AL Central Notes: Kubel, Danks, Floyd, Verlander

The AL Central has a teeny amount of buzz around them, with the Indians and Twins more or less on lockdown, the Royals waiting for leftovers, and the White Sox seemingly waiting for markets to play out a little. Here's what we're watching:

• Indians Intrested in Jason Kubel - cleveland.com
  "The Indians have interest in free-agent outfielder Jason Kubel. Bothered by a foot injury last year with the Twins, Kubel, 29, hit .273 (100-for-366) with 21 doubles, 12 homers and 58 RBI. Kubel isn't the right-handed hitter the Indians need to balance the lineup, but he has power and can play left and right field. Kubel won't be as expensive as his former Twins teammate Michael Cuddyer, but he is looking for a two- or three-year contract at probably between $7 million and $8 million a year."
• Sox’ pitchers in demand - Chicago Sun-Times
  "Even though it’s quite possible the Sox will lose left-hander Mark Buehrle in free agency, Williams did not rule out a scenario of trading both lefty John Danks and right-hander Gavin Floyd, which would mean more than half the starting rotation would be new next season."
• Mixed bag of news on first day of GM meetings - South Side Sox
  "There are some reasons to believe the White Sox could contend for the AL Central title, but it involves a lot of finger-crossing and prayer. More realistically, if the players who failed in 2011 can't revive their careers in 2012, the Sox are suddenly have little in the way of present or future production."

• Justin Verlander wins AL Cy Young Award in unanimous vote - latimes.com
  "Justin Verlander's 2011 dominance was reflected in balloting for the American League Cy Young Award, which the Detroit right-hander won Tuesday in a unanimous vote of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America."
• Jim Leyland second in manager of the year voting; Kirk Gibson wins in NL - Bless You Boys
  "Joe Maddon won the AL manager of the year award, as you would expect. He picked up all but two first place votes. Tigers manager Jim Leyland earned one of those first-place votes and finished second overall. Leyland earned both the most second and third place votes."
• All True Indians Team - Beyond the Box Score
  What is the best True Indians team you can make from players who stuck with the Indians for their entire career?

• MLB Rumors: Team-Specific Rumors! - MLB Daily Dish
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