Big Names off the Board

The Tampa Bay Rays have agreed to a 2 yr 16million dollar contract with OF Pat Burell. I think this is a very good move for them, i suspect he will mostly DH for them, and should be a nice upgrade on offense. The Chicago Cubs have agreed to terms with OF Milton Bradley for 3 yrs 30million. They have to have him pass a physical and work out some contract language and then it will be official. These two deals were being reported by Foxsports.com Ken Rosenthal. The Mets will be ramping up their efforts to sign Derek Lowe now that the holidays are over. They need to keep him away from Philly and for the Yankees sake Boston.

Baseball Vacation Over

We have reached the New Year and beyond. Today is January 5, 2009, not only do the Yankees resume business but baseball as a whole also. The Yankees will have the Big Tex press conference tomorrow at 1:00PM at the Old Stadium, which im sure will be the last event held over there before they move into the new stadium in about a month or so. I can't believe it but spring training is only 40 days away and most of baseball has a lot of work to do before then. There are about 140 unsigned free agents and im sure teams will be filling out their rosters in the next 3 weeks. The biggest guy left of course is Manny Ramirez, he probably will end up staying with the Dodgers especially now that they are clearing money by getting rid of Andruw Jones. The Yankees are pretty much done but will they come to a deal with Andy Pettite? Do they sign a middle infielder or just go with Cody Ransom? If they dont sign Pettite do they just let Hughes,Kennedy and Aceves battle it out or sign someone else to fill that spot? Will they trade any of the extra OFS? I personally hope not, they have a lot of depth for once and it will all work out. Damon and Matsui are getting older and more fragile, it is fine to have Swisher play a little first to keep Tex fresh and also mix between LF and RF to rest the other guys also. Jan 20th salary arbitration figures are to be exchanged. The only players the Yanks have in this category are Brian Bruney,Xavier Nady,Melky Cabrera. The Hall of Fame results will be announced on January 12th. It should be a happy day for Rickey Henderson and will Jim Rice finally get in?

NFL Playoffs

The Wild Card weekend has come to an end and the matchups are all set for the divisional round. The Philadelphia Eagles went into Minnesota and took care of them by a score of 26-14. They will face off against the New York Giants in the meadowlands at 1:00pm Sunday afternoon. The Arizona Cardinals took care of business at home defeating the Atlanta Falcons and setting up a date with the Carolina Panthers in Carolina on Saturday night at 8:15PM. In the AFC the San Diego Chargers defeated league MVP Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in which was probably the best game. The Chargers won in OT 23-17. The Chargers will play at Pittsburgh on Sunday at 4:45PM. The Baltimore Ravens defeated the Miami Dolphins in Miami by a score of 27-9. Baltimore will play at Tennesee on Saturday at 4:30PM. I think the Giants/Eagles can really setup as a great game. These are division rivals who know each other well. My early prediction is that the Giants will hold them off but I will have the official picks by the end of the week. I think Pittsburgh will end the Chargers streak and I think Baltimore could upset Tennesee. I also think the Panthers will defeat the Cardinals. I think next week will be a good weekend of football.

Tex to be introduced

The Yankees offices have been closed since christmas. They will be reopening tomorrow and it looks like they may be ready to unveil Big Tex on Tuesday. The Daily News was reporting this today. A interesting part of this Tex signing is that Bucky Dent Played with Tex father in high school and was reunited with him years later when Tex first came to Texas and Dent was a coach there. Bucky Dent says that Tex will thrive in NY, lets all hope so. The Yankees will be holding a clinic in Taiwan Jan 7-11 for pitchers, catchers and coaches. The taiwanese participants are all high school level. This is the Yankees largest outreach to Taiwan, of course they have the most popular guy from there in Ching Ming Wang.

Alexandra Brooke Marchese

Here is me and the newest addition to the Yankees family my precious daughter. This is the reason i have not been active with this blog in the last week or so.