Ballpark Travel

The Atlanta Braves have had a busy week around the Holiday's. On December 22 nd , the Braves traded RHP Javier Vazquez and LHP Boone Logan to the New York Yankees for OF Melky Cabrera, LHP Mike Dunn and RHP Aroyds Vizcaino . Then a day later, reports surfaces of former World Series MVP 3B Troy Glaus signing a one year contract worth two million dollars pending a physical. The strategy here is by trading Vazquez to the Yankees, the Braves will have saved roughly $9.5M in the trade to put back into the free agent area. So far the Braves have signed Troy Glaus , with another corners player on their radar. Both Xavier Nady and Mark DeRosa's names have surfaced in the past week as well. This trade could very well end up looking like Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan for Melky Cabrera, Troy Glaus , Xavier Nady/Mark DeRosa , Mike Dunn and Aroyds Vizcaino . When put that way, I like the deal. Replacing one of three staff aces from 2009 with three Major League players and two sol

Last week, I decided that it would be a good time to treat myself to a Holiday gift. It had been a rough week, and I was about to return to Connecticut for about ten days, so I decided that I should get something to represent my region, the Hartford Whalers. Even now, twelve seasons after their move to Charlotte, North Carolina the Connecticut fans still take a great deal of pride in the team. Recently, companies like New Era, Reebok, CCM and Mithcell & Ness have started producing Whalers retro products for fans to buy. So I went to Lids.com and purchased a new Whalers hat. Much to my surprise at dinner last night with some friends, Whalers products are the trendy thing to buy this holiday season. At dinner, I saw a Whalers t-shirt, sweatshirt and new hat. All worn by people that were at most 10-11 years old when the Whalers played their final game in Hartford in 1997. This, a couple of days after I found out that Whalers apparel at the NHL store in Times Square is currently the

The years between 2000 and 2009 were the first ever in baseball where there were eight playoff teams each year and what resulted was perhaps the most competitive decade for baseball. Sure Pirate fans may disagree, but take a look at the following data to display a positive for competitive balance: New York Yankees: 9 playoff appearances, 2 World Series Titles (4 appearances) Boston Red Sox : 6 playoff appearances, 2 World Series Titles (2 appearances) St. Louis Cardinals: 6 playoff appearances, 1 World Series Title (2 appearances) Los Angeles Angels: 6 playoff appearances, 1 World Series Title (1 appearance) Philadelphia Phillies : 3 playoff appearances, 1 World Series Title (2 appearances) Chicago White Sox : 3 p layoff appearances, 1 World Series Title (1 appearance) Arizona Diamondbacks: 3 playoff appearances, 1 World Series Title (1 appearance) Florida Marlins: 1 playoff appearance, 1 World Series Title (1 appearance) Colorado Rockies, 2 playoff appearances, 1 World Series Appeara

This past week, the Atlanta Braves added two proven closers with career ERA's under 2.40 to their bullpen at a price of 10.2 million dollars guaranteed in 2010. Typically, those words would incite great response from the baseball community, however add in the fact that their combined age on opening day will be 78, the media has been far more critical of the moves. Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito were signed this week to be late inning relievers for the Atlanta Braves as they make a push back towards the playoffs. Saito is expected to set-up Wagner in the eighth and ninth innings. Here is my take on each reliever: Billy Wagner, LH (One-Year Contract worth 7M, 2011 Option for 6.5M) Coming off of Tommy John Surgery in 2009, Wagner showed that he certainly still has the same power arm as he did in 2007 when he closed games with the Mets . Looking at his career statistics, Wagner is one of the best closers in the history of the game. The red flag that I keep returning to on Wagner i