Baseball

The Yankees have been doing a lot of waiting this offseason. They waited for Cliff Lee to choose his team. They waited for Derek Jeter to accept their offer. Then they stayed put a while too long and lost out on Zach Greinke. Now they await a decision from Andy Pettitte as to whether or not he will pitch in 2011. 

Move over Cliff Lee, because this move will make more of an impact than Lee going back to Philadelphia. Zack Greinke was dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday morning and this shifts the entire outlook of the National League.

The Brewers finished third in the National League Central last year, 14 games back of the Cincinnati Reds. Milwaukee was not light in hitting, but struggled mightily on the mound. They finished 12th in runs scored, but were 26th in ERA.

I don’t know if you noticed two things, but the Oakland A’s with their ragtag, no-name pitching staff and always-youthful roster somehow stumbled their way to an 81-81 (.500) record last season in the suddenly wide-open American League West.

Yesterday afternoon, I talked about the potential trade destinations for Kansas City Royals’ ace Zack Greinke. One of the teams that I thought could be a possibility for Greinke were the Milwaukee Brewers.

Today's New York Yankees' primary method of improving involves signing other team's former players for large sums of money, but that wasn't always how the past and future World Champions operated.

The 1954 Yankees won 103 games but finished eight games behind the record-setting Cleveland Indians, which was unacceptable. Yankees general manager George Weiss and his counterpart with the Baltimore Orioles, the brilliant Paul Richards, pulled off the biggest trade in baseball history.

Once it was announced that Cliff Lee was signing with the Philadelphia Phillies, Zack Greinke began to receive the most attention among pitchers, with various teams attempting to acquire the 2009 Cy Young winner.

According to ESPNs Buster Olney (click here for the article) the Royals have traded Zack Greinke and SS Yuniesky Betancourt to the Milwaukee Brewers for SS Alcides Escobar, OF Lorenzo Cain, P Jake Odorizzi and P Jeremy Jeffress.

Phil Cavarretta, best known for winning in 1945 the National League MVP with the Chicago Cubs, has passed away.

Cavarretta was born and raised in Chicago. At age 17, he was signed by the Cubs as a amateur free agent in 1934. From that day on he built a relationship with the Cubs organization that lasted 20 years.

When you see a hitter hit long balls year after year after year, you tend to evaluate the hitter's value based only on his power numbers.

They may not have the best stadium, uniforms, or team on paper, but they are certainly capable of drawing up some serious headlines. 

In the last two years they have drafted two phenoms: Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper.   

Lesser known early round picks like Drew Storen out of Stanford, stepped right in and made quite an impression for a last placed squad; 4-4, 3.58 ERA, 54 games, five saves, and 52 strikeouts in 55 innings.