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    Tim Brown

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    Tim Brown is an award-winning writer with 20 years of experience covering Major League Baseball at the Los Angeles Times, Newark Star-Ledger, Cincinnati Enquirer and Los Angeles Daily News. He studied journalism at the University of Southern California and Cal State Northridge.

    • Can Rays afford to keep ace David Price in Tampa? 'I don't want to sell myself short'

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Wed, Jan 16, 2013 9:48 PM EST

      LOS ANGELES – The question put to David Price was about where it all leads, which was somewhat unfair, because he couldn't possibly know.

      He is 27, has an American League Cy Young Award coming to him this weekend in New York City, is 61-31 over the past four seasons and just agreed to a salary of $10.1 million, the most his organization has paid a player for a single season.

      While that tells the pleasant story of a young man who, like the team he plays for, became a small-market winner in a large-market world, he perhaps has initiated the unavoidable and unpleasant process of un-becoming a Tampa Bay Ray, simply by being among the best at what he does. David Price is headed to New York this weekend to collect his Cy Young hardware. (AP)

      The Rays near a season in which one-quarter of their payroll will go to Price and third baseman Evan Longoria, and nearly one-third to Price, Longoria and shortstop Ben Zobrist. Under that burden, over time, an otherwise working business model begins to rattle.

      This is not simply a Rays problem, of course. Plenty of teams in

      Read More »

    • No. 21 Cubs: In full rebuilding mode, Chicago won't be much better but it has Anthony Rizzo

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Tue, Jan 15, 2013 9:42 PM EST
      Editor's note: Yahoo! Sports will examine the offseason of every MLB team before spring training begins in mid-February. Our series continues with the Chicago Cubs.

      2012 record: 61-101
      Finish: Fifth, NL Central
      2012 final payroll: $107.7 million
      Estimated 2013 opening day payroll: $103 million
      Yahoo! Sports offseason rank: 21
      Hashtags: #1908 #105yearplan #teardown #rebuild #again #sveumtimenextyear #taooftheo #stillcursed #hexorcism

      OFFSEASON ACTION

      Competency is out there somewhere, we assume. Too many intellects in the front office. Too many prospects in the system. Too much revenue to burn. Too much bad luck, bad leadership, bad karma, bat at-bats, bad everything … not to turn. Right?

      Wind-whipped for more than a century, the Cubs again seek the leeward side of the game. Remember those two NL Central titles from late last decade? All that momentum? Well, 97 wins became 83, which is when the Tribune Company bolted, selling to Joe Ricketts and clan. Then 83 became 75,

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    • No. 22 Padres: Chase Headley's breakout season a sign of club emerging as NL sleeper?

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Mon, Jan 14, 2013 11:36 PM EST
      Editor's note: Yahoo! Sports will examine the offseason of every MLB team before spring training begins in mid-February. Our series continues with the San Diego Padres.

      MLB Springboards: No. 30 Astros | No. 29 Marlins | No. 28 Mets | No. 27 Rockies | No. 26 Twins | No. 25 Pirates | No. 24 Indians | No. 23 Mariners | No. 22 Padres | No. 21 Cubs | No. 20 Brewers | No. 19 Red Sox | No. 18 White Sox | No. 17 Royals | No. 16 Orioles | No. 15 Phillies | No. 14 Diamondbacks | No. 13 Athletics | No. 12 Rangers | No. 11 Yankees | No. 10 Rays | No. 9 Cardinals | No. 8 Giants | No. 7 Tigers

      2012 record: 76-86

      Finish: Fourth, NL West
      2012 final payroll: $62.9 million
      Estimated 2013 opening day payroll: $65 million
      Yahoo! Sports offseason rank: 22
      Hashtags: #headleycompany #grandalseizure #intimatePetco #Qrating #chasefield #overyonder #gyorkopark #fowlerball

      OFFSEASON ACTION

      In a winter in which they had options, the Padres chose to believe in what they are. They re-signed

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    • No. 23 Mariners: Road to relevance begins with altering Safeco, trading for Kendrys Morales

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Sat, Jan 12, 2013 7:19 PM EST

      Editor's note: Yahoo! Sports will examine the offseason of every MLB team before spring training begins in mid-February. Our series continues with the Seattle Mariners.

      Other MLB Springboards: No. 30 Astros | No. 29 Marlins | Mets | No. 27 Rockies | No. 26 Twins | No. 25 Pirates | No. 24 Indians

      2012 record: 75-87
      Finish: Fourth, AL West
      2012 final payroll: $84.5 million
      Estimated 2013 opening day payroll: $71 million
      Yahoo! Sports offseason rank: 23
      Hashtags: #619runs #ibanez3 #solongfiggy #lagginballZ #wheresichiro #thekingandi(wakuma) #sendalimoforastros #kendryspop #blamethefences #baywatch

      OFFSEASON ACTION

      After four seasons spent dead last in the American League in runs, the Mariners experienced an epiphany: it was the ballpark's fault. (And Chone Figgins'.)

      Actually, for the first time in that period of offensive listlessness, the 2012 splits clearly supported such a notion. So, by 4 to 17 feet and from foul pole to foul pole, Safeco Field's fences were dragged

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    • No. 24 Indians: Now equipped to score runs, Cleveland's rotation takes center stage

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Fri, Jan 11, 2013 1:00 PM EST
      Editor’s note: Yahoo! Sports will examine the offseason of every MLB team before spring training begins in mid-February. Our series continues with the Cleveland Indians.

      2012 record: 68-94
      Finish: Fourth, AL Central
      2012 final payroll: $69.2 million
      Estimated 2013 opening day payroll: $72 million
      Yahoo! Sports offseason rank: 24
      Hashtags: #swishalicious #supernatural #returnoftito #thedrummer #trevortime #kip #theU #butnoO #orP

      OFFSEASON ACTION

      When the promise of 80 wins in 2011 became the reality of 94 losses in 2012, when the headiness of July relevance became a five-win August, when a crappy division still wasn’t enough to keep them around, the Indians needed change. As in, something new. As in, that stuff clanging around in Larry Dolan’s pocket.

      Ubaldo Jimenez finished the 2012 season 9-17 with a 5.40 ERA. (AP)

      The third winter of Chris Antonetti in the GM seat has, in fact, seen the Indians reconsider their middle management and, to some degree, a roster that presented a pitching staff and offense that were among the American League’s

      Read More »

    • Arizona's Justin Upton nixes trade to Mariners

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Thu, Jan 10, 2013 9:28 PM EST

      Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Justin Upton blocked a trade Thursday that would have sent him to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for four players.

      The Diamondbacks have long sought to trade the talented, 25-year-old right fielder and appeared to find a match with the Mariners, who possess one of the deeper farm systems – and one of the weakest offenses – in the game.

      Justin Upton doesn't seem to like the direction the Mariners are headed. (Getty)

      Upton's contract, which will pay him $38.5 million over the next three seasons, allows him to veto trades to four teams. The Mariners are on that list. It is not known if Upton has time to reconsider, given the alternative is to play for an organization that is eager to trade him.

      Fox Sports first reported Upton had nixed the trade. According to CBS Sports, the Diamondbacks were to receive infielder Nick Franklin, relievers Charlie Furbush and Stephen Pryor and one of three pitching prospects: Taijuan Walker, Danny Hultzen or James Paxton.

      [Related: Bryce Harper lobbies for MLB '13 cover]

      The Read More »

    • Cooperstown or bust: Pete Rose dives into reality TV, laments recent HOF shutout and his own exile

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Thu, Jan 10, 2013 8:30 PM EST

      SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. – In the hours after the most controversial Hall of Fame vote in history and at the far end of the darkest era the sport has ever seen, Pete Rose is here to say he is absolutely in favor of artificial enhancement.

      The bigger the better says the Hit King, who, incidentally, wears that moniker – "HIT KING" – not on his sleeve, but embroidered into the right collar of his dress shirt. He's dining in a private room at Sisley Italian Kitchen on the corner of Ventura and Sepulveda boulevards. Reporters – some sports, some entertainment, his fiancée, his fiancée's 14-year-old daughter and his agent Dan Goossen, the fight promoter, surround him. Pete Rose and his fiancee Kiana Kim will star in a reality show. (TLC)

      Pete looks good at 71, even beside his future wife, who goes about four decades younger, has posed for Playboy, and on Thursday arrived in a snug tan dress that spoke to the Playboy interest.

      Anyway, Pete and Kiana (along with her daughter Cassie and son Ashton) star in a new reality show, "Pete Rose: Hits and Mrs." that

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    • No. 25 Pirates: Nearing end of dubious streak?

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Thu, Jan 10, 2013 9:53 AM EST

      Editor's note: Yahoo! Sports will examine the offseason of every MLB team before spring training begins in mid-February. Our series continues with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

      2012 record: 79-83
      Finish: Fourth, NL Central
      2012 final payroll: $61.3 million
      Estimated 2013 opening day payroll: $66 million
      Yahoo! Sports offseason rank: 25
      Hashtags: #hokahey #gooddaytodie #20 #witherfamily #dudewheresmycloser #cowerofZoltan #waittilnextgeneration #cutchnstuff

      OFFSEASON ACTION

      The Pirates secured their 20th consecutive non-winning season on Sept. 28, a night they were no-hit by Cincinnati Reds right-hander Homer Bailey. The loss was their 81st of 2012. Two days later, No. 82 arrived – as did their 20th consecutive losing season, the longest in North American professional sports – on, yes, Fan Appreciation Day.

      That's style, folks.

      If only the Pirates had simply slogged through another stinker. Instead, they'd again promised more. In early August they'd been competitive, standing a mere

      Read More »

    • Judgment day: Steroid era dealt first big blow

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Wed, Jan 9, 2013 7:25 PM EST

      There’s plenty left to believe in. Just maybe not today, when neither seven MVP awards nor seven Cy Young awards could justify the alleged means.

      Not 762 home runs or 354 wins, not public hangings or courtroom acquittals, not hundreds of millions earned playing the game or tens of millions subsequently spent defending the methods, none of it rose to the rather fluid standards of baseball’s Hall of Fame.

      Roger Clemens throws a pitch during a 2007 game. (AP)

      On a day when 569 voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America could not agree on a single worthy candidate, Barry Bonds, the greatest hitter in the game, fell short by 221 votes. Roger Clemens, the best pitcher of his generation, missed by 213.

      The outcome will be viewed as overdue justice or an outrageous injustice, depending on your heart and timeline. The system worked or it is irretrievably broken. The ballot was a statement. Or an exercise in mass confusion, coupled with dereliction of duty.

      Near the end, Hall president Jeff Idelson, a good man in

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    • Red Sox, Mike Napoli in contract stare down; Adam LaRoche appears Plan B for Boston

      By Tim Brown | Yahoo! Sports – Thu, Jan 3, 2013 7:11 PM EST

      Winter drifts by, the jobs too, and Mike Napoli is a Boston Red Sox player in MRI alone.

      The Red Sox say they have nothing to report. Napoli's agent, Brian Grieper, says, as he did again Thursday afternoon, "We just don't feel the need to comment until this gets resolved."

      Adam LaRoche (and a forfeited draft pick to the Washington Nationals) has become Plan B. Meantime, at the top of the Red Sox depth chart at first base: Mauro Gomez. At catcher: Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

      Thirty-two days since they agreed to a three-year, $39 million contract, almost that long since the required physical, the Red Sox and Napoli remain in limbo. The issue, according to sources, is a hip condition Napoli may or may not have known about before the Red Sox got into his medicals, and then how the club can protect itself from it.Mike Napoli and the Red Sox haven't come to an official agreement as of Thursday. (AP)

      The team's preference is Napoli over LaRoche, both for the preserved draft pick and the right-handed power bat. Napoli's preference, presumably, is the Red Sox and Fenway

      Read More »

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    • Tim Brown

      Tim Brown is an award-winning writer with 20 years of experience covering Major …