THOUGHTS ON A THURSDAY NIGHT

  by Harry Cummins


*Baseball's Winter Meetings are leaving Las Vegas with Bryce and Manny still fronting the free-agent caravan now steam-rolling toward Fort Knox.  So somebody tell me again why MLB is still exempt from The Sherman Antitrust Act?  The Competitive Balance Tax was a feeble attempt to dissuade owners of top clubs from exterminating the opposition.  It hasn't stopped the flow of "stupid money" going to the elite players and the resulting damage to the character and soul of the game.

* 3 way trade today between Rays,Tribe, and M's.  Unless your preference runs toward imaginary parrots circling the bases next year at Safeco Field, I say the clear winner in this triangle trade is Tampa Bay.  You heard it here first, Yandy Diaz is the most underrated player in all of baseball!

* Before the current college basketball season runs it course, 5th year senior Reid Travis (Stanford to Kentucky), will prove to be the most impactful relocation move of the off-season.

* Speaking of the Cardinal, two the nation's very best junior tennis stars have just signed National Letters of Intent to join the most decorated program in women's college tennis.  Angelica Blake and Nicole Mossmer will arrive on The Farm for the 2019-20 campaign.  I have watched both of these rising stars play every summer in the USTA Billy Jean King 16s & 18s National Championships and both bring enormous upside to the defending NCAA champs.