On Friday afternoon 18-year-old Rays minor-leaguer Andrew Bellatti was driving with his 16-year old girlfriend in California near his former high school just outside San Diego. Driving at a speed of 80 mph Bellatti illegally crossed over a double-yellow line into oncoming traffic and his Ford Mustang crashed into a Dodge Caravan.

Bellatti escaped the accident with some cuts and bruises on his face, but the same can not be said of the driver of the Caravan. 50-year old David Reid was killed in the accident, and his 17-year old son was seriously injured in the wreck. Bellatti's girlfriend was also hurt in the accident.

When baseball fans think of signing international free agents, they tend to think of teenagers from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Taiwan, or maybe Australia. The Czech Republic tends to not appear in discussions often. The Rays, however, went out and signed 16-year-old Stepan Havlicek, described as a "pitching prodigy" from the Czech Republic after a strong performance for the Czech junior national team in last year's European Junior Championships.

According to Baseball-Reference, there were five big-leaguers born in the former Czechoslovakia to play in the major leagues, but none from the Czech Republic (which peacefully separated into its own country in 1993). Actually, three of those five players were born well before Czechoslovakia even existed (prior to 1918 it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), and there's not a city of birth listed for any of them, so I honestly have no idea where they're from or if they can really be considered Czech.

Of the two to have played since 1950, Elmer Valo had a nice long career, but is listed on Wikipedia as having Slovak heritage. That leaves Carl Linhart, who played in three games and got two at-bats for the Tigers in 1952, as the only player in modern major league history definitively born in what's now the Czech Republic (he was born in Zborov).

The figures are in. The haggling has begun. And you can rest assured it's going to get crazy.

Of the 128 players that filed for salary arbitration last week, 44 exchanged figures with their respective clubs Tuesday and 35 remain without a contract for 2010, raising the specter of a hearing next month (Feb. 1-21).

There's just one player that figures to capture everyone's imagination -- two-time Cy Young Award-winner Tim Lincecum, who is in line for a record award -- but plenty of cases are worth watching.

Back to Lincecum for a second.

The logical concern for a team with a small budget and a boatload of homegrown talent is being able to hold onto that young talent. The Rays have been able to lock up some of those stars like Evan Longoria, but inevitably are going to lose others. Carl Crawford, for one, could very well find himself on a new team in the near future as free agency looms.

It's foolish to believe that it's easy to replace players of his caliber, but the Rays are in a position to do it about as well as any club in baseball. Some farm systems are deep, and some systems, like the Rays', have not just depth, but a crop of potential stars on the horizon. Fear not, Tampa Bay fans. There is plenty of help on the way.

Shoring up a trouble spot in the back end of their bullpen, the Tampa Bay Rays have traded reliever Jesse Chavez to the Atlanta Braves for reliever Rafael Soriano. The deal, which was supposed to finalized on Thursday, didn't become official until Friday afternoon as one of the doctors that was needed to sign off was in surgery on Thursday.

The Rays were looking at the possibility of handing ninth inning duties to either Dan Wheeler or J.P. Howell next season. Howell blew eight of his 25 save opportunities for the Rays in 2009, and Wheeler only converted two of his six attempts. Soriano brings a whopping 87% success rate -- compared to Wheeler and Howell's combined 61% success rate -- in converting saves, closing 27 of the 31 games he was given a chance to save in Atlanta .

In addition to providing a statistically more reliable option for the ninth inning, Soriano did his new team a favor earlier this week when he agreed to accept arbitration from the Braves. Tampa Bay won't be required to relinquish a first-round draft pick in this situation because they aren't signing a Type-A free agent, they are trading for an arbitration-eligible pitcher. They would have had to give up that pick if Soriano had not agreed to arbitration and signed with the Rays on the open market.

On Thursday, The Rays signed Soriano to a one-year deal worth $7.25 million and according to a major-league source, Soriano's no-trade policy will remain in tact through June 15.

Placing the statistical upgrade and the fact that the Rays get to keep their first round draft pick aside, remember that Soriano doesn't arrive in sunny Florida without baggage. He is going to cost the Rays more money then they would have liked to spend on a back-end option for their bullpen. He's also somewhat of an injury risk, having missed the majority of three of the last six seasons to elbow problems while never in his career throwing more innings than he did last season.

In Chavez, the Braves get a 26-year-old workhorse who appeared in 73 games last season for the Pirates and Rays. He'll slot into the middle of the Braves bullpen and, if all works out for Atlanta, continue to provide tons of relief innings for the pitching staff.

Most important to the Braves is Chavez is a very low-paid pitcher. The salary that Atlanta dumped when they traded Soriano will be put to use as the team tries to fill other holes in their lineup -- like a power hitting outfielder or first baseman.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Yankees and Red Sox are the movers and shakers in this division, and this year has proved no different.

But the Rays and Orioles made moves this week as well, with Tampa Bay adjusting its payroll upward to fill a hole and Baltimore picking up a veteran starter to stabilize its young rotation.

When the Yankees pulled off their trade for Curtis Granderson, some speculated the Red Sox had to "answer." But of course Boston had a plan all along to improve its team, so it's not like the Sox had to be spurred into action.

The Yankees' priority was actually re-signing Andy Pettitte, which they accomplished, allowing them to massage the rest of their rotation into shape.

Boston is less enthusiastic about Matt Holliday in left field than re-signing Jason Bay. And finishing the Mike Lowell-to-Texas deal would mean the Sox could add a bat at first or third and put Kevin Youkilis in the other spot (or give Casey Kotchman a chance at first).

INDIANAPOLIS - Tuesday at baseball's annual Winter Meetings, a blockbuster trade went down, two free agent signings were announced as officially complete and nine managers addressed a media throng. Here are some notes from the day.

• There's a report that the White Sox have joined the Angels in heavy pursuit of Hideki Matsui. Earlier today I warned against reports stating managers are "interested" in Matsui due to the fact that some international media are asking every single manager if they like Matsui and would like to manage him. This report, however, is unconnected and could be legitimate.

I do question what the White Sox would want with Matsui, because Ozzie Guillen specifically said he'd want someone to be able to play the outfield consistently and is really excited about being able to use multiple players in the designated hitter slot. He discussed how having an everyday DH handcuffs him in keeping his bench fresh. Then again, he also stressed Kenny Williams makes all personnel decisions. Stay tuned.

Free agent signings are typically measured by fans on how big of a splash they create, but organizations evaluate their signings based on the value a player brings to the team relative to the amount he is paid. Some teams need to go bargain hunting more than others, and in this era of big contracts it is often difficult to find top-level talent at a reasonable price.

The Braves, however, did just that in signing veteran closer, Billy Wagner.

The Hot Stove has gotten off to a relatively slow start, but the Wagner signing, the possibility of Dustin Pedroia moving to shortstop and the Rays' acquisition of Kelly Shoppach all figure to have implications on the 2010 season and beyond.

The Tampa Bay Rays made their second trade of the young offseason this afternoon when they acquired Indians' catcher Kelly Shoppach this afternoon for a player to be named later, the team has announced. According to reports, the Indians have until Dec. 20 to select the player from Tampa. The Rays will have to make a second move this afternoon to free up space on the 40-man roster for their new catcher.

After Dioner Navarro's disastrous 2009 season (he hit .218/.261/.322), the Rays were clearly in the market for an upgrade behind the plate. Shoppach, though, provides a limited upgrade at best because of his severe lefty/righty split; against lefties his OPS is .999. Against righties it's .703. A year after breaking out with 21 homers, Shoppach had his own struggles in 2009 with a .214/.335/.399 line.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

The Rays could not build upon their surprising 2008 AL East title and run to the World Series last year, falling from 97 wins to 84. The lineup was at least as good as the year before, but both the rotation and bullpen suffered a steep dropoff.

The offensive core is still young and in its prime and should continue to produce. And 2009 might have been the usual fall-back season that teams experience after a large jump forward.

Still, making the playoffs in the AL East means beating out the Yankees or Red Sox (or both). With Tampa Bay's payroll, that leaves little margin for error.

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