Baseball

10) Well, that was fun. If you like the Yankees, or rectal pain. Otherwise, not so much.


9) One of the reasons why baseball will never be football: hitting The Centaur, Alex Rodriguez, with a pitch might make you feel good, but not nearly enough, since it's really not a help for your team. And he's potentially just two games away from having a World Championship. I think I should be drinking more, really.

Two questions: "Will it make us money?" and "Will it increase ticket sales?"

These appear to be the only considerations Bud Selig makes in any situation he presides over as commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB). Has he ever taken a principled stand?

If you believe Dave O'Brien, Mark Bowman, and the ever-so-unreliable Ken Rosenthal, Tim Hudson is set to sign a three-year extension with the Atlanta Braves in the neighborhood of $27 million.

I don't know about you, but that's a big relief.

Locking up an elite (provided he looks like his seven starts at the end of '09) two or three starter for under $10 million is always good.

When you add in the fact that he's locked up for under the salary of two of your potential off-season trade chips (Derek Lowe and Javier Vazquez), it's even better.

Craig Stammen pitched pretty well as a rookie in 2009, though he had not looked nearly as crisp over the last month of the season. It seemed as though opposing hitters had begun to make their adjustments once they had seen him a few times.

Certainly, that happens to many rookie pitchers who, after looking very good the first time around the league is never heard from again.

Cito Gaston, who was subject to controversy at the end of the 2009 season, will manage one more season and then begin a 4-year consulting agreement with the Toronto Blue Jays.

“He had even talked about it a little bit last year —that 2010 might be his last year with us,” Anthopoulos said during a conference call. “He didn’t know that he wanted to continue. Really, at this time, reviewing everything, this was the right move for the organization going forward. This was carefully thought out. Everyone had a chance to state their opinions.”

Boof Bonser is out of options, both literally and figuratively.

Just two years removed from serving as the number two starter in Minnesota’s rotation, Bonser, 28, is in the uncomfortable position of not knowing what his future with the organization may hold or if he even has a future with the organization.

When I signed on the Internet the morning after Game One of the World Series, I saw this picture and realized that Cliff Lee finished what he started.  Pitchers finishing what they started has become an increasingly rare occurrence.

Although it's making headlines, Freddy Sanchez' new two-year contract with the San Francisco Giants doesn't really qualify as news. Most close observers of the team expected the second baseman to ink a deal in the wake of his disappointing stretch with the club.

The 2009 New York Yankees are a scary team to face. Just ask any team that was included in their 103 wins. Now imagine the New York Yankees as horror movie villains. It is a scary thought but this presentation will give you a better idea who best resembles who.

Plus there is a surprise at the end!

Trick or Treat?

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Hideki Matsui has absolutely crushed the ball all season long for the Yankees, and he has continued to do that in the postseason.

So far, he has produced a line of .278/.422/.472 with two home runs and six runs batted in. He also put together a regular season that exceeded all expectations.