Astros will make a run at Tanaka

We interrupt this holiday break to bring you a few items of note...

As expected, the Astros will make a run at Masahiro Tanaka, according to Evan Drellich, though - also expected - the Astros are a long shot to land him.

The Yankees are poised to make a run. What are the chances the Astros would actually be able to outspend them? What are the chances that Tanaka would rather live in Houston and pitch for a rebuilding team when he could live in New York and pitch for the game's most famous franchise, even in the unlikelihood the Astros made the highest bid?

Yep, that's a whole lot of bummer right there. 

Update: Bob Nightengale tweeted that the price tag for Tanaka is a minimum of $17m per year

Also...

*Brian McTaggart has ten questions heading into 2014 ("When Is Springer Coming Up?" is among them!)

*Darin Downs found out the Astros claimed him when he was getting ready to drive his pregnant wife to the hospital.

*Check out our running list of HOF voting for Bagwell and Biggio
*Murray Chass has The Dumb