FanHouse Paul Kinzer

You can count on Rafael Furcal not receiving a Christmas card from Frank Wren and the Braves organization in this holiday season. Just two days after the Braves believed they had landed their old/new shortstop, Furcal is signing a deal to stay put in Los Angeles, where he has spent the past three seasons. The Braves are upset with Furcal's agent, Paul Kinzer.

"We were very surprised," he said. "After reaching an agreement on Monday night, and being asked to produce a term sheet for signature on Tuesday morning, which we did, we were surprised that they didn't return the term sheet. ... All of a sudden, they said they needed to go back to the Dodgers."

"I think you have to be upset with the turn of events," Braves general manager Frank Wren said. "We usually don't do business this way. You don't expect people you have to deal with to do business that way."

I'm not very familiar with the signing process between agents and general managers, but it would seem Wren is claiming Kinzer took one extra step. According to him, a deal was in place and then they went back to the Dodgers to use more leverage.

Remember that whole business (an hour or so ago) about Rafael Furcal signing with the Braves? Well, Ned Colletti isn't trying to hear any of it. No sir, everyone's favorite for Executive of the Century is too busy trying to negotiate a deal with Furcal's agent.

WTF.

"We're still in conversations with them," Colletti said Tuesday. "There's a certain level we're not going past. We aren't aware of other deals."

"I don't have a feel for whether to be optimistic or not," Colletti said. "I just know we're still talking. They assured us it's not a done deal."

Well it's "not a done deal" until Raffy takes a physical, so I suppose there's just a possibility that everyone's having a little behind-the-scenes giggle fest at Neddy's expense based solely on semantics.

But the reality is that it sure would be strange for this deal to be reported on so many national levels (FOX) and then have it be so totally flubbed. But Furcal's agent is saying the same thing, so maybe it's not just some case of Neddles being totally slow.

"We're still talking," Paul Kinzer said. "We haven't signed anything or come to an agreement. I told Furcal [Monday night] to sleep on it. I didn't want him to make an emotional decision."

it's an odd scenario indeed, only made all the stranger by the fact that Sportscenter reported Furcal was "taking less money" to come home to the Braves. Oh yeah, and the fact that this looks like a blatant attempt by Frank Wren to go after Jake Peavy, but it's going to be hard to actually pull that off if he doesn't sign. Obviously, more detail on this is going to pop soon, but if I've got to lay down cash, I'll take "MAX" on "Ned Colletti being wrong", please.

Pitchers and catchers for the Los Angeles Angels began working out on Friday, but there was one key member of the Angels bullpen who was absent from the team's first workouts of the spring. Closer Francisco Rodriguez, he of the 132 saves and 297 strikeouts in 207.2 innings the last three seasons, wasn't in camp on Friday but it's not because he's going all NFL on the team and holding out for a new contract.

"He had a personal problem come up in Venezuela, and he is due in [today]," Paul Kinzer said. The agent added that he had left a message for Angels General Manager Tony Reagins earlier this week.

Rodriguez is scheduled to go to arbitration with the Angels on Thursday in St. Petersburg. In January Rodriguez and Kinzer asked the Angels for $12.5 million, and the Angels came back with a $10 million offer, the second largest gap between player and team amongst arbitration eligible players this season.

Rodriguez made only (Ha! Only.) $7 million last season but if he thinks he's going to get that $5.5 million raise he's asking for, he hasn't been paying much attention to the way things have been working this winter.

So far in arbitration hearings this year, players are 0-4.