Baseball

Year: 1999

Record: 69-92

Win Percentage: .429

Win Percentage Change: +.028

Run Differential: -135

Pythagorean Record: 68-93

AL Finish: 11th of 14

Manager: Larry Parrish

Best Transaction: Traded Bryce Florie to the Boston Red Sox for Mike Maroth

I am sure you have heard the ages old adage, "If you can't play, coach." I have been hearing that from the time I followed the sport in the late 1950s.

Can it be true? I mean, you can look at teams all across the fruited plain who are replete with hitting coaches who barely batted above the Mendoza line .

Jason Bay. Lyle Overbay. No, they don't play for Tampa Bay. But they may be playing for the city on the (Puget) "Sound," if the Seattle Mariners, or at least Mariners writers like Andy Augur, have their way.

In 2009, the Mariners were something like No. 7 in the American League playoff sweepstakes. That was despite American League-leading team pitching.

The Pittsburgh Pirates bid to get a Single-A team in Bradenton, FL has been approved by the Florida State League’s upper echelon.

Approved is the purchase of the Cincinnati Reds Class A team in Sarasota, FL. Pittsburgh already has their Spring Training facility and Gulf Coast League team in Bradenton as part of Pirate City.

The Atlanta Braves and starting pitcher Tim Hudson agreed to a three-year, $28 million contract extension on Thursday.

Hudson originally joined the Braves in a trade in December of 2005, and signed a four-year, $47 million extension that would take him from 2006 through this past season.

With economics playing a larger role in how teams are constructed - here's my 25 players who are going to be on the Braves active roster leaving Spring Training and in the dugout on Opening Day 2010. There are a couple of additions, that, by the September, may bring the Braves back to the playoffs and possibly a World Series title in Bobby Cox's final season.

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Remember 1997? Spice Girls. Titanic. The Simpsons (back when it was still good). And Ken Griffey Jr.

Ok, so maybe Griffey wasn’t a pop culture icon like Baby Spice, Leo, or Homer J(ay), but he was the unquestioned king of baseball.

He hit home runs. He made great plays. He smiled. He had fun playing. We had fun watching.

Griffey was the type of superstar professional sports yearn for. Yes, he was a little cocky with his home run strut, but what star athlete isn’t?

Griffey had a presence.

Reports circulated that Mets general manager Omar Minaya is hesitant to throw money around in this year's free agent class. His approach is to build around the team with lower-level free agents.

Typically, Minaya loves to target the big names and get them to the dotted line, and he has been successful with that approach, but with the team playing awful these last two years, he felt it was time to go to another direction.

One of the most important attributes in building a pitching rotation is the durability of the pitchers. When a team can rely on a starter to go out every fifth day to make his start, they have the foundation for a very good rotation.

When Brewers' GM Doug Melvin looks over a list of available starting pitchers this winter he'll find few pitchers that are more reliable and durable than Jon Garland. The Dodgers have declined their option on Garland, making him one of the more attractive options on the open market.

When Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro declined the $5.5 million contract renewal of incumbent third baseman Pedro Feliz, he suggested the Phillies could upgrade the position.

I heard Randy Miller of the Bucks Country Currier Times on WIP today and he said Chone Figgins, with more than 40 stolen bases and near .400 on-base percentage, would probably be too much money for the Phillies to pay.

A story on SI.com suggested teams were perhaps going to have lean winters, free-agent wise.