A Tigers related links first:

• The Hardball Times sit down with Ernie Harwell about his Audiobook among other topics.

Below are some links from other teams around the AL Central.

• Not everyone agrees how to rank Cleveland’s ‘non-prospects’, but they all agree they look pretty good.
• Royals signed SS Alex S. Rodriguez to a minor league contract and Keith Law at ESPN is starting to see some good in the Royals.
• Chicago White Sox avoided arbitration with Joe Crede by signing him to a 1-year 4.94M dollar deal.
• Peter Gammons says the ChiSox might trade Joe Crede for the Angels Aybar if Uribe’s 2007 isn’t free and clear. This would be welcome as Crede was a thorn in the Tigers side last year hitting .297 with 5 HR’s but I don’t see this one going through.
• Twins are looking at handing out large contracts to numerous of their stars, who are arbitration eligible, and the Nick’s at Nick & Nick’s Twins Blog think this could/should lead to a Johan Santana trade.
• Let’s Go Tribe takes a look at the Cleveland farm system. They also point out a site that was previously not known by me: Minor League Splits which provides a simple no-nonsense interface to minor league statistics.
• Indians also signed Rafael Betancourt, their middle relief pitcher, to $840k deal. Betancourt was ok against the Tigers last year giving up 2 runs, 7 hits in 7 innings pitched racking up 7 strike outs as well.
• Cleveland signed OF Jason Michaels to a 2-year $4.5M deal. This one was a bit odd to me as Michaels didn’t have a stellar year last year and the team has brought in other players like David Dellucci to fill the role.

Been a busy week so far with teams signing up their players available for arbitration and a busy off season overall for the AL Central except for one team, the White Sox. Phil Rogers at the Chicago Tribune discusses the disappointing off season for the ChiSox. That’s just fine by me.