Off the wire

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

BASEBALL Arencibia cuts deal

Catcher J.P. Arencibia and the Texas Rangers have finalized a $1.8 million, one-year contract. Arencibia hit .194 with 21 home runs, 18 doubles and 55 RBI in a career-high 138 games this year for Toronto. The Blue Jays didn’t offer him a contract by the Dec. 2 deadline and allowed him to become a free agent. Arencibia has a .212 career average with 64 home runs and 193 RBI in four major-league seasons. He turns 28 next month and figures to be a backup to Geovany Soto. The agreement was announced Tuesday. Arencibia is fourth among catchers in home runs over the past three seasons with 62. Two of Arencibia’s seven multi-home run games have come in Arlington. The other five were in Toronto.

A person with knowledge of the trade said the Oakland Athletics have dealt left-hander Brett Anderson to the Colorado Rockies for left-hander Drew Pomeranz and minor league pitcher Chris Jensen. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the deal hadn’t been announced. Two-time American League West champion Oakland had been looking to move Anderson, who is scheduled to make $8 million this season and has a $12 million contract option for 2015. Anderson made a late-season stint as a reliever following an injury-shortened season in which he went 1-4 with a 6.04 ERA in 5 starts and 16 appearances.

A person familiar with the negotiations said outfielder Rajai Davis and the Detroit Tigers are closing in on an agreement for a two-year contract worth $9 million to $10 million. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press on Tuesday because an agreement has not been completed and the player is to have a physical. Davis, 33, spent the past three seasons with Toronto and hit .260 this year with 6 home runs and 24 RBI and 45 steals in 331 at-bats. He made $2.5 million.

Joplin, Mo., is a step closer to luring an independent professional baseball team from Texas. The Joplin City Council voted Monday to have the city staff write a formal deal aimed at relocating the El Paso Diablos to Joplin. That agreement could be presented next Monday if it is finished that quickly. The Diablos are affiliated with the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. The city would be required to renovate and expand Joe Becker Stadium to attract the team. City Manager Mark Rohr said the city’s proposed costs have been reduced from $5.9 million to $4 million because the team would pay to expand stadium parking. The Diablos play in the same league as the Kansas City T-Bones and the Wichita Wingnuts.

Roger Angell of The New Yorker won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award on Tuesday for meritorious contributions to baseball writing, the first writer to earn the honor who was never a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Angell, 93, will be honored during the Hall of Fame’s induction weekend July 25-28 in Cooperstown, N.Y. He will attend the ceremony, joining by retired managers Joe Torre, Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa, who were elected Monday by the expansion era committee.

FOOTBALL Attorney: Brown to stay

Mack Brown’s attorney said the Texas coach has not resigned, denying a report that Brown was ready to step down after 16 seasons with the Longhorns. Orangebloods.com is reporting, citing two unidentified sources, that Brown will announce he is leaving Texas and that an announcement could come later this week. Joe Jamail, Brown’s longtime friend and attorney, told The Associated Press on Tuesday: “Mack Brown has not resigned.” He said Brown’s future with Texas is still up to the coach. Horns247.com, a Texas recruiting website, is reporting that Brown denied the report in a text from Florida, where he was recruiting. Brown writes to Horns247: “I have not decided to step down.” Messages left with Texas spokesmen were not immediately returned.

Mississippi Coach Hugh Freeze has a new contract that includes a one-year extension through 2017 and a raise to $3 million per season. The school announced the terms Tuesday. Freeze’s four-year contract is the longest allowed by Mississippi state law. His base salary was $2 million this season. Ole Miss has a 7-5 record and accepted an invitation to the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., where it will play Georgia Tech on Dec. 30. Freeze’s new contract includes an automatic $150,000 raise for each upcoming season. The salary pool for the Ole Miss football staff also will increase by $400,000.

The NCAA is penalizing Southeastern Louisiana, saying the university exhibited a lack of institutional control during a five-year period in which 137 student-athletes were allowed to compete in sports while academically ineligible. The penalties, announced Tuesday by the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions, include scholarship reductions in football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, men’s and women’s track and field, men’s golf, softball, soccer and volleyball. The athletic department will be on probation for four years, has been fined a $25,000, must submit to an external audit of its compliance system and vacate victories and records from the 2005-06 academic year through 2009-10, when ineligible athletes competed. The ruling comes as the Lions’ football team prepares to host a FCS quarterfinal playoff game on Saturday.

An Associated Press review of penalties through the first 11 weeks of the NFL season finds that an average of nearly once a game, a player absorbs an illegal blow to the head or neck that could put his career at risk. Over the past four years, the NFL has toughened the rules in an attempt to prevent such blows. Yet the AP breakdown found those hits are still prevalent. Of the 491 major infractions charted over the first 162 games of the season, the AP identified 156 involving contact with the head and neck - an average of .962 per game. Of those, 93 were for hits to the head. Quarterbacks and receivers shared the largest brunt of those hits, with the quarterbacks taking 40 and receivers taking 38.

BASEBALL Angels send Trumbo to Diamondbacks

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - The Los Angeles Angels agreed Tuesday to trade slugging outfielder-first baseman Mark Trumbo to the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a three team deal that also includes the Chicago White Sox, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press.

Pitcher Hector Santiago is moving from the White Sox to the Angels, outfielder Adam Eaton from the Diamondbacks to Chicago, and left-hander Tyler Skaggs from Arizona to Los Angeles.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet been announced, said Arizona also is receiving a player to be named from each of the other clubs in the deal.

All four players have low salaries for now. Trumbo and Santiago are on track to be eligible for salary arbitration after next season, Eaton following the 2015 season and Skaggs after the 2016 season.

Trumbo, who played for the Arkansas Travelers in 2008 and 2009, hit .234 with 34 home runs and 100 RBI this year, getting much of his playing time at first base because Albert Pujols was hurt. But he was deemed superfluous by Los Angeles, which needs starting pitching behind Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson and Garrett Richards.

Santiago was 4-9 with a 3.56 ERA in 23 starts and 11 relief appearances. His fastball velocity has dipped from 93.8 mph in 2011 to 92.8 in 2012 to 91.8 last season, according to fangraphs.com.

Eaton hit .252 with 3 home runs, 22 RBI and 44 strikeouts in 250 at-bats for the Diamondbacks this year, when he also played with three minor-league teams.

Skaggs went to Santa Monica High School, was taken by the Angels with the 40th overall selection of the 2009 amateur draft and was dealt to the Diamondbacks in August 2010 to complete the trade that brought Dan Haren to Los Angeles.

Skaggs made his major-league debut in 2012, when he had six starts but spent much of this year in the minors. He was 2-3 with a 5.12 ERA in 7 starts this year for Arizona, leaving him with a 3-6 career mark.

Sports, Pages 20 on 12/11/2013