What A Crazy Week In Baseball

My, oh my the flurry of moves this week has been dizzying. Free agent signings and trades galore headlined the week in Baseball and the Winter Meetings where many trades and signings happen loom on the horizon.

You have Billy Beane weaving his magic wand and making trades for numerous players improving the two time American League Champion Oakland A's. You have the Miami Marlins picking up catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and former All-Star shortstop Rafael Furcal. The Los Angeles Dodgers brought back reliever Brian Wilson, who was pretty much lights out for them down the stretch last season. The Houston Astros picked up solid center fielder Dexter Fowler from the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies added Justin Morneau to hopefully fill the hole left with the retirement of Todd Helton.

The White Sox brought back team Captain Paul Konerko in what might be his final season on the South Side of Chicago. The Tampa Bay Rays and their GM Andrew Friedman once again wheel and deal by acquiring reliever Heath Bell and catcher Ryan Hanigan in a three team deal with the Diamondbacks and Reds. The Detroit Tigers believe they have solved their closer issues with the signing of Joe Nathan.

The news from Japan speculate that the Rakutan Golden Eagles might not post their star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka due to the proposed $20 million dollar cap on posting fees that seems to be a part of the new posting contract between the MLB and the NPB. Since they figure that they won't get as much for Tanaka in a posting fee that they would have under the old agreement, they are better off keeping him following this season which was capped by winning the Japan Series against the Yomiuri Giants. This move would put a kink in the plans of many a team in the majors who were looking forward to trying to add Tanaka to their starting rotations.

The World Champion Red Sox took a hit by losing the aforementioned Saltalamacchia and Jacoby Ellsbury but signed Edward Mujica to replace the non-tendered Andrew Bailey in the bullpen. Speaking of Ellsbury, he signed with the division rival New York Yankees who also signed Hiroki Kuroda but lost their best homegrown everyday player (since Derek Jeter) to the Seattle Mariners who signed Robinson Cano to a reported 10-year $240-million dollar contract.

Wow, that was a mouthful. And the Winter Meetings start on Monday. Who knows what surprises we'll have sprung on us from then to now. We'll just have to wait and see.

Sisco Kid.