Carl Pavano

This is a weekly focus on the hurlers that dominated their adversaries. These pitchers put up nasty numbers and made big league hitters wish they were playing T-Ball again.

NEW YORK-- He spent eight seasons as a member of the Minnesota Twins. Now, three years later, Johan Santana faces his old club for the first time ever.

Santana was quite a dominant pitcher in Minnesota. He came up in 2000 and became a full-time starter in 2004, when he won 20 games and his first of two Cy Young Awards.

He was just unbelievable. He had one of the nastiest changeups the game had seen in over 50 years, and he was as big a strikeout pitcher as there was at the time.

The Ace List

1:00 PM: According to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com , it appears more and more likely that Twins starter Carl Pavano will accept arbitration, keeping him in Minnesota for at least one more season (thoughts below).

The Minnesota Twins have reportedly offered Carl Pavano arbitration.

Minnesota had until Tuesday’s 11 p.m. deadline to offer the right-hander arbitration for next season, but chose to do so early.

Following the acquisition of JJ Hardy, there are two major needs on this Minnesota team. First, and in my opinion the most important, a No. 2 hitter is needed to bat behind Denard Span.

With his new-found power, the Twins desperately need to find a way to get runners on base for Joe Mauer; batting third this past season, Mauer was 103rd in the league in total number of runners on base when he was at the plate. His 19.15 RBI percentage—ninth in the league of those with at least 250 chances—demands that he be given more opportunities.

Gotta love the picture

At this time during the baseball season things are beginning to wind down before the All-Star break. The selections have largely been announced, and every team gets a much needed break, while a majority of the players get some time to ease off the tension and relax.

A string of bad luck and unfortunate breaks for the Yankees finally subsided on Sunday afternoon. Ironically, it occurred during the team’s 13^th game of the season.

While Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett struggled with his curveball all start long, he was able to perform his best Houdini impersonation. Two home runs and seven walks later, the Yankees still only trailed 3-1.

Obviously, it's all Kosher for Pesach.

I'm in Orlando, and I've got no time for real blogging. But I would like to point out a few interesting thingamajigs I came across on the interwebs.