Saturday, December 14, 2013

Cleaning up, but not cleanup batters

Part of the cleaning up is sweeping up the crumbs from the winter meetings.
The latest contract agreement and near agreement are hardly crumby, though.
The Rays ponied up some cash to keep 1B James Loney on a reported 3-year contract. The Royals are close to a 4-year deal for more than $30 million with 2B Omar Infante, according to his agent.
These aren't big deals for big hitters such as Giancarlo Stanton or Nelson Cruz, but they are important to teams who want to be in the playoff picture for 2014 and not standing outside the frame like Broadway Danny Rose.
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Hockey. With only one player -- Matt Niskanen, who helped with minutes and a plus-1 rating -- active Friday, I still managed to gain 1 1/2 points on the second-place team. By not playing, my goalies picked up a point in goals against average. I'll have a full complement of skaters and possibly a goalie or two going tonight. I don't want my players scoring on my goalie, the way my remaining Senators did last week.
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Basketball. Picking up Gerald Green did get me two 3-pointers, and the rest of my lineup came up with enough to take the lead by four in that category. And that put me ahead for the week 8-0. If that holds, and the other contests in my league go as they have been, I would pass only one team but would move into a tie with two or three other teams as close as three games to first place. I should have a good lineup going tonight to help me hold at least most of my lead. Five players are active, including Chris Bosh and the recently hot Carmelo Anthony.

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