Not Your Average Joe(s)

What a first four days of the 2010 NCAA Basketball Championship. My bracket's not looking great, but I did have some correct upset picks. Five of the thirteen teams that have punched their tickets to the Sweet 16 are seeded 6th or lower, with Northern Iowa's upset of Kansas being the top story. March is my favorite time of the year because of March Madness, summer is close and in this case, the World Cup is less than three months away. But with so much college basketball talk around the world now, I'm going to switch gears and talk about baseball.

There are two major headlines today in the baseball world, and both of them come from the Minnesota Twins. I'll say the negative first so that we end on a good note. The bad news (for Twins fans) is that Joe Nathan will miss the rest of the year due to scheduled Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. Nathan leads the league in saves since 2004 with 246, but won't have the chance to start off the new decade with any more. Nathan, who had a career-high 46 saves for the AL Central champions in 2009, injured his elbow two weeks ago in a spring training game against the Red Sox. This is going to be a big blow to the Twins, who have not won the AL Central in back-to-back since 2003-2004.

The good news is that they have finally signed the 2009 AL MVP Joe Mauer. This wasn't just a regular deal. They are paying him $184 million over eight years. Was it worth it? I don't know. But the Twins needed to sign him or their franchise would be headed nowhere in the future. Without this deal, Mauer would have become a free agent at the end of this season. Now, the Twins have the piece there franchise needs to make a run in the playoffs in the future.

So with the bad there comes good. Yes, Joe Nathan will miss the whole season, but the other Joe will be in Minnesota this year and many years to come. Let's face it: the chances are not too high for the Twins to repeat as AL Central champions. But in 2011, they will have their closer back, along with their All Star catcher.