Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Live from the Winter Meetings, Day 1
2. Sightings at the Winter Meetings
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Venezuelan Winter League

Live from the Winter Meetings, Day 1
Baseball’s Winter Meetings begin in earnest today from Nashville’s giant Opryland Resort, at which Resort the author — along with several other members of Team FanGraphs — will be embedded to better network with people who might eventually help their careers cover the big, breaking stories as they happen.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Baseball Event: Tender Deadline, Tonight
2. GIF: Mark Reynolds Bat Toss
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Australian Baseball League

Baseball Event: Tender Deadline, Tonight
The deadline by which teams must tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players is tonight (Friday) at 11:59pm ET. Players to whom contact offers are extended then have the opportunity to negotiate with their respective teams until January 18th, when arbitration figures are due for exchange. Players to whom contracts are not tendered become free agents and are free to negotiate with all 30 teams.

Using some combination of a slide rule, abacus, and cheat codes from early and beloved Nintendo game Contra, Matt Swartz has projected salaries for all arbitration-eligible players and published the results at MLB Trade Rumors.

Here are three notable players who might become free agents tonight:

Player: Mark Reynolds, CIF, BAL
Proj. Salary: $8.9 million
Notes: Reynolds has been worth less than a win in over 1100 plate appearances as an Oriole. Owing to his power, he’d certainly receive attention as a free agent, but likely not $9-million-annually of attention.

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Episode 281
Dayn Perry, contributor to CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball and author of two books (one of them serviceable), answers questions from concerned readers.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 54 min play time.)

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Three Moves That Just Happened, Mostly
2. GIF: Cory Burns’s Actual Real Changeup
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Mexican Pacific League

Three Moves That Just Happened, Mostly
Here are three moves that happened yesterday (Wednesday), so far as the author can tell.

Pittsburgh Acquires Clint Robinson in Trade
Clint Robinson will turn 28 before the 2013 season begins and has slashed .308/.382/.520 over 2,875 minor-league plate appearances. Despite this — and certainly owing to the presence of other first-baseman Eric Hosmer — he received only four plate appearances total from Kansas City, ever. On Wednesday, he was traded to Pittsburgh.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Assorted Headlines
2. Windy Footage of Hitter Chris Nowak
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Puerto Rican League

Assorted Headlines
Every Team Buying Players from Independent American Association
Six players from the independent American Association have been sold to major-league clubs over the last five days, reports the league’s official site. Right-handed reliever James Hoyt, who recently turned 26, is the latest to enter affiliated ball, signing a minor-league deal with the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. Per Baseball Reference, Hoyt has posted a 104:46 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 78.1 innings with unaffiliated teams over the last two seasons. Hoyt was ranked ninth among all independent league prospects by Baseball America last month.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. In Appreciation of Oscar Taveras, Briefly
2. Video: Oscar Taveras Doing Whatever He Wants
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Dominican Winter League

In Appreciation of Oscar Taveras, Briefly
It is not the case that the SCOUT batting and pitching leaderboards for the Dominican Winter League (below) ought to be regarded as entirely prophetic so far the respective futures of the players on those leaderboards are concerned. That said, they (i.e. those same leaderboards we’re talking about) do have some value insofar — and perhaps for other reasons — but insofar as they might help organize or reify our thoughts on certain players whose names appear within them.

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Episode 280
FanGraphs managing editor Dave Cameron analyzes all baseball — and, in particular, the part of baseball concerning Evan Longoria’s new contract. Also: Hiroki Kuroda. Also-also: Michael Ynoa and 16-year-old pitchers, generally.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 34 min play time.)

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Episode 279
FanGraphs contributor Paul Swydan discusses the many splendors of 2013 Hardball Times Annual (available for buying here), in what is certainly not just a 30-minute infomercial-type episode of the podcast.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 31 min play time.)

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Darwin Perez Status Update: Perez Signs with Oakland
2. Five Notable 40-Man Roster Additions
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Venezuelan Winter League

Darwin Perez Status Update: Perez Signs with Oakland
Baseball America’s Matt Eddy, famous for having never told a lie, reports that middle infielder Darwin Perez — recently of the Angels and, even more recently, a person of some interest in these Notes — has signed with the Oakland Athletics.

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Episode 278
Prospect analyst Mike Newman considers, among other topics, the impact a deep minor-league system can have on an organization’s ability to acquire major-league talent — not unlike what happened in the recent trade that saw Toronto acquire Mark Buehrle, John Johnson, and Jose Reyes from Miami.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 53 min play time.)

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