Five key injury situations

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

• OK, here's a loophole that needs to be closed: J.C. Romero, suspended for 50 days after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, is eligible for the World Baseball Classic, David Murphy writes.

• The Diamondbacks' current strategy seems pretty sound: They have about $5 million left to spend this winter, they have ranked the available pitchers and they essentially are working their way down that list, offering the money. Randy Wolf turned down an offer, Nick Piecoro writes, just as Brad Penny did and Jon Garland did before him. You wonder whether, at some point, Pedro Martinez might be the guy who takes the deal -- although Piecoro mentions that Braden Looper is the next guy on the list.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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