Opinion

It's being reported this morning that A.J. Burnett will not be part of the Yankees' plans in the ALDS against the Twins.

Not exactly shocking news, I know. Dudes who lose 15 games and and post 5.26 ERAs don't typically inspire the faith of their manager come playoff time.

The grind of the Major League Baseball regular season has finally come to an end and for those fans that had the patience to stick with their favorite team over that 162 game marathon, they are now bracing themselves for the sprint that is the MLB playoffs.

Despite how entertaining it might be to watch your favorite team play a four game series against the Pirates, it's time for the playoffs to usher in a new brand of baseball where everything matters just a little bit more.

Let me be straight right off the bat.

Edwin Rodriguez should not have left Sun Life Stadium in Miami last Sunday without word as to whether he will remain at the helm of the Florida Marlins next season.

The former major leaguer that played once for the New York Yankees deserves the opportunity to be back. Period.

With another season ending in disappointment for Chicago Cub fans, is it too early to shout out the refrain, "Wait Until Next Year?"

That's the slogan of the Chicago Cubs, whether they realize it or not. No other team in the history of sports has been mouthing those words for a longer period of time; 102 years to be exact.

The 2010 edition of the Toronto Blue Jays was full of surprises, and provided many promising glimpses into the team's future. Whether or not anyone besides Blue Jays fans noticed is another matter entirely.

The Jays were widely expected to finish at the bottom of baseball's toughest, deepest division, the mighty AL East. They only wound up one spot above the basement, but they also went 85-77, the kind of thing that can only happen in the AL East.

As expected, the Pittsburgh Pirates showed manager John Russell the door late Monday morning.

No matter the reasons or excuses, you just cannot lose 300 games in three seasons and expect to keep your dugout job in any level of baseball.

General manager Neil Huntington says that the search for a replacement for Russell has already begun in organizational meetings in Bradenton, Florida.

It would be easy, and appropriate, to enjoy the afterglow of the Giants' NL West division title by merely acknowledging the usual suspects: Aubrey Huff, Andres Torres, Brian Wilson, Buster Posey, Pat Burrell, Juan Uribe...

Wow. It is indeed a long list.

But it seems more suitable to tip the cap to two men who put that list of players together and made it click.

There have been a lot of people that have been pretty down on the Yankees lately. It’s hard to blame them—down the stretch the Yankees managed a pathetic 9-17 record.

Fortunately, there are reasons to be optimistic. Just compare the recent slide to the 2000 Yankees who won the World Series, and it’s easy to see why.

Those Yankees started the season 82-58 before tanking down the stretch to a 5-16 record that raised giant red flags. Things were bad—real bad.

The words "superstar" and "Pittsburgh Pirates" haven't gone together since a young kid named Barry Bonds was making his clean mark on Major League Baseball as a five-tool left fielder during the Pirate's last winning season. That seems like a lifetime ago, when in reality it was roughly 20 years. Hard to believe that there are children in college who weren't born yet the last time the Pirates were any good or had a superstar.

I would like to congratulate New Yorkers, Mets fans, and fans of baseball in general for our reward today, Oct. 4th.

The sport of baseball will forever be better off without Omar Minaya running the Mets.

It is going to be difficult to hire a general manager who will want to deal with Fred and Jeff Wilpon and the mess that is the New York Mets.