FanHouse Scott Boras

CHICAGO -- On a day this week when the stock market had one of the encouraging spikes investors have enjoyed more frequently over the past few months, Kenny Williams let out a sarcastic cheer for what it meant to baseball.

"Let's go, let's party," he said. "We've got cash again."

Then, the White Sox general manager quickly returned to reality, at least the version of reality that he and his colleagues have been describing this week at the GM Meetings.

"I don't think it works that way," he said. "We might need to see six months of recovery before we buy into that. We need an advertiser or a sponsor or two to come back to us."

Editor's Note: FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher contributed to this report

CHICAGO -- The Reds' need to slash payroll, according to a major league source, could lead them to explore trading second baseman Brandon Phillips as well as right-handers Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang.

Cincinnati's 2009 payroll was about $71 million. General manager Walt Jocketty said during a break Tuesday at the GM Meetings that he "might" have to move some high-salaried players to meet the 2010 goal.

"We're going to probably have less to spend this year than we have in the past," Jocketty told FanHouse. "It just depends on how [ticket] sales go this offseason."

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In what wasn't much of a surprise, Los Angeles Dodgers left-fielder Manny Ramirez has decided to exercise his player option for 2010 and will return to the Dodgers next season. His agent Scott Boras let Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti know about Ramirez's decision on Friday night.

All of which means that Ramirez will make $20 million with the Dodgers rather than becoming a free agent, which is a smart move considering it's highly unlikely Manny would get that much money anywhere else next year. Manny didn't have the greatest season for the Dodgers in 2009, but Colletti is confident he'll bounce back next season.

During FanHouse's marathon live chat of the ALCS and NLCS yesterday, I couldn't help but notice Scott Boras directly behind home plate as the Angels took on the Yankees in Game 3. I was informed during the chat by our own Jeff Fletcher that Boras has season tickets behind home plate at both Angels and Dodger Stadium, and he likes to show up early so he's available to the media.

Well, Boras was available Monday, and he fired his opening salvo of the Matt Holliday Sweepstakes this winter. It looks like any team that wants to sign Holliday should start their offers somewhere in the range of the eight-year $180 million that Mark Teixeira got from the Yankees last winter.

Scott Boras has always had a flair for impeccable timing. With the St. Louis Cardinals on the verge of clinching the NL Central, the superagent said today that Rick Ankiel, a pending free agent and one of his clients, is unlikely to return to St. Louis in 2010. Given Ankiel's shrinking role in an outfield with Colby Rasmus, Matt Holliday (who the Cardinals will likely push to re-sign), and Ryan Ludwick, this news isn't surprising, though it's always something that could be left unsaid until after the Cards' season ends.

Ankiel himself has earned his smaller role, hitting just .235/.287/.395 this season after slugging over .500 in each of his first two seasons as a big league outfielder. Between his poor performance at the plate and all of the injuries he's suffered in the past two years, it's not really surprising that the Cardinals haven't been able to find room for him in the outfield this year.

If bees are going to invade your dugout-level suite, just make sure you aren't there when they do. Fortunately, superagent Scott Boras didn't appear to be at the Angels-Athletics game on Sunday when a swarm took over his front-row seats directly behind home plate for the first two innings.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

As the No. 1 overall pick in 1990, Chipper Jones signed with the Braves for $275,000.

Even in today's dollars, that's about $450,000 -- or about 3 percent of Stephen Strasburg was guaranteed as this year's No. 1 pick.

And Jones agreed to his deal the night before the draft, while Strasburg came within two minutes of missing last Monday's deadline to sign.

"I think the only way that you're going to get kids signed and get them into the various camps is to put some kind of cap on it," Jones said. "I was always of the belief that you make your money at the big-league level."

That's how the teams want it too. When the current collective bargaining agreement is up in two years, Major League Baseball may pursue an NBA-style slotting system -- with signing bonuses locked in depending on how high a player is picked, as opposed to the current non-binding slot recommendations.

WASHINGTON -- Five whole hours before the last-place Nationals opened a series with the reeling Milwaukee Brewers, hundreds of fans packed into the stands on the third base line at Nationals Park.

No. 1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg arrived in the nation's capital Friday afternoon four days after inking a record $15.1 million deal with one of baseball's most downtrodden franchises.

"It's been pretty wild," Strasburg said of the week-long process that began with down-to-the-wire negotiations and ended with an unofficial coronation in Washington. "It's a tremendous feeling. I'm excited to get my career started and hopefully I'll be playing up here with [the Nationals] soon."

SEATTLE -- Given that the Mariners have struggled mightily offensively, the signing of No. 2 pick Dustin Ackley serves as a serious momentum boost for an organization looking to escape a series of shaky moves under the Bill Bavasi tenure.

For example, Bavasi traded Adam Jones and George Sherill for Erik Bedard, and he selected Cal's Brandon Morrow over the University of Washington's Tim Lincecum in the 2006 draft. Morrow is in the minors while Lincecum is one of the top starting pitchers in the major leagues.

So the Mariners needed this. They needed to sign the best hitter in college baseball. Ackley hit .422 with 22 home runs and 73 RBI in 66 games for the University of North Carolina. Signing him went down to the final minutes, with general manager Jack Zduriencik revealing that the deal was agreed upon at 8:45 PM PT, about 15 minutes before the deadline.

We're roughly 35 hours short of the MLB deadline for teams to sign their draft picks, and in spite of what's reported as a record-breaking contract offer to Washington Nationals first pick Stephen Strasburg, the two sides have yet to come to an agreement. It could just be another instance of Scott Boras wanting to wait until the last minute in hopes of forcing his opponent to crack, or Strasburg may just be dead set on not wanting to pitch for the Nationals.

We won't really know until late Monday, early Tuesday, but after reading some comments from Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman on the subject, I'm wondering if the Nats might be better off having him handle the negotiations. The man speaks the truth.