The Oakland Athletics will be allowed to relocated to San Jose, according to a tweet from USA Today’s national baseball reporter, Bob Nightengale.  “All signs and top MLB sources say that the Athletics will be granted permission by Feb to move to San Jose,” said Nightengale. He added later, “The Athletics have received private assurances from MLB [but] can't speak about it publicly.”

According to the San Jose Mercury,”[Billy] Beane said he was unaware of any such news when reached by phone Saturday and didn't want to comment further. A's co-owner Lew Wolff could not be reached for comment, and team spokesman Bob Rose said the team continues to wait for Major League Baseball's report on the A's stadium situation and would have no further comment until then.”

The larger question is, what will the San Francisco Giants receive as compensation?

As we wrote in 2004:

The Giants control most of the Bay Area. Their territory includes San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey and Marin Counties, plus Santa Clara County with respect to another major league team. By comparison, the Athletics' territory includes only Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.

When Bob Lurie was looking to get out of Candlestick Park in the late 80’s, baseball expanded the Giants territory to include Santa Clara County where there were efforts to pass funding to build a new ballpark in San Jose. The voters in Santa Clara County rejected tax hikes to fund the stadium in both 1990 and 1992, yet baseball reaffirmed those rights when Peter Magowan purchased the team in 1995 and built PacBell Park.

From an indemnification issue, the Giants will likely receive something, but what “something” is unknown. It’s possible – however extremely unlikely – that through the league appointed committee that was formed in March of 2009, the league could simply push the relocation through based on the A’s controlling the market prior.

That may spark outrage, but based upon the MLB constitution, clubs are forbidden to sue league, but rather resolve disputes through arbitration. Watch the news, as it seems more likely that some sort of payoff to the Giants would be in play.

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, and is a contributor to Forbes SportsMoney blog.. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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While it wasn’t completed in time for the new collective bargaining agreement in Major League Baseball, the league and the MLB Players Association agreed that further discussions around the development of international players – including a worldwide draft – would begin, no later than January 15 of 2012.

Today both sides announced the “International Talent Committee” that would negotiate to try and reach a deal. MLBPA Executive Director Michael Weiner and MLB Executive Vice President for Labor Relations and Human Resources Rob Manfred are co-chairs of the committee. Joining Weiner on the committee are MLBPA Director of Player Relations Tony Clark, MLBPA Senior Advisor Rick Shapiro and MLBPA Special Assistant Stan Javier, while Kim Ng of the Commissioner’s Office, Sandy Alderson of the New York Mets and Andrew Friedman of the Tampa Bay Rays join Manfred.

There’s several items that the sides look to discuss. Per MLB and the MLBPA in a statement, they are:

• If there is an international draft, whether international players should be part of a single worldwide draft (including players currently covered by the Rule 4 Draft) or a separate draft (or drafts).
• The appropriate age at which international amateur players should be signed to professional contracts.
• If there are to be multiple drafts, whether players from Puerto Rico should remain in the Rule 4 Draft or instead be part of an international draft.
• The development of appropriate country-by-country plans for playing and development opportunities for players prior to draft eligibility.
• The development of appropriate plans to provide undrafted or unsigned players (including players age 18 to 21) from Latin America with an opportunity to continue their development, including the creation of a new league or leagues, or the addition of centrally-operated Clubs in the Dominican Summer League (“DSL”).
• Whether and how regulations should be put in place regarding representation of international amateur players (e.g., “independent trainers” and agents).
• Improving the education and acculturation programs of Clubs at their international academies.
• What safeguards should be established in relation to any signing bonus payments made to international amateur players.
• The laws of the countries from which international players are signed and how those laws should affect the actions of the parties.
• What actions are necessary in order to achieve the negotiation of a revised agreement between MLB and the Mexican League that allows players greater choice of where to play and promotes a fair and open system of player movement.
• What actions are necessary in order to achieve the negotiation of revisions to the protocol agreements with the Korean Professional Baseball League, the Japanese Professional Baseball League, and the Taiwan R.O.C. League to accommodate a draft.
• How Cuban players should be treated under an amateur talent system in light of the legal and political factors that affect their signability.

Several of these address issues that have been a thorn in the league’s side.  On the issue of “safeguards should be established in relation to any signing bonus payments made to international amateur players”, it addresses skimming of bonus money from young talent in the DR and Venezuela. “Buscones” or a type of street agent have independently developed players in which they have players agree to hand over 20% or more of a signing bonus. But, it goes further. The White Sox organization saw their senior director of player personnel David Wilder and others in the organization fired over skimming, while former Nationals GM was forced out of the organization when the FBI investigated him for skimming bonus money as far back as during his time as GM of the Reds. The Angels fired Clay Daniel who headed scouting in Latin America over scouts skimming signing bonuses.

In discussions with both Michael Weiner and Rob Manfred last year, just as labor negotiations for the CBA were beginning, the top representatives for the league and players both said they were in favor of an international draft, but that the execution of that process would be difficult. As these points from the league and MLBPA show, they were certainly telling the truth. Whether parts or all of this transpire is unknown. Nothing is to say that meeting may not make an international draft and supporting policy system happen, but the sides are clearly further along than in 2006 when the sides failed to reach an international draft agreement as part of that CBA. In that case, the committee never convened and the international draft topic withered on the vine until it was resurrected as part of the latest labor negotiations.

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, and is a contributor to Forbes SportsMoney blog.. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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By now, most have heard about some of the key aspects of the new CBA in Major League Baseball. The agreement that has been ratified by the players and is scheduled to be ratified by the owners on Thursday, will see the most sweeping changes to the game since arguably the advent of salary arbitration and free agency. Everything from changes to the draft process, hGH testing, changes to revenue sharing, and more are within the deal.

But, some new details have surfaced by way of The AP, that shed light into some smaller, albeit, interesting aspects of the CBA.

For one, players will not be allowed to have tattoos of corporate logos. The premise being, that players could become “human billboards” for advertisers. The agreement reads, “no player may have visible markings or logos tattooed on his body. As body art has become more acceptable, it is as Rob Manfred said, “heading it off at the pass” a reference in preventing players from taking in sponsorship money to display corporate logos… for life.

Another aspect that is interesting: uniform number changes. If a player on a team wishes to have their uniform number changed, they have to inform the Commissioner’s Office by July 31 of the proceeding year that they wish to have their number changed. They can do it sooner “if the player (or someone on his behalf) purchases the exisiting finished goods inventory of apparel containing the player’s jersey number.”

Think about that a moment. This isn’t just jerseys were talking about. It’s everything with a player’s number on it. One imagines that uniform number changes by choice of a player should drop off dramatically, if not entirely.

In the “Alex Rodriguez Dept.” another new wrinkle pertains betting on any sport. There will be a ban on players betting with illegal bookies.

In the “Anger Management Dept.”, players can face possible suspension if they “intentionally throw a ball or equipment at non-uniformed personnel with the intent to harm; assaulting fans, media or umpires; or making public statements that question the integrity of the game, the umpires, the commissioner or the commissioner’s staff.”

Regarding the comments by players that could lead to suspension…. the game either became more civil or more boring off the field, depending on your point of view.

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, and is a contributor to Forbes SportsMoney blog.. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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The Baseball Winter Meetings this year wound up being one of the most exciting in years, with the Miami Marlins becoming major players in the mix, while arguably the game’s greatest player heading to a new zip code.

The Marlins seemed to be in on nearly every major deal, landing closer Heath Bell, SS Jose Reyes, and SP Mark Buerhle. But, on Thursday morning, the club the no one saw jumping out and making the biggest splash, pushed the Marlins out of that position when the Los Angeles Angels aquired former Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols and former Rangers SP C.J. Wilson.

The Angels were the “mystery” team in the mix for Pujols, much like the Phillies were last year in the Cliff Lee derby. The contract is reportedly for 10-years, with a possible max value of $260 million. It has a no-trade clause. The C.J. Wilson deal is reportedly 5-years, and between $75-$77.5 million. All told, the two players could have a possible total payroll outlay over the life of the contracts of $337.5 million.

For Pujols and his agent Dan Lozano, he hits two major contract records. If the deal is $260 million over 10-years, as reported, he will become the highest paid first baseman by AAV ($26 million per) surpassing Ryan Howard’s $25 million AAV. His total contract outlay of the reported $260 million would rank second only to Alex Rodriguez 10-year, $275 million deal with the Yankees reached in 2008.

For Wilson, his $17.5 million possible max AAV would rank 8th behind Barry Zito ($18 million, AAV) and ahead of Jake Peavy’s 2010-13 deal of $17.33 million AAV.

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, and is a contributor to Forbes SportsMoney blog.. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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The waiting is over for the Houston Astros after firing Ed Wade as late last night they announced that they have hired former Cardinals V.P. of Scouting and Player Development, Jeff Luhnow as their new General Manager. Astros President and CEO George Postolos made the announcement. Owner Jim Crane will introduce Luhnow on Thursday at 1 p.m. in the Minute Maid Park Press Conference room.

"We are very pleased to have Jeff as the new General Manager of the Houston Astros," Postolos said. "Jeff is the perfect fit for the Astros because of his track record in scouting and player development during his eight-plus seasons with the Cardinals.

"The Astros strive to develop one of the best systems in baseball and create a consistent winner at the Major League level. Jeff has the knowledge, skills and experience to lead the baseball operations efforts at all levels and help the Astros achieve this vision. Jeff has a demonstrated the ability to inspire and motivate staff in the front office and out in the field. He was born and raised in Mexico and his bicultural background will be an asset in recruiting players from Latin America and developing the Hispanic market for Los Astros."

Luhnow, 45, has been a Vice President with the St Louis Cardinals since 2003, most recently serving as V.P. of Scouting and Player Development. He has overseen the Cardinals amateur draft since 2005, and his drafts have been widely recognized as among the most productive across baseball.

Some of the players on the Cardinals’ 2011 World Series roster that were drafted under Luhnow’s watch, include Jaime Garcia, Allen Craig, Jon Jay and Lance Lynn.

Luhnow has overseen the Cardinals’ scouting and development efforts in Latin America since 2004.

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, and is a contributor to Forbes SportsMoney blog.. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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