• MLB.com's Joe Frisaro says the Royals received righty Eric Basurto as the player to be named later in the Ross Gload trade.
• Tom Glavine hopes to pitch in the Majors this month, according to MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
• Back on May 3rd, Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times wrote about the possibility of Barry Bonds signing with the independent league Long Beach Armada (the team already employs Hideki Irabu and Jose Lima).  But Bonds' agent Jeff Borris said, "He's not going to do that."
• It appears that Tony Armas Jr. signed a minor league deal with the Braves after the Mets released him.
• Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News says Padres beat writer Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune will be out of a job come August.  Sorry to hear it; Krasovic does excellent work.
• MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo talked to Tony Gwynn about Stephen Strasburg.
• Johnny Damon talked about his future again, this time with MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.
• Jim Thome would like to return to the White Sox next year, based on his comments to MLB.com's Scott Merkin.

12:20pm: According to Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post, the Mets released veterans Jose Valentin, Tony Armas Jr., and Junior Spivey today.  Valentin could return to the organization as a coach eventually.

• How about Bartolo Colon to the Mets?  David Lennon notes that Omar Minaya sold the farm to acquire him in 2002 as the Expos’ GM.
• Scott Lauber says Aaron Rowand is insisting on a five-year deal.  He adds that the Phils have interest in Geoff Jenkins but he might be too expensive. 
• Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller are considered untouchable, so don’t look for the Tigers to make any big trades.
• Patrick Saunders runs down some free agents the Rockies may consider for the back end of their rotation: Tony Armas, Matt Clement, Steve Trachsel, Josh Fogg, Jason Jennings, Jon Lieber, Mark Redman, Brett Tomko, and Kip Wells.
• The Rays may go after Tony Clark, in large part because they’re seeking leadership.  Marc Topkin agrees, and also rattles off Geoff Jenkins, Brad Wilkerson, Cliff Floyd, Mike Lamb, Mark Sweeney, Corey Koskie, and Greg Nortion as other possibilities.
• It’s expected that Eric Gagne will not accept Boston’s offer of arbitration, because he wants to close.  One place he could do so is Texas, who like him if he’ll take one year.
• The Marlins’ new marketing materials exclude Miguel Cabrera.
• The Rangers have interest in Sean Casey and Mike Lamb.

The Jays like the idea of pairing Gregg Zaun with another veteran backstop, but don’t want to give out a deal greater than one year.  It doesn’t seem like Lo Duca would go for that, but sometimes the last catcher standing has to settle.  It happened to Bengie Molina in ’06 and he was coming off a decent year.  The Marlins could pluck one of Lo Duca or Michael Barrett and the other one could get screwed.

The Jays have good rotation depth: Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, Casey Janssen, and Gustavo Chacin.  That front three stacks up with anyone’s when healthy.  You can never have too much pitching, however, so projects like Clement and Armas are being considered.  Clement worked with Jays pitching coach Brad Arnsberg in Florida.  The Padres might be the favorite, but plenty of teams are interested.

Chacon, 29, has been decent in relief (3.52 ERA in 76.2 innings).  His 1.7 K/BB is worrisome, but Chacon has always been prone to the free pass.  One change is that Chacon is back to getting groundballs near a league average rate, as he did when he succeeded with the Yankees in ’05.  While Chacon wanted to stay, a contract of at least two years, $8MM would be required.  Such a deal just doesn’t make sense for Pittsburgh.  $3.8MM off the books when Chacon leaves.

Armas was a bad move by Dave Littlefield in the first place.  He was predictably bad this year.  Then again, I didn’t think much of Steve Trachsel in the AL East and the O’s spun him into two useful players (Scott Moore and Rocky Cherry).  Anyway, the Pirates will give those 93 innings Armas ate up to a younger player in 2008.  That’s $3.5MM off the books.

Izturis was an odd acquisition.  I think Littlefield expected to move Jack Wilson when he acquired Izturis.  When that fell through the Pirates just looked silly.  The Cubs paid the Pirates an undisclosed amount of cash to take Izturis so I can’t say how much is off the books here.

The result of dumping this trio is $8MM to play with for the next Pirates’ GM.  Let’s hope he or she uses it wisely for once.

It’s hard to believe Armas would represent an improvement in anyone’s rotation after posting a 5.03 ERA in 154 innings last year in a National League pitchers’ park.  Basically the one thing Armas has going for him is that he’s on the right side of 30.  And he was traded for Pedro once.

It’s hard to believe Armas would represent an improvement in anyone’s rotation after posting a 5.03 ERA in 154 innings last year in a National League pitchers’ park.  Basically the one thing Armas has going for him is that he’s on the right side of 30.  And he was traded for Pedro once.

The Washington Post reports that Tomo Ohka will likely decide on a team today or tomorrow.  The Nats are unlikely, and he’s leaning towards Toronto.  Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Ohka now only wants a one-year deal.  Looks like he couldn’t get three years so he’d rather re-enter the market in ’08 after a hopefully solid year.  The Pirates are definitely out of the running.  The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review mentions that the Mets are still in on Ohka.

The Bucs, however, have turned their focus to Tony Armas Jr.  Several teams are interested in him, with the Pirates in the lead.  Though he’s not particularly good, he is relatively healthy and on the right side of 30.  Beggars can’t be choosy.

Meanwhile, the New York Post adds that the Mets could give Jeff Weaver a second chance in New York.  They’d be unlikely to exceed a two-year deal, and I have a hunch someone could offer three.  Once again, Scott Boras and Weaver are signing a contract late in the free agent season.