Consider the Rays' latest moves as positives

The Rays are having a good week.
They signed RHP Grant Balfour for $12 million to be their closer for the next two years.
That might sound familiar, because he has pitched for Tampa Bay before, but in a setup role. For the last three years, he was a closer -- with the Athletics.
Balfour almost had a contract this year with the Orioles, but he failed his physical. That fact and his age (36) could make the Rays' move a bit iffy. However, if you read these posts, you'll quickly learn how much respect I have for the Tampa Bay and Oakland organizations and their decision-making ability. Even more than I have for the Rangers' and ascending Pirates' organizations.
That respect is a reason why I also like the trade the Rays made with the Padres. Tampa Bay sent a couple of viable relievers, LHP Alex Torres and RHP Jesse Hahn, to San Diego for five players who haven't yet or haven't had a chance to prove their major league readiness.
The key player going to the Rays is 3B/2B Logan Forsythe. I saw him play at the University of Arkansas and in the Texas League. You may wonder why, with 3B Evan Longoria already on Tampa Bay's roster, the team would need Forsythe. But have you noticed Longoria's amount of time on the disabled list? And even if he could play every game this year, Forsythe would be around to play some second base, freeing 2B/OF Ben Zobrist (for whom I also have a ridiculous amount of respect) to spend more time in the outfield. That would add even more versatility to a pretty versatile team.
There also could be strength in the numbers of trading two players for five. Four of the five new players going to the Rays organization can be considered at best prospects. We know that not every prospect actually becomes successful in the majors. But what if two of the four among RHPs Brad Boxberger, Matt Lollis and Matt Andriese and 2B Maxx Tissenbaum turn out to be serviceable major leaguers? Or if even one becomes a contributor?
The only player among those four that I have seen much is Lollis, and he wasn't really impressive out of Double-A San Antonio's bullpen. Tissenbaum appears to be on a career track similar to ... Logan Forsythe's.
Which reminds me that the Giants avoided arbitration by agreeing to a two-year deal with 3B/SS Joaquin Arias. I'd rather have Logan Forsythe.
Another former Rays right-hander, Matt Garza, reportedly is close to a four-year, $52-million contract with the Brewers, who apparently didn't observe his work down the stretch with the 2013 Rangers.
The big signing, of course, was RHP Masahiro Tanaka's seven-year, $155-million contract with the Yankees. Again, if you've been reading this blog, you'll know this surprises me only in that he'll be making more than $20 million per season.
If you're really Jonesing for signings, you might even be interested in the fact that two righties found lacking as closers have new minor-league contracts, Jon Rauch with the Royals and David Aardsma with the Indians.
* * *
Basketball. Thursday night, I got 31 points but just six rebounds from Chris Bosh, and very little from Mo Williams. I'm still ahead 7-1 this week, trailing only in field goal percentage.
* * *
Hockey. In the Stars' 7-1 win over the Maple Leafs, even Brenden Dillon from my team picked up one of those good stats that I no longer talk about. I dropped half a point when the next-lowest team in goalie wins moved into a tie. Antti Raanta played in goal for me for the first time, but lost 2-1 to Minnesota. The worst part was that his save percentage was below .900. That's one stat where I could pick up a point or two in the standings by improving by a .001 or .002.

Let's see the NBA at Yankee Stadium in April 2015

Still not much going on in off-season baseball. Unless you count the guys who are retiring but you thought they were already retired. Yes, I mean you, RHP Jeff Suppan and 1B/OF Aubrey Huff. Both had their days in the sun without really catching fire or gaining widespread acclaim. Suppan seemed to have the potential to be very good when I saw him in the minors. That potential became the ability to win 10-12 games a year seemingly forever. Huff was instrumental in bringing the first World Series championship to San Francisco, as well as being part of the Rays' growth into a contending team.
The other big baseball news seems to be that Rangers -- New York Rangers, that is -- goalie Henrik Lundqvist will be wearing a mask featuring the likenesses of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio for the Stadium Series hockey at Yankee Stadium.
The NHL will be coming out of its shutdown for next month's Olympics with a series of outdoor games, like the one that drew 105,000 people to Michigan Stadium on New Year's Day. The most exotic locale will be Dodger Stadium, which last saw ice in a cocktail glass inside a luxury suite.
Yankee Stadium just had the Pinstripe Bowl football game. Hockey is next.
Let's get with it, NBA! Schedule at game at the new House That Ruth Built. Try to make it The House That Carmelo Brought Down. A Saturday or Sunday afternoon game in April (while the Yanks are out of town) should due. That's April 2015, and not a day later.
* * *
Basketball. I'm ahead 5-3 going into the last day of this week's competition. That would keep me in fourth place. But I'm down by just two assists, so I could pick up another game and possibly move into third.
With Ricky Rubio not playing today, I decided to pick up free-agent PG Mario Chalmers. I contemplated dropping up-and-down SG Joe Johnson, but I might need him to boost my 3-point total, so I waived Taj Gibson for the second time this season. I may try to pick him up again.
Eight of my 10 roster spots are filled tonight. I figure Chalmers at least has plenty of options of people to pass to who are likely to shoot and even make some shots. If I'm really lucky, he'll be getting assists for Chris Bosh.
* * *
Hockey. Still at 66 points, and sliding slowly farther behind the second-place team, currently at 73.
The biggest chances for me to gain ground are in assists, where I'm just 8 behind the team in second; power-play points, 4 behind both teams ahead of me in the standings, and save percentage, .027 behind No. 2.
Last night's game before my very eyes was a mixed blessing. Henrik Zetterberg scored two goals and was plus-2, but Brenden Dillon was minus-2. The goals weren't terribly important, because I already lead the league. Last night's plus/minus was up and down, but finished plus-1, boosting my season total to plus-19. That's still 21 points away from catching the next higher team.
My lineup for Sunday will have six skaters and possibly goalie Eddie Lack (Roberto Luongo was in goal for Vancouver Saturday).
* * *
Football. It seemed weird Saturday when I got up thinking I needed to make an 11th-hour check of my fantasy roster, then realized that I didn't have a team playing. Then as I listened to the first half of Kansas City-Indianapolis on the way to the Red Wings-Stars game, I was wondering whether I could retain RB Jamaal Charles on my playoff roster even if he wouldn't be able to play in the Divisional round.
I don't think it was just because I had the Colts in both of my playoff pools, but I found the KC radio crew very annoying. I just looked up the name of the Chiefs' play-by-play guy. He's Mitch Holthus, and he must have some following in Kansas and Missouri because he's been on the job for 20 years. The annoying part was when the Chiefs were tearing it up, he kept repeating a mantra that the Chiefs would be doing it "all day," which apparently included saying "all day" all day. He also seemed very impressed with himself for knowing the small town in Kansas where the head linesman lived, and the location of Mary Hardin Baylor University in Texas.
It wasn't until after the hockey game that I learned the Chiefs had blown their big lead and lost. All day apparently had a second half.
It didn't help the broadcast that color man Len -- turned out to be the one-time great Len Dawson -- was one of the type who pretty much agree with and parrot what the play-by-play guy says. Dawson has seen better days, and I think those are in the past. (All day.)
Anyway, in my pick-'em pool, both the Colts and Saints advanced, as I predicted, but by the skin of their teeth.
Fortunately, in my $1,000-bankroll, pick-with-the-spread pool, I "wagered" $200 on the Saints and just $100 on the Colts, who didn't cover as 2.5-point favorites. So my hypothetical bankroll is up to $1,100.
In my college pools, I don't expect I'll win anything despite picking up 28 points from Vanderbilt in the pick-winners confidence pool. I have 1 point on Ball State tonight and 5 on Florida State Monday. I'm not even sure Vanderbilt covered the spread, but going into that game I was just 11-16 in my point-spread pool.

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.
* * *
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.
* * *
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.

Simple plus/minus system for fantasy basketball

When I was inspired -- pretty much impulsively -- to join a fantasy basketball league, I wondered whether the plus/minus system I use as a rough guideline who's playing well would work to evaluate players for fantasy basketball. The thinking was that we know who are the scorers, but when we're trying to accumulate a mashup of statistics for a Rotisserie (R)-style scoring system, the choices aren't so obvious. By looking at a typical expanded box score for a game -- or a season to date -- we can come up with numerical plus/minus figures for any player. That number shows whether players do more good or bad things for their team. Take the positive -- shots made, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks -- and deduct the negative -- missed shots, turnovers and fouls. For this study, I took the top group of five or six players in the positive stats -- scoring, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. That provides somewhat of a cross section of player types -- shooters, point guards, rebounders, defenders. In all, I compared the totals for 25 of those category leaders, some in more than one category, and one mistake (Mason Plumlee, whose numbers through Nov. 19 I looked up instead of Miles Plumlee's). I think this plus-minus assessment is a reasonable guideline. It includes just 26 of the 450 players on NBA rosters (6%), but if you consider that maybe nine players from each team could even be considered for fantasy purposes, that's more like 10%. The players in the study that we'd expect to be early fantasy draft picks are on top of this list. Keep in mind that these aren't the top 25 or 26 players in the league. Some acknowledged stars, such as Chris Bosh and Dirk Nowitzki, weren's included in the study. Here's the list: Kevin Love, Minnesota 220 Chris Paul, LA Clippers 199 Anthony Davis, New Orleans 181 LeBron James, Miami 164 Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City 162 Dwight Howard, Houston 152 Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, LA Clippers 147 Nikola Vucevic, Orlando 140 Andre Drummond, Detroit 133 Ty Lawson, Denver 125 Ricky Rubio, Minnesota 122 Roy Hibbert, Indiana 114 James Harden, Houston 112 John Wall, Washington 104 Jeff Teague, Atlanta 101 Evan Turner, Philadelphia 95 Stephen Curry, Golden State, and Brook Lopez, Brooklyn 91 Carmelo Anthony, New York 83 Dwyane Wade, Miami, and Miles Plumlee, Phoenix 72 Eric Gordon, New Orleans 59 Trevor Ariza, Washington 41 Deron Williams, Brooklyn 30 Mason Plumlee, Brooklyn 19 A couple of notes here. Unless you have a specific need in a category, it's best to avoid players whose value is mostly in one area, such as assists of blocks. That would be like having Juan Pierre on your fantasy baseball team and expecting him to hit for power. Subtracting missed field goals and missed free throws can point out where a scorer or some other specialist can help you in the shooting percentage categories. Examples: Anthony is -33 and point guards Wall -44 and Rubio -30 on field goals; big man Drummond is -11 at the foul line. Of Durant's +162 total, 98 are from his free throw margin. That also shows that he gets to the line a lot. James is +39 from the field, which tells me that he could be a little less selective and still score more points.

Hate to say it, but it's time for Konerko to go

The White Sox haven't heard from 1B Paul Konerko about whether he'll retire. On the occasions last season when I saw him in person or on TV, Konerko really looked a step slower in the field and a tick slower with the bat. He has had a remarkably consistent career as one of baseball's solid citizens. As we age, most of us have to move away from an occupation or a situation we love. My experience has been that such times are just a transition to something better. Let's hope that Konerko and the Sox appreciate what he has done sufficiently to enable him to retire without tarnishing his hard-earned reputation by hanging on too long. He has not made enemies in the game, so it's quite likely there's a coaching, front-office or broadcasting job that he could excel at and enjoy. Or perhaps his life would become retiring to spend time with children or grandchildren and to play golf or hunt or whatever he enjoys doing. Bottom line: Konerko should retire as a player. The Sox probably gave him a hint by signing Cuban 1B Jose Abreu. * * * Update on my currently playing fantasy teams. Hockey -- My team took a serious dive, falling 4 1/2 points behind the third-place team. Even Tuesday's highlight came with a price. Flyers G Steve Mason won 5-2 over Ottawa. The win left me still a point behind the teams tied for seventh, and though my goalies moved closer to ninth place in GAA and save percentage, I still have only 1 point in those categories. Furthermore, it came at the expense of the three Senators skaters in my lineup, who combined for minus-6 of my team's -8 total. With my 12 skaters putting 32 shots on goal, they scored only one goal, and I lost a point there. And, as Harry Doyle might have said, they had just 2 G.D. penalty minutes. Basketball -- This was better. Led by Chris Bosh's 8-for-9, my five players in action shot .540 from the field. They even made five 3-pointers, and scored 74 points -- 25 by Carmelo Anthony. I'm ahead this week in three categories, trailing in three and tied in two. The ties are in 3-pointers and blocks, and I'm only one steal behind. If I win this week's competition, I'd move up at least to ninth place and possibly to eighth. My plan is to get up Wednesday morning early enough to set my lineups and to look for some free agents. If I see good ones that might be helpful to a lot of people, I'll share those suggestions.

Veteran pitchers in some demand

There is news in the Hot Stove League. Foremost was the Giants' signing of 38-year-old RHP Tim Hudson to a two-year contract for a reported $23 million. He still can pitch, as long as he recovers from this season's ankle injury. Monday's other definite signing was C Carlos Ruiz, who will remain with the Phillies for three years, with an option for 2017. His contract is worth a reported $26 million. Pending physicals, 40-year-old RHP LaTroy Hawkins would join the Rockies on a one-year, $2.25-million deal and OF/2B Skip Schumaker would become a Cincinnati Red for two years at an undisclosed salary. I'll have more coming up on Hawkins, who pitched for Colorado's 2007 National League champions and could compete for next season's job as closer with LHP Rex Brothers. Which makes sense, because Hawkins has hung around as long as almost any journeyman southpaw reliever. Speaking of lefties, the Orioles signed one, 25-year-old LHP Kelvin De La Cruz. He has had some success against left-handed batters in the high minors for the Dodgers' organization. There's no guarantee that that success would carry over into the majors. * * * While I was at tonight's 76ers-Mavericks game, I had some thoughts about fantasy basketball. Namely, that I'd never played it, didn't really know what categories were used and didn't know how valuable my plus/minus system would be in evaluating players for fantasy basketball. I'll give you results of a preliminary plus/minus study soon. No, it's not the same as the plus-minus you might see in NBA box scores When I arrived home, I looked around espn.com, where my football and hockey fantasy teams reside, and noted that a fantasy basketball draft was scheduled to begin that very minute. Just 8 of the 10 positions were filled, 9 once I signed up. So the draft was delayed another 5 minutes. During that time, a 10th team joined. The draft breezed by in about half an hour. I was in the ninth position in a snake draft, but it seemed pretty clear that I didn't make good use of the six sets of two picks close together. Of course, a modicum of preparation might have helped. When the draft ended, I looked at our league page and found out that the categories at ESPN are pretty standard -- points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, 3-point field goals made and the percentage categories of field goal and free throw percentage. I also found out that the league apparently back-dated our league to play three weeks of head-to-head competition, one "game" for each category -- and I was already in last place at 5-18-1 and trailing in this week's competition 3-4-1. The only players on my new team who were in action tonight were big men Joakim Noah, Serge Ibaka and Samuel Dalembert (who played very well for Dallas). So I did well in rebounds and blocks, but didn't have any 3-pointers, so I lost that category. Just set my lineup for Tuesday. I moved Gerald Wallace on to my active roster, replacing Victor Oladipo as one of my utility players. Wallace's team, the Celtics, is playing Tuesday; Oladipo's Orlando Magic isn't. There should be a few 3s Tuesday. Also playing for me will be Ricky Rubio, J.R. Smith, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh. The lessons already learned here are simply 1) Prepare for your draft and 2) Know the rules and all the set up/settings for your league. My fantasy hockey team started slowly too. I'll be out of last place, maybe within a week. Getting to first place could be a tall order. * * * Speaking of hockey, my team suffered Monday from not having any of my goalies playing. Not only did I lose half a point because the team tied with me had a goalie who won a game, but I also dropped 2 additional points behind the third-place team because he overtook me in ATOI. I'm still confident that I can move up in the goalie categories as well as in three skaters' categories in which I'm also fourth in a 10-team league. * * * There was no action on my fantasy football leagues Monday. RB D'Angelo Williams did not score for my scoring-only league team, which already had clinched a 33-28 victory. But Carolina's rally gave me a loss and an 8-8 record for the week in the Pittsburgh office pool that includes me. I remained 14 games out of first place, but inched up to six games out of the money with six weeks to play. I can only hope for a huge week to fuel a rally like the one I had last year.