THE GAME OF BASEBALL

According to MLR 3(h), on or before December 12, each Major League Club must tender a Major League Uniform Player's Contract to each player on its 40-man Roster. If a Club fail to tender or renew a contract, the player shall become a free agent. This year class of non-tendered FAs includes some prominent names such as former All-Star pitchers Joe Saunders (pictured) and Hong-Chih Kuo, and Baltimore outfielder Luke Scott.

The 30 players who became free agents (* means a player who was arbitration eligible):

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BALTIMORE (3) — Willie Eyre*, rhp; Jo-Jo Reyes*, lhp; Luke Scott*, of

BOSTON (1) — Rich Hill*, lhp

DETROIT (1) — Will Rhymes, 2b

KANSAS CITY (1) — Aaron Laffey*, lhp

MINNESOTA (1) — Jose Mijares*, lhp

SEATTLE (2) — Dan Cortes, rhp; Chris Gimenez, c-1b-of

TAMPA BAY (1) — Andy Sonnanstine*, rhp

TEXAS (1) — Fabio Castillo, rhp

NATIONAL LEAGUE

ATLANTA (2) — Brooks Conrad, inf; Peter Moylan*, rhp

ARIZONA (2) — Micah Owings*, rhp; Joe Saunders*, lhp

CHICAGO (1) — Koyie Hill*, c

COLORADO (2) — Cole Garner, of; Ryan Spilborghs*, of

LOS ANGELES (1) — Hong-Chih Kuo*, lhp

MIAMI (1) — Clay Hensley*, rhp

NEW YORK (2) — Mike Baxter, of; Ronny Paulino*, c

PITTSBURGH (2) — Pedro Ciriaco, inf; Jason Jaramillo, c

ST. LOUIS (2) —Skip Schumaker* (then resigned to a 2-yr contract), 2b-of; Ryan Theriot*, inf

SAN DIEGO (1) — Jeremy Hermida*, of

SAN FRANCISCO (2) — Jeff Keppinger*, 2b; Eli Whiteside*, c

WASHINGTON (1) — Doug Slaten*, lhp

Dominican righty Rhiner Cruz (selected by the Astros) was the first overall pick of this year Rule V Draft.

RULE V DRAFT RESULTS (source: Baseball America)

Rule V Slide Show (source: Milb.com)

On Nov. 2nd MLB released the list of the 2011 minor league free agents marking the beginning of the 2012 transaction season. We'll mantain updated the following file adding some capsules on some of the players involved in the transactions (Source: Baseball America, MLB.com, Milb.com, MLBTrade Rumors). MiLB Transactions 2011-12.pdf

The new Major League Labor Agreement brings some major changes in the game, the most important are:

1. a second Wild Card team will be added to each league's post-season play;
2. the Houston Astros will move to AL West starting 2013;
3. Draft pick compensation system based on Type “A” or “B” players will be eliminated;
4. An extension of Super-Two players’ pool in the arbitration system;
5. New minimum for MLB and minors salaries;
6. June Rule 4 Draft will be characterized by signing bonus pools for each team, with penalties for excessing pools; Draft rounds were reduced from 50 to 40;
7. a probable draft for international amateur players.

The following is the list of minor league players that were declared free agents on Nov. 2, pursuant MLR 55 (six-year minor league free agents).

Milb FA Tracker (Baseball America)

The following is the list of players that elected minor league free agency pursuant Art. XX.D(1)(2) of the Baseball Basic Agreement (Any Player who has at least 3 years of Major League service and whose contract is assigned outright to a Minor League club or any Player whose contract is assigned outright to a Minor League club for the second time or any subsequent time may elect, in lieu of accepting such assignment, to become a free agent):

Arizona: RHP Armando Galarraga, LHP Alberto Castillo, 3B Sean Burroughs, SS Cody Ransom, OF Ryan Langerhans

Atlanta: C Wil Nieves, C J.C. Boscan, OF Wilkin Ramirez

Baltimore: RHP Jeremy Accardo, RHP Mitch Atkins, C Jake Fox, OF Felix Pie

Boston: LHP Hideki Okajima, LHP Dennys Reyes, LHP Randy Williams, 2B Drew Sutton, OF Joey Gathright

Chicago NL: OF Brad Snyder

Chicago AL: RHP Shane Lindsay, RHP Josh Kinney, C Donny Lucy, 3B Dallas McPherson, OF Lastings Milledge

Cincinnati: RHP Jared Burton, RHP Daryl Thompson, OF Fred Lewis, RHP Chad Reineke

Cleveland: RHP Mitch Talbot, OF Travis Buck, OF Jerad Head

Colorado: RHP Edgar Gonzalez, RHP Jim Miller, 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff

Detroit: LHP Brad Thomas

Florida: RHP Brian Sanches, 2B Joe Thurston, OF Vinny Rottino

Houston: RHP Lance Pendleton, C Robinson Cancel, C Brian Esposito

Kansas City: RHP Robinson Tejeda

Los Angeles AL: RHP Matt Palmer, OF Reggie Willits

Los Angeles NL: C Hector Gimenez, OF Jay Gibbons

Milwaukee: 2B Felipe Lopez, C Mike Rivera, OF Brandon Boggs

Minnesota: RHP Eric Hacker, LHP Phil Dumatrait, C Steve Holm, C Rene Rivera, 2B Brian Dinkelman, 2B Matt Tolbert, OF Jeremy Reed, OF Jason Repko

New York NL: RHP Dale Thayer, LHP Pat Misch, LHP Mike O'Connor, 2B Luis Hernandez

New York AL: C Gustavo Molina, LHP Raul Valdes

Oakland: 3B Andy LaRoche

Philadelphia: C Dane Sardinha, 2B Pete Orr, OF Brandon Moss

Pittsburgh: LHP Brian Burres, C Dusty Brown, C Wyatt Toregas, SS Brian Bocock

San Diego: RHP Jeff Fulchino, RHP Pat Neshek, C Kyle Phillips, C Rob Johnson

San Francisco: 2B Bill Hall

Tampa Bay: OF Matt Carson

Texas: RHP Brett Tomko, RHP Tim Wood

Toronto: RHP P.J. Walters, LHP Wil Ledezma, LHP Rommie Lewis, 3B Jayson Nix, IF Chris Woodward, OF Dewayne Wise

The 2011 Cardinals are one of the most resilient teamsever seen in baseball. They lost ace Adam Wainwright for good before he could throw an official pitch, then played most of the season without key players such as Pujols, Holliday and Freese, again they were 10 ½ games behind the wild card Braves in August. They made the post season the last day of games, then eliminated the heavily favourite Phillies and the Brewers in five games. The Rangers looked like the favourite team to win the World series, but despite twice being down to their last strike in game 6, the St. Louis Cardinals bounced back winning 10-9 in11 innings thanks to a solo shot of David Freese (named the WS MVP) and deserved to claim the World Series winning Game 7, 6-2.

Game#1 Texas - St. Louis - 2-3 (video)

Game#2 Texas - St. Louis - 2-1 (video)

Game#3 St. Louis - Texas - 16-7 (video)

Game#4 St. Louis - Texas - 0-4 (video)

Game#5 St. Louis - Texas - 2-4 (video)

Game#6 Texas - St. Louis - 9-10 (video)

Game#7 Texas - St. Louis - 2-6 (video)