Breakfast Links: Boston reels in Carp, Overbay Milwaukee-bound?, Hernandez out in Denver?

Good morning, all.

Today we have the Red Sox acquiring the other piscine outfielder named Mike, some dirt on the repercussions that may have in Boston, and the Rockies looking to unload a veteran backstop. Also, yet another team jumps on the "No Lohse" bandwagon, the Yankees might lowball the Cubs, and David Price doesn't care about money except that he does.

And finally, a brief discussion on some book ish or something bookish.

Let's baseball!:

The Big Three

1. Yesterday's biggest baseball news was Boston's acquisition of a mediocre corner infielder/outfielder (Mike Carp) who could potentially platoon with Mike Napoli and Jonny Gomes. So, big news day then. Actual games cannot get here soon enough. The 26-year-old Carp has some up-side, enough to make the deal somewhat interesting at least, but given the aquatic nature of his surname he'll just forever be a reminder to Red Sox fans of the guy they missed out on by three picks in 2009. Reymond Fuentes, the outfielder they selected with the 28th pick in the draft, spent the 2012 season at Double-A for the Padres. He hit .218/.301/.302.

2. Carp's addition to addition to the roster guarantees that Lyle Overbay will have his work cut out for him if he wants a spot on the 40-man roster this spring. The lefty-swinging veteran is currently in camp on a minor-league deal, so if the Sox end up going with their latest acquisition as their platoon choice then Overbay could find himself back in Milwaukee, where he had two of his best seasons early in his career. The Brew Crew is allegedly looking to solve their first-base dilemma with an in-house option at the moment, but considering Corey Hart's one-month timeline is a best-case scenario, there's no way the club won't at least give a veteran outsider a look. Maybe Overbay will tank his audition with the Sox so that he can guarantee himself a job on Opening Day in Wisconsin? Is that allowed?

3. The Colorado Rockies have had an eerily quiet winter, especially for a club that lost 98 games in 2012. The biggest headlines out of the Mile-High City were all concerning the club's manager search, which was sufficiently weird in its own right (Jason Giambi, really?). But not wanting to go through an entire offseason without doing anything vaguely interesting, it seems that the Rockies may look to part ways with veteran catcher Ramon Hernandez. The 36-year-old veteran was downright awful last season -- his .217/.247/.353 line was worse than Jeff Mathis' -- and he's still owed $3.2 million this coming year, so Colorado isn't likely to get anything all that valuable in return for him. But with exciting, young-ish guys like Wilin Rosario and Jordan Pacheco standing by, Hernandez's time in Denver may be at an end.

In Other News...

1. Holy crap would someone please just sign Kyle Lohse already? This may be the most elaborate, excruciating game of "Not It!" ever devised. Honestly, it seems like whichever team is last to publicly proclaim that they don't want Lohse will be stuck with him. The Braves are the latest team to claim "nose goes," joining the Nats, Indians, Rangers, Angels, Rockies, Pirates, Red Sox, Yankees, Brewers, and Cardinals.

2. The Yankees exclaimed interest in acquiring Alfonso Soriano yesterday -- who is finally open to a trade -- but did so in about the most self-defeating way possible (albeit through a rumor). The Bombers would like Soriano -- he is a righty-hitting outfielder after all -- but apparently aren't willing to give up even a "good prospect" to get him. Which, yeah, I probably wouldn't either, but why would you tell that to a reporter? Talk about closing the door before it's even open.

3. David Price told reporters yesterday that a) he doesn't care about money, b) he's open to a contract extension with the Rays, and c) he's not willing to take a discount to get that done. This is like one of those logical fallacies where A=B and B=C, but A≠C. "I don't care about money but if you don't give me enough I won't take it." Huh?

Thursday Thoughts

I've always wanted to be in a book club, though nothing like this and definitely not one of the ones where everyone wears matching hats. Is that a book club? Not important.

Anyways, my strange penchant for purchasing at least one paperback every time I happen to wander into a bookstore seems to make me a solid candidate for such a club, if not also that super-creepy Hoarders show. Unfortunately, a book club has just not been a very practical thing for me because I tend to read about three or four books at the same time, and inevitably fail to finish one of them.

I just finished reading Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise, which, more than anything else, is a fantastic introduction to Bayesian probability, but is also a great example of his easy-to-read but not overly-trivial writing style. Nate hits on his prediction bread-and-butter -- baseball, poker, and politics -- but also checks in on a variety of other fields as well, with varying results.

I'm also re-reading Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter -- why high-schoolers are forced to read books so over their heads is beyond me -- as well as a book on Alexander Technique called Body Learning.

What book is on your bedside table at the moment?