Baseball

As we approach the 2011 season, it seems as though several teams in the NL East have significantly improved this offseason.

The Phillies brought back Cliff Lee to set up one of the best pitching staffs, at least on paper, in recent history.

The Braves added Dan Uggla to solidify the middle of their order.

The Nationals signed Jayson Werth, Adam LaRoche, and Rick Ankiel in an attempt to improve their offense.

Cincinnati Reds fans are anxious for the start of the 2011 season. Unfortunately, many of us have been engaged in the NFL and haven't followed the Reds very closely. There have been a few off-season player transactions to catch up on.

The Reds didn't make any huge deals like this one or this one but they did do something.

Here are the moves they did make.

As spring training draws closer and baseball aficionados dream of pitchers and catchers reporting, one begins to salivate as he or she await another season of 162 games.

During this long stretch into the spring, fans begin to dissect their rosters, and debate potential trades, signings, and call-ups. Due to the fact that it is impossible to compare pitchers to outfielders to infielders, the players will be listed in no order and by team.

Washington Nationals

It seems like at this time for the past few years we’ve had the same discussion about the potential breakout candidacy of Justin Masterson. 

The underlying metrics scream that he could be a successful, under-the-radar option for fantasy owners, yet he has consistently failed miserably. 

The 2010 season was no different, having posted the following line:

The Cubs acquired Matt Garza and two non-factor minor leaguers from the Rays, in case you've been living under a rock. While there has been much gnashing of teeth about whether the Cubs gave up too much in return for Garza, the real question is what will be the next move for Jim Hendry and the Cubs?

The A’s acquired Kevin Kouzmanoff last offseason to fill the void that Eric Chavez would inevitably create.  After one season Kouzmanoff has worn out his welcome.

It is not as though “Kouz” has played so far below his career averages in Oakland, he has not, but the Oakland front office should have seen his numbers and known that he was not worth the money, even if he makes very little relative to the rest of the league.

“Now let’s make this an evening
Lovers for a night, lovers for tonight
Stay here with me, love, tonight
Just for an evening
When we make
Our passion pictures
You and me twist up
Secret creatures
And we’ll stay here
Tomorrow go back to being friends”

On Wednesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced the 2011 class of Hall of Famers.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim:

The Angels players, all personally offended by the public’s plea for outside help, will rally behind the return of Kendry Morales and Tim Salmon. 

Torii Hunter, who for so long called for Carl Crawford to become a Halo, will pretend he was happy with the roster all along. 

Like an active squirrel storing away acorns for winter, I was scurrying around my secluded mountainside homestead preparing for a small snow storm headed in our direction. Somewhere between refurbishing our trusty snowblower and splitting logs for our woodstove, I found myself daydreaming of spring.

Warmer weather. Green grass. Baseball. Fantasy baseball.