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Speculation about Manny Ramirez possibly signing with the Yankees continues.

It's been a strange, strange few days for your World Champion Philiadelphia Phillies. First, they replace Pat Burrell with Raul Ibanez in one of the first head scratchers of the winter. Then today they announce they've resigned Jamie Moyer... for two years.

The Yankees are awaiting word on whether Andy Pettitte will be in pinstripes in 2009. The sticking point has been about $6 million as Pettitte wants to be paid at his 2008 rate where he showed some decline and fragility. It's an interesting place for Brain Cashman to take a stance regarding money, more interesting in some ways than the Mike Cameron negotiations. We're talking about a single season from a left-handed pitcher who has spent 11 of his 14 seasons as a fan favo

Did someone in the Yankees front office forget what a disaster Carl Pavano was? It would seem that way with the reported contract AJ Burnett has agreed to. Hell, these guys were teammates in Florida. The Yankees and Burnett have agreed to a contract that is said to be five years, $82.5 million, about $16.5 per season. The good news? Burnett has had an ERA below 4.00 in four of the last five seasons. The bad news? He's averaged 170.1 innings pitched over those five sea

The following in an excerpt from an article written for Bill James Online ($). Bill has posted some great writers, including himself, along with some of the best statistical resources you will find on the intrawebs. Head over there and take a look. George may have taken a backseat, but his legacy is splashed all over the back pages. It was but a year ago that the Hot Stove bubbled over with rumor and speculation regarding Johan Santana with the Yankees smack dab in the mi

Various reports have the Yankees trading Melky Cabrera to the Brewers for Mike Cameron: The acquisition of Cameron would give the Yankees a veteran center fielder to hold the position until prospect Austin Jackson is ready for the big leagues. Cabrera had been seen as the Yankees' center fielder of the future. But he hit .249 with eight home runs and 37 RBIs in 129 games last season before being demoted to Triple A in mid-August. Cameron hit .243 with 25 HRs and 70 RBIs in 1

Haven't heard? After all the West Coast speculation, it was reported early Wednesday by Joel Sherman at the NY Post that CC Sabathia and the Yankees were closing in on a seven year $160 million deal, a year and $20 million more than the Yankees original offer. So much for the west coast. Since then, different rumors have trickled out about the details, notably an opt-out clause after the third season. Also worth mentioning, the total dollar amount is now $161 million, wh

This out of San Fran from Andrew Baggarly's blog : UPDATE: An executive close to the CC Sabathia talks told me the Brewers are emerging as the frontrunner. It’s been confirmed to me that the Giants had discussions with CC Sabathia’s camp last night, and they expect to have face-to-face meetings with the left-hander in San Francisco after the winter meetings. It sure must’ve have been a productive discussion, because word is that Sabathia has declined the Yankees’ six-year,

Word is coming out that the Mets and Francisco Rodriguez are close to agreeing to a three year deal. Lets use... ESPN for this one: Sports Illustrated, the New York Post and Newsday reported that the team has offered K-Rod a three-year deal. It is a one-year increase over the two years and $24 million the team is said to have initially offered Rodriguez, who broke the major league single-season saves record last season with 62. Sports Illustrated and Newsday reported that th

Contrary to some of the rumors flying around, Robinson Cano will more than likely be in pinstripes on Opening Day. Mark Feinsand reports: Forget anything you’ve heard about a Robinson Cano-for-Matt Kemp deal. Not to say it won’t happen down the line, but the Dodgers and Yankees haven’t even talked about Cano. I was told by someone in the know that the Dodgers won’t deal Kemp unless they get a few usable players back, and I don’t see the Yankees sending three guys west for hi

In an announcement that must have sent pangs of pain through his wallet, Scott Boras let it be known today that Greg Maddux is retiring. Maddux is the first of the Maddux-Smoltz-Glavine trio to officially call it quits. Both Smoltz and Glavine's futures are in doubt as they're each coming off arm surgery. The possibility lingers that these three could go on the Hall of Fame ballot together, which would be interesting indeed. It would also mean that Mike Mussina would be o

Last night, man on the beat Peter Abraham reported the latest on the Giants and Sabathia: Meanwhile, Giants GM Brian Sabean said tonight that his team is not planning to make an offer to CC Sabathia, acknowledging that other teams can outmuscle them financially. The market shrinks evermore... That basically leaves the Dodgers as the only west coast team that has not officially stated they won't pursue CC (except the A's, but...). At this rate, it still seems like a two hor

The next episode of The Bronx View podcast will be posted early next week. We were going to do one this week but not a lot has happened and we'd prefer to let the weekend of news pass and talk at the start of the winter meetings. If you have any questions or comments for the next show, email us at feedback@thebronxview.com or leave us a voicemail at 1-801-286-4918.

Slow Yankee news day. Thankfully, Dodger's manager Joe Torre confirmed what we all assumed. From Newsday: "I don't think that's going to happen," Torre said Thursday, in a telephone interview. "I talked to Andy," Torre said. "His agent had called the Dodgers to find out about interest, and that's when I called him. I had talked to Andy much earlier, asking him to come to my (Safe at Home) Foundation dinner. He was always married to the Yankees, the excitement playing for t

According to MLB.com, Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim GM Tony Reagin's focus is still Mark Teixeira and not CC Sabathia. Proof: Reagins made it clear that Teixeira remains No. 1 on the club's list of targets, with everything else lining up behind the power-hitting first baseman seeking a long-term deal in the $20 million per year range. Regains said "there was nothing to" reports that had the Angels moving past Teixeira and focusing on starter CC Sabathia, adding

In a moment of desperatation to come up with some baseball news today, I stumbled upon this piece at the Boston Globe: The Red Sox offered arbitration to two of their free agents, catcher Jason Varitek and pitcher Paul Byrd , before last night's midnight deadline to do so. Varitek and Byrd are the only Sox free agents to be classified as Type A or Type B, with Varitek an A and Byrd a B. Varitek is almost certain not to accept arbitration, as he (and agent Scott Boras ) have

Here's a few words from Sir Brian Cashman about why the Yankees didn't offer arbitration to anyone: “The determination we made today was to make sure that we control what amount we’d be spending at least in the event that we’re fortunate enough to bring those players back... We wanted to be able to control the cost that we would allocate for every position on the club. Even though we wanted draft picks if we lost anybody, by offering arbitration we would lose out ability to

ESPN, SI, and my grandmother are now reporting that the Yankees offered arbitration to none of their eight free agents. The Cashman said: "The determination that we made today was to make sure we control what amount we'd be spending. We did not want to put ourselves in a position of having that determined by a third party without knowing what that figure would be." Boy, that sounds almost... frugal. A little too frugal. A mere five minutes after this was released, Jon He

Word is buzzing that the Yankees are getting cold feet about offering Bobby Abreu arbitration. Mr. Abraham lays it out for us again: The slow market seems to be causing some consternation. Bobby Abreu, for instance, doesn’t have any offers in hand. Might he accept a one-year offer from the Yankees? Abreu made $16 million last season and performed well enough to merit a raise from an arbitration panel. Is $17 million in hand better than not knowing for certain you can get m

Peter Abraham updates Ian Kennedy's winter progress: Ian Kennedy must have not gotten the news that he’s washed up at the age of 24. He threw a three-hit shutout in Puerto Rico last night. Facing first-place Arecibo, Kennedy scattered three singles, walked one and struck out seven. The complete game dropped his ERA to 1.57 this winter. I’m not saying he’s Cy Young. Or even Matt Young. But Kennedy is too young and too talented to proclaim him no help to the Yankees. I don't