Stray links I've collected over the past few days...

• John Manuel and Jonathan Mayo get us ready for the Rule 5 draft.  Manuel has a second post on it here.
• Sarah Green looks at A.J. Burnett's possible commutes.
• LEN3 suggests the Twins might be part of Adrian Beltre's limited no-trade clause.
• K-Rod signing analysis from Dave Cameron, Jesse Spector, and Keith Law.  Also check out the usual solid analysis over at Ken Davidoff's blog.
• Law also takes on the Edwin Jackson, Ramon Hernandez, J.J. Putz, and C.C. Sabathia moves.
• The Red Sox are likely to non-tender Kevin Cash.  Josh Bard is one free agent on their radar.  Also, Tony Massarotti learned that the Red Sox are strongly opposed to opt-out clauses.
• UmpBump found some C.C. Sabathia rumors we missed on Monday.  Also, the Brewers' offer to C.C. had unique clauses and two club options.
• The Dodgers knew Jason Schmidt had a partial rotator cuff tear when they signed him.
• Rany Jazayerli on recent Royals rumors, reliever and otherwise.
• Bruce Miles says the Cubs have some interest in bringing Paul Bako back.
• Jason Davis, Raul Chavez, and R.A. Dickey became free agents.  Davis may be headed to Japan.
• Nick Piecoro says Junior Spivey is looking for a job.
• Much of the money saved from recent White Sox trades was repurposed for Dayan Viciedo.

WEDNESDAY, 6:22pm: Kovacevic says Doumit's agent will meet with the Pirates later tonight to discuss their offer.  Rob Biertempfel says the Pirates did make offers to all three and want to finalize deals within six to eight weeks.

TUESDAY, 11:28pm: Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offers up the latest information on the Pirates.

• The Pirates have initiated extension talks with Nate McLouth, Ryan Doumit, and Paul Maholm.  The Braves inquired on McLouth and Maholm, but the Pirates' demands were "way high" according to an Atlanta official.  Kovacevic mentions Jordan Schafer as someone who could be offered.
• The Pirates had conversations with David Eckstein's agent, but not negotiations.  The Bucs would probably have to trade a middle infielder for it to make sense.  They never made a formal offer to Mark Loretta, who signed with the Dodgers today.
• The Jack Wilson market is tepid - the Twins have mild interest, the Dodgers have moved on to Rafael Furcal.
• While the Pirates have gotten inquiries on John Grabow, teams apparently want to look at free agent options first.
• John Perrotto says Jason Davis will refuse the Pirates' Triple A assignment and head to Japan.

According to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates are eyeing Tigers players Jeff Larish and Matt Joyce as part of a potential Jack Wilson deal.  They could get one of the two as well as a pitching prospect.  The $7.85MM owed to Wilson remains an issue; it's not known how much the Bucs are willing to pick up.

The Tigers have other options, as they plan to meet with Adam Everett's agent next week.

Kovacevic adds that the Pirates removed Jason Davis and Raul Chavez from the 40-man roster today, creating two spots for future moves.

Links for Wednesday...

• Common misconception Joe and I keep running into: signing one of the 15 Type A free agents who were offered arbitration will only cost the signing team one draft pick.  The player's old team also gets a second pick, but it doesn't come from the new team.  It's just squeezed into the supplemental round.  Check out a deeper explanation here.
• Nuggets from a Frank Coonelly chat: he expects the Pirates to make room on the 40-man roster for a potential Rule 5 addition, and they'd still like to re-sign Doug Mientkiewicz.
• Pirates pitcher Jason Davis looks like a non-tender candidate.
• Twins manager Ron Gardenhire doesn't have Delmon Young in his preferred starting outfield.
• The Cubs signed pitcher Chad Fox to a minor league deal.
• Ken Griffey Jr.'s agent Brian Goldberg says he's fine with DHing but is capable of playing the field.  Goldberg thinks Junior can bounce back and have a 30 home run season.
• Click here to listen to free agent reliever Russ Springer talk to The ITD Morning After radio show on 1380 AM.  He's gotten calls from teams in both leagues, including "World Series participants."  Springer is known to be on the Phillies' radar.
• Recently I talked to Sarah Small of the Daily Illini.
• SI.com's Tom Verducci looks at the supposed shortstop revolution that seems to have petered out.
• Dave Cameron respects the Astros' signing of Mike Hampton.
• Tony Jackson says the Dodgers offered a minor league deal to Juan Castro.
• Royals GM Dayton Moore did a Q&A with fans at MLB.com.  His priority is adding right-handed relief help after trading Leo Nunez and Ramon Ramirez.  Also, he says Mark Teahen is "more important to our team today then he was in all of 2008 -- and he was very important to our team in '08."
• McCovey Chronicles is skeptical of all the teams blaming the economy.
• Drunk Jays Fans predicts Kevin Mench's Japan experience.
• Jesse Spector looks at comparable pitchers for C.C. Sabathia.
• Trevor Hoffman may meet with the Mets soon.  Also, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon spoke of "addition by subtraction" yesterday.
• East Windup Chronicle disputes a Richard Griffin column.
• The Phillies are still willing to sign Type A free agents who were offered arbitration, such as Raul Ibanez or Juan Cruz.
• Evan Grant's latest Rangers mailbag, always a good read.
• Joe Sheehan discusses various poor arbitration decisions by teams.
• Minor league deals for the Mets: Nelson Figueroa, Adam Bostick, and Rene Rivera.  Marty Noble adds Andy Green.
• Rany Jazayerli figures Mark Grudzielanek agreed in advance to reject the Royals' offer of arbitration.
• As usual, ESPN will be all over the Winter Meetings.  I'm told they'll be doing daily Baseball Tonight specials and will have a team of seven on the scene in Vegas.
• ESPN's Peter Gammons says the free agent and trade markets are flooded with corner/DH type bats.  There will be bargains.
• Bruce Miles thinks Milton Bradley would be a nice match for the Cubs.  The biggest issue would be his ability to play right field every day.