Opinion

The New York Yankees agreed to a one-year, $2 million deal with Andruw Jones on Thursday to replace Marcus Thames as a right-handed-hitting fourth outfielder.

While Jones, a 10-time Gold Glove winner, is not the same outfielder he was 13 years ago when he was still breaking into the Majors, he's still a far better defensive option than Thames.

But at what cost?

Jones hit just .230 last year with the Chicago White Sox, and what's scarier is that was his highest average since 2006.

The Washington Nationals have been adding players to their team who the cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates have rejected at one time or another. These are players there were among the most volatile, but also among the most promising ones on their original team. And their specific quirks, plus those of Washington, make them particularly useful to the Nationals.

As I believed at the time, the Nats got the better of the Burnett and Nyjer Morgan for Joel Hanrahan and Lastings Milledge deal in the summer of 2009.

Yes—a month or so until pitchers and catchers report, folks.  But recognition is in order based on the 2010 regular season:

*The STAY AT FIRST Award: No doubt—goes to Torii Hunter of the L.A. Angels. Hunter tried to steal 21 times this year and was thrown out on 12 occasions—a SB success rate of just 43 percent. Just a reminder, Torii: You're NOT 25 anymore.

It's every boy's dream to one day get that call from Cooperstown and become a Hall of Fame ballplayer. Nothing is different for those already in the big leagues, but few of the MLB's players will actually make the cut.

We are getting to watch some future Hall of Famers; some in their prime, others riding into the sunset and others just getting started.

Here are cases for 25 stars to make the Hall of Fame.

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With the sixth pick in the 2011 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, the Washington Nationals select …

…Taylor Jungmann?

Maybe.

While it is way too early to be making this kind of prediction, I’m going to anyway. And really, it does make a lot of sense.

If the Mets want to retain their shortstop past the 2011 season, they may have to start negotiating soon.

Jose Reyes, who will become a free agent for the first time in his career at the end of this season, addressed the issue at a Citi Field Kids charity event on Wednesday.

"I don't want to talk about my contract during the season," Reyes said. "I want to focus on doing my thing, trying to help this team win a lot of ballgames."

When the Philadelphia Phillies selected outfielder Domonic Brown in the 20th round of the 2006 First Year Player Draft, they had no idea just what kind of steal they made.

Originally from Florida, the Phillies were one of the only teams to keep track of the young high school star when he moved to Georgia. After watching him play, they were so convinced in his baseball potential that they paid him a $200k signing bonus to play baseball in their organization, rather than going to college to play football.

When the new list of inductees to the Hall of Fame came out this year, I couldn't help but wonder why Jeff Bagwell did not make it in.  He seems like a definite Hall of Famer in my eyes, and I just did not understand his omission.

I understand that he played in the steroids era and that anyone playing in that era is immediately tainted.  Despite the fact that Bagwell was never a huge slugger, he made his money on being a consistent hitter that also had some pop when he needed it.

Some might say it's baseball blasphemy for a die-hard San Francisco Giants fanatic to give opinions about our hated enemies to the south, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In fact, I know quite a few who will say that.

But bear with me for a second.

The blood rivalry—that is unfortunately a literal term when it comes to this particular pairing—between the Gents and Bums is an example of major-league contempt in its purest form.

Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.