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The New York Yankees have announced several minor league signings. They signed relief pitcher Royce Ring who pitched for the New York Mets for a couple of years. They also signed outfielders David Winfree and Reid Gorecki. I only know something about Royce Ring, I will have to go with what I have heard. Chad Jennings of the Journal News and Lohud Yankees Blog has a good grasp of minor leaguers considering he worked for Scranton for 7 years. Here are the stats that he provided and some insight.

David Winfree had his first shot at AAA last year and hit 273 with 14 homeruns and 31 doubles. He did strike out 88 times with only 28 walks. Winfree is only 24 years old, he seems to have Shelly Duncan type power, similar type of player but Duncan has more experience. Baseball America ranked him as the Twins #28 prospect last year and only had one other prospect with better power.

Royce Ring has 94 games of big league experience. He has pitched with the Mets, Padres and Braves. He had a 3.04 era in AAA with the St. Louis Cardinals last season. Lefties hit 208 against him last year and they have hit 229 against him in his career. He seems to be AAA filler but isn't a bad guy to have around. The Yankees now have Damaso Marte who they hope will be the guy they saw in the playoffs and not the guy they saw in the regular season. They also have Boone Logan and Wilkens De La Rosa.

I don't think there are too many people suprised but Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids today. He is the new hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and has been mostly in hiding for the past decade until taking this job. I don't know why it took him so long to admit this but he probably felt it was just easier to hide and not have to worry about it. He is now the hitting coach for the team he used to play for and knew that it would keep coming up if he didn't address it. I will add the links to the story later and have some comments up from him and possibly others. I would like to hear what you guys think about this, care/don't care?? Did you think this all along or didn't?? Do you think this will help his case for the Hall of Fame or hurt it?? I would love to hear what you guys think and I will jump in on these topics later.

Wildcard weekend lived up to it's name, it was wild. The Jets/Bengals game which started it all off and last nights Green Bay/Arizona game were the good ones. The Dallas Philly and NE/Balt games were pretty much blowouts. I will start with the Jets/Bengals game since the New York Jets are the home team for me.

The New York Jets played a pretty dominant game, good defense and a solid running game. They also didn't turn the ball over and Mark Sanchez was good, they didn't make him throw it all that often which is a good thing. He really wasn't in any third and longs which is another way from limiting the mistakes that he could possibly make. The Bengals were awful especially there quarterback Carson Palmer who was overthrowing guys left and right. Chad Ochocinco once again was shut down and maybe he needs to learn how to shut his mouth and just play the game. I give the Jets credit for getting down 7-0 but not panicking and once they tied the game up they took control. It looked early on like the Jets could be in trouble but they weathered the storm and then were fine after that. They will now move on to play San Diego in San Diego on Sunday afternoon.

The other AFC game between New England and Baltimore was a shocker. The Patriots were down 21-0 before you even blinked and they just couldn't catch up. I wonder if Tom Brady was really hurt as he played a terrible game, he wasn't helped by the offensive line which just let him get beat up back there. The Patriots are still a good team but are no longer the dominant team and have some work to do to get back there. Baltimore will travel to Indianapolis to take on the Colts on Saturday.

The NFC started off with the Dallas Cowboys once again dominating the Philadelphia Eagles. I guess you could say that Tony Romo and Wade Philips have the monkey off of their back now. They look like they are going to be a tough out the rest of the way. The offense is really rolling along with Romo looking sharp and their defense has been playing great. I really think Brett Favre and the Vikings are going to be in for a really tough battle.

The last game of wildcard weekend turned out to be a really fun and entertaining shootout. The Arizona Cardinals got up big on the Green Bay Packers but to their credit they wouldn't quit and battled all the way back. Arizona had a chance to win it on a chip shot field goal in the closing seconds but missed it and the game went into OT. This was a game where it was back and forth and the teams kept matching each other score for score. There was basically no defense in this game and then when it is all said and done the game ends in OT with a fumble return for a TD by Arizona which will go on and play the Saints in New Orleans.

Yesterday was a very busy baseball day which is always fun. I wrote a post about Randy Johnson retiring and Jason Bay coming to the Mets which would of been busy enough but there was more. The Boston Red Sox were very busy signing Adrian Beltre to be their new third baseman. They will now look to trade Mike Lowell again, I wonder who would take him coming off of thumb surgery? I am guessing he will have to play in spring training and play well and then maybe they will revisit the trade with the Texas Rangers. The Red Sox also announced they are moving Jacoby Ellsbury to leftfield and Mike Cameron will be the centerfielder. I think this was a good move by them but Ellsbury will have to learn the very tricky left field, they should be better defensively though with these moves but my question is how good will they be compared to how many runs they will score. I don't think the Red Sox will have a very good offense right now, I think they are losing a lot at third base and the outfield won't be great hitting. Their offense will come from Pedroia, Youkilis and Victor Martinez primarily but is that enough??

The St. Louis Cardinals as expected resigned Matt Holliday to a 7 year 120 million dollar contract. I think this was a good move by them but didn't they outbid themselves?? I think they could of had him for much cheaper but they did what they had to do to keep him. Him and Albert Pujols make some tandem in that lineup and maybe they can persuade King Albert to stay when he is a free agent because of this. This move also impacts Johnny Damon as that is one more team that will not be looking at him for leftfield. I really wonder if he has a team, I have heard Atlanta rumored but I don't think that will happen, could he just come back to the Yankees on a cheap 1 yr deal and would he even be willing to do that at this point?? Does he really have any other options?? I guess we will see in the next couple of weeks.