Baseball! Yes thats right, pitchers and catchers reported to *spring* training.
Lots of movement of the aforementioned catchers and (especially) pitchers.
For those of you who dont follow baseball news in the offseason...Johan Santana (LHP, multiple time Cy Young winner) is now a Met, in exchange for a boatload of prospects. The deal renders the Twins a non-issue for next season, while making the Mets NL favorites. Perhaps overshadowed by Santana's greatness, Danny Haren and Erik Bedard were also on the move. Haren joins Santana in migrating to the NL, joining the babybacks (Diamondbacks) team that surprised many last year, and may be a team of Destiny this season (Destiny in this case meaning making it to the NLCS where they will lose to the mets). Bedard moved from Baltimore to Seattle, which places him in a slightly less competitive division and a more pitcher friendly ballpark (SAFECO field). Questions about his health however remain, after he missed significant time at the end of last season, and ended up starting only 28 games (although he still finished third in the AL in strikeouts).
Some aces are also on the comeback trail, joining Mark Prior (who will healthy when Duke Nukem Forever is released). Pedro Martinez looks to join Santana atop the mets rotation, and (I think) has a decent change of being a top tier pitcher once again. Across the league, Jason Schmidt has been working hard in the offseason and seems to think his recovery from arthroscopic shoulder surgery is going well. If his velocity is back to '05 or even '06 levels, he could be very effective pitching in Chavez Ravine. Fransisco Liriano could be a bright spot in the Twins rotation, recovering from (I believe) Tommy John surgery. Escobar and Schilling are already hurt, the former out until midseason, and the latter out perhaps for the rest of his natural life.
I think thats all the news of merit, though Im sure Im overlooking some moves.
Should be an interesting season for sure
~Turkina