Mets sign Oliver Perez to 3-year deal

The New York Metropolitans and Oliver Perez have agreed to a 3-year, $36 million contract, which is pending a physical.

Last year, Perez was 10-7 with a 4.22 ERA. While Perez struck out 180 batters in 194 IP, he also walked 105 batters, which was the highest total in baseball last year.

The Mets starters will be Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez and either Tim Redding, Freddy Garcia or Jon Niese.

Pujols says Cards should purse Manny

St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols says the Cards should pursue Manny Ramirez. Less than 2 weeks before pitchers/catchers report to camp, Manny is still unsigned.

The one thing Pujols and Ramirez share in common is they are devastating hitters and, when motivated, Ramirez certainly would help protect Pujols in the Cardinals' lineup.

Pujols, who hit .357 with 37 HRs and 116 RBI in 2008, has shown amazing consistency in his 8-year career. His career lows: .314 BA (2002), 32 HRs (2007) and 103 RBI (2007).

Ramirez hit .332 with 37 HRs and 121 RBI in 2008, but hit nearly 100 points higher after forcing the Sox to trade him.

But Pujols, who is arguably one of baseball's most stand-up guys and my favorite player, is polar opposites with Manny, who obviously dogged it in Boston last year.

"Maybe St. Louis doesn't have the money to sign him, but he could give them a discount because St. Louis is a great city that supports its players," said Pujols, according to an Associated Press report.

Ramirez wanted out of Boston, which is a also a "great city that supports its players," to make a money grab. In wouldn't be Manny's style and certainly not that of his agent, über-jerk Scott Boras, to give a "discount."

Cardinals GM John Mozeliak says that OF is "clearly one of our strengths" and the team is not going to pursue Ramirez.

Joe Torre shocked at reaction to his book

Joe Torre is shocked by the reaction to his book, "The Yankee Years."

Torre hopes David Wells, who called Torre a "punk" for the tell-all book, will "get a different perspective" if he reads the whole book.

In his book, Torre says: "The difference between Kevin Brown and David Wells is that both make your life miserable, but David Wells meant to."

Not sure what else he needs to read Joe.

Wells believes that A-Rod (called A-Fraud in Torre's book) will be affected by the comments regardless of what A-Rod says. And I couldn't agree more with Wells.

"A-Rod says that he's not worried about it, but deep down, you can't help but think, 'Why did this guy say something? Why is he making these remarks?'"

"Now you're gonna go on the road during the season, you're gonna get bashed by every fan out there. Especially in New York, if you have a bad game, [then it's] 'Joe was right.'

As talented of a player as A-Rod is, no player is more concerned with his image and how he is perceived.

One of the things I admired about Torre was his ability to keep things in house. While I would have preferred that he didn't write the book and took the high road, my opinion of Torre doesn't change much because he wrote the book.

But to act surprised by the reaction? He's either an idiot for being surprised. Or he thinks everyone else is an idiot that would believe he's surprised.

Cubs Jeff Samardzija fighting for fifth spot on rotation

Last year, Chicago Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija pitched well after being called up. He struck out 25 batters in 27 2/3 innings pitched and finished with an ERA of 2.28.

Earlier this week, the Cubs traded for Aaron Heilman by sending Ronny Cedeno and Garrett Olson to the Mariners.

Heilman and Samardzija will fight for the fifth spot in the rotation along with Sean Marshall and Chad Gaudin.

The top 4 starters are Carlos Zambrano, Rich Harden, Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly.

What about Jake Peavy?

Cubs Asst. GM Randy Bush says there have been "no talks" not once, not twice, but 3 times.

"We've had no talks about Jake Peavy since they were well documented during the winter meetings. There's been nothing to add with that. No talks. There's been no talks with that, and I don't anticipate anything happening with that."

Samardzija wants to do anything possible to "avoid the whole Triple-A stint."

"I've been watching it pretty closely," Samardzija said of the Heilman trade. "All I can do is go to spring training and put my arm in the best shape possible. The way it is shaping up now, there is an open spot for the fifth starter. I'm going to fight tooth and nail for that position..."

Both Samardzija and Heilman are South Bend alums.

"I know Aaron pretty well," Samardzija said. "He came back to Notre Dame once when I was a sophomore. I'm sure he's going to be competing as hard as I am."

Pitchers and catchers report February 14th.

Sox tell Varitek to take it or leave it

The U.S. (and rest of the world for that matter) is experiencing challenging economic times. Moreover, an economic turnaround is not expected any time soon.

While players such as C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira and their new deals seem to defy the current global economic environment, the market for free agents has been affected. Just ask Manny Ramirez. And Jason Varitek.

Varitek, the Red Sox captain, has been offered a $5 million deal from the team. The deal includes an option for a second year that would be worth $5 million if the Sox exercise it and $3 million if Varitek does.

Varitek, who turned down arbitration on December 7th, would have earned somewhere between $10-$12 million for 2009.

Varitek's agent, the uber-jerk Scott Boras, thought he could "create a market" for Varitek.

Varitek had career lows in batting average (.220), OBP (.313), slugging percentage (.359) and OPS (.672) in 2008.

With a little more than 2 weeks to go before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, it would be wise for Varitek to accept the Sox' offer, which the team says is good until Friday.