Baseball

Let me preface this by saying that I have seen no linkage of any kind between the Atlanta Braves and Felipe Lopez.

Brett Gardner had 284 plate appearances last year, and during approximately 284 of them I was screaming at my TV begging him to bunt.

Maybe 284 sacrifices is a bit much for one season, but when you have as much speed as the Yankees' outfielder does, it makes sense to lay one down once in a while to see if you can beat the throw to first.

This is why I was pleased to learn today that the 26-year-old has practiced more bunting this offseason. Because, after all, it's hard to steal bases if you're not on base.

What? They're still looking?

With less than a week before the official start of spring training, the Chicago Cubs are still looking to fill arguably their greatest off-season need: a reliable right-handed setup man for their new closer Carlos Marmol.

After "kicking the tires" on a host of potential candidates such as Frasor, Park, and Gregerson, Chicago is left with no better solution than they had at the end of the '09 season.

After the 2008 season, the Mariners fired GM Bill Bavasi and hired Jack Zduriencik.

Led by GM Jack Zduriencik, the Mariners made bold moves over the last couple of years to make them the favorite to win the AL West in 2010.

This is a look at the seven best moves JZ has orchestrated.

Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments section.

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According to George King of the NY Post , longtime Yankees trainer Gene Monahan will miss spring training and possibly the start of the season with what is termed as a “significant illness.”

When I have a couple of things to write about at the same time and don't feel like making separate posts about each one, I combine them under a heading I like to call Quick Hops.

Every now and then, I get some information passed along to me. You can take the information for what it's worth to you. At this point, after all, I am just a fan of the team that enjoys sharing his thoughts about it.

So, with that disclaimer out of the way, let me pass along what I've been told.

Welcome to the seventh edition of "Daily Random Sports Thoughts."

For those not familiar, I pick a team, player, or any other topic in sports that I have five random thoughts about.  If you like 'em, read 'em.  I'm trying to get 'em on here every day!

Today's lucky random sports topic is...the Tampa Bay Rays!

1) Hopefully, you guys can have another cinderella season like 2008!

The hot corner was once the place of royalty in Major League Baseball.  Some of the greatest players to ever play the game manned third base, including the great Mike Schmidt, Eddie Matthews, George Brett, and Brooks Robinson.

As the New York Yankees prepared to face the Boston Red Sox on Jul. 20, 1965, the defending American League Champions found themselves ensconced in sixth place, 12.5 games behind the league-leading Minnesota Twins.

The Red Sox were in even worse shape. They were ninth in the 10-team league, 22 games out of first.

Trendy Game

Some games define trends, and this was one of them.

With the New York Yankees making the move to (re)acquire Javier Vasquez they now have a solid four-man rotation in C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, and Vasquez.  Wang won't be returning—which is a shame because he did have a budding career, but the injury-bug plagued and staked its claim in his system. 

The Yankees were able to make their way through the playoffs with the three-man weave, but if another series were to come up, they may have been toast.