I'm not sure I've ever laughed and cried tears of sadness at the same time

KL, I just heard yesterday the Phillies signed Raul Ibanez a couple of months ago as a replacement for Burrell. I didn't hear about that when it happened, but that's a great signing for them! He's been putting up consistent numbers for years on teams that weren't very good.

I'm looking forward to seeing him. Burrell had some great moments in Philadelphia, but he wasn't as productive as he could have been, especially with runners on base or late in the game. I hope he does well in Tampa.

My biggest concern about Ibanez is that he's another lefty in a lefty dominated lineup with Utley and Howard. It will place more pressure on Jayson Werth to produce from the right side.

Ibanez will turn 37 this yearand the three year contract seems a year too long, but he hasn't dropped off yet. He should have a good year.

I know the Phillies faithful can't stand Pat Burrell because of the strikeouts with runners on late in games, but the Rays did get a bargain with that deal. he'll help a lot as the DH.

the Phillies did what they could to replace him, but yes, the Raul Ibanez deal is a long one for a guy who's about to turn 37, even if the park change leads you to think he'll kill the ball in Philly.

He is one of those guys that I have faith in until he finally starts to tail off. He's another 100 RBI guy in an already huge lineup. In other words, if it turns out he doesn't quite live up to expectations, he will still add a lot because of how good the offense already is.

Burrell to the Rays is the same way. The Rays offense is already so young and good that they don't need to completely depend on Burrell to be the best hitter. If a weak offensive team had signed him hoping he would make them better, then it would have been a bad signing.

I can't wait for real baseball to start.

You said it. I've watched a little of the World Baseball Classic, but it just doesn't cut it for me.

I just saw on ESPN David Letterman's top ten reasons to watch the World Baseball Classic. It was pretty funny, and it was read by the players. I was going to post it on here but I can't find it on YouTube.

the millionaires keep trying to stop the established habit of billions of people, so it isn't on youtube anymore.

I found it here. Letterman's top 10 is always so stupid you can't help but crack laughing.

Here you go, Blib! And it was pretty funny.

http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/index/php/20090305.phtml#

We finally did something!

If anything, this is great just for it being some kind of effort at improvement, considering we did little else this offseason. I don't know how Pudge will end up performing for us, but with Ausmus gone, all we had was Quintero as our main guy, so it'll be really nice to have someone more experienced, and hopefully Q can then provide good backup.

another steroid freak for the astros...

Guess the Yankees didn't want him any more now that Posada is allegedly coming back.

Do the Yankees still have Molina? Posada can help, but I don't think he'll be able to catch 120-30 games.

I actually read an article about Molina not too long ago. His father died a few months ago and they were very close. He's found that being back with the team has actually made him very depressed because his dad and baseball were always linked. I guess he's still with the team, but the article didn't make it sound like he was going to be doing them too much good.