After hearing about Cliff Lee duping the entire world, forgoing destinations like Texas and New York and returning back to Philadelphia, I can’t help but find the similarities between this free agent signing and Lebron James.  I’m not trying to say that Lee pulled something like “The Decision.”  I am trying to say that what Lee did was find some running mates to help get him to the top.  Most people seem to think that this is the route traveled by spineless men.  Some of the most popular condemnations I have heard of LeBron center around the idea that he couldn’t get it done on his own.  That he was afraid of taking on the challenge by himself.  This is absurd.  Any smart person, be it a professional athlete or a successful business leader, knows that to reach the highest levels of success, they must surround themselves with the best team.

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• Even though the San Francisco Giants re-signed 1B/OF Aubrey Huff, they will consider breaking camp with prospect Brandon Belt, who simply refuses to stop raking.

• A topic that Clint and I discussed on The Baseball Show on Saturday, how will the signing of Carl Crawford affect the Boston Red Sox outfield? Who will be the odd man out come the 2011 season: Jacoby Ellsbury, J.D. Drew, Mike Cameron or Ryan Kalish?

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When Dad and I woke up for the final day of the Four Ballparks, Four Cities, Four Days trip, we realized immediately that we had some serious ground to cover.  Although we could walk to Ballpark #3 from our Los Angeles Hilton, it was located a full 375 miles from Ballpark #4—Chase Field in beautiful downtown Phoenix, Arizona.

So off we went into the desert, our trusty Toyota Corolla pointed directly toward The City that Sleeps at 7PM.  I wasn’t sure what to expect in the six-hour drive, save for a colleague’s admonition from before I left the office—make sure your air conditioning works.  At first I wasn’t sure how seriously I needed to take this on a beautiful 80-degree day in Los Angeles.  However, as we drove deeper into the desert, the temperature steadily climbed into the 90’s before finally cracking the triple digits.  Before we crossed the Arizona state line, the Corolla’s thermometer read 105, which (not coincidentally I am certain) represented a higher number than the populations of several towns we passed along the way.

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As we briefly mentioned last week, the Atlanta Braves have cleared the way at first base for power hitting prospect, Freddie Freeman.  With a physique similar to that of Brandon Belt of the San Francisco Giants, the 6’5,” 225 pound Freeman is poised to make an impact in 2011, hitting in the middle of the Braves order alongside Jason Heyward.

Drafted by the Braves in the second round of the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft, Freeman was ranked by Baseball America as the 32^nd best prospect in all of baseball headed into the 2010 season.  And at just 20-years of age, in his first season at Triple-A Gwinnett, the left-handed hitting youngster demonstrated exactly why he was deserving of such a prominent ranking.

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The San Francisco Giants selected Buster Posey 5th overall in the 2008 MLB First Year Player Draft.  After being called up on May 29th, Posey played a major role in the Giants’ late-season surge to reach the playoffs, and ultimately win the World Series.  In just 108 games, he hit .305 with 23 doubles, 18 home runs and 67 RBI.  On Monday, the 23-year old was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year after receiving 20 1st-place votes.  Here is a video of the always-impressive Posey taking batting practice as a California League All-Star in 2009: