Jay Jaffe on Jorge Posada. "Was Jorge the Yankees' MVP last season? In a year which saw Derek Jeter miss six weeks with a dislocated shoulder, Bernie Williams undergo knee surgery, Jason Giambi struggle with eye and knee problems, and Nick Johnson break his hand, Posada's got a pretty solid case." (Bronx Banter)

2004 Milwaukee Brewers team preview. (Batter's Box)

Know Your Enemy - Part I - The Reds. (The Big Red C)

Prospectus Triple Play: Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals, Philadelphia Phillies. "Quick--name the last time Allard Baird made a mistake! If you had to think long and hard before coming up with an answer, well, you're not alone. Baird has followed a season in which the Royals improved by 21 wins, the most in the majors, with an essentially flawless off-season." (Baseball Prospectus)

Chicago Cubs 2004 Preview. (Batter's Box)

Aaron Gleeman: "No team in the history of baseball struck out more batters than the 2003 Chicago Cubs. I don't know about you, but that seems to me like it should have been a much bigger deal last season." (Aaron's Baseball Blog)

San Diego Padres Preview. "The Padre lineup is my biggest reason for thinking the Padres could be this years’ sleeper team and sneak past the Giants into the playoffs. Whereas San Francisco is essentially built on a single incredibly good hitter, the 2004 San Diego attack revolves around three legitimate mashers and four other players who could very well be in the top five in the league at their respective positions." (Batter's Box)

San Francisco Giants Preview. "Despite the off-season losses, despite the certainty of 170 walks for Bonds, despite the Vortex Of Infinite Negativity at shortstop, this team looks as good as last year's. So much so that I declare them to be Smooth Johnny Gizzi's Lock to win the NL West." (Batter's Box)

Detroit Tigers Preview. Robert Dudek: "I've just finished reading The Curse of Rocky Colavito by Terry Pluto. One of the things Pluto mentions is the trades the Indians made in the early '90s which helped them build their great teams. The key deal was acquiring Baerga (and Sandy Alomar) for established vet Joe Carter. If the Tigers can pull something off like that with Dmitri Young, or one of the vets they've signed this off-season during the course of 2004, and get really good prospects back, that might vault them into contention sooner than we expect." (Batter's Box)

Historic deal sets Cards' cornerstone. Joe Strauss on Albert Pujols' new contract. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Ben Jacobs on Mike Mussina. (Bronx Banter)

Rodriguez joins Yankees. The silver lining for the Red Sox is that it would have been worse if A-Rod had joined the Blue Jays, Angels, A's or Mariners. It doesn't matter if the Yankees win 100 games or 110 or 120; if the Sox can finish ahead of Toronto and Baltimore and the Central runner-up and the West runner-up, they're in the playoffs, and anything can happen then. (Yahoo!)

Prospectus Roundtable: The Rodriguez-for-Soriano Deal. Joe Sheehan: "I've said this before, but it bears repeating: the Rangers are trading Rodriguez to subsidize the Chan Ho Park contract. That's unbelievably dumb. For all this the Rangers lose a major competitive advantage as well as one of the game's most marketable players. As a result, they will also have to try and sell a losing team--maybe a .500 team--having made one of the biggest salary dumps in history. I wonder how many season-ticket holders, paying prices that were inflated to nominally pay for A-Rod, feel cheated this morning?" (Baseball Prospectus)