The Houston Astros have dealt one of the six players they had under contract for 2013, shortstop Jed Lowrie, to the Oakland Athletics as part of a five player package. Lowrie heads to Oakland along with reliever Fernando Rodriguez, and in exchange, Houston receives first baseman Chris Carter, starting pitcher Brad Peacock, and catcher Max Stassi.

Lowrie is obviously the big name in the deal, and rather than supplanting newly signed Hiroyuki Nakajima at shortstop, the A's plan to use Lowrie in a super utility role all across the infield. That move makes sense due to Nakajima's unfamiliarity with America, Scott Sizemore's health a question mark at second base, Brandon Moss potentially coming down to Earth at first base, and Josh Donaldson's bat being a potential stumbling block at third. Last season with the Astros, Lowrie had a .769 OPS and 16 homers in 97 games. He's never gotten 400 plate appearances in a season in the majors, but when he's healthy and playing every day, he's got some of the best pop of any shortstop in the league.

Former Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Brandon Webb is retiring at age 33, according to his agents. Webb hasn't pitched in the majors since starting on Opening Day 2009 for the Diamondbacks. He won the NL Cy Young award with Arizona in 2006, and was the runner-up in both 2007 (won by Jake Peavy) and 2008 (won by Tim Lincecum), making the NL All-Star team in all three of those seasons. Webb also finished third in the 2003 NL Rookie of the Year balloting behind Dontrelle Willis and Scott Podsednik.

Webb's career ends with an 87-62 record and a 3.27 ERA. From his debut in 2003 until his final full season in 2008, Webb was one of the best pitchers in baseball, totaling 33.1 fWAR, good for third in baseball over that six season span behind just Johan Santana and Roy Halladay. Webb's career through age 29 also compares favorably to some of the best pitchers under 30 over the last 25 years. That 33.1 fWAR is 16th since 1988 among all pitchers through their age 29 seasons, ahead of pitchers like Josh Beckett, Tim Hudson, Andy Pettitte, Dan Haren, Tom Glavine, and Tim Lincecum.

The Yankees and Red Sox will always be the center of the baseball universe.  No one is (or should be) debating that fact.  No other organizations in baseball can generate as many fans and as many enemies as these two teams.  Sure, the Phillies and Braves also have legions of dedicated fans, but in sheer volume, novice fans' first baseball cap they purchase is most likely to be navy blue with a white NY or red B on it.  This is the way of the world.  And up until this year, there was never any question about who would have the highest payroll in the game (the Yankees), but by how much? 

But it wasn’t just the Yankees and Red Sox that dominated the baseball climate.  Virtually the entire eastern half of the United States dominated baseball.  The Yanks, Red Sox, Tigers, White Sox, Braves, Phillies, and Cubs were all beloved beyond measure of the teams out West.  But for the first time ever, things have changed.  Obviously, it has been reported time and again that the new power structure in baseball resides in the west with the Dodgers and the Angels and we aren’t here to dispute that.  But is this a growing fad in baseball or is this a permanent shift in the focus of fans?

At first glance (it’s still very early) it appears this isn’t going away.  The west has a lot going for it right now.

After the conclusion of last night's Super Bowl between the Ravens and 49ers (which by the way, made me a very happy man), the tide turned from football season...to baseball season. In one short week, pitchers and catchers will be reporting in Florida and Arizona for Spring Training, and you'll have more baseball coverage than you know what to do with. And quite frankly, it couldn't come any sooner...we're running out of things to write about this winter!

Over the weekend, we looked at Scott Rolen's possible return, Alex Rodriguez getting personally injected with PEDs by Anthony Bosch (if you really needed to hear any more about *that* story), minor league coach Phillip Wellman in a Super Bowl commercial, and the retirement of Kevin Millwood.

Today, Scott has a look at the westward shift in baseball's dominant teams, and who knows what else is going to happen today?

Enjoy your offseason, everyone.

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Kevin Millwood, who spent 2012 with the Seattle Mariners, is calling it a career after 16 seasons in the majors. Millwood reportedly only wanted to pitch near his home of Gainesville, Georgia, and the Braves (nor the Rays) showed any interest in him this offseason.

For his career, Millwood finishes with a 169-152 record with a 4.11 ERA as a member of seven different teams. After spending his first six seasons with the Braves, Millwood became a journeyman after Atlanta dealt him to the Phillies, with his longest stop after Atlanta being a four season stint with the Rangers. Over the last tour seasons, Millwood played with four different teams, finishing up with the Mariners in 2012.

During this Sunday's Super Bowl on CBS, baseball fans will see a familiar face in one of the expensive commercial spots: Springfield Cardinals hitting coach Phillip Wellman, who made headlines in 2007 as manager of the Mississippi Braves for a ridiculous mid-game tirade.

In the ad for Volkswagen, Wellman (along with some other internet celebrities who gained fame in recent years starring in overly emotional viral videos) hangs out in a sunny field while a singer encourages them to "get happy". Wellman reprises his toss of second base in the commercial, which will air during the Super Bowl pregame show.

It's good to see Wellman acknowledging the ridiculous video after years of getting angered by it being brought up in interviews as his claim to fame.  He got paid to take part in the ad (and paid very well, according to Wellman), and even got a free trip to Beverly Hills to film the commercial to. It took a substantial amount of time, but making a fool out of himself has finally paid off for Wellman.

[News-Leader]

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This story isn't going anywhere anytime soon, folks. ESPN's Outside the Lines is reporting that Anthony Bosch (director of the Biogenesis clinic in Miami) would personally inject Alex Rodriguez with performance enhancing drugs at Rodriguez's home in Miami on Biscayne Bay.

The texts, the source said, usually came late at night, telling Anthony Bosch to come to the house. Bosch would then head to the waterfront mansion on Biscayne Bay, through the gate on North Bay Road, to inject performance-enhancing drugs into Alex Rodriguez.

Procedures were different, though, sources told "Outside the Lines," for the other athletes who were customers of Bosch's Biogenesis of America clinic in Coral Gables, which Major League Baseball considers the center of a widespread doping operation in South Florida. Those athletes, sources said, relied on intermediaries to transport the performance-enhancing drug regimens Bosch provided.

But for A-Rod, the service was always personal: "Only Tony handled A-Rod," one source told "Outside the Lines."

The visits were every few weeks. One night last spring, a source said, Bosch told associates he had been kicked out of Rodriguez' home after he had trouble locating a vein and infuriated the player. The sources did not say why Bosch would have been tapping a vein, as HGH and testosterone do not require intravenous injections. But whatever he was doing, "Tony said A-Rod was pissed at him," a source said. "He said he was bleeding everywhere."

Several sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Bosch spoke openly about his relationship with the Yankee All-Star, and two sources said that documents they reviewed detailed the drug regimens and schedules Rodriguez received.

A spokesperson for Rodriguez on Friday said, "the allegations are not true."

After initially saying that he was going to retire earlier this offseason, former Cincinnati Reds third baseman Scott Rolen has done an about-face, and now wants to play in 2013. Rolen is apparently seeking a salary similar to the $6.5 million he made in 2012. The Reds would be hard-pressed to fit him in their payroll, let alone finding playing time for him with 2012 rookie standout Todd Frazier penciled in at third base in 2013. But would any other team be wise to pursue Rolen for this upcoming season?

With Rolen, it really all comes down to one thing: health. He logged over 500 plate appearances in 2009 and 2010, and put together four win seasons in each. Over the last two seasons, he combined for just 599 plate appearances and was worth a total of 2.4 fWAR, obviously a substantial dropoff compared to the two prior years. A lot of Rolen's value comes from his defense (as it always has), but Rolen's 1.1 UZR in 2012 was a career-worst (but still above average), and his 0 DRS was his lowest in a season since 2003. Other defensive metrics show an increasingly trend of a loss in range for Rolen, but that's the thing: a defensively-slipping Scott Rolen is still better than a lot of players in the league with the glove.

It's February, and do you know what that means? That's right, it's officially the month where Spring Training begins! Pitchers and catchers report in a week and a half for most teams, and we're very nearly there. The long offseason is just about over, and we're almost ready for baseball season. FINALLY.

There hasn't been much going on outside of the Biogenesis scandal this week, though. I wrote about Joe Saunders being overrated, and Garrett touched on Jered Weaver and his approval of a potential gay teammate. We also took a look at Martin Prado and his contract extension with the Diamondbacks, and the contracts that each team would love to void in the wake of the Yankees' attempts to rid themselves of Alex Rodriguez.

Today, we've got something coming up by myself later this morning about Scott Rolen, and then who knows what else?

Enjoy your offseason, everyone.

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The Arizona Diamondbacks inked newly-acquired third baseman Martin Prado to a four-year contract extension that will pay the former Brave $40 million and keep him in the deser until 2016. He'll make $7 million in 2013 to avoid arbitration, and $11 million in each season from 2014 to 2016.

The contract actually seems like a solid value for the Diamondbacks, who really haven't had a long-term, consistent, bulletproof third baseman in their franchise's history, aside from an aging Matt Williams or the strikeout-prone Mark Reynolds. The 29-year old Prado accumulated 5.9 fWAR for the Braves last year as their every day left fielder, but a majority of his value came from his stellar defense. While his defense at third isn't historically as good as it was in left last year, it's still above average, meaning that four wins per year over the life of the contract seems like something that should be relatively easily attainable.

Prado might have been able to get a bigger contract next winter, when he was due to hit free agency for the first time, but in light of the issues that his former teammate Michael Bourn has had getting a job this winter, perhaps the security offered by this extension was more palatable to him. The Diamondbacks aren't paying too much for Prado with this extension, and I think that the fact that they got it done so soon after the trade will help ease the fears of some fans. But at the end of the day, the Diamondbacks really only got one more year of Prado than they had in Justin Upton for essentially the same price. Considering the age, talent level, and upside of the players, I still think they got the raw end of that deal, but it's something that's going to need to be settled on the field in 2013 and beyond.

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