Now, to check on the free range children . . .

It's December 12. Did everybody prepare? Booze and party streamers and pounding "oonce, oonce, oonce, oonce" music? No? Where you been, man? It's December 12. Non-tender day!

You thought that was December 20?

STU-PID!

That was last year, dude! It's the 12th this year. Kick it! Sweat, sweat!

Everybody dance n . . . yee.

There's no Non-Tender Party? Losers.

* * * *

The annual non-tender deadline is a goldmine for obsessives and cybergeeks. If you're reading this, you are probably one, too. Don't flinch too much---well, I wouldn't necessarily revel in it, either, but we are who we are. Jump to the rhythm, jump to the rhyme. Jump.

Anyway, the non-tender deadline is like a baseball transaction holiday; in its everlovingkindness, it grants us a whole new set of free agents. Well, maybe not us---unless the guy costs less than a knock-off Chia Pet, the Nats ain't buyin'. But we'll see. Need pitching!

Using the invaluable CBS Sportsline Offseason Player Tracker, I'm going to list every arbitration-eligible starting pitcher. I'll try to update this as results roll in, but my dedication on this sort of thing is rather weak. Honestly, I commend you to check out Banks of the Anacostia as well, because Jammin E is probably going to update more faithfully.

Name	Team	Tendered?
Juan Cruz	Arizona	Yes
Mark Prior	Chicago Cubs	Yes
Carlos Zambrana	Chicago Cubs	Yes
Aaron Harang	Cincinnati	Yes
Sunny Kim	Cincinnati	Yes
Kyle Lohse	Cincinnati	Yes
Josh Fogg	Colorado	Yes
Dontrelle Willis	Florida	Yes
Mark Hendrickson	Los Angeles	Yes
Chris Capuano	Milwaukee	Yes
Oliver Perez	New York Mets	Yes
Dave Williams	New York Mets	Yes
Victor Zambrano	New York Mets	No
Ryan Madson	Philadelphia	Yes
Brett Myers	Philadelphia	Yes
Shawn Chacon	Pittsburgh	Yes
Jorge Sosa	St. Louis	No
Erik Bedard	Baltimore	Yes
Daniel Cabrera	Baltimore	Yes
Rodrigo Lopez	Baltimore	Yes
Jake Westbrook	Cleveland	Yes
Jeremy Bonderman	Detroit	Yes
Nate Robertson	Detroit	Yes
Runelvys Hernandez	Kansas City	No; released late last week
Brandon Duckworth	Kansas City	No; designated for assignment
Kirk Saarloos	Ooaaklaand	Yees
Joel Piniero	Seattle	No
Seth McClung	Tampa Bay	Yes
Scott Downs	Toronto	Yes

The line between a reliever and a starter is sometimes blurred; if a guy was a starter in a recent season but relieved last season, which is he? While you're pondering that, consider you're trying to formulate a bright-line test to divide Joaquin Benoit from Scott Downs. Even obsessives like us can use our time more wisely!

Update [2006-12-12 19:27:37 by Basil]: Brandon Claussen (not pictured) was designated for assignment by the Reds. No, it wasn't because Wayne Krivsky found a new reliever; instead, it was to make room on the 40-man roster for a pre-existing reliever, David Weathers. Also, Claussen had rotator cuff surgery in August, so I'm assuming he's a no-go for the foreseeable future.

Add Jerome Williams to the starting pitcher list; he was non-tendered by the Oakland A's.

Update [2006-12-12 19:37:43 by Basil]: Non-starting pitcher non-tenders of note: 2B Marcus Giles and RP Chris Reitsma (Atlanta), OF Aaron Guiel (New York Yankees), RP Chin Hui-Tsao, OF Alexis Gomez (Detroit), OF Jayson Werth and C Toby Hall (Dodgers), and Jose Reyes. Whoops, wrong Jose Reyes. Anyway, Baseball Digest Daily has the final non-tender list.

Update [2006-12-12 19:37:43 by Basil]: Hey, forgot about the Nats! Here are our arbitration-eligibles:

• RP Chad Cordero
• OF Alex Escobar
• OF Austin Kearns
• SS Felipe Lopez
• SP John Patterson
• RP Jon Rauch
• RP Ryan Wagner

I'm assuming all of these guys will be tendered. Wouldn't want them tired . . . and stringy. (And all of them were---except for Ryan Wagner and Jon Rauch, I guess, who weren't mentioned in this Nats.com article. Because Wagner and Rauch weren't mentioned, I'm going to presume they actually weren't arbitration-eligble; I've noticed some other errors in the CBS Sportsline list.)

* * * *

So, out of this entire list, I see a few additional free agent starting pitcher options, if the Lernastens are so inclined:

• Victor Zambrano (reportedly the Mets want to negotiate with him);
  
• Jorge Sosa;
  
• Runelvys Hernandez;
  
• Brandon Duckworth (though he's only DFA'ed at this point, and to the extent he's still considered a starter);
  
• Joel Piniero; and
  
• Jerome Williams.

I'll probably take a look at them tonight.