Opinion

Chien-Ming Wang is a member of the World Champion New York Yankees, for now.

The 29-year-old right-handed starter is eligible for arbitration this winter and the Yankees have until the December 12 deadline to offer him a contract for next season, something that doesn’t appear likely.

Now that a day has passed, and Brewers' GM Doug Melvin has spoken about it, it's time to figure out what the acquisition of Carlos Gomez means for the Brewers this offseason.

Melvin commented at his press conference yesterday that he received no offers for pitching that he felt was worth trading Hardy for. Gomez fit a need for the Brewers, and he was comfortable enough with the offer to make the deal.

Hardly a week had gone by since the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were eliminated from the playoffs before they hit their first offseason obstacle.

His name is Gary Matthews Jr.

In what will likely be an emotional and turbulent offseason for the Angels, who saw no less than three star players and several more reserves filing for free agency already, the team's chief concern has become a bench player who is still under contract for two more years.

Perhaps, though, that is why Matthews chose to make his irritating move now.

The New York Yankees have a number of great homegrown players. They include shortstop Derek Jeter, pitchers Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, and catcher Jorge Posada.

I'd even include World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, given that the Yankees is the only American team that he has played for. Consider him "drafted" from a "collegiate" level Japanese team.

On Sept. 27, 2009, I was fortunate enough to be in attendance when the New York Yankees wrapped up the American League East Division Title.

Perhaps what I will remember most about that day was a conversation I had with my dad on the way to the game.

David Wright, is one of the best third basemen in the game of baseball.  The New York Mets are lucky to have a player like him, but he still has his flaws.

Ever since Wright made his debut in the bigs he has pretty much, been a star.  He's got great talent and he can be a pretty good team "Captain."

Wright hits for a high average, hits home runs, and steals a solid amount of bases.  He is a Gold Glover in the field, and an expert at anything that has to do with bare hands.

In my last article on the Marlins—which you can read here —I stated that I felt the Marlins should promote in-house and bring Reid Cornelius or Scott Mitchell up from one of their minor-league affiliates to fill the pitching coach vacancy created when they moved Mark Wiley to another position within the organization.

I've mentioned Adam Warren a lot over the past few months. He really dominated in Staten Island with a 1.43 ERA, a K/9 of 7.9 and a BB/9 of 1.6. That combines for a ridiculous K/BB of 5.0 I ranked Warren the Yankees' 16th best prospect after his strong SI debut. Mike Axisa, over at River Ave. Blues, ranked him the 19th best prospect in the system, saying he is, "polished, pounds the zone, sits low-90’s and has touched 96 with SI … pleasant surprise."

It has been brought up countless times, By owners and fans alike, "The MLB needs a salary cap."  

Every year the argument is renewed, and with five of the eight teams that made the playoffs this year having payrolls over $100 million and of course with the much maligned New York Yankees money machine taking home the Commisioner's Trophy the cries of foul play seem as loud as ever.

In both my 2009 postmortem and my 2010 offseason plan, I laid out two key points.