New York Yankees

New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman claimed 25-year-old Brian Schlitter, a relief pitcher, off waivers this week from the Chicago Cubs.
 
Schlitter made seven appearances out of the bullpen in 2010 for the Cubs. Over his eight innings of work, Schlitter posted a terrible 12.37 ERA, giving up 18 hits, 11 earned runs, allowed two home runs and walked five of the 48 batters he faced.
 

As we creep our way to the start of Spring Training for the 2011 MLB season, we begin to see teams take the forms of the finished products we will see on opening day.

There is of course still time for moves to be made as a handful of impact free agents remain. However for the most part these are the teams we will be seeing on Opening Day 2011.

COURTESY OF YANKEES 'N MORE

The holidays, and 2010 along with them, are over.
 
We head into the second day of the first work week of 2011, and Brian Cashman, well, he continues to do what he's done all winter...NOTHING.
 
Well, that's not exactly true. Cashman did manage to wake up long enough to sign a lefty specialist, who has never pitched a day in the American League before.

Being of Generation Y—loosely defined as the segment of the population who saw Jenny McCarthy's botox-ravaged face on New Year's Eve and wondered where the last 15 years went—I've become quite Internet savvy.

That means I can filter out much of what doesn't interest me and gravitate toward content that sits on my Mount Rushmore of Internet usage: Fantasy sports/real sports/attractive women/Wikipedia. There's nothing I need on a computer screen that doesn't fit one of those four categories.

The MLB has benefited greatly off of imported talent.  A recent wave of Japanese and South American players have taken the game by storm.  

Today, about 27% of MLB consists of foreign-born players.  Great talents like Hideki Matsui and Ichiro were established already in Japan.  They still were able to make an even bigger name for themselves here in the States.  Many others from South American countries as well have "made it big" in America.  Collectively, these foreign-born plays add another dimension to the game.  

On January 5, Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame class for 2011 will be announced on a live MLB Network simulcast at MLB.com. Among the distinguished list of candidates are two former New York Yankee first basemen who will always occupy a special place in the hearts of Bronx Bomber fans.

It's been quite a few weeks since former Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland was removed from the team's equation for 2011, and Cubs coach Larry Rothschild was hired to replace him.

The many ways in which Rothschild is a major upgrade for the Yankees this coming season (and the obvious and equal number of ways Eiland's departure was necessary) will be dealt with by others in the coming months and season.

Thought we were going to leave you hanging, huh? No such luck—let's tune in.

Mutt Munson: "Hello everyone, I'm Mutt Munson and I'm here with my great friend and longtime broadcast partner Jock Johnson, and today from Fenway Park we bring you the final game of what has been a thrilling match up so far between loaded contingent from New York and Boston.

After the 2008 season—a season where he pitched better than he had in years—Mike Mussina abruptly retired. Never mind that his ERA was the lowest it had been since 2001; likewise his WAR—the lowest since 2001. And never mind that Moose had won 20 games for the first time in career, putting him at 270 wins for his career. 300 wins—and a guaranteed Hall of Fame invite—was within reach.

The Pearl River Hotel is the type of dusty old Irish pub where you don't wonder when the daytime regulars got to the bar, you wonder if they've ever actually left. Outsiders are met with steely glances of suspicion and the jukebox's only practical use is as a coat hanger.

It's not a place you go to meet your future wife or win a fist-pumping competition. Rather, The Hotel (as it's colloquially known) exists for the same reason all the best pubs do—to celebrate the art of conversation.