Happy Scot Shields Day!

I was mostly kidding about it, but yeah, the Angels avoided arbitration with all of their players. Scot Shields will make $3.4 million in 2007, and considering how he's a better pitcher than several closers, it seems like a reasonable deal. I've been a Shields fan for a while. He's an oddball, that's to be sure, but he's also the nicest player on the Angels by far now that Tim Salmon's retired. Shields always seemed to have time to throw a baseball to a kid after BP, or stop by to sign stuff or chat, even in the midst of quietly becoming one of the best relievers in baseball.

The list of 2007 Salary Arbitration Figures is up on mlb.com. It really freaked me out for a second because they have Lew Ford listed as being with the Nats. It's a typo, I think, but since I'd just read on Bat-Girl how Matthew LeCroy just signed a minor-league deal with the Twins, I suddenly got confused in my brain and thought there was some weird trade going on. It's annoying, though, because there are several players listed there where I seriously hadn't noticed them move to another team, and several where I was thinking that, but it's just typos. (They have Alexis Rios listed with Pittsburgh, too.)

Also, it seems like JJ Putz might actually go to arbitration with the Mariners. Crazy. Nevermind, JJ Putz signed a 3-year deal with the M's. Crisis avoided. Thanks, msb.

Teddy Beardado signed a minor-league deal with the Reds. I hope he's recovering well from surgery. Maybe he'll have a couple of years left in his arm after all.

The St. Louis Cardinals were invited to the White House yesterday. I first saw this posted on the Griddle, where he also posted a link to the transcript of the ceremony. Strangely, when seeing the picture of Eckstein presenting president Bush with a jersey in this article, I was suddenly totally reminded of David Wright presenting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a Mets jersey before the MLB-NPB All Star series this past fall.

Apparently we can blame the current snowstorms here on Jose Vidro coming to visit Seattle.