MLB

It's finally March.

Baseball is in the air as the 2010 season is looming.

Now, in the offseason, there were many discussions on the potential 2010-2011 free agent class because the 2009-2010 free agent class was such a disappointing one.

One of the top names of the list is the 2009 American League MVP Joe Mauer, who is in the final year of his contract with the Twins.

I have been looking forward to writing this piece for a long time.  I wanted to do it weeks ago when teams reported to camp, but I decided to be patient.  However, we are less than a month away from opening day, and with games in spring training leagues starting this week, it is time to talk baseball.

One of the few question marks for the Yankees entering the 2010 season is who will fill the fifth starter's role.

While the obvious choice would be Joba Chamberlain because of how the organization has babied the right-hander in preparation for what should be his coming-out party this year, manager Joe Girardi has decided to extend the saga by announcing that five hurlers have a shot at the job.

How important is Manny Parra to the Milwaukee Brewers?

To many fans, he is nothing more than an erratic left-hander that will be lucky to make the starting rotation in 2010.

His 2009 stats bare that out to be true: Parra finished the season 11-11 with a 6.36 ERA in 140 innings, spending time in the minors due to ineffectiveness.

In three seasons with the Brewers, Parra has become the ultimate underachiever.

No one will argue with the talent the 27-year-old possesses, but he has yet to put together any significant stretches of success.

The New York Yankees played their first spring training game at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa on Wednesday.

Their opponent was the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, who have remade their team hoping to have their first winning season in 18 years.

The remarks here are just some impressions from watching the game.

 It’s no secret that Jason Heyward and Tommy Hanson are being touted as the future stalwarts of the Atlanta Braves.

In Tuesday’s 4-2 Grapefruit League opening loss to the New York Mets, the young guns lived up to the billing.

Making his spring debut, Major League Baseball’s top prospect made an immediate impact in his 4 1/2 innings of work.

Major League Baseball is an interesting animal. On the one hand it is entrenched in its history and trying to move it forward into a new century is like pushing a rope. This of course has positive and negative implications.

On the one hand, it is that historical perspective that brings continuity to the game that spans generations. It makes it possible for children, parents, and grandparents to all speak the same language of baseball comparing players and games from very different eras.

Professional baseball leagues and ballclubs have long scouted Japan for hidden talent.  Attaining pitchers like Hideo Nomo and Daisuke Matsuzaka, and bats like Ichiro and Hideki Matsui have long been the goal of big league clubs searching for those diamonds in the rough.

The Chico Outlaws of the Independent Golden Baseball League are reportedly interested in signing Japanese knuckleballer Eri Yoshida, according to the Japan Times. 

Like Rome, a good baseball team can't be built in a day, but -- with the right trade -- the process can be reduced significantly with the right trade.

Let's not kid ourselves: we know what the best trade in Houston Astros history is. Despite that, there are four other deals that helped shape the franchise which deserve our consideration.

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Few individuals knew it at the time, but on Oct. 6, 1966, Sandy Koufax started the final game of his career.

The highly favored Los Angeles Dodgers had dropped the first game of the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles, but Dodgers fans were not overly concerned because Koufax was starting the second game against young Jim Palmer.

Koufax won 27 games during the season and completed 27 of 41 starts. The Orioles' entire staff had "only" 23 complete games.