One month later, much to discuss!

One month later, I am back posting! I have been meaning to write since the WS ended, as that is when all the free agent, and moving about of players started. Those who frequent Wikipedia may know that a good amount of depth can be found there, by that I mean much more than a single entry on baseball. With that said, they have a good article about the different types of transactions, it can be found here.

So onto the goings on of the off season. Four days after winning the WS, the White Sox declined the club option on Carl Everett, and exercised the 2006 player option on Frank Thomas. Four days after that, the White Sox exercised a buyout of Frank Thomas' player option. Therefore he became a free agent. Cliff Politte and Chris Widger will remain for at least a year, well, for now anyway.

The big CWS deal is Jim Thome heading back to the AL to play for the South Side, along with cash considerations, in exchange for Aaron Rowand, LHP Dan Haigwood and a Minor League player to be named later, who'll be heading to Philadelphia.

Elsewhere...

Declining has been going on since the regular season ended, some of note, in chronological order:

October 7th: Minnesota Twins: Declined the 2006 club option on P Joe Mays.

October 13th: Toronto Blue Jays: C Ken Huckaby and INF Frank Menechino are free agents after declining assignments to Triple A Syracuse.

October 25th: Pittsburgh Pirates: Declined the club option on RHP Jose Mesa making him a free agent.

October 28th: Cincinnati Reds: The Reds and INF Rich Aurilia mutually agreed to decline his 2006 contract option.

Chicago Cubs: Declined a mutual option on OF Jeromy Burnitz.

November 1st: Florida Marlins: Declined the club option on RHP Antonio Alfonseca.

Oakland Athletics: Decline to exercise contract option on DH Scott Hatteberg for the 2006 season.

Seattle Mariners: Declined the club option on the contracts of INF Pokey Reese, a member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series champions.

November 8th: New York Yankees: Declined the club option on 1B Tino Martinez.

November 10th: St. Louis Cardinals: Declined club option on OF Larry Walker, making him a free agent. Will be interesting to see if he plays again, and where he may end up if he does.

And finally...

November 15th: New York Mets: Declined options on LHP Felix Heredia and LHP Kazuhisa Ishii.

Alright, I'll end this post now. I'll post again soon talking about the possibly doomed Florida Marlins! As well as other transactions happening, and whatever else I can think of.