Baseball

Arte Moreno had us all fooled.

Thanks to the free agent signings, the stadium improvements, and the winning ball club, we all thought Anaheim was a big market city.

We loved the atmosphere at Angel Stadium, the rally monkey, and the perennial winner.

You fooled us all, Arte!

I looked the other way when the Angels lost Chone Figgins—no easy task when you consider it was a loss within the division.

I understood when word came that no attempt was being made to re-sign Vladimir Guerrero. 

It's been a busy Monday with pitchers moving around the league.

Earlier this afternoon, it was reported that the Red Sox and John Lackey agreed to a five year deal worth around $85 million dollars.

Lackey was in negotiations with teams like the Yankees, Mets, Mariners, and Rangers among others, but now, he lands in Boston.

It's a solid move for the Red Sox, who get a top pitcher and a playoff-experienced pitcher to add to a rotation with Josh Beckett and Jon Lester at the top of it already. Lackey probably will be the number two pitcher in that rotation.

The New York Mets have recently let go four  non-tendered players—Tim Redding, Jeremy Reed, Cory Sullivan and Lance Broadway.

Redding put together a terrible season in 2009, posting a record of 3-6, collecting 76 strikeouts with a disgusting 5.10 ERA in 120 innings pitched. Redding was signed by the Mets for an insane amount of money ($2.25 million) for a below average pitcher.

Minnesota Twins general manager Bill Smith just got a reprieve.

After sitting idly by and watching a number of the club’s offseason targets sign elsewhere in the past two weeks, Smith now has a second chance at making some major moves this offseason.

Smith’s reprieve comes as the free agent pool just received an infusion of new talent.

This infusion came as a result of the non-tender deadline, which passed at 11:59 p.m. ET Saturday.

It's easy to get excited about a 22-year-old prospect who jacked 27 homers between AA and AAA last season.  Especially when, during his September cup of coffee with Cincinnati, and in his second at-bat for the Reds, he blasted one about 30 rows deep over the right field fence of Great American Ball Park.

Juan Francisco, a left-handed batter standing at 6'2" and tipping the scales at 220 pounds, undoubtedly has the body of a power hitter.

Well, well, it seems like the Washington Nationals are finally thinking like a major league franchise.

Just a day after non-tendering the supposedly-healthy-but-no-knows-for-sure Scott Olsen, the Nationals have agreed to sign him to a one-year, $1 million contract that with incentives that could pay him up to $4 million.

I know that many Cubs fans can't separate their heart from their head when it comes to MLB's Hall of Fame. From Ron Santo to Andre Dawson, Cubs fans everywhere let their fan loyalty cloud their judgement.

And that's okay. In fact, it is to be expected. But, as usual, I stand alone as a die-hard Cubs fan (since birth) who is not only willing but able to separate fact from fantasy.

More on Santo later. The main premise of this article is The Hawk, aka Andre Dawson.

I thought he was better than this. I thought that this time it would be more about the team, more about the fans, and more about the prestige of putting on the Yankee Pinstripes.

I was wrong.

With Johnny Damon, no matter what he said in November after helping the Yankees win the World Series, it is still only about the money.

And that is just plain stupid of Damon.

The Colorado Rockies chose not to tender a contract to third baseman Garrett Atkins last night, making him a free agent.

Colorado had been trying to trade Atkins since last summer, but found no suitable, or willing, trade partners.

Sometime in the spring of 2007, I was sitting in an AP English Language classroom as a high school senior. Since I had already gotten into college, I wasn't really 100 percent engaged anymore, and the works of Henry James and Joan Didion did little to motivate me. I was pretty much going through the motions.

Still, one assignment that we got piqued me interest. It was simply: "Write a persuasive essay of three pages on anything you want."