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Setting up Vegas with a rumor round-up

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Now that the non-law school students among us are gambling away our advertising revenue settling in to Sin City, let’s set the stage.

Right now, we’re not sure what’s going to come of our heading to Vegas except wall-to-wall coverage of the Winter Meetings and a whole of standing around, according to this guy. Mike and Joe will be at Greg Maddux’s retirement announcement tomorrow; they’ll sit in on Brian Cashman’s media moment; and they’ll get the lay of the land.

To keep up to date with RAB during the week, we can offer you a few choice ways of staying in touch. First and foremost, keep checking back here. We’ll have updates as soon as we can on site. For up-to-the-moment Twitter updates, you can follow RAB on the social networking service. Joe will be updating via Blackberry as he can. You should join us on Facebook too. We also have a RAB Yahoo! Groups page for rapid-fire e-mail updates, but we’re not totally sure what’s going on with that yet.

Anyway, that’s that for staying in touch. Now, on to the good stuff: rumors, rumors rumors.

  • To clarify an item from earlier in the week, CC Sabathia’s agent requested the meeting with Brian Cashman and not the other way around. I think Sabathia’s agent is going to set a time parameter with the Yanks. He’s also meeting with the Red Sox, but that’s just to put some pressure on the Yankees.
  • In what was just a formality, Manny Ramirez has declined arbitration. It sounds more and more likely that he’ll be a part of the offensive-focused Plan B if the Yanks sense Sabathia is not interested.
  • Jason Varitek will reject arbitration. I think this sets the stage for a divorce between the Red Sox and their erstwhile Captain. While Theo Epstein had been pledging lip service to Varitek, this move means that Jason and Scott Boras think he can get a multi-year deal, and there is little chance Boston would do that.
  • Playing closer roulette in Vegas, the Mets are going to make an offer to Francisco Rodriguez. They also plan to go after Brian Fuentes, Trevor Hoffman and, potentially, Kerry Wood. The first guy to accept wins the job. The K-Rod offer is rumored to be for three years with an option.
  • Talking Chop, a Braves blog, wants Atlanta to take a Rule V flyer on Kei Igawa. Be my guest.
  • The New York Times reminds us that Scott Boras is very good at his job.

Setting up at the Winter Meetings

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So we’re here, we’re registered, and we’ve feasted on the Bellagio buffet (couldn’t have asked for much more; we had a hard time walking back to our hotel). So while we digest, here are some pictures from the early goings.

Yep, that’s us. For some reason, I had this nagging fear that something would have gotten screwed up and we wouldn’t have gotten these.

The press room. We’re 90 percent certain Jerry Crasnick of ESPN was in there. On our way out, we 100 percent saw Gene Monahan, who was there for the trainers conference.

NERDS!!!!! Seriously, this is one comprehensive stat package. No wOBA, though.

This is the TOC of the cool binder they gave us. Disappointingly, the Rule 5 worksheet lists all teams, not just team which have picks.

This is probably all we’ve got for tonight. Everyone’s getting here and getting settled in, and even then a lot of people are flying in tomorrow morning. Mike and I will have a drink for each of you.

The Greg Maddux press conference is at 11:30 tomorrow, so we’ll be there for that, as will most everyone there I assume. Girardi’s availability is on Tuesday, and we’ll probably pop in for Torre’s on Wednesday.

‘Till then…