$15.1 million!  Smoking the old record by more than $4.5 million, Stephen Strasburg is baseball’s richest rookie ever – and immediately becomes a member of the Washington Nationals 40 man roster.  Don’t be surprised if Strasburg is sent to AA for a couple of weeks to before getting to play with the Nationals in September.  According to Stan Kasten, the deal was inked at 11:58:43 – leaving Kasten to remark, “we didn’t even need that last minute.”  [ESPN]

The only three first rounders not to sign were high schoolers Devon Washington (TB) and Matt Purke (TEX) – who both will head to class next year and possibly reenter the draft in a year or two – and Aaron Crow (KC) who wasn’t subject to Monday’s deadline as he has no college eligibility left.  Crow was drafted #9 by Washington last year and didn’t sign…  I have no idea what that kid is waiting for…  Anyway, looking at the list of signed players it looks like the biggest winner was Scott Boros, who got six first rounders to sign.  [ESPN]

Nate McLouth’s hamstring injury isn’t healing, so the Braves outfielder is heading to the DL.  Reid Gorecki gets the call from AAA.  Gorecki has been in the minors for nearly a decade now, and is a nice AAA outfielder, but not a prospect.  [SI]

This isn’t going to be that fun a September for the Twins.  Justin Morneau left last night’s game with an inner ear infection and is day-to-day.  And, after another lousy start, Francisco Liriano was sent to the DL with a tired arm.  Former Mets prospect Philip Humber gets another shot at the rotation.  The Rice alum hasn’t yet lived up to the hype since being drafted in the first round (#3 overall) in 2004.  [SI]

Detroit added Baltimore Orioles DH/1B/3B Aubrey Huff to the lineup for the stretch run.  A team that works hard to score runs, Huff will add a quality lefty bat to the roster.  The Tigers gave up A+ reliever Brett Jacobson, a guy with a mid-90s fastball, decent control, and just starting to show consistent success.  Huff is a free agent in six weeks, and this is the first time he’ll have been in a pennant race – but, Huff admitted he liked the way things were coming together in Baltimore.  [ESPN]

Let’s clean up some old news…  Hiroki Kuroda (LA) may be fine, but he’s missing his next start.  Vincente Padilla (TEX) and John Smoltz (BOS) were released and are free to find new gigs.  What kinds of problems does a Vincente Padilla pose such that a pennant chasing team drops its best arm on the big league roster?  Somebody is going to do some digging before signing him.  Or, he can go to Washington and help out immediately…

ESPN was reporting this morning on TV that Kevin Gregg, who has had an AWFUL August and blew another save last night by allowing four runs and a game winning homer to Padre Kyle Blanks, is going to be replaced as the Cubs closer.  Gregg had pitched better every month, but starting with back-to-back blown saves in Florida, Gregg has looked like the bad version of Brad Lidge…

Welcome to the Bigs!  Baltimore recalled Kam Mickolio, a reliever who has shown improvement in the minors.  In college, he would walk more than he would strike out, but lately he’s looked better and better, so why not give the kid a shot…