Opinion

The A’s acquired Kevin Kouzmanoff last offseason to fill the void that Eric Chavez would inevitably create.  After one season Kouzmanoff has worn out his welcome.

It is not as though “Kouz” has played so far below his career averages in Oakland, he has not, but the Oakland front office should have seen his numbers and known that he was not worth the money, even if he makes very little relative to the rest of the league.

The Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs made a surprising trade Thursday when the Rays agreed to send pitcher Matt Garza, outfielder Fernando Perez and a minor league pitcher to the Cubs for a package of prospects including pitcher Chris Archer, outfielders Brandon Guyer and Sam Fuld, catcher Robinson Chirinos and shortstop Hak-Ju Lee.

On Wednesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced the 2011 class of Hall of Famers.

Vance who?

Vance Worley was selected in the third round of the 2008 MLB Amateur Player Draft.

He became one of the Phillies' top pitching prospects, and perhaps the top pitching prospect after Kyle Drabek, son of former Cy Young Award Winner, Doug Drabek, was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in the Roy Halladay deal.

Can someone please tell the Washington Nationals they need starting pitching? Do they not realize that their No. 1 starter is Livan Hernandez?

The Mets just signed Chris Capuano and Taylor Bucholz to add some more depth to the pitching rotation. Both of these are solid signings and may pay off in big ways.

Capuano is only a few years removed from an 18-win season, and Bucholz has shown he can be a valuable seventh, or even eighth inning reliever.

Matt Garza threw a no-hitter in 2010, and topped 200 innings for the second year in a row while posting a 3.91 ERA. He will take that resume from Tampa Bay to Lakeview in 2011, as the Chicago Cubs acquired him Friday in an eight-player deal.

Quite similar to the way Jerry Angelo handled the offseason of the Chicago Bears, Jim Hendry has made every move at his disposal this offseason in the hopes of saving his job, albeit with considerably less money.

Heading into the winter of 2010-11, most fans and experts knew that the Cubs did not have much money to invest. They'd have to sign players on a budget and would have to do much of their improvement through trade.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim appear to have missed their window of opportunity during the Vladimir Guerrero era by not making the World Series over his six seasons in Anaheim.

We are now seeing the ramifications of spending large and not winning. Los Angeles is left with a bloated payroll and a roster that has serious depth issues at the major and minor league level with no immediate help on the way. It's time Tony Reagins and Arte Moreno admit the Angels have issues and change course.

Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were voted in as the only two players in the 2011 National Baseball Hall of Fame class. Alomar made it in just his second year on the ballot, garnering 90 percent of the vote.

Blyleven, on the other hand, had to wait until his 14th year of eligibility, picking up 79.7 percent of the vote.

I believe that both deserved the honor. If not for Alomar’s infamous spitting incident in 1996, he likely would have been a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.