mikolas’ nickname is “The Lizard King” because he once ate a live lizard in the minors to win a bet. (No, I didn’t watch the video.) And yes, this is proof that minor leaguers need to be paid more. I’d also say it probably tasted better than the pizza in St. Louis, but the linked-to article already made that joke.
• After that semi-troll job, here’s a roundup of the latest news on Shohei Ohtani. It may be out of date by the time you read it.
• Cliff Corcoran outlines how Ohtani would fit in with each of the seven finalists.
• David Schoenfield gives reasons why each of the seven finalists still in the race would appeal to Ohtani.
• Jon Heyman, based on nothing other than his gut and his Magic 8-Ball, declares the Padres as the favorites to land Ohtani. I doubt it. I still think the Mariners and Angels are the favorites. But again, no one knows what Ohtani is thinking. Maybe the Cubs are the favorites. There’s a reason they’re on the list while not being on the West Coast.
• Maybe the reason the Cubs and the Rangers are on the list is something I wrote in the comments the other day: All seven teams still in the hunt train in Arizona. That makes sense. He’s not going to be flying back to Japan on an off-day. His one big flight each year will be to start Spring Training in Arizona.
• Tim Brown explains why Ohtani has every right not to play in New York if he doesn’t want to.
• Mike Petriello looks at the TrackMan data (the basis of StatCast) for Ohtani’s final season in NPB and says that the data back up the rave scouting reports on Ohtani.
• There’s a general feeling in the game that Japanese pitchers are risky and injury-prone. But at least as far as the injury-prone part goes, Ben Lindbergh says that the data shows that Japanese pitchers are less likely to get injured than comparable major leaguers from the rest of the world.
• One other Japanese pitcher may be coming over as the Seibu Lions are expected to post Kazuhisa Makita. Eric Stephen has a scouting report on Makita.
• The other big story is that Giancarlo Stanton rumors and Marlins team president Derek Jeter said that despite reports to the contrary, the Marlins have made no decisions about their slugger. Does anyone believe that is anything other than technically true? Sure, they haven’t decided where to trade him or for what, but they know they’re dealing him.
• We have a report on what the Marlins want from the Cardinals in exchange for Stanton.
• Jonathan Bernhardt makes the case for why Stanton might want to approve a trade to either the Cardinals or Giants.
• Grant Brisbee writes about why Stanton should approve a deal to the Giants. Brisbee may not be a disinterested party here, but he looks at the situation with a clear head and doesn’t make any silly predictions about the Giants short-term prospects.
• Sports Illustrated has named their “Sportsperson of the Year” and it’s a co-winner including Astros second baseman and American League MVP Jose Altuve. Tom Verducci writes about Altuve, the city of Houston and why he won the award. The other winner was someone named J.J. Watt, who plays for a different Houston team in a lesser sport.
• The Rangers have signed former Royals pitcher Mike Minor to a multiyear deal and plan to make him a starting pitcher. (Is that by definition a “Minor league deal”?) The Cubs were reportedly interested in Minor, but as a reliever.
• Jeff Sullivan looks at what kind of pitcher Minor is and the wisdom of putting him in the rotation.
• Former Cubs outfielder Leonys Martin has a one-year deal with the Tigers.
• The Angels have signed former Braves prospect Kevin Maitan for a $2.2 million bonus. That’s on top of the $4.2 million the Braves gave him plus whatever under-the-table money he got from the Braves.
• Former Braves general manager John Coppolella issued an apology for whatever he did that got him fired. He apologized to those who felt he was “disrespectful or dishonest” but he didn’t actually admit to anything that he did that got him banned for life.
• Mark Feinsand profiles free agent first basemen Carlos Santana and Eric Hosmer.
• The Royals have signed former Brewers pitcher Wily Peralta.
• Indians GM Chris Antonetti gave a great explanation for why there have been so few trades this winter: teams all evaluate players fairly similarly these days, so it’s hard for teams to find value.
• Eddie Matz outlines what the Nationals should do in 2018 before Bryce Harper leaves for the Cubs. (I’m sorry. That last part was supposed to be off-the-record.)
• Welcome to SCOTUSblog! The Supreme Court dismissed a case that aimed to increase the salaries of minor league ballplayers. Back to eating live lizards.
• However, the Supremes will hear a case that could end up legalizing sports gambling in America.
• The Eagles are practicing this week at Angels Stadium. Really? They replaced Glenn Frey? I’m no Eagles fan, but I think they should have respected Frey enough to not go on without him after he passed away last year. Oh. A different group of Eagles. At least they got out of Philadelphia and landed in the Hotel California.
• Hall-of-Fame outfielder Reggie Jackson will be appearing in a new revival of “Damn Yankees” with Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Gyllenhaal. He’ll play the owner of the Washington Senators, and he’s already more successful than Derek Jeter.
• And finally, we always suspected that Giants outfielder Hunter Pence was a hobbit from Middle Earth and now we finally have proof.

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