MLB

"The biggest game I ever played in was probably Don Larsen's perfect game."

Those were the words of Mickey Mantle, who played in many big games. On Oct. 8, 1956, Mickey Mantle had one of the best games of his great career.

When the Yankees traded for Nick Swisher in the offseason prior to last season, I was almost irrationally excited. I knew that they probably got good value for a player who had a down season in 2008, and I was skeptical that he could play 1B full time (which was how his role was spun before the Teixeira signing).

But my irrational excitement was not caused by any value assessment, but by a much more ludicrous desire: After a decade of waiting, the Yankees had their very own meat grinder. I saw his fan-favorite status coming a mile away.

When the Tampa Bay Rays sent Scott Kazmir to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last August, Sean Rodriguez was an afterthought in the trade. As a matter of fact, he was the ever so famous “Player To Be Named Later.”

Now it looks like Rodriguez might be paying dividends for the Rays.

Major League baseball has not been played in the Borough of Brooklyn since 1957.

But any serious baseball fan can still tell you that until that time some of the games greatest moments occurred at Bedford Avenue where Ebbets Field stood.

Lets begin Spring Training 2010 with a light news story.

A story made even lighter by Phillies' skipper Charlie Manuel.

Ok, so my jokes are about as cold as Ryan Howard’s bat is this time of year. But let’s turn our attention back to Mr. Manuel.

Today we are going to take a look at the lefty portion of our All-Aught relief crew, and the first part of 'Dos Rafael' to enter our team of the decade. The All-Aught Relief Pitcher No. 5 is Rafael Perez.

Now Perez doesn't enter this club without some questions, but before we look at those, we have to take at why he made this team.

As the spring games roll on, the focus is going to shift greatly to the pitchers, where there are quite a few interesting battles brewing.  Let’s take a look at how things played out in today’s games:

The Florida Marlins opted not to sign a veteran first baseman to fill their need, so they will instead turn within the organization to plug the hole. 

The most likely player to open the season is Gaby Sanchez, the team's 2005 fourth-round draft pick.  The question fantasy owners have to ask is, does he have the potential to make an impact in 2010?

He spent the bulk of the 2009 season at Triple-A, posting the following line:

Lefty Jon Lester surrendered three hits and issued two walks as part of a four-run first inning as the Minnesota Twins rebounded from yesterday’s loss with a 5-0 defeat of the Red Sox today in Ft Myers.

The Sox wasted a solid scoring opportunity in the top of the first inning. CF Mike Cameron drew a walk off RHP Carl Pavano to open the game but was thrown out trying to steal second base. The caught-stealing proved costly when Victor Martinez doubled to left field one out later.

Why do so many writers in the baseball universe refer to Kevin Youkilis as over-rated or predict that his career will start to backslide?

Many of these pundits point to the fact he had a bad back throughout much of last year, and that back issues tend to linger and never go away—especially for a 31-year-old.  They assume that his back condition will be chronic, and with less time on the field he'll have fewer opportunities to produce runs.