The Rule V draft took place on Thursday. For those not in the know, this is sort of a swap meet where teams can gather cheap talent from other teams, with a catch — you buy it, you have to keep it on your 25-man roster all year or offer it back to the other team. Sometimes this works (Roberto Clemente, George Bell, Johan Santana), but most times not so much.
USA Today has the full list of ‘07 draftees in the major-league phase (there’s also a minor-league phase, but seriously, it’s barely worth mentioning). Chris Constancio at Hardball Times [full …read more

Yep, that goofy system MLB employs to determine compensatory picks for loss of free agents is back with the sort of rankings we’ve come to expect. USA Today has made the entire lists available:

AL Elias rankings
NL Elias rankings

Quick show of hands: Who thinks Chuck James is worth more than Matt Cain?
Right.
Anyway, if you’re trying to figure out which free agents might be appealing to your favorite team, just cross reference the rankings above with the lists of available players we previously identified, and voila — instant armchair GM.
Enjoy…
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Our good friends at Gaslamp Ball pointed to this USA Today article on Ichiro Suzuki. Seattle’s star outfielder isn’t just a hit machine, he’s a quote machine. Some of my favorites from the article:
Once I turn 40, I can become a pitcher. I’m kind of serious about it. But I’ll have to learn to throw a knuckleball. Right now, I could be a ‘normal’ pitcher.
I think he probably can become a pitcher at age 40. The only thing he’s lacking is confidence, but maybe that will come with the knuckleball.
I feel the way I did when I was 20. I …read more