Jerseys Homes Blog

Welcome to 'Duk's Dozen, a streamlined selection of 12morning-fresh links and items to start your baseball day. It welcomesyour email submissions and tips here or via Twitter.  1. Tim Wakefield's(notes) new two-year deal remind Red of Charlton Heston. Surviving Grady2. Jack Zduriencik currently says King Felix's throne will stay at Safeco Field. Seattle P-I3. Brian Cashman won't be letting big World Series efforts affect his offseason spending. NYT 4. Let the Roy Halladay(notes) speculation begin anew. Toronto Star5. The cash-strapped White Sox are again crying poor in the Chone sweepstakes. Sun-Times6. Kenny Williams is also crying poor when it ...

The Elias Sports Bureau just released its free-agent rankings on Monday afternoon and, as expected, some of them make no sense whatsoever.Carl Crawford(notes) is a "Type B" free agent. So is Vladimir Guerrero(notes) and Adrian Beltre(notes).Meanwhile, Octavio Dotel(notes) is a Type A free agent, as are John Grabow(notes), Billy Wagner(notes), Darren Oliver(notes), Melvin Mora(notes) and Rafael Betancourt(notes).Here's a place to check the whole list. Here's another. Seeing as the Rays already picked up Crawford's option for 2010, the biggest revelation from the Elias rankings release is that Chone Figgins(notes) turned out to be a Type A free agent. Eddie Bajek ...

CC Sabathia(notes) continued the Yankees' late night TV domination with a spot on Jay Leno's awkward 10@10 segment on Friday night. The appearance was a cringeworthy one — not Sabathia's fault, of course — but I did enjoy the pitcher's inner video game nerd coming out and revealing how he's spending a little of that $160 million in contract cash.  You can watch the entire satellite-crippled bit here, but since I've included the clip's other highlight — Jay referring to recent guarantee-giving guest Jimmy Rollins(notes) as Jimmy "Role-ins" — there's really no need. (There's also no need to thank me, ...

Baseball's general manager meetings are getting underway in Chicago today and it would appear the team leaders have adjusted their accomodations in accordance with the economy. Last year, MLB's 30 heads of state all met at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, Calif., a resort so posh that we detailed all of its luxuries, down to the "surfing butlers." This year, they're convening at the O'Hare Airport Hilton, a nice hotel but one more suited for a pharm rep than baseball's deal-hungry masters of the universe. Thing is, I just checked the rates on both websites and a ...

It looks like we finally have an explanation behind that widely-circulated picture in which Sammy Sosa(notes) appears as a combination of a Twilight extra, a big Charlie Chaplin fan and someone who is taking the death of Michael Jackson just a little bit too hard.  According to a friend of Sosa's, the former Cubs slugger is (thankfully) not suffering from Vitiligo or another type of disease. Sosa's appearance, rather, is a result of an elective "rejuvenation process" for his skin and he was apparently "surprised" when he came out looking whiter than his old home run buddy, Mark McGwire. ...

Welcome to 'Duk's Dozen, a streamlined selection of 12morning-fresh links and items to start your baseball day. It welcomesyour email submissions and tips here or via Twitter.  1. Joe Torre and the Dodgers are "talking about" a contract extension past 2010. LA Times2. Eric Stephen likes the stability a longer Torre tenure would bring. True Blue LA3. Rick Morrissey has a lot of hate in his heart for the New York Yankees. Chicago Tribune4. So long, Pete Happy? The Phillies have declined their option on 3B Pedro Feliz(notes). Inquirer 5. The Phils could be eyeing Chone Figgins(notes), one of ...

Retirement, or something, appears to be changing Sammy Sosa(notes). He and wife, Sonia, were recently in Las Vegas for the Latin Grammys, which included a tribute on Wednesday to singer Juan Gabriel. Photogs caught the Sosas on the red carpet and Sonia looks fabulous as always. As for Sammy ... well, there's no getting around it, but Sammy looked kind of pale.His skin is undeniably lighter than at any time since he broke into the majors in 1989. Is it an illness, or a condition such as Vitiligo, in which depigmentation occurs? Is Sammy just bleaching his skin for fashion's ...

The World Series hasn't even been over a full two days, but baseball's hot stove has already bypassed the preheating stage.Yes, feel the heat, folks.One day after the White Sox and Royals swapped Chris Getz(notes) and Josh Fields(notes) for Mark Teahen(notes), the Brewers have sent shortstop J.J. Hardy(notes) up I-94 for Twins outfielder Carlos Gomez(notes).  Though he was once part of the franchise's foundation, Hardy struggled with the Brewers in 2009 and even earned a trip to the minor leagues in August. With young Alcides Escobar(notes) already tabbed as the Brewers' shortstop of the future, Hardy became expendable and he'll ...

Yahoo! Sports MLB editor Steve Henson is checking in with periodic updates from today's Yankees victory parade in Manhattan. 11:22 a.m. ET Commerce has pretty much shut down in Lower Manhattan today. Thousands of members of the work force are showering ticker tape and toilet paper from their high-rise office windows all over the Yankees as the World Series champions and their families inch up Broadway from the U.S. Customs House on Battery Place to City Hall Park. Kids all over the city who stayed up too late Wednesday night to watch their Yankees win the World Series skipped ...

The New York Yankees have had 19 100-win seasons and 27 championships in the 109-year history of their franchise. The 2009 championship team marks the 11th time in franchise history that the team has won at least 103 games. It's the sixth of those eleven 103 victory-plus teams to go all the way.The five winningest Yankee teams — 1927, 1932, 1939, 1961, and 1998 — all won between 106 and 114 games in the regular season and went a combined 27-3 in the postseason en route to five of the most famous championships in history. Their shadows loom large over ...