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