Pitchers and catchers have been in camp now for about 10 days and we are liking what we're seeing. We're very eager for the rest of the team to arrive so we can get down to business.

What began as a slow off season has left many teams scrambling to fill their needs as the start of spring games approaches and has led to a number of deals being made in the month of February.

2/8/14: Baltimore announced the signing of 40 year old reliever Octavio Dotel as Baltimore is...

Starters:
RHP Gerrit Cole: The 23 year old spent most of 2013 with AA Altoona making 23 starts with a record of 10-6. Posting an era of 4.96 he struck out 147 batters in 138 IP. These aren't exactly dominating numbers and he got bombed in a short stint in AAA but he may have been hurt by a .324 BABIP. Cole has good stuff with a lot of movement on his pitches but he is still working on his control. I was really tempted to invite Cole to spring training but the numbers he put up last year tell...

Our minor league system ranks 2nd out of the 30 ML teams. We have 3 prospects who are ranked in the OSA top 100. SP Jameson Taillon who is ranked 3rd overall, SP Gerrit Cole who is ranked 5th overall, and C Jin-De Jhang who is ranked 92nd overall. Jhang is an interesting prospect as OSA seems to have him ranked higher than Greg Smith. Greg thinks Jhang has all ready reached his peak while OSA must feel that he is still growing. Anyway for this reason Jhang will not be listed among our top prospects...

There have been a number of deals made through out the month of January:

1/12/14:
The Phillies and Mike Napoli appeared before the Philadelphia media today as the two sides emerged from marathon contract talks. The 32 year old 1B is poised to make $47.5 mil. over 4 years. Napoli batted a career high 624 times in 2013 for the BoSox also setting career highs with 39 HR 108 RBI and 102 RS yet he only managed a .224 BA. The Phills plan to use Napoli at 1B and possibly as a 3rd catcher...

It's a slow time in the off season for us with our roster set we wait patiently for pitchers and catchers to report in February.

There have been a flurry of deals that have occurred over the past week:

12/27/13:
The Yankees pulled out all of the stops today to announce the signing of closer Joel Hanrahan. The 32 year old is one of the game's preeminent playmakers and has definitely proven why he was such an attractive signing. Last season for Boston Hanrahan pitched...