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The New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates are talking about New York sending embattled starter AJ Burnett to the Pirates. The key hangup is salary, as Burnett is due $33 million over the next two seasons. The Yankees are looking to split the salary evenly, but the last report from Pittsburgh indicates that the Pirates are willing to eat about $11 million of Burnett's contract. But the big question here is, "does Burnett fit well with Pittsburgh?" Here's the thing about AJ Burnett: despite... Read Full Story

As the offseason winds down, we're going to start with some offseason recap pieces. First up, the five teams that improved the most this offseason. Lots of big-name free agents changed addresses this winter, but some teams got a lot better than others. For instance, despite the Detroit Tigers adding Prince Fielder, they lost Victor Martinez due to injury, and didn't do much else to improve their team. I don't think they really got a whole lot better, or at least, better than any of the other... Read Full Story

What else can baseball fans do in January but dream of October? In You May Say I'm a Dreamer, the Outside Corner staff will imagine the route to a World Series in 2012 title for all 30 teams. Going into 2012, the New York Mets were projected as one of the worst teams in baseball, following the loss of free agent shortstop and last season's mid-year trades of closer Francisco Rodriguez and right fielder Carlos Beltran. Hell has frozen over, because today, the New York Mets are your World... Read Full Story

We’re only days away from the official start to spring training and while pitchers and catchers get ready to report, there are a few former stars still looking for work. Read Full Story

The Texas Rangers bought out Nelson Cruz's final two arbitration years today, inking the outfielder to a two year, $16 million deal. When healthy, the 31 year-old Cruz has been a masher for Texas. But injuries have been an issue for him, and his career high in plate appearances over three full seasons with the Rangers is just 515. Cruz has accrued 10.0 fWAR over those three years, and is an above average fielder in right, logging +24 DRS over the last three seasons. The righty has excellent... Read Full Story

There were a multitude of interesting contracts handed out this offseason, from big names like Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, and Jose Reyes, to the mid-range starters like CJ Wilson and Mark Buerhle, to the lower level guys like Willie Bloomquist and Alex Gonzalez. Some of these contracts are going to affect their teams for more than just the 2012 season, though. Some will shape franchises for years to come. Here are five contracts signed this offseason that will shape their franchises past... Read Full Story

What else can baseball fans do in January but dream of October? In You May Say I'm a Dreamer, the Outside Corner staff will imagine the route to a World Series in 2012 title for all 30 teams. These dreamer pieces featured here at The Outside Corner have mostly come in the form of telling a story about how so-&-so team surprised everyone and won the World Series because so-&-so player did such a great job. This piece will buck the trend slightly because the Marlins don’t need to dream to be... Read Full Story

The Texas Rangers agreed to a three year contract extension with shortstop Elvis Andrus yesterday to buy out all three of his arbitration years. The deal is worth between $14 and $15 million for the three years. You can say whatever the hell you want to say about Andrus, but here's a quick fact: barring something catastrophic, this three year deal will be his last contract with the Rangers. Texas has stud 18 year-old (19 this month) prospect Jurickson Profar in the minors, and he's looking... Read Full Story

The new CBS fantasy game Baseball Boyfriend got quite a bit of attention online yesterday, and we posted about it here . I got an e-mail in my inbox this morning from the creators of Baseball Boyfriend, asking if I'd like an interview with them. Of course, I jumped all over this, and here's my brief interview with Frank and Missy, creators of Baseball Boyfriend. Q: When initiating the Baseball Boyfriend concept, did you imagine getting all of the negative feedback you’re currently getting... Read Full Story

Yesterday, Clayton Kershaw signed a two year extension with the Los Angeles Dodgers that will pay him $19 million over the deal. He'll get $7.5 million this season for his age 24 season and $11 million next year for his age 25 season, with one year of arbitration left in 2014. At first glance, this seems like an excellent deal for the Dodgers. Tim Lincecum got $23 million for his first two arbitration years (although he had won two Cy Young awards to Kershaw's one upon signing that deal... Read Full Story