FanHouse Ken Rosenthal

As FanHouse went over in our Footprints in the Snow on the Chicago White Sox earlier on Friday, the Sox aren't expected to be big buyers this offseason after making big moves to land Jake Peavy and Alex Rios last summer. Still, that doesn't mean they won't be making smaller moves to tweak their roster in the coming weeks.

Moves like trying to sign Omar Vizquel to a one-year deal to be a backup infielder as FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal is reporting.

Last February, Florida Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez signed an extension that would keep him in Miami until 2011, and after his team finished the season in second place in the NL East you wouldn't think there'd be any reason why the team wouldn't honor that contract. Then word broke out that the Marlins were interviewing Bobby Valentine for a position with the team, but they wouldn't say what that position was.

This fueled speculation that Gonzalez wasn't going to be back for the 2010 season, but on Tuesday sources confirmed that Fredi has nothing to worry about.

The trade deadline is but a few weeks away and, as is normally the case, there are plenty of teams around the majors looking to make a deal, and just about all of them could use some pitching help for the stretch run. During the offseason, the pitcher most teams seemed to be after was San Diego's Jake Peavy, and the thought was that he'd command a pretty penny come the deadline, but of course his ankle injury has derailed those plans.

So if teams are looking for an ace-quality pitcher to add to their staff, they're going to have to look somewhere outside San Diego. Of course, it's not like these guys grow on trees, but after reading Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi's latest comments, any general manager worth his salt should be giving the Blue Jays a call or 30 in the next few days. They're listening to offers on Roy Halladay.

A few weeks ago there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding Phillies outfielder Raul Ibanez, steroids and a blog. More specifically, a media firestorm started when a blogger named JRod wrote a post on MidwestSportsFans.com that looked at the possibility of Ibanez using steroids because of the way he'd been playing in the 2009 season.

The Philadelphia Inquirer then picked up on the story, brought it to Ibanez, Raul responded and then the next thing we knew Jerod Morris, JRod, was showing up on ESPN's Outside the Lines and was berated by Ken Rosenthal and John Gonzalez. Morris was shown off as the latest example of all things wrong with blogging and had to be reprimanded for his seemingly innocuous deed.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

The results of the baseball Hall of Fame voting will be revealed Monday (2:00 PM ET), and there's a good chance Jim Rice will finally make it. Andre Dawson almost certainly will not. While I believe Rice has a good case to be in the Hall of Fame, I am left wondering how he's become so much more qualified than Dawson -- at least by the electorate. Really, if you factor in all aspects of play, they are equally deserving of entry into Cooperstown.

Let's take a look at the case of Rice and compare him to Dawson.

Ken Rosenthal's column on FoxSports.com is usually a good place to find a juicy trade rumor or two. He'll throw in another couple of nuggets from his contacts around the league to round things out and he's very good at providing an insidery look at the game of baseball. He's not quite as good at the moralizing columnist thing, if his most recent work is any guide.

Rosenthal takes Alex Rodriguez to task for choosing not to take part in the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium tonight. He says he doesn't want to hear about the Derby messing up A-Rod's "precious" swing.

Yes, several recent Derby participants - Bobby Abreu, David Wright, Alex Rios - had their home-run production decline after they competed in the event. But those dropoffs might have occurred anyway. These are the best hitters in the game. They can't adjust?

Now what's a more believable scenario, these are stupid, shiftless players who chose whining over making adjustments or that the Derby affects your swing? The idea that a player should risk a slump and hurting the team that pays his salary to take part in glorified batting practice is a ridiculous one. Rosenthal meant precious as a slight but at $275 million, it seems like a pretty appropriate word.

Alex Rodriguez is about to have himself quite an offseason. Preempting the World Series wasn't enough; now A-Rod will embark on the quest known as free agency. What will he choose? If you were him, what would you choose?

With a nod to the classic "Choose Your Own Adventure" series, we at the MLB FanHouse decided to offer you those choices. Dive in, and see what you'd do if you lived inside No. 13's skull. The choices are almost endless ...

You have just awoken from a terrible dream. You look around. It's impossible to see anything in the dark beyond the eerie glow of the your wall-mounted HDTV.

You slowly realize you are watching the eighth inning of the World Series, the latest in which you have not participated. Ken Rosenthal is on the screen, and his words send a chill up your spine.

"Alex Rodriguez has decided to opt out of his contract, Scott Boras has informed the media tonight ...Boras cited uncertainty within the Yankees organization as Rodriguez's reasons ..."

So ... it is done.

You could listen to the reaction, but you know what everyone will say. Instead, you flip the TV off and head downstairs to your sparkling in-home gym. Better start working out now, you think. Lots of people to disprove. There always are.

Because you are Alex Rodriguez. And you have some choices to make.

We're just now getting a hold on this Paul Byrd story, and Ken Rosenthal already has another update. (Ken Rosenthal is like some news-breaking robot, constantly set to "Destroy.")

Byrd is not only acknowledging the use of HGH and claiming it was prescribed by a doctor, he is openly discussing it in his new book and talking about it with Rosenthal:

"I have not taken any hormone apart from a doctor's care and supervision," Byrd said. "The Indians, my coaches and MLB have known that I have had a pituitary gland issue for some time and have assisted me in getting blood tests in different states. I am currently working with an endocrinologist and will have another MRI on my head after the season to make sure that the tumor hasn't grown."

In his book, Byrd says, he "shares some of the temptations I have had in MLB to cheat by scuffing baseballs and taking more than the prescribed dose of a particular hormone to increase the speed of my fastball. In the end, as scouts can testify, I did neither."

In the book, Byrd apparently discusses his lifelong hormone imbalance, which caused his mother to put him on Ritalin as a child and which pushed him to see a doctor in adulthood.

So ... yeah. No idea what to make of all of this, but Byrd is handling the situation with open discussion and explanation instead of disguises and "no comments," which is encouraging. It could all be nonsense, and Paul Byrd could be every bit as guilty of cheating the system as anyone else. Either that, or he's really, really savvy at book promotion. At this point, who knows?

That's what Ken Rosenthal is suggesting, and he's been all over the Padres' pitching situation. As we speculated earlier in the week, and then Rosenthal later confirmed, David Wells was cut by San Diego following a series of poor starts. Now Rosenthal says the Padres have claimed Yankee import, Kei Igawa, off waivers:

The Padres, continuing in their attempt to upgrade their starting rotation, have claimed Igawa off waivers, major league sources told FOXSports.com.

San Diego was awarded the claim on Friday, and the two teams have until the end of the weekend to work out a trade for the 28-year-old Japanese pitcher. If no deal can be worked out in that time frame, Igawa would remain in New York for at least the rest of the season.

No American League team put a claim on Igawa, nor did any National League with a worse record than San Diego.

Considering the Yanks paid a total of $46 million for Igawa (26 of which went as a negotiating fee to the Hanshin Tigers), Rosenthal believes it is unlikely the Yanks let Igawa go. That sounds reasonable, as Igawa has another four years to turn things around in New York. Similarly, the Yanks have already been burned by trading Jose Contreras, and probably wouldn't want the same thing to happen with Kei. Now, Hideki Irabu, well that's a completely different story.

(via Ballhype)

Previously at FanHouse:
David Wells Has Worn Out His Welcome
Is David Wells Done With the Padres?

He might not be the biggest name in baseball, but he sure has one of the biggest bats (and other body parts if I'm reading into his part project-part donkey nickname correctly). Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com reports that the Indians have signed DH Travis Hafner to a four-year $57 million extension. The 30-year-old was eligible for free agency following the 2008 season, so this extension would keep him in Cleveland through 2012. Rosenthal adds that the Indians will up Hafner's salary for this year and next year in order to make up for the lack of a signing bonus.

This has to be fantastic news for Travis Hafner. Not only is he one of the most underrated, prolific sluggers in the game, but at his previous salary, he was one of the most underpaid. In addition, the extension could be a weight lifted off Hafner's shoulders. Pronk was one of the few sluggers in the game to notch an OPS over 1.000 the past two seasons, making his respectable .849 clip this year somewhat disappointing. This could be the news that revitalizes Pronk's bat, and helps carry the Indians to a division title in the heat of a tumultuous race with the Tigers.

Previously at FanHouse:
The Indians Will Re-Open Negotiations With Pronk
What's Up With Pronk?