Some Odds & Ends

The Hawk Soars Into the Hall of Fame … FINALLY!

On his ninth time on the ballot, former Cubs right fielder (and 1987 NL Most Valuable Player) Andre Dawson finally garnered the necessary 75 percent of the vote by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. As you may know, players may appear on the ballot five years after retiring from the game and can stay on it for up to 15 years as long as they receive at least five percent of the vote. Dawson, who appeared on 77.9 percent of the ballots, made a huge jump from last year when he received 67 percent. Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven came within an eyelash of also making it in, Alomar missing by eight votes and Blyleven missing by only five.

Former Chicago Sun Times a-hole Jay Mariotti went on record bragging about how he submitted a blank ballot. What a tool.

Cardinals Land Holliday

I must say, I didn’t see it happening. I, like almost everyone else, saw Holliday as a rental player for the Cardinals last year. Now he’s signed for 7 years and $119-120 million, mainly because of the lack of suitors willing to overpay for another Scott Boras “phenom”. That being said, can the Cardinals afford both Holliday AND Albert Pujols once his contract ends after 2011? The Cardinals do not seem like the kind of team to commit roughly half of their payroll to only two players. And if they do, what will the rest of the team look like? Will they be able to keep Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainright? Can they hold onto Yadier Molina? These are three talented, and soon-to-be expensive players the Cardinals probably want to keep. Can they keep them all, or will the Holliday/Pujols package be too much? Or, even more intriguing, will the Cardinals be able to afford Pujols at all in two years? In any event, 2010 and 2011 look to be good years (barring injuries) for St. Louis, so expect the cloud of arrogance to hover over Missouri for a while. Then again, the Cubs were heavy favorites going into the 2009 season, so who knows. That’s why you play the games.

Cubs Looking at Sheets?

There have been some rumblings that the Cubs are looking at bringing in oft-injured former Brewers ace Ben Sheets. At last check, Sheets was looking at a payday of roughly $12 million for a one year deal. Now that it’s apparent no team is willing to go there for a guy who missed all of 2009 due to injury, perhaps the Cubs can swoop in with a high-incentive deal. I’d love to see a guy like Sheets pitching at Wrigley. It could be a low risk, high reward situation if he gets back to form. Let’s not get too carried away just yet, though. These are just rumors at this point.

Fantasy Baseball!!!

I will be hosting another private fantasy baseball league again this season. I will probably use this blog to post updates, but will also send out special invitations to people who may be interested. I will again be using the MLB.COM format, as I like their setup better than the others. More to come on that.