Baseball

Steroids have been a cause for concern in the baseball world for the past decade.

Thinking about all the great names that have been mentioned in the Mitchell Report such as Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa, Mark Mcgwire, Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and many more, it puts a significant dent in the sport itself. With the increasing popularity of steroids being distributed among baseball players in the Major and Minor Leagues, no one knows what to expect.

It isn't difficult to pick out who doesn't belong in this foursome. It's Edgar Renteria.

Rich Aurilia was and always will be a fan favorite, spending his most productive seasons in San Francisco where he spent 12 of his 15 major league seasons. In 2001, Aurilia led the Giants with 206 hits and hit a career high 37 home runs. He was a staple of the great Giants teams in the late 90's and early 00's, playing a huge role on the 2002 World Series team.

In the last 96 hours, we have witnessed the Phillies advancing to their second World Series. As many years—and with an Eagles loss to a team run by a man who still uses an overhead projector at press conferences—never has it been more clear.

The Phillies are everything the Eagles are not.

I find it funny that Yankee fans are already proclaiming that CC Sabathia is the greatest free-agent pitcher signing in team history. Colin Linneweber of Bleacher Report offers an article titled "CC Sabathia's the Greatest Free-Agent Pitcher the Yanks Have Ever Signed."

He offers quotes from Joe Girardi and Mike Scioscia of his performances in the 2009 postseason. Sabathia has had a stellar postseason going 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA, but last time I checked Sabathia has only been in New York for less than a year.

The Oakland A's ended the season on a seven game losing streak. To make matters worse is the fact that September was the only month of the season that the A's actually had a winning record under the direction of manager Bob Geren.

There's a song the A's remind me of, it's by the Sick Puppies called "All the Same." The premise of the song is about a girlfriend who threatens to leave, but always comes back.

Here's some lyrics from the song:

I'll admit this is mostly speculation, but there is quite a lot of reasoning behind my ideas. This is just free writing my ideas, so here it is, my 2010 Seattle Mariners offseason plan.

1. Swap Brandon Morrow and JJ Hardy. Morrow is expendable given our pitching depth, and Hardy has a great glove and a very potent bat.

2. Trade Bryan Lahair, Jose Lopez, Jason Vargas, Ryan Langerhans, and Carlos Peguero to the Florida Marlins for Jorge Cantu, Ricky Nolasco, and a B-type prospect.

3. Trade Jorge Cantu and Randy Messanger to the Twins for Nick Blackburn.

The dust has finally settled from this debacle of a season in Queens, NY, and needless to say, the Mets have plenty of work to do.

Sure the team was decimated by injuries, but even when healthy, this team has plenty of holes to fill if it plans on being a championship contender in 2010.

Okay, the 2009 season is over for the Marlins, and there’s a bitterness to that statement that is real, but not relevant. The squad this past year seriously disappointed only those who didn’t recognize they were playing above themselves the entire year.

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez was showering when Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins hit a double to win Game 4 of the NLCS 5-4 Monday at Dodger Stadium.

“I was taking a shower,” said Ramirez, 37, a 12-time All-Star selection and nine-time Silver Slugger Award winner. “I came out and saw it on television. Then everybody started coming in and they turned the television off.”

On the second last day of the Toronto Blue Jays disappointing 2009 season, the reign of J.P. Ricciardi mercifully came to an end.

Interim president, Paul Beeston, appointed assistant general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, as the team’s new general manager (GM).  There was no “interim” tag assigned to Anthopoulos’ title.  Was that appointment the best possible move for the Blue Jays?