Opinion

First off, it is officially Christmas now, at least where I live. So, Merry Christmas to all you readers!

Okay, happy junk out of the way and onto business. This one will be short, as getting up early for Christmas Mass puts a damper on the college lifestyle of sleeping in.

All I hear about is how signing free agent Matt Holliday to a long-term deal will be detrimental to the signing team.

Let's look at that, shall we?

Game No. 7–Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees–2004 ALCS Game Four

With the end of the decade nearing, Sportmeisters Derek and Ryan have decided to present their top ten games of the past decade. Today’s discussion is on the tenth best game from 2000-2009. What follows is a transcript of their discussion.

Yesterday, I took a look at the pitcher with the highest True ERA/ERA differential in the majors: Reds closer Francisco Cordero, whose 2.16 ERA was 2.70 runs lower than his 4.86 True ERA.

If you'd like to take a look at the reasons for this discrepancy, you can check the article out here.

In the offseason, much is made of the comings and goings of established major league players in free agency.

But many often overlook the same thing happening in the minor leagues.

In the "Recapping Minor League Free Agent Losses" series, I'll be looking at what, if anything, each team is losing at the minor league levels.

I'm not going to bother covering every player, because not all of them are very important and I have little to say about many of them. I'll just be touching on those who I think could be of value to another team in free agency.

It's been noted in traditional media sources, online, blogs, and reader comments on this and other sites that if Matt Holliday is not signed by the St. Louis Cardinals, they will move to their best Plan B: re-signing Mark DeRosa. 

DeRosa is a name that has been bandied around quite a bit in connection with several teams. I have to admit I'm a little stunned by just how interested teams are reported to be in him and at the amount they've been potentially interested in spending on a player who has been mostly a non-impact one for most of his career.

With Matt Capps seemingly on his way to the Nationals and the Cubs still in need of a right handed set-up man at the back of their bullpen, I ask, why not turn to an all too familiar face in Kevin Gregg?

Let me start out by saying I am a Cubs fan, and this suggestion is in no way meant as ill will towards the North Siders.

Simply put, Kevin Gregg is not a closer, at least not in large market such as Chicago where each outing is put under a microscope. While he was seemingly unable to take the pressure of the ninth inning, he is in no way a bad pitcher.

This Column Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com

Ever since the end of the season, and all of Theo Epstein's "Bridge Year" crap, the Sox have been in a state of flux.

The departure of Jason Bay (unless... ), the attempted trade of Mike Lowell, and the signings of Marco Scutaro, Mike Cameron, and John Lackey have in many ways opened up more questions than answers.

During the course of the last week-to-ten-days, Red Sox Nation has been deluged by a succession of articles detailing Jacoby Ellsbury’s defensive inadequacies in center field.

In the aftermath of the team signing CF Mike Cameron and RHP John Lackey, there has been rampant speculation that the ballclub would ship Ellsbury and RHP Clay Buchholz to the San Diego Padres for first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry almost made another free agent mistake on Wednesday. Thankfully, money means more to some players than the chance to win.

Former Pittsburgh closer Matt Capps, who was on the Cubs radar as a potential setup man for closer Carlos Marmol, agreed to a one-year deal with the Washington Nationals. Capps will reportedly get a base salary of $3.5 million, with another $425K in performance incentives built into the deal.

Adding Capps could have been the final piece in the puzzle that gets Hendry fired if he had taken the money in Chicago.

We're all over the Jose Valverde situation today as Nick Piecoro adds in this note about the Diamondbacks and Valverde: