Opinion

Ryan Kalish grew up in Red Bank, N.J. In high school, he starred on the gridiron and the diamond.

He was offered a baseball scholarship from the University of Virginia and planned on attending, in part, because the Cavaliers baseball program agreed to let him play football.

He had decided he would go to college and play two sports if he was unable to secure a professional baseball contract on the terms he believed appropriate for his skills (he was seeking a $600K signing bonus).

Over the last 15 years, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Andy Pettitte have made up the "Yankees Core" of the roster, mostly because they are popular players who were home-grown products out of the Yankees system.

In 2010, one of the core players may be playing in his final season.

In an interview with YES Network's Jack Curry, Pettitte dropped hints that this upcoming season may in fact be the final one for the left-hander.

While it’s early in the tenure of new Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts and any opinions formed thus far are based on an admittedly small sample size, the only apparent difference between the Chicago Tribune and the Ricketts is a face with the name.

During the entire offseason, the Braves rotation has been touted as one of the most solid in baseball. In the past couple of weeks, though, they have been excluded from many top lists.

MLB.com picked the Phillies to have the top rotation in the NL East. The Boston Globe's Tony Massarotti picked the Cardinals, Phillies, and Giants over the Braves in the NL. These are just a couple of examples.

It has perplexed me how the Braves' impressive pitching could be ranked so low. How does a team with few problems over spring training go from tops to glossed over?

The San Francisco Giants Jonathan Sanchez had a year of great improvement in 2009, which featured a no-hitter and an amazing second half of the season. 

His electric stuff led to a lot of strikeouts, but also a fair amount of walks.  He struck out 177 batters in 163.1 innings pitched (for a K/9 of 9.75), which is seventh best among Major League Baseball starting pitchers with a minimum of 100 IP. 

Unlike his counterpart on the other side of town, you’re not going to find Lou Piniella tweeting any time soon.

As you probably already know, Piniella responded to a minor Twitter controversy early in the spring sparked by White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who joined the social networking site to communicate with fans.

Sweet Lou has never been tagged as a web-junky, and do not expect to find the old-school manager updating his Facebook status at your local Starbucks.

Over the last couple of days, there have been a lot of star players who have hit the disabled list and won’t be ready for Opening Day.

When you look at this list of players, they would be a good foundation for any All-Star team.

Here are the players who have recently landed, or will land, on the DL prior to Opening Day.

Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers

Yesterday, I looked at the updated starting rotations of each American League East team.

Today, I will look at the updated starting rotations for each American League Central team.

The American League Central is home to some of the best young pitchers in the game. As a matter of fact, five out of the last six AL Cy Young Award winners have come from the Central.

Here are the updated starting rotations of each American League Central team.

Minnesota Twins

1. Scott Baker, RHP

2. Nick Blackburn, RHP

It's just a spring training game in a big league ball park.

Doesn't mean a thing. Nothing. Zero. Nada.

The Oakland Athletics beat the San Francisco Giants 9-0, on a chilly night in front of sparse crowd at AT&T Park Thursday.

Really. Don't give the game another thought. It didn't count in the standings.

It's tough coming north from Arizona and getting acclimated to ...

Who am I kidding?

Barry Zito was the Barry Zito we've seen struggle for the bulk of his Giants career.

OMG!

The 2000s were a hell of a decade for baseball.

We saw home run power, the walk become en vogue, the Red Sox win as many World Series as the Yankees, and the statistical revolution take over almost all MLB front offices.

When trying to craft an all-decade team, a number of considerations come up: