While we may not like New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter too much up here in Red Sox Nation, you have to respect the way he plays the game. He goes out there and gives it his all and has never done anything to embarrass the Yankees organization.

He also became the first member of 3000 hit club to pick up his 3000th hit in a Yankees uniform on Saturday afternoon in front of the home crowd and Yankee Stadium. And he did it on a home run nonetheless.

So we offer our congratulations to Jeter on becoming the 28th MLB player to reach 3,000 hits.

Here’s the link to the video of Jeter’s 3000th hit. And if you’re looking to buy DJ3K apparel, I’ve got you covered.

Photo credit: Getty Images

* injured or will not participate in game

Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees will not play in the game. He’s been replaced on the AL roster by Jordan Walden of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees will not play in the game. He’s been replaced on the AL roster by Jhonny Peralta of the Cleveland Indians.

Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees will not play in the game. He’s been by Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox.

David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays is injured and will not play in the game. He’s been replaced by David Robertson of the New York Yankees.

Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners pitched on Sunday and is unable to participate in the game. He was replaced on the AL roster by Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox. Since Lester is on the DL, he was replaced by Ricky Romero of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers pitched on Sunday and is unable to participate in the game. He was replaced on the AL roster by Michael Pineda of the Seattle Mariners.

James Shields of the Tampa Bay Rays pitched on Sunday and is unable to participate in the game. He was replaced on the AL roster by CC Sabathia. Since Sabathia pitched on Sunday as well, he is unable to participate in the game. He was replaced on the AL roster by Alexi Ogando.

Shane Victorino of the Philadelphia Phillies is on the disabled list and will be unable to play in the game. He’s been replaced on the NL roster by Andre Either of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves is on the disabled list and will be unable to play in the game. He’s been replaced on the NL roster by Scott Rolen of the Cincinnati Reds.

Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers will not play in the game. He’s been replaced on the NL roster by Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched on Sunday and will be unable to play in the game. He’s been replaced on the NL roster by Kevin Correia of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants pitched on Sunday and will be unable to play in the game. He’s been replaced on the NL roster by Craig Kimbrel of the Atlanta Braves.

Jose Reyes of the New York Mets is on the DL and unable to participate in the game. He’s been replaced by Pablo Sandoval of the San Francisco Giants.

Placido Polanco of the Philadelphia Phillies is hurt and unable to play in the game. He’s been replaced by Miguel Montero of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page to see the 2011 MLB All-Star Game final vote candidates.

Here are your 2011 MLB All-Star Game final vote candidates:

American League

• Alex Gordon, Royals
• Adam Jones, Orioles
• Paul Konerko, White Sox
• Victor Martinez, Tigers</li>
• Ben Zobrist, Rays

National League

• Andre Ethier, Dodgers
• Todd Helton, Rockies
• Ian Kennedy, Diamondbacks
• Michael Morse, Nationals
• Shane Victorino, Phillies

Be sure to vote for you who think deserves the final spot in the 2011 MLB All-Star Game. For the record, I’ll be voting for V-Mart and Helton.

If Major League Baseball were to realign into the proposed two leagues of 15 teams each which National League team would move to the American League?

To quote William Tasker, writer of the Flagrant Fan blog, “the idea that the (Houston) Astros are the only logical team to jump to the AL is ridiculous. This whole thing is starting to annoy me.”

And he is right.  Why is Houston being seemingly railroaded into the American League? People say it’s because they’d have a rivalry with the Texas Rangers.  Well based on that logic there’s plenty of teams that would have rivalries based on geography if they changed leagues.

Some that come to mind are: Florida and Tampa Bay; San Francisco and Oakland; Kansas City and St. Louis; Washington and Baltimore; Pittsburgh and Cleveland; Cincinnati and Cleveland; not to mention the cities of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York who share two teams each.

Houston is also currently on the market as owner Drayton McClain tries to sell off the team.  Would it be fair to a future owner to have the outgoing owner decide the long-term fate of the franchise he no longer wants to control?

So it got me to thinking after Tasker said “wouldn’t if be fairer to have one of the newer teams switch like Arizona?”  Yes it would.

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Moving Florida to the AL would make some sense as they would have Tampa Bay as a rival, while Arizona or Colorado moving would go a long way in cutting down some of the heavy travel distances that western clubs like Seattle and Oakland endure each season.

But to me Washington makes the most sense.  It would have a built in rivalry with Baltimore plus D.C. has always been a traditionally American League city as the two incarnations of the Washington Senators (1901-60; 1961-71) were American League teams before becoming the Minnesota Twins and the Texas Rangers.

Tradition, after all, was the reason Bud Selig was more than willing to move his Milwaukee Brewers to the National League in 1998 when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays came into being.  Selig felt Milwaukee was traditionally a National League city because of the 13 seasons the Braves spent there after moving from Boston and before going onto Atlanta.  Well if 13 years is a tradition then 70 years as an American League city must count for something.

Another reason for moving Washington is they are a fairly new club, having come to fruition when the Montreal Expos moved to the Capital for the 2005 season, while Houston has been in the National League since 1962 when they started as the Colt .45’s.

In the end I don’t think it makes much of a difference who moves but to some of us fans it makes more sense to have a newer club switch leagues.

In the last few days the fires of realignment in Major League Baseball have been stoked and the flames have been fanned and it seems that the players would really like this to happen.

While we are hearing that the players and the Major League Baseball Players Association are on board with the potential realignment it appears some of the owners maybe lukewarm to the proposition.

The players and the union like it because the proposal of two 15-team leagues with no divisions would produce a more balanced schedule making it easier for some teams to qualify for the post season.  By easier I mean that teams like Baltimore, Toronto and Tampa Bay along with Florida and the New York Mets would have to play less face to face games with the New York Yankees, Boston, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

One of the reasons championing the move to realignment is the imbalance of two divisions.  The American League West has only four teams while the National League Central has six.  The National league currently has 16 total team to the American Leagues 14.

The proposal of two leagues of 15 teams would do a few things.  First a National League team would have to be relocated to the American League.  Rumors are that the Houston Astros would be likely to move.  This is kind of up in the air as Drayton McClain has put the club up for sale.  To me it would be highly unfair for McClain to make the decision to move or not before a buyer is found which at this point could possibly make a Houston move a no go.

The second thing that would happen, and if I had a vote my biggest objection, would be year round interleague play.  With this move there would be no way around it as all teams need to play 162 games in roughly a 180-day window. I despise interleague play.

The new plan would also call for a fifth team from each league to make the playoffs in an expanded post season scenario tied to realignment.  So in the new format you would have the top five teams in each league going into the post season.  The four and five seed from each league would play each other in either a play in game or a short series (best of three).  The winner of the play in/short series would play the top seed from the league, while the two and three seeds would face each other in a five game series.  The winners would then go the League Championship Series (best of seven) and the league champions would face each other in the best of seven World Series.

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ESPN reporter Buster Olney says that while the proposal has less than a 50-50 chance at this time of passing it is gaining momentum.

Under the rumored proposal let’s look at who would have been in the playoffs in 2010:

The AL five would have been Tampa Bay, New York, Minnesota, Texas and Boston.

The NL five would have been Philadelphia, San Francisco, Atlanta, Cincinnati and San Diego. Cincinnati and Atlanta would have tied for 3^rd with the same win percentage. I would imagine head to head would be first tiebreaker.

I don’t know if the proposal is good or bad I just know that I’m not thrilled with the idea due to full season interleague play as I think that helps create the problem of schedule imbalance that the players and owners are chirping about.

With a full season of interleague play you would have to schedule every team for the same amount of interleague games.  So let’s use the Red Sox, say they play each NL team four times, 2 home and 2 away. That’s 60 games against NL teams leaving 102 open dates to face 14 AL opponents on an even basis that doesn’t work (7.29 games vs. each AL team).

So let’s reduce the season to 158 games, Boston could play 60 interleague games (4 games x 15 teams) and 98 league games (7 games x 14 teams).  Or go to a season of 157 games and play 45 interleague games (one series of 3 games against each club) and 112 league games (8 games x 14 teams).

Each schedule creates minor imbalances that can be overcome.  In the first schedule idea the Red Sox would have 4 home games and 3 road against seven American League teams in 2012 while the other seven teams they’d play 3 home games and 4 road games.  The next season Boston would flip schedules.  While against the National League the Red Sox would have two series of two games each; one home and one away.

In the second schedule idea the Red Sox would play their league 8 times (4 home; 4 away) and only have one three game series against the senior circuit, either a road or a home series.  The next season Boston would flip locations with those National League teams.

If a full season of interleague play is forced on us with the realignment I could live with it as long as it’s balanced in some form similar to the above.

The one thing this realignment would do is Boston wouldn’t have as many head to head meetings with Tampa Bay and New York while having more games with teams like Kansas City, Texas, Minnesota and Detroit which I like.  As a fan I miss getting to see the outstanding players on the non-division teams.  It would also give us more familiarity with National League players than seeing them once every three years or so.

How do you feel about realignment?  Sound off and let Sox & Dawgs know.  You can tweet me @djstevem or Ian @soxanddawgs; email me at steve[at]soxanddawgs[dot]com or leave a comment below I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’m here to call out ESPN writer Buster Olney as a baseball pink hat.  Let me say I have a lot of respect for Olney as a writer and for his unmitigated love of baseball but this stance he has taken on runner/catcher collisions is beyond outrageous.

In case you missed it, on Wednesday night San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey was run into by Florida Marlins base runner Scott Cousins while blocking home plate and suffered a broken ankle in the collision.

Then this morning I see Olney on Twitter railing against these collisions and how we need rules to protect the catcher.  What?

Here are Olney’s Tweets:

@Buster_ESPN: Re Posey: In the big-picture question of risk/reward, the play of blocking home plate, to save one run, is just not worth it.  Not even close.

@Buster_ESPN: MLB and the Players Association should step in and ban the play of the catcher blocking home.  It’s just not worth it, for anyone involved.

He even goes on to state that the reason is money related:

@Buster_ESPN: The reason for change: $. Posey is a cornerstone investment for SF  — and all of that risk for one run? Makes no sense.

@Buster_ESPN: Just filed a news story: Agent for Buster Posey will call MLB and raise idea of rule changes regarding collisions between runners/fielders.

This is what’s wrong with the NFL.  In that sport they’ve put the quarterback’s in a bubble wrap pocket and they protect them.  Baseball needs to learn from the NFL’s mistake and not legislate these types of plays.

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Home plate collisions have been in the game forever.  As a former catcher I know this first hand.  I can not tell you how many times I was run over by guys who towered over me.  As a catcher you didn’t want to get hit but you knew it’s part of the game, it’s allowed.

Tim Kurkjian said on ESPN Thursday morning “this is a hard game played by hard men and there should be no rule changes.”  He also stated that he doesn’t see MLB’s Joe Torre, a former catcher/tough guy, doing anything to bring up any rule changes.

In fact, the hit Cousins laid on Posey last night was described by one writer as “violent but legal”.  Cousins said after the game “Posey was blocking the dish I got to do whatever I can do to score.” It’s sad that Posey, one of the games bright young stars, got hurt but this play is part of the game.

The Ray Fosse-Pete Rose collision in the 1970 All-Star game was violent as well.  Fosse, who was an exceptional backstop, was never the same after suffering a separated shoulder.  The Carlton Fisk-Leron Lee collision at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland in 1974 was violent too.  Fisk tore several knee ligaments and after reconstructive knee surgery was told he’d never play again.

Through baseball history there have been many collisions at the plate, another that comes to mind was when Florida catcher Ivan Rodriguez was run over by San Francisco baserunner J.T. Snow in a playoff game in 2003; he got up smiling showing everyone he held onto the ball.

No one cried for those guys or those like Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Roy Campanella, Johnny Bench, Thurman Munson, Mike Scoscia and all the great catchers who have been run over in years past.  So why the hubbub now?  Is this is part of the pacification of sport in America?

Middle infielders have been run over for ages, taken out by baserunners trying to break up double plays.  Where’s that legislation?  Those same baserunners get the ball thrown at their heads as they barrel down on the second baseman or shortstop.  Where’s that legislation?

I agree with Kurkjian 100% you can’t take this play out of the game. I believe MLB won’t but I do find it unsettling that someone as well versed in baseball and its history as Olney feels the need to beat the drum on this.  As I told Olney in response to his Tweets “please put your pink hat in the closet. Nobody cried for Fosse, Fisk, et al. That noise you hear is Munson spinning in his grave.”

Follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem

I read Ian’s post this afternoon on how FOX is sticking it to the Connecticut-based faction of Boston Red Sox fans by selecting the Subway Series for its game of the week.  In selecting the game between New York’s Yankees and Mets for its Saturday night primetime match up over the possibly more appealing Chicago Cubs/Red Sox game I too wonder what the hell FOX 61’s (WTIC-TV/Hartford) programming team is thinking.  Ian outlined the reasons in his post so I won’t repeat them here, let’s just say I agree wholeheartedly.

To me if I can’t see the Cubs and Red Sox, and I can’t where I live either, I sure as hell have zero interest in yet another game between the Yankees and Mets.  I’m pretty sure this is how the majority of America feels when FOX and ESPN bomb them with back-to-back Red Sox/Yankee games.

I’d rather watch the Texas/Philadelphia game, which has Cliff Lee pitching for his new/old team against his old team or the Oakland/San Francisco game.  Anything but being force fed this made up rivalry between two teams who share the same city and tabloid back pages.  The only person who cared about this game was George Steinbrenner and last I checked, he checked out.

The problem here not only lies with some Fox affiliates picking the wrong game, it also lies with the exclusivity right of the MLB TV contract with FOX.  The contract forbids not only two different games to be shown in the same market but there is also no available cable, satellite or MLB.TV feed of the games shown to other parts of the country.

What this means is that FOX 61, who has a “sister station” in the Hartford Market WTXX TV Channel 20, can not have WTXX show one game say Cubs/Red Sox while FOX 61 shows the Yankees/Mets.  It also means that even if you wanted to, you can not go to your favorite sports bar Saturday night in Connecticut and request the satellite feed of the Cubs/Red Sox game.  Due to the exclusivity clause the satellite and cable providers are not allowed to carry the feeds of those games.  Nor can you view the out of market games on your MLB.TV account.

Face it, we all know that baseball broadcasting rules, especially when it comes to primary and secondary markets and blackout rules are antiquated and are in dire need of overhaul.  Fact is that until the Commissioner’s Office, the teams and the networks come to the understanding that the current rules are hurting the game more than protecting broadcast rights it won’t happen.

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The real culprit in this hullabaloo is interleague play.  Started in 1997 as a way to generate more interest in the game it was supposed to be a short lived experiment lasting only a few seasons.  The problem is our Baseball Fueher Bud Selig LOVES interleague play more than he loves himself.

For the last 15 seasons we have been force-fed bogus “Made for TV” rivalries like the Yankees and Mets, Braves and Red Sox, Marlins and Rays, Orioles and Nationals, Angels and Dodgers, Whites Sox and Cubs, Rangers and Astros, Royals and Cardinals, and on and on.

Does anyone outside of those cities give a crap about those games?  Does anyone in those cities give a crap about those games?

Only Sir Bud does.

By implementing interleague play, Selig also created a situation where there was no longer a balanced schedule.  Prior to interleague play each of the MLB teams each played 162 games all against their own league.  You played your division teams 13 times and 12 games vs. the other teams in the opposite division.  This breakdown was kept even after the leagues went to three divisions in 1994.  The balanced schedule didn’t leave us until the advent of interleague play in 1997.

Now with “Bud’s Folly”, the American League schedule has a team play 18 or 19 games vs. the 3 or 4 other teams in their division.  And 18 games against the National League with 6 of those (3 home; 3 away) against a “natural rival” each season and then the other 12 games are played against 4 other NL teams by division on a rotating basis.  The balance of the scheduled games are then split against the two divisions.

The National League schedule has two more teams so the division games end up with different numbers.   NL teams play division rivals anywhere from 15 to 19 times in a season. Then they have their 18 interleague games and the balance against the other two divisions.

The problem with this is come pennant race time because of the mess Selig made not every team has played the same amount of games against the same level of competition.  An example is the Tampa Bay Rays have to play the Yankees and Red Sox 18 or 19 times each to try to compete for a wild card slot.  While teams in the Central and West, say the Minnesota Twins and the Oakland A’s, competing for the same wild card spot only had to play the Red Sox and Yankees about 6-8 times over the course of the season.  By this schedule the Rays have to play a tougher schedule to make the playoffs over teams in the other “softer” divisions.

For some reason Selig and the owners continue to force the worst thing to happen to the MLB pennant races and in some cases TV coverage on the American baseball fan.  But like the broadcasting rules governing blackouts and markets I don’t see any corrections being made to this issue either.  As long as Selig is in the commissioner’s chair it appears we will continually be subjected to games that do not mean anything in the pennant races or for the majority of fans attending and watching on TV.

Follow Steve on Twitter at @djstevem

Photo credit: Getty Images

Friday the music stopped for former Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez when he abruptly retired from baseball after 19 seasons after being told their was an issue with his drug test.

Ramirez, who played for Boston from 2000 to 2008, was known as flake on and off the field as an aloof player who could turn it on when he needed too.  It became known as Manny being Manny.  As of Friday, Manny isn’t Manny any longer.

It came to attention of the drug program with Major League Baseball that according to a confidential source Ramirez tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug (PED).  We all remember that after Ramirez ended up in Los Angeles with the Dodgers after worming his way out of Boston he got snagged for taking a women’s fertility drug that is a banned substance.  For his little dalliance of supposedly trying to become the first pregnant major leaguer, he bought himself a 50-game suspension in 2009.  After missing nearly two months of the season he came back and wasn’t nearly the same player the Dodgers got at the trade deadline on July 31, 2008 from the Red Sox and then committed $45 million over two seasons to that previous off season.

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After struggling through the rest of 2009 and most of 2010 with Los Angeles he was dealt again late in the season to the Chicago White Sox, who hoped he would help them down the pennant stretch as he did in LA in ’08.  Manny hit just one HR for the Pale Hose down the stretch and went until nearly the start of spring training this year before the Tampa Bay Rays reached out and gave him a one-year deal for $2 million. Once again another team was hoping Manny was still Manny.

But in five games this season with the Rays, Manny had just one hit in 17 AB’s.  Then came the news today during of all things the middle of the first Red Sox-Yankees tilt of the season, which just happened to be the Boston home opener.  So now as a two-time offender of the MLB PED policy Ramirez was looking at being suspended for 100 games.  Obviously knowing he had no excuse and no way of getting the penalty reduced or dropped the mop headed Ramirez decided he was better off walking away.

In addition to the Dodgers, White Sox, Rays and Red Sox he played from 1993 to 1999 with the Cleveland Indians helping take the team to two World Series both resulting in losses.  The first was in 1995 to Atlanta and the other in 1997 to Florida.  Upon becoming a free agent he signed in Boston where he went to two more World Series this time winning both in 2004 against St. Louis where he earned series MVP honors and in 2007 against Colorado.  The next year he decided he had enough of Boston and forced his way out of town.

Ramirez, who would have been a surefire Hall of Famer had he stayed clean, is now an unlikely nominee to baseball’s shrine.  He finishes his career having hit .312 with 555 HRs, 1831 RBI and 1122 extra base hits.  The man was a hitting savant; it’s too bad he didn’t use that talent to make better decisions off the field.

Photo credit: Reuters Pictures

With the 2011 Major League Baseball season underway less than a week comes a report from Joshua Nichols published on Internet Broadcasting called “Take Me Out To Baseball’s 5 Best Ballparks”.

While some of the selections did not surprise me, like PNC Ballpark, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and AT&T Park, home of the World Champion San Francisco Giants.  The fact that baseballs two OLDEST parks, Wrigley Field home of the 1908 World Champion Chicago Cubs and Fenway Park, home of our beloved Red Sox also made the list.

He says that since 1992’s debut of Camden Yards in Baltimore no more than 19 ballparks have made their debuts, including Target Field the new home of the Minnesota Twins in 2010.  And next year the Florida Marlins, will be renamed the Miami Marlins and enter a new park at the site of the old Orange Bowl.

Nichols lists the Top 5 as Safeco Field, the retractable roof home of the Seattle Mariners, was fifth.  PNC took fourth place, Wrigley Field was third, AT&T was second and Fenway, which has undergone numerous renovations in the nearly decade long ownership of John W. Henry and Co. took the top prize.

I was kind of surprised Fenway was first but then I haven’t been there since 2005 and I was more than shocked that my favorite park, Camden Yards only pulled an honorable mention.  Others in that category are Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, San Diego’s PETCO Park, Coors Field in Denver and Detroit’s Comerica Park.

Photo credit: Baseball Pilgrimages

With the St. Louis Cardinals and first baseman Albert Pujols unable to make a deal before the contract negotiation deadline of noon today, it appears each party is willing to see where this goes.  The Cardinals, who are refusing to listen to trade offers for Pujols, have to be sweating a bit.  I would bet if you asked a diehard Cards fan how they felt right now, you might just have to call EMS for a cardiac emergency.

Pujols, on the other hand, while he may really want to stay in St. Louis and is quite possibly a little unnerved that nothing got done on an extension, is in the cat birds seat.  At this time he has all the leverage.  In the next 300 days you will not go one day without a sports related entity mentioning Albert Pujols and his contract expiring at years end.  The games best player is about to get paid.  It’s just a matter of who is willing to meet the demands of the three-time NL MVP.

With that in mind here are the teams I feel are best suited to make a run at Pujols next off season.  For Cardinals fans it’s going to be the longest 300 days of their lives.  Remember no one has ruled out Pujols getting that extension done behind the scenes or even testing the free agent market and returning to St. Louis.  But you have to admit if you are a fan of any one of these teams, other than the Cards, you have to be wondering what if this guy came to my team.

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Teams that Pujols could end up with:

National League teams

Cardinals – I am going to put the Cardinals first because I really think they’re at the top of the list.  Look this guy doesn’t know any other city but St. Louis, he’s never played anywhere else.  Tim Kurkjian of ESPN says he’s “80% certain” that Pujols comes back.  I think it’s reasonable but I’m not at 80%, more like 65%-70%.

Cubs – Wouldn’t Cub fans love to steal Pujols out from under their arch-rivals nose.  It would definitely jack up the emotion of the series between the two teams and cities which is the second best rivalry in baseball.  Pujols in a Cubs uni just might kill a few Cards fans and they will need a 1B after the season.

Phillies – While 1B isn’t an option in Philly, moving Albert to a corner outfield spot, namely RF, is.  Pujols who came up as a jack of all trades has played the corners in both the infield and outfield.  While he is better as first baseman there are teams who would try to get Pujols to move to strengthen their lineup.  The question I have here is does Philly have any money left?

Braves – Right now the Braves are going with an unproven rookie at first base in 2011.  Freddy Freeman could be a ROY candidate or a big league bust.  Even if Freeman has a great year there’s no doubt in my mind if Atlanta has the money they will kick the tires on Pujols and either change Freeman’s position or move him in a deal.

Mets – I am going to put the Mets here just to tease the fan base.  But let’s look at the facts.  When your owner is trying to sell 25% of the team so that he can get some money to help defend the club against a lawsuit generated from the Bernie Madoff fiasco, there won’t be $27-$30 million a year to pay Pujols.

Giants – San Francisco could make a bid.  It’s not like they aren’t used to shelling out big dollars, they’ve done it with Barry Zito and Barry Bonds.  They have a young staff and you put Pujols in the middle of that lineup they could rule the West for years to come.

Dodgers – Normally I’d put the Dodgers in here but they’re just like the Mets.  Their fans can look at him through the window but with the ownership issue still in flux between the warring McCourt’s they aren’t going to be able to pay Albert.

American League teams

Angels – After the off season fiasco of 2010-11 Artie Moreno and his baseball people need to regroup and getting Pujols would be huge but unless you deal off Kendry Morales or make him the DH, Pujols will need to play in the outfield.  The good thing about the AL is the DH slot but I don’t see Albert willing to give up playing the field everyday.  An occasion DH spot for “day off” could be good for him.

Rangers – Hey they were willing to pay Cliff Lee and they paid Chan Ho Park and Alex Rodriguez under different ownership.  No one knows better than Nolan Ryan than bigger is better and you put Pujols in the middle with AL MVP Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz that’s a very formidable 3-4-5.  I think a lot depends on how their pitching holds up this season.  If it comes down to the bat of Pujols or the arm of a #1 starter, I see Jon Daniels, Ryan and Company going with pitching.

Orioles – Hey Baltimore has done crazier things and Peter Angelos still had money last I checked.  If they were to sign Pujols, Buck Showalter might actually smile.  Right now Derek Lee is the first baseman but he is at best a stop gap measure.  Put Pujols in the middle of that young lineup and Baltimore could actually start to challenge. he just wont have #5 as that belongs to Brooks Robinson.

Yankees – The biggest and baddest wallet on the MLB block belongs to the Brothers Steinbrenner.  GM Brian Cashman may not want Pujols, may not see a need for Pujols who would definitely have to be moved to the outfield.  But when Hank starts getting all crazy like daddy George used to anything is possible in Yankee-land.  They lost out on Cliff Lee, Andy Pettitte retired, they messed with Derek Jeter’s head, they were too late to get Carl Crawford and damn you Stein Junior wants to spend some money.  He won’t get #5 in the Bronx though, some guy named DiMaggio owns that.

Red Sox – The second biggest baddest wallet on the MLB block belongs to Theo and the Trio. And as I eluded to in an earlier piece, the Sox have roughly $60 million coming off the payroll after the ’11 season.  Among that will be J.D. Drew’s contract expires at seasons end.  Would you rather pay Drew another $40 over three years or would you pony up some bucks and bid on Albert to play the RF corner.  You can even re-name the right field pavilion the “Pujols Pavilion” and last I knew #5 was still open.

So let the countdown begin….It’s the 300 Days of Pujols.

Starting on Sunday, SOX & Dawgs (written by Steve)  will be bringing you a  a team by team look at its key players, new faces, their potential MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year candidates, their possible starting lineup and rotation as well as a quick summary.

Follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem

Photo credit: AP Photo

From Jon Heyman of SI.com on New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain: “not saying jobas fat, but he looks like he may have swallowed one of the clubhouse kids”.

Graphic by Ian.

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