New sleeveless jersey the Twins are set to unveil tomorrow

I feel like I've just died and gone to hell. I went to the Twins website today and was rudely greeted with the above photo and this quote:

WHAT?! Those sleeveless jerseys worn by other teams are the ugliest fucking things of all time! I've been so proud of the Twins for not joining in on this horrible trend for so long (I can't believe I never posted on how ugly sleeveless jerseys are - I know I meant to), and now it's all been ruined. Let's all hope that Carlos Silva is the only one who ever elects that the team use them on his day, because these sleeveless jerseys being sported around the league are friggin' ugly! Blah.

» Twins unveil new jerseys for '06 [twinsbaseball.com]

You were certain it was going to be the Yankees who would once again play the assholes this offseason, weren't you? Okay, if not the Yankees, then at least the Mets or the Red Sox. Turns out the Toronto Blue Jays win the award for the offseason's biggest ass-clowns - and it's still only November!

You're wondering what I'm talking about, aren't you?

The Blue Jays are reported to have signed B.J. Ryan to a five-year, $47 million contract. That's right - B.J. Fuckin' Ryan. I know, I've heard the numbers the Mets are supposedly offering Billy Wagner, and even though it's much more than he's actually worth, $47 million for B.J. Fuckin' Ryan is just... well... fucking ridiculous. We're talking about a guy who at 29-years-old has had one mediocre year as a closer, and we're giving him $47 million. Holy hell, I hopes that's in Canadian dollars.

» Report: Jays ink Ryan to five-year deal [twinsbaseball.com]

The temperatures may be dropping, but MLB's offseason action is just starting to heat up. Following the news announced earlier this week that the Florida Marlins would be shipping Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to the Boston Red Sox for a trio of prospects, the Fish are making headlines again with the news that Carlos Delgado is on his way to the New York Mets for Mike Jacobs and a minor league pitcher. The Mets, of course, already sent Mike Cameron to San Diego for Xavier Nady, and are said to still be interested in bringing Manny Ramirez to New York. Not to be outdone, the Phillies and White Sox are said to have reached a deal to swap Jim Thome for Aaron Rowand. Rowand will likely find his place in the middle of an outfield that already contains powerhitters Pat Burrell and Bobby Abreu. The acquisition of Thome likely means that either Frank Thomas or Paul Konerko - if not both - has played his last game in a White Sox uniform.

Especially interesting are these moves on the part of Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. Florida appears to be on a fire sale to rival the one that followed their World Series win in '97. Although offloading Lowell and Delgado will considerably reduce Florida's payroll while simultaneously making them a considerably younger team - Lowell is 31, while Delgado is 33 - sending Josh Beckett to Boston seems to make little sense. Beckett is only 25, and his salary should be considered negligible for a former World Series MVP. Should Florida choose not to re-sign A.J. Burnett, they'll be looking to Cy Young runner-up Dontrelle Willis to carry the load for a young team.

And, along with the confirmed deals, the race to sign closer Billy Wagner is still on, but the Mets look to be frontrunners in that deal. Wagner is holding out to see if any other offers come in, but the acquisitions of Delgado and Nady - along with talk of the potential acquisition of Ramirez - have to be making a move to Shea sound pretty enticing.

» Delgado and Thome headed to new teams [Yahoo! Sports]

The Minnesota Twins announced their spring 2006 schedule today, and fans have only 103 days to wait. The key date here is February 19, because that's the day that pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report for spring training, with the full squad set to report five days later on the 24th. The team's first spring training game will be on March 2 against the Grapefruit League crosstown rivals Boston. The team's final spring training game will be against Triple-A affiliate Rochester on April 2, two days before the regular season opener against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

» Twins release spring schedule, tix info [twinsbaseball.com]

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher Bartolo Colon was named earlier today the 2005 American League Cy Young winner. Whoop-dee-doo. Colon's one redeeming quality to even be worthy of the award was that he won 21 games this year. Of course, it's easy to win 21 games when your offense is giving you 6.02 runs per game. Johan Santana - by far the better pitcher - got only 4.7 runs per game out of his offense this year, yet still won 16 games. He also led the majors in strikeouts and WHIP and was second in the AL in ERA. My grandma could win 21 games with 6.02 runs per game in support, and I don't know that she could throw the ball all the way from the pitcher's mound to the plate. Unfortunately, voters apparently failed to take note of this little issue, so they voted Colon the winner, while Santana came in third. Mariano Rivera, a closer (a really good one, but still only a closer), came in second ahead of Santana. Cliff Lee, who got 6.48 runs per game in support (versus a less-than-stellar 3.79 ERA) came in fourth in voting, while World Champion White Sox pitchers Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland came in fifth and sixth, respectively, and Lee's teammate Kevin Millwood - the AL leader in ERA - came in seventh. Only Colon was named on all 28 ballots - 17 first place votes and 11 second place votes. Rivera was named on 22 ballots - 8 first place, 7 second place, and 7 third place, while Santana was named on 23 ballots - 3 first place, 8 second place, and 12 third place. There was a considerable drop-off in votes for the other four candidates. Oh well.

» Colon named AL Cy Young winner [mlb.com]

UPDATE: Obviously I'm not the only person who feels this way - if nothing else, three writers gave Santana first-place votes - but here's an equally well-reasoned for Santana to have won by ESPN's Jayson Stark....

» Santana, not Colon, deserved to win AL Cy Young [espn.com]

2005 has been good for the Milwaukee Brewers, and it just got better today when it was officially announced that Hall-of-Famer Robin Yount will join the team's coaching staff as the bench coach in 2006. The franchise had been trying to lure fan favorite Yount back to Milwaukee for years to no avail, but current Brewers manager and former Yount teammate Ned Yost finally convinced his old friend it was time to make a comeback. Led by a talented group of young players and one of the best pitching staffs in the National League, the Brewers will be looking to improve on this season's 81-81 record - their first non-losing season since 1992. Playing in the same division as St. Louis and Houston - winners of the last two National League pennants - will make it difficult to improve on this season's third-place finish, but the team and its fans will be hoping that the addition of two-time MVP Yount to the coaching staff will inspire the young players to return Milwaukee to the World Series for the first time since Yost and Yount were there in '82.

» Yount returns to Brewers as coach [milwaukeebrewers.com]

My busy schedule of late kept me from jumping on this story earlier, but when the Rawlings Gold Glove winners for 2005 were announced on Tuesday, there was a big surprise in the American League - the Twins' Torii Hunter, who missed the last two months of the season due to injury, won his fifth-straight award. Although there is no doubting Hunter's credentials - those get highlighted every night during the season on "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight" - the award was mostly surprisingly because of the amount of the season that he missed, highlighting once again that sometimes reputation counts for more than anything else. Even so, Hunter isn't exactly ready to hand back the award, and we don't think he should either. Congratulations once again to Torii Hunter.

» Hunter's short season was golden [twinsbaseball.com]