So many teams are sitting back and waiting for the completion of the Type A free-agent and possible non-tender markets that there probably won't be a lot of moves in the next couple of weeks, some general managers speculated Tuesday. One GM went so far as to say that it probably would have been a good idea for the winter meetings to be moved to late December or early January this year.
So it feels like a side-dish buffet of baseball information these days, with the big turkeys still to come. Some smaller servings collected:
- When Roy Oswalt went through his back trouble last season, specialists recommended that he go through a regimen of swimming, and the Astros expect that he'll be ready to go at full speed when spring training begins. New Houston manager Brad Mills and GM Ed Wade will soon meet with Oswalt, in a get-to-know conversation for Mills, who chatted up Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee last month. The Astros don't have much payroll flexibility to make moves, given the fact that they will likely shave the payroll from $107 million last season to something in the range of $90 million-$93 million. Houston could open the season with youngsters at catcher, third base and shortstop.
For more from the buffet -- including a ton of dishes on all the free-agent chatter -- you must be an ESPN Insider.
Buster Olney
