Last season, Owings posted a 3.57 era while going 8-0 in 33 appearances with the Diamondbacks while working out of the bullpen.

In 2007, Owings posted a .333 batting average in 60 at-bats with the D’backs as he will routinely hit for himself even when pitching out of the bullpen.

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Eckstein has played ten Major League seasons with the Angels, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks and Padres. He is a lifetime .280/.345/.355 hitter with 35 HR’s and 392 RBI’s. He also has two World Series rings, one with the Angels in 2002 and one with the Cardinals in 2006.

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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

Rizzo who appeared to be blocked now by the recent acquisition of Yonder Alonso will be reunited with his old bosses, Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2007 draft while in Boston. Rizzo was traded to the Padres last offseason as a piece of the Adrian Gonzalez trade.

Rizzo hit only .141 in 151 at-bats but posted better numbers at Triple-A hitting .331.

Cashner posted a 1.69 ERA in 10 2/3 innings as he was dealt with rotator cuff issues this past season.

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Quentin who had a career year in 2008 when he hit .286 with 36 home runs and 100 RBIs, has seen his production slip where he hit .254 with 24 home runs and 77 RBIs. Though even with the numbers he put up last season, Quentin will become the biggest power threat in a power hunger San Diego lineup.

Quentin made $5.05mm last year in arbitration and is under team control for one more season.

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The deal was first reported by Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.

Image by SD Dirk under the Creative Commons License.

Image by SD Dirk under the Creative Commons License.

Yesterday, we learned that the Rockies were actively shopping Street, and that they were willing to eat the reminder of his contract in exchange of prospects.

Street was 1-4 with a 3.86 ERA with 29 saves in 58.1 innings with the Rockies in 2011.

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–According to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com, Pujols is down to choosing between the Cardinals and Marlins. The Angels, Cubs and all other mystery teams appear to be out.

– The Phillies are no longer shopping Placido Polanco and they’re “backing off” Aramis Ramirez, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports.

– A deal for Albert Pujols may be done tonight with the Marlins.  A 10-year, $220 million deal is believed to be on the table and the Cardinals are asked to match it.  (Andy Martino, New York Daily News)

– According to Buster Olney of ESPN and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, the Cardinals are making Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook available for a trade.

– The New York Mets are closing on a late-inning reliever, Joel Sherman of The New York Post reports.

– The Cleveland Indians are willing to trade a reliever in order to get a right handed bat at first base or in the outfield according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.

– The Colorado Rockies continue to shop Huston Street according to Jayson Stark of ESPN. He says that the Rockies are willing to eat the reminder of his contract in exchange of prospects. He also adds that the Padres could be a possibility.

– The San Francisco Giants are attempting to move Jeff Keppinger, Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports. He adds that the team is planning to keep left handed pitcher Jeremy Affeldt

– According to Buster Olney of ESPN, the Kansas City Royals are interested in A’s starters Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill, but Olney says that the A’s will ask for Mike Moustakas, Will Myers or Eric Hosmer in any deal.

– The Cincinnati Reds are looking for a number two starter, and according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports, they are “very interested” in Braves’ Jair Jurrjens.

– The St. Louis Cardinals are apparently shopping right handed pitcher Kyle Lohse in order to make room for left handed pitcher Mark Buehrle according to Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune

– The Mets talked to Jason Isringhausen about a possible return according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports. He adds that the Mets will offer “less than the stars and the moon.”

– The Miami Marlins have offered a ten-year deal to free agent Albert Pujols. (Jon Heyman, CBSSports)

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– Five teams (including the Texas Rangers) are in the hunt for C.J. Wilson and one of them has made a six-year offer.  (Jeff Wilson, Star-Telegram)

– The Twins, Nationals, Marlins and Rangers are in on Mark Buehrle. (Ken Rosenthal, FOX Sports)

– The Royals, Marlins, Twins, Athletics and Mariners are interested in Carlos Guillen. (Enrique Rojas, ESPNDeportesLosAngeles)

– According to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post, the Miami Marlins (formerly Florida Marlins), plan to tender Juan Carlos Oviedo (formerly Leo Nunez).

– The Tigers, Blue Jays and Padres have inquired about Daniel Murphy from the Mets. (Joel Sherman, The New York Post)

– The Arizona Diamondbacks are looking for a starter, and according to Steve Henson of Yahoo Sports, they’re targeting right handed pitcher Hiroki Kuroda.

– Josh Willingham have been contacted by nine teams according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN. That list includes the Twins, Red Sox, Indians and Reds adds Crasnick.

– Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post says that the Philadelphia Phillies are “strong players”for third baseman Aramis Ramirez.

– The Los Angeles Angels have been inquiring about Andrew Bailey according to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.

– The St. Louis Cardinals have been talking to Octavio Dotel according to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated.

– The Pittsburgh Pirates “may add another outfielder” according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports. And according to sources close to him, they are interested in former Pirate Nate McLouth.

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Dodgers GM, Ned Colleti, told Jim Bowden of ESPN.com that the deal is close but not done yet. Harang was 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA in 170.2 innings in 28 starts with the Padres in 2011.

Image by Sonnett under the Creative Commons License.

The signing was first reported by Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated.

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Bell received plenty of interest as the Padres offered Bell a two-year contract a few weeks ago. The Blue Jays were also reportedly making a strong push for Bell, with the Red Sox and Angels also showing some level of interest.

The Marlins current closer, Juan Oviedo or formly known as Leo Nunez will be non-tendered, Jim Bowden of ESPN.com reports. Nunez made headlines this offseason due to his identity-discrepancy issue.

Don’t forget to check out our free agent tracker to see what closers are left on the market.

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The Marlins and Blue Jays are known to be looking for an experienced closer, but you can never count the Red Sox out who recently lost their closer. Another team that has to be in the mix is the Angels who are in need of bullpen help and are just north of where Bell currently lives at in San Diego.

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In the book’s preface, the author quotes work done by a Manhattan lawyer named Doug Pappas. Pappas, says that a team with only minimum wage players, both on the Major League roster and the rest of the 40-man, would still probably win 49 out of the 162 games played.

In 2011, the minimum wage for a player on the 25-man roster was $414,500. The minimum wage for a player on the 40-man roster, with at least one day of MLB service time or had been on the 40-man roster for a year was $67,300.

The minimum that a team could spend on their 40-man roster in 2011 was: $11,397,000. That’s $10,387,500 for their 25-man roster and $1,009,500 for the rest of their 40-man roster. If a team could get approximately 49 wins with a $11,397,000 payroll, that means that if you divide the total wins a team got above their 49th win by the total dollars they paid over the minimum, you get the “price” each team paid for each win they got.

After this brief introduction of the “marginal win” formula, I’m going to say what this report is all about. I’m going to analyze the “price” for each win a team got in 2011 so we can determine which teams were the most cost effective. Besides that, I’m going to list the top 5 paid players on each team and give you their performance line, to see how much they actually contributed to their team.

I’ll also list each team’s OBP, runs and SLG totals so we can see for ourselves how related these stats are at the moment of scoring runs and winning games. So get ready to experience a thoughtful analysis of every 2011 Major league team.

The team’s payroll was taken from USA Today and the individuals salaries from About.com.

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LeBlanc, 26, was 5-6 with the Padres in 2011 with a 4.63 ERA in 14 starts.

Baker, 30, played in 30 games for the Marlins in 2011.  In 212 (112 games in 2009) Major League games over four seasons, Baker has hit .271/.356/.401.

Image by Bryce Edwards under the Creative Commons License.

The 26-year-old played 21 games for the Padres in 2008.  In 57 at-bats, he hit .193/.292/.281 with one home run and three RBI’s.

Image by dherrera_96 Under the Creative Commons License

Image by Eric Kilby under the Creative Commons License.

At the July trade deadline, several teams were rumored to be interested in the All Star closer to help them for their pennant run.  Candidates includes the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals.

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-According to the Associated Press (via Sports Illustrated), the St. Louis Cardinals have decided to decline their options on right handed pitcher Octavio Dotel ($3.5 million), short stop Rafael Furcal ($12 million) and outfielder Corey Patterson ($1.1 million).

-Tha Arizona Diamondbacks exercised their option on Henry Blanco and Willie Bloomquist according to the team official Twitter account. They also announced they have declined their options on Zach Duke and Aaron Hill.

-According to the Tampa Bay Tribune, the Tampa Bay Rays have picked up Kyle Farnsworth’s option for 2012. The team also announced they declined Kelly Shoppach’s option.

-The Texas Rangers exercised their option on right handed pitcher Yoshinori Tateyama according to John Blake, the VP of Communications for the Rangers.

-The San Diego Padres declined their options on right handers Aaron Harang and Chad Qualls and outfielder Brad Hawpe.

-The Toronto Blue Jays exercised Edwin Encarnacion’s option for 2012 while declining Jon Rauch’s option.

-According to his agent, Page Odle, the Tampa Bay Rays have picked up James Shields‘ $7.5 million option for 2012 (via Joe Smith of the St. Petersburg Times).

-The Kansas City Royals have exercised their option on Joakim Soria according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.

-The Cincinnati Reds have exercised Brandon Phillips‘ option for 2012 and declined Francisco Cordero’s option according to the team’s official Twitter account.

-Right handed pitcher David Aardsma has elected free agency after clearing waivers according to Buster Olney of ESPN.

-The Texas Rangers have picked up Colby Lewis‘ option for 2012 according to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

-According to Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago White Sox have picked up Jason Frasor’s option for next season.

-The Boston Red Sox have decided to decline their options on Dan Wheeler ($3 million) and Scott Atchison (Major League minimum plus $200,000) according to Maureen Mullen.

-Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com says that the Atlanta Braves have picked up Eric Hinske’s option for 2012. He adds that the team decided to decline Nate McLouth’s option.

-The Pittsburgh Pirates also declined their options on shortstop Ronny Cedeno and catchers Ryan Doumit and Chris Snyder according to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

-The Cleveland Indians are picking up Fausto Carmona’s option according to the team’s official Twitter account. The team also announced they have declined Grady Sizemore’s option for 2012.

-The Pittsburgh Pirates officially announced they’re not picking up Paul Maholm’s option for 2012 according to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

-According to Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post, the Colorado Rockies have declined their option on right handed pitcher Aaron Cook.

-Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Aramis Ramirez has exercised a clause in his contract and is voiding the his 2012 option ($16mm club option) as well as the $2mm buyout, thus making him a free agent.

-According to a source close to Dan Hayes of the North County  Times, Aaron Harang declined his side of his $5mm mutual option. Though a return to the Padres has not been ruled out.

-According to Matthew Leach of MLB.com, the World Champion Cardinals have exercised Yadier Molina’s $7 mm club option.

-The Brewers have declined Francisco Rodriguez’s $17.5 mm club option as well as Yuniesky Betancourt’s $6mm option Adam McCalvy of   MLB.com reports.

-The Red Sox who will start their manager search later this week, have picked up the $6mm option on shortstop Marco Scutaro, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reports.

-The Giants fresh off their resigning of Javier Lopez to a two-year deal, have exercised Jeremy Affeldt’s $5mm option, reports Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.

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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

Wuertz pitched only 33.2 innings this year for the Athletics and had a 6.68 ERA.

Scribner had a 7.07 ERA in 14 innings and Hunter hit .250/.400/.250 in 4 AB’s for for the Padres in 2011.

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In an email, Byrnes said, “Hopefully we’ll know soon,”, but when reached by phone, Hoyer said: `’I'm not commenting on anything.”

Byrnes, the team’s current vice president of baseball operations, had previous experience in the GM position when he worked with the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2005 to 2010.

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated reported earlier that Hoyer will john Theo Epstein as one of his top executives once Epstein’s deal with the Cubs is finalized.

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