Breakfast Links: Yankees to give Cano big-time $?, Lohse and Valverde still hopeless, A's may actually escape Oakland

Happy Friday, everyone! I had to schedule this a bit early, so apologies if I've missed out on a story that broke late last night.

Today we have a Yankee looking at big money (shocker!), some more dirt on team-less Boras clients, and news that the A's may finally make it out of their nightmare of a stadium. Also, a Rockies legend may be calling it quits, the Phillies continue to mishandle a top prospect, and the Nats add some rotation depth.

Lastly, a brief discussion about how new scientific discoveries continually blow my mind.

Baseball!:

The Big Three

1. It's looking more and more likely that the Yankees are going to throw down some serious dough to keep second baseman Robinson Cano around for a long time. Owner Hal Steinbrenner has told the press that the club is considering a "significant long-term contract" with the 30-year-old at a time when the club has typically practiced radio silence. This change in tactics doesn't necessarily guarantee that Cano will be in pinstripes next season, but it does signify that the Yanks are serious about hammering out a deal with their second baseman. There are potentially a large group of suitors awaiting Cano on the open market, but I think he and Scott Boras would be smart to stay in the Bronx.

2. Has still no one drawn the short straw and given in to signing Kyle Lohse and Jose Valverde? Rather than potential landing spots, more news of general disinterest emerged Thursday. The Yankees and Rangers are both definitely still out on Lohse, and the Tigers will not be returning Papa Grande's calls any time soon. Seriously cannot wait for these guys to sign somewhere. I'm sure they feel the same way.

3. The Oakland A's received "tentative guidelines" from Major League Baseball yesterday about what they need to accomplish if they want a move to San Jose to be a realistic possibility. While nothing is anywhere close to set in stone, things seem to be leaning in the club's favor. If the A's are able to get the all clear from the Commissioner's office, the only thing that could prevent them from moving would be if the San Francisco Giants built up a coalition of at least seven teams against them. I really doubt the other teams really care about the Giants having to share some of their "territorial rights," especially when the area in question is equidistant from both current parks.

In Other News...

1. The chance that Todd Helton will play beyond 2013 is looking pretty slim. A lot of people are probably already settled on the idea that the 40-year-old will retire at season's end, which seems to be a safe bet. If so, I really hope he gets a farewell tour like Chipper did last year.

2. The Phillies talked with the Houston Astros earlier this winter about a trade involving young outfielder Domonic Brown, but Amaro and company decided to hang on to one-time top prospect. It seems like yet again Brown is fated to not get the playing time needed to get comfortable in the big leagues because, you know, Delmon Young is a such a better option.

3. The Nats signed tall right-hander Chris Young to a minor-league deal yesterday, giving the club a pretty damn good failsafe in the event that their rock-solid rotation falters. The move is probably small enough that Javier Vazquez could still be on the club's radar.

Fascinating Friday

The seemingly exponential growth of science and technology over the last two decades never ceases to astound me. I am a pretty firm believer that things may be moving too fast in this realm, and that we're passing things by without first fully understanding what we just did, but I'm still in awe of what the field has done in the last century.

The era of Big Data -- which is a weird moniker; is the data big or is there just a lot of it? -- has already come up with several potentially humanity-altering inventions, and it's fun to think what we may have accidentally overlooked along the way.

As we're bombarded with new information on just about every subject each day, it's easy to miss the potential that a device/theory/program/whatever could have in another field or under a different application. Many of science's greatest discoveries -- when things were progressing much slower -- were happy accidents.

Here's a great recent one:

What recent scientific breakthrough are you most psyched about?