FAB eve!

10 ½ hours until the Ruth Conference FAB begins, and the pre-FAB jitters have kicked in. Is my first offer queue destined for a bunch of Big Red Zeroes? Am I overbidding on bullpen help? Do I really need that particular fourth outfielder? Will I actually get any work done at the office tomorrow? For the answers to all these questions (and more you never wanted to ask) stay tuned for the FAB recap.

Good luck to my fellow Ruthians. Except in cases where we're bidding on the same players, anyway.

A No Brainer For The Bees

The Ruth Conference is activated, huzzah! And now it's time for the returning champs to make some contract extensions.

Hmm... Chase Utley, Dan Haren and David Wright? Yes, yes and yes.

Concerns about Utley's hip aside, the only brief flicker of a question* is whether or not to extend Ichiro in place of one of the above. But Ichiro's contract - left over from when I took control of the team in their second year - is awfully pricey. At $11M he'd actually cost more than Utley, Haren or Wright. And as much as I love the way he plays, within the context of Gameday Ritual he's just not worth that much in place of one of these three. So I make my call and move on.

After all, maybe I can grab him in the FAB...

* One could also argue that I should at least have considered reupping Jose Valverde at $9M, but with Joakim Soria already on the team at only $4M, I don't think I'll regret my choices.