Curt Flood was a successful MLB player who earned seven Gold Glove Awards, played in three All-Star Games, and won two World Series.  In 1970, after being traded to the Phillies against his wishes, Flood challenged baseball’s reserve clause, fighting it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Although Flood lost the court case, his step of suing MLB ultimately paved the way for reforms like the 1975 Seitz Decision, which granted baseball with free agency, a great benefit to everyone affiliated with the game.

Flood is considered by many to be the pioneer of free agency, but he paid a significant price for his contributions by sacrificing a flourishing MLB career for what he believed was right not only for him, but for all who played.

One of our readers, Blayke Tatman, a 7^th grader from Orange County, California, conducted a research project on Curt Flood for his National History Day Project.  To learn more about Flood and the history of free agency in baseball, stop by his website. You can also stop by his website and see what current players such as Gerald Laird and past players think about Flood, and what his decision to stand up against Baseball did for the game.

We are proud to announce that our PRO Rumors Android app version 1.0 is available on the Android Market.  We spent a lot of time on the app’s design and functionality, and we are sure that you’ll love it.  To download the app for an introductory price of $2.99 you can click here.

Here are a few features:

– Push Notifications to get the latest news and rumors for your favorite MLB team

– Pulse-like view of articles – it’s beautiful

– Real-time scoreboard

– Real-time box scores of in-game action

We’re working hard to add more features, so if you have any questions or feature requests, please send an email to support@prorumors.com.  We promise to write you back.

Allan

1. What are the chances Manny Ramirez plays baseball next season?

As time goes on, the chances of Manny returning to any field decreases. He recently had a tryout with a Japanese team in Miami, that did not go well. With Manny, teams have to look and see if his productivity is worth the headaches that also come with Manny. Manny also still has a 100 game suspension that he has to serve prior to being eligible to play. In the end, I think Manny will take his talents to his neighborhood softball league.

2. Who are the oldest active MLB players and are they still producing?

The oldest player that set foot on a diamond this year was Tim Wakefield, at 45 years old. Though he won the award this year, Jamie Moyer is looking to return after sitting out 2011 due to injuries and would have won the award this year as he is 48 years old (49 on Nov 18th). Wakefield who is known for his knuckle ball, posted a 7-8 record with a 5.12 era while earning $3.5mm in the second year of his two-year deal $7mm deal.

The oldest player to ever play in a game goes to Satchel Paige who was 59. In 1965, he signed a one-day contract with the Kansas City Athletics. On September 25, he took the mound against the Boston Red Sox allowing only one hit in three innings (info obtained from wikipedia).

3. Where will Albert Pujols sign?

Because of the limited market as far as only a handful of teams being able to afford a $200mm contract, I think Pujols will end up returning to St. Louis. Stay up to date with all signings with our Free Agent Tracker.

4. What was the worst free agent signing last offseason?

Purely on the past season statistics, Jayson Werth and Adam Dunn immediately pop into mind. If you are looking at only performances, Dunn wins the award. Dunn posted a .159 avg,while hitting 11 home runs while striking out 177 times. Sure some critics will say it was in part because he switched leagues but he just flat out sunk. In 2010 with the Nationals, he hit .260 with 38 home runs. This past season while putting up dismal numbers, he went on to make $12mm, or about $1.1mm per home run he hit as the full time DH for the White Sox.

But if you take into consideration total years and money I would say Jayson Werth at seven years $126mm was the worst signing (Dunn was four-years, $56mm). Werth had a career year in 2009 when he hit .268 with 36 home runs and 99 rbi’s. But that was on a different team where he was not the big stick on the team. He had plenty of protection infront of him and behind him. This past season as the main threat for the Nationals, he hit .232 with only 20 home runs.

By the end of the 2012 season, the jocking for the worst contract during the 2010-2011 offseason  should be over and we will be able to crown Dunn or Werth the winner.

One of the new features we are proud to debut is our “Mail Time with PRO Rumors.” Twice a month (or maybe more), we will answer emails from our readers about any baseball related topic. We will also take questions in both English and Spanish. If you have a question about Winter Ball in Venezuela make sure you drop us a line, as PRO Rumors’ writer Juan has been scouting most of the games.

Send us your questions to Mailbag@prorumors.com

PRO Rumors is growing, and we’re looking to add two new writers to the PRO Rumors’ team. This is a paid position. Because you will become a core member of a small team, we’re going to be very selective as to who we want since you’re going to be steering the direction of the PRO Rumors product.

Here are some of the requirements that we are looking for:

- You live and breath Major League Baseball. You have to have a good understanding of what’s going on with the 30 teams.  Basic knowledge of how contracts, free-agency, arbitration eligibility, waivers, signings and firings work in the world of baseball is a plus.
- You can write an intelligent and thought provoking article regarding current events in the PRO Rumors’ style and tone.
- Attention to detail and the integrity of the story – spelling and grammar are very important. This also means you’ll have to deal with criticism from other writers on the PRO Rumors staff.
- The ability to adapt to new technology – we have automated many of our tools using our really cool programming skills here. We want your job as a writer to be as easy as possible to find new information. We also want you to suggest innovative ways for PRO Rumors to share information whether it’s through an iPhone app or other technological methods. You’re not just a writer, you’ll be a sports information pioneer.
- Flexibility – you’ll be scheduled to cover certain hours on the weekdays AND weekends.
- Depending on your performance, there will be room for advancement within PRO Rumors.

PRO Rumors is a sports utility that helps fans get the latest rumors, news and relevant statistics for professional baseball. It’s made with love by baseball fans for baseball fans. If you are interested in joining the PRO Rumors’ team and want to be on the cutting edge of sports information technology then please send a resume to jobs@prorumors.com.  Thanks!

Allan
jobs@prorumors.com

Dodger fans have become spoiled over the years (and especially as of late) as they are used to seeing dominant closers take the ball. From Eric Gagne and his 84 consecutive saves to Takashi Saito and his 1.95 ERA, the ninth inning became almost automatic.

Yes, Dodger fans have come to expect a dominant closer performance night in and night out. Broxton though has been just as dominant as Gagne and Saito. In 2009, Broxton threw 76 innings while saving 36 games with a 2.61 ERA.  Not too shabby for someone who is entering his seventh season.  But then the tale of two Broxtons hit in 2010. In his first 33 appearances the first Broxton struck out 48 and walked just five in 32 2/3 innings, leading to a 0.48 ERA.

But then June 27th and the Yankees came to town. Broxton blew the save that night and threw a career high 48 pitches and the other Broxton settled in and he pitched to a 7.58 ERA the rest of the season.  Yes his velocity dipped a bit but he was still hitting mid 90’s on the radar gun.

So what is going on with Jonathan Broxton? He has yet to crack 100 MPH this season but he has still tipped the radar guns in the high 90’s so I don’t think his velocity is the issue.  Is it a mental issue or is he trying to blow the ball past everyone? Whatever the issue is, Broxton allowed just 2 home runs in 2008, 4 home runs in 2009 and 2010. He’s already given up 2 this season to the “I’m way over my prime” Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell duo. His career K/9 is 11.7 but he has only 1 strikeout this season (3 innings).

Though I don’t think it’s time for the Dodgers to push the panic button as it is way to early, I do think there is some cause for concern. In 2010, Broxton in his first 3 appearances allowed zero runs while striking out 4 and allowing only one hit.  This season, in his first 3 appearances he allowed 1 single, two solo-home runs with only 1 strike out. Broxton also is throwing around 5 pitches per batter which could create issues down the line with the Dodgers using him on back-to-back nights.

Luckily for the Dodgers and Broxton, the season is just under way with plenty of time to fix the problem at hand.  Don’t panic too hard, just take notice and hope Rick Honeycutt can help get the big guy back on track to being the once dominant pitcher we all remember him as.

We will contact the winners by Facebook or email if you have won in the next hour.

Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2011 PRO Rumors Opening Day contest:

iPad 2 Wi-Fi 16GB: Javier F.

PS3 MLB 2K 11: Matt D.

$5 Amazon gift cards (10): Chris S., Brian R., Joe M., Aaron C., Friarhood Steve, Blake C., John R., Kenny B., Rob C., Sean B.

PRO Rumors iPhone app (25):  The easiest way is to head to our Facebook Fan page and respond to Allan’s request (it should be the latest post on top of the fan page):  http://www.facebook.com/prorumors1

Just because the contest is over doesn’t mean you have to stop leaving comments and participating in PRO Rumors.  Please keep visiting us everyday, support our sponsors (so we can give out more prizes) and leave more comments.  Thanks!

What prizes will be given away?

– We’ll give away 10 copies of our award winning iPhone app.

– A brand new PS3 copy of MLB 2K11 courtesy of our friends at 2K Sports (we had a copy for XBox 360, but Ryan took it).

– A brand new 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2nd generation (yes, the one that’s sold out everywhere)

How do I win? (Hint: The more you do, the better chance you’ll have to win.)

– Sign up for PRO Rumors to get free Instant Action Email and Text Alerts to your inbox and mobile – Click here to sign up.

– Download the PRO Rumors FREE iPhone app.

– Follow us on Twitter & retweet us A LOT!

– Follow us on Facebook & leave a comment.

– Leave intelligent comments at the bottom of our posts and create discussions.

– Visit us everyday at http://www.prorumors.com and tell your friends.

Any rules?

– Contest ends at 12:00 noon Pacific Standard Time on Friday, April 1 (No this is not an April Fools joke).

– Winners will be chosen at random from those that sign up with PRO Rumors, but we’ll heavily favor those that participate in discussions/Facebook/Twitter.

– Anybody is eligible to win except for employees of PRO Rumors.  You must be 13 years of age or older.  Sports writers, players, general managers are all welcomed to participate.

– We’ll ship pretty much anywhere on planet Earth.

– We’ll send the iPhone codes for redemption immediately.  We’ll ship the PS3 game by April 10, 2011.  We’ll order the iPad upon confirmation of the winner, and it will take about 3-4 weeks to receive it.

If you missed our American League standings and award predictions or our National League standings and award predictions make sure you check them out!

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment and we will pull out the predictions come November and see who was right!

Can you beat our picks? Make it known now on Twitter/Facebook or just drop us a comment below. We’ll do the National League later this afternoon.

Also, don’t forget to check out how we think the American League and National League teams will finish this year.

Can you beat our picks? Make it known now on Twitter/Facebook or just drop us a comment below. We’ll do the National League later this afternoon.

There’s a few things that you should keep in mind when you visit us at www.prorumors.com.  The website is coded in Ruby which is an object-oriented programming language on top of a Rails framework.  Ruby is similar to the more popular Java language.  Ruby on Rails allows us to rapidly deploy new codes several times a day, so that’s why you may see a new feature or a change come up quickly.  Programming gives us the flexibility to add cool widgets such as the stats and contract pages that you see throughout the website.

All of our data is hosted on MySQL database server.  I debated long and hard about using MySQL as opposed to PostgresSQL or the whole NoSQL movement.  I chose MySQL because I was familiar with it, and it allowed me to get to market as quick as possible.  I’ll eventually have to revisit this idea in the near future as we grow.

Our data sits on several CentOS Linux servers with Rackspace.  I’ve been really happy with Rackspace.  Awesome customer support and they built design into an industry that traditionally did not consider user-interface.

Our iPhone app (which is coded in Objective-C) uses the same MySQL database via an web-based API that we created.  So as we grow in both the website and the mobile market, we’re starting to realize that we need to scale.  The first fix was to add memcached which alleviated some of the pain and served up pages a lot quicker.  The next thing we needed to decide was to either scale vertically or horizontally.  The quick fix is to scale vertically or add more resources to our servers.  At some point we’re going to need to scale horizontally by adding more servers (which takes more planning and effort) in addition to optimizing our code.

There are other pieces of technology that we use such as Nginx web server, Mongrel clusters, jQuery, Subversion, etc., but I’ll save those for another day.

So if you see a hiccup here and there, keep in mind that we’re growing and we’re working hard to fix it.  Let me know if you like the posts such as this one describing the behind scenes work of PRO Rumors, and I’ll write more about it in our blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to email at allan@prorumors.com – I promise to write you back.

Allan

Do you agree? Disagree? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Do you agree? Disagree? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

After seeing all the footage from Spring Training last year, I decided to take the 6 hour drive with my wife and kids to Arizona to visit Baseball Heaven aka Spring Training. Where else can you have 14 teams all within an hour drive of each other. The answer is no other place; not even Florida Spring Training offers such a close proximity to all the teams that Arizona offers.

Usually, the common fan can not afford to sit behind home plate during a regular season game.  In Spring Training, tickets behind home plate go for $20-$30.

People also say that the games are meaningless but I tend to disagree. Yes they don’t count in the standings, but a good spring performance can put a player in the big leagues to open the season versus waiting for a mid-season call up that may never happen.

I saw Mark Trumbo and Hank Conger both of the Angels make two hustle plays as they both vie for a big league roster spot.  I saw Scott Kazmir trying to save his spot in the rotation and regain his 2008 form as he tossed 3 innings of two hit ball. But yes I also realize on the other side of the spectrum, you have players that are just trying to get through Spring Training without getting hurt.

You hear all the stories  about how the players will take the time to interact and meet the fans. From my experience, majority of the players realize this and did in fact take the time to meet and interact with the fans.  As a younger fan and his father approached Scott Downs for an autograph, Downs told them that he would sign for as many people as he could as one day, people won’t want his autograph.  Downs, as well as many other players are fathers and see the value of being able to interact with the fans and especially the younger ones.  An autograph from a child’s baseball idol will go a long way and will be a lasting memory.

But there are also players like Erick Aybar who drive out in their $100,000 car ignoring the fans by looking the other way and pretending to be on their cellphone. Think this doesn’t have a negative effect on a person’s outlook of that player? Think again. A quick wave of the hand if you are tied up and can’t stop goes along way compared to looking the other way and picking the phone up and talking to the pretend person on the other line just so you look busy.

All athletes thrive on pre-game routines.  This is why some players will not sign autographs once they start their pre-game routine. But Spring Training allows them to sign autographs before, during and after the games and not be to concerned about their on-field performance.

In closing, if you as a baseball fan have a “Bucket List” of things you want to experience before the end, make sure you add a trip to Spring Training to that list.

1. Red Sox-When a team is able to acquire both Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford in the same month/week, they’re going to win most off season awards.  Gonzalez came to Boston via-trade form San Diego.  Though Boston did give up some of their top prospects for Gonzalez, they received a left handed hitting first basemen who they have coveted for many seasons.  Just days later, Theo Epstein swooped in and snatched up Carl Crawford from both of their rivals, the Angels and the Yankees.  Epstein didn’t stop there as he also signed ex- White Sox closer Bobby Jenks to a two-year deal to become Papelbon’s set-up guy.  He also becomes insurance in case Papelbon starts off the season ineffective or is injured.  The Sox also re-signed left handed reliever Hideki Okajima who prior to last season had three season where he posted an era of 3.39 or lower.

2. Athletics- The offseason got off to a rough start for the A’s as they were turned down by the higher profile free agents.  But that didn’t stop Billy Beane from rebounding nicely.  Beane brought in David DeJesus and Josh Willingham via-trades to help shore up the offense.  Hideki Matsui was also brought in on a one-year deal to take over the DH role and maybe to help attendance?  Grant Balfour and Brian Fuentes were both brought in on multi-year deals to help an already deep bullpen.  Rich Harden was also brought back on a one year-deal to compete for a spot in the rotation or to help out the bullpen.  With the many moves the A’s made, the AL West could come down to a three team race come September.

3. Rays- How could the Rays be ranked as having the 3rd best offseason in the AL? Easy they now have 10 of the first 60 picks in the upcoming draft which will be one of the deepest in years. The Rays have won two of three AL east titles with the nucleus of Carl Crawford, Jason Bartlett, Matt Garza, Grant Balfour and last season Rafael Soriano,  But they all left via free agency or were now priced out of the Rays price range.  But the Rays knew their budget and were able to turn these players into draft picks.  The Rays didn’t stop with just draft picks as they also brought in the likes of Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez for about $7mm combined. Kyle Farnsworth was also brought in as well as Juan Cruz to help out the back end of the bullpen.

4. White Sox- The White Sox could have been in a world of hurt had things not gone their way.  They were faced with losing their biggest power threat in Paul Konerko as well as their catcher A.J. Pierzynski and they lost their closer Bobby Jenks.  There were rumors that they were looking at trading their manager Ozzie Guillen to the Marlins for Mike Stanton.  In the end, they resigned Konerko for what I consider a discount at three-years $37.5mm.  They also brought back AJ Pierzynski on a one year deal and brought in the biggest slugger of the offseason in Adam Dunn on a four-year $56mm deal. They also brought in AL east veteran Jesse Crain on a three-year deal (yes they may have over paid) as well as Will Ohman on a two-year deal.

Click here for team rankings 5-9.

Click here for team rankings 10-14.

6. Blue Jays- The Blue Jays went from having an average offseason to having one of the best in a matter of one trade.  Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos pulled the blankets over Angels GM Tony Reagins’ eyes when he was able to trade Vernon Wells and his huge contract to the Angels. Over the last two seasons, Wells has posted a .266 avg with 23 home runs and 77 RBI’s.  These are far from the numbers he put up in 2006 when he signed his mega seven-year $126mm deal when he averaged 303 avg ,32 home runs and 106 RBI’s.  By moving Wells, the Blue Jays have dropped their payroll obligations by over $20mm for the next 3 seasons (not counting this season as they gave money to Angels and took back contracts).  The Blue Jays acquired Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera in the Wells trade and then flipped Napoli to the Rangers in exchange for Frank Francisco.  The Jays also added Octavio Dotel and Jon Rauch to a bullpen that saw their closer Kevin Gregg leave as well as Downs and .  The Jays also traded away Shaun Marcum to the Brewers for Minor League prospect Brett Lawrie.

7. Twins- The offseason for the Twins was bitter sweat.  They were able to resign Carl Pavano to a two-year $16.5mm deal and Jim Thome to a one year deal which was on the top of their offseason list. On the flip side, they saw Crain, Fuentes, Rauch and Matt Guerrier all leave from their bullpen.  They also brought in Tsuyoshi Nishioka from Japan to replace the out going Orlando Hudson. The big question is how well will Nishioka hit major league pitching.

8. Royals- The Royals big offseason moves were signing Jeff Francis to an incentive filled deal and Jeff Francoeur to a one-year deal plus an option year. These were moves to help fill the gaps as the deepest farm system in baseball awaits the arrival of many highly talked about prospects.  The Royals did lock up Billy Butler to a four-year $30mm extension.  But what will mark the winter for the Royals will be the trade of Zack Greinke to the Brewers. In return for Greinke, the Royals received Alcides Escobar, center fielder Lorenzo Cain, pitcher Jake Odorizzi and right-handed pitcher Jeremy Jeffress which will only make the Royals farm system that much stronger.  They also traded fan favorite David DeJesus to the A’s in exchange for Vin Mazzaro and Justin Marks. Mazzaro had an up and down career, but look for him to have a solid 2011 campaign.

9. Tigers- The Tigers started the offseason off on the right foot as they signed Victor Martinez to a four-year deal. They also resigned Jhonny Peralta to a two-year deal and Magglio Ordonez to a one-year deal.  The only questionable signing that they had belongs to Jaoquin Benoit and the three-year $16.5mm deal he received.  Yes Benoit was a stud last season, but he was also just one season removed from an injury plagued year.  Being 1-2 with a 1.34 ERA in 63 appearances is no joke, but paying a reliever $5.5mm is.  A move that could have a big impact on the Tigers season is the signing of Brad Penny to a one-year deal. Penny is coming off of an injury filled season where he made only 9 starts.  Penny is supposedly in great shape heading into spring training thanks to his “Dancing with the Stars” wife and could be prime for a great year as he looks to cash in one last time on a big payday.

Click here for team rankings 1-4.

Click here for team rankings 10-14.

11. Angels- The Angels missed the playoffs this year which caused owner Arte Moreno to announce that they would spend whatever amount of money needed to get the team back to the playoffs.  They announced that their target was Carl Crawford but were outbid by the Red Sox for his services. They then moved onto Adrian Beltre but refused to raise their offer to the asking price Beltre and agent Scott Boras were seeking. The Angels then traded Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli to the Blue Jays for Vernon Wells. Many feel that Wells’ contract was baggage that the Jays were happy to get rid of.  Wells has averaged a .266 avg with 23 home runs and 77 RBI’s over the last two seasons. But is that output worth $20+ million for the next four years?  In the end Wells will produce at a much higher level this year than last year, but the questions remains why didn’t the Angels try and throw in a bad contract like Bobby Abreu instead of Napoli.  They then could have traded Napoli for a much need prospect or possibly more bullpen help.

A big weakness for the Angels last season was their all right-handed bullpen.  To address that, GM Tony Reagins brought in Hisanori Takahashi on a two-year deal and also brought in Scott Downs on a three-year deal. Downs will more than likely start the season off as the 8th inning guy but will see plenty of time as the closer, especially if Fernando Rodney falters at the beginning of the season.

12.Yankees- Yes I ranked the Yankees down here. You may be wondering why so I will tell you.  No Cliff Lee and no back up plan (Carl Crawford).  Though the Yankees did move on to plan C and sign Rafael Soriano.  With that addition, the Yankees will now have the best 8th and 9th inning guys in the game.  But besides that move, the Yankees next best free agents that they brought in were Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon both on minor league deals.  Since Pettitte decided to retire, it puts more pressure on Colon and Garcia to preform. They did bring in Andruw Jones as a fourth outfielder which is an improvement over last year. O yeah and they resigned some guy named Derek Jeter to a three-year deal and Mariano Rivera on a two-year deal. They also brought Pedro Feliciano and Russell Martin to help in the bullpen and the catching duties.

13.Mariners- No need to drag this posting out any longer.  The Mariners had a bad offseason as they dealt with Mr Bradley getting arrested.  They signed Miguel Olvio and Brendan Ryan both to two-year deals and brought back Erik Bedard on a minor league deal. If Bedard ever gets healthy he could help out the Mariners rotation but the health part with him is a big if.

14.Indians-When Adam Everett is the only noticeable addition to a team that struggled in every aspect of the game, it means you’re in trouble.  The big trade rumors for the Indians had them discussing with the Nationals about a deal that involved Fausto Carmona and possibly Grady Sizemore.  Sorry Indian fans better luck next time.  Orlando Cabrera also joined the infield late in the offseason and he will compete for time at 2nd and possibly shortstop.

Click here for team rankings 1-4.

Click here for team rankings 10-14.

We’ll be around getting the latest PRO Rumors for you, so check back today, tomorrow and everyday!  In the meantime, why not set up your PRO Rumors account to get FREE text and email alerts. Now you can celebrate the holidays and get real-time alerts in case your favorite team makes a move.

Starting Monday and throughout the week, the PRO Rumors team will be on-site in Lake Buena Vista, Florida giving our fans up-to-the minute coverage of what’s cooking on the hot stove. We’ll have writers going 24 hours a day detailing the latest rumors, news and relevant information that you want to know with the most advanced technology and features available.

You can refresh the PRORumors.com homepage, but why do that?  We know you’re busy, but you still want the latest and greatest from your favorite baseball team.  So how do you get information on the go?

PRO Rumors was the first to bring you the award winning PRO Rumors iPhone app. We’ve also brought you Instant Action Email Alerts and Instant Action Text Alerts for those that don’t have an iPhone but want breaking news about trades and signings.

Don’t sift through the hundreds of posts that we’ll put up this week.  Set up a PRO Rumors Dashboard and organize your rumors by your favorite team.

For our Spanish speaking community, we have PRO Rumors en Español. Select articles throughout the week will be translated in Spanish.

If you’re in the Disney area, we’d love to meet you. Send us email, and we’ll make time to say hi.

Allan and The PRO Rumors Team

allan@prorumors.com

Pulse is an elegant news reading application for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices. It incorporates colorful panning story bars and fills them with content from your favorite sources. Pulse redefines news, giving you the opportunity to experience the news you desire from traditional sources, your favorite blogs and social networks – all in one beautiful interface. Download it http://bit.ly/pulsedl

Their app is awesome and it’s free for your iPhone, iPad and Android device.

http://www.prorumors.com/free-agents-2010

It features a sortable list of players, their free agent status, arbitration status, old and new teams with contracts.   Check it out!

From the PRO Rumors team of Allan, Ryan, Juan, Ted, Kevin, Santhi and Grace, we’d like to wish you, your friends and family a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

We’ll be around, so if you’re bored or tired of watching football or playing in your annual Turkey Bowl please come by throughout the day to http://www.prorumors.com.  Or better yet sign up for PRO Rumors to get Instant Action Email and Text alerts or familiarize yourself with Spanish hot stove rumors using PRO Rumors en Español.

Check out the PRO Rumors 2010 Free Agent and Arbitration Tracker here.

By Tuesday evening (midnight EST), November 22, 2010, teams will have to make a decision on whether or not to offer their free agents arbitration.

For some teams, it’s a big decision. Depending on the player, if a team offers them arbitration and they decide to go elsewhere then the team could be entitled to one or two compensation draft picks. A good example is today’s decision by the Philadelphia Phillies to offer Jayson Werth arbitration. Because if Werth goes to another team, they’ll get two draft picks. Otherwise, if he decides to stay, then the Phillies will be entitled to sign him for a one-year contract at a reasonable salary.

Should a team offer arbitration, and the player accepts then a team could be stuck with the player that it may not want and it loses potential draft picks.

To make things simple, PRO Rumors has created a 2010 free agent and arbitration tracker.  You can see it here:

http://www.prorumors.com/free-agents-2010

This feature was requested by one of our daily readers such as the Instant Action Email and Text Alerts and the many features on the iPhone app.  We’ll continue to add additional features to the tracker as we feel necessary.

If you have a great idea, then please feel free to send an email to support@prorumors.com and we’ll see if we can create it.  Happy Hot Stove!