We're now just two weeks away from the deadline for teams to sign their draftpicks and most teams still have a lot of work to do.

In case you're not familiar with the draft rules, any player that remains unsigned after the deadline won't be allowed to play this year, and will have re-enter the draft next year. Teams that don't ink their draft picks receive a corresponding pick in next year's draft to compensate for what by that time will have become a lost or wasted pick.

While prospects and teams usually end up coming to some sort of agreement, there have been players such as J.D. Drew and this year's first round pick Stephen Strasburg who do hold out for a variety of reasons (the most obvious being $). So, without further ado, I present the list of unsigned first round picks.

1. Nationals - Stephen Strasburg.
2. Mariners - Dustin Ackley.
3. Padres - Donavan Tate.
6. Giants - Zack Wheeler.
7. Braves - Mike Minor.
8. Reds - Mike Leake.
9. Tigers - Jacob Turner.
11. Rockies - Tyler Matzek.
12. Royals - Aaron Crow.
13. A's - Grant Green.
14. Rangers - Matt Purke.
15. Indians - Alex White.
16. Diamondbacks - Bobby Borchering.
18. Marlins - Chad James.
19. Cardinals - Shelby Miller.
20. Blue Jays - Chad Jenkins.
22. Twins - Kyle Gibson.
27. Mariners - Nick Franklin.
29. Yankees - Slade Heathcott.
30. Rays - Levon Washington.

Italicized=Scott Boras Client.

As you can see, only 10 of the First Round Picks have signed a contract with their respective teams. Not surprisingly, several of the players remaining unsigned are Scott Boras clients.

In my opinion that is totally absurd. If these players really want to play baseball they most likely wouldn't be asking a 10 million dollar price tag.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out considering the new economic climate that seems to be taking around the league.

Update: ESPN is reporting that this deal has in fact been made. The Marlins will receive Rhodes in exchange for 22 year old pitcher, Gabby Hernandez.

The Miami Herald is reporting that the Florida Marlins are close to acquiring reliever Arthur Rhodes from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for a "midlevel" prospect.

The Marlins have been one of the seemingly countless teams searching for relief help and the Mariners are leading the pack of sellers so a deal would seem to make sense for both teams. The 37 year old journeyman, Rhodes, is 2-0 with a 3.83 ERA in 36 appearances this year.

Roger Clemens reportedly claims in his 60 minutes interview that he was injected with Lidocaine and vitamin B12, not steroids and HGH. According to ESPN, Clemens tells the interviewer:

"Lidocaine and [vitamin] B-12. It's for my joints, and B-12 I still take today,"

However, in Clemens' previous video denial he stated:

"Let me be clear, the answer is no. I did not use steroids or human growth hormone, and I've never done so... I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body. Brian McNamee did not inject steroids or human growth hormones into my body."

Now I'm no pharmacist but isn't Lidocaine a drug? That would mean then that Clemens did in fact lie on previously released video but we're supposed to believe him when he "swears" this time? When you couple this with Andy Pettitte's confession, is there really and doubt left?

Clemens is no better than Barry Bonds and his records are no more valid than the home run records the bobble-head set. And, if McGwire doesn't get into the Hall on his first ballot as perceived punishment over steroids, neither should either of these so called stars.

Roger Clemens has posted this video denial on YouTube promising to defend himself vigorously and to finally answer questions in an interview with Mike Wallace after Christmas.

Merry Christmas from the RumorMill.

See more baseball cartoons and Christmas cartoons at TOONrefugee.

If you still need a reason to believe that the phrase "in the best interests of baseball" has become meaningless, this report from the AP should offer all the proof you need. It begins:

Bud Selig could be baseball commissioner for life if he wanted. His backing among owners is as strong as ever…

And includes several rave reviews from owners including:

He's a terrific commissioner … I am fully supporting him.

Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner

He has total support of the ownership, total support.

White Sox chairman,  Jerry Reinsdorf

What that translates to is "As long as the money keeps rolling in, that's all that matters." And if you don't believe me here's another quote from Reinsdorf:

The game has prospered. He's done all sorts of great things. And the only thing that has held us back in the steroid and HGH area is Don Fehr.

In other words the owners really wanted to clean up this mess but the big bad union wouldn't let them! And if you believe that, the sound you're hearing is the owners laughing all the way to the bank to deposit the money you spent on inflated ticket prices and instant "memorabilia."

Curt Shilling has an interesting (if overly long) post on his blog about the Mitchell report and the players named. A few excepts:

I’ve always had huge amounts of respect for Andy Pettite, as a competitor and as a person. Someone who’s made his beliefs as a Christian very public and always been the big game pitcher as well. He says he did this one time to recover from an injury, I believe him.

So as a fan my thought is that Roger [Clemens] will find a way in short order to organize a legal team to guarantee a retraction of the allegations made, a public apology is made, and his name is completely cleared. If he doesn’t do that then there aren’t many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and 3 Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end. From that point on the numbers were attained through using PED’s.

At the same time I pray that ANYONE in this report that is innocent, steps up and clears their names, now, today. No one has, and through today no one has done anything but issue a crafted statement in someone else’s words denying their guilt or association in any of this.

UPDATE: Here's the names (alphabetically) from the Mitchell report as provided by ESPN:
ESPN also has a copy of the report available as a PDF file here...

1. Chad Allen
2. Rick Ankiel
3. Mike Bell
4. David Bell
5. Gary Bennett, Jr.
6. Marvin Benard
7. Larry Bigbie
8. Barry Bonds
9. Ricky Bones
10. Kevin Brown
11. Paul Byrd
12. Ken Caminiti
13. Jose Canseco
14. Mark Carreon
15. Jason Christiansen
16. Howie Clark
17. Roger Clemens
18. Paxton Crawford
19. Jack Cust
20. Brendan Donnelly
21. Chris Donnels
22. Lenny Dykstra
23. Bobby Estalella
24. Matt Franco
25. Ryan Franklin
26. Eric Gagne
27. Jason Giambi
28. Jeremy Giambi
29. Jay Gibbons
30. Troy Glaus
31. Jason Grimsley
32. Jose Guillen
33. Jerry Hairston, Jr.
34. Matt Herges
35. Phil Hiatt
36. Glenallen Hill
37. Darren Holmes
38. Todd Hundley
39. Mike Judd
40. Ryan Jorgensen
41. Wally Joyner
42. David Justice
43. Chuck Knobloch
44. Tim Laker
45. Mike Lansing
46. Paul LoDuca
47. Nook Logan
48. Josias Manzanillo
49. Gary Matthews, Jr.
50. Cody McKay
51. Kent Mercker
52. Bart Miadich
53. Hal Morris
54. Dan Naulty
55. Denny Neagle
56. Rafael Palmeiro
57. Jim Parque
58. Andy Pettitte
59. Adam Piatt
60. Todd Pratt
61. Stephen Randolph
62. Adam Riggs
63. Armando Rios
64. Brian Roberts
65. John Rocker
66. F.P. Santangelo
67. Benito Santiago
68. Scott Schoenweis
69. David Segui
70. Gary Sheffield
71. Mike Stanton
72. Ricky Stone
73. Miguel Tejada
74. Derrick Turnbow
75. Ismael Valdez
76. Mo Vaughn
77. Randy Velarde
78. Ron Villone
79. Fernando Vina
80. Rondell White
81. Todd Williams
82. Jeff Williams
83. Matt Williams
84. Steve Woodard
85. Kevin Young
86. Gregg Zaun

CNN briefly had a headline on their front page stating players would no longer receive 24 hours notice of drug tests. If true that implies that players have been receiving such notice in the past. So much for the integrity of tests. As of now, the headline has disappeared and the "developing story" link to the Mitchell Report story makes no mention of it.

The most important recommendation to come from the Mitchell Report is that baseball submit itself to an independently developed, run and managed drug testing program, similar to the program now  in place for Olympic sports. For that to happen both the players and the owners will have to give up a lot of power. It's not something anyone expects to see happen without a lot stronger push than they got from Mitchell today.Where might the push come from? While I hesitate to see the government get involved again, it was Senate hearings that got the ball rolling on this report. So maybe Congress can gently remind the players and owners that they both benefit from baseball's anti-trust exemption and force a little integrity into the sport as the price for leaving the exemption place.