A couple of weeks ago I went on a bit about the Pirates releasing former first rounder John Van Benschoten. Today Van Benschoten has a new job: Right-hander John Van Benschoten, who was taken by the Pirates with the eighth overall pick in the 2001 First-Year Player Draft, has signed a Minor League deal with […]

A local news station is reporting that the Rocky Mountain News is likely to shut down soon: The Rocky, Colorado’s oldest newspaper, was put up for sale on Thursday after owner E.W. Scripps Co. said it lost about $11 million on the operation in the first nine months of the year. Cincinnati-based Scripps said in […]

The MLB Network has built itself a stadium: Dubbed Studio 42 — after Jackie Robinson’s number — the MLB Network will convert what used to be MSNBC’s main set in Secaucus, N.J., into a sort of ballpark. Its infield is only half regulation size. But, says Tony Petitti, president of the MLB Network, which launches […]

Jason at IIATMS lists a number of reasons why anxious Yankee watchers should just calm the heck down about the lack of progress on the Sabathia-to-New York front. Perhaps the best one: The Yanks are not the destination they were in 2000, 2001, 2002, when they were making regular World Series appearances. The team is […]

The prosecutors in the Barry Bonds case have now officially dropped a handful of charges: Federal prosecutors dropped four counts of lying to a grand jury against Barry Bonds, leaving him to face trial next year on 10 counts of making false statements plus an additional obstruction of justice charge. Bonds faces the same potential […]

Writing about the Cardboard Gods is all fun and games . . . until you’re threatened by Don Stanhouse! (link via BTF)

Things to chew on as you try to remember how much sleep you used to get before you had kids: For you voyeurs out there, Roel Torres writes a diary of his life and baseball for the week of July 18th through July 24th. He’s a Sox fan, so you get his recaps of Boston’s […]

The Rays are expanding to Brazil: On Thursday, the Rays announced they have built a partnership with the city of Marilia, Brazil, that will include construction of a training facility beginning in the first quarter of 2009, which will be the first baseball academy in Brazil run by a Major League organization. “It’s [a project] […]

We’ll soon be getting to the point where even otherwise grownup baseball fans won’t remember that the NL never used to play the AL outside of the All-Star game and World Series, that each league had it’s own President and, in many important ways, were administered separately. But every now and again I’ll read something […]

As we speak, snow is falling on empty baseball diamonds. GMs and reporters are planning to get on airplanes and head to Las Vegas tomorrow after telling their wives that the Winter Meetings start on Friday night instead of Monday. Prince Fielder is sitting in a lounge chair and enjoying the realization that Ho-Hos are […]