The July International Signing Period is one of most unique experiences baseball has to offer. The players signed out of Latin America sound too good to be true, mostly because there’s so little information about them that whatever info we do have gets extrapolated out into something otherworldly. Take Edward Salcedo for example. He was beyond uberhyped last year, yet never signed with a team. If he was as good as advertised, wouldn’t someone have signed him by now?

One of this year’s top IFA prospects is Rafael DePaula of the Dominican, who according to this article (here’s the translated article) throws 93 with two excellent breaking balls and clean mechanics. The 16 year old righty already stands 6’3″, so he’s still got a ton of projection left. Let the hype begin. (h/t Michael Ruiz for the email) · (29) ·

The Yanks avoided arbitration with Brian Bruney yesterday, agreeing to a one year contract that will keep them out of the hearing rom this year. Last year the Yanks and Chien-Ming Wang went to a hearing, and if you’re interesting in just what goes on in that room, check out this arbitration primer by Maury Brown. It’s a quick and painless read, and it’ll give you a nice overview of what actually goes into these things. The only official piece of business the Yanks have left this offseason is to renew the contracts of players with 0-3 years of service time, meaning Hughes, Joba and half the bullpen. Baseball season’s a comin’. · (12) ·

Longtime RAB reader and commenter Dan (better known as “dan” around these parts) has his guest post up over at LoHud. The topic: remembering the correct way to evaluate a trade. Far too often you see fans base their opinions on roster moves based solely on hindsight, which is the absolute wrong way to go about it. You have to consider the context of the trade in terms of what’s given up and what’s received at the time of the deal. Trading Nick Johnson & Juan Rivera – two young & talented but blocked players – for 27 year old Javy Vazquez coming off four straight seasons of 215+ IP and no higher than a 3.68 FIP is a move you make ten times out of ten, no matter how it turned it down the road. Make sure you check it out.

If you want to read more of dan’s stuff, you can check him out at Statistically Speaking or, when he has time, The Poor Man’s Analyst. · (18) ·

While we had a fun debate in this morning’s post on the news that the Yanks may be out of free agent options, Barry Bloom has since corrected himself. The Yankees and every other team, reports the MLB.com scribe, can sign eight Type A or B free agents this year. Since the Yanks have already signed five — Teixeira, Sabathia, Burnett, Marte, Pettitte — they could still sign Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn and Ben Sheets or Juan Cruz. Get on the phone, Cash! · (44) ·

According to PeteAbe, the Yankees have signed reliever Brian Bruney to a one-year deal. This locks up all of their arbitration-eligible players. We’ll update one the final figure is in. In avoiding arbitration, the Yankees have signed Melky Cabrera to a $1.4 million deal, Chien-Ming Wang to a $5 million deal, and Xavier Nady to a $6.55 million deal.

Update: It’s for $1.25 million. · (23) ·

Awful Announcing has a look at national baseball games on FOX Saturday and ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. SNB only runs through July, when (I think) ESPN can take a game of its choosing. The only time we see our Yanks is when they’re in Boston on April 26. On the FOX side, they’ll have April 18, when Cleveland is in town, April 25 at Fenway, May 23rd with the Phillies at the Stadium, June 13th with the Mets at home, July 11th in L.A. against Mark Teixeira’s former team, August 1 with the White Sox in town, August 8 with Boston visiting, and August 22 up in Beantown. Honestly, the less the Yanks are on these national broadcasts (considering the putrid commentating tandems), the better. · (81) ·