Baseball

For the second time this offseason, the Florida Marlins have hit a stumbling block with one of their core players, this time it's pitcher Ricky Nolasco according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. 

I am going to have to admit, I am really sour on the Detroit Tigers’ offseason so far. This team had almost $70 million come off the books after the 2010 season and the best they have done so far is sign Victor Martinez, overspend on a middle reliever, and re-sign a bunch of aging free agents.

It happened on Sept. 18, 1954, but it really happened before then.

The New York Yankees would go on to win 103 games, which would be the most the perennial World Champions would ever win under their greatest manager of all time, Casey Stengel, but the Cleveland Indians would be American League Champions.

On Sept. 12, the Yankees were in Cleveland to face the Tribe in a doubleheader before a record crowd of 86,563 paying customers. Yes, the Indians were a force during the early and mid-1950s.

Bob Feller.

It's hard to talk about the Cleveland Indians and not mention the name of Bob Feller.  There were several years when there was nothing else to talk about as Cleveland Indians fans than their greatest player of all time, but it was always so much more than that. 

The New York Mets have several outfield options right now. Among them, they have Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay and Angel Pagan most likely as the Opening Day starters. Also, they can add Lucas Duda, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and, on occasion, Nick Evans to the outfield mix too. This is another reason they were able to cut Chris Carter earlier this offseason.

Calm down.

...Relax

...Take a deep breath

Are we good?  Great.

Now, for all you Yankees fans and Yankees haters out there, I just want to let you know your worst fears or best hopes will not come to fruition.  The Yankees will be fine.  Yes, I took the plunge; the Yankees will be fine.*

(*Do I have a crystal ball you ask? No, but do you?)

I was fairly unimpressed when the Washington Nationals announced the other day that the team had re-signed Chien-Ming Wang to a one-year contract that could pay him as much as $5 million if he successfully returns to the major leagues.

December 15th is a historical date.  In 1794, the United States Bill of Rights became law.  In 1933, the 21st Amendment went into effect, legalizing alcohol.  Russians landed on Venus in 1970. And now, in the year 2010, Cliff Lee re-signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The signing will obviously not impact our society in such way as the Bill of Rights or the 21st Amendment once did.  And it is doubtful that December 15th will be named a national holiday.  However, this is still a historic occasion for the City of Philadelphia.

Don’t believe what you have read about Bobby Jenks over the last couple of years—the former ChiSox closer has not lost his stuff. Jenks’ troubles in Chicago largely stemmed from a large dose of bad luck and an even larger menu of problems he had with his old boss, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.

With free agents flying off the board and the Cliff Lee bombshell dropped on Philly, the hot stove is sufficiently stoked. So let’s keep that fire roaring with more prospect talk.

This series on prospects will cover a wide range of players as well as positions. We’ll cover sleepers as well as some of the more obvious stars of the future.