AGRI Biz

Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said this weekend that he will likely have new acquisition Chone Figgins play second base, and move incumbent second baseman Jose Lopez to Figgins' primary spot over the past three seasons, third base.  Figgins will bat second behind Ichiro in the Seattle order, while Lopez will bat fifth and sixth with about equal frequency. None of that changes with the position flip-flop, and so obviously, the ...

Eight years and $184 million can do a lot of things, but prying inexpensive, top-tier closing talent away from a small-market club is a gargantuan task, regardless of the resources available. Yet if the Minnesota Twins have any designs on persuading the San Diego Padres to part with their All-Star closer, Heath Bell, they took the first and most important step on Sunday. That is when they agreed to a mega-deal with ...

With just two weeks to go until Opening Day, the Chicago Cubs spent the weekend crystallizing a number of hazily defined roles on their 2010 club. To the established bullpen core of right-handers Carlos Marmol and Esmailin Caridad and lefty John Grabow, manager Lou Piniella added young right-handed fireballer Justin Berg. Berg, 25, allowed just 10 hits and one walk during his 12-inning audition at the end of last season. This ...

On the pre-game radio show before the Chicago Cubs' Tuesday Cactus League match-up with the Texas Rangers, manager Lou Piniella set forth his projected lineup for Opening Day 2010. It included few surprises, but certainly answered some questions about how Piniella intends to build his offense this season, and about who has managed to impress him most during Spring Training. Here is the lineup as Piniella recited it, along with a brief ...

With slugging first baseman Lance Berkman sidelined until at least Opening Day, the Houston Astros are in serious danger of a second straight anemic season at the plate. In 2009, the Astros finished 14th in the National League in runs scored, 12th in home runs, and 15th in walks. Much of the problem stemmed from Berkman's inability to stay healthy. In 136 games (his fewest since 2005), Berkman had only 562 plate ...

Fantasy baseball drafts are happening in peak volume across the country this week and next, and in nine out of 10 of those drafts, Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay will be the first two pitchers off the board. Lincecum and Halladay are the premier starting pitchers in the game, particularly for fantasy owners. They are durable, strike batters out in bunches and have great control. Unfortunately, both Lincecum and Halladay will come ...

Starlin Castro is not yet a 20-year-old. He stands six-feet tall, but weighs less than 165 pounds. Yet, he is the top prospect in the Chicago Cubs organization, and to this point, he is the Cactus League leader in on-base plus slugging (OPS). It is an exceptionally good time to be Starlin Castro. Unfortunately, it may turn out to be an equally bad time to be a Chicago Cubs fan. If ...

When Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry set out to trade suspended outfield pariah Milton Bradley this off-season, he must have known he had relatively little chance of obtaining much in return. Bradley was ready to depart his seventh team in ten big-league seasons, and all but one of the divorces had been messy affairs. Considering his predicament, then, Hendry could have done worse than he did. Chicago acquired pitcher Carlos ...

It's hard to know what happened, exactly, but Mike Fontenot's career fell right out from under him in 2009. Fontenot, who will turn 30 in June this year, entered last season as the Cubs' starter at second base. While many players and fans missed the affable Mark DeRosa's clubhouse presence, Fontenot's 2008 season provided ample evidence that DeRosa's on-field skill set was expendable. In 284 plate appearances, Fontenot batted .305/.395/.514. Those ...

In the bleak mid-winter of February in Chicago, it is hard to imagine that baseball's Opening Day is less than seven weeks from this gray, wintry afternoon on the shores of Lake Michigan. Such is the case, though, and so, as pitchers and catchers congregate in Arizona to prepare for the upcoming 2010 season, it is time to look at some of the most pressing questions facing the Cubbies this year. á 1. ...