Mike Flanagan was found dead at the age of 59 years old yesterday at his home.  He was a crafty lefty starting pitcher who was known mostly for his time with the Orioles.  He won the Cy Young Award in the American League in 1979 with the Orioles.  He pitched in 39 games (38 starts) for the Orioles in 1979 in which he was 23-9 with a 3.08 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP.  Flanagan only made it to the All-Star team one time in his major league career and it wasn’t in 1979.  He made the All-Star team back in 1978 for the Orioles.  He pitched in 40 games (all starts) for the O’s in 1978 and he was 19-15 with a 4.03 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP.  Flanagan pitched in 526 games (404 starts) in his 18 year major league career and he was 167-143 with 4 saves, a 3.90 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP.  This is a big loss to baseball in general and specifically for the Orioles.   Prayers go out for Flanagan and his family.

46-year old Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2) won a unanimous decision over Jean Paschal (26-2-1) to win the WBC light heavyweight title last night in Canada.  After the fight, Hopkins said that he wants to fight until he’s 50 years old and I don’t think he’s just blowing smoke.  He has kept himself in outstanding shape and he has picked his fights wisely, fighting only 8 times in his last six years to save wear and tear on his body.  He hasn’t been fighting stiffs either as he has beaten Antonio Tarver, Winky Wright, Kelly Pavlik and Roy Jones during those last six years.  Only two fighters (Jermain Taylor and Joe Calzaghe) have fought Hopkins and have not lost at least once to him.  Hopkins is one of the best fighters in the history of boxing without a doubt and he’s a physical marvel as he had no problem mixing it up with Jean Paschal last night.  Hopkins’ next fight will be against Chad Dawson (30-1) who won on the undercard last night.  It’s going to be a challenge for Hopkins, but I have quit doubting him……as he constantly makes me look bad when I do.

38-year old righty swinging DH/OF Manny Ramirez has hung up his cleats.  Major League Baseball informed him in Spring Training that he failed another test for performance enhancing drugs and that he was about to be suspended for 100 games, so he decided to quit instead.  Ramirez played in 5 games for the Tampa Bay Rays this year and he was 1 for 17 (.059 avg, .118 OPS) with 1 RBI.  He finishes his major league career having played 19 years in the show.  Ramirez played in 2,302 games in his career and he was 2,574 of 8,244 (.312 avg, .996 OPS) with 1,544 runs scored, 555 homers, 1,831 RBIs and 38 stolen bases.  Ramirez finishes his major league career #56 all-time in runs scored, #14 in homers and #18 in RBIs.  Despite the impressive numbers Ramirez put up in his major league career, he won’t have a chance in hell of making it into Baseball’s Hall of Fame.  Also, the Rays were depending on Ramirez to give them some punch in the middle of the batting order, so he left them in a pickle. 

With spring training just right around the corner it’s never too early to take a look at how teams are likely to do.  Here is my early take on how the 2011 season is going to play out in the A.L. East:

1. Boston Red Sox - I really love how the Red Sox have reloaded as the only weakness on the team that I can see right now is at catcher.  Signing Carl Crawford and trading for Adrian Gonzalez is going to improve both the offense and the defense for the Red Sox in 2011.  The Red Sox have the best starting 9 in the American League right now.  They also added Bobby Jenks & Dan Wheeler to the bullpen making it ever tougher than it already was.  If the Red Sox stay healthy (they didn’t last year), I think they could win the A.L. East by 10+ games.

2. New York Yankees - The Yankees had a hard time finding players willing to take their money over the winter.  They wound up adding catcher Russell Martin, righty reliever Rafael Soriano and lefty reliever Pedro Feliciano and I like those moves.  But as of right now Ivan Nova and Sergio Mitre are their #4 and #5 starters!  The Yankees need to convince Andy Pettitte to come back (he’s 50/50 right now) or they need to make a deal for a #3 type starting pitcher.  If they don’t add a quality starting pitcher before the season starts they will be sitting home in October.

3. Toronto Blue Jays - The Toronto Blue Jays have been very busy this off-season.  I wasn’t a big fan of them trading Shaun Marcum to the Brewers for 2B Brett Lawrie.  But, I did like the move to bring in Rajai Davis who will inject a lot of speed on both the basepaths and in the field.  The Blue Jays are going to be an offensive machine once again in 2011.  The Blue Jays lost Scott Downs and Kevin Gregg but they acted quickly by adding Carlos Villanueva, Octavio Dotel and Jon Rauch to replace them in the pen.  If  the Blue Jays’ young starting pitchers step up they might be able to finish ahead of the Yankees in 2011.

4. Baltimore Orioles - The Orioles made some trades and they signed some free agents during the off-season and they have really improved the team.  Derrek Lee, J.J. Hardy and Mark Reynolds add power and defense to the Orioles’ infield, which has been upgraded big time.  Adding Kevin Gregg and re-signing Koji Uehara really will tighten up the back end of the pen for the O’s this year.  The Orioles will be as good as their young starting pitching can take them.

5. Tampa Bay Rays - The Tampa Bay Rays have lost Carlos Pena, Jason Bartlett, Carl Crawford, Matt Garza, Dan Wheeler, Rafael Soriano, Joaquin Benoit, Grant Balfour, Chad Qualls and Randy Choate this off-season!  The Rays are going to have problems scoring runs in 2011 unless they add a couple of impact bats before spring training.  If the season started right now, Kyle Farnsworth would be the Rays’ closer.  The Rays will still have one of the best starting rotations in the American League but that’s the only strength of the team heading in 2011.  It’s going to be a long year in Tampa/St. Pete.

George Steinbrenner has died of a massive heart attack this morning in Tampa, Florida.  Steinbrenner was 80 years old.  Steinbrenner bought the Yankees on January 3rd, 1973 for a paltry $8.7 million bucks.  He was the owner of the Yankees for 37 years in which they won 11 A.L. Championships and 7 World Series Titles.  Steinbrenner used to change managers like socks early on in his career as he made 22 managerial changes in his tenure owning the team.  In fact he fired Billy Martin 5 times!  The Yankees won the World Series in 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009.  It seemed as if Steinbrenner mellowed out in his old age as Joe Torre won 4 World Series for Steinbrenner and Girardi won in his second year on the job.  Steinbrenner will go down as one of the best owners ever in professional sports.