Hello, sportsfans! It's MLB free agency period, and my thoughts and opinions on the matter.

The big free agent getter, depending on who you ask, is Manny Ramirez (37) or Mark Teixeira (29) (I say the latter) next season. I don't know where either of these guys will go, and we may not know for months. Ramirez is a great hitter, but he's also a mental case, and if there was any player that deserved (besides A-Rod) to be put in a coma when not playing on the field, it's him. He's also very old, tho that's by "old baseball standards" and 37 could be the new 32. Tho to teams, the biggest problem with Ramirez is length on contract. Manny being Manny, is one of the biggest crybabies in baseball. No sane team would offer him more than 2 years, which of course he wants double that. I hope in all seriousness, he gets so frustrated that he just flat-out retires. That'd be hilarious. The most dangerous hitter in baseball quits because he couldn't get what he wanted & was completely oblivious to what's going on in the world. As for Teixeira, any chance of him signing in homeland Maryland with the Baltimore Orioles or Washington Nationals is nothing but a pipe dream. Neither team really has a realistic chance to sign him, and it could only happen if Teixeira took an extreme hometown discount, and Baltimore is baseball's wasteland where true incompetence is massively prevalent, it'll never happen.

C.C. Sabathia, the "other" supposed #1 big free agent getter. This pitcher wants at least a 4 year contract, and there's a precedence of signing pitchers to huge long-term deals only to watch them crumble or coast through the seasons. While he can be extremely dominating, he's also a huge postseason choker. When it comes to starting pitchers, the contract situation is some kind of dance. First Milwaukee offered 5 years, $100 million, then the evil Yankees offered a record 6 years, $140 million, which was 3 weeks ago. The Yankees, in all of their arrogance, can't believe Sabathia hasn't swallowed that contract (only the Yankees can afford to add more) and figured the Union was helping them by bullying Sabathia to take the highest offer no matter what, to drive up other free agent contracts. Sabathia wants to play in California, and nobody in their right mind would want to play for that circus freak show that is the New York Yankees. Now Yankees GM Brian Cashman is demanding to have a face-to-face meeting with Sabathia next week, to most likely say "Your union & I are telling you to sign this deal!" If I was a MLB player & in Sabathia's situation, I'd tell both the Union & Cashman to "go **** a fork", because I have earned the right to play for anyone I want, for what I want. It really pisses me off how the Union is more that they don't care about what's going on in the world, and that it's millionaires merely fighting over a few millions or two, while every season almost every team keeps raising ticket prices. Baseball players aren't exactly starving artists, as much as the Union wants the public to believe. A-Rod getting $30 million a year over $25 million a year is not an accomplishment at all. It's merely a farce to drive up the market (higher payouts for agents & all those involved) and only makes the trickle down effect even worse for the fans. Even in the paper today, the Cubs, "so deservingly" after getting swept in the 1st round of the playoffs, decided to raise ticket prices on 67% of tickets, and are concentrating on nickel and diming every single section of the dump er park to death. 11 years ago, a bleachers seat cost those fans $6. Today, it ranges from $25 to $60. Baseball can't keep raising prices on everything, and as much as I hate to say it, the sport has grown too big (in teams and in revenue) and eventually the bubble is going to burst. The first trend of this, is now cities aren't willing to pony up money to build new ballparks anymore, and eventually, demand will decline and season ticket holders will drop. The situation with the Florida Marlins is already in dire shape, and the Nationals had the worst showing of opening a new ballpark in the modern era.

Greg Maddux. Wow, after 23 seasons, he's finally retiring! When he made his debut, I was in the 2nd grade busy learning the names of all U.S. presidents. Baseball to me won't be the same without Maddux, he's been there for as long as I've been following baseball, and I got to watch him locally for 9 years. He retires with 355 wins which is good for 8th all-time. He'd probably have 400 wins if he didn't waste 9 years being on the stupid Cubs. I have to say no pitcher impressed me more than Maddux did in my lifetime... he wasn't a power pitcher and he had outstanding command of his pitches, tho some say the umpires in Atlanta gave him a much larger than average strikezone. His 1995 season of 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and he also won his only World Series that season. He threw 5,008 innings with only 999 walks, roughly 1 walk per 5 innings. 4 Cy Youngs, 8 time all-star and he was at his best right when steroids were rampant in baseball, and while he declined in his late 30s (like you're supposed to) nobody ever accused Maddux being a juicer or a dick. So here's to "The Professor", may he get the first ever unanimous Hall of Fame ballot.

Javy Vazquez. Now we come to this newly ex-White Sox starting pitcher. Javy is what I call the "purgatory of pitchers". A career .500 pitcher who eats up a lot of innings, never seems to reach his potential or learn what he's supposed to, and is a big-time choker in big games. White Sox fans were screaming for the head of Vazquez, and thankfully they traded his big salary & ass to Atlanta.

A.J. Burnett. What has this guy done since 2003? Another typical dick like A-Rod who opted out of a contract (2 years, $24 million) to get more money after posting career highs in wins, innings and strikeouts. He also has a history of twice coming off heavy workload seasons followed with two injured seasons. Frustrated by the incompetence of the Toronto Blue Jays front office and lack of playoffs, and to take advantage of a weak starting pitching crop, he decided to take back his word and cash in. As a White Sox fan, I do not expect any big free agent signings like this one, because well, they already have too much money locked on crummy players.

Randy Johnson. He's only 5 wins away from the magic 300, which would lock up automatic Hall of Fame entry. Yes he was dominate, and he does have a ton of strikeouts, 4789 strikeouts but didn't start becoming a great pitcher until he was 29. However, he did have 11 extremely dominating seasons, a 10-time all-star, 5 Cy Youngs, also pitched a perfect game, one of only 17, and is one of 5 pitchers to throw a no-hitter in both leagues. I guess that's settled and he wants to pitch to get to 300. Tho he'd be better off avoiding the Bay Area which is rumored.

Kerry Wood. The former Cub, the former Second Coming of Jesus, the former savior that was supposed to bring the Cubs a championship since 1998 was finally let go, after the Cubs abused and tormented him so for many years. Only the Cubs, could take a young power pitcher kid and turn him into a walking Disabled List. His 20-strikeout game against Houston in 1998 was the worst thing to ever have happen in his career (and it was total b.s. too, it was raining, the batter's box was like quicksand, game shouldn't had been played). And in another case of S&M, former Cubs manager Dusty Baker actually asked Wood to come pitch for his Reds, to see if Wood wanted another go-around of some S&M. The Reds don't have the money for a pitcher like Wood, who was last rumored to go to the Detroit Tigers.

Every other free agent. I have no opinions of the rest of you, and quite frankly, most of you should retire and have no business still playing baseball.

New York Yankees. All the money in the world, needing free agents and the most expensive non-playoff team in the history of time left the 2008 Yankees looking like the biggest losers in baseball. It's asinine for the Yankees to think that every ballplayer thinks it's a privilege to wear Yankee pinstripes. Well guess what, you're owned by arrogant psychos, the New York media is the worst and it's like a circus there, horribly mismanaged team from top to bottom, and you're not even playing on the sacred field where all the Yankee greats you had / stole from other teams that played on. I know it won't happen, but I think it would be completely hilarious if no big name free agent signed with the Yankees. The Yankees finished in 3rd place last year, lost their 20-game winner to retirement, and they sure don't seem any better. No Yankees, you're not the greatest thing on Earth.

MLB logo / uniforms changes. So far we have the Orioles, a new cursive "Baltimore" road jersey not seen since 1972 (which was removed in 1973 due to the Washington Senators becoming the Texas Rangers and an attempt to regionalize the Orioles) & alternate, with a slightly altered Oriole bird & cap with an orange brim. Washington introduced a new "Washington" cursive road script and two alternate jerseys & caps. Saturday Minnesota Twins home games will wear 1982 $tyle uniforms (tho incorrect striping & jersey elements) to celebrate the 1982 opening of the Metrodome, which is closing after '09 for a new outdoor stadium in downtown Minneapolis. The White Sox playing the Twins in snow in April - I can't wait! The Red Sox introduced a new alternate cap (navy, red button, 'pair of red socks' logo on it). New Tampa Ray Romano's alternate, removal of stupid sky blue & white side panels, introducing sky blue placket & sleeve piping on navy jersey. No word yet on if the Mets are dropping black from their scheme & returning to only royal blue and orange when moving into Citi Field in '09, or the Yankees putting names on the back of jerseys when moving into new Yankee Stadium in '09. And of course, the usual farce of red, white and navy blue caps and jerseys for military U.S. holidays for all teams about 7 times, solely to create merchandise revenue, which I find tacky and rather ugly. As Uni Watch Blog writer Paul Lukas was at the press conference for these new patriotic cap gear ($4 more than regular caps) earlier this season when the topic of portions of the sales would go to charity, he asked "What percentage is it and why isn't it 100%?" Why, indeed.