Baseball

On Thursday morning, Major League Baseball held their annual Rule 5 Draft, in which teams can pirate other teams' minor leaguers for nothing.

The deal with the Rule 5 Draft is that any player selected must be on the selecting team's major league roster for the full season, or the selecting team is forced to send said player back to their original team with cash considerations.

Last year, the Cubs selected David Patton, who had an incredible spring and then disappeared because of "injuries" and poor performance.

LaTroy Hawkins is gone, having left the Houston Astros for the Milwaukee Brewers. Jose Valverde's all but gone; any day now, I expect to hear of some other team signing him. He won't be back in Houston, simply because the Astros feel he's too expensive and too much of an investment.

So to replace these two pitchers, the Astros have acquired to new pitchers.

The Boston Red Sox continue to be the (laughing stock)...er, talk of the Annual Winter Meetings by announcing a trade for the venerable Boof Bonser...Say what?

Bonser, who missed the entire 2008 season due to right shoulder surgery, has a career record of 18-25 with a 5.12 ERA. The 28-year-old right-hander has 96 career MLB appearances with 60 of them being starts.

In his last full season with the Twins in 2008, Bonser went 3-7 with a 5.93 ERA, striking out 97 and walking 36 in 47 games (12 starts).

Baseball is my passion, or as Nick Turturro says... "I breathe baseball!" For the last 25 years the focus of that passion has been the New York Mets. So this list is MY ALL-TIME lineup. These are the players that have been the objects of my man-crushes... the guys who have been the driving force behind this fan's highs.... and lows (oh, so many lows...).

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As the officials from every MLB team get ready to wrap up the annual winter meetings, there are still some rumors making their way around the hotel in Indianapolis.

For the past few days, there had been reports that the San Diego Padres were looking into trading closer Heath Bell and third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff.

The rumors surrounding Bell died just as quickly as they started, but the rumors surrounding Kouzmanoff stuck around late into last night. But, as of this morning, a deal didn't seem imminent.

News reports today have the Yankees negotiating to re-sign Johnny Damon.

Damon turned 36 years old on Nov. 5. For the past three seasons, he has had problems with his legs and feet.

Once a fearsome threat to steal bases, Damon had only 12 thefts in 2009.

Once a centerfielder with range as good as all but three or four players in the majors, Damon now is a shadow of himself on defense. 

He cannot cover the ground he once did and his throwing arm is virtually non-existent. Beginning in 2008, teams realized they could run on Damon at will.

Not much has changed for the Minnesota Twins over the past two decades.

They have played in the same stadium, have been owned by the same family, have had the same uniforms, and have had only two different managers.

But that is all about to change.

History shows that when change happens in Minnesota sports, it requires a new look.