AL East

To a certain extent this is excerpted from a recent write up on a battle between All Time Yankee's & All Time Red Sox, though while writing about Roger Clemens and all of his recent travails it certainly felt like an interesting enough, or topical subject onto itself.

So we fleshed it out a bit with remarks about particular periods of seemingly extraordinary performance and we hope you'll find it a worthwhile, conversational read.

That's it for the preamble, DR. 

BOSTON, Mass—A few days after relief pitcher Bobby Jenks finalized a two-year, $12 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, he had a few things to say about former manger, Ozzie Guillen. 

"How many times did he question my ability," Jenks told MLB.com report Scott Merkin. Jenks went on to say, "I'm looking forward to playing for a manager [Terry Francona] who knows how to run a bullpen."

This is the newest feature I am going to be doing as we head towards fantasy drafts.  In an effort to target which closers could be in jeopardy of losing their jobs, who to target for vulture saves, etc., we will be breaking down each team’s bullpen.  Let’s kick things off with a look at the Red Sox:

The Closer: Jonathan Papelbon

Field of Dreams: James Earl Jones (Terrence Mann) to Kevin Costner (Ray Kinsella): "Ray, people will come Ray."

"They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. 

Phil Hughes was the toast of baseball through May as he appeared nearly unhittable.  He was 6-1 over the first two months to go along with a 2.72 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 57 strikeouts over 56.2 innings of work. 

Over the next four months, however, he was not nearly as effective.

For the entire season, he posted the following line:

18 Wins
176.1 Innings
4.19 ERA
1.25 WHIP
146 Strikeouts (7.45 K/9)
58 Walks (2.96 BB/9)
.281 BABIP

As the new year comes to a close with the Red Sox being a very early favorite for the American League, let's take a look back at one of the "greatest" trades that never happened.

The Yankees and the Red Sox rivalry is easily the biggest, and most heated in all of sports.

In the 1950s, Ted Williams, the greatest hitter of all time, was the "face" of the Boston Red Sox.

Material for articles is never-ending. There is always something to write about when it comes to the world of sports.

Even on a quiet news day, a player or team can be analyzed. That’s what makes sportswriting in particular great.

On this day, three unrelated topics came to mind, two of which I would have known little to nothing about had I not hopped on twitter.

I have mentioned this a few times already, but he is worth the attention again.
 
Rafael Soriano is still a free agent, available and on the market. Whatever it is shocking considering he was the AL’s dominate closer in 2010 with the Tampa Bay Rays.
 
Even before Cliff Lee’s decision, Soriano as a player would have been more than enough for the New York Yankees to walk away with heads high.
 

After the idea of the Blue Jays adding Octavio Dotel had been kicked around by everyone with an interest in baseball or the Jays on twitter off and on for the last month, it finally went down today. The deal is another inexpensive move by GM Alex Anthopoulos following on the heals of signing Edwin Encarnacion, trading for and releasing Miquel Olivo, and sending Shaun Marcum to Milwaukee for a prospect.

Royals closer Joakim Soria has recently said to Mexican newspaper Vanguard he would not exercise his no-trade clause if a deal were in place with the Yankees. 

It must be noted that he also said he was open to playing on other teams, essentially anywhere. However, the big news involved in this is that he would be willing to go to New York without a guaranteed closer job.