Curtis Granderson

Both New York teams have a new starting outfielder on their squads this year.

Both are upgrades over their 2009 counterparts.

The Mets signed free agent Jason Bay while the Yankees pulled off an old-fashioned trade as they acquired Curtis Granderson from the Detroit Tigers in a three-team, seven-player swap.

That trade also involved the Arizona Diamondbacks, and appears to be good for all three teams involved.

The Yankees are expected to announce this morning that Curtis Granderson will indeed become their starting center fielder and will not play much left field, if at all, according to Joel Sherman of the NY Post.

Granderson roamed center field in all his years with the Detroit Tigers, but there was speculation that the Yankees would move him to left field after general manager Brian Cashman made the claim that Brett Gardner might be the best defensive center fielder in all of baseball.

It’s the most romantic, glorified position in our most romantic, glorified sport.

Even when baseball was played with mushy balls by men wearing baggy uniforms and pillbox hats, and you traveled to the ballpark by horse and buggy or traipsed there by foot, center field was the glamour position.

Ty Cobb started it, pretty much.

Cobb used his freakish speed and sheer determination to patrol center. And he slap base hits all over the field at a robust .370-plus clip every season.

The DNR 25 is a list of my personal favorite Detroit Tigers players of the past 25 years. If you’ve missed any so far and care to catch up, here’s the previous five.

No. 15: Lance Parrish
No. 14: Frank Tanana
No. 13: Placido Polanco

Washington DC

By Patrick Read

The offseason is always filled with numerous trades and free agent signings.

But with each deal that's made, players' fantasy stocks increase, some decrease, and others stay the same with their new team.

This offseason was no different.

In fact, more major moves happened this year than in recent years.

We all know about Seattle's signing of Chone Figgins. The three-team deal involving Curtis Granderson and of course the four-team megadeal that had Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee changing addresses.

There is much teeth-gnashing among Yankees fans as they mourn the departure of Hideki Matsui and probable loss of Johnny Damon .  Even here at the Bleacher Report, writers accuse management of penny-pinching at the expense of the team on the field .  These writers are wrong.  Brian Cashman's moves have made the 2010 Yankee

I come from a family who takes their sports very seriously. I'm from a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. I'm a Red Wings, Tigers, Lions, Pistons, and University of Michigan fan.

By reading off that list alone, you can venture to guess that the past several years—with the exception of a Red Wings Stanley Cup two years ago—ave not been the best to be a fan of those teams.

So far this MLB off-season, the teams in New York have been very busy.  The Yankees' move this week may have been the biggest.

Last year J.J. Putz was traded, and Francisco Rodriguez was signed immediately. So because of last year's big moves during the winter meetings, expectations coming heading into Monday were high, and luckily the GMs delivered some early Christmas gifts.

Some players were given more than we anticipated, while the big names remained on the board as expected. There were a few dozen signings, but mostly minor names who will be seen in the minor leagues this year.