Peep Show

Law: <a name="&amp;lpos=story_in" href="http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/post?id=840&addata=2009_insdr_mod_mlb_xxx_xxx">Expectations for Wheeler, Myers and Cole
Szymborski: <a name="&amp;lpos=story_in" href="http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9398460/calculating-clayton-kershaw-contract-actually-worth-mlb?addata=2009_insdr_mod_mlb_xxx_xxx">Calculating Kershaw's worth
MLB Draft: <a name="&amp;lpos=story_in" href="http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/mlb-draft/post?id=1049&addata=2009_insdr_mod_mlb_xxx_xxx">Rodon, Turner could make history
Olney: <a name="&amp;lpos=story_in" href="http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/post/_/id/2139?addata=2009_insdr_mod_mlb_xxx_xxx">New low for A's ballpark
Swydan: <a name="&amp;lpos=story_in" href="http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9394977/surging-san-diego-padres-win-national-league-west-mlb?addata=2009_insdr_mod_mlb_xxx_xxx">San Diego's sneaky-deep lineup

Updated: February 9, 2004, 8:27 AM ET

American League

Eckstein

Anaheim Angels: Last offseason he was the toast of the town, rising above expectations to help lead the Angels to the top of the world. David Eckstein fell off in just about every offensive category in 2003 and is looking for a salary of $2.15 million while the Angels have offered $550,000 less. An arbitration showdown appears inevitable, but Eckstein is not anticipating any bad blood as a result of the process that puts teams in the position of having to attack their own players to prove they are unworthy of more money. "No one likes to go through it, but that's the process that's been set up," he told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, "It won't affect anything on the field whatsoever."

Oakland Athletics: When last we saw Jermaine Dye, he was being pinch-hit for by journeyman Adam Melhuse to end the ALDS. This capped a lost season in which Dye barely registered at the plate owing to knee and shoulder injuries that limited him to 253 mostly ineffective plate appearances. All that is going to change in 2004, he vows, having undertaken a vigorous workout regimen that he hopes will help him regain the form that made him worthy of the $11 million he will earn this year. Of that regimen he says, "It'll probably keep me on the field. And when I'm on the field, I know I can produce.'' Chris Haft of the San Jose Mercury News also reports that Mark Mulder is fully healed from the broken femur that wiped out the last six weeks of the 2003 season.

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