So you’re the general manager of the new Las Vegas Craps team and baseball commissioner Bud Selig comes to you with the offer of all offers.

He says, since the Craps are going to struggle this year offensively with a lineup comprised of over-the-hill veterans and unproven rookies, you get your pick of stealing either the Phillies or the Giants’ starting rotation.

“Sweet mother of all that is holy,” you say to Selig. “Those are the best starting rotations in the game!”

“Yes they are, Craps owner,” Selig says. “But you have to choose one right now.”

So which rotation would you rather have? Let’s take a look at the deets first.

Philadelphia Phillies

Roy Halladay
Age: 33
Salary: $20 million in 2011; $20 million in 2012; $20 million in 2013; $20 million option in 2014.
Career Stats: 169-86, 1,714 Ks, 3.32 ERA, 58 complete games, 19 shutouts
Accolades: Two-time Cy Young winner, two-time wins champion, seven-time All-Star.

Cliff Lee
Age: 32
Salary: $11 million 2011; $21.5 million in 2012; $25 million from 2013-2015.
Career Stats: 102-61, 3.85 ERA, 1,085 Ks
Accolades: Cy Young winner, two-time All-Star, 7-2 postseason record, 2.13 postseason ERA.

Roy Oswalt
Age: 33
Salary: $16 million in 2011; $16 million w/ $2 million buyout in 2012.
Career Stats: 150-83, 3.18 ERA, 1,666 Ks
Accolades: 2005 NLCS MVP, three-time All-Star, 5-1 postseason record, 3.39 postseason ERA.

Cole Hamels
Age: 27
Salary: $9.5 Million in 2011, Free agent in 2012.
Career Stats: 59-44, 3.53 ERA, 887 Ks
Accolades: 2007 All-Star, 2008 NLCS MVP, 2008 World Series MVP, 6-4 postseason record, 3.45 postseason ERA.

Joe Blanton
Age: 30
Salary: $8.5 million in 2011; $8.5 million in 2012.
Career Stats: 70-60, 4.32 ERA, 765 Ks
Accolades: World series champion in 2008.

San Francisco Giants

Tim Lincecum
Age: 26
Salary: Signed a two-year, $23 million contract extension in 2010; arbitration eligible in 2012-2013.
Career Stats: 56-27, 3.04 ERA, 907 Ks.
Accolades: Two-time Cy Young winner, three-time All-Star, led majors in strikeouts in 2008, led NL in strikeouts in 2008, 2009, 2010, World Series champion 2010, 4-1 postseason record, 2.43 postseason ERA.

Matt Cain
Age: 26
Salary: $6.25 million in 2011; 2012 free agent.
Career Stats: 57-62, 3.45 ERA, 906 Ks.
Accolades: 2009 All-Star, 2010 World Series champion, 2-0 postseason record, 0.00 postseason ERA in 21.1 innings.

Madison Bumgarner
Age: 21
Salary: Unavailable
Career Stats: 7-6, 2.90 ERA, 96 Ks.
Accolades: World Series Champion 2010, youngest left-hander ever to pitch eight shutout innings in a World Series game, 5th youngest pitcher ever to start a World Series, fourth youngest pitcher ever to win a World Series.

Jonathan Sanchez
Age: 28
Salary: $4.8 million in 2011; Arbitration Eligible in 2012.
Career Stats: 34-39, 4.26 ERA, 634 Ks.
Accolades: Pitched a no-hitter in 2009, World Series champion in 2010, struck out 11 postseason batters in one game in 2010.

Barry Zito
Age: 32
Salary: $18.5 million in 2011; $19 million in 2012; $20 million in 2013; $18 million in 2014 with club option $7 million buyout.
Career Stats: 142-120, 3.86 ERA, 1,651
Accolades: 2002 AL Cy Young winner, three-time All-Star, will be known for having the least-deserving contract in baseball history…oh, sorry. These were supposed to be positives.

Before we go on, let’s say that the Craps have an average-sized ballpark. It’s neither the Little League stadium the Phillies call home, nor the pitcher-friendly AT&T Park. It’s just average. (If you really need to know the dimensions before you make your decision, then leave now and go pour yourself a beer because you need one.)

Most prospective Crap owners would undoubtedly take the Phillies, and why not? They have four aces in Halladay, Lee, Oswalt and Hamels, as well as a fifth starter in Blanton who helped them win them a World Series in 2008. That group has won a combined 550 games, has struck out a combined 6,117 batters and owns a combined three Cy Young awards and two postseason MVP awards (one NLCS, one World Series).

If you’re looking for the best rotation in baseball, it resides in Philadelphia. No question, period, end of discussion.

But that isn’t the question now, is it? The question is which rotation would you rather have if you were starting a new organization tomorrow (or were the GM of this new organization, or what have you). And in that scenario, the Giants may be able to balance the scales in their favor.

The average age of the Phillies’ starters is 31. The average age for the Giants’ starters is 26.6. That’s a momentous difference to factor into your decision, especially when you consider everyone’s salaries, the fact that the Giants’ starters have already proven that they can win a World Series and given how Lincecum, Bumgarner and Sanchez still have eligibility left on their current deals (thus, are under team control for the time being).

Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez (the rockiest of the three, but still loaded with talent) have just reached their prime, while Bumgarner’s career has only begun. Zito is the trump card, but you could certainly do worse than having a former Cy Young winner as your fifth starter. Halladay and Lee don’t appear to be slowing down, but Oswalt showed some decline last year and who knows if the Phils will be able to keep Hamels and Blanton past this year because of how much money the top 3 are making.

Granted, Zito’s contract would hamstring a young organization like the Craps, but it’s nothing compared to what Halladay, Lee and Oswalt are making over the next four or five years. Eventually, the Phillies will have to make multiple decisions about what to do with their aging roster. They may win a World Series in the meantime (and they better given the expectations, which is another reason to consider the Giants’ starting five), but is it worth the future financial hell that the situation will undoubtedly create?

Maybe it is. For me, I’d take the Giants’ rotation if I were starting an organization tomorrow. I think Lincecum will eventually be talked about as one of the best ever, while Cain is a future Cy Young winner in my eyes and the sky’s the limit for Bumgarner. Again, this group has already won a World Series so they know what winning a championship demands and four out of the five starters are all under the age of 30. Nobody outside of Zito is making ridiculous money, which means I have financial flexibility when it comes to not only re-signing my starters in the future, but putting together a decent lineup as well. I want a bright future, which the Giants’ rotation provides. Lincecum and Cain (who becomes a free agent in 2012) will eventually need new deals, but only Lincecum will command Halladay/Oswalt/Lee-type money to retain.

That said, I wouldn’t bemoan anyone who would choose the Phillies’ starting five given how that’s the best collection of starters we’ll see in a longtime. And if you win one World Series as a GM, that buys you job security for years to come. Just be prepared for what happens next when you have to juggle all of those salaries while trying to fill holes at other positions (like right field for instance).

So I’ll throw the question out again: You’re the GM of the new Las Vegas Craps baseball team and you have the opportunity to steal either the Phillies or Giants’ starting rotation and not have to give anything up in return. Which rotation do you lift?

Contributors: Anthony Stalter, John Paulsen, Paul Costanzo, Drew Ellis and Mike Farley

Tiger Woods gets around.

We hesitate to put this under “golf” because the only clubs involved were his wife’s nine-iron hitting the window of his SUV and the various establishments where Tiger wined and dined all of his mistresses…over a dozen in all. This was the biggest story of the early part of the year, but it got to the point that whenever a new alleged mistress came forward, the general public was like, “Yeah, we get it. Tiger screwed around on his wife. A lot.” He has spent the rest of the year attempting to rebuild his once-squeaky clean image, but it’s safe to say, we’ll never look at Tiger the same way.

LeBron wilts when his team needs him most.

Say the words “LeBron” and “Game 5” in the same sentence and NBA fans everywhere know exactly what you’re talking about. In the biggest game of the season, LeBron looked disinterested, going 3-of-14 from the field en route to a 120-88 blowout at home at the hands of the Celtics. There were rumors swirling about a possible relationship between LeBron’s mom and his teammate, Delonte West, and there’s speculation that LeBron got that news before tipoff and that’s why he played so poorly. Regardless of the cause, LeBron played awful in that game, and it turned out to be his swan song in Cleveland as a member of the Cavaliers. Talk about leaving a bitter taste.

You can auction off your talented son’s athletic abilities and get away with it.

The NCAA set a strange precedent this season while dealing with the Newton family. The always inconsistent and completely morally uncorrupt NCAA decided in its infinite wisdom that despite discovering that Cecil Newton shopped his son Cam to Mississippi State for $180,000, and that is a violation of NCAA rules, that Cam would still be eligible because it couldn’t be proven that he knew about it. Conference commissioners and athletic directors around the country spoke out about the decision, while agent-wannabes and greedy fathers everywhere had a light bulb go off in their own heads: As long as we say the player doesn’t know about it, it could go off without a hitch. What was Cecil’s punishment in this whole thing? Limited access to Auburn for the last two games of the season. Easy with that hammer there, NCAA.

The Packers made the right decision by picking Rodgers over Lord Favre.

Depending on who you are, this topic could also fall under the “What We Already Knew” category. Many Green Bay fans made GM Ted Thompson out to be the villain when he didn’t bow down to Lord Favre when Brett finally changed his mind (for a third time, mind you) and wanted to come back to Green Bay. But what those people never grasped was that Thompson had to do what was right for the Packers – not Brett Favre. So he committed to Aaron Rodgers and never looked back. While Lord Favre did lead the Vikings to the NFC Championship in 2009, his 2010 season in Minnesota has been an utter disaster. As of this writing, it’s the Packers who are still in playoff contention for the second straight year, while Favre looks like he’s ready to pack it up for good. Rodgers, meanwhile, has developed into a MVP candidate and a true leader in every sense of the word. Because of him, the Packers’ future is bright and had Thompson broken his back for Favre in ’08, who knows where Rodgers (or the Packers) would be today. He made the right decision.

Ron Artest is clutch.

Coming off an NBA title in 2009, the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t bow to Trevor Ariza’s demands when he hit free agency. Instead, they signed Ron Artest to take Ariza’s place, and Artest had to listen to the comparisons all season long. Ariza was a better fit. Ariza is a better shooter. Ariza is a quicker defender. Those things may or may not be true, but when the Lakers’ season was on the line, Artest came up big. First, in the closing moments of a tied Game 5 against the Suns in the Western Conference Finals, Artest gathered Kobe Bryant’s airball and put it in for the game winning bucked at the buzzer. If that wasn’t enough, with a minute remaining in Game 7 of the Finals, and the Lakers nursing a three-point lead, Artest made a huge three-pointer to push the lead to six, effectively keeping the Celtics at bay and ensuring that the Lakers win their second consecutive title. The only possible follow-up was Artest’s now-famous post-game press conference. Good singing? Yeah, we think so.

Athletes aren’t always about the money.

Any reasonable non-athlete or celebrity would view $120 million and think to themselves, “Yeah, I think that’s good enough.” But athletes in contract years have rejected $100-million-plus contracts before in hopes of getting more. That has led many to believe that athletes are always about the money. But Cliff Lee is just one example that that’s not always the case. He left roughly $30-50 million on the table to sign with the Phillies instead of the Rangers or Yankees. He liked his time in Philadelphia before he was traded to Seattle in the winter of 2009 and he wanted to return to the “City of Brotherly Love.” He had the opportunity to make more but like he said, “How much money does a person need?” Money isn’t always the driving factor for players, which is why the Yankees and Rangers are currently scrambling for pitching help while the Phillies have added to an already rock-solid rotation.

Urban Meyer probably should have walked away last year when he first wanted to.

It turns out that Nikki Meyer did get her daddy back – it was just a year later than she had expected. Meyer made like Brett Favre a year ago, saying he was resigning, then saying he was taking some time off, then just saying screw it and coming back. He came back to a team without his savior, Tim Tebow, an anemic offense led by the most hated offensive coordinator in the country, Steve Addazio (type that name into Google and check out the most popular searches), and ultimately a 7-5 record. Meyer definitely has had a great run at Florida, and likely will have another good run somewhere else in the next four or five years. But his diva act and this latest season will put a small stain on what he’s accomplished.

We knew Vick had talent, but what we learned is that he could mature.

It’ll be a while yet before Michael Vick proves that he can behave off the field. Right now he must be on his best behavior because his football career and financial security is on the line. But in terms of on the field, there’s no question he’s matured as a player. There used to be a time when Vick was only viewed as a running back posing as a quarterback. But with the help of Eagles coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, he’s finally developed into the dual-threat that he was supposed to be coming out of Virginia Tech in 2001. He still has a long way to go in his decision-making and with his mechanics (particularly with his feet). But he isn’t being viewed as a MVP candidate solely based on his running ability. He has more pocket presence now than earlier in his career with the Falcons and he’s becoming a pass-first quarterback instead of one that rushes through his reads and takes off running. Simply put: he’s matured.

The UFC is on the verge of having a tremendous 2011.

With the announcement of the UFC absorbing the WEC and creating two new weight classes in the bantamweight (135 lbs.) and featherweight (145 lbs.) divisions, along with adding a crop of exciting new lightweights, the top promotion in MMA is going to have a busy year with a lot of blockbuster cards. The addition of the WEC will bring more exciting fights as the smaller guys always have explosive matchups and it will also give more main-stream attention to some of the best pound-for-pound fighters like Jose Aldo, Dominick Cruz, Anthony Pettis, and Urijah Faber. The UFC is also discussing the possibility of adding a flyweight (125 lbs.) division, which would give the organization more great bouts to play with. It will be likely that 80% of the UFC pay per views this year should feature at least one title fight with this new addition.

Maybe Josh Hamilton is proof that athletes can change.

Rangers’ outfielder Josh Hamilton is not a perfect man. Given his track record, he probably wouldn’t be a parents’ first choice to be a role model for their children, although his success story will inspire anyone. By now, most people have heard Hamilton’s story. The former first overall pick of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays fell victim to the life of drugs and alcohol abuse early in his career and he almost lost baseball (not to mention his family) several times over the past decade. But this past year he was incident-free and he helped the Rangers make their first World Series appearance in club history. He also appeared in his third-straight All-Star Game and won the 2010 AL MVP award. There’s no guarantee that he won’t have another slip up, but if his 2010 season is any indication, maybe he’s proof that athletes (and people for that matter) can change.

Rich Rodriguez can win with a quarterback that fits his system. He just can’t win enough…

…because he still doesn’t know how to recruit — or find a coordinator who can coach defense. Denard Robinson put up ridiculous numbers, and other than the Ohio State and Michigan State outings, Michigan’s offense scored enough points to win games. Of course, Ohio State and Michigan State are the two games that mean the most to Michigan fans. So yeah, not so good. We may never find out what happens when Rodriguez has experience to go along with explosiveness at the quarterback position at Michigan, because the Gator Bowl could be his final game. And if it is, not many people would blame Dave Brandon.

Brett Favre is kind of a creep.

Brett Favre is a first ballot Hall of Famer and his consecutive starts streak is easily one of the most respected streaks in all of sports. But everyone saw a different side of Brett this year thanks to a 27-year-old former Jets’ sideline reporter named Jenn Sterger. The “junk mail” scandal cast new (horrifying) light on this NFL legend, one as a total perv. Hey, nobody would blame a guy for pursuing a hot chick that usually has her, um, “assets” out for the world to see. But Brett is married with kids and his measures were a little extreme. After all, if he can’t land a chick just based on him being Brett Favre, why would he think photos of his junk would win her over? If, “Hey, I’m Brett Favre and I’m a NFL legend,” doesn’t work, then it’s probably time to move on. No creepy phone messages and photos of your ruler are going to save you. While this story is still ongoing, it’s officially moved to the nobody-gives-a-damn section of the world. But while people will always remember Brett for his fourth quarter comebacks, his consecutive starts streak and his “boy, he sure has fun out there!” style of play, he’ll also be known as the weirdo who e-mailed photos of his rod to some broad.

Tyreke Evans is a star in the making.

We thought Tyreke would be good, but we weren’t expecting him to be this good this quickly. He was named 2010 Rookie of the Year after posting 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, which made him just the fourth player (Oscar Robinson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James) to average 20-5-5 in his rookie season. The sky is the limit for this kid.

Stephen Strasburg has the potential to be great but he’s also highly injury prone.

Once he was called up to the big leagues, Nationals’ starter Stephen Strasburg did exactly what many pundits predicted he would: Dazzle and frustrate hitters with his amazing stuff, all while packing the seats at Nationals Park. In 2010, he finished with 92 strikeouts in just 68 innings while compiling a sparklingly 2.91 ERA. The problem is that he only pitched in 12 games because he was placed on the disabled list with an inflamed right shoulder in July. He returned to action on August 10 but in his third game back, he was pulled from a start with what turned out to be a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Unfortunately the injury requires Tommy John surgery, which may cost him his entire 2011 season. It’s a shame that one of baseball’s best young stars is already being shelved before his career really got going.

Iowa had a baaaaaaaaaaad year.

The loss at Arizona to start the season was a sign of things to come for the Hawkeyes, who struggled in close games and stumbled to an incredibly disappointing 7-5 record and a spot in the Insight Bowl. But little did we know, that would be the least of Kirk Ferentz’s problems. He’ll be without star running back Adam Robinson, who has been suspended for violating team rules. They’ll also be without fellow running backs Jewel Hampton and Brandon Wegher, who both will be transferring. But wait, there’s more. Star receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos was found to be running an operation Charlie Sheen would be proud of. All of this in one year? Iowa fans can’t wait for the season to be over.

Peyton Hillis is a beast.

The trade Josh McDaniels made earlier this offseason with the Browns could go down as one of the worst trades of all-time if Peyton Hillis continues to run like he has in 2010. A seldom-used halfback/fullback hybrid in Denver, Hillis rarely saw the field thanks to McDaniels. He was traded to Cleveland in the offseason in exchange for Brady Quinn, who couldn’t even beat out rookie Tim Tebow to be Kyle Orton’s back in Denver. Meanwhile, Hillis has eclipsed his first 1,000-yard rushing season and ranks 10th in the league in rushing yards. He’s gaining 4.5 yards per carry this season and most of the time he needs three defenders just to take him down. He has a major fumbling problem (his eight fumbles lead the league) that needs to be corrected before he can become an elite back, but he’s well on his way. He’s proof that McDaniels couldn’t spot talent if it walked right up to him and hit on his wife. (We couldn’t resist.)

Giving money to charity does not make a dumb idea any better.

LeBron’s fans and critics can agree on one thing: “The Decision” was a very bad idea. Before he announced he was going to “take his talents to South Beach,” we were wondering – why would he go through all the trouble just to announce that he was staying with the Cavs? Then we wondered, why hold an hour-long special just to break up with the city of Cleveland? LeBron’s camp still justify the decision by referring to the money they raised for the Boys & Girls Club, and that’s fine, but “The Decision” was a public relations disaster, and LeBron’s image has paid dearly. He has gone from one of the most revered athletes in the country to one of the most reviled. Cavs fans may disagree, but for most of us, it’s not the fact that LeBron left Cleveland – that was his right – it was the way that he left the city and the team that rubbed us the wrong way.

MLB is scared of Mark Cuban.

Back when George Steinbrenner was still alive, the thought of his competing against Mark Cuban every offseason must have been enough to keep most current MLB owners up at night. That’s why they fought hard (and succeeded) to keep Cuban out of baseball and from possibly spicing things up ruining things in MLB. In July of 2008, he officially submitted an initial bid of $1.3 billion to buy the Cubs and was invited to participate in a second round of bidding along with other potential ownership groups. But he was not awarded the team and instead, the Cubs and Wrigley Field went to the Rickets Family for…$900 million (which is obviously significantly less than the $1.3 billion that Cuban was willing to fork over). Cuban also lost his bid to buy the Texas Rangers and now it seems that he’s getting further away from owning his very own baseball club. By the looks of things, it appears as though MLB wants it that way, too. Cuban isn’t afraid to speak his mind and mix things up, which is exactly what “the good ol’ boys” club of major league owners don’t want. They prefer the way the current structure is (i.e. the Yankees drive up the cost of everything and then have to pay out their ass in luxury tax). Cuban would only serve to ruin that, which is exactly why owners will fight to keep him out of Major League Baseball.

Pete Carroll has great timing.

Not only did Carroll avoid being the head man at USC while it was under NCAA sanctions, but he also found himself in the worst division (maybe of all time) in the NFL, and could win it with a 7-9 record. Carroll won’t have to deal with the reduction in scholarships or the eventual break-up with Snoop Dogg. Nope, those are issues for Lane Kiffin to deal with now.

It’s going to take time in Miami.

It takes time to build chemistry and when one of your three stars misses most of preseason due to injury, those growing pains are going to last that much longer. Throw in two more injuries to projected big-minute guys (Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem), and its clear that things didn’t start out smoothly in Miami. The Heat got off to a 9-8 start, but went on a long winning streak as things started to click. They’ll be a major factor in the playoffs, though unless they’re playing at full strength, it will be tough to get past a motivated and revitalized Celtics squad.

Philip Rivers is a miracle worker.

The job Philip Rivers has done keeping the Chargers in contention is nothing short of a miracle. Antonio Gates has missed most of the season due to injuries and No. 1 receiver Vincent Jackson spent most of the year away from the team because he was upset about his contract. Yet even without having his two best playmakers at his disposal, Rivers has thrown for the second most yards in the league (he’s just 116 yards behind Peyton Manning, who ranks first) and has compiled a 105.7 QB Rating (only Tom Brady’s 109.9 rating is better). Due to the Chargers’ record, Rivers isn’t being viewed as a serious MVP candidate but maybe he should be. If the Bolts go on to make the playoffs and better yet, advance a couple of rounds, they have Rivers to thank. He’s been amazing this year.

Steve Spurrier still has what it takes to get to the SEC title game (even though they lost).

Sure, he was helped out quite a bit by the SEC East being way down this year, but Spurrier did beat Alabama and play Auburn down to the wire (the first time). How did he do it? He finally found some elite SEC weapons on offense in Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery. A more consistent quarterback would be nice. Stephen Garcia is finally graduating, — We think. We also thought the same thing the last three years — so Spurrier should be able to groom his successor. He just may end up proving Lee Corso wrong, after all.

Just because a head coach seems like he can motivate doesn’t mean he can win.

We admit – we hopped on Mike Singletary’s bandwagon right from the start. We bought his “I want winners” speech hook, line and sinker. But he’s proven that there’s a difference between a motivator and a head coach in the National Football League. You can be both, but you can’t just be a motivator because that’s all Singletary is at this juncture in his coaching career. Singletary makes for great sound bites and he was a tremendous football player. But he is greatly overmatched week in and week out despite the fact that he usually has better talent. How can a team comprised of star talent like Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree, Vernon Davis and Patrick Willis be so bad? Coaching, coaching, coaching. Players have to execute, but if they’re already behind at kickoff because their game plan isn’t sound, then they’re doomed. And while there’s always been this notion that Singletary can motivate his players, do they play hard for him every week? Or are they as inconsistent as ever and in the midst of another losing season with Singletary at the helm?

It’s good to be a Russian billionaire…usually.

Mikhail Prokhorov is wroth an estimated $13.4 billion, but we have heard of him because he bought the Nets. Nicknamed the “Russian Mark Cuban” by ESPN’s Bill Simmons, Prokhorov is/was determined to turn the Nets around quickly. He had dreams of landing the #1 pick in the 2010 Draft and picking John Wall, but he ended up with the third pick and Derrick Favors instead. He thought he’d be able to woo LeBron James and or Dwyane Wade to New Jersey/Brooklyn, but ended up with Travis Outlaw and Jordan Farmar. He seems determined to build a championship-caliber squad, but it’s going to take time…even for a billionaire.

Brad Stevens is a loyal guy.

When 33-year-old Brad Stevens led Butler to the title game against Duke, there was a lot of speculation about his future. Oregon was just one of several interested parties, but shortly after the Bulldogs lost to the Blue Devils, Stevens signed a 12-year extension that will keep him at Butler through the 2021-22 season. Stevens was grateful to Butler for giving him the opportunity to be a head coach at a very young age, and he rewarded him with some serious loyalty.

Randy Moss lays out a blueprint of what not to do in your contract year.

If ever there were a way for a player not to act during a contract year, Randy Moss in 2010 laid out the blueprint. Moss started angling for a new contract from the Patriots early in the season when he told the media that he had felt disrespected by New England’s lack of commitment. Things only spiraled downward from there, as Moss continued to complain (even after Bill Belichick had told him to shut his mouth and wait until the end of the year) about a new deal until he was finally traded to the Vikings in Week 5. Following a loss to his former team in New England in late October, Moss told the media in a press conference after the game how much he respected Belichick and the Patriots. If one didn’t know better, Moss was almost trying to make a case for New England to take him back. Vikings coach Brad Childress released him days later (even though Minnesota parted with a third-round pick to acquire him just four weeks earlier) and before Moss caught on with the Titans, reports surfaced that he had told the owner of a local restaurant catering service that he would not “feed the food to his dog.” Classy. The Titans picked him up off waivers on November 3, but that was the last time anyone has seen and heard from Randy. To say he’s been unproductive in Tennessee would be an understatement and here’s the kicker: He still needs a new contract. He’ll be begging for the Patriots to take him back once the season is over.

Terrelle Pryor does have it within himself to improve as a passer.

Pryor completed 65.8% of is passes this year, which is a huge improvement over his first two seasons. He also had his best season yardage- and touchdown-wise. This is partially due to just growing up, but a big part of growing up is Pryor starting to stay in the pocket and trust his arm as much as his feet. Sure, he still takes off and is a very dangerous runner — that’s a part of his game he should never get rid of — but he’s starting to find out that in this offense, he needs to be a passer first and a runner second if the Buckeyes are ultimately going to be successful.

Roger Federer isn’t washed up, but Rafael Nadal has passed him.

After a couple of early exits in Wimbledon and the French Open, tennis fans were wondering if Roger’s skills had declined to the point where he wouldn’t win another Grand Slam. But he bounced back Down Under, defeating Andy Murray in the Australian Open to win his 16th slam, a mark that some believe will never be matched. However, there’s a certain 24-year-old Spaniard who is well on his way. Rafael Nadal has won nine Grand Slam titles, including three this year (the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open). Now that his biggest competition is entering his twilight years, Nadal is going to have to find his next rival to push him to greater heights. At this point in his career, Federer only had five Grand Slam titles, so barring injury, Nadal has a great shot at eventually breaking Federer’s record.

It’s easy to lose your job if you make every wrong decision you can possibly make.

Experts say that it takes three years to properly grade a NFL draft class. Josh McDaniels’ first draft class hasn’t even finished their second full season and he’s already out of work, so what does that say about him? It’s not difficult to see why the Broncos fired a head coach that they hired just 23 months earlier. Not when he makes every wrong personnel decision a coach could possibly make. McDaniels hadn’t even been in Denver for three months before he attempted to trade for his former New England pupil Matt Cassel. The problem with that of course, is that the Broncos already had a starting quarterback in Jay Cutler, whom they had to trade to the Bears for a first round pick and Kyle Orton after McDaniels pissed him off with the Cassel trade talk. All was fine in Denver when McDaniels’ Broncos started the 2009 season winning their first six games, but a 2-8 finish had everyone wondering if the perfect start was a fluke. Then McDaniels really got busy. He managed to lose defensive coordinator Mike Nolan to the Dolphins, trade Brandon Marshall to that same Miami team (that made two offensive stars McDaniels lost in two years since being hired), trade feature back Peyton Hillis to the Browns for Brady Quinn (who is buried so far down the depth chart that nobody remembers he was once a first round pick) and trade multiple picks in order to reach for massive project Tim Tebow in the 2010 NFL Draft. The book is still out on Tebow but it’s safe to say that the rest of McDaniels’ moves have not panned out, which is why he finds himself unemployed this holiday season. He’ll resurface as an offensive coordinator somewhere next year, but it may be a while before he’s hired as a head coach again.

The steroid era is officially over.

We’re not naïve to think that players aren’t still juicing or will stop juicing any time soon. But this past year proved that the “steroid era” in baseball is finite. The league-wide batting average in 2009 was the lowest its been in 18 years and there were a whopping six no-hitters or perfect games compiled. Roy Halladay earned only the second no-hitter in postseason history (that’s 107 years of baseball, mind you) and Tim Lincecum threw a complete-game, two-hit shutout that may have statistically been more impressive than Halladay’s no-hitter (if you can believe that). It was only fitting that in the “Year of the Pitcher,” the team with four homegrown arms won the World Series. While chicks will always dig the long ball, it appears as though baseball’s juiced days are over (for now, anyway).-TAB–TAB–TAB-

Raheem Morris can coach.

There were many people who felt as though Raheem Morris wasn’t ready to coach in the NFL. After he and the front office ushered in the youth movement last year and finished 3-13, people were already calling for Morris’ job. But he and the Bucs stayed the course and at press time, they’re playoff hopes are still alive in the NFC. If they can win one of their remaining two games in 2010, Morris will secure his first winning season as a head coach. Granted, the wheels can always fall off quickly in the NFL. A winning season doesn’t always mean future success and even though Tampa has eight wins to this point, none have come against a team with a winning record. But keep in mind how much youth and inexperience this team has. Quarterback Josh Freeman has made major strides in his development and rookies Mike Williams and LeGarrette Blount look like future stars. Many folks believed that firing Jon Gruden was a major mistake and maybe it was. But at thispoint, it’s hard to argue that the Bucs aren’t sailing in the right direction with Morris at the controls.

Colin Kaepernick and Vau Taua can beat Boise State.

Thanks to some voodoo on kicker Kyle Brotzman. Kaepernick and Taua are the most prolific rushing duo in the history of college football, and the comeback they engineered against the Broncos the day after Thanksgiving was remarkable. The Nevada defense deserves a lot of credit, too, in slowing down that Boise State offense in the second half and allowing the comeback to happen. But Boise’s defense was perhaps as impressive as the offense this year, and this Nevada duo shredded it, ending the Broncos’ BCS dreams.

The Giants have the pitching to contend for years to come.

While he’s frustrated Giants fans for years with poor free agent signings and bust trades, there’s no denying that GM Brian Sabean has put the G-Men in great position to win thanks to their pitching. Thanks in large part to player personnel chief Dick Tidrow’s keen eye, Sabean and the Giants spent first round picks on Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Madison Bumargner – their top three performers in the 2010 postseason. They also found a couple of diamonds in the rough in starter Jonathan Sanchez (27th round/2004) and Brian Wilson (24th round/2003), who weren’t selected until deep into their respective drafts. All of these pitchers are under team control for years to come, meaning the Giants shouldn’t be a one-hit wonder (assuming Sabean doesn’t muck everything up with his free agent moves, that is).

Ben Roethlisberger learned some humility.

Sometimes it takes a while for someone to learn humility. After winning two Super Bowls in just his first six years in the league, Big Ben got a big head. He admits to buying into the whole “Big Ben” persona and that he was larger than life. Trouble first found him in June of 2006 when he nearly died from a motorcycle accident because he wasn’t wearing a helmet. In 2009, he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman named Andrea McNulty in a hotel room while he was staying in Lake Tahoe for a celebrity golf tournament. He escaped charges from that situation just in time to be investigated for an unrelated sexual assault case after a 20-year-old college student accused him of being inappropriate with her in a women’s restroom inside a nightclub. Fortunately for him, the details of her story were sketchy at best, so he avoided legal trouble again. But he didn’t escape punishment from the NFL, which suspended him six games (it was later reduced to four) for the 2010 season. It was finally clear to Roethlisberger that he needed to take more responsibility for his actions off the field and since then, that’s what he’s done. He’s avoided trouble and once again has the Steelers knocking on a postseason berth. Only time will tell if he can stay out of trouble, but it appears as though he’s learned some valuable lessons.

Joey Votto can carry a team by himself.

Joey Votto picked a great time to produce his best season to date. While helping the Reds win the NL Central, Votto hit .324 with 113 RBI, 106 runs scored and 37 home runs, which included a grand salami off Braves’ starter Tommy Hanson on May 20. He finished the season as MLB’s leader in on base percentage (.424), slugging percentage (.600) and on-base plus slugging (1.024). His efforts helped earn him the 2010 NL MVP award and he also took home the Hank Aaron Award in the National League, which is given to the top hitter in each league. While his Reds failed to advance past the Phillies in the NLDS, they have a bright future as long as Votto is around.

Everyone’s Super Bowl darling never pans out.

Each year, we all look at last year’s NFL standings and playoff results. We take into account offseason moves, retirements, draft picks and free agent signings and we pontificate about who will reach the postseason and who won’t. And though it’s ridiculous to predict who will reach the Super Bowl in August, we all do it, because it’s fun, gives us hope for our own team and it gets everyone fired up for the new season. Sexy picks in 2010 were Dallas, Green Bay, Minnesota, New Orleans and (gulp) San Francisco in the NFC; the NY Jets, New England Baltimore, Indy and San Diego in the AFC. And oh yeah, several analysts had the Houston Texans in the Super Bowl, which looked genius when the team started 2-0, but doesn’t now as they sit at 5-9 and are on the verge of sending coach Gary Kubiak packing. The most likely Super scenarios seemed to be Cowboys/Jets, Cowboys/Ravens, Packers/Jets and Packers/Ravens. Nobody expected the Bears, Bucs, Jags or Chiefs to make as much noise as they have, or even the Raiders for that matter. No one expected that the Seahawks and Rams would be tied at 6-8 and sitting in the 4-seed spot either, while the 5-9 Niners control their own playoff destiny. Did anyone see Michael Vick contending for MVP, or Brett Favre bringing the whole Vikings’ franchise down with him, or the Cowboys starting 1-7, or the Chargers starting 2-5, or the Bengals falling to the depths of NFL purgatory? Still, for as wacky as this season has been, some of the aforementioned teams are still very much alive. The Packers, Jets and Ravens are still fighting for playoff berths and have the talent to make a run. Then again, something will probably happen to make everyone’s preseason favorites go down in flames again.

One-and-done’rs are a major issue.

The NBA’s age-limit rule essentially forces kids to go to college that wouldn’t otherwise go. Over the past four years, 19 freshmen have been drafted in the lottery, and a vast majority of those wouldn’t have gone to college if not for the NBA’s age-limit. While players like Kevin Durant and Kevin Love were able to make the move from high school to college to the NBA without incident, Derrick Rose apparently had someone else take his SAT so he could get into the University of Memphis. This is what happens when a kid plenty good enough to make it in the NBA is forced to spend a year in college. This wreaks havoc on the college ranks as teams are forced to spend more time recruiting because there’s more turnover within the program. And forget stability – coaches have to deal with a brand new set of faces every fall. The NBA should change its rule to allow 18-year-old draftees, but if a player goes to college, he has to stay for a minimum of two years before declaring himself eligible for the draft. There, everyone’s happy.

Hope is not lost for the Pirates and Royals.

While the continue to hope that one of their team’s 4,000 youth movements will eventually pay off, it’s hard to blame fans in Pittsburgh and Kansas City for thinking their clubs are doomed. But if the Rangers can make the World Series, maybe there’s still hope for the Pirates and Royals. While everyone knew Texas would get another great year out of its offense, nobody thought the Rangers’ pitching would perform like it did in 2010. Thanks to the emergence of C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis and the midseason trade acquisition of Cliff Lee, the Rangers blew through the regular season and claimed first place in the AL West. Then they beat the Rays to clinch their first postseason series victory in club history and then tossed the Yankees in rather easy fashion to reach the World Series. Unfortunately for them, their fate was sealed by the Giants in the Fall Classic, but the Rangers gave hope to doomed franchises everywhere. Yes, including the ones in KC and Pittsburgh.

Learned | Knew | Think

Contributors: Anthony Stalter, John Paulsen, Paul Costanzo, Drew Ellis and Mike Farley

LeBron is a frontrunner.

We all were a little surprised that LeBron left Cleveland, but the writing was on the wall. Growing up, LeBron didn’t root for the local teams. He followed the Yankees, Bulls and Cowboys, which in the 1990s constituted the Holy Triumvirate of Frontrunning. He wore his Yankee cap to an Indians game and was seen hobnobbing on the Cowboy sidelines during a Browns game. He says he’s loyal, but he’s only loyal to winners…unless they only win in the regular season, of course.

Brad Childress’ biggest flaw cost him his job in the end.

There were many reasons why the Vikings decided to fire head coach Brad Childress roughly a year after they signed him to a contract extension. One of the reasons was because he lost with a talented roster. Another was because he never quite figured out how to best utilize Adrian Peterson, which is a sin given how talented AP is. But the main reason “Chilly” was ousted in Minnesota was because he didn’t know how to manage NFL-caliber personalities. He didn’t know how to handle Brett Favre, which led to blowups on the sidelines and multiple face-to-face confrontations. He also didn’t have a clue how to deal with Randy Moss’ crass attitude, so he released him just four weeks after the team acquired him in a trade from New England. Childress was hired in part to help clean up the mess in Minnesota after the whole “Love Boat” scandal. But the problem with a disciplinarian that hasn’t first earned respect is that his demands fall on deaf ears. In the end, Childress’ inability to command respect from his players cost him his job. You know, on top of the fact that he was losing with a talented roster, he didn’t know how to best utilize Adrian Peterson, he…

Love him or hate him, George Steinbrenner will forever be one of baseball’s icons.

You may have hated his brash attitude, the way he ran his team or the way he conducted his business. You may even feel that he ruined baseball. But regardless of how you may have felt about him, there’s little denying that George Steinbrenner will forever be one of Major League Baseball’s icons. Steinbrenner passed away in July of this year. He will forever be a man known for helping revolutionize the business side of baseball by being the first owner to sell TV cable rights to the MSG Network. When things eventually went south with MSG, he created the YES Network, which is currently the Yankees’ very own TV station that generates millions in revenue. During his tenure, he took the Yankees from a $10 million franchise to a $1.2 billion juggernaut. In 2005, the Yankees became the first professional sports franchise to be worth an estimated one billion dollars. While many baseball fans came to despise the way he ran his team (mainly because he purchased high priced free agents with reckless abandon due to the fact that he could and others couldn’t), don’t miss the message he often made year in and year out: The Yankees are here to win. He didn’t line his pockets with extra revenue (albeit he generated a lot of extra revenue for his club) – he dumped his money back into the on-field product. Losing wasn’t acceptable and if the Bombers came up short one year, you could bet that Steinbrenner would go after the best talent in the offseason, regardless of what others thought of the approach. How many Pirates and Royals fans wish they had an owner with the same appetite for victory?

It’s tough to repeat.

The Tide were the easy selection for preseason No. 1 as they returned Mark Ingram, Greg McElroy and Julio Jones, among others. Yes, they had lost a lot on defense but this is a Nick Saban-coached team. Surely it would just plug and play, right? Wrong. Alabama’s biggest defensive weakness, the secondary, reared its ugly head in losses to South Carolina and Auburn. The 9-3 season was definitely a disappointment and the fact that it ended with a complete collapse against Auburn made things even worse.

Wade Phillips wasn’t long for Dallas.

When the 2010 season began, the Dallas Cowboys were a sexy Super Bowl favorite. They, along with the Saints and Vikings, were touted as one of the front-runners in the NFC to represent the conference in the Super Bowl. Jerry Jones was so excited about the prospect of having his Cowboys play the first-ever home game in the Super Bowl, but then a funny thing happened along the way. The ‘Boys started out 0-2, losing to the Redskins on the road and to the Bears at home. They beat the then-2-0 Texans to get to 1-2, but then things began to really unravel. The Cowboys lost to the Titans, then were defeated by the Vikings in a matchup of 1-3 teams that were fighting for their playoff lives back in October. They followed that with a loss at home against their division rivals New York in which the quarterback-killing Giants knocked Tony Romo out for the season with a broken collarbone. Enter Jon Kitna, who played fine but still couldn’t overcome a defense that gave up 41 points to the Giants, 35 to the Jaguars and 45 to the Packers. Five losses in a row and the Super Bowl bound Cowboys were 1-7 at the mid-way point. After each of those losses, Jones was questioned about his head coach, Wade Phillips. At first Jones repeated that Wade was his guy, and that he wasn’t going to make any changes until after the season (if at all). But a 45-7 blowout in Green Bay on national TV changed all that. In a game the Cowboys re-defined the word “QUIT,” it was the last straw for Jones. Phillips, who often looked like a lost dog on the side of the freeway, was fired, and replaced on an interim basis by offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. Since then, the Cowboys have gone 4-2, with their only losses being by 30-27 scores against the Saints and Eagles. Was Wade Phillips long for Dallas? Probably not. But it’s on Jones for not letting Garrett save his team’s season earlier.

Kevin Durant is the next great superstar.

KD had a great rookie season, but managed to increase his scoring average five points per season to the point where he averaged 30.2 in his third year, winning the scoring title in the process. He made the All-Star game in 2010 and carried Team USA to a gold medal in the World Championships last summer. And during a free agent period where LeBron James held an hour-long stroke-fest to announce his decision, Durant announced his contract extension with OKC by posting a simple message on Twitter. Why can’t all athletes be like this?

There is no such thing as an unbeatable fighter in MMA.

During the last 12 months we have seen a lot of the top pound-for-pound fighters beaten or pushed to the limits. The biggest surprise came when Fabricio Wedrum upset Fedor Emelianenko by triangle choke in the first round of his last bout. Fedor had not lost since 2000 and was largely considered the best in the world. He was dominating the fight early with strikes but made a “rookie” mistake by getting trapped in the triangle of Werdum. Along with Fedor, other greats like Lyoto Machida and Brock Lesnar were put down in convincing fashion while another phenom, Anderson Silva, was dominated for 4.5 rounds in his bout with Chael Sonnen before finding a way to lock in an armbar submission to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat. While Silva still won, it diminished the aura surrounding him and proved he was beatable.

Chip Kelly is a damn fine coach.

In his first year as head man at Oregon, Kelly took the Ducks to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1994 thanks to his fast-paced offense. Even with the loss of Jeremiah Masoli at quarterback, Kelly found ways to improve his team this season, and has it on the cusp of its first national championship. His high-powered offense also has the team’s mascot on the cusp of winning Mr. Universe thanks to all the push-ups it’s done this season.

A good young quarterback can make all the difference in the world.

The 2008 Falcons and Ravens proved that the misfortunes of a franchise could turn in a heartbeat if a team finds the right quarterback. The 2010 St. Louis Rams are believers of that now too after seeing what Sam Bradford has done for their organization in just a short amount of time. The Rams selected Bradford with the first overall pick in April’s draft and even though they believed he had a chance to start as a rookie, they never thought they would be challenging for a playoff spot so soon. Outside of Steven Jackson, their offense was incredibly devoid of playmakers and their defense, while talented, was highly inexperienced. Yet thanks to the emergence of Bradford, the Rams are currently in first place in the NFC West (albeit with a .500 record). Granted, he’s had a lot of help from an improved offensive line (second round pick Rodger Saffold deserves just as much praise as Bradford), an opportunistic defense and a healthy Jackson, but Bradford has exceeded expectations. Through 13 games this year, he’s thrown 17 touchdown passes to 12 interceptions while throwing for 2,884 yards and compiling a 79.1 QB Rating. Those numbers aren’t eye-popping, but they’re excellent for a rookie who doesn’t have a bona fide No. 1 receiver to throw to. Beyond the stats, he’s become a leader in the locker room and despite his age, his teammates have rallied around him. He earned a ton of respect for chasing down the Saints’ Roman Harper in the open field in Week 14 and already has the city of St. Louis believing again (not an easy task when the franchise won just three games the previous two seasons). Whether or not the Rams make the playoffs this year, at least they know they have their franchise QB.

Trouble follows John Calipari around.

In March, the University of Memphis lost its appeal of the Derrick Rose ruling, that vacated the entire 2007-08 season due to the NCAA’s finding that Rose did not take the SAT that got him into college. While this is not directly related to John Calipari (who bolted for Kentucky the following year), trouble just seems to follow him wherever he goes. He led UMass to the 1996 Final Four, but that appearance was also vacated due to his star player’s (Marcus Camby) dealings with two sports agents. Watch out, Kentucky – you’re next.

Brian Kelly will need some time to turn Notre Dame around.

Kelly inherited a team with talent at many positions, but a losing attitude. The senior class will go out as the losingest class in the history of Notre Dame thanks to the Tulsa defeat, and the Irish haven’t had a winning regular season since the days of Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija. But Notre Dame did finish strong, winning its final three games including a 20-16 win at USC, which broke a streak of eight straight losses to its biggest rival. The Irish found a defense over those last three games, something that was completely absent in the Charlie Weis years. The Irish could come into next year with as many as 19 returning starters, but they have questions at quarterback and some tough schedules ahead. The future does look bright, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Roger Clemens is going to see his lies through.

You have to hand it to Roger Clemens: he’s not going down without a fight. Even though there’s a mountain of forensic evidence that proves that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his playing career, he maintains that he never used. Even though he awaits trial on charges of making false statements to Congress about his use of PEDs, he maintains that he never used. You can call “The Rocket” many things (we suggest “liar”), but you have to give it to the guy for not waiving the white flag. We assume he’ll maintain his innocence from his prison cell, too.

The legend of Matty Ice grows.

Matt Ryan had longed earned the nickname “Matty Ice” before he got to Atlanta but thanks to more thrilling fourth quarter comebacks this season, he’s making sure that moniker sticks. In wins over the Saints, 49ers, Bengals, Ravens, Packers and Bucs this year, the Falcons were either tied or trailed in the fourth quarter and in every one of those contests, they came out victorious thanks to Ryan. Perhaps the biggest dagger came against the Ravens, who thought they had beaten the Falcons in a mid-November game on Thursday night. After trailing for the entire game, Baltimore took a 21-20 lead with 1:05 remaining in the fourth after Joe Flacco found Todd Heap on a nine-yard touchdown pass. After throwing two incomplete passes on the following drive, plenty of quarterbacks would succumb to the pressure. But Ryan hit Michael Jenkins (who made a speculator catch on the sidelines) for a 24-yard completion and a first down. Ryan then hit Roddy White for a 15-yard play and then after two incomplete passes and a huge pass interference penalty on tight end Tony Gonzalez, Ryan once again found White (who Baltimore fans will say pushed off) on a 33-yard game-winning touchdown pass with just seconds remaining. For the Ravens, it was a painful reminder not to leave too much time on the clock for “Matty Ice.” The guy thrives in those situations.

Boise State still has an uphill battle to play for a national title.

This was the Broncos best shot at getting to the title game, and even if Kyle Brotzman would have hit either of those field goals against Nevada, they still wouldn’t have made it. Forget the loss to Nevada for a moment: Boise State did everything it could have to be considered for the title. It started off ranked in the top five, it beat a BCS conference champion in a highly-anticipated game early in the season and blew out all of its opponents. But even if it had beaten Nevada, Boise State wouldn’t have controlled its own destiny. Then need to pull a TCU and get into a conference with an automatic bid.

That Gasol trade altered the NBA landscape forever.

Think back to the 2007-08 season. The Lakers were a 42-win team, coming off of two early exits in the playoffs and Kobe Bryant made it clear that he wanted the team to make some moves or he was going to demand a trade. There were rumors swirling about Kobe heading to Chicago, but Laker GM Mitch Kupchak swung a deal that brought Pau Gasol to L.A. for Javaris Crittenton, Kwame Brown and his brother Marc Gasol. Now Marc has turned out to be a player, but that deal is still staggeringly one-sided. The Lakers went on to the NBA Finals that year, only to lose to the Celtics. But it all came together in 2009 when Kobe and Pau led the Lakers to the first of back-to-back NBA Championships, and they are once again the favorites to win the title this season. If the Grizzlies hadn’t given away their best player, the Lakers would have continued on their path of mediocrity and maybe Kobe would be a Bull right now. Perhaps Steve Nash would have a much-deserved ring, and maybe Amare Stoudemire would still be in Phoenix. If that were the case, there would be no reason for Carmelo to force his way to New York this season, would there? Maybe he’d stay in Denver or head to the Nets instead. That Gasol trade changed everything.

Roy Halladay can pitch in either league.

When the Phillies traded Cliff Lee in the deal that brought them Roy Halladay from the Toronto Blue Jays last winter, some bemoaned the decision. Lee had pitched so well since coming over from Cleveland in a 2009 midseason trade that people didn’t like the idea that he was being shipped out – even if it was for Halladay. But Halladay quickly eased everyone’s apprehension by turning in the best season of any pitcher in the National League. He won his second Cy Young award by becoming the NL win champion and he threw a perfect game on May 29 against the Marlins. In his first postseason game ever, he no-hit the Reds on October 6 and helped the Phillies get to the NLCS, where they eventually lost to the world champion Giants. Now that Lee is back in Philadelphia after signing a huge offseason deal, Phillie fans can have it all.

Mike Krzyzewski is a hell of a coach.

Heading into the summer of 2008, the Duke Blue Devils were coming of two consecutive early exits from the NCAA Tournament and hadn’t won a title since the 2000-01 season. Instead of being able to focus on the program, Coach K had the unenviable task of leading Team USA into 2008 Olympics. Anything less than a gold medal would have been seen as a failure, and that’s exactly what Krzyzewski brought home. After a regional semifinal loss in 2009, Coach K led Duke to a National Championship in 2010, giving him four in his career. The Blue Devils were talented, but they were never ranked higher than #3 on the season, a first for a Duke team that went on to win the title.

Futbol is a huge deal…in other countries.

For four weeks in June and early July, the World Cup took over the sporting world…well, most of it. While much of the U.S. became obsessed with LeBron, Wade and Bosh, the rest of the world had its eye on South Africa, where 32 teams battled it out for the world championship. The U.S. lost to Ghana, the only African team to make the Round of 16. Spain beat the Netherlands in the final to win its first ever World Cup. It was also the first time that a European nation won the World Cup outside its own continent.

Reggie Bush didn’t buy all of those suits with his hard-earned money.

Thanks to Dan Wetzel and the team at Yahoo! Sports, we knew that something was right at USC, and the NCAA hammer finally came down on the Trojans this past summer. The postseason ban is already in place, and the limit in scholarships will eventually sting the Trojans. But the transfers from what some kids viewed as a sinking ship caused the most damage this year. Because of the low number, Lane Kiffin held non-contact practices throughout the season. This showed in the Trojans inability to tackle as they finished with a disappointing 7-5 record.

Pitching wins in the postseason.

How does a club win the World Series when it’s compiled mostly of castoffs and rejects from other teams? With four homegrown pitchers who are lights out in the postseason – that’s how. While the 2010 Giants got tremendous contributions from Buster Posey, Cody Ross, Juan Uribe, Aubrey Huff, Freddy Sanchez and Edgar Renteria in the playoffs, they won because of their pitching. Ace Tim Lincecum beat the likes of Derek Lowe, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee (twice) throughout the postseason. Matt Cain was equally devastating, shutting out the Phillies in the NLCS and the Rangers in the World Series. Jonathan Sanchez proved to be the weak-link in the Giants’ rotation, but let’s not forget that they wouldn’t have even made the playoffs if it weren’t for his five-inning gem against the Padres on the final day of the regular season. Finally, at only 21 years of age, Madison Bumgarner turned in one of the best World Series performances (8.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 6 Ks) we’ll ever see from a player just old enough to drink. So while the Rangers were lauded for their bats, it was pitching that once again proved to be the great equalizer in the postseason. And how fitting that in the “Year of the Pitcher,” it was pitching that won the Giants their first-ever World Series in the city of San Francisco.

It’s going to be a while before Mike Shanahan fixes the mess in Washington…

…and even then, he may not be the right man for the job. Things haven’t gotten off to a great start for Shanahan in our nation’s capital. He arrived to Washington and immediately had to deal with a disgruntled Albert Haynesworth, who refused to play in a 3-4 and demanded the team trade him. But Shanahan refused to grant the defensive tackle’s wishes and even though Haynesworth eventually reported to the team, the feud continued. Shanahan finally suspended Haynesworth for the final month of the season, but that proved nothing in the end. He’s still a Redskin, although he’d rather swim with poisonous eels then play another down in Washington again. Compounding the issue is that a) the Redskins are still losing (and in embarrassing fashion, no less) and b) the Donovan McNabb experiment was a massive failure. For whatever reason, McNabb failed to impress Mike and Kyle Shanahan and was benched in Week 15 for Rex Grossman of all people. The franchise has hit a new low, which is saying something with how bad Daniel Snyder has mucked things up over the years. They don’t have a quarterback for the future (McNabb is surely gone after the year), their roster is severely devoid of talent and the Haynesworth issue still needs to be resolved. There’s only one word to describe the current state of the Redskins and that’s “mess.”

Unfortunately, tragedy can strike on any campus.

There’s a lot of emotion put into college football each week, and often times we view what’s happening on the field as life or death. But every year there are stark reminders that what we see on Saturdays is just a game. The deaths of Notre Dame student videographer Declan Sullivan and Mississippi State defensive end Nick Bell showed us that life is so much bigger than what goes on between the white lines. While they died under very different circumstances, we should learn that football, while entertaining and a great distraction from our real lives, is far from the most important thing in the world.

You don’t have to have a top-10 payroll to compete.

Once again, a few teams proved that you don’t have to spend big bucks in order to compete. Nobody spent less on payroll in 2010 than the Pittsburgh Pirates and while they still blow major chunks, the Padres were an August collapse away from winning the NL West despite having the second lowest payroll of any team in baseball. The Rangers were fourth from the bottom and won the American League Pennant. The Rays were 10th from the bottom and won the AL East. The Reds were 12th from the bottom and won the NL Central. Even the Giants, who had the 10th highest payroll, didn’t spend nearly as much as the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs and Phillies and managed to win the whole damn thing. Granted, the big spenders still have an advantage and they always will. But once again, teams like the Padres, Rays, Reds, Rangers and Giants proved that you don’t have to spend big to win big.

Mid-majors aren’t “mid” at all.

Not only did Butler make it past Syracuse, Kansas State and Michigan State only to lose to Duke in the championship game, but four other non-power conference schools (Northern Iowa, Xavier, Cornell and St. Mary’s) made it to the Sweet 16.

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are still the best 1-2 punch in the game.

People still bring up Spygate and use it as a way to undermine Bill Belichick’s status as a genius. But these are the facts: Pre-Spygate, Belichick was 87-39 (.690 winning percentage). Post-Spygate, he’s 49-15 (.766 winning percentage). The man doesn’t need to steal opponents’ signals or videotape practices to win. That doesn’t excuse Belichick and his staff from any wrongdoing, but it’s apparent that the man knows X’s and O’s. And as long as he still has Tom Brady under center, the duo will form the best 1-2 combination of head coach and quarterback in the game. Despite being largely devoid of superstar talent outside of Brady, Belichick has been able to win with the current Patriots roster. None of the big media publications had the Patriots as the top-ranked team in the league and yet, as we approach the postseason, many sites have New England at No. 1 in their power rankings. That’s a testament to Belichick and Brady, who always seem to be one step ahead of their competition. A team that many people thought would play second fiddle to the Jets this season is now the favorite to win the Super Bowl. If you’re looking for answers to why that is, start with Belichick and Brady and work your way down.

The Red Sox aren’t going to fade into obscurity.

As the Patriots and Celtics continue to stay in the championship hunt in their respective sports, the Red Sox are coming off their worst season since they finished third in the AL East in 2006. Thanks to a couple of shrewd moves by GM Theo Epstein, Boston is already being considered the team to beat in the American League next season. Shortly after trading for former San Diego slugger Adrian Gonzalez, Epstein signed five-tool playmaker Carl Crawford (formerly of the Rays). Epstein also threw money at one of Boston’s biggest problems in 2010: its bullpen. First he signed former White Sox closer Bobby Jenks to a two-year, $12 million deal and then added former Rays’ reliever Dan Wheeler. Finally, he signed former Baltimore reliever Matt Albers, who could eat up innings if a starter gets yanked early. While the Yankees failed to land Cliff Lee, Epstein has been able to sign all of the other players he was targeting in the offseason. Chances are he isn’t finished either and it’ll be interesting to see how the “2011 Boston Makeover” looks once it’s complete.

The 2009 Saints thank you for choosing Daunte Culpepper, Dolphins.

After injuring his shoulder in the 2005 Pro Bowl, the Chargers were only willing to offer quarterback Drew Brees a five-year, $50 million contract that would pay him a $2 million base salary for the first year and the rest was heavily based on performance incentives. After deciding to test the open market, Brees set his eyes on two teams: the Dolphins and Saints. Miami was his first choice, but team doctors told the Dolphins that his surgically repaired shoulder would never hold up. So Miami ended negotiations with Brees and traded for Vikings’ QB Daunte Culpepper instead. Whoops. Culpepper was the one whose previous injury didn’t hold up and he was out of Miami after only one year. Brees, on the other hand, has gone on to set passing records for most completions in a season (440 in ’07), highest completion percentage in a season (70.62% in ’09), highest career postseason completion percentage (66.67%), lowest career postseason interception percentage (0.89%) and most completions in a Super Bowl (32 in Super Bowl XLIV, a mark he shares with Tom Brady). Thanks to not only his play on the field but his leadership off of it, the Saints won the 2010 Super Bowl by beating the Colts, which was just another reminder of what a colossal mistake the Dolphins made in 2006.

It’s better to lose early and not late.

Just ask 1993 Notre Dame and 2000 Miami or Washington about this. Head-to-head results mean nothing if a team loses later in the season. Michigan State found this out the hard way by losing its one game to Iowa a few weeks after beating Wisconsin by 10. So despite having identical records and a head-to-head win, the Spartans will be watching the Badgers in the Rose Bowl. To add insult to injury, Michigan State was passed over for the Big Ten’s second BCS bid by Ohio State, which also had one loss — to Wisconsin. Virginia Tech, meanwhile, got its losing out of the way early, falling to Boise State and James Madison — easily the most shocking result of the season — before rattling off 11 straight to win the ACC.

No matter what place the Braves finished, Bobby Cox would go out on top.

Even though the Braves came up well short of their goal to win the World Series and send Bobby Cox (who has decided to retire) out on top, nobody can say Bobby went out a loser. Cox is one of only four managers to win Manager of the Year in both the American and National League. He’s also the only person to have won the award in consecutive years and he currently ranks as the fourth-winningest manager in MLB history. He also holds the all-time record for most ejections, which is arguably a cooler record than his win total. He’ll walk away from the game a four-time Manager of the Year winner, a two-time World Series winner and one of the most recognizable figures in Atlanta sports history. We’ll miss you, Bobby.

Kurt Warner meant a lot to the Arizona Cardinals…A LOT.

It’s no surprise that the Arizona Cardinals have fallen off the map now that Kurt Warner dresses in a suit these days and not a uniform. But it takes a season like they’re having in 2010 to fully appreciate how much Warner meant to their franchise. With him, they were a perennial playoff contender and made their first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. Without him, they’re the only team that managed to be eliminated from playoff contention in the NFC West before Week 15 and no team currently has a winning record in the division. In one word: Embarrassing. Making matters worse is that they’re no closer to finding a quarterback now than when Warner retired. They cut former first round pick Matt Leinart in preseason and realized too late what everyone already knew: that Derek Anderson isn’t the answer. They’ve tried rookies Max Hall and John Skelton, but both are long shots to win the starting position next year. And speaking of next year, they better find a quarterback soon or else who knows how long Larry Fitzgerald will want to hang around. He can’t be too happy that his former partner in crime Anquan Boldin is living it up on a winning team in Baltimore while he rots in NFL hell out in Arizona. The Cardinals need to start over and finding a quarterback should be priority No. 1. Hey, is Kurt Warner available?

The Hawks aren’t close.

For a time, it seemed like the Atlanta Hawks were on the verge of breaking through in the East. Year after year, they continued to improve, but always wilted in the playoffs. Last spring, the Andrew Bogut-less Bucks took them to seven games before they were swept unceremoniously by the Orlando Magic. What did they do this summer? Believe it or not, with all the big name free agents on the market, Joe Johnson got the biggest contract of them all. They’ll be a playoff team, but that’s about it.

Even in a capless offseason, parity still rules.

Oh, if you could have heard some of the crying coming from fans before last offseason. “The Cowboys are going to buy everybody!” Or, “The NFL is going to turn into MLB where there’s the haves and have nots!” Yeah, or parity still reigns supreme and once again, teams nobody expected to make the playoffs are doing just that. A capless offseason made fans nervous but it turned out to be much ado about nothing. The Cowboys didn’t buy everybody (ironically, the usually frugal Bears did) and teams were actually overly cautious about signing free agents to big deals with a potential lockout coming in 2011. The offseason came and went without much of a roar and when helmets and shoulder pads started cracking, it was teams like the Chiefs, Jaguars and Bucs making a playoff push while the Cowboys, Vikings and Bengals (three playoff teams from a year ago) sunk to the bottom of their divisions. The 2010 NFL season once again proves that parity rules.

Stephen Curry can shoot.

He didn’t win Rookie of the Year, but one could make an argument that he should have. He averaged 17.5 points on 46% shooting from the field, 44% from 3PT and 89% from the free throw line. He also averaged 5.9 assists and 4.5 rebounds. After the All-Star break, he averaged 22.1 points while shooting at the same (or better) levels. The guy can stroke it.

The Mets are still a mess.

Now that the Mets have a new general manager in Sandy Alderson, who hired new manager Terry Collins, the team was recently able to turn its attention to 2011 and beyond. But Alderson, with orders from ownership, was told he did not have an open checkbook to work with, nor did he have the prospects that could bring in worthy talent in a trade. So let’s look at this messy franchise for a minute. After the Mets last contended — in 2006 when they lost the NLCS to the Cardinals — they suddenly became mired in a two-year slump that saw utter collapses in 2007 (a seven-game lead with 17 games to play evaporated on the last day of the season) and 2008 (lost the wild card on the last day of the season). In 2009, half the team, including key starters like Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Johan Santana, missed significant playing time with injuries, and the Mets finished in fourth place in the NL east at 70-92 – their worst record since 2003. Daniel Murphy also led the team in home runs with a paltry 12. TWELVE. 2010 didn’t show much promise, as the Mets signed free agent outfielder Jason Bay and pretty much nobody else. But a strong start led by a resurgent Mike Pelfrey, knuckler RA Dickey and hitters like Ike Davis and Rod Barajas as well as a healthy David Wright, helped the Mets get to within three games of first at the All-Star break. But then it all unraveled, as injuries (along with just terrible hitting and pitching) doomed them, and the Mets finished 79-83, which again was good for fourth place. So Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel were fired, and all was about to be right with the world. Except that in the December before the start of the 2011 season, it’s not. The Mets, unless they make some blockbuster moves, will send a rotation of Pelfrey, Dickey, Jon Niese and Oliver Perez to the hill on a weekly basis, and they will continue to mix veterans (Beltran, Wright, Luis Castillo, Reyes) with youngsters (Davis, Nick Evans) at the position spots. The Mets’ big free agent acquisitions so far in the Alderson era have been catcher Ronny Paulino, and pitchers DJ Carrasco and Boof Bonser. Ooohhhhhhh. Meanwhile, the rich keep getting richer, as the Phillies have added Cliff Lee to a rotation that already boasts Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. Are you kidding? All of the talk was how Lee shunned the Yankees, but in reality, he hurt the Mets more. So the Mets have clinched at least second place in the NL East, but more likely fourth or even last place for 2011. With seemingly no hope on the horizon, the Mets remain one of the bigger messes in MLB.

Learned | Knew | Think

Here’s a six-pack of observations from the Giants’ 4-0 win over the Rangers in Game 4 of the World Series. San Fran is now just one win away from becoming World Champions.

1. It’s hard to oversell how good Bumgarner was.
Had Giants’ starter Madison Bumgarner walked onto the field in Game 4 and proceeded to give up five runs on eight hits to the Rangers in their home ballpark, people would have shrugged and said, “What did you expect from a rookie pitching in the World Series?” But the fact that he went eight innings without giving up a run and limited the Rangers to just three hits was unbelievable. The Rangers had only been shutout once at home this year. Once. Bumgarner faced the league’s top hitting team and completely dominated them for eight innings. He needed just 106 pitches to record 24 outs and struck out six while holding Texas without an extra-base hit. Think about that for a second: Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Vlad Guerrero, the seemingly unstoppable Mitch Moreland – zero extra-base hits. Unreal. Madison Bumgarner was unreal in the biggest start of his young career.

2. Bochy continues to make all the right decisions this postseason.
Every move that Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy has made this postseason – from changes to his lineup to handling the pitching staff to defensive adjustments in the later innings – has paid off. He made two underrated moves before Game 4 that will certainly be overlooked in the Giants’ victory. One was benching a highly ineffective Pat Burrell and replacing him with Nate Schierholtz, which forced Cody Ross to move to left field. The move gave the Giants a major lift defensively, as Ross made at least one great catch that would have surely fallen in front of Burrell for a base hit. And who knows, there may have been others that would have led to Rangers’ runs. Schierholtz wasn’t any better than Burrell at the plate, but it didn’t matter. Moving Ross over to left and getting Burrell out of the lineup was the key. The other move Bochy made was replacing Aubrey Huff with Travis Ishikawa, which gave the Giants a better defensive first baseman and allowed Huff to concentrate solely on his offense. The end result was that Huff hit a two-run homer in the third, which was really all the offense San Fran needed with how well Bumgarner was pitching. (Of course, the double Andres Torres hit to score Edgar Renteria in the seventh and the homer Buster Posey hit in the eighth certainly helped ease the tension for Bumgarner and the rest of the club.)

3. The Giants continue to get all the breaks, but…
From calls on the base paths to near home runs to balls that bounce off the top of the wall instead of into the stands (or over the wall for home runs), the Giants have gotten all the breaks in this series. That said, they’ve also made their own breaks too. Their starters have been better, their bullpen has been better, their offense has been more clutch and Bruce Bochy has outmanaged Ron Washington. So when it’s time for one team to catch breaks, it’s been the Giants who have been most deserving. That may be salt in the wounds of Rangers fans, but it’s true. The Giants have just been better.

4. Rangers need way more production out of the heart of their order.
The Giants’ pitching is outstanding – maybe even the best in baseball now. But there’s simply no excuse for this Texas team to have gotten shut out in two of the first four games in this series. Vladimir Guerrero’s at-bats on Sunday were putrid. Josh Hamilton has been nearly non-existent since his play in the ALCS. Nelson Cruz’s power…well, what power? The heart of the Rangers’ order has turned to mush since the start of the World Series and if it doesn’t come alive in less than 24 hours, then Texas will be watching the Giants celebrate on their home field Monday night. No offense to Mitch Moreland, but he can’t be your best hitter in a lineup that consists of guys like Hamilton, Guerrero, Cruz, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young.

5. The umpiring has been brutal thus far.
I can’t even begin to describe the zone that home plate umpire Mike Winters had on Sunday night. He was calling strikes high, low, inside, outside – it didn’t matter. Then he called balls that were high, low, inside and outside. He was all over the place and the fact that Madison Bumgarner went eight innings while only giving up three hits is a freaking miracle. It was bad on both sides and it only got worse as the game went on. Pitches that were called balls in the first three innings were called strikes in the last three innings. Winters’ performance was bad and unfortunately, it only fell in line with the rest of the home plate umpires this series. And the guys on the base paths weren’t any better, as replays showed that the Rangers got screwed on two bang-bang plays at first base. Major League Baseball can’t be too happy with these umpiring crew this series. This is the best the game has to offer?

6. It’s redemption time, Cliff Lee.
The Rangers are in a bad spot down 3-1 in the series, but they still have plenty of life left. First and foremost, they need to take it one game at a time because if they get caught looking ahead, they won’t make it past Monday night. They have their ace on the mound in Game 5, but unfortunately for them their ace was shelled in Game 1 and they’re also facing the Giants’ best pitcher in Tim Lincecum. That said, it’s highly unlikely that Lee has two bad games in a row and Lincecum doesn’t like pitching in warm climates (San Francisco hardly constitutes as a warm climate – especially at night), so if the Rangers’ bats come alive then there’s no doubt they can force a Game 6. Their backs are up against it, but they have the advantage in Game 5 and they need to keep that in mind.

Nobody can say that the Atlanta Braves didn’t try to send their beloved manager Bobby Cox (who decided before the year started that he would retire at the conclusion of the 2010 season) out on a high note. They played with enthusiasm, passion and urgency, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

The Braves’ mantra at the start of the postseason was “11 for 6,” which is the number of wins they needed to win the World Series (11) for Cox, who wears No. 6. Unfortunately they came up 10 wins shy, as the Giants beat Atlanta 3-2 on Monday night to take the best-of-five series 3-1 and advance to the NLCS to face the Phillies.

Cox and the Braves couldn’t have asked for a better outing from Derek Lowe, who allowed three runs (two earned) over 6 1/3 innings in the loss. He didn’t allow a hit for the first 5 1/3 innings, but Cody Ross (who went 2-for-3 tonight and singled home the eventual game-winning run in the eighth inning) took him deep in the sixth to tie the game at 1-1. Lowe was pitching on only three days of rest, yet his sinker baffled San Francisco hitters for most of the night before he hung a pitch to Ross, who made him pay for the mistake.

While you can’t take anything away from the Giants (whose starting pitching was absolutely phenomenal throughout the entire series and they got another strong performance tonight from rookie Madison Bumgarner), they were the benefactors of close calls the entire series. Every time there was a close play at one of the bags, it went in San Francisco’s favor. Before Ross singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth, it appeared as though Pat Burrell was thrown out on a Juan Uribe hit to shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who made a throwing error to second baseman Omar Infante. The throw took Infante off the bag, but replays showed that he might have kept his toe on the bag.

That said, all of those plays were bang-bang and umpires don’t have the luxury of watching instant replay in order to get the calls right. Unfortunately for the Braves, they were snake bitten by the human element of baseball in this series.

So was Cox, who received a standing ovation at the end of the game from both the fans and the Giants, who congratulated each other and then stayed on the field to celebrate the skipper’s historic career. It was a classy move and it was a well-deserved moment for the three-time NL Manger of the Year and the two-time World Series champion.

Thanks for all the memories, Bobby.

Giants fans have been spoiled, I guess. Tim Lincecum goes out and wins two Cy Young Awards in his first three seasons, yet many have found fault in his 11-5 record and 3.15 ERA heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Cubs.

What’s to be worried about? He’s only striking out one less batter per nine innings than he was last year and has the same walk rate as he did in his first Cy Young season.

He’s fine! Seriously, he’s fine.

We’re all fine.

Then Kosuke Fukudome hits a three-run, 416-foot blast into McCovey Cove off Lincecum in the first inning last night and you realize he’s not fine. He’s far from fine. He’s Kosuke-f’n-Fukudome-just-hit-a-towering-416-foot-home-run-off-him not fine.

There is no shortage of reasons why Lincecum is struggling right now: He’s getting behind hitters, his command comes and goes, he’s tinkering with his windup too much and his changeup often bounces two feet in front of home plate instead of finding Buster Posey’s catcher mitt.

He’s struggling. He needs a barber. He’s out of whack. He’s in a funk. Please cut that thing, Tim.

Call it whatever you want, but the bottom line is that Giant fans probably feel more confident heading into a Barry Zito start right now than they do Lincecum’s. And with the club clinging onto playoff aspirations, San Fran is going to need Tim Lincecum to be Tim Lincecum.

Even though the Giants have gotten major offensive contributions from Posey, Aubrey Huff and Andres Torres this year, this is a club that’s still built around pitching. They have everything they need to be dangerous in five or seven-game postseason series, but not if Lincecum can’t remedy his problems. The Braves’ pitching completely dominated the Giants’ offense during a four-game series last week, proving that San Fran is still very much prone to getting minute production from its offense.

But that’s not to say that Lincecum has to put the entire club on his shoulders. With Zito, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez and youngster Madison Bumgarner, the Giants have a chance to win every night when those arms take the mound. Lincecum doesn’t need to be a Cy Young pitcher for the G-Men to make a postseason run, but they do need him to be the ace of the staff.

Anything less and the playoff drought will likely continue in the “City By the Bay.”

The Brewers seemingly have two options when it comes to Prince Fielder: trade him now, or trade him later. Either way, they’re going to have to trade him at some point because Scott Boras is going to make sure that in a year and a half, Fielder is richer than Bill Gates’ personnel chef.

Fielder signed a two-year, $18 million contract extension with the Brewers in January of last year. Only $4.34 million remains on that contract through the end of the season and then Fielder becomes arbitration-eligible for the 2011 season. After making another $15-16 million in arbitration next year, Boras will ensure that the slugger makes $100 million once he hits free agency in 2012.

A bidding war over a home run commodity like Fielder isn’t something the small market Brewers are prepared for. They could break the bank in hopes of re-signing the slugger, but the more likely scenario is that GM Doug Melvin will seek a top-pitching prospect in a trade for Fielder now or in the offseason.

If Melvin waits, he’ll probably have more suitors interested in the first baseman. But if he trades him at the deadline this year, he might find a desperate general manager who is willing to give up a top arm in order to acquire a slugger for the stretch run.

There are several teams that could be interested in Fielder’s services, although you could make an argument for and against every one of them. The Brewers scouted White Sox pitcher Daniel Hudson on Monday night, but it’s doubtful that he could be the centerpiece in a deal for Fielder. At least not when the Rays (Jeremy Hellickson and Wade Davis) and Giants (Madison Bumgarner and Zach Wheeler) have more highly touted arms and could be interested in Fielder as well.

The Angels are another interesting trade suitor for the Brewers, although with Kendry Morales set to return for the 2011 season, it’s highly doubtful that the Halos would try to acquire Fielder this season. Thus, the top three teams at this point would probably be the Sox, Rays and Giants. (Although you can never count out teams like the Mets or Dodgers either.)

The Giants are an interesting case because they appear to be the best fit for both Fielder and Melvin. They have no shortage of arms at every level and they could obviously use another bat to go along with Buster Posey, Aubrey Huff and Pablo Sandoval (who has recently started to look like the hitter he was in ‘09) in the middle of their lineup. We also know that Melvin likes Bumgarner, Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain, so if Giants’ GM Brian Sabean put together an attractive enough package, he could probably acquire Fielder by the end of the month.

That said, Sabean would more than likely be reluctant to part with Bumgarner, Cain or even Wheeler. Sanchez has been on the trade block before, but he alone couldn’t swing a deal for Fielder and thanks to Sabean, the Giants are woefully short on position talent in their farm system. Therefore, they probably couldn’t put together a package built around Sanchez that would entice the Brewers enough to part with Fielder.

So it becomes a waiting game with Fielder in Milwaukee. These next couple of weeks should be interesting.