…until nothing happens. Yes, free agents are free to sign with other teams at midnight EST, but that means little at this point. Maybe we’ll start to see rumors with dollar amounts attached to them, but that’s about it. Otherwise, we’ll continue to play the free agent waiting game.

The main reason we don’t see much activity early on is that teams have yet to make arbitration decisions on their players. That happens on December 1, so there’s still some time left. We sometimes see cases of teams signing a Type A free agent before his former team gets a chance to offer him arbitration, but those cases are rare. Most of the time a signing team wants to see what the former team will do.

The only cases in which you’ll see a Type A player sign before the arbitration deadline is if his former team is sure to make the offer. Torii Hunter, for instance, signed with the Angels before the Twins offered him arbitration, but the offer was a given. There was no way that the Twins weren’t offering Hunter arbitration, so the Angels used that to their advantage and signed Hunter quickly.

Will a team make a similar move this off-season? I’m not so sure. But, with the arbitration deadline still looming, teams will be more reluctant to sign a free agent. Chances are we won’t see a major move until then. In other words, the running of the free agents at midnight is just like pitchers and catchers reporting. We look forward to it, but it really doesn’t mean anything.

This is your open thread for the evening. The Devils play at 8. For the rest of us there’s football, Miami at Carolina. But, more importantly, you can now get all of our posts via Twitter. Just follow @RABFeed. That’s just the RSS feed. The @RiverAveBlues feed will remain the same.

In theory, reporters are supposed to be our objective lens. They’re supposed to cast aside fan biases and tell us what happened. Yet as we enter awards season it becomes clear that reporters cannot hide their biases. No one can, really. We are human, after all, and part of our humanity is that we all see the world differently. Still, for a group that touts objectivity, I’d like to see them at least feign it when voting on awards.

This is not an indictment of all reporters. Some of them have an excellent sense of the game and can put their own teams aside when voting on awards. As has become clear over the past few years, though, some just can’t help but vote for the hometown team — or, in a case last year, against the rival player. It usually doesn’t have a huge effect on the outcome, but it does speak to a biased viewpoint.

In 2007, Alex Rodriguez won the MVP in a near unanimous decision. His 54 home runs and 156 RBI led the league by wide margins, and since those are the numbers writers tend to focus on the most, it’s no surprise that he got all but two first place MVP votes. The problem wasn’t that two writers voted for Magglio Ordonez over Rodriguez — Magglio had a great season, leading the league with a .363 batting average. No, the problem was that both writers were from Detroit, and that their reasons reek of bias.

Said Jim Hawkins of the Oakland Press in Pontiac, Michigan: “I saw Magglio play every day. What I saw was a player having an MVP year. I have no quarrel with anyone who voted for A-Rod. He also had an MVP year. But with the injuries the Tigers had and the effort and performance I saw from Magglio, there’s no question he had an MVP year.”

Said Tom Gage of the Detroit News: “I went with what I saw. So many times, you have to vote off the stat sheet. I fully expected A Rod to win. He had a great year. But I saw an MVP year. There were stats to back up the impression that I came away with from the regular season.”

So they voted for Magglio because that’s who they saw during the season. That’s about as biased as it gets. They could have cited Magglio’s superior batting average, on base percentage, and doubles, but instead focused on their bias — which they are not supposed to have, being “objective” reporters.

Last year, Mike ranted about Tom Haudricourt’s ballot. Haudricourt covers the Brewers, and that bias seemed to have shown on his MVP ballot. He voted Albert Pujols, clearly the NL MVP last year, seventh. Seventh place. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Haudricourt hadn’t placed three Brewers on his ballot, and also three first basemen ahead of Pujols. It looks like Haudricourt voted on his NL Central bias.

This year brings us back to Detoit, where Steve Kornacki used his Cy Young vote on Justin Verlander. Verlander had a good season for sure, but he wasn’t at the level of Zack Greinke and Felix Hernandez. Yet Kornacki voted for Verlander anyway, with the following justification:

Verlander received my first-place vote because nobody was tougher on the mound with the season on the line for his team.

Verlander threw at least 120 pitches in six of his last eight outings and won his last three starts, forcing a one-game playoff against the Minnesota Twins with his final victory.

He was an inspirational ‘horse,’ using Tigers manager Jim Leyland’s term for him, on a fading team.

This pretty clearly falls victim to the base rate fallacy. It also looks like a case of confirmation bias. The decision looks even worse because Verlander pitches in the same division as Greinke, so even if Kornacki wanted to discount Greinke’s accomplishments because of a weak division, he couldn’t honestly vote for Verlander instead.

All that said, these are subjective awards, and we should expect the voters’ biases to play a role. My problem is with the facade of objectiveness. Reporters are not some select class who can set aside their biases and deliver down the middle news. They’re just as subject to cognitive biases as you and me. That might not be as clear during the regular season, but as we enter awards season, their biases come out front and center. I just wish they’d admit to them more, rather than continuing to feign objectivity.

If you don’t feel like talking about how reporters vote for awards, you’re in luck. This is your open thread for the evening. Have at it.

Player contracts are only one source of income for the biggest sports stars on the planet, in fact most of them rake in more cash via endorsements than they do from their teams. Nike gave LeBron James a $90M deal before he even graduated high school. Buick put more money into Tiger Woods’ pockets than he could ever possibly spend. Heck, even Derek Jeter is out pimping panoramic vista sunroofs.

Hideki Matsui, International Superstar, surely has a few endorsement deals back in Japan, but it turns out his marketability increased tremendously after winning World Series MVP. Here’s a bit from the crew at NPB Tracker:

According to reports, since the MVP performance in the World Series he has had eight offers to appear in commercials (three from existing sponsors and five additional prospective sponsors). Matsui’s price tag for each commercial appearance is estimated in the same range as Ichiro Suzuki, and his MVP performance could bring in up $10 million in earnings this off-season.

Media demand has also rocketed for Matsui, as he has received an estimated 100 requests for television and event appearances in his home country. Even though his home for next season has yet to be determined, it’s not an understatement to say his new team (if the Yankees does not re-sign him) will have an opportunity to develop a big presence in the Land of the Rising Sun.

You’d have to think that playing in New York only increases a player’s exposure, leading to more endorsements and more dollars. Obviously Matsui’s cashing in on it, but what about Chien-Ming Wang?

The guy’s literally a national hero in Taiwan, so you know he’s making some pretty sweet coin on the side. There’s a chance the Yanks will non-tender the righthander, and it’s hard to imagine him landing a large guaranteed contract coming off his shoulder injury. Assuming that, maybe Wanger would be willing to come back to the Yanks on a (relatively) cheap deal in order to keep those big endorsement bucks coming in. I mean, really, how marketable is a Kansas City Royal internationally? Or a San Diego Padre? Not very, or at least not as much as a New York Yankee.

Anywho, here’s your open thread for the night. The friggin’ Browns and Ravens are you MNF game (yippee), plus the Isles and Devils are also in action. Talk about whatever you want, just make sure you follow the guidelines.

There’s really not much going on right now, that tends to happen during that weird 15-day gap between the end of the World Series and when free agents hit the true open market. If you’re looking for something to read, check out this post on the high inside fastball by Nick Steiner at THT. That’s some good stuff.

Anyway, here’s your open thread for the night. The Nets, Isles, and Devils are all in action, plus there’s a ton of college football games being played. Talk about whatever you like, just be nice.

How awesome is that? Big thanks to Stephen (the artist formerly known as “sic”), Greg, and Christian for photoshopping that puppy. Here’s the original Nike ad if you missed it.

Now that there’s a smile on your face, feel free to use this as your open thread. The Nets, Knicks, and Islanders are all in action tonight, but I suspect you’d rather watch linoleum curl than those three disasters (combined record: 7-28).  Anything goes, just be civil.