NL Baseball

When the New York Yankees hired Joe Girardi as their manager before the 2008 season, they felt he had the ideal background to help nurture the development of young players, particularly pitchers Ian Kennedy, Philip Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. They promised patience.
Not that anybody should have believed it.

Now that it appears Pedro Martinez's run with the New York Mets is done, somebody's got to say it.
Might as well be me.
So here goes ...
He wasn't worth it.
He wasn't worth the four years his former team, the Boston Red Sox, refused to give him. He wasn't worth the $53 million the Mets gave him.
Simply put: Pedro failed.

In about a month, when the Super Bowl is over and spring training is about to open, Mark McGwire should start talking about his past. He can tell us the things he wouldn't say in front of Congress, answering all the questions he so artlessly ducked that day in 2005.

It's time for the San Francisco Giants to Manny up.
This team desperately needs somebody being somebody, and nobody does that better than Manny.
If the Giants manage to land Manny Ramirez, they will make their boldest statement since 1993, when they went all-in on a dubious diva from Pittsburgh named Barry Bonds.

With his death this week, Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad was described as the man who "saved" major league baseball in the Twin Cities. True, sort of.

With Ian Stewart ready for his big-league opportunity, the Colorado Rockies have what could be a key bargaining chip for a major offseason deal with incumbent third baseman Garrett Atkins.

The New York Yankees made the biggest splash at the winter meetings, increasing their offer to seven years and $161 million to make left-handed free-agent pitcher CC Sabathia decide the Bronx is a palatable place to pitch.
But the New York Mets made the biggest move.

Will the CC Sabathia sweepstakes turn into a San Francisco Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers affair?
If the marquee free agent truly wants to pitch in the National League and truly wants to pitch in California, he has two choices -- and one's not the cost-cutting Padres.

In recent weeks, several agents have downplayed the possible impact of the nation's financial problems on baseball.

From the boorish behavior of Manny Ramirez to the empty-headed world of Roger Clemens, baseball had its share of moments to forget in 2008, and what better time to recognize the turkeys than Thanksgiving weekend?