Baseball

When the Padres let Trevor Hoffman leave their organization after the 2008 season, many felt it was the end of the line for one of the game's great closers.

The Dodgers showed mild interest in Hoffman, and it made sense for him to sign with a team so close to his home. Add to that the fact he'd be able to pitch against his former team, and it seemed all but certain he would wear Dodger blue.

However, the Brewers made a late push for the future Hall of Famer. They needed a replacement for Salomon Torres after he suddenly retired following the 2008 season.

I was recently approached by Tom Reese from HotStove.com who asked if I would be interested in a series he was doing. Each week he would ask one question to bloggers who cover a team. We would respond with a four or five sentence response. Tom would consolidate all of the answers and post them to his site.

It is an interesting concept and one I have had a lot of fun with over the past few weeks. The questions are usually thought provoking and make you stop to think. This week’s question was a prime example.

Anyone who has ever been to any single game at Yankee Stadium knows the scene: It’s a musty May night, and the game has been moving along swiftly, maybe a run here and there. Around the fifth inning, about the same time as the Great New York Subway Race and the YMCA, you start to here a metal pan being hit across the stadium. That pan belongs to the one and only.. Freddie Sez.

At first glance, it looks like baseball and competitive balance run on parallel lines. There are the Yankees with their 27 World Championships and the Pittsburgh Pirates who have not had a winning season since 1992.

Those two franchises met in the epic 1960 World Series when Bill Mazeroski won it with a Game Seven ninth-inning home run. 1960 was during a run where the Yankees played in 14 out of 16 World Series.

Aroldis Chapman was forced to leave an exhibition game on Monday, March 22, versus the Colorado Rockies with what my best friend and mentor, Hal McCoy, described as, "a twinge in his back, or stiffness in his back, or tightness in his back."

Either way, the Cuban flame thrower has a sore back. 

The band Alkaline Trio once sang, "When you're only 23 it's not attractive to complain about your sore back."

For Reds' fans the news is less than "attractive"; in fact, it's just plain scary. 

If you have paid attention to the Orioles this spring, you know it hasn’t been pretty.

After crushing the Tampa Bay Rays in the opening game to spark Oroles fans’ excitement, the Orioles have look mediocre.

The Twins new shortstop, J.J. Hardy, spent his entire professional career with the Milwaukee Brewers organization, including most of the past five seasons in the majors. He was an All-star in 2007, when he had career highs in almost every offensive category, including 26 home runs and 80 runs batted in.

He had a similar season in 2008, but slumped during the 2009 season, and was eventually sent to the minors. During last offseason, he was traded to the Twins for speedy outfielder Carlos Gomez.

With so much talk in Cubs' camp this spring training surrounding top prospect Starlin Castro, I decided to take a look back at so of the top rookie performances in team history.

I went back as far as 1947, which was the first year that the Rookie of the Year Award was handed out. I only looked at the stats that the player posted during their rookie season when ranking them.

...It's spring training .

No, I'm not trying to pull an Eeyore and lament in perpetual negativity, but this is the time of year other teams evaluate players, trim their rosters and work to get their starters into baseball shape.

"Duh, Zowie!" you're probably saying. "Who doesn't know that?"

Well, probably not many. But I feel the need to issue this reminder for those over-excited Houston Astros fans who look at the team's 11-9 spring training record and are already preparing to buy tickets in October for Minute Maid Park.

From season to season, players are faced with the task of repeating or increasing their previous season's statistics. However, fantasy baseball throws this same task at millions of fantasy owners.

Roaming through numerous mock drafts and expert opinions on draft day throws many players and stats in your face to try and decipher. When you are finally on the clock, the pressure is on.