Complete Winter Meetings Coverage

The Baseball Winter Meetings took place this week in the Washington D.C. area and lots of card shuffling came into play. The big cahoona has to be the deal that sent Chris Sale from the White Sox to the Red Sox. One executive said that this move makes the Red Sox the Golden State Warriors of Major League Baseball. I tend to disagree, however, as the Blue Jays will make a case to defeat the Red Sox in the division with others contending for a pennant, including the pennant defending champion Indians. Don't forget about the Rangers in the west, plus any other potential surprise teams. The Yankees continue to build for the future, bringing back Aroldis Chapman on a six-year, $82 million deal that will preclude the Yankees from handing out the big dollars in the free agent market come next offseason and beyond. The deal in which the Red Sox acquired Chris Sale does not even benefit the Red Sox, in my opinion. Of course, this is the year that they are "all in," but in the long run, this deal hurts them. They give up four superb prospects to the rebuilding White Sox, including young Cuban Yoan Moncada. These players will make an immediate impact in Chicago. It is world series or bust year for Boston. Of course, other deals were made during the mad four days of meetings - including that of Carlos Beltran returning to the Astros (one of the three B's from the 2005 world series team which included Lance Berkman and Jeff Bagwell) - but we will have to see how all this pans out during the season. Champions are not decided in December.

The Padres were pretty quiet over the four days. The only "splash" that was mentioned was during the rule 5 draft. We had the third overall pick in the draft, where we selected a prospect in the Cincinnati Reds' system plus we acquired the first two picks of the draft via trade. This is something that has never really been done before. If the Padres were to build their team and farm system, a part of that ought to be through the rule 5 draft. I don't believe I have ever heard of that happening before. But I am confident that these players will make an impact on the roster someday. Look at last year. The Padres selected four players in the draft (just as they did this year) and two remained with the organization in the form of Luis Perdomo and Jabari Blash. Perdomo turned out to be the Padres most consistent pitcher and Blash had flashes of excellence but often struck out and struggled with his confidence. Here is the article which talks about the Padres during the draft. These players will have a definite shot to break the 25-man roster once spring training concludes.

Bowl season is finally here! This is arguably my favorite time of Christmas. I mean, the family is great and the food is great, but football is a major part of it. With all of the bowls announced, including the playoff games, excitement is a must. One game that I am really looking forward to is the MAC champion Western Michigan taking on BIG 10 runner-up Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2. Click this link to view the entire bowl schedule and comment below on what you are looking forward to the most this bowl season. Here is your only game for the week:
-#25 Navy vs. Army (from Baltimore), 3 ET, CBS

Thanks for reading! Tune in next week when bowl season begins!