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Matt Kenseth found himself off pit sequence for much of Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motorspeedway but with some luck from a caution managed a fifth place finish.

Problems began for Kenseth as he was running near the front of the field with a tire vibration. Kenseth was forced to make an unscheuled pit stop but managed to stay on the lead lap as the yellow did not wave until later in the race.

With new crew chief Todd Parrott the #17 car has moved up to fourth in the standings while starting the year off with three straight top ten finishes.

Kenseth is hoping that the success carries over to Atlanta where he has had good runs in the past and where the Roush Ford’s have been up at the front.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Jeff Gordon ran away from the field all day Sunday at Las Vegas. While just about everyone could predict that a caution would bunch the field up I don’t know how many would have wagered that the 24 car would take just two tires on it’s final pit-stop.

The result of course led to Jimmy Johnson and the number 48 car finding it’s way to victory lane.

Gordon led 219 of the 267 laps in the event but it was in the final laps that he found the Lowe’s Chevy of Jimmy Johnson getting smaller. Kevin Harvick later found his way around Gordon for second.

It was the second win in as many weeks for Johnson and the 49th of his career.

Johnson and Gordon were easily the class of the field but had Gordon of gotten four tires it’s likely the order would have been reversed.

Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth, who found himself off pit sequence for much of the day, rounded out the top 5 with Joey Logano showing an impressive run late to take sixth.

The series heads to Atlanta next week.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Stop the rumors now. Simply put there is no way the Chicago White Sox are going to trade Gordon Beckham for Adrian Gonzalez. Sure Gonzalez would add another powerful bat to the club but adding him at the cost of Beckham isn’t going to do much to help the lineup.

Replacing the production that Beckham had last season .270/.347/.460 with 14 HR, 63 RBI, 58 R in 430 at-bats is going to be difficult to do when you consider what the White Sox would likely end up with at second base. Sure Omar Vizquel is great with the glove even over 40 and Jayson Nix can hit homers but neither is the player Beckham is. Vizquel is a liability at the plate and Nix is not much of a fielder kind of like how he’s not much of a hitter minus the homerun.

Gonzalez would move into first base for the White Sox pushing Konerko to DH. While Gonzalez is quite an offensive player it’s really hard to justify giving up Beckham who is under control until 2015 for a bopper who the team would have for two seasons. If the White Sox really had this much concern with Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay at DH then they should have went ahead and signed Jim Thome who wouldn’t of cost the team Beckham and/or other top prospects.

Frankly I don’t see the deal happening until mid summer at the earliest as we’ve heard plenty of Adrian Gonzalez rumors in the past which have turned out to be nothing. That Jake Peavy is on the team does little to convince me that a deal gets done this time. Perhaps if he was a free agent but a trade is never that easy.

I wouldn’t trade Beckham straight up for Gonzalez right now knowning the talent that the second basemen has. Whatever production Gonzalez adds to the lineup is removed by losing Beckham and frankly you are sending a bad message to the fans when you as much as everyone else hyped Beckham as a Cal Ripken type player. While those type of comparisons may be over the top you can’t deny that Beckham did more then anyone could have expected out of a first year player.

For all those reasons and the fact that the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and two Los Angeles teams remain in the league I do not see this deal happening.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Kiko Calero has been a pretty good reliever when healthy but he’s also had a nice run of injuries in his big league career which has led to teams holding off on offering him any guaranteed money this winter.

Last year Calero played for the Florida Marlins and posted a fine 1.95 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 69/30 K/BB ratio in 60 innings after coming to camp as a non-roster invitee.

Last winter I highlighted Calero’s time in Oakland.

In four seasons with the A’s Calero pitched 159 innings. He spent a good portion of last season in the minors but in six big league seasons is 12-10 with a 3.56 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP.

There aren’t many relievers out there on big league clubs with actual contracts that can point to those numbers. So it’s a surprise that Calero couldn’t find guaranteed money.

One wound think that a fly-ball pitcher like Calero would be a pretty good pickup for a team like the Mets so it will be interesting to see if this ever comes to pass.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Team USA broke though and ended a drought for Gold that had dated back to 1948 capturing the top spot in the 4-man in Vancouver.

Sadly despite my pre-Olympic excitement about the event I missed both runs today due to well… NASCAR but I’m still happy.

I would probably go into detail about how former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine reinvented the bobsled for the team but that is probably an article best saved for another day.

I don’t really have much else to say about the event since I didn’t see it  but wanted to at-least share some of my excitement with the rest of you.

Popularity: 2% [?]

It’s been over ten years since Rich Aurilia was one of the best shortstops in baseball. Now 38 years of age the veteran of 15 major league seasons may retire following a season in which he hit just .213/.256/.279 with two homers and 16 RBI while battling an ankle injury.

While Aurilia says he is still actively seeking work, he told Jeff Fletcher of AOL Fanhouse that he may be calling it a career as he’s yet to even receive an invite to spring training.

Of the 15 years he’s spent in the majors 12 of them came as a member of the San Fransico Giants.

Despite being an above average shortstop

from much of his career he’s pretty much limited to playing first or third base or if a team was really desperate second base.

If Aurilia does opt to retire I would venture to guess that the Giants would be interested in bringing him back with a role inside the organization.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Atlanta Braves are being cautious with youngster Jair Jurrjens after he arrived to camp with a bit of a sore arm. While an MRI revealed nothing wrong the his throwing arm the Braves are going to wait until Monday to get him back on the mound following a long-toss session earlier today.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Dave Blaney will again be racing on Sunday after the veteran driver qualified on time again. Blaney’s team had their car from California confiscated by NASCAR and were forced to go to their other car to make the field at Las Vegas.

Blaney’s lap wasn’t like it was at California where he was the fifth fasted but he did enough to be one of the fasted seven go or go home cars. Casey Mears and Terry Cook failed to make the race on time. Much like the rides of Blaney and his Prism Motorsports teammate Michael McDowell’s neither of those cars have sponsors on them.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Drew Blickensderfer will again be a crew chief taking over for Mike Kelley as the man on the top of the pit box for the #60 car driven by Carl Edwards in the Nationwide Series.

Blickensderfer had been the crew chief for Matt Kenseth for the 2009 season when the 17 car won the first two races of the season. Following an eighth place finish at Daytona this year the driver of the 17 car asked for a change.

Blickensderfer was then replaced by Todd Parrot and put in limbo until it was announced earlier today that he would return to the Nationwide Series as the crew chief for the 60 car. The same role he held in 2008 when Carl Edwards finished second to Clint Bowyer in the point standings.

Mike Kelley will take over the role of competition driector for the Roush Fenway Nationwide efforts while Mike Beam who held that role will be elecated to sppedway specialist in the research and development department.

In other words a bunch of domino’s have been slid around the board to keep everyone happy and put them in some sort of role in which Jack Roush believes they can have success.

Blickensderfer has a lot to prove now, as anything less then the 60 car being the best of the field will lead to questions about his managing ability. Obviously the competition on the Nationwide side isn’t as tough as it is on the Sprint Cup side so Blickensderfer will need to do more then just be a top 5-10 car.

As for Matt Kenseth he will have to make the chase on the Spring Cup side and find victory lane to avoid people suspecting the problem with the team at the end of the year was the driver. Finding victory lane, making the chase and then avoiding a late season collapse are the three key ingredients in his 2010 run.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Almost a month ago I wrote how fans of the Washington Nationals and of baseball in general should be glad that the team had not signed aged veteran Livan Hernandez to any sort of contract.

Of course I also wrote the word yet. Well the yet came today as the club has signed the 35 year old “innings eater” to a deal worth $900,000 in base salary with performance incentives.

Hernandez pitched well in spring training last year becoming a media darling when he made the New York Mets but it wasn’t long until he wore on the club and in 31 starts he was 9-12 with a 5.44 ERA in 183 2/3 innings.

When the club signed Shawn Estes a few weeks back I said it was a good signing because there was no guaranteed money for a veteran that didn’t have it anymore. Well Hernandez doesn’t have it anymore and he’s getting guaranteed money. So you  know roughly what I think of this deal.

Further it doesn’t exactly let the Nationals evaluate some of the arms which really are in a make or break season as far as their careers are concerned. Instead the team will have to trot out Hernandez every fifth day and despite the fact he stinks they will try and spin it off as some way of saving their less then good bullpen innings.

Frankly if I was the Nationals I would fill my team with five starters, the five best relievers I had and then I would shuttle five guys back and forth between Triple-A and the majors for the remaining two or three spots on the club.

There should be no reason to “save innings” off of anyones arms when it’s time to know if these arms should be with the club in 2011 or working at your local Costco.

I’m not a fan of the Nationals at all so I’m not sure why this annoys me.

Popularity: 5% [?]