MLB Free Agents

Mlb.com just posted the following list of free agents as of today. Players can't officially sign with a new team until Thursday.

Atlanta Braves
Gonzalez, Alex
Linebrink, Scott
McLouth, Nate
Sherrill, George
Wilson, Jack

Arizona Diamondbacks
Marquis, Jason
McDonald, John
Nady, Xavier
Overbay, Lyle

Baltimore Orioles
Guerrero, Vladimir
Izturis, Cesar

Boston Red Sox
Bedard, Erik
Drew, J.D.
Jackson, Conor
Miller, Trever
Ortiz, David
Papelbon, Jon
Varitek, Jason
Wakefield, Tim

Chicago Cubs
Grabow, John
Johnson, Reed
Lopez, Rodrigo
Ortiz, Ramon
Pena, Carlos
Wood, Kerry

Chicago White Sox
Buehrle, Mark
Castro, Ramon
Pierre, Juan
Vizquel, Omar

Cincinnati Reds
Hernandez, Ramon J.
Renteria, Edgar
Willis, Dontrelle

Cleveland Indians
Durbin, Chad
Fukudome, Kosuke
Sizemore, Grady
Thome, Jim

Colorado Rockies
Cook, Aaron
Ellis, Mark
Millwood, Kevin
Romero, J.C.

Detroit Tigers
Betemit, Wilson
Guillen, Carlos
Ordonez, Magglio
Penny, Brad
Santiago, Ramon
Zumaya, Joel

Florida Marlins
Dobbs, Greg
Lopez, Jose
Vazquez, Javier C.

Houston Astros
Barmes, Clint
Michaels, Jason

Kansas City Royals
Chen, Bruce
Francis, Jeff
Kendall, Jason

Los Angeles Angels
Branyan, Russ
Pineiro, Joel
Ramirez, Horacio
Rodney, Fernando

Los Angeles Dodgers
Barajas, Rod
Blake, Casey
Broxton, Jonathan
Carroll, Jamey
Garland, Jon
Kuroda, Hiroki
MacDougal, Mike
Miles, Aaron
Padilla, Vicente
Rivera, Juan

Milwaukee Brewers
Betancourt, Yuniesky
Counsell, Craig
Fielder, Prince
Hairston Jr, Jerry
Hawkins, LaTroy
Kotsay, Mark
S.Rodriguez, Francisco
Saito, Takashi

Minnesota Twins
Capps, Matt
Cuddyer, Mike
Kubel, Jason
Nathan, Joe

New York Mets
Batista, Miguel
Capuano, Chris
Hairston, Scott
Harris, Willie
Isringhausen, Jason
Reyes, Jose
Young, Chris

New York Yankees
Ayala, Luis
Chavez, Eric
Colon, Bartolo
Garcia, Freddy
AntonioJones, Andruw
Marte, Damaso
Mitre, Sergio
Posada, Jorge

Oakland Athletics
Crisp, Coco
DeJesus, David
Harden, Rich
Matsui, Hideki
Willingham, Josh

Philadelphia Phillies
Gload, RossI
banez, Raul J.
Lidge, Bradley
Madson, Ryan
Oswalt, Roy
Rollins, Jimmy
Schneider, Brian

Pittsburgh Pirates
Cedeno, Ronny
Doumit, Ryan
Lee, Derrek
Ludwick, Ryan
Maholm, Paul
Snyder, Chris

San Diego Padres
Bell, Heath
Harang, Aaron
Hawpe, Brad
Qualls, Chad

Seattle Mariners
Bard, Josh
Kennedy, Adam
Pena, Wily
Wright, Jamey

San Francisco Giants
Beltran, Carlos
Burrell, Pat
Cabrera, Orlando
De Rosa, Mark
Mota, Guillermo
Ross, Cody

St. Louis Cardinals
Jackson, Edwin
Laird, Gerald
Pujols, Albert
Punto, Nick
Rhodes, Arthur

Tampa Bay Rays
Cruz, Juan
Damon, Johnny
Kotchman, Casey

Texas Rangers
Chavez, Endy
Gonzalez, Mike
Oliver, Darren
Treanor, Matt
Webb, Brandon
Wilson, C.J.

Toronto Blue Jays
Camp, Shawn
Francisco, Frank
Johnson, Kelly
Molina, Jose

Washington Nationals
Ankiel, Rick
Coffey, Todd
Cora, Alex
Gomes, Jonny
Hernandez, Livan
Nix, Laynce
Rodriguez, Ivan
Wang, Chien-Ming

Phillies send 7 to Arizona Fall League

The Phillies recently sent seven players to the Arizona Fall League.  The biggest name to keep your eyes on is Tyson Gillies, an outfielder the Phillies acquired in the Cliff Lee deal.  You can see info on all the players on our Arizona Fall League page on the main site. 

Roster changes for Phillies

It doesn't take long after the season before you move one, and the Phillies announced a couple changes this week. Here's a look at some of the housekeeping changes the Phillies made and still need to make:

Pete Orr and Brandon Moss filed for free agency after the Phillies left them off the 40-man roster.

That leaves seven players eligible for free agency: Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Madson, Roy Oswalt, Brad Lidge, Raul Ibanez, Brian Schneider and Ross Gload.

The Phillies can choose the $16 million mutual option with Roy Oswalt, but they will likely buy him out for $2 million. The Phillies have until two days following the end of the World Series to notify Oswalt of their intentions and Oswalt has two more days to make his decision. If neither side picks up its half of the option, Oswalt receives a $2 million buyout and becomes a free agent.

They also have a $12.5 million club option with Brad Lidge or a buyout for $1.5 million. They have three days after the World Series to notify him.

The Phillies have five players eligible for salary arbitration: Cole Hamels, Hunter Pence, Kyle Kendrick, Ben Francisco, and Wilson Valdez.

Scott Mathieson is not eligible for arbitration for a bunch of complex reasons you don't need to worry about.

The Phillies also activated Jose Contreras off the 60-day disabled list and re-signed Drew Naylor to a Minor League contract.

2010 Phillies Report Cards

It is report card time! Over the next month or so, Phils Baseball will be handing out report cards for all the Phillies regulars for the 2010 season. We plan on posting a few articles each week, so check out Phils Baseball for the articles.

Halladay Deal: Hmmm

The Roy Halladay deal seems inevitable now. From what it looks like, we will give up Cliff Lee, Kyle Drabeck, and Michael Taylor and in return get Halladay and a couple picks from Seattle.

If it shapes up that way, I'm sure people will have many conflicting emotions. What do you think?

Phillies still trying to close Roy Halladay deal

One thing seems pretty clear right now: the Phillies will get Roy Halladay and give up Cliff Lee. The rest of the story...only time will tell.

What we are hearing right now is that in addition to Lee, the Phillies will likely also send Kyle Drabeck and Dom Brown or Michael Taylor and possibly another player to the Blue Jays. Both teams like Brown, which might be a big part of the equation. It appears that all of the Phillies prospects will go to Toronto and all of Seattle's prospects will go to the Phillies. One of Seattle's prospects that is rumored to come to Philly is Phillippe Aumont, one of their top right-handed pitching prospects.

Reports are that Halladay will get a three-year extension (through the 2013 season) with at least $60 million guaranteed and vesting options to push the deal even further. Toronto may also give the Phillies $6 million dollars to help pay for Halladay's $15.75 million dollar salary this year.

This is a bit of a puzzling deal, but obviously the Phillies realized that they would not be able to re-sign Cliff Lee. As much as I am sure we all wanted Lee to stay, Halladay is admittedly the better pitcher and we look to be getting a discount on the deal. Let's just wait to see exactly what happens before making any judgments.

Player Options

I was never clear on what decided whether or not a player could be sent or "optioned to the minors." Here are a couple definitions.

Options
If a player is on the 40-man roster but not on the active major league roster, he is said to be on optional assignment—his organization may freely move him between the major league club and the minor league club. If a player is on the 40-man roster and not the active 25 man roster for any part of more than three seasons, he is out of options and may not be assigned to the minors without first clearing waivers. However, if a player has been optioned in three seasons but has less than 5 full years of professional experience, he may be optioned to the minors in a fourth season without being subject to waivers. A full season is defined as being on an active pro roster for at least 90 days in a season.

Designated for assignment
A player who is designated for assignment is immediately removed from the 40-man roster. This gives the team time to decide what to do with the player while freeing up a roster spot for another transaction, if needed. Once a player is designated for assignment, the team has ten days to do one of the following things: the player can be traded, the player can be released, or the player can be put on waivers and, provided he clears, outrighted to the minors. A player who is outrighted to the minors is removed from the 40-man roster but is still paid according to the terms of his guaranteed contract. A player can only be outrighted once in his career without his consent.