NHL still locked out, MLB free agency starting

NHL Lockout to Continue

- A federal mediator has be unable to do what the NHL and the NHL’s Players Association claim to be striving towards, starting the NHL season soon. Two days of meetings with both sides have led to nothing.
Recently, Gary Bettman (who is in the running for the worst commissioner in the history of North American sports) has offered to have the owners, the constituency he represents, meet with the players directly without any league or player’s association representatives available.
- The owners will be meeting on Wednesday, and the players have started rumbling about decertifying the union and suing the NHL in court. Neither of these two events is likely to bring quick resolution to this issue. It is beginning to look more and more likely that there will be no NHL season in 2012-13, the second time that the league would miss an entire season in the past eight years.


First Moves in MLB Free Agency

- BJ Upton, formerly of the Tampa Bay Rays, is the first big name to change teams this baseball offseason. Upton signed a 5-year $76 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. Upton will likely take over for fellow free agent outfielder Michael Bourn, who is now nearly certain to leave Atlanta.
- Another player leaving the AL East is Russell Martin, after he signed a 2-year $17 million contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Martin chose to leave the New York Yankees after two years behind the plate in the Bronx. Martin was a lower priority for the Yankees (who have already re-signed Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda and Mariano Rivera) and he never received an offer from his former team before accepting this deal with the Pirates.
- The biggest trade in the past few days has been the Washington Nationals, fresh off their first playoff win since moving to the nation’s capital, trading to get Denard Span from the Minnesota Twins for a minor leaguer. Moving some players around the field, Span will likely take the spot in the lineup of first baseman Adam Laroche who is a free agent this season.
- Two players who won't be changing addresses any time soon are Evan Longoria and David Wright, possibly the two best third basemen in baseball.  Longoria received a 6 year, $100 million deal that will kick in after the 2016 season and Wright received a 7 year $124 million deal that will kick in after the 2013 season.  Both deals are the largest in their respective teams' history.