Baseball

The 2009 New York Yankees came into the regular season with a lot of hope and promise. They splurged big time in their off-season by signing ace CC Sabathia, another ace in A.J. Burnett, and slugging first basemen Mark Teixeira.

This was beginning to look like the most talented lineup and pitching staff that the Yankees have ever put out on the field. And, indeed it has been.

Phil Hughes is showing his age, or lack thereof.

The 23-year-old right-hander, who excelled in the bullpen throughout the regular season, has been shaky thus far in the postseason.

In the hours since the Yankees allowed a golden opportunity to secure the American League pennant slip away—fans, media, and unnecessarily loud Korean War veterans at Dunkin Donuts are attempting to assign blame for the 7-6 loss to the Angels.

Some are saying that Joe Girardi acted alone in this assassination of the Yankees' World Series hopes on Thursday, the opinion being that the second-year manager made a series of dubious decisions that doomed New York.

The Minnesota Twins offseason got off to a dubious start this week as two of the team’s perennial All-Stars, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan, both underwent “cleanup” surgeries.

Luckily both Nathan and Morneau are expected to be ready and healthy for the start of Spring Training after undergoing their respective procedures to remove bone chips.

The San Diego Padres may have hired their new general manager, according to reports out of San Diego, as well as Sports Illustrated .

Former Red Sox senior vice president and assistant GM Jed Hoyer is reportedly the man for the job and the announcement is expected at a press conference in San Diego later today.

ESPN's Peter Gammons, via Twitter , reported that the Red Sox had a goodbye lunch for Hoyer earlier today.

When the Marlins let pitching coach Mark Wiley go along with first base/infield coach Andy Fox I wasn’t all that concerned (and if you’re concerned about either of them, they were offered positions elsewhere in the Marlins organization, so they'll be fine). While I liked Wiley, I felt the results of his work were mixed at best. As for Fox, well, his position isn’t even a huge concern in my view.

Much has been made of Manny Ramirez' location during the National League Championship Series Game Four rally that essentially killed the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2009 season. The Bums' year didn't officially end until Brad Lidge pulled the curtain on Game Five, but—if any baseball game were ever a formality—the clincher qualified in the wake of the devastation wrought on Monday night.

Given all that rode on Jonathan Broxton preserving the win that evaporated with Jimmy Rollins' scalding line drive, one would think Man-Ram could've troubled himself to stick around in the dugout.

Milton Bradley and his contract didn't work out for the Chicago Cubs. Gee, who didn't see that coming?

The Cubs want to get out from under Bradley's contract, and pick up something useful in return. They have very little payroll flexibility and need a lot of things, including talent (zing).

The best-case scenario for the Bradley saga to end on the north side, while adding a needed piece, exists. Yes, it does, and it exists north of the border.

Vernon Wells.