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Eventful. And then some. The highlights:

—The Bears, with having dealt away their draft (in effect) for Jay Cutler and the late Gaines Adams, and desperate to make a splash with their fanbase (and try to save GM and coaching jobs), went a’spending. The new players? Julius Peppers, Chester Taylor, and Brandon Manumaleuna. Peppers, obviously, was the big prize, with $42 million guaranteed of the $91 million dollar contract. Taylor gets a nice chunk of change to get to be a featured back again, and as for the former Charger TE, that one is more of a head scratcher on the surface. I guess that means Greg Olsen really is available in a deal, although it is hard to see what role Manumaleuna will have in a Mike Martz offense. David Haugh in the Chicago Tribune with some words on Chicago going the full Dan Snyder.

—In Baltimore, the Ravens went a LONG way toward fixing what ails their offense when they traded for Anquan Boldin and signed him to a three-year contract extension. As a Bengals fan, this move really displeases me. If Derrick Mason does not retire, then a receiving corp of Boldin, Mason, and Donte Stallworth is about one million times better than what Baltimore ran out there last year and makes them, in my mind, the favorites in the AFC North heading into season at this point in time. Mike Preston in the Baltimore Sun adds an obvious seal of approval to the deal.

—The Karlos Dansby to the Dolphins deal makes a lot of sense. Bill Parcells built teams feature a good linebacking corp, and Dansby is certainly a good linebacker.

—Dunta Robinson gets to play close to home in Atlanta and gives the Falcons much needed CB help in a division that features Drew Brees and the Saints offense.

I know, I was surprised too. But for reasons that are beyond me, I opened the “Five Pressing Issues Facing the Red Sox” on si.com piece that he wrote, and skimmed it. In my defense, fantasy baseball drafts are on the way. At any rate, improved defense, good pitching, where is the offense going to come from etc. etc., pretty much what you would expect in a Red Sox season preview. Until I came to his words on Jacob Ellsbury, which went a little something like this:

Getting ready for his third full season in the bigs, the flossy outfielder is coming off a season in which he hit .301 with 70 stolen bases. Ellsbury is only 26-years-old and it’s all in front of him, but in order to accommodate Cameron the Sox are moving Ellsbury to leftfield for the foreseeable future. It’s a mistake.

Well, I disagree, I think the upgrade defensively (letting Jason Bay walk) will be notable and Cameron is no slouch with the stick and…

Wait a minute. “The flossy outfielder”? What the eff? What the hell does that mean? That he’s white and stringy? Flavored like a mint? That Shaughnessy likes putting Ellsbury between his teeth? A quick google search of flossy as an adjective doesn’t help much, unless, maybe, Shaughnessy was using Bay Area hip hop slang and saying that Ellsbury is a phony. Also, according to urban dictionary, it could mean someone who makes one horny, so perhaps Shaughnessy is slyly expressing his deep and abiding manlove for Ellsbury. Or, quite possible, I am overthinking this. Or not.

I have decided not.

If you guessed piling bags of money into his own private armored truck and logging the directions to Julius Peppers’ house, you’d probably not be too far off. According to Don Banks, that’s the likeliest landing place for the best of a reduced free agent class. Knock us over with not surprise.

For the rest of Don Banks’ guesses, head here to si.com for a good read. His hunches? Karlos Dansby to the Giants, Darren Sproles to the Washington Snyders, and the Ravens trying to fix their receiving corp with Kevin Walter and Terrell Owens among other guesses.

Stuff of note as Tuesday crawls toward Wednesday and exhibition games creep closer:

—Let the sorting of the young talent in terms of money continue…Justin Upton and the D-backs close on a six-year $50 million dollar deal. He would still be hitting free agency at just 28.

—The Nationals appear dead set on sending Stephen Strasburg to the minors to start the season. Probably good for his development, long term, I suppose, but sucks for the 14 or so Nationals fans.

—The Angels appear to be heading toward a time-share at catcher again, with the good hitting Mike Napoli yielding significant time to the good hitting in October only Jeff Mathis.

—What’s a lonely and borderline thankless job? Agent for Joe Beimel, charged with spinning his continued availability on the free agent market.

Beimel’s agent, Joe Sroba, told 1050 ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand that the Mets are not the only team interested in the southpaw set-up man, but declined to name the other teams. “It is not a one-horse race,” Sroba said.

If you say so, dude.

—Perhaps Sroba should place a call to the Cubs, who are a bit desperate for bullpen help, apparently, and are not ruling out fast-tracking 2008 first round draft choice Andrew Cashner to the big league club come April.

To review, the Grizzlies looked a franchise defining moment in the face and said, “hey, we want to be defined as believers in massive stiffs. So let’s get in the Hasheem Thabeet business.” Which has worked out great, in that he has been ever worse than one could possibly have imagined. And is currently hanging out in the D-League. In the Dakotas. The northern one. In wintertime.

So, in honor of such a gawdawful draft choice by a masochist franchise, some posts on the players the Grizzlies passed on in their quest to be continually a joke. Tonight’s entrant? Stephen Curry. The player who could have given the Grizzlies a point guard to build a franchise around. Instead, he is bringing hope to Golden State’s 9 remaining fans and creating a buzz about finishes at the basket that put him in a rare class. His numbers on the year? 15.7 ppg 5.3 apg 4.2 rpg 1.83 steals per game. And there is this:

Last month, he became the sixth rookie in league history to put together a 35-10-10 triple-double, putting him in a club with Elgin Baylor, Michael Jordan, Jason Kidd, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.

But, hey. Thabeet! In Dakota! Even when the Grizzlies win, they still find ways to lose.

The slagging of Brett Favre by various unidentifed Jets after he took his leave from New York was kinda wonderful, and someone there is at it again in the wake of Thomas Jones’ release. In this case, the annonymous player is coming to Jones’ defense, as opposed to killing him, but the example used in coming to his defense? Delightful. Go Mr. Annonymous Jets player:

“I can tell you, it’s not going to be a popular move in the locker room,” said one player, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We loved T.J. The man loved the game and put it all on the line only to get dumped after his best season. I think you should reward players for performance. You dump him but give Vernon (Gholston) another shot? Doesn’t make sense.”

Cloudy with a chance of drive-bys in New York.

Looking for a gig in 2010, Pacman Jones jumps on the pro day workout thing, scheduling a workout for any NFL team that might wander by for March 19, 2010.

He’s scheduled it for New Orleans, so maybe he can set any scouts up with some of the local stripper talent to help draw some attention. Tips on rain optional.

—David Wright says he was hurting last year, but that wasn’t why he hit only a few more homeruns than Willy Taveras. I think Mets fans would rather hear that WAS the reason for the power outage, frankly.

—Barry Zito wants to be thought of as a #1 starter again. Which begs the question as to when he was ever thought of that way. Was he ever ahead of Hudson and Mulder? At any rate, he wants to return to those make believe days. Or something. Four years left on that $126 million dollar monstrosity of a contract.

—The Rangers want Julio Borbon to claim CF. Note to self, look up Julio Borbon ahead of fantasy drafts. Ah, there he is. .312/.376/.414 for a .790 OPS and 19 stolen bases in 157 at-bats? Oh. Not half bad. I miss stuff like this at the end of baseball seasons on a regular basis.

—Josh Hamilton nursing an injury? Shocking.

—The Dodgers are ready to take some more of the training wheels off of Clayton Kershaw and let him work later into games. Adjust your pitcher lists accordingly.

And the chatter over Terrell Owens’ next media availabilities heats up. Locally, here in Baltimore, the buzz is that the Ravens are willing to let bygones be bygones and get back into the Owens business. The Bengals are reportedly kicking those same tires. Old, well worn tires. He’s 36 this year. Expectations should be adjusted accordingly, wherever he lands. To say the least.

Elsewhere:

—The Chargers are reportedly not going to tender Darren Sproles, making him happily the object of desire for a number of teams, including the Seahawks, 49ers, and Eagles.

—Thomas Jones likely out in New York, and will have no problems finding a new home in, say, Houston, or perhaps San Diego, busy shedding running backs like a snake sheds skin.

—The Titans are making noises about reducing the load on Chris Johnson next year, and might want to bring back Lendale White to caddy for Johnson, on those carries that will inevitably annoy Johnson owners.

—There are few decent wide receivers ready for market, one of the few is Houston’s Kevin Walter, and they may work to keep him in place, which would lead back to where we began, those looking to get in the Terrell Owens business. For better or worse.

Some odds and ends on a Sunday just a few short days ahead of spring training baseball getting underway:

—I am sucker for articles where the writer talks to an annoymous scout and gets their take on this and that, and a few other things. Works in football, works in basketball, and it works in baseball, where Gene Wojciechowski at espn.com has a really good read from that genre. What do I have in common with that annoymous scout? Glad you asked. We would both pay to watch Tim Lincecum pitch.

—Jake Peavy, no fool, would like the White Sox to reunite him with Adrian Gonzalez.

—Jair Jurrjens is ready to test his throwing arm from the mound. The Braves appear ready to let him. I remain ready to leave him several places down my fantasy draft list.

—When the Brewers get around to making an conract offer to Prince Fielder, it won’t be for show, it will be meant to genuinely reflect their love and devotion.

—Brad Bergesen’s road back from his how-stupid-can-you-be injuring of himself throwing during the filming of a promo for Orioles tickets in December takes a good turn, as he has moved up to throwing off the mound.

—Grady Sizemore will no longer be leading off for Cleveland, instead moving to second in the order behind Asdrubal Cabrera, in the hope that his power will lead to more RBI opportunities in that slot.

—And, no link, just a general note from this Reds zealot, the hype on Aroldis Chapman might have some legit to it. He’s been damn good early in camp. The velocity has been as advertised, the command better than advertised, and the slider and change way above average. I still think he starts in AA, but with a good spring, would not be surprised to see him in Cincinnati around June 1.