In our first episode of the new year, the Crack Technical Staff and I show a degree of enthusiasm about the sport of baseball unseen in these parts of a while now. It must be the promise of a new year, a new third baseman for the Cardinals, a new South American baseball academy for the Pirates, and a new not-GM for the Reds.

We also talk a bit about American Gladiators, so you won’t want to miss that.

The show covered the teams in alphabetical order by team name this week:

Astros

• Brandon Backe signed to avoid arbitration, can’t avoid losing in the hottest NLC baller contest
• Roger Clemens never shuts up

Brewers

• Mike Cameron signs with Brewers and will start the season off right: with a 25-game drug suspension
• Because of Cameron, Bill Hall will move to 3B and Ryan Braun will move to left field

Cardinals

• Traded Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus, giving the Blue Jays’ every child’s Christmas wish: the same right side of the infield as the Cardinals had last year
• Signed Matt Clement to incentive-laden deal ($1.5 Million)

Cubs

• Plans to rename Wrigley Field not received well, unless they sell them to Wrigley
• Andre Dawson was not voted in to hall of fame
• Goose Gossage, who pitched for the Cubs one year and probably would have taken steroids, was voted in

Pirates

• Academy in Dominican Republic
• Signed Elmer Dessens and several other players to minor league deals

Reds

• Walt Jocketty joins Reds
• Bronson and his love affair with Beantown

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A very short episode tonight as Jon and I use a few free minutes to keep the podcasting momentum going. When we aren’t shooting the breeze talking about our holiday plans and the new Screaming Mimes album that came in the mail today, you’ll hear our take on the one NLC-related story: the Reds trading Josh Hamilton to the Rangers for a couple pitchers

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This week on the podcast:

• Cubs signing Kosuke Fukudome and Cubs non-tendering Mark Prior. Both sort of hard to quibble with.
• Houston trading for closer Jose Valverde from the Diamondbacks for 2B Chris Burke and pitchers Juan
• Gutierrez and Chad Qualls.
• Houston trading for Miguel Tejada and Tejada appearing in the Mitchell Report.
• Even more talk about the Mitchell Report.
• Cardinals trading away Edmonds, and the tears that flowed thereafter. But don’t worry; he’ll be OK.
• Brewers tendering one-year contracts to: SS J.J. Hardy, RHPs Dave Bush, Claudio Vargas, and Seth McClung, and LHPs Brian Shouse and Chris Capuano.
• Reds tendering one-year contracts to 2B Brandon Phillips and RHP Matt Belisle, coincidentally two guys likely to show up in the Hottest NLC Player bracket later this week (if I get all my Christmas presents wrapped in time).
• Pirates continuing to do not much of anything. Imagine.

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Not a lot going on in the NLC to talk about this week, though the Crack Technical Staff and I made it out to Redsfest for a few beers and some making fun of the jerseys in the Reds Community Fund shop. I wonder how much they’ll have to pay someone to take those Milton jerseys off their hands.

We also discussed the rule 5 draft, the Brewers signing Eric Gagne for $10 million, and lesser moves around the division.

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The Crack Technical Staff wrote up a docket of topics this week, so there’s some actual content in between the ramblings in this episode. Topics include:

Reds not the most newsworthy team for a minute.

Astros sign Kaz Matsui (3 yrs, $15 M).

Cardinals sign Cesar Izturis (1 yr, $2.85 M).

Pirates involved in trade rumors.

• Jason Bay. Indians: Pittsburgh would get catcher Kelly Shoppach and left-hander Cliff Lee for the two-time All-Star.
• Xavier Nady, Matt Morris, and Jack Wilson are also on the trading block. At one point last week, Morris and Wilson were both attached to the Cardinals.

Brewers

• Rumored to be close to signing reliever David Riske to a multi-year deal.
• Rumor of sending starter Greg Capuano to the Cardinals for Scott Rolen.
• Andruw Jones might be interested in signing.

Cubs mostly happy that they lost the Kaz Matsui sweepstakes, but are interested in Kosuke Fukudome, or at least the bloggers are.

• Al at Bleed Cubbie Blue translated a letter into Japanese.
• Rob at The Goat Riders of the Apocalypse described Fukudome as the “best chance of ending the 99 years of misery.”

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