Baseball

In my last article on the Marlins—which you can read here —I stated that I felt the Marlins should promote in-house and bring Reid Cornelius or Scott Mitchell up from one of their minor-league affiliates to fill the pitching coach vacancy created when they moved Mark Wiley to another position within the organization.

I've mentioned Adam Warren a lot over the past few months. He really dominated in Staten Island with a 1.43 ERA, a K/9 of 7.9 and a BB/9 of 1.6. That combines for a ridiculous K/BB of 5.0 I ranked Warren the Yankees' 16th best prospect after his strong SI debut. Mike Axisa, over at River Ave. Blues, ranked him the 19th best prospect in the system, saying he is, "polished, pounds the zone, sits low-90’s and has touched 96 with SI … pleasant surprise."

Bell is expected to compete for the Orioles' starting third base job in spring training and is a Rookie of the Year candidate in 2010.

Donald Veal, acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2008 Rule V draft, may finally be displaying the talent that many have believed he possessed. 

He has struggled since being promoted to Double-A in 2007 (with the Cubs) to the point that the Pirates tried him out of the bullpen last season (with awful results).

In the Arizona Fall League, he appears to have rediscovered himself:

3 Wins
16.2 Innings
0.54 ERA
0.74 WHIP
17 Strikeouts (9.44 K/9)
2 Walks (1.11 BB/9)
.259 BABIP

It has been brought up countless times, By owners and fans alike, "The MLB needs a salary cap."  

Every year the argument is renewed, and with five of the eight teams that made the playoffs this year having payrolls over $100 million and of course with the much maligned New York Yankees money machine taking home the Commisioner's Trophy the cries of foul play seem as loud as ever.

In both my 2009 postmortem and my 2010 offseason plan, I laid out two key points.

Last off season, JJ Putz was the best move the Tigers didn't make. 

If not for an injury to Fernando Perez that killed a three-way deal involving the Rays, JJ Putz may have been hamstringing Detroit in 2009 and not the Mets, and Edwin Jackson may have formed a dominant pitching tandem with Felix Hernandez instead of Justin Verlander.

Putz became a free agent today when New York declined his nine million dollar option. This time around, the Tigers have much less to lose in taking a shot on the Trenton native and former Michigan wolverine.

As the 2002 postseason came to a close for the New York Yankees on a Nick Johnson pop-up to Anaheim Angel shortstop David Eckstein, one question was immediately raised as the players solemnly gathered their belongings together from the visitors dugout and continued down the hallway to the clubhouse.

Is it just me, or is Bon Jovi getting annoying?

Once the kings of pop metal, the band that serenades us during postseason commercial breaks has become a watered-down country-rock group with none of the edge they used to have.

With that in mind, here are 10 songs that could have been the anthems of the 2009 baseball season.

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After watching the continued success of the New York Yankees as the most financially driven team in MLB, it begs the question—are the New York Yankees as World Series Champions bad for baseball?