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.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has 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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA - The Braves bounced right back from the disappointment of losing John Smoltz.
Determined to rebuild a once-proud pitching staff that fell into disarray, Atlanta reached a preliminary agreement Tuesday on a $60 million, four-year contract with Derek Lowe and finalized a deal with Japanese all-star pitcher Kenshin Kawakami.
Just like that, the Braves’ rotation — once the most dominant in baseball — suddenly looks a whole lot stronger with spring training just a month away.
“You’ve got to have pitching,” manager Bobby Cox said. “You could have the best hitting team in the history of baseball and you still may not get it done. We will feel confident now that whoever toes the mound on any particular night, we’ve got a good chance of winning.”
The Braves would not comment on the preliminary agreement with Lowe, which was subject to the pitcher passing a physical, according a person familiar with the negotiations. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract had not been completed.
General manager Frank Wren did say Lowe would be a welcome addition to a rotation devastated by injuries last year. As an added bonus, Atlanta would be landing a pitcher who also was being sought by the rival New York Mets.
“We wanted get back to being a pitching team,” Wren said. “If we can do another couple of moves, we can get back to that point.”
Last season, Smoltz, Tim Hudson and Tom Glavine all went down with season-ending surgeries, and the Braves slumped to fourth in the NL East with a 72-90 record — their worst since 1990. Glavine has yet to resume throwing off a mound, while Hudson isn’t expected back until August.
The 35-year-old Lowe becomes the new ace of the staff.
He was a 21-game winner for the Red Sox in 2002 and spent the last four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He went 54-48, never had an ERA higher than 3.88 and averaged more than 200 innings a season. Last year, the right-hander was 14-11 with a 3.24 ERA in 211 innings.
“Derek is a guy we would love to have,” Wren said coyly. “We visited with him last week and would love to see that come true.”
The Braves had hoped to re-sign Smoltz for a 22nd season in Atlanta, but he took a $5 million, one-year deal from the Red Sox.
“It different, it’s hard, but the game goes on,” Cox said.
In an interesting twist, Smoltz was introduced in Boston on the same day the Braves wrapped up negotiations with Lowe and held a news conference of their own at Turner Field to announce the three-year contract with Kawakami.
The 33-year-old right-hander becomes the first Japanese-born player in the franchise’s history. He held up a picture he drew with the symbol for “soul” in his native language.
“My pitching style is all about putting my soul into my pitches,” Kawakami said through a translator. “I hope to show that in America as well.”
The 2004 Central League MVP won 112 games in 11 seasons in Japan and was regarded as one of the top free-agent pitchers from Japan available this offseason. He was 9-5 for the Chunichi Dragons last year, though he missed several weeks with a strained back.
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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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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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.