They made it more obvious that they valued him by putting him on the 40-man roster, but they really don’t have a place for him on the team, most likely. So now they’re short one 40-man spot and will get 25K less if he’s taken off waivers than if he were selected in the Rule 5 Draft.

but theres a lot of dead weight here

Let’s speculate, for a moment, that Lee could be persuaded (probably through a cash bonus) to leave the ranch behind and agree to a deal. Houston would almost surely have to eat at least half of Lee’s remaining contract in any trade, but for a big-market AL team that could afford to pick up the other half, Lee would be an intriguing DH option.

Perhaps the best fit is Chicago. Much has been written about Ozzie Guillen’s DH-by-committee plan for the upcoming season, and the White Sox seem committed enough to the idea to pass on signing Jim Thome. But if the Sox find themselves in a pennant race and their platoon of designated hitting options (Omar Vizquel? Really?) isn’t working out, then they could make a play for an everyday DH. Lee would fit that bill and, since he spent the first six seasons of his career with the White Sox, might be amenable to waive his no-trade clause to return to a familiar location.

This scenario is, admittedly, a longshot. It’s much more likely that, no matter if the Astros choose to keep aiming for contention or commit to a proper rebuilding process, Lee will be a constant in the Astros’ outfield. You could say that Lee is Houston’s answer to Vernon Wells - an unwieldly contract that is too big to trade and also takes up enough of the payroll to hamstring the team from making other moves.

I’ve always been a big Carlos Lee fan. He ranks in my top 10 white sox of all time. Id take him. Obviously the Sox won’t….. but it would be nice to get some thunder back in the lineup.

can someone please tell me what this means.

Thome, a lifelong Midwesterner, also will help set the tone as the Twins move outdoors from the Metrodome, which offered comfortable working conditions. …

the only hitter in my high school’s history more feared than I was Ted Kluszewski!

How appropriate. Hugo approves of this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4874353

(Baker being a key variable) and their offense can’t be overlooked as well. The Pirates have a nice young staff which could improve and build on their slight success. They clearly have some talent as well. I just hope the Cubs overlook those teams and lose both season series. The Brewers clearly lack pitching but they should still be formidable and the Astros are no pushovers as well when healthy. The Cubs are not guranteed anything.

In addition to the five tools that scouts use to evaluate players, White Sox general manager Ken Williams has added another measuring stick.

Camaraderie.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/ct-spt-0201-white-sox-mark-teahen—chicag20100131,0,2005790.story

i know it’s just the tops with the kids. for some reason, i’ve been chosen as a guest on a twins podcast tonight at 9pm. since i have neither done a podcast before nor even talked to this podcaster, i’m guessing it will be a complete train wreck. so tune in for a potentially awkward discussion about the al central and god knows what else.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/travistwinstalk

I lived in Chicago for six years (on the North Side … sorry Sox fans) and got to hear from the Blizzard of Ozz on a daily basis for most of that time. He’s never been known for keeping quiet when he has an opinion, which makes him at once entertaining (and how!) and unpredictable. (Others have been less kind in their adjectives.) But these numbers show something else about him. His players are very affected by his mere presence in the dugout. His coaching (or coaches) apparently makes his players better at hitting home runs and taking walks, although that also seems to lead to a higher strikeout rates. Some managers have very little impact on their players overall results, but like him or hate him, you know that you play for Ozzie Guillen.

What’s odd is that Ozzie Guillen was not a great hitter in his day. In fact, he holds the record for the most number of career games started in the ninth position in the batting order, and posted a career line of .264/.287/.338; Ted Williams he was not. Guillen rarely struck out (only 511 times in 7,133 career plate appearances), walked (239), or homered (28). Yet, his players now seem to be much more in line with everything that he was not when he was a player.

I didn’t run the numbers for Ted Williams in his managerial stint. However, I would bet that his numbers would reveal a man who had little effect on his players’ outcomes. Despite being one of the best hitters in the game’s history, Williams felt that he couldn’t impart much in the way of instruction to his hitters. Guillen, on the other hand, appears to have figured out a way to do exactly that and the proof is in the numbers. Guillen will never make the Hall of Fame as a hitter, but if the point of a manager is to have an effect on his players, then Ozzie is probably a much better manager than Ted Williams was.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=10004

http://twitter.com/susanslusser/status/8508890712

i love it when people trade for a player and then immediately drop them. so amusing. willy must feel like a real loser today.

Sources tell WCCO Radio/TV that he’s signed a 10 year deal to stay in Minny.

http://twitter.com/DeRushaJ/statuses/8513466856

But that’s my personal “catchers who will probably hit” bias…

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/lists/perry-players-with-something-to-prove-013110#sport=MLB&photo=10839904

you know what’s his name?

with their Twinn love. Fuckers.