Perhaps addicted to the buzz surrounding him during the Justin Upton trade rumor bonanza, Arizona Diamondbacks General Manager Kevin Towers continued to put his stamp on the team today by trading a guy who strikes out even more often than Upton: slugging third baseman Mark Reynolds. Baltimore is sending back young relievers David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio to acquire Reynolds, who hit below the Mendoza line last season. How does this move fit in with where the Orioles are, and where they want to end up?

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Understandably left for dead by the Tampa Bay Rays in May, Pat Burrell latched on with San Francisco and hit .266/.364/.509 (.371 wOBA) in 341 plate appearances as part of the Giants’ World Championship run. Despite his struggles in the postseason, without Burrell’s unexpected regular season contributions it is hard to imagine the Giants getting to the playoffs. He has reportedly re-signed with San Francisco for the 2011 season for a very affordable one million dollars guaranteed (plus incentives) over one season. There are questions, however, about how Burrell fits into the Giants 2011 plans.

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As the 2010 season fades into memory and we look to 2011, my cheesy awards made from semi-“junk stats” need to get wrapped up soon. So today I unveil the 2010 winner of the Joe Carter–Tony Batista award, which is given to the player whose Runs Batted In most exaggerates his actual offensive value.

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It wasn’t all that long ago that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ young catcher Russell Martin ranked among the best at his position in baseball. After two disappointing seasons, including an injury-shortened 2010, Martin is a potential non-tender candidate for the team. Whether or not a non-tender would be the right decision depends on Martin’s likely 2011 performance relative to his salary, where the Dodgers see themselves in relation to contention, and what they think of Martin’s health.

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In an unsurprising move, the Pittsburgh Pirates designated pitcher Zach Duke (along with third baseman Andy LaRoche and infielder/outfielder Dewlyn Young) for assignment on Friday. Like most Pittsburgh hurlers, Duke 2010 numbers were dreadful, so the move made sense for the team. However, this does not mean that Duke shouldn’t be given a serious look by other teams assuming the likely scenario of him becoming a free agent. That’s right, teams should be looking over some of the Pirates’ table scraps.

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South Korea beat Taiwan 9-3 Friday in the Asian Games baseball final. Fans of South Korean baseball are celebrating, but Cleveland fans are probably excited, too, as this likely exempts outfielder Shin-Soo Choo from his mandatory two years of South Korean military service. That’s obviously good news for the Cleveland franchise, as he’s been their best player the last couple of seasons. It is also great for Choo himself, given his age and his arbitration status. During the 2010 MLB playoffs, certain writers on Twitter made comments that went something like this: “[Player X] prolly made himself $15 million dollars with that home run,” which led to much parody among the snarkier circles of the Nerdosphere. It was all in good fun, as such claims were more than a bit silly. However, in Choo’s case he may very well have made tens of millions of dollars with this one game.

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In a previous post, I looked at the five players who hurt their teams the most by grounding into double plays in 2010. The worst players were around four to six runs below average. Avoiding the double play is also a skill, so today we’ll take a look at the players who saved their teams the most runs above average by doing so in 2010.

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Earlier this season, I posted about measuring how much a hitter costs his team by grounding into double plays, and ranked the best and the worst at doing so at that point in the season. You can look at those posts for methodological details; in short, each double play grounded into (or avoided) is worth about .35 runs, so by looking at a player’s double play rate on this table and comparing it to the league average (about 11% in 2010), and multiplying by .35, we can get the number of runs the hitter cost his team above or below average. Today, we’ll take a look at the five players who cost their teams the most by grounding into double plays in 2011. [Edit ~11:00 PM EST: Some observant readers found that I had mistakenly published only from the AL leaderboards. My apologies for the stupid mistake on my part. This should be the corrected version; for those craving the {inadvertant} AL-only version, I’m sure some web archive has recorded my “brilliance.”]

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In the aftermath of Dan Uggla rejecting their contract offer for four years and $48 million dollars, the Florida Marlins have reportedly put their second baseman on the trade block. It is an interesting move for what might indicate about Uggla’s current value, his potential landing spots, and where the Marlins see themselves.

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All sorts of rumors are flying around out there, mostly about free agents. But there is a fair amount of stuff about younger, team-controlled players potentially being moved. This isn’t a rumors site, nor do I have any special connections that would allow me to divulge scenarios posited by “anonymous scouts” or “unnamed executives from rival teams.” However, there are some interesting things being said about players that teams might want to try and acquire if they are available at a reasonable cost. I’m not talking about completely ripping off the other team. Speculating and analyzing about hypothetical “ripoff” trades isn’t interesting. Obviously, if a team can “get one over” on another team, they should probably do it. Executives are kicking the tires on players all the time, and while I don’t know what it would take to get them, I want to highlight four relatively young ones that plenty of teams should be calling about.

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