Baseball

With the 2011 Hall of Fame class set to be announced on January 5, the Twitter universe has been full of debate as to who belongs and who doesn’t. To be honest, I think who belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame is the most debated topic in sports. People could go on for hours talking who should be in and who should be out and why.

Since I don’t have an official Hall of Fame vote and since this is such a heated topic, I thought I would fill out my ballot. Here is my Hall of Fame class of 2011.

Considering what ace left-hander Cliff Lee accomplished for the Texas Rangers last season, losing him to the Philadelphia Phillies had to be difficult to stomach for a franchise that reached the World Series.

The Boston Red Sox have been linked with Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder for several seasons now, but with Boston's recent acquisition of Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego, are they finished with their pursuit of Fielder?

Gonzalez is a first baseman too, and has a better glove than Fielder. With Kevin Youkilis likely to begin the 2011 season at third base, there is no room for Fielder at Fenway Park.

While it may have seemed that the Padres playoff chances in 2011 dissipated into shambles following the departure of superstar slugger Adrian Gonzalez to Boston, the Padres brass has responded in the best way possible: making extremely cost effective moves to bring in quality players.

Jack Curry of the YES Network tweeted recently that the Yankees are having internal discussions about picking up free-agent outfielder Manny Ramirez.

What else is new?

For those of you who know anything about baseball, you know that you can always count on the Yankees to make offers to big ticket players every offseason, whether that be through trades or free agency.

Take Mark Teixeira as a great example.

This week on the McCovey Chronicles, a debate roared whether Gary Monseigneur Brown would be spectacular in the majors.

While his draft position may not be Posey like, he can become Rondell White and span fourteen major league seasons.

Think of Brandon Belt; he was a fifth round pick, but came in second in the minors in batting in 2010.

The Cubs managed to get Carlos Pena for only $5 mil this year ($5 mil deferred until 2012) and stole Kerry Wood for $1.5 mil.  Factoring in arbitration raises though, they only have a few mil left to work with, so what are the rest of the possibilities for the Cubs offseason?  In this article I’ll look at free agent possibilities and later will look at trade possibilities:

The position players all look set and will probably break down to 13 people:

Ranking the greatest anything of all time is not a simple task.

There are so many variables that must be taken into consideration when ranking an item over the course of time, that often, and in this case, teams that are probably deserving of a spot in the rankings are left out. When ranking MLB's greatest pitching staffs of all time, the first thing that must be questioned is, what is a pitching staff?

Mark McGwire was one of the most powerful, exciting hitters to ever step up to the plate. He was a focal point of an era that provided sports fans all over the world with the kind of entertainment that comes around just once in a lifetime.

The Chicago White Sox have completed most of their holiday shopping for the 2011 season. However, there may be one item Kenny Williams desires before he feels his stocking is full.

Has the bullpen situation been fully addressed?

I think the White Sox are at least a piece or two short in the relief corps. Right now, I see the following guys in the bullpen on opening day:

Tony Pena, RHP-our spot starter/long relief man.

Jesse Crain, RHP-7th/8th inning setup man.