Horsehide Chronicles

You might've heard Bryce Harper's season got off to quite a start.

The Washington Nationals outfielder—whom many consider a Most Valuable Player candidate in only his second season and at the ripe old age of 20—smashed a pair of homers in the season opener.

We established not too long ago that, though baseball players can enjoy longer careers than most athletes, there comes a time when even the best of 'em have to know when to hang up their spikes.

Have we seen the last of Johan Santana?

I’ve recently taken a look at some starting pitchers and relievers who could be available by midseason, assuming their team is out of contention or just has a lot of depth and is looking to upgrade in another area.

In Major League Baseball, there comes a time when teams must detonate their foundations and start rebuilding from scratch. Even World Series contenders must flip the switch eventually.

There's just one problem when it comes to World Series contenders: They tend to be stubborn folk.

What are the odds of longtime New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter retiring after 2013?

Right now, I'd have to say about equivalent to those of an asteroid made of cotton candy colliding with the earth, which I presume are pretty close to zero.

This is a preemptive article. I don't know when the next "What would George Steinbrenner do?" lamentation is going to come. Or why, for that matter.

What I do know is that we certainly haven't heard the end of these lamentations. I also know that the question itself is all wrong. It's not what The Boss would do.

It's on in Southern California. The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels have built themselves up into two of the biggest landmarks on the MLB landscape, and this looks like the year their rivalry could take the next step.

Or, to put it in Michael Bay terms, this could be the year when [bleep] gets real between the Dodgers and Angels.

[Explosions. Guitar solo. Bad reviews. Big box office showing anyway.]

Imagine, for a second, that the New York Yankees wanted to trade Robinson Cano.

Sure, Cano is a superstar in the prime of his career and the best player on a franchise that considers itself a contender every year. So maybe the Yanks wouldn't exactly want to trade him, but they might need to.

After losing 93 games and making a mockery of themselves in the process last season, the Boston Red Sox have their eyes on smooth sailing and a return to form in 2013.