Baseball

Yesterday I received a text from a friend who wrote: "Inexcusable if the Pads non-tender Correia."

That was the first time I had heard any discussion about non-tendering Correia, and frankly, I was a bit surprised.  However, my immediate reaction was not one of anger, but instead, as I usually do, I tried to defend the possible action.

I wrote back: "Well...some guys are getting more in arbitration now than on the market, so it might make sense...[plus] its Correia we're talking about-at best he's an average pitcher."

I must admit: When it snowed last week in Houston, I thought something had happened.

You know, hell had frozen over because the Houston Astros of the Drayton McLane Era were finally on the road to making great baseball decisions and building a team that will be taking champagne showers in a few years.

Gone would be the heartaches of 1980, of Bob Knepper running out of gas in Game Six of the 1986 NLCS, and of Houston's flat performance in the 2005 World Series.

False alarm, apparently.

At first glance, it seems like the Yankees get the best part of today's three-team trade because of Curtis Granderson's name, experience, and All-Star potential.  Let's look at this trade from each team's perspective a little closer:

New York Yankees

Yankees receive 28-year-old Curtis Granderson.

Joe Mauer ran away with the MVP this season.

It was only the second time a Catcher has won this award in the last 32 seasons, and there are only 10 catchers* to win it since the writers began deciding the winner in 1931.

*The only multi-year winners were: Roy Campanella (3), Yogi Berra (3) & Johnny Bench (2)...quite a list!

The fact is, there are few Catchers that stand out among their peers.  The physical toll of receiving 150 baseballs each of the 162 games eventually wears down the most prospective of talent.

The first article I ever wrote for Bleacher Report was my 1990s All-Decade Cubs team, to which the link is below:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/164257-all-1990s-chicago-cubs-team

So here it is, the sequel, my All-2000s Cubs Team. This one was a lot less painful to compile as I did not have to include such past studs as Steve Buechele and Brian McRae like I did for my 1990s team.

However, as awful of a decade for Cubs baseball as the 1990s was, the 2000s were almost worse for Cubs fans, as heartbreak after heartbreak be felled the North Siders.

As I discussed right after the trade went down, the Yankees have acquired Curtis Granderson from the Tigers. Granderson's past few seasons have been very interesting. He peaked in 2007 with a 7.4(!) WAR season and has since regressed to seasons of 3.8 and 3.4 WAR in '08 and '09, respectively.

Like many MLB rumor-mongers, I have been staring almost non-stop at my Twitter feed today (much to the chagrin of my retinas) to soak in the up-to-the-minute Twins updates.

This wasn't the kind of breaking news I anticipated at baseball's Winter Meetings.

It was announced today, in somewhat stunning fashion, that ESPN baseball analyst and Baseball Hall of Famer Peter Gammons would be leaving the sports media empire, effective immediately after baseball's winter meetings wrap up this week.

From 2008-2009, the San Francisco Giants had their starting catcher Bengie Molina hit cleanup. Now despite being the most lackluster everyday cleanup hitter in the entire league, Molina was San Francisco's most productive offensive threat during that time frame.

However, with the emergence of Pablo Sandoval and a lineup featuring veterans like Freddy Sanchez, Edgar Renteria, Aaron Rowand, and hopefully another year of Juan Uribe; Buster Posey would not be forced into a situation where the spotlight is entirely on him.

The Mariners are fast. T3 fast.

Team officials announced that they had come to terms with free agent Chone Figgins.

With the announcement, the Mariners have added a dangerous one-two at the top of their lineup with Ichiro and Figgins.

In addition to obtaining Franklin Gutierrez last year and bringing up Michael Saunders, the Mariners have speed.

Throw Ichiro into the mix, and you have four guys who will burn up the base-paths.

Throw in some power and the awesomeness of Ken Griffey, Jr., and you've got yourself a contending ball club.