Fan News

The Philadelphia Phillies have several holes that they needed to fill in the 2012 offseason. This is partially due to the subpar performance of the 2012 where they decided to trade away two outfielders and a starting pitcher. Those players are Shane Victorino, Hunter Pence, and Joe Blanton, respectively.

The Philadelphia Phillies still need an outfielder. The Boston Red Sox could still use another starting pitcher. 

Building a baseball team is a delicate process. If a team is too aggressive in its approach, it will have a one-  or two-year window to win a World Series. If a team isn't aggressive enough, it will toil in mediocrity (or worse) and rarely give hope to its fanbase.

Fans of the Minnesota Twins want to see the aggressive approach at the moment, as they've been screaming for general manager Terry Ryan to do something this offseason to solve one of Major League Baseball's worst pitching rotations.

2012 was a banner year for rookies. Not only did it mark the arrival of two players with the potential to be generational superstars in Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, it also saw the graduation of other high-level prospects such as Manny Machado, Will Middlebrooks and Matt Harvey.

Although the 2013 season won’t feature anything close to what Harper and Trout did last year, there’s a new wave of elite prospects on the verge of becoming big-league regulars.

Fresh off a trade that sent reigning NL Cy Young Award-winner R.A. Dickey to the Toronto Blue Jays, the New York Mets are pursuing replacement options that can help them get back on track in the NL East.

In each previous installment of this series, I highlighted both the hottest and coldest pitching prospects in the Caribbean Winter Leagues. However, with so few legitimate arms still active in the Dominican, Mexican, Puerto Rican and Venezuelan leagues, it was impossible to find enough ice-cold prospects to fill out the category.

With the 2013 Hall of Fame announcements just a matter of weeks away, it's easy to look back at all the past players who have been inducted into Cooperstown as they represent the best the game has ever seen and will forever be enshrined in history.

But what about those who don't have a plaque in Cooperstown? There are many players who could arguably be in the Hall of Fame, but for one reason or another they've been left off the final ballots and remain on the outside looking in.

The New York Mets don't have a lot of money to spend this winter. 

Though the team has one to two openings in its outfield, general manager Sandy Alderson hasn't chased a big-name free agent like B.J. Upton or Nick Swisher. Trading for a player like Justin Upton won't happen because the Mets are in the position of acquiring prospects, not dealing them away. 

Somewhere out there, free-agent right-hander Kyle Lohse is waiting for his phone to ring and for Scott Boras to tell him some good news.

He may be waiting a while still, and the news may not end up being as good as he's hoping.

As a fan of the two Bay Area baseball teams, most of my observed impressions of players around Major League Baseball are based on their performances against the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's.