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The unofficial beginning to the offseason kicks off in Orlando today with the GM Meetings.
Starting today and running through Wednesday, the Winter Meetings’ little brother comes to visit. We won’t get to hang out with big bro until December so there likely won’t be any instances of Jerry Dipoto being forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to sign aging former MVPs to finish in third place. Nor will we see Brian Cashman having to turn the Yankees’ checkbook over to the progeny of Steinbrenner until they’ve gotten their fill of 40-year-old relievers. At least not yet.
If you’re itching for 24/7 coverage on MLB Network where Harold Reynolds talks up every veteran signing while old men absentmindedly stumble into fountains, well forget it.
Instead you’ll just have to assume the GMs are trying to make tee time, assistant general managers in tow, while the jerkier ones are shouting from the bar, "Has Kim Ng checked in yet?" With any luck, JD is buying rounds and working toward a three-way – trade, that is.
Also on the docket, Ray Davis is blindfolded and paddled by Jerry Reinsdorf as part of his initiation as controlling owner of the Texas Rangers.
Jeff Wilson writes about the GM Meetings getting underway with the Rangers looking to engage in discussions regarding their plethora of middle infielders.
David Schoenfield provides a glass half-full and glass half-empty opinion on free agent catcher Brian McCann to help you decide whether or not it would be neat for the Rangers to spend like $80-$90 million to sign him.
MLB.com's John Schlegel writes about today's Rookie of the Year announcement kicking off a week of Baseball Writers' Association of America awards.
Martin Perez isn't one of the final candidates, and Wil Myers is going to win the award anyway, but we'll always have that time Nick Williams won the RotY and MVP award in the same year, he said from his time machine.
Finally, Gerry Fraley updates us on the progress of recent knuckleball-wielding Kevin Pucetas whom is knuckleballing in the winter leagues to some success. Simultaneously, in the same blog post, Fraley reminds us that Kevin Pucetas exists.