AL East

All indications were that Brad Penny simply needed not to implode in his final spring training outing Thursday against Minnesota in order to secure the final rotation spot on the Red Sox. He did not disappoint, allowing three runs in five innings in the Sox's 7-3 loss.

Michael Cuddyer did most of the damage, driving in all three runs on a triple and a double. Penny struck out three and walked none, facing 19 batters and exiting with the game tied.

A lot of stuff to get too... Let's start off with this slideshow from NJ.com. It has a bunch of pics from today's workout at the new stadium.

Here's a link to some great panoramic shots of the new stadium from the New York Times.'

Here's a video tour from Sam Borden of The Journal News:

Well, Mike Axisa from River Ave. Blues and Rob Neyer think they should. McPherson was released yesterday by the Marlins and could be brought in to play third base.

With Opening Day of the 2009 baseball season just around the corner, it is time for the obligatory comments about how the start of the season is so great, because every team starts at the same place, with a renewed sense of optimism and hope.

The Tampa Bay Rays are coming off their first successful season in the history of the franchise. Finally, they're not considered doormats with no vision of the future. Now the Pirates stand alone there. (Even the Royals are much improved!)

This club is scary in the pool of young talent they already hold, plus more on the way in the minor leagues. The Rays will compete for a very, very long time. But will they be able to withstand the Red Sox and Yankees assault in 2009?

Major League Baseball is always filled with major questions to be answered.

2009 is no exception.

Here are a few of the biggest questions needing to be answered.

5. Will another team like the Tampa Bay Rays come out of nowhere to make the playoffs?

I give a team like the San Fransisco Giants a good shot at challenging for the NL West title.

They have a fantastic pitching staff.

If their offense shows even decent improvement, the Giants will be contenders sooner rather than later.

Alas, baseball is here!

With spring training drawing to a close this week, MLB's regular season is set to kick off. With spring in the air, there's a still a heap of snow in my town. The great American pastime is back!

The New York Yankees have been built around major free agent acquisitions and trades.  (How'd they get Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Hideki Matsui, and on and on?) However, the greatest Yankees in the past few years have been home-grown talents (Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Robinson Cano).

As the Red Sox have shown, baseball has become again a game where the young, home-grown players will help the team the best.

So, if baseball's changing, are the world's greatest team prepared for a change?

Probably not.