MLB

Yesterday marked the beginning of the International signing period in which players not from the United States, Canada or Puerto Rico can sign with ball clubs.

The one player everyone is interested in hearing about is Miguel Angel Sano. Major League Baseball is still investigating his true age, so any deal probably won't be done until next week at the earliest.

The 2009 season for the Chicago Cubs has not gone exactly as planned. Injuries, power outages, suspensions, "lack of fire"—you name it, it's gone wrong for the Cubs so far this year.

One bright spot for the team this season has been midseason call-up Jake Fox. In 23 games over his two stints with the big league club this season, Fox has hit .317 with three HR and 12 RBI. Prior to his call-up, he was lighting up AAA Iowa, with obscene stats of .409 BA, 17 HR, and 53 RBI in just 45 games. 

George Steinbrenner is one of the most controversial people in baseball.

Since purchasing the Yankees in 1973, the Yanks have won six World Series and 10 pennants.

He's brought many great players to the Yankees, and they're usually overpriced.

He instituted the Yankees' famous grooming policy. 

He paid a gambler to find “dirt” on Dave Winfield, one of his own players!

Since the beginning of the season, I've been watching the Washington Nationals play a very unique brand of baseball. Most of us wrote off last year's 59-102 debacle as a perfect storm, a confluence of off-years, green pitching and bad luck.

I mean, there is no way that the Nationals would repeat last year's .366 winning percent in 2009, right?

Right.

The Reds are both blessed and cursed at the same time. Blessed in the fact that they have two really good catchers. Cursed in that they are starting the wrong one.

Fans should never expect much out of their catcher. His most important job is to know his pitchers and call a good game. If your name isn't Joe Mauer then it's safe to say that you won't be expected to hit much.  

Ramon Hernandez was acquired in an offseason deal that sent Ryan Freel to the Orioles with a couple of prospects.

There were a lot of high hopes for infielder Eugenio Velez when he first broke on the stage in 2007.

In a cup-of-coffee 14 game stint at the end of the 2007 season, Velez hit two triples, scored five runs, and stole four bases.

And he did this in only 13 plate appearances.

The following spring training, Velez tore it up and built on that small stint he had the previous season. The buzz about this kid was something special.

In the 2008 Sports Illustrated baseball preview, a club official likened Velez to Willie McGee.

The Giants number one prospect Madison Bumgarner just won again, but you know what? What else is new with this kid?

Madison Bumgarner is quickly becoming the David Price of this year and his numbers continue to show why the Giants regard him so high.

Let's take a look at his numbers between Advanced Single A and Double A.

W-L: 9-2

ERA: 1.63

CG: 1

IP: 77.1

SO: 66

Pretty spectacular numbers if you ask me. 

It was gut check time for the Red Sox on Wednesday at Baltimore.

They were coming off an embarrassing loss that featured the Sox bulletproof bullpen to blow a nine run lead.

Piled on top of that was the fact that the Sox infielders thought there were three outs in the eighth inning and ran into the dugout.

"Ya gotta believe" are the magic words, the "open sesame" of baseball history, immortalized by Tug McGraw in 1973. But the baseball good wish fairy doesn't always respond. Chicago Cubs fans and players remember the year, 1969, when the wish was never fulfilled.

In the span of two months, the Cubs slipped from nine-and-a-half games in front of the Mets to eight games behind.

"It's true," said the late Jack Brickhouse before his death in 1998. He watched it all go down in '69 from the great heights of the radio announcer's booth. "The Cubs lost it," he said.

The last time the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays met, things were very different.