Baseball

Eddie Guardado, known largely for piling up strikeouts, was given his walking papers today.

The Washington Nationals released the veteran southpaw after two less-than-stellar exhibition performances. Guardado posted an ERA of 18.00 in just two innings of work this spring.

Established in 1977, the Seattle Mariners have competed in three complete decades: the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

The Mariners have featured few true "franchise players," who could be instantly noticed as the face of the franchise. Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., and Ichiro Suzuki have all had a turn, but other prominent players, such as Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, and Tino Martinez, have come and gone.

In the three tumultuous decades of Mariners history, there have been studs (Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, etc.) and duds (Richie Sexson, Jeff Cirillo, etc.).

  When it comes to spring training and statistics I am a non-believer. I am obsessed with watching the games, but it is more to get a feel for the players involved and it hardly ever matters to me who won, who lost, or if the players do really well or really poorly.

Sure, part of me cringes a little bit if someone has a horrible day, but in the end I realize it is spring and this doesn’t really count.

The rumors have swirled during the winter, but according to two major league sources, former Padres GM Kevin Towers will officially join the Yankees as a special assistant to Brian Cashman . Rejoice:

You have to give credit to Andy MacPhail.

This past season, the Orioles desperately needed more production from the third base position.

Let’s continue to look at late round options turning our attention to shortstop. 

Two of the options late in your draft we’ve already discussed in great detail, so I’m not going to rehash them here, but if you are curious, you can click the links to get the details on them Everth Cabrera   and Alcides Escobar.

With Spring Training in full swing, several talented veterans remain unsigned by major league clubs. With injuries (Joe Nathan) and ineffectiveness starting to show as team's put together rosters, many of these players could find a new home.

Here are five players who could instantly contribute to and improve a major league team.

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For the last five years or so, the AL West has been dominated by the Angels. Whether they claimed to be from Los Angeles or Anaheim, they had no problem beating up on a weak division with only four teams. However, with the Rangers getting better each of the last three seasons, I see this year as a changing of the guard.

Texas Rangers: 

While browsing through Bleacher Report lately I came across an article, by Nino Colla, about John McDonald being an unheralded backup who deserves more credit.

The fact of the matter is John McDonald does not deserve any more credit, he does not deserve an American League job and he is barely worthy of a National League backup role. Just barely...

The article proposed that backups are a role in the MLB that someone has to play and that John McDonald does it well.

This is plain wrong.

Chicago Cubs General Manager, Jim Hendry, had some good words of advice for Milton Bradley on Wednesday. Hendry told ESPNChicago.com that it is time for Milton to look at himself in the mirror and take some responsibility for his unsuccessful season in Chicago.

Bradley recently did an interview with ESPN's Colleen Dominguez. He told her that he felt like a prisoner in his own home when he was in Chicago. Also that he received hate mail with no postage mark on it. When asked if this mail came from inside the organization, Bradley told her that he hoped not but maybe it could've.