Baseball

During the 1950s, the Yankees had a major league farm team named the Kansas City Athletics.

Larry Levensen is a Giants' fan who resented the Yankees because he knew that it was almost impossible to beat both the Yankees and their Kansas City farm team.

"I Will Probably Die Waiting for a World Championship ."

I was only four years old when the Giants won the 1954 World Series.

The Yankees have sure made a splash this offseason, but not by buying every player on the market. Unlike the big spending spree last year, the Yankees did not sign the best pitcher on the market, Lackey, and are unlikely to sign Holliday or Bay.

Brian Cashman has made himself known through trades with exception of Nick Johnson. They have acquired Curtis Granderson, Javier Vazquez, and Boone Logan while losing Melky Cabrera, Phil Coke, Mike Dunne, Arodys Vizcaino, Ian Kennedy, and coveted prospect Austin Jackson.

Aaron Harang was once considered a top option for fantasy owners, after posting back-to-back 200+ strikeout seasons with ERAs under 3.80. 

Then, without warning, things went south in 2008.  Injuries helped to sabotage him, as did his inability to get batters out consistently.

In the past two seasons, opponents have hit .280 or better against him.  His strikeouts have come down.  His home runs allowed are up.  His wins are almost nonexistent.

Let’s take a look at his line from last season:

You've probably never heard of Matt Daley, unless you're a fan of an NL West team.

Heck, I'd never heard of him until the Rockies called the right-handed relief pitcher up early last season. Given that I know about 2000 active players, Daley's failure to merit a blip on my radar reflected his anonymity. He didn't get a big league look until he was nearly 27.

Whether you agree with me or not, and no matter if you like my writing or you do not, I want to send a message to everyone in the Chicago Cubs community on Bleacher Report:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

And, if you happen to be Jewish, Happy Hanukkah and Rosh Hashanah.

After all, we're all Cubs fans, right? We may not see eye to eye, but we do have the Cubs best interest at heart.

I happen to think that, so far, this has been another horrible offseason for Cubs GM Jim Hendry. I also happen to think that the Cubs glass for 2010 is half-empty.

Hey bleacher report, its been a long time since my last post.

I've been busy with many different things the last three of four months,so I haven't really had a chance to post anything on b/r. But now I'm back, at least for the next week or so to talk about whatever is going on in sports (except for Tiger Woods). So here's a little piece about yet another Yankee mistake.

Austin Jackson. A name that confuses most Yankee fans.

Minute Moves Amplify Club's Dim Future

Merry Christmas, Met fans!  You have absolutely nothing to be merry about this holiday season.

Your team has actually gotten worse in the offseason, which is an almost impossible notion considering they just experienced three of the most frustrating seasons in the club's not-so-illustrious history.

The ownership and the front office are sitting around waiting for the market on the remaining free agents to come to them. Tick-tock...

Just a few weeks or so ago, Jose Valverde rejected the Houston Astros' offer of salary arbitration and decided to become a free agent. The prospect of re-signing with Houston for one year and around $10 million just didn't appeal to Hay-Val.

And as we've seen, that move seems to have backfired.

By now, I figured he'd wind up in another uniform. Perhaps the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox or even something as crazy as the Yomiuri Giants or Chunichi Dragons.

Okay, I'm no stranger to criticism. Despite the fact that most of my articles are pretty vanilla and fact-based, on occasion, I like to chase a walnut out onto a limb.

This is one of those times.

Baseball is facing an upcoming constitutional crisis. In the words of Mr. T, "you can't deny, fool!" There's no way around it; when Bud Selig goes, we've got to have our, er, stuff together.

So who steps into the void?