Smallest state goes big on Miss Universe pride

The city of Cranston is known — sort of — for being the one-time home of the Narragansett Brewing Company, and it scored a mention in the Jim Carrey flick "Dumb and Dumber." But the city has suddenly found itself at the center of the universe. The nation's smallest state has gone big on pride after Cranston native Olivia Culpo snagged the Miss Universe title on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, beating out 88 other women from six continents to bring the title back to the U.S. for the first time since 1997. Cranston Mayor Allan Fung calls it "mind-boggling" to have his city of 80,000 residents, the third largest in Rhode Island, put on the map for an international audience. He says Culpo's win is inspirational for the city, state and nation. "To have Olivia perform the way she did, with the poise that she did, coming from where she came from, it provides this really feel good moment," he said Thursday. "She's going to be a wonderful ambassador for Cranston in particular, her hometown, but our state and our country." Fung gave the 20-year-old Boston University student a key to the city after she was crowned Miss USA in June, the first time anyone from Rhode Island had won the title. A tree was planted in her honor at City Hall, and a band of students from local high schools played. Culpo herself is an accomplished cellist. Fung said she can have another key to the city — or whatever she wants — given her beauty pageant promotion. "She is the center of the universe," he said. In an interview, Culpo thanked Rhode Islanders for their support and said she loves the state "where it all started." "I think it's cool to put Rhode Island on the map," she said. "To be able to have come from such a small place and to now be representing so much is so cool." Rhode Island residents' nerves were on edge after Culpo tripped slightly during the competition's evening gown segment. She then was asked a question about whether she had ever done something she regretted; she said you learn from every experience, good or bad, but that she regretted picking on her siblings growing up. After she was crowned, congratulations flooded Twitter, including from her former Catholic school in East Providence, St. Mary Academy Bay View; Providence Mayor Angel Taveras; even Rhode Island's most famous seller of its trademark hot wieners, Olneyville New York System. U.S. Rep. David Cicilline sent out a news release including a picture of her in a white dress and her Miss USA sash that was taken outside his Washington, D.C., office. He said she had already made Rhode Island proud but that "her success tonight is an even greater source of pride for the Ocean State." While Culpo will be back in Rhode Island for the holidays, no official appearances as Miss Universe are planned. She said she's looking forward to seeing one of Providence's landmarks while she's home: the giant termite atop a pest control business near downtown.

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Broadway's 'Newsies' recoups its investment

The boys from "Newsies" now have one more thing to dance about — they've made their money back. Disney Theatrical Productions said Thursday that the musical recouped its $5 million investment in just over nine months — faster than any other Disney stage property. The profitability of "Newsies" adds to Disney's high success rate on Broadway. The entertainment giant has had now five hits — including "The Lion King" and "Mary Poppins" — from seven Broadway shows it has produced, way above the 3-in-10 average recoupment of most Broadway shows. "Newsies" is based on the 1899 true story of child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York who go on strike. A 1992 film, starring Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall and Ann-Margret, did poorly at the box office but has become something of a cult hit. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Jack Feldman, who were responsible for the film score, teamed up again to transform "Newsies" into a musical for the stage, reworking the songs and collaborating with the new story writer, Harvey Fierstein, known for his work in "Hairspray," ''La Cage aux folles" and "Torch Song Trilogy." The new musical retains the memorable songs "Santa Fe," ''The World Will Know," ''Carrying the Banner," ''Seize the Day" and "King of New York," but adds a young female reporter to the story and plenty of muscular, high-impact dancing. The show had a critically acclaimed debut in September 2011 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J., and opened on Broadway in March at the the Nederlander Theatre, where it won Tony Awards for best score and choreography. So far, nearly 400,000 people have seen the show in its 41 weeks of performances and it has regularly been among the top earning shows each week.

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ICE's NYSE swoop creates derivatives giant

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - IntercontinentalExchange Inc agreed as part of its $8.2 billion takeover of NYSE Euronext to pay the New York Stock Exchange operator a termination fee of $750 million if it fails to gain antitrust clearances, suggesting a high level of confidence the deal will go through. Big Board parent NYSE could get out of the arrangement for a fee of $300 million if a sweeter deal were to come along, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. ICE failed last year to buy NYSE in a joint bid with Nasdaq OMX Group . At the time, NYSE was involved in year-long pursuit to sell itself to Frankfurt's Deutsche Bourse. In the end, regulators killed both deals, saying they would be anti-competitive. On its own, Atlanta-based ICE lacks the massive equities operations of Nasdaq or Deutsche Bourse, so there is less overlap between the two exchanges, antitrust lawyers said, making regulatory approval far more likely. Some in the industry have suggested that CME Group could table a competing offer for NYSE, but they said that would not be likely for several reasons, including the break-up fee. People familiar with the deal said other issues include potential antitrust concerns and the fact that under the latest agreement, NYSE's Liffe business will do all its clearing through ICE regardless of whether the deal goes through. "The clearing deal they signed is like a second break-up fee," one of the people said. Also, CME has not been known for making large deals. "It does not seem to be in its DNA," said Adam Sussman, director of research at Tabb Group. NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer acknowledged a higher bid could come along, but that NYSE would not chase after a deal unless it was almost certain it would pass regulatory muster. "If we did that for another year and at the end we are told, 'we are not going to allow you to do this because of the overlap of your businesses,' we would look beyond foolish," he said in an interview on Thursday. FOUR-WAY BATTLE The deal, announced Thursday, would give 12-year old commodities and energy bourse ICE a powerful presence in Europe's lucrative financial derivatives market through control of NYSE Liffe, Europe's second-largest futures exchange, and a major advantage over U.S.-based rivals CME and Nasdaq. All three want to challenge Deutsche Boerse's European dominance. A shake-up in banking regulation is expected to increase demand sharply for clearing financial derivatives through such exchanges. "The deal would place a bigger and more aggressive competitor on Deutsche Boerse's doorstep," said Richard Perrott, an analyst at Berenberg Bank. Regulatory changes in the wake of the financial crisis are forcing banks to channel derivatives business through clearing houses and regulated exchanges to ensure their risk positions can be better monitored than they were when bank dealers were trading complex contracts directly among themselves. The reforms are expected to be fully operational in Europe in 2014. ICE's takeover of NYSE Liffe will give it an advantage of existing presence in Europe over Chicago-based CME, owner of the world's largest futures market, and New York's Nasdaq, both of which plan to open their own London-based exchanges next year. THE PRIZE While the New York Stock Exchange, an enduring symbol of American capitalism, is NYSE Euronext's prestige business, London's Liffe is the real jewel in the crown. With profits from stock trading significantly eroded by new technology and the rise of other places for investors to trade, the stock market businesses like NYSE are less valuable to ICE. The company has said it will try to spin off NYSE's Euronext European stock market businesses in a public offering. This has generated speculation, which the company has denied, that it may also have little interest in the NYSE trading floor on Wall Street. NYSE made an operating income of $473 million from Liffe in 2011 on revenues of $861 million compared to an income of $533 million on revenues of $1.3 billion from its equities business. ICE's Jeff Sprecher will be CEO of the combined organisation and Duncan Niederauer, the NYSE Euronext CEO, will be president - a post he said he plans to remain in until at least 2014. The two are longtime friends. ICE started out as an online marketplace for energy trading before Sprecher initiated a string of acquisitions, from the London-based International Petroleum Exchange in 2001, to the New York Board of Trade and, most recently, a handful of smaller deals, including a climate products exchange and a stake in a Brazilian clearing house. A combined ICE-NYSE Euronext would leapfrog Deutsche Boerse to become the world's third largest exchange group with a combined market value of $15.2 billion. CME Group has a market value of $17.5 billion, Thomson Reuters data shows.

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Stocks sink after Republicans cancel budget vote

NEW YORK (AP) — Investors sent Washington a reminder Friday that Wall Street is a power player in talks to avoid the "fiscal cliff." Stocks fell sharply after House Republicans called off a vote on tax rates and left federal budget talks in disarray 10 days before sweeping tax increases and government spending cuts are scheduled to take effect. The Dow Jones industrial average lost as much as 189 points before closing down 120.88 points, or 0.9 percent, at 13,190.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13.54 points to 1,430.15. The Nasdaq composite index declined 29.38 to 3,021.01. The House bill would have raised taxes on Americans making at least $1 million per year and locked in decade-old tax cuts for Americans making less. Taxes will rise for almost all Americans on Jan. 1 unless Congress acts. House Speaker John Boehner had presented what he called "Plan B" while he negotiated with the White House on avoiding the sweeping tax increases and spending cuts, a combination known as the fiscal cliff. But Boehner scrapped a vote on the bill Thursday night after it became clear that it did not have enough support in the Republican-led House to secure passage. He called on the White House and the Democratic-led Senate to work something out. The market's decline demonstrated that investors' nerves are raw as they await a resolution. "Where we are today, the market would be satisfied with the announcement of a stopgap measure," said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial. "The more the clock ticks, the more the market is saying, 'Just give us something.'" Sal Arnuk, a partner at Themis Trading, suggested that the sharp drop in stocks early in the day might have been an overreaction. The Dow was down as much as 189 points, and before the market opened, stock futures suggested a decline of 200 points or more. "It's not a surprise that they weren't able to come to an agreement," he said. I don't think most of Wall Street anticipated that they would come to an agreement." Other markets registered their concern, but the reaction was not extreme. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 0.04 percentage point to 1.76 percent. The price of gold, which some investors buy when fear overtakes the market, climbed, but only by 0.9 percent. Gold rose $14.20 to $1,660.10 an ounce. If the full fiscal cliff takes effect, economists say it could drag the United States into recession next year. The impact would be gradual, though, and a recession is not a sure thing. Most people would receive only slightly less money in each paycheck. And the tax increases and spending cuts could be retroactively repealed if a deal comes together after Jan. 1. If budget talks dragged on, many businesses might put off investment or hiring, and consumer spending could suffer. That's why most economists say it would be crucial to reach a deal within roughly the first two months of 2013. "Believe you me," Krosby said, "if you think that there is a recession in the offing you are going to see this market sell off. It's sell off first, ask questions later." It was not the first time that Wall Street worried about the fiscal cliff talks. On the day after the election, when voters returned divided government to power, the Dow dropped 312 points. On Nov. 14, when President Barack Obama insisted on higher tax rates for the wealthy, the Dow dropped 185 points. The sharp drop in stocks Friday was reminiscent of, although much smaller in scale than, what happened Sept. 29, 2008, during the financial crisis. The House defeated a proposed $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial industry, and the Dow plunged 777 points, its worst one-day decline. Four days later, the House, shaken by what had happened on Wall Street, passed a modified bill. Stocks closed lower Friday in Asia after House Republicans canceled their vote. The Nikkei index in Japan fell almost 1 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.7 percent. Stocks were also lower in Europe. Among stocks making big moves: — Walgreen, the nation's largest drugstore chain, slumped $1.24, or 3.3 percent, to $36.31. It filled fewer prescriptions and absorbed costs tied to acquisitions and Superstorm Sandy. The results were worse than financial analysts had been expecting. — BlackBerry maker Research in Motion dropped $2.21, or 15.8 percent, to $11.74. The company said it won't generate as much revenue from telecommunications carriers once it releases the BlackBerry 10. — Nike, the world's largest maker of athletic gear, jumped $6.10, or 6.2 percent, to $105.10. It said strong demand in North America led to a 7 percent increase in revenue in the three months ended Nov. 30, balancing out economic weakness in Europe and a slowdown in growth in China. — Micron Technology dropped 6.9 percent, the biggest decline in the S&P 500 index. The semiconductor maker reported a loss late Thursday as weaker demand for personal computers and an oversupply of certain chips hurt its sales. The stock lost 47 cents to $6.32.

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Titan Advisors withdraws funds from SAC Capital - WSJ

(Reuters) - Titan Advisors LLC has decided to withdraw all of its money from the hedge fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LP, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, as SAC faces scrutiny because of several employees linked to insider-trading charges. It's unclear how much money Titan, an asset-management firm based in New York, had invested with SAC for its clients, although it has $3 billion invested in hedge funds overall, according to a March securities filing. In its article, the Journal cited clients who said they were told that Titan would withdraw investments in SAC. The withdrawal is notable because Titan Advisors founder George Fox was one of the early investors in SAC Capital, the Journal said. Fox did not respond to a voicemail message. A spokesman for SAC Capital said the firm did not have a comment. SAC is run by billionaire Steven A. Cohen, and came to prominence in the late 1990s for its outsized returns. The firm has posted returns of roughly 30 percent a year since its inception. But more recently, SAC Capital has garnered attention for employees' run-ins with regulators and criminal authorities investigating insider-trading on Wall Street. On Friday, ex-SAC fund manager Mathew Martoma was indicted by a grand jury in New York, becoming the seventh former SAC employee to be charged or implicated in insider-trading schemes.

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Wall Street ends lower after "fiscal cliff" setback

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks finished lower on Friday after a Republican plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff" failed to gain sufficient support on Thursday night, draining hopes that a deal would be reached before 2013. Still, stocks managed to rebound from the day's lows near the end of the session, and for the week, the three major U.S. stock indexes still ended higher, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.2 percent. Trading was volatile because of waning confidence in the prospect of a deal out of Washington, and in part, as the result of the quarterly expiration of options and futures contracts. The CBOE Volatility Index <.vix> or VIX, the market's favorite barometer of investor anxiety, finished below its session high. Republican House Speaker John Boehner failed to garner enough votes from even his own party to pass his "Plan B" tax bill late on Thursday. It was the latest setback in negotiations to avoid $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts that some say could tip the U.S. economy into recession. "The failure with Plan B was disappointing, if not terribly surprising, but now there's a real lack of clarity about what will happen, and markets hate that," said Mike Hennessy, managing director of investments for Morgan Creek in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 120.88 points, or 0.91 percent, to 13,190.84 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> fell 13.54 points, or 0.94 percent, to 1,430.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> lost 29.38 points, or 0.96 percent, to 3,021.01. "Amazingly, this sharp decline today may not actually change the technical picture much - unless the decline gets worse," said Larry McMillan, president of options research firm McMillan Analysis Corp, in a research note. For the week, the Dow gained 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.7 percent. On Friday, Herbalife dropped for an eighth straight session. Investor Bill Ackman recently ramped up his campaign against the company. The stock skidded 19.2 percent to $27.27 and has lost more than 35 percent this week. Plan B, which called for tax increases on those who earn $1 million or more a year, was not going to pass the Democratic-led Senate or win acceptance from the White House anyway. But it exposed the reality that it will be difficult to get Republican support for the more expansive tax increases that President Barack Obama has urged. Still, the declines of about 1 percent in the three major U.S. stock indexes suggest that investors do not believe the economy will be unduly damaged by the absence of a deal, said Mark Lehmann, president of JMP Securities, in San Francisco. "You could have easily woken up today and seen the market down 300 or 400 points, and everyone would have said, 'That's telling you this is really dire,'" Lehmann said. "I think if you get into mid-January and (the talks) keep going like this, you get worried, but I don't think we're going to get there." Banking shares, which outperform during economic expansion and have led the market on signs of progress on resolving the fiscal impasse, led Friday's declines. Citigroup Inc fell 1.7 percent to $39.49, while Bank of America slid 2 percent to $11.29. The KBW Banks index <.bkx> lost 1.19 percent. Volatility on Friday was exacerbated in part by "quadruple witching," the quarterly expiration of stock index futures and options, stock options and single stock futures contracts. About 8.59 billion shares changed hands on major U.S. exchanges, more than the daily average of 6.47 billion daily in 2012, in part because of the "quadruple witching" expiration. The day's round of data indicated the economy was surprisingly resilient in November; consumer spending rose by the most in three years and a gauge of business investment jumped. But separate data showed consumer sentiment slumped in December. The S&P Retail Index <.spxrt> fell 1.2 percent. U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion sank 22.7 percent to $10.91 after the Canadian company, known as the BlackBerry maker, reported its first-ever decline in its subscriber numbers on Thursday alongside a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment.

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Wall Street Week Ahead: A lump of coal for 'Fiscal Cliff-mas'

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street traders are going to have to pack their tablets and work computers in their holiday luggage after all. A traditionally quiet week could become hellish for traders as politicians in Washington are likely to fall short of an agreement to deal with $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts due to kick in early next year. Many economists forecast that this "fiscal cliff" will push the economy into recession. Thursday's debacle in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Speaker John Boehner failed to secure passage of his own bill that was meant to pressure President Obama and Senate Democrats, only added to worry that the protracted budget talks will stretch into 2013. Still, the market remains resilient. Friday's decline on Wall Street, triggered by Boehner's fiasco, was not enough to prevent the S&P 500 from posting its best week in four. "The markets have been sort of taking this in stride," said Sandy Lincoln, chief market strategist at BMO Asset Management U.S. in Chicago, which has about $38 billion in assets under management. "The markets still basically believe that something will be done," he said. If something happens next week, it will come in a short time frame. Markets will be open for a half-day on Christmas Eve, when Congress will not be in session, and will close on Tuesday for Christmas. Wall Street will resume regular stock trading on Wednesday, but volume is expected to be light throughout the rest of the week with scores of market participants away on a holiday break. For the week, the three major U.S. stock indexes posted gains, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 0.4 percent, the S&P 500 up 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index up 1.7 percent. Stocks also have booked solid gains for the year so far, with just five trading sessions left in 2012: The Dow has advanced 8 percent, while the S&P 500 has climbed 13.7 percent and the Nasdaq has jumped 16 percent. IT COULD GET A LITTLE CRAZY Equity volumes are expected to fall sharply next week. Last year, daily volume on each of the last five trading days dropped on average by about 49 percent, compared with the rest of 2011 - to just over 4 billion shares a day exchanging hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT in the final five sessions of the year from a 2011 daily average of 7.9 billion. If the trend repeats, low volumes could generate a spike in volatility as traders keep track of any advance in the cliff talks in Washington. "I'm guessing it's going to be a low volume week. There's not a whole lot other than the fiscal cliff that is going to continue to take the headlines," said Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research, in Cincinnati. "A lot of people already have a foot out the door, and with the possibility of some market-moving news, you get the possibility of increased volatility." Economic data would have to be way off the mark to move markets next week. But if the recent trend of better-than-expected economic data holds, stocks will have strong fundamental support that could prevent selling from getting overextended even as the fiscal cliff negotiations grind along. Small and mid-cap stocks have outperformed their larger peers in the last couple of months, indicating a shift in investor sentiment toward the U.S. economy. The S&P MidCap 400 Index overcame a technical level by confirming its close above 1,000 for a second week. "We view the outperformance of the mid-caps and the break of that level as a strong sign for the overall market," Schaeffer's Bell said. "Whenever you have flight to risk, it shows investors are beginning to have more of a risk appetite." Evidence of that shift could be a spike in shares in the defense sector, expected to take a hit as defense spending is a key component of the budget talks. The PHLX defense sector index hit a historic high on Thursday, and far outperformed the market on Friday with a dip of just 0.26 percent, while the three major U.S. stock indexes finished the day down about 1 percent. Following a half-day on Wall Street on Monday ahead of the Christmas holiday, Wednesday will bring the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. It is expected to show a ninth-straight month of gains. U.S. jobless claims on Thursday are seen roughly in line with the previous week's level, with the forecast at 360,000 new filings for unemployment insurance, compared with the previous week's 361,000.

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James and Bosh feel Heat have plenty of room to improve

MIAMI (Reuters) - LeBron James and Chris Bosh feel the defending champion Miami Heat have work to do if they are to reach peak form in time for the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs, but both embrace the challenge.
The Heat (16-6) trail only the New York Knicks (19-6) in the Eastern Conference just past the quarter-mark of the NBA's regular season but Bosh is well aware his team is not playing at the same level compared to this point last season.
"No, not right now. We have to pick it up a little bit to catch ourselves from last year," Bosh, Miami's third-leading scorer and top shot-blocker, told Reuters.
"It's a new year, we just have to slowly build and get back to that place. As long as we continue to win games now and then we are primed and ready come playoff time, I'll be happy."
Of Miami's six losses in the 2012-13 season, two have come at the hands of a Knicks team that made some key offseason moves with the hopes of denying the Heat a trip to the NBA Finals.
For Miami, a key issue that needs attention is defense, particularly rebounding. The component of the game was in clear evidence during Tuesday's win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, where the Heat were outrebounded 52-24.
"There are some improvements, we do have to get better at a lot of things - defense, defensive rebounding, three point field goal percentage, we have to do a better job," said Bosh.
The 6-foot 10-inch Bosh, who switched from power-forward to center this season, says having areas to improve on keeps the team from getting complacent throughout the NBA's long, 82-game regular season.
"I'm glad that we have things to work on because, especially coming off a championship win, you don't want to be 'oh, we are a perfect team, it's perfect everything is great,'" said Bosh.
"You want to have something to work on, you don't ever want to get comfortable, you want to feel like someone is chasing you."
'CHALLENGING MYSELF'
Bosh says he applies a "one more for the championship" motivational approach in training and James, the NBA's reigning Most Valuable Player, has certainly taken that notion to heart.
James, who has been pushing himself physically this season by adding extra workouts and cycling to games and shootouts, agrees the Heat have lots of room for improvement.
"Everything, defensively continue to grind, continue to communicate, continue to rebound, offensively don't turn the ball over, be efficient looking for shots," he said.
"Right now we are getting better, we are going to use each and every game, we aren't going to cut any corners to get better, right now.
"We are not where we want to be in April for sure, but that's OK. We don't want to be peaking now, the thing for us is we don't want to be taking steps back".
There are certainly no signs of James going backwards or even easing off - he has scored at least 20 points in every game this season and as well as his cycling, has taken to the gym after defeats, such as this month's home loss to the Knicks.
"I'm just challenging myself. I feel that if I can be in the best condition I can be in that it is going to help the team automatically," said James. "I feel like if I am in the best shape and keeping my game under wraps, then we are going to be a better team."
The Heat visit the Dallas Mavericks later on Thursday and face biggest test of their form yet on Christmas Day when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder in a rematch of last season's final. The Thunder (21-4) own the NBA's best record and are riding a 12-game winning streak.

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Barring setback, Redskins' RG3 looks good to go

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Robert Griffin III looks good to go.
The Washington Redskins rookie had a full practice Thursday for the second straight day as the team prepares for this week's game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"I like what I see," coach Mike Shanahan said. "If there is no setback, he should be ready to go."
Griffin missed Sunday's win over the Cleveland Browns with a sprained right knee. On Wednesday, he had his first full practice since the injury, and coaches and doctors were eager to see how the knee would respond.
"There wasn't a setback today, so that's a good sign," Shanahan said.
Also Thursday, right tackle Tyler Polumbus remained unable to practice as he recovers from a concussion. Linebacker London Fletcher (sprained left ankle), linebacker Lorenzo Alexander (right shoulder) and defensive end Stephen Bowen (torn biceps) were limited, and linebacker Rob Jackson returned to practice after the birth of his baby girl.

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Placido Polanco agrees to $2.75M deal with Marlins

MIAMI (AP) — Former All-Star third baseman Placido Polanco agreed to a $2.75 million, one-year contract Thursday with the Miami Marlins, plugging the final hole in the team's projected lineup following a payroll purge.
The 37-year-old, who can earn an additional $250,000 in performance bonuses, battled injuries this year and hit .257 with two home runs and 19 RBIs in 90 games with the Philadelphia Phillies. The 15-year veteran is a career .299 hitter with 103 homers.
Other projected starters include Logan Morrison at first base, Donovan Solano at second, Adeiny Hechavarria at shortstop, Jeff Brantly at catcher, Giancarlo Stanton in right field, Justin Ruggiano in center field and Juan Pierre in left field.
Hanley Ramirez played 90 games at third this year for Miami before being traded in July. That was part of the salary purge by the Marlins, who pared $146.5 million in future payroll when they swung a trade last month that sent former NL batting champion Jose Reyes, former NL ERA leader Josh Johnson and left-hander Mark Buehrle to Toronto.
The Marlins have a projected 2013 payroll of about $45.75 million. Their payroll on opening day this year was $112 million, not including money received in the Carlos Zambrano trade, but the team finished last in the NL East and drew smaller crowds than expected in its new ballpark.
Polanco was chosen to start in the All-Star game for the second time in 2011, but went only 10 for 58 (.172) after June 30 this year. The Phillies declined a $5.5 million option on Polanco after the season, and he received a $1 million buyout.
Polanco was the 2006 AL championship series MVP for Detroit, and he also played for St. Louis. He has 2,044 hits, and he has won two Gold Gloves at second base and one at third.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Polanco has a home in Miami and attended Miami-Dade Community College.

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