Feb 15 - Pitchers and Catchers

Today is an important day on the Calendar and its not because its the two-month warning to tax day. No, today its important because its the day when pitchers and catchers begin showing up at Spring Training sites all over Arizona and Florida. And after spending a winter discussing tawdry subjects such as steroids and Scott Boras, we can finally sit down and start discussing some good old baseball. This was one of the busier off-seasons in recent memories and so everyone should take some time this week to learn where everyone ended up after the leagues annual reshuffling. There were some huge changes over the winter and luckily we will have the next six weeks to discuss how it will all sort itself out. But today is not the day for predictions. Today is reserved as a day of celebration because it marks the birth of a new season and its on this day where hope springs eternal - that is unless you live in Tampa, Pittsburgh or Kansas City.

You want to know what it feels like to be thrown under the bus? Just ask Brian Cashman. The Yankee General Manger got tossed into fifth Avenue on Monday when Yankee President Randy Levine conceded that certain references to steroids were specifically deleted from Jason Giambi's mammoth contract before it was signed in 2001. Levine explained that the removal was fine with the Yankees since broader language in the contract still provided them the team with some protection in case Giambi was discovered to have used illegal drugs. Levine's comments fly in the face of those that Cashman made on Friday. The Yankees GM went ballistic that day, arguing that the New York Times had swung and missed when it reported that the Yanks had deleted some references to steroids from Giambi's contract. I guess Brian should have checked with the Yanks PR department before going public with his diatribe against the Times. Brian, can you say low man on the totem pole?

Staying with the Yanks, that pin you heard drop on the floor in Yankeeville yesterday stemmed from news out of Minnesota where the Twins signed stud lefthander Johan Santana to a four year deal. The Yanks long-term strategists had viewed Santana as a great candidate to replace Randy Johnson when the Big Unit finally breaks down or retires. Someday, he may be that replacement, but the Yanks will now have to wait until after the 08 season to overpay Johan.

It seems the trendy thing this year among baseball writers is to pick Detroit pitcher Jeremy Bonderman as the American League's breakout player. Gammons mentioned him yesterday and I saw Bonderman's name mentioned in a couple of different spots this past weekend. Some of Jason's supporters see him as the second coming of Bret Saberhagan. Like a young Sabes, there is no doubt Bonderman can bring it and at 22, he has great upside. The thing I can't figure out is how he only went 11-13 last year with internals that were pretty damn good. Guys batted only .226 against him yet his ERA was almost five. His control wasn't great, but he does strike a lot of guys out and batters don't jack him all that often. Jason finished the year strong by going 6-3 with an ERA under three in his final 9 starts. Mind you, two of these wins were shutouts over Tampa and Kansas City, but a shutout is good stuff no matter who it comes against in the majors. Bonderman is getting there, but it scares me that everyone thinks it will be this year. I'll be the contrarian and give Bonderman 14 wins in 05 and 18 in his breakout 06.

I am getting real tired of these NBA GM's who make meaningless and irrelevant moves just for the sake keeping the league's beat writers awake. Case in point is what we saw in Minnesota this week. Mired in mediocrity, Minnesota GM Kevin Mchale had seen enough and decided to fire Flip Saunders as coach of the Timberwolves. Rather then bring in outside help, McHale will now coach the team and it was clear from his news conference that the prospect of coaching is something that Frankenstein is dreading. So why make the change? The wolves are going nowhere and it has nothing to do with coaching. Their problems stem from personnel - pure and simple. Sam Cassel is old and can't stay healthy, Sprewell is a disaster and Wally wants out. This team has no center and has become completely dysfunctional. McHale knows there is nothing he can do about the team's real problems, which he created, so what does he do? He fires the coach. I guess this was expected, but that doesn't make it right. We see this all the time in the NBA. GM's are sitting on bad teams and rather then just sit tight and accept their punishment, they go out and make changes solely for the sake of making changes. Whether its replacing a coach or trading one headache for another, we see too much of this busy work. Another point to support my theory - ESPN's Chad Forde spent about 1000 words the other day on a column dedicated to pre all-star game trade rumours. A chunk of these rumours concerned teams going absolutely nowhere and involved players who will assuredly never make meaningful contributions to a World Champions. With this being the case - who cares? Who cares that Portland is trying to dump Shareef or Atlanata is shopping Antoine? These guys get traded for each other all the time and it never makes a single bit of difference. Who cares that Houston is looking at Derek Anderson? Despite having Yao and McCrady, the Rockets are mired in mediocrity and people think Derek Anderson is going to be the silver bullett? Why do these GMs even bother the paperwork? I quite frankly don't have an answer, but if I had to guess, I would say GM's make these moves to help justify their own worth.

ESPN.COM has begun accepting votes for this year's "hottest female" athlete award. As per usual, no past winners are eligible so no votes for Jennie Finch or Heather Mitts. Also, no one under 18 is eligible so I guess Sharapova is going to have to wait a year before she wins her second "major. " After a cursory review of the candidates, I am putting my money on swimmer Amanda Beard. She got a ton of attention after winning an individual gold medal in Athens and as a result, she seems to have more noteriety then most of the others - the obviuos exception being Serena Williams. Beard has appeared in FHM and obviously looks good in a swimsuit. Furthermore, I beleive that if Beard catches a bad break or two down the road, she could end up in porn and that is enough to sway my vote.

The following comes stratight out of the "Donnie Moore" file. It was announced last last week that Montreal would indeed be allowed to host this Summer's World Swimmming Championships, the first to ever be held on North American soil. Why is this significant? Well. Montreal was always slated to host thse prestigous championships, but last month, the sports' governing body stripped the city of the Championships because it had been unable to secure enough sponsorship. It seeems the government, still scarred by the memories of the 1976 Summer Olympics, was unwilling to make the requisite financial committment to this prestigous sporting event. The move apparently was too much for Yvon DesRochers to bear. DesRochers was the chairman of Montreal's organizing committee and he put a bullet in his head a few weeks back - apparently distrought over his failure. At this point the story reminds me a bit of that travel agent who killed himslef a decade ago when he brought a few dozen people down to the Masters but couldn't find them any tickets. But here is the real kicker - just a week after DesRochers was found dead in his own car - the sports governing body changed its mind and gave Montreal the go-ahead to host the Championships in late July. Talk about a day late and a dollar short.

We have wrapped up day one of the Westminster Dog Show and two major contenders have emerged. The first is the Norfolk Terrier - Coco - a dog that made it to finals of Westminster two years ago, but took last year off to whelp a litter. Terriers have proven to be tough outs at Westminster and Coco looks like the favorite this year. But the dog to watch is Fame, a Great Pyrenees that has already won 19 other best in shows. A pyr has never won best in show at Westminster and Fame actually became the first pyr to ever win the working group. This big dog took out a very impressive collection of dogs to win group and I give Fame a shot to make it two in a row for the 150 pounders. Other winners last night included a peek and tibetan terrier. I don't see either being a serious contender. Further, I don't see a hound emerging today unless Christopher Guest turns up with his slobbering Bloodhound from Best in Show. One dog to keep an eye on will be the winner of the herding group . Judging the finals is Lynette Saltzman - a woman who breeds shetland sheepdogs. She could be partial to the herders, although I still think this comes down to Fame and Coco.

Monday night in College Basketball was pretty light although a couple games merit attention. First off, Pittsburgh completed its season sweep over Syracuse with a 68-64 win at the Carrier Dome. Pitt point guard Carl Krauser hit a huge three late in the game to seal this win for Pitt, but the Panthers were really led by Chevy Troutman who tallied twenty, sixteen of which came from the line. As for Syracuse, Gerry McNamara should probably get a note from his mother excusing him from any more Big Monday's on ESPN. Last week, Macs went 4-18 against UCONN and last night he was a woeful 5-21 versus Pittsburgh. Luckily for Gerry, Syracuse doesn't have another Monday night game on its schedule, unless of course it plays for the National Championship. That noise you heard out of Texas last night came out of Lubbock where the Red Raiders shocked the Number two Jayhawks in double overtime. It is only the second time Texas Tech has ever beaten Kansas and hopefully last night's win help give some overdue exposure to Red Raider sensation Ron Ross. In case you have never heard of Ross, He is having a huge year. This long-range gunner is shooting 56 percent from the field and better then 50 percent from three point land. Ross had 21 last night, and added 11 boards and 7 assists while playing forty-nine minutes. Not many people have heard of this guy, but he will be first team all-conference and get some all-american votes from those voters who actually watch conferences other then the ACC and Big East.

There really is not much to preview tonight in College Basketball. Miami could help their tourney cause with a win at home against Wake and South Carolina will try to make a name for itself in the woeful SEC with a win tonight against Kentucky. The NBA slate tonight has nothing appetizing so my viewing attention will be focused on the dogs. I am not sure the group competitions are must sees, but I suggest being home by 10:40 to catch Best in Show. Hopefully, around 10:55, Fame will make it two in a row for the big dogs.