The Yankees began their 2010 Grapefruit schedule with three pitchers entwined in what the Yankees label a "competition" for the last spot in their rotation.

Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre, and Alfredo Aceves each pitched two scoreless innings in their first game action of 2010. 

However, regardless of their performance over the next month, I have a hard time believing the Yankees will break camp with one of those three as their fifth starter.

Few individuals knew it at the time, but on Oct. 6, 1966, Sandy Koufax started the final game of his career.

The highly favored Los Angeles Dodgers had dropped the first game of the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles, but Dodgers fans were not overly concerned because Koufax was starting the second game against young Jim Palmer.

Koufax won 27 games during the season and completed 27 of 41 starts. The Orioles' entire staff had "only" 23 complete games.

The NL East has plenty of offensive firepower, especially at the top, but the emergence of young pitching and the performance of the divisions aces will go a long way to deciding if anyone can knock the Phillies off their perch.

The Phillies picked up a new ace; the Braves lost theirs. The Mets will ride the arm of their ace while the Marlins attempt to establish a new one. As for the Nationals? They will likely have have their future ace start in the minors while the big league club attempts to take baby steps and improve upon a dismal 2009 season.

The Mets have played their first spring training game and emerged victorious with a minor league team as the regulars were pulled due to the inclement weather yesterday.

Jerry Manuel, David Wright, John Maine, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana, and others have been interviewed at great length, and it's apparent that they are excited for this year. 

They want to win, and they know they have a lot to prove to themselves, the management, and the fans. 

This is the second in a short series of articles on my 25 favorite Mets players as a one-team roster. You can find the first part of the series here . A cursory look at my favorite Mets "team" makes something very clear— I have a special affinity for Mets players of the mid to late 1980s.

Paul Maholm may or may not be the best pitcher in the Pirates' rotation. But he is clearly the one to beat for front-runner.

A stalking horse, by definition, is a pretty good racehorse that may or may not be the best, but is certainly good enough to set the pace for the others. In short, his defining characteristic is reliability. That pretty much describes Maholm.

As late as the beginning of 2008, he was a distant third among Pirates' hurlers. But two more obviously talented throwers, Ian Snell, and Tom Gorzelanny, fell by the wayside that year.

Massachusetts towns from Spencer to Swampscott and from Boston to Brookfield have become participants in the Lowell Spinners' quest to eliminate heartbreak and taunting from youth baseball programs playing in the shadows of Fenway Park.

Even a squad or two from Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and yes, Rochester, NY have been spared the wide spread humiliation that accompanies being subjected to Yankee Pin Stripes while living in the heart of Red Sox Nation.

It was just a couple of days after the Phillies' 2008 World Series win when it was announced that Ruben Amaro, Jr. would be the team's new general manager.

Pat Gillick left on top of the world, a ring on his finger and a wonderful story to ride off into the sunset with.

Amaro, now 45 years of age, had been the team's assistant GM since 1998 and had been a part of both the Gillick and Ed Wade eras.

Hired after Gillick's retirement, not many people knew what to expect from Amaro.

No one bashes the Mets more than I do. That is a fact. My Mets' glass is always half-empty.

Lately, more and more fans and pundits have begun to feel the same way.  The Mets are going nowhere, fast.  All hope is lost. What is point of watching a team that continues to fall flat in every key situation?

Well, that's the reason why I'm picking the Mets for the NL playoffs this year. No one thinks they can win.