NL Central

Starting Pitchers

Aaron Harang

Edison Volquez

Aroldis Chapman (my NL Rookie of the Year pick)

Bronson Arroyo

Johnny Cueto/Homer Bailey (until Chapman is ready)

  One of the big questions around the Michigan football team this Spring and Summer is whether highly recruited dual threat QB Devin Gardner should redshirt during the 2010 season.

First off, I don't fully understand the redshirt rules. I thought you were able to participate in a few plays (like less then 10 percent) in the non-Big Ten season and still keep your redshirt status.

What? They're still looking?

With less than a week before the official start of spring training, the Chicago Cubs are still looking to fill arguably their greatest off-season need: a reliable right-handed setup man for their new closer Carlos Marmol.

After "kicking the tires" on a host of potential candidates such as Frasor, Park, and Gregerson, Chicago is left with no better solution than they had at the end of the '09 season.

Andre Nolan Dawson was the only player on the 2010 Hall of Fame Ballot that was announced to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which was announced yesterday. Dawson has been waiting over a decade to receive the prestigious call to the hall and for over 20 years Dawson had done nothing but earn what he’s become, a legend.

There is no doubt in the minds of many baseball followers that although some teams lose in style, none can quite do it like the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have set a sports record for most consecutive losing seasons. Though I am an avid Pirates fan, I must admit I know when to say we stink.

It isn't all the players fault though. The management here was awful for a really long time. We've had awful players stroll through here such as Pokey Reese and Josh Fogg. The losses are blamed on our General Managers and anyone who was involved in signing and scouting our so called "players".

"When he's hot there's no stopping him—he'll even hit a ball over his head." - Nolan Ryan in Nolan Ryan's Pitchers Bible.  (1991)

The man known as "The Hawk" has finally made it to Cooperstown.  Andre Dawson will soon have a plaque and a place in baseballs hall of fame.  My only question is, what took so long?  He should have been in years ago, and I think it's only fitting he will enter the hall alone.  No one will be able to steal his thunder or overshadow him in anyway.  It will be the Hawk's day.  A day that is well deserved and long overdue.

What must a player do to enter the Hall of Fame? Let’s look at a player’s resume without the name attached.

He must have won awards; they tell us he was among the best in his era.

Rookie of the Year in 1977. National League Most Valuable Player in 1987—on a last place team. Eight-time All Star, eight-time Gold Glove winner, four-time Silver Slugger.

Since free agency began in November, Matt Holliday and Jason Bay have been the consensus two best hitters on the free agent market.

The general thought seems to be that while Bay is a great hitter, Holliday was the more desirable free agent for several reasons:

* Age: Holliday is almost 30 years old and should be entering his prime years. In contrast, Bay will be 32 years old this season.

Stopping to read the Jim Hendry outfield foibles over the last few seasons reads like the tale of a man who just doesn't get it. Corey Patterson, Jacque Jones, Jeromy Burnitz, Matt Lawton, Cliff Floyd, Juan Pierre, Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome, and Milton Bradley, just to name a few.

In pretty much every case, the Cubs have either failed to get the production that they hoped for, and/or wildly overpaid for it. I'll let you figure out which is which.