Beltran to sign with Mets. Seven years, $119 million. (Boston Globe)

Almost. "Omar Minaya, you are about to have almost regained my every confidence. And as soon as the doctors declare young Carlos fit for compensation and all the inks have properly dried, I will remove the subjunctive case from that phrase once and for all. With Beltran at the heart of the Mets order, competitiveness is sure to follow. Or is it?" (Flushing Local)

Lowe appears headed to Dodgers. Four years, $36 million. (Yahoo!)

Green, D'Backs agree on three-year, $32 million contract.

Green's agreement to waive his no-trade clause would pave the way for a trade that would send him and $10 million from the Dodgers to the Diamondbacks for four minor league players, including catching prospect Dioner Navarro and pitcher William Juarez.

Green had been due $16 million for next season, the final year of his contract, but agreed to restructure it with the Diamondbacks.

(Yahoo!)

Maybe the Twins Don't Have the Central Locked Up. The latest signing of A.J. Pierzynski was a great move by Kenny Williams (try to find those words used together in a Google search). Pierzynski was signed for one year at 2.25 million, not too bad for a catcher with a career OPS of .773. Considering that Jason Varitek is making 10 million annually for a career .798 OPS and is 3 and a half years older than AJ, this looks even better." (Will Carroll Presents...)

Prospectus Triple Play: Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals. "As we've mentioned before, there is a great deal of pride regarding these Prospectus Triple Plays. Those of us who write them come to strongly identify with the triumvirate we are assigned. In this house, we make no bones about it: we are rooting hard for a Cleveland/Washington or Seattle/Washington World Series...Just when our hopes start to rise that maybe we'll be sitting in the BP luxury box at RFK Stadium watching the Mariners and Nationals duke it out in late October, Seattle goes and signs Pokey Reese to be their starting shortstop." (Baseball Prospectus)

In his own corner at third.

"In historical terms, he's an odd lot," [Bill] James wrote. "There's really nobody who is very much like him. Richie Ashburn had some similar offensive skills [and a lot of other center fielders could be described as being in the Richie Ashburn mold], but Ashburn was fast, and his skills really depended on his speed. When he lost his speed, he couldn't play any more. Nellie Fox was a little like [Boggs or Ashburn], but Fox was very small and very weak, for a baseball player, whereas Boggs was really very strong and could drive the ball on occasion, although that wasn't his stock in trade; his stock in trade was working the count and flipping the ball into left field.

"Among the great third basemen, Mike Schmidt is in a general sense parallel to Eddie Mathews and a lot of other guys -- a much better third baseman than Mathews and a righthanded hitter, but a similar approach at the plate: wait for a pitch you can hit a long way, live with the strikeouts. George Brett is in a general way parallel to Stan Musial or Carl Yastrzemski or Al Oliver . . . not EXACTLY the same, of course. No two players are ever exactly the same, and certainly no two GREAT players are all that nearly the same, but most players are in some sort of tradition. Even Ted Williams, in a sense, is in the tradition [as a hitter] of Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds, lefthanders with tremendous power and also tremendous discipline. Boggs is not really in any tradition of a great player -- yet he was one. He's kind of a one of a kind, at least to me."

(Boston Globe)

National Attention: The Expos' 35-Year Journey to Washington D.C. (Part 2). (The Hardball Times)