Opinion

One of the most popular topics to debate over the past two seasons for Milwaukee Brewer fans has been if and when first baseman Prince Fielder would be traded.

Fielder is slated to become a free agent after the 2011 season, and no one expects him to sign a long-term contract with the Brewers. 

Many, myself included, felt that Fielder would be traded this winter in order for the Brewers to get some sort of a decent return for the impending free agent.

MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan is reporting Adrian Beltre has agreed to a six-year, $96 million contract with the Texas Rangers. The deal is pending a physical, and is not expected to be made official until next week.

The Astros, Cubs and Dodgers all had very disappointing 2010 seasons. The Astros finished in fourth place with the Cubs, one game behind fifth place in the National League Central division. While the Astros have been lingering in the basement for years, they did show signs of new life at the end of 2010.

The Cubs, on the other hand, went from winning the division in 2008 to second place in 2009 and then total disaster in 2010. It has been a long, ugly slide downhill for the Cubs.

Two months until pitchers and catchers report. Baseball can’t get here soon enough!

With the Tigers and White Sox being active in the early free agent market and loading up to chase the Twins in 2011, it is setting up to be a three-team race in the American League Central.

In this installment, we will look at some deals the Twins should look at to maintain their hold on the division and earn their third straight division title (and maybe even get into the ALCS or World Series).

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.

The Seattle Mariners finalized a two-year contract, with a club option for a third, with catcher Miguel Olivo.

Finally.

Nearly a month after the deal was agreed on, pen went to paper and a press release was sent out. I can't say I remember a deal ever taking this long to finalize.

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.

Last March, I conducted a study on pitchers who’ve posted a single-season ERA of 2.50 or less since 2000. (You can read that article here.)

In my research, I made several interesting discoveries. First, there were 11 different sub-2.50 ERA seasons between 2000 and 2005. Between 2006 and 2008, however, there were none.

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 Designated Hitter—home of the offensively talented and the defensively challenged players. By not having to play the field many players have been able to prolong, or even make, a career through offensive contributions alone.