Opinion

When President Barack Obama stood up in the eyes of the nation Tuesday night and advocated a 30,000-man surge in troop force for the ongoing war in Afghanistan, all Americans ought to have taken pause to measure the gravity of the moment.

There will be no draft; Obama was clear on that point. As it has been since the end of the Vietnam War, all military service will be voluntary.

As such, it seems highly unlikely that any high-profile baseball players will go overseas to fight, either in Afghanistan or in Iraq.

The week after Thanksgiving is Open Season for bargain hunters. Holiday shoppers all over the country flock to Best Buy and Target in search of discounted products they don’t actually need.

As the spending surge tapers down, it is clear that the shrewdest customer of the last few days was Tampa Bay Rays GM Andrew Friedman, who acquired Kelly Shoppach from the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday.

BY MICHAEL GANCI
EDITOR

When Billy Wagner returned from injury last season, I didn’t think the Mets were going to have much use for him. I was actually at Citi Field when he made his return, and the crowd was clearly excited to see him.

He returned with a vengeance, and he pitched so well that the Mets were able to trade him for two players to be named later.

For those of you who are not aware, yesterday at 11:59 pm EST was the last day teams could offer their free agents arbitration. Once a team offers arbitration to a player, that player has until Dec. 7 to accept.

A team would offer arbitration to a player—especially to a Type A or a Type B free agent—because that team then would receive draft compensation as a result of that player signing with a new team.

A great example of this is what we saw this morning.

MLB Trade Rumors has reported  that the New York Yankees are interested in former Boston Red Sox reliever Brandon Lyon.

Recently, I took Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle up on his offer to "fix the Astros", and what came out of my research and conclusion was that the Astros could feasibly win in 2010 .

ESPN's Jayson Stark reports that the Phillies have showed interest in 42-year-old free agent pitcher John Smoltz as a low risk, high reward signing, similar to the role played by Pedro Martinez last season.

Smoltz isn’t the same pitcher he was five years ago, but he showed with the Cardinals that he can still be effective despite having a miserable couple of outings in Boston.

It looks like the Houston Astros have come to a crossroads of sort. During this offseason they have to decide on which players to keep, which to acquire, which to let go, and which not to pursue.

Think of it as a poker game, minus the cheesy sunglasses and ESPN's inexplicable decision to put this cure-for-insomnia "sport" on its airwaves.

Or, think of it like that line from Kenny Rogers' song "The Gambler":

"You have to know when to hold them, fold them, walk away, run", etc.