MLB

(Above) RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka addressed the media at MerchantsAuto.com Stadium, in Manchester, NH, after a rehab start against the Fisher Cats last July.

The Drug bug has struck again.

ESPN.com reported that three minor leaguers have been suspended for PED’s and a drug of abuse.

Miguel Negron, an outfielder for the Chicago White Sox Triple-A affiliate Charlotte Knights, has been suspended 50 games for a second positive test for a drug of abuse.

On the evening of March 31, 2008, Kosuke Fukudome was the toast of the Chicago baseball world. The Cubs stood at 0-1 after a heart-breaking loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Fukudome, however, had overwhelmed in his American debut: he went three-for-three, with a walk, a double, and a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

One game into his four-year, $48 million contract, Fukudome seemed poised to become a star. The 323 games since have not gone nearly so well.

While the Cubs starting eight appear to be set, there is one pressing need in the bullpen left to be filled. Ah, but is that a set-up man, as we've been led to believe, or a true closer?

For if the Cubs can somehow pull off a trade for the San Diego Padres' Heath Bell, they could move Carlos Marmol back where he belongs, as the Cubs' set-up man.

I know it may be somewhat farfetched, but bear with me for a minute. First of all, the Padres know they aren't going anywhere in 2010, so Bell's name has come up as trade fodder.

With 16 out of the last 22 MLB MVPs, NL and AL combined, being infielders, it has been determined that the need for a good infield is not something to be shrugged off as a nice gesture.
Eight out of the top 10 AL MVP vote-getters were infielders, with the same statistic going for the NL.
This slideshow is going on current rosters. Not last year's statistics.Not official projections for next year, but clearly an assessment of how the teams' infields look now.

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This is a Top 10 List of the greatest games the Mets have ever played in. The games range from the years 1969 - 2006. It's not the most impressive list in the world, but hey, it;s the Mets, not the Yankees. I put asterisks on all the games i attended. This list was meant to start arguments, not end them,

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There were 60 starting pitchers from the 1950s who pitched in at least 200 games.

If a player does not appear on the list of the 60 eligible players list, then they either didn’t reach 200 games or I consider them a pitcher from the 1940s or the 1960s.

Theo Epstein gets more bang for his buck than Brian Cashman.

Temporarily setting aside the century-old Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, let's put into perspective the decade-long Cashman-Epstein rivalry.

There is no rivalry. Beyond Epstein's perennial duping of Cashman in his many faux free-agent pursuits, the former dominates the latter where it really matters: the bottom line.

Comparing each General Manager's potential 2010 payroll with his prospective 25-man roster's 2009 production reveals Epstein's superiority.

In 2009 the Atlanta Braves were somewhat of an enigma. They went from an offseason of misses, to a season of offensive frustration, pitching brilliance, offensive brilliance, a late season run, to losing it's last six.

So as we are just weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting, I have been contemplating a few moves the Braves should look at making (or preparing to make) to having a very formidable chance at unseating the Phillies as the National League East champions and beyond.

David Murphy tweets that the Philadelphia Phillies have contacted the agents of free agent starting pitchers Ben Sheets and Chien-Ming Wang, though he says that there aren't any indications that something will happen on either front.