The New York Mets have finally made a bit of a splash this winter, inking former Blue Jays and Brewers starting pitcher Shaun Marcum to a one-year deal. Marcum made $7.725 million last year with Milwaukee, but will likely be taking a pay cut from that salary after missing two months in 2012 with tightness in his elbow and making just 21 starts.

The Brewers initially acquired Marcum from the Blue Jays after the 2010 season for a high price: third baseman Brett Lawrie, now a franchise building block in Toronto. The now 31-year old Marcum is a flyball pitcher, something that absolutely hurt him at Miller Park over the last two years. At home as a Brewer, Marcum allowed 21 homers in 149 2/3 innings, compared to just  17 in 175 road innings. Marcum's triple slash was also markedly better away from Miller Park, and heading into a better pitchers park in Citi Field will help his overall stat line a lot.

The Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks are once again discussing outfielder Justin Upton, reports Buster Olney of ESPN. Atlanta has reportedly made an offer that Arizona is reviewing, and the Diamondbacks look to have either Upton or Jason Kubel dealt by Friday.

If the Braves managed to acquire Upton from the Diamondbacks, they'd solidify themselves as one of the top three or four teams in the National League (if they're not already there yet in your mind). An outfield of both Upton brothers and Jason Heyward would have one of the highest ceilings in all of baseball, and would probably provide the second-most production next to the Angels outfield of Mike Trout, Peter Bourjos, and Josh Hamilton.

New Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Francisco Liriano had his contract thrown into question this winter after he was reportedly injured in the Dominican Republic. Eventually, news trickled in that Liriano broke his right (non-throwing) arm, and that his contract with the Pirates would still be valid, though Liriano would receive less money if he missed time in 2013 or 2014 because of the arm injury.

Now, we know what happened with Liriano's arm: he fell in the bathroom days after agreeing to the contract with the Pirates, but before completing his physical with the team. Liriano fractured the humerus in his right arm, and is in a cast. There's no word on how Liriano fell, but considering it was in the bathroom, I'd assume that a wet floor or a rogue bath mat is to blame in this situation.

It's never easy for the Pirates, is it? They attempt to make a splash in free agency and bolster their rotation, and a freak injury like this happens. The signing of Liriano was a high risk, high reward one for the Pirates at the time, but with the modifications to his contract, a lot of the risk is gone for Pittsburgh. Go ahead and add this situation to the list of bizarre injuries in baseball history.

[El Caribe]

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Just when you think bobblehead giveaways at MLB stadiums couldn't get any more ridiculous, the Kansas City Royals are upping the ante a bit in 2013. This season, the Royals will be having three separate promotions giving away bobbleheads of their racing condiments: ketchup, mustard, and relish.

The ketchup bobblehead will be given out on May 25th against the Angels, the mustard bobblehead will be given out on June 22nd against the White Sox, and the relish bobblehead will be given out on July 20th against the Tigers. It's worth noting that the Royals only have four bobblehead promotions planned for the 2013 season, and three of them are these condiment bobbleheads. The other one, which is the only one featuring an actual baseball player, is a Billy Butler Silver Slugger themed giveaway on May 4th against the White Sox.

So despite trading for James Shields and Wade Davis, despite going all-in with a young core of players, the Royals promotional team will be focusing on mid-game entertainment this year as opposed to the players that the fans are paying their hard-earned money to see. Good job, good effort.

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It's been a slow go of things this week in terms of news. But hey, the Phillies signed Delmon Young, and it caused quite a stir on Twitter, with the general consensus being that this would be an awful move for the team. Ah, Ruben Amaro...never change.

Also thusfar this week, we've explored the possibility of the Nationals trading a reliever, and just what in the Hell the Orioles did this winter, and how it's disappointing at the end of the day.

Hopefully things liven up a bit this week heading into Spring Training in less than three weeks, because we really could use a spark around here.

Enjoy your offseason, everyone.

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Earlier today, I wrote about how Delmon Young would be a terrible fit with the Phillies. Sure enough, about an hour and a half later, Young signed with the Phillies for one year and $750,000, and GM Ruben Amaro said he imagined Young as the team's every day right fielder. Twitter went crazy soon after the signing, with about 95% of people echoing the same viewpoint I had earlier today: that Young was just not a good fit for this team at all. So I decided to borrow a page from Awful Announcing here on the Bloguin network (where I also contribute extensively), and do a search on Twitter for Young's name and see what I came up with. Here are some of the best tweets from mainstream writers, bloggers, and analysts, as well as a few fans, regarding Philadelphia's new right fielder.

If Delmon Young's incentives are primarily playing-time based, *he* should be paying *the Phillies* as he reaches them.

— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) January 22, 2013

When I saw the news blurb this morning that the Phillies were "seriously considering" signing Delmon Young, I did a spit take. While the Phillies situation in their corner outfield spots isn't ideal going into the season, Young would really do nothing to improve their situation. Platoons involving Laynce Nix, John Mayberry Jr, Darin Ruf, and Domonic Brown aren't exactly sexy situations for a fanbase that has enjoyed watching Jayson Werth, Pat Burrell, and Hunter Pence over the last few seasons, but those platoons are sure as hell as better option than Delmon Young.

In case you don't know, Delmon Young really isn't a great baseball player despite his pedigree as a former #1 overall pick and four-time top three prospect in all of baseball. The 27-year old Young spent the last season and a half with the Tigers, and Detroit wisely used him in the field sparingly in 2012 after a horrendous defensive performance in 40 games in 2011. Every defensive metric you can imagine has Young as a brutal defender in the outfield, even with him playing alongside amazing center fielders like Carlos Gomez, Denard Span, and Austin Jackson.

After their signing of Rafael Soriano last week, the Washington Nationals have an absolutely loaded bullpen, with Soriano joining Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen, and Craig Stammen, among others. But in his column posted this morning, Ken Rosenthal of Fox noted that Washington could look to deal Clippard or Storen, while signing a starting pitcher and moving current fifth starter Ross Detwiler to the bullpen.

If there's such a thing as overkill, it would be the Nationals signing another veteran starting pitcher (following their one-year deal with Dan Haren earlier this winter). While a rotation of Strasburg-Gonzalez-Zimmermann-Haren and Javier Vazquez or Kyle Lohse would look pretty good, is the upgrade from Detwiler to Vazquez or Lohse really that much of an improvement? In 164 1/3 innings last season, Detwiler was worth 1.8 fWAR while making under 500 grand. This year, his salary has jumped to a whopping $2.3 million, or about a quarter of what Lohse would likely earn and probably a third of what Vazquez would earn.

The number of people who believed in the overachieving 2012 Baltimore Orioles, even when they were locked in battle in the ALDS, could probably be counted on one hand.  Seeing how they'd been the unofficial doormat of the AL East for the previous fourteen seasons, it is no wonder that their unexpected success was received with such a critical eye.  Winning 93 games on just a plus-seven run differential will do that for you.

Their playoff run might have won over some people, but still plenty remain skeptical that the O's didn't just get incredibly lucky.  Surely if they played the season over again, there is no way Baltimore would be that good, right?  Well, no need to speculate on that hypothetical because Baltimore management seems perfectly content to test that theory in reality in 2013.

It wasn't a good weekend to be a baseball fan after the passings of both Earl Weaver and Stan Musial on Saturday. Losing two members of the Hall of Fame in the same month, let alone the same day, is absolutely brutal for any fan of the game, and may both men rest in peace.

In a bit of a lighter note, baseball teams were jumping all over the Manti Te'o story this weekend. The San Jose Giants are holding a Lennay Kekua night in April, while the independent Florence Freedom are having Manti Te'o Girlfriend Bobblehead Night in May. Piggybacking on the Te'o story, we brought you the tale of College World Series hero Michael Roth and his tale of being catfished

Now, back to baseball. We finished off our TOC Top Ten series on Friday by looking at left-handed and right-handed relievers, and we ranked the rosters for March's World Baseball Classic after they were released on Thursday.

Enjoy your offseason, everyone.

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