The New York Yankees lost a spring training game to the Minnesota Twins yesterday, 11-0.

Brett Gardner started and got one hit in three times at bat.

His hit came on a bunt. The bunt was fielded by the pitcher, whose throw pulled the first baseman off the bag.

Gardner's speed was the critical element in the play because the pitcher had no time to make an accurate throw with Gardner speeding down the line.

If Seattle had a sports-themed amusement park, the roller coaster ride would probably be called the “Moose-a-lini”, “Marinator”, or “M’s-Sir-Mount-able”.

For some, a roller coaster is a frightening event.

Charlie Morton's 2009 ERA of 4.55 shouts "league average."  But that's exactly what he is not, because he got there in a funny way.

My father (a retired civil engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University) used to say that there were two types of "B" students.  One type made "straight Bs." The other (rarer) kind made half As and half Cs.

Every year it seems the Texas Rangers compete for a playoff spot, but at the end they just run out of juice.

Year after year sportswriters everywhere predict big things from the Texas Rangers, but this season you haven't really heard too much of that.

The reason is because they have delivered so much disappointment to those that have picked them in previous seasons.  Despite that, I'm still going to go out on a big limb here and say that the Texas Rangers will go deep into the playoffs this season.

The most important trait Brewers' GM Doug Melvin was looking for this winter in trying to rebuild his pitching staff was durability.

The Brewers were devastated last season due to injury and ineffectiveness by their starters, and Melvin needed to find pitchers he could count on to make every start, while still giving the team a shot to win.

The spring games continue, as do the intriguing position battles. 

Could Wade Davis’ grasp on the fifth starter spot fade?  Could Ike Davis force his way into the Mets’ 1B mix? 

Let’s look at these stories and all the rest:

Ivy covered walls.

Day baseball.

Ernie Banks and “Let’s play two.”

Harry Carey and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

During the off-season, Sox GM Theo Epstein shaped the 2010 club by trading hitting for pitching and defense. Offensive producers OF Jason Bay and 3B Mike Lowell were subtracted from the lineup and replaced with defensive standouts OF Mike Cameron and 3B Adrian Beltre. The money saved by not re-signing Bay was re-directed to acquiring free agent pitcher John Lackey.

The theory behind the moves was that the ballclub can win as many (or more) games as a result of improved run prevention as it can by maintaining the former level of run production.

With spring training officially on its way, the offseason, for the most part, is officially done. Sure, there are some lingering free agents out there and perhaps some late-additions to the Giants roster could (but shouldn't) happen, but for the most part, the Giants seem pretty much set with their roster as they head into the 2010 season, which begins in less than a month.

That being said, the most widely asked question by Giants fans (other than how the Giants are going to do in 2010, of course) has to be this:

How did the Giants do this offseason?

This article was originally published at TheDailyCub.com , a blog dedicated to giving you quality Cubs content.

The Cubs were pretty quite this past off-season. They didn’t make too many moves, and the ones that they did make were more to sure up the bench rather than to provide a punch to the lineup.