Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
APBelieve it or not, Santana is actually the second Cy Young-winning southpaw who the Twins have traded to the Mets. Minnesota sent Frank Viola to New York in 1989 — one season after he went 24-7 with a 2.64 ERA and two seasons after he helped lead the team to its first World Series — for a handful of prospects that included Rick Aguilera and Kevin Tapani, who helped lead the Twins to another World Series title two seasons later.
Guerra, Gomez, Mulvey, and Humber is perhaps not a horrible haul for one season of Santana and Twins fans have seen the same scenario play itself out on a lesser scale numerous times before, often with good results. However, losing a superstar like Santana over money is never easy and constantly watching the clock on a player's time with the team takes a toll on fans.
In a perfect world Minnesota would have continued building around Santana, giving him the Opening Day start to christen the team's new outdoor ballpark in 2010 and watching as he wore a Twins hat on his Hall of Fame plaque. In the real world, where fitting a $25 million salary within an $80 million payroll is awfully tough, Santana is merely the latest means for the Twins' never-ending tight-rope act of building and rebuilding at once.
Gomez is the centerpiece of the trade and gives the Twins a long-term center fielder, but he's only needed because homegrown star Torii Hunter was lost to free agency earlier this winter. Mulvey and Humber are MLB-ready starters who could each be pitching every fifth day for the Twins by midseason, but they're only needed because trading Santana and letting Carlos Silva walk as a free agent leave big holes in the rotation.
At just 18 years old Guerra is essentially a lottery ticket with the potential payoff in a huge way 3-4 years down the line. The Twins will try to keep him healthy and develop him from a raw project into the polished top-of-the-rotation stud that Santana became. And if they're lucky enough to do that, they'll soon hear the clock ticking again and can start shopping him for a new batch of inexpensive building blocks.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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