• With yesterday’s win, the Yankees are back at .500 with a 17-17 record. We are third place in the AL East, 4.5 behind the first place Jays.
• Alex Rodriguez will make his New Yankee Stadium debut today after coming back from his injury last week. It will be interesting to see how he does and how the crowd reacts after all of the recent steroid news concerning him.
• Believe it or not, Johnny Damon is actually leading the team in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in as of right now with .318, 9, and 26 respectively.
• Phil Hughes will make today’s start against the Twins, hoping to rebound from his dreadful outing against the Orioles on the 9th, in which he let up 8 runs in 1.2 innings.

And some news from around the league:

• Manny Ramirez apoligized to his teammates after being suspended for 50 games due to a drug violation. Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt requested that he apoligize and he complied. It will be amusing to see how things unfold in LA and how Torre deals with it.
• The Twins announced that their new stadium will have roof-top seating. The park is scheduled to open next year and the current price tag is at $545 million.
• The Rockies added Randy Flores to their roster and designated Glendon Rusch.

Stay tuned for more updates soon and thanks for reading…

• The Dodgers made yet another offer to Manny Ramirez and he yet again, declined. The Dodgers have bid against themselves a couple of times already and I don’t see them doing it again. Manny will have to learn the hard way…
• A. Rod. homered in our first spring training game of the year in which he was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos.
• A. Rod. has been told to keep his cousin, who is the one that gave him the PEDs, away from the clubhouse and the team to avoid unnecessary distractions.
• Ken Griffey Jr. is a Mariner again! It is great to see him back where he started and I want to wish him the best of luck because he is one of the best genuine and pure players of the modern era.
• Johan Santana was scratched today due to a sore elbow.
• Tim Lincecum agreed to a one year, $650k deal with the Giants- what a steal for San Francisco!

Stay tuned for more updates later, especially after the season gets under way. I am truely sorry for the lack of updates, but I am currently searching for other writers to help keep this blog alive- if you are interested use the contact form or leave a comment here and I will reply back.

• First, I will start with the most relevant story for the Yankees and perhaps the biggest in the world of baseball at the moment: Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs while he was with the Rangers. The star third-baseman made the announcement after four sources leaked the information to Sports Illustrated. Now the debate about steroids and the MLB is in full swing once more and the purity of the game is really at stake this time because of all of those people (including me) who were looking forward to A. Rod. breaking the home run record and returning the league back to pureness. Now that isn’t going to happen. I really hope players stop this trend because it really is unfair, but I also think the media and government need to take a step back out of this one. Players in other pro sports, namely the NFL, test positive for PEDs too, yet they are overlooked because “that is what the people want to see.” It does not make sense to have this double standard. The media needs to stop this attack on baseball. The government, on the other hand, needs to stop getting involved as well with this witchhunt for steroid users. We have bigger problems at hand and it really shouldn’t be meddling like this in the MLB, a part of the private sector. Also, shame that those independent sources leaked the information to SI because by doing so they violated the confidentiality rights of Rodriguez, which is a serious crime. I will almost certainly be posting more about this topic later.
• The Angels sign Ervin Santana to a 4 year, $30 million deal.
• The Braves are interested in Ken Griffey Jr.- one of the last great modern players who are still steroid-free. Too bad his injuries held him back otherwise he would be the “savior”…
• C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett had their initial workouts with the Yanks and things are looking good so far.
• The Mets agree with Livan Hernandez on a minor league deal.
• Hank Aaron believes Bonds should keep the record because he feels it isn’t right to just wipe out history. It is a nice though and Aaron is one heck of a guy, but in my mind Bonds will never be home run king.

• The biggest story of the past few days was Jeff Kent announcing his retirement. The second baseman spoke with tears in front of reporters at his press conference, remembering the various people who he was hired by and worked with over the course of his 17-year-long career. Kent is one of those guys that was never afraid to speak his mind and he has built a unique identity for himself that is respected all around the league. He took a strong stance against performance enhancing drugs and through hard work he managed to have a very successful pro career, one that will likely end with him being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Kent will be missed.
• Ben Sheets met with the Texas Rangers about a possible deal. Sheets lives in Dallas, so a deal with the Rangers is definitely of interest to him and as we all know the Rangers can certainly use the pitcher. Sheets was offered salary arbitration by the Brewers, so if he signs with the Rangers, Milwaukee will receive draft picks.
• The Brewers agreed to a new 2-year-deal with first baseman Prince Fielder worth $18 million.
• The owner of the Astros says that there is a possibility that Andy Pettitte will go back to Houston this season. The Astros are also looking to see whether or not Roger Clemens will come to spring training.

Stay tuned for more updates and news (both about the Yankees and other major news) in coming days.

• The Cubs have agreed to a deal worth $4.2 million with closer Kevin Gregg as they try to again build the long-awaited team that will end their World Series drought
• The Orioles have agreed to a big deal with Nick Markakis, worth approximately $66 million over 6 years
• Derek Jeter is on the provisional roster for the World Baseball Classic
• Felix Hernandez of the Mariners avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $3.8 million deal with Seattle
• Albert Pujois’ elbow seems fine after his recent surgery on it
• The White Sox and RHP Bobby Jenks have agreed to a one year, $5.6 million contract
• Ryan Madson agreed to a $12 million, three year deal with the Phillies
• New rules have been implemented concerning maple bats and many manufacturers aren’t happy
• There are also conversations about how the new bats will have different “sweet spots”

• Team president, Randy Levine, was subpoenaed today by a state assembly committee investigating the public funding that is being used for the new Yankee Stadium. Levine is supposed to report at the hearing on Wednesday.
• Rickey Henderson got elected into the Hall of Fame in his first appearance on the ballot. Congratulations to him, he really deserves it considering how great a player he was. He ended with over 90% of the vote, but many analysts expected him to get more than he did.
• Former Boston slugger Jim Rice also made the Hall, in his last year of eligibility.
• Mark McGwire, in his third year on the ballot, actually saw a decrease in number of votes. It isn’t looking good for the performance-enhancing drug users- thankfully.
• The final decision on the Cubs sale should be coming later this week.
• The Braves sign Derek Lowe to a $60 million deal
• The Red Sox sign John Smoltz to a $5.5 million deal
• The Yankees will win the World Series in 2009- at least I’m hoping.

It was a truly spectacular event and for those who haven’t seen footage from it, you really must. It was a great derby, one that will be remembered for years and one that is certainly very fitting for the last year at Yankee.

Now on the other side of the ball, is the NL, where there are only a couple of teams that even look like they have a chance to challenge one of the top 5 from the AL. The AL has been dominant for years and this off season has showed us that it isn’t the end. Look at last year: do you seriously think that any of the AL playoff teams would have lost in the World Series to any of the NL playoff teams? Exactly. And this year the AL is better, thats just scary.