I have a Red Sox fan colleague who will be laughing his ass off when he hears about the Lugo signing.

J.R. wrote:Julio Lugo? Why didn't they sign Ryan Ludwick, for whom they were rumored to be trading last season?
He signed a $2.5 million, one-year contract with the Reds last week.

key word is "rumored".

Cespedes moves closer to free agency

Cuban outfielder gains residency in Dominican, waits on MLB

By Jesse Sanchez / MLB.com | 01/24/12 4:45 PM EST

The bidding is about to begin.

Cuban outfield prospect Yoenis Cespedes has established his residency in the Dominican Republic and is now waiting for approval from Major League Baseball to be declared a free agent, his representative Edgar Mercedes said.

Cespedes, who just finished a stint with Aguilas Cibaenas in the Dominican Winter League, recently said the Marlins, Cubs, White Sox, Orioles, Tigers, and Indians have expressed the most interest in signing him. He is expected to command a contract greater than the one received by Cuban left-handed pitcher Aroldis Chapman, who signed a six-year, $30.25 million deal with the Reds in January 2010.

Cespedes hit .333 with 33 home runs, 99 RBIs and 11 stolen bases over 90 games in Cuba during the 2010-11 season, and many believe he can be inserted into the 2012 Opening Day starting lineup for the team that signs him.

He hit .143 with one home run and 10 strikeouts in 35 at-bats for the Aguilas.

It's time to counter the Prince Fielder deal by signing Yoenis Cespedes.

Cuban prospect Cespedes declared free agent

Teams gear up to sign outfielder; Miami set to make big offer

By Jesse Sanchez / MLB.com | 01/25/12 5:51 PM EST


Yoenis Cespedes is now a free agent.

On Wednesday, Major League Baseball sent out a notice to clubs, advising them that the Cuban outfield prospect, as a resident of the Dominican Republic, is not subject to the amateur Draft and may now sign as a free agent.

On Tuesday, Cespedes established residency in the Dominican. His representative must now unblock him, pursuant to the Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations before he can enter into a contract.

Cespedes, who just finished a stint with Aguilas Cibaenas in the Dominican Winter League, recently said the Marlins, Cubs, White Sox, Orioles, Tigers, and Indians have expressed the most interest in signing him. He is expected to command a contract greater than the one received by Cuban left-handed pitcher Aroldis Chapman, who signed a six-year, $30.25 million deal with the Reds in January 2010.

The Marlins are on record saying they believe Cespedes' best fit is in Miami, with its strong Cuban community. The club is prepared to make a substantial offer -- between four and six years -- for the power-hitting outfielder.

Marlins president David Samson once again confirmed interest in Cespedes during his weekly radio spot on The Dan LeBatard Show on 790 The Ticket. Samson added no team official spoke with Cespedes' representatives on Wednesday.

"We have not negotiated with his representatives at all," Samson said. "I believe we are able to start negotiating now. As are all the other teams. ... We'll see. We're going to try as hard as we can. With that said, there's other teams. Maybe some teams thought they were getting Prince Fielder for four years and all of a sudden, they weren't."

Reports that he is not interested in signing with the Marlins are not true, an industry source said.

Cespedes hit .333 with 33 home runs, 99 RBIs and 11 stolen bases over 90 games in Cuba during the 2010-11 season, and many believe he can be inserted into the 2012 Opening Day starting lineup for the team that signs him.

He hit .143 with one home run and 10 strikeouts in 35 at-bats for Aguilas.

I guess this was the moment our front office was waiting for. The ship has landed. It's time to get down to some serious business and show us that the leadership of this team really cares what's happening this year.

I wouldn't let that statistic get in the way........it's been 10 months since Cespedes played any live baseball. Thirty-five at bats is a very small sample. I've seen Cespedes play in four of those Aguilas games and I will go on record as saying he's no Andy Marte. This was no way to break into live baseball during the Dominican League playoffs. He held his own though.

Scouting Report

Talent from Cuba: Yoenis Céspedes

By: Don Olsen Published: December 12, 2011 7:00 am

Posted In: General Baseball

In today’s look at the talent in Cuba, Don breaks down outfielder Yoenis Céspedes.

A few days ago, the Orioles ventured down to the Dominican Republic. Their eyes were on a batch of international talent that could inject some much needed youth into the system and improve the public perception that Dan Duquette is reaching beyond the US border to strengthen the ball club.

Here’s a look at Yoenis Cespedes.
From an athletic standpoint, Cespedes looks the part.


He is a guy that could instantly be one of the best athletes on most teams. He has plus arm strength and a quick first step at this stage, indicating that he should maintain the range and reactions to stick in center field. The good part about the arm strength is that he will age better than others defensively, and could profile as a right fielder down the line without problems.
Céspedes’ best asset is the massive power potential, quality that is definitely pole to pole, that he generates from adequate hand speed, strong wrists, and a solid core. There will be a small concern that his potential is tied to his contact ability and the increase in quality pitching might zap any offset that his power brings to the table, but he often rides with the pitch, showing the late awareness and discipline that contact should not be a concern.

He brings power and speed to the table and it would not shock me to see him as a strong candidate for 30/30 potential within his first 3 years of major league baseball.
He will need patience and seasoning in the minors or limited time at the major league level from any organization. Teams will have to treat him as a prospect. He has vast potential and could be an impact bat at an up the middle position. He could be the type of player that a team could build around, but stardom is not a lock.

He has the raw ability to handle anything thrown at him, but he has to show the ability to handle the daily grind and perform against the very best.

Show him the money!

Dolan is readying a nice look good offer just for our pleasure.

Is there any reason to honestly think the Indians are in the running for this guy?

That's the problem Civ. Nothing like an owner who wants to win as badly as the fans and Dolan does not fit the description. I just wish he'd sell and get the heck out of town.

Wheeler is actually a good pick up IMO. Can't believe he couldn't pick up a guaranteed contract somewhere.

Cleveland Indians sign RHP Dan Wheeler to minor league deal with spring training invite

Published: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 5:21 PM Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 5:44 PM

By Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Indians have signed veteran reliever Dan Wheeler to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training with the big league team.

Wheeler pitched with Boston last year. He made 47 appearances and threw 49 1/3 innings. He had a 0.84 ERA, allowing one run in 10 2/3 innings against AL Central teams. Right-handers hit .227 (27-119) average against him for the season.

He has a 3.88 ERA in his career with 43 saves in 577 appearances.

The Indians also signed RHP Jose De La Torre and infielder Ryan Rohlinger to minor league contracts.

Red Sox blogger crying about losing a draft pick:

Dan Wheeler Signs With Indians; Red Sox Lose Compensation Pick

by Marc Normandin on Jan 27, 2012 9:01 AM EST in News

Dan Wheeler signed with the Cleveland Indians yesterday, a move that should have netted the Red Sox a draft pick. Wheeler was a Type-B free agent in the last off-season that those will exist -- the new collective bargaining agreement eliminates the Elias Rankings, and revamps the compensation system. Since it was only Type-B status and not Type-A, there was no penalty lined up (meaning no lost draft picks) for whoever inked him to a deal, just the bonus pick to the team who lost him.

Despite this, the Indians signed Wheeler to a minor league deal only, costing the Red Sox a potential extra pick in the 2012 amateur entry draft, as well as $950,000 in potential cap room for the draft. Compensation doesn't apply to minor league deals, a fact that makes sense on the surface, but is no less annoying when you're a fan of the team who lost the player.

Wheeler was offered arbitration by the Red Sox after his option was declined, even though arbitration would have represented a raise. It's likely there was a gentleman's agreement between the two parties that arbitration would be rejected, so that Boston could recoup this pick. Cleveland has stepped right in the way of that.

This happened to the Red Sox with Felipe Lopez in 2010. Lopez was acquired at the very end of the season, and should have been, if nothing else, an extra compensatory pick for the Red Sox in the 2011 draft. The Rays signed him to a minor league deal, though, basically robbing Boston of their own little draft trick.

There is one way the Red Sox can still get a pick, though: if the Indians put Wheeler on their Opening Day roster, Boston can petition the commissioner's office for a draft pick, since at that point it looks like Cleveland was just tiptoeing around the rules. Given the Indians' pen isn't the greatest in the world, and Wheeler is still a useful piece, this is a likely scenario, but not guaranteed. It doesn't take much roster shuffling to delay Wheeler's 2012 MLB debut by a few days.

Personally, I'm curious about what caused Wheeler's stock to fall this far. After his injury in early 2011, he was very productive during the 39 innings that he was let out of his cage, and now it took him until late-January to find work, when his agent has been actively calling teams about him for at least a month.

The big picture is TV rights money buys big stars in Major League Baseball
Published: Sunday, January 29, 2012, 1:41 AM Updated: Sunday, January 29, 2012, 2:00 AM
By Bill Lubinger, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — When free-agent first baseman Albert Pujols put himself up for auction, the Los Angeles Angels threw $254 million over 10 years at him.

That jaw-dropping paycheck was made possible, in part, because Fox Sports West is paying them $3 billion over 20 years for the rights to broadcast their games.

Last year, the Texas Rangers extended their rights agreement with Fox Sports Southwest, reportedly for $1.6 billion over 20 years and an ownership stake in the network.

That deal was at least part of the economics behind the Rangers committing $111 million for Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish.

Heated competition and demand for sports cable programming are driving up broadcasting rights fees. And some ball clubs find themselves flush in a sport with no limit on how much they can spend for players.

So where does all this leave the Indians?

To this point, the Tribe's cable deal has served more as a stabilizer than a windfall.

Tribe games are broadcast by SportsTime Ohio, which the Dolan family created in late 2005 rather than extend a contract with what is now Fox Sports Ohio. STO was launched with an eye toward boosting team finances.

''We think this is the way to generate more revenue, and we will put it back in the payroll in order to support the team," Indians Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Dolan said at the time.

Besides Indians games, STO programming includes coverage of the Browns, Ohio State, high school sports, the Mid-American Conference, golf and the outdoors.

In a recent interview, Dolan said the network has allowed the Indians to double their broadcasting rights fees since his family bought the club in 2000.

"It's provided a buffer for the team," he said.

Sellouts funded the Tribe of the '90s

In the '90s, a sold-out ballpark supported an annual payroll of $40 million to $50 million, he said. This season, he expects a payroll in the mid-$70 millions, with roughly half the attendance the team drew at its peak.

"And we can do that, sustainable in large part," Dolan said, "with what we're able to do with STO and television rights."

The Dolans, lawyers by trade, know cable. New York billionaire Charles Dolan, the brother of Indians owner Larry Dolan, is considered an industry pioneer for founding, among other ventures, Cablevision, HBO and the regional sports giant, the Madison Square Garden Network.

The Indians and STO have a common owner, but are private, independent enterprises. STO has paid the Indians about $30 million a year for broadcast rights since it was founded, although cable revenue does not go to the team.

Because local broadcasting income is used in calculating shared league revenue, Major League Baseball scrutinizes all club television and radio deals to make sure the network is paying fair market value, even if one entity owns both, like the Dolans.

Top regionals

Top five regional sports networks by net operating revenue and Indians' SportsTime Ohio:
Fox Sports Southwest: (Texas Rangers) $303,109,000
Madison Square Garden Network: (no baseball) $287,583,000
Fox Sports West: (Los Angeles Angels) $282,157,000
SportsNet New York: (New York Mets) $248,710,000
SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland Indians) $85,067,000
-- SNL Kagan

Cable deals are based on a television market's size and local economy. The Cleveland-Akron market ranks 18th -- and 23rd among the 30 Major League Baseball teams -- according to the Nielsen Co., larger than only St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, San Diego, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Cincinnati. (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco-Oakland each have two teams and Toronto is not included.)
Detroit, which stunned the baseball world this past week by snapping up free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder with a nine-year deal worth $214 million, is the 11th-largest TV market.

The Tigers, according to published reports, are part of a 10-year, $1 billion broadcast rights deal sealed in 2008 with Fox Sports Detroit that includes the NBA Detroit Pistons and NHL Red Wings, although Tigers General Manager Dave Dombrowski said the TV deal didn't have a lot to do with signing Fielder.

Even longtime baseball columnist Peter Gammons suggested Tigers owner Mike Ilitch was being charitable by stretching the budget.

For the Indians to even approach a payday like the Angels and Rangers, someone would have to offer to buy all or part of STO and pay a huge premium for rights fees.

That's highly unlikely for a market this size, and wouldn't induce the Indians -- or other clubs in smaller cities -- to bid for expensive free agents like Pujols and Fielder anyway.

Just ask the team Fielder is leaving.

Milwaukee's TV deal couldn't pay for Fielder

"I think the answer is in our actions," Milwaukee Brewers GM Doug Melvin said. "We're just not able to. We love Prince. Prince is a helluva player . . . I'm not saying you can't do it. It makes it difficult."

Fox Sports Wisconsin pays the Brewers about $12 million per year for broadcasting rights.

"The TV contracts are the biggest difference," Melvin said. "All I know is ours doesn't come close to [the Angels, Rangers and other big-market teams]. We can't change our market. We're not going to be able to go and bring five million people to Milwaukee for a better TV market."

But there are rumblings about STO being in play. Since last summer, various media reports based on unidentified sources have said potential buyers or partners, including Time Warner Cable and Fox, have been talking to STO.

Dolan declined to comment on speculation about a sale or the timing.

"I've certainly seen all those reports. I've seen them for years," he said. "I can't speak to any specific discussions we've had over the years."

Both Fox and Time Warner, which already has a relationship with STO as a carrier of its programming and an advertising partner, have been aggressively ramping up their presence in so-called regional sports networks nationally.

A Time Warner spokesman in Akron responded by email that the company was "unable to comment" on possible interest in STO.

Henry Ford, Fox Sports Ohio's general manager, who is headed to San Diego to run a new regional sports network there, declined to comment, a spokeswoman responded in an email.

For what it's worth, there is no long-term rights agreement to delay a sale. The Indians-STO deal runs year to year.

According to estimates by SNL Kagan, which tracks the media and communications business, STO had about 3 million subscribers in 2011, with $85 million in operating revenue and $21 million in cash flow. STO generates most of its revenue from monthly fees that cable and satellite providers, like Time Warner and DirecTV, pay the network per subscriber.

Industry analyst Lee Berke, principal of LHB Sports Entertainment & Media Inc. in New York, said a regional sports network's value is typically 12 to 15 times cash flow.

Based on that formula, STO could be worth $250 million to $315 million -- even higher if based on SNL Kagan's 2012 cash-flow projections of $24 million. If STO was sold, it is unknown how much, if any, of the profit would go toward the Indians.

Compared to regional sports networks in larger media markets, those are average numbers. The Yankees' YES Network, for instance, produces annual revenues that exceed $450 million and has been valued at $1.5 billion to $2 billion. Closer to home, Fox Sports Detroit, with an estimated 3.5 million subscribers, $119 million in revenue and $30 million in cash flow, could be worth $360 million to $450 million, according to SNL Kagan.

The timing for teams to capitalize on broadcasting rights deals has never been better.

The cable industry is consolidating. Technology is allowing fans to follow their favorite teams on computers and handheld devices. Media markets may vary by size and economic stability, but the competition for customers is driving business across the board.

"The glue that's holding it all together," said New York media consultant Chris Bevilacqua, "is live sports."

And especially baseball, because the 162-game regular-season schedule provides so much programming.

To prevent the exodus of subscribers to the Internet, cable companies are paying a premium for broadcast rights. Time Warner, Fox, Comcast and DirecTV all own regional sports networks and are chasing more deals, increasingly in partnership with sports franchises.

In Houston, the Astros and NBA's Rockets left a Fox network to own close to 80 percent of a new Comcast-run sports network. And the Padres have reportedly struck a deal with the new Fox Sports San Diego that will double the club's annual rights fees to about $20 million, plus ad revenue.

Within the past two years, the industry has seen "almost a tipping point, some quantum leaps in terms of values being paid for all these various live sports rights," Bevilacqua said. "[Regional sports networks] are getting rights deals two times what they were getting just a few years ago."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: blubinger@plaind.com, 216-999-5531