Tim Lincecum(notes) is due a large raise.

Fortunately, baseball has a system in place for the occasion.

It's called salary arbitration, and Lincecum has been around just long enough to qualify for the first time. Conveniently for him, it arrives just in time to celebrate his second consecutive Cy Young Award. The system has never processed anyone quite like Lincecum, and now the question it might have to consider about his 2010 salary is this: Is 23 million and one dollars a starting point, an ending point or just some wild concept hatched to ratchet up the final number another hundred grand or two?

Tim Lincecum, who won his second consecutive Cy Young Award on Friday, could file for $23 million at arbitration.
(Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Baseball shudders. It hates wild concepts.

Soon, San Francisco Giants owner Bill Neukom and his GM, Brian Sabean, will submit what they believe Lincecum should earn for 2010. The agents at Beverly Hills Sports Council, in this case headed by Rick

Baseball's period of negotiating exclusivity concluded Thursday, the result being a few home-field signings (Ken Griffey Jr.(notes), Bobby Abreu(notes), Tim Wakefield(notes), etc.) and, importantly, the Yankees buying enough time for their organizational meetings and to – get this – present general manager Brian Cashman with his payroll budget.

I'm sure that'll be arriving any minute now.

By gilded palanquin, on the backs of six interns.

Many teams could use a strong corner outfielder like free agent Matt Holliday
(Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Any payroll that starts with a 2 does not count as a budget any more than a Diet Coke with that double cheeseburger and chili fries qualifies as restraint.

This is among the biggest days of the year at Scott Boras Corp., when franchise owners are cordially invited to lose their fiscal minds. The best part, the spirit of it all lasts for months, ending, usually, with Boras himself waving from the balcony while the crowds below cheer.

Like his Mark

A day had passed since Zack Greinke(notes) had become a Cy Young Award recipient and Allard Baird's cell phone began to take on text messages. Baird had since resisted the urge to contact Greinke, because he surmised Greinke would be well past uncomfortable about the whole thing by then. The last thing he'd want, Baird knew, was one more happy message to respond to.

Royals ace Zack Greinke won the AL Cy Young Award after finishing the season 16-18 with a major league-low 2.16 ERA.
(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Baird was once general manager of the Kansas City Royals and now is an assistant to Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. He had attended an Arizona Fall League game, the Surprise Rafters at the Mesa Solar Sox, when his phone started clattering. He'd left the general managers meetings in Chicago for Phoenix and another look at a lot of good young hitters, not giving much thought to the regular season or its awards or, for that matter, FIP.

Yet, there it was.

Zack Greinke,

Earlier in the offseason, Josh Byrnes had a trade for a first baseman – Lyle Overbay(notes) – fall through, so it was perhaps with some relief that the Arizona Diamondbacks general manager bumped into his fallback first baseman Tuesday afternoon.

Conor Jackson(notes), who missed the last five months of a dreadful Diamondbacks season because of valley fever, had returned from the Dominican Republic on Monday night. He'd batted .425 with two home runs, 16 RBIs and nine stolen bases in 23 games for Leones del Escogido (and manager Ken Oberkfell), this after participating fully in the instructional league.

Valley fever, caused by fungi in desert soil and contracted primarily in the Southwest, can become extremely serious, and Jackson had a particularly nasty case. So to see Jackson full of confidence and in good spirits was a relief to Byrnes.

''I'm back to normal,'' Byrnes said Jackson told him, adding, ''I'm fine.''

A healthy Jackson and a healthy Brandon Webb(notes) are critical for the

Dan Uggla(notes), being shopped by the Florida Marlins, will resist plans to move him to third base or the outfield, his agent said Friday morning.

Uggla has corner infield and outfield pop, hitting at least 31 home runs in each of the past three seasons, but his strong preference is to remain at second base, Jeff Borris said.

“Danny Uggla's been a full-time second baseman for the last four years,” he said. “He's performed exceptionally well at that position. Although he has the athleticism to play other positions, he's performed remarkably over these four years at second base and there should be no reason to consider a position change at this time.”

The Marlins are expected to trade Uggla for financial reasons. He made $5.35 million in '09 and has two more arbitration years before free agency.

Uggla has little leverage to insist on one position over another, other than the obvious benefit of a club keeping its players relatively satisfied. In four major league seasons, Uggla has not

Mark McGwire is his own man. The St. Louis Cardinals are their own organization.

They carried each other for a while going on a decade ago, making each other rich and relevant and, I don't know, complicit.

If they want to join up again, as they seem intent on doing, then they should have at it. They can continue covering for each other. Cardinals management extends a hand to a fallen man and what it seems to think is the best hitting coach available. McGwire shows the fellas how he used to hit 'em 480 feet. It's bliss.

Tony La Russa is pleased to have him back in the uniform. Bud Selig is terribly annoyed – sorry, "delighted" – to have him back in the game. McGwire, we can assume, is happy to be back among the employed. We have to assume, because he hasn't actually said anything yet, keeping alive his Ripken-ian streak that began That Day.

Funny thing about That Day, actually. It feels like yesterday. If the Cardinals or McGwire thought enough time has passed, that enough A-Rods and

As he was in midsummer, Roy Halladay(notes) is in winter the player who would most enhance ballclubs from Los Angeles to Texas to New York.

Not Matt Holliday(notes) or Jason Bay(notes).

And not John Lackey(notes).

Certainly not Aroldis Chapman.

They are the headliner free agents in an offseason market that won't bear much in the way of lineup upgrades, franchise perceptions or ticket sales.

They're OK. In many cases they are better than what's already there, and in all cases they'll leave teams figuring ways to make up their production.

He is Roy Halladay, so different. He's an ace in all ways. No one goes innings, finishes games, throws shutouts, stifles offenses and wins games, all those equine-ish things combined, with Doc.

He won't be a free agent until next winter, which is why the Blue Jays for months have tried to hock Halladay, and why this time it has to work or they'll have missed the chance forever. He's lost value from July until now, and will lose value again if the Jays

NEW YORK – Hours after the Yankees had won and played all the happy songs, Hank Steinbrenner stood in the cold outside Yankee Stadium early Thursday morning drawing hot breaths through a cigarette.

Hal Steinbrenner (R) shows off the spoils of victory on Wednesday, when the Yankees won their 27th World Series title.

(Getty Images)

Nearby, town car drivers, many of them shouting in Spanish, hustled for one more fare back to the city, 30 bucks to the Upper East Side, 40 to Midtown. At almost 3 a.m., traffic was still heavy and the sound of car horns was routine.

The Yankees were back after almost a decade.

Steinbrenner leaned on an arm rail, both arms ahead of him and locked at the elbows like he was being frisked. He wore a navy blazer, but nothing to resist the elements. You wonder if he'd gotten around to thinking about what all this meant for him and for his brother Hal.

Their ailing, elderly father, George, had been delivered to and picked up from the ballpark for earlier games