Thursday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while preparing for some time with the in-laws.

So now even The Official Site is saying the Mike Cameron deal is dead. The New York Daily News says it's unlikely the Brewers will find another team willing to take on Cameron's $10 million salary, which still doesn't seem excessive to me. Part of me is still a little edgy about all of this and remembers the rumors about Sabathia rejecting the Yankees offer the day before he agreed to terms, but it appears this one might be over.

Meanwhile, "still developing" is the nice way of describing the market for Ben Sheets. MLB FanHouse thinks Sheets might be this year's Kyle Lohse, still on the market well into spring training. I tend to think that honor will fall to Oliver Perez, but it realistically could happen to both.

Chone Smith's projections for Brewer hitters for 2009 are up at his new site, BaseballProjection.com. Expanded projections and pitchers are supposed to be up soon, as well.

Yes, it is this slow of a news day: CC Sabathia's Yankee uniform will have somewhere between 62 and 64 pinstripes.

Around the minors, there's only a couple of hours left to vote on the Brewers #1 prospect in our Community Prospect Rankings. As of this writing Alcides Escobar has opened up a 27 vote lead after trailing Mat Gamel most of the day yesterday. I'll close the voting at noon central time today and post the voting for #2.

Also, in Nashville, the Sounds' new ownership has worked out a lease to keep the team in Greer Stadium in Nashville and possibly look into building a new stadium to replace a park consistently rated as one of the worst in the minors. It sounds like new ownership is the first step towards a repaired relationship with the city.

It appears the Marlins may have made a mistake non-tendering reliever Joe Nelson. Nineteen teams have reportedly expressed interest in signing him, leading me to believe someone, somewhere would have been interested in trading for him.

Elsewhere on the hot stove:

Dodgers: May have agreed to a deal with Rafael Furcal after all. This time, don't believe it until there's ink on paper.
Orioles: Are reportedly out of the running for Mark Teixiera.
Padres: Are looking to add a middle infielder, and Omar Vizquel, David Eckstein and Mark Grudzielanek's names have come up. Surprisingly, Craig Counsell's has not.
Pirates: Are reportedly pursuing Ray King.
Reds: Would reportedly like to add an outfielder. Juan Rivera, Ty Wigginton, Jerry Hairston and Willy Taveras have come up.

How much does humidity impact a baseball? How much farther will a ball fly in Colorado than in San Diego? Is there a factor beyond the Rangers' awful pitching that leads to the high scoring in Texas? Beyond the Box Score has a great look at factors that impact runs scored at MLB parks.

Maybe the MLB Network can pick up that topic in February. Here's a look at what they're doing in January.

Here's my favorite new minor league logo. Check out the new logo for the Charlotte Stone Crabs (Florida State League).

Oh, and I'm not doing the whole Christmas tree thing this year, but if I did I'd be all over this idea.

Drink up.