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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
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.
Getty ImagesGary Sheffield had just one season remaining on his contract when the Tigers sent three pitching prospects to the Yankees to acquire him in November 2006, so they immediately handed him a two-year, $28 million extension. At the time, Sheffield was coming off a season in which he played just 39 games because of a wrist injury, and he turned 38 a week after the trade, but the Tigers still took the plunge.
Detroit released Sheffield on Tuesday morning, choosing to eat the remaining $14 million on his contract after two seasons filled with injuries and mediocre production. Sheffield missed 77 of a possible 324 games during two years in Detroit. When healthy, he hit just .247 with a .354 on-base percentage and .433 slugging percentage for a .787 OPS that was 136 points below his career mark before joining the Tigers.
Sheffield proved to be an oft-injured shell of his former self, and the Tigers ended up paying $39 million for 247 games of a middling designated hitter. That's why he's now looking for work despite being owed $14 million and sitting one home run shy of joining the 500 Club. General manager Dave Dombrowski explained the decision by noting that the Tigers considered Sheffield a sunk cost and prefer Marcus Thames.
"We were going to pay him one way or another," Dombrowski said. "We think it makes us a better club at this point. It was a situation, when we were looking at our roster, that it would be hard to keep both Marcus Thames and Sheffield. We believe Marcus can be a very productive hitter for us."
Dombrowski is correct in that Sheffield and Thames are relatively similar players, but the notion that Thames represents an upgrade over even a broken-down Sheffield is questionable at best. While Sheffield was hitting .247/.354/.433 for the Tigers during the past two years, Thames was hitting .241/.286/.508. Thames certainly offers more power, but his awful on-base percentage makes him anything but a strong regular.
Beyond that, over the past two seasons Sheffield posted his .787 OPS while playing against both right-handed and left-handed pitchers, while Thames posted his similar .794 OPS while facing primarily southpaws in a platoon role. If used as an everyday player, Thames has the power to smack 30-plus homers and drive in plenty of runs, but he'll also be among the league leaders in outs made and won't top an .800 OPS.
Sheffield may indeed be done as a productive regular, and it's tough to really blame any team for choosing to cut bait on a mercurial, oft-injured 40-year-old who's shown clearly diminished skills. But it's also tough to make a compelling case for the Tigers being any better for releasing Sheffield and handing his job to a 32-year-old career platoon player with a .302 on-base percentage.
As for Sheffield, expect him to land on his feet with a part-time role somewhere that gives him a chance to pad his Hall of Fame-caliber resume while perhaps platooning against left-handers much like Thames has in Detroit for the past five years. Playing just a few times per week would give him a better chance of avoiding injuries, and if healthy in that role Sheffield is a good bet for a higher OPS than Thames in 2009.
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.
 | Draft Guide |
 | Dominate your baseball draft Get exclusive player rankings, positional tiers and over 1,000 constantly updated projections and profiles. |
HardballTalk headlines |
| Interactive |
 |
 | Slideshow |
 | Unbreakable records in baseball A look at the most unbreakable records in baseball including Nolan Ryan's seven no-hitters. |
| Slideshow |
 | The top tools of baseball You hear a lot about the tools of baseball, but who are the best hitters, fielders and pitchers? We break it down. more photos |
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
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.