Baseball: Addison Reed, Pitchers and Catchers, Gary Carter, Cholesterol

Addison had no trouble staying under the radar as a 3rd round selection out of San Diego State University from 2010.  Being a teammate of Stephen Strasburg will do that to you.  In 2011, however, his sleeper status evaporated as he rolled through four minor league levels, starting in Single A Kannapolis through Triple A Charlotte   in 2011, eventually landing in the majors.  Reed struck out 111 batters in 78.1 innings pitched while walking only 14 over those four levels.  During 2011′s whirlwind tour through the minor leagues, Reed’s ERA never scored higher than 1.59.  Though with a pitifully low amount of data, his 7 major league innings saw his ERA jump to 3.38 while striking out 12 and walking just one with a painfully low ground ball rate at 20% and a sky-high .474 BABIP.  So Reed does have to prove that he’s ready for primetime yet. http://baseballinstinct.com/

One of the magical phrases for baseball fans is "pitchers and catchers report." This is the day when those players report for the first team workout of the year.Typically pitchers and catchers report first, ahead of other players, due the long term nature of a pitchers' work plan. When that date is within reach, fans allow ourselves to move the baseball caps and replica jerseys from the back of the closet to the front. Some of us start looking for season tickets to arrive in the mail or eagerly await single games to go on sale. You start looking at what your team has done over the past few months and start to get excited about the upcoming year. http://the42bus.blogspot.com/2012/01/pitchers-and-catchers.html

He was known as "The Kid" for his youthful, upbeat manner. A native Californian, he attended Sunny Hills High School -- how perfect -- in Fullerton before launching his professional career with the Montreal Expos at 20 in 1974. He would spend 11 more seasons in Canada before joining the Mets in 1985, the essential missing piece in a historic puzzle. Your well-traveled correspondent, a columnist for the New York Post at the time of the Mets' rise to prominence, dubbed Carter "Kid Sunshine." He seemed to like it. Things could get dark around those freewheeling, high-octane Mets at times. But there always was a light, an aura, surrounding the space occupied by No. 8. http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120126&content_id=26478476&vkey=news_nym&c_id=nym

Ron Noy, a New York-based sports orthopedist, said weight inevitably increases stress on lower extremity joints, such as hips, knees and ankles, as well as the lower spine. The force across these joints increases up to eight times their weight during competition, so more weight means a higher likelihood of meniscus tears, hip labral tears and impingements. The degenerating joints then become "more susceptible to irritation that can result in swelling and decreased performance or increased need for days off," Noy said. Jeff Kotterman, director of the National Association of Sports Nutritionists, said any team that invests $200 million in a single player probably ought to hire him a personal nutritionist, too, if not a personal chef, though even that might not do the trick. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204661604577185101342728264.html?mod=djemMTIPOFF_h