Opinion

I don't know what to do right now, as we still have two more days until Yankee baseball. 

This should help you kill some time (it certainly helped me).

I'm a big Ian Kennedy fan. He absolutely tore up the minor leagues in his first full professional season, something that very few pitchers do. No, Kennedy doesn't have the front-line potential that Hughes and Joba have, but he still is a valuable asset. Check this out, his numbers speak for themselves:

The Red Sox have had four team captains since 1923—Jimmie Foxx, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, and the current captain, Jason Varitek. 

So many great players have played for the Red Sox throughout the years, so being named the captain is a prestigious honor. 

Prior to Varitek being named in 2005, the Red Sox hadn't played with a captain since
Rice retired in 1989. 

Varitek struggled heavily both offensively and defensively this season, so much so that he did not play an inning in the three-game playoff series against the Angels. 

As much as I love the Washington Nationals, I think it’s fair to say that they haven’t done much right since moving to D.C. five seasons ago.  Too many of the team’s personnel decisions have backfired, leading to several very long, very ugly, very bad years.

One of Jim Bowden’s first moves was to trade a part-time outfielder and a poor-hitting shortstop to the Angels for the volatile Jose Guillen.  At the time, it seemed like a steal.

And it was, but not for the Nationals.

Article originally posted on www.stadiumjourney.com

Pittsburgh’s beautiful PNC Park receives accolades as being one of the best of the 21st century ballparks.

There is no doubt that the Pirates did everything right. Location, scenery, and fitting tributes to the Pirates' rich history are all done just right. Unfortunately, what’s missing is the product and patrons.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in pursuit of the franchise’s first pennant since 1988.

That season, they went on to win the World Series behind the heroic effort of Kirk Gibson and the steady arm of Orel Hershiser.

In 2009, the Dodgers will turn to a young core, including 21-year-old Clayton Kershaw to start the series, in an attempt to break the World Series drought.

With the news that both GM Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy have received two-year extensions to stay in their respective roles for the San Francisco Giants, fans and media alike are starting to look for a new scapegoat.

Managing partner Bill Neukom and the rest of the Giants ownership group saw it fit to retain both men in their respective roles.  Why they made such a decision is a question fans will be pondering for a long, long time.

Ah, the season is over and the speculation begins.  

The offseason is a breeding ground of excitement, uncertainty, disillusionment, and hyperbole.  It's a time when every fan becomes an expert, and within Cardinal Nation there is, no doubt, a great deal of whispering about Tony LaRussa's pending future.  

A good number of people are voicing the opinion that the Cardinals would be ok—perhaps even better off—without LaRussa at the helm for the 2010 campaign.  

Watching Nick Punto face reporters on Sunday night was almost hard to watch, even for a Yankees fan.

Almost.

A fringe player who looks more like a plumber than a professional athlete, Punto sat ashen and bleary-eyed in front of his locker trying to explain why he had barrelled around third base in the eighth inning like Rex Ryan toward a buffet table. His blunder had doomed the Twins, and now he was the man responsible for turning the lights out for good at the Metrodome.

I'm not a great eugooglizer, but bear with me. I'm only going to reference the giant kick to the testicles administered to me a few days ago by the now defunct 2009 Red Sox once.

In light of the Los Angeles Dodgers beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS to earn a date with the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS, not to mention being four wins away from their first World Series appearance in 21 years, I have three words to say...

I was wrong.

I honestly didn't think that L.A. would sweep the Cardinals, due to the fact that those Redbirds had two aces in Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, a legitimate slugger who had a great season in Matt Holliday, and baseball's best player in Albert Pujols.