Hot (well, sort of lukewarm) Stove Hotties

Each week this Hot Stove season, we’ll look at some done deals and juicy rumors involving our favorite MLB hotties. If you want a comprehensive rundown of rumors, go to MLBTR. If you want the pretty, stay right here!

Lame! Nothing really happened in Hot Stoveland this week. The biggest story was actually one that didn’t happen – someone reported that the Giants signed Edgar Renteria, and it turned out to be untrue.

Edgar a Giant? Some people said so, but...No.

Hopefully the Stove will get a little hotter again this week, with the deadline for teams offering arbitration tonight. Arbitration is kind of tricky, so here’s how it works. (Sources: My brain, and this)

I'd like to offer Grudz arbitration...ifyouknowwhatImeandude.

• When a player reaches 3 years of MLB service time, he becomes arbitration-eligible.

• At the end of the season, the arb-eligible player and his team each draw up what they think is a fair contract for the next year. They do this by finding what they think are the most comparable players, and what their contracts are like.

• The player and his team’s front office sit down with a 3rd-party arbitrator who decides which contract is most fair. The arbitrator is not allowed to choose anything besides the two options given to him.

• Often, teams will be ready to part with an arb-eligible player, but will offer him arbitration anyway…If a player is a Type A or Type B free agent, and declines arbitration from his team, the team will get a compensatory pick(s) in the next year’s draft. On the flip-side, if he accepts the offer, the team is stuck with him whether they still want him or not.

So there’s that lesson in MLBusiness, in case you were really desperate to fill up some time in your Monday workday.

I guess the good news about this slow Hot Stove week is we can just feed you yummy pictures of random arb-eligible MLB players. Any objections? ….no? OK.

Nick Markakis is arb-eligible...and mega-hot

What's that you say? More Markakis? OK, here.

I know some of you hate this...Pappyboo Pappyboo Pappyboo! (Also arb-eligible)

So is the Dodgers' Andre Ethier

One other pair of baseball signings this week: Remember Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, the pair of Indian youngsters who had never played baseball but earned a tryout in front of MLB scouts through a Million Dollar Arm contest? Well, they got signed this week – the Pirates signed both of them to a Minor League deal. Awww!

A random NFL note from this weekend:

Randomly hot defensive end Jared Allen had three sacks in the Vikings’ win over the Bears last night. Those three sacks are half of what his entire former team (the Chiefs) have had all season.

Hot? I think so. Sometimes.

Lastly, holy crap! It’s December!

UPDATE: Here’s a big ole rundown of arbitration rumors.