No news is good news for Yankees fans

Not much going on for the Hot Stove as the year ends, and that could be good news for Yankees fans.
The less they hear about Masahiro Tanaka, the better. It could be that the Bronx Bombers have the inside track because Tanaka is represented by Casey Close, once a hot prospect in the Yanks' organization who didn't make it past Triple-A as a player. But he has been a major player as an agent, pretty much ever since he took on Derek Jeter as a client 20 years ago. That relationship has brought hundreds of millions to Jeter and tens of millions to Close.
Elsewhere, the Marlins made a minor move by signing 1B/3B Casey McGehee. That means Miami probably won't go after a similar player, free-agent 1B Yuniesky Betancourt. Until pitchers stop throwing breaking balls, Betancourt will not be a viable fantasy option.
The Rangers might try RHP Miles Mikolas as an option to become their closer after trading 1B Chris McGuiness to the Pirates for the former Padre. If RHP Joakim Soria had showed more last season, there wouldn't be any question. But as it is, RHPs Neftali Feliz or Alexi Ogando also could be candidates. McGuiness didn't impress in his limited major league time this year, but he became available (designated for assignment) after Texas acquired 1B Prince Fielder and OF Shin-soo Choo.
A more valuable pitching option is RHP Joaquin Benoit, officially signed by the Padres for 2 years and $15.5 million to be a setup man for their closer, RHP Huston Street. (And possibly the closer himself if Street is ineffective or hurt again.) The 36-year-old Benoit showed promise with the Rangers, but has become much more valuable playing home games in pitchers' parks, first in Detroit for three seasons and now in San Diego.
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Football. I finished seventh in my ESPN scoring-plus-yardage league with a 150-108 victory in the consolation consolation matchup. Just 60 points for Week 17. I didn't start Danny Amendola (OK) or Shane Vereen (not such a good idea), but players in my lineup such as Frank Gore, Andre Brown and Delanie Walker didn't do much.
My scoring-only league team finished 10-7 and in third place with a 48-20 loss. Not sure yet how our playoffs will work. In the past the 12-team league has been divided into three groups for the playoffs, which begin with the divisional round. I would be in the top level, playing in a four-team single-elimination tournament against the second-place team. Our league's Super Bowl runs two weeks, the conference championships and big game 47. The second-place team was 11-6. We would draft to fill positions where we don't have players on playoff teams. But this season the league has been set up through ESPN.com, so there could be changes. I'll keep you posted.
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Hockey. My goalies have started winning games. Vancouver's Eddie Lack posted a shutout on the day after I signed him. So I'm actually above average in wins with 6 points in a 10-team league. My plus-minus continues to drop (down to 5 points at plus-13), but with ATOI and power play points up, I have at least 8 points in every other skating category. I'm still third, but with 65 points and 5 1/2 behind the second-place team.
I won't be at the Stars' games tonight or Friday. We're spending a family holiday in Pittsburgh. I'll be back to watching live hockey at the American Airlines Center Saturday (plus the Mavericks Sunday).
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Basketball. Another winning week (6-2) shot me up from seventh overall to fourth, and third in my division, at 38-33-1.
Started this week off with a 5-3 lead, and I'll have 9 of 10 lineup spots filled tonight. As I write this, my opponent has just four players going tonight, with only one other available from his bench. My team has gone into a bit of a scoring slump, and trails by 19 points. I'm also behind in field goal percentage, where my opponent shot better than .500 Tuesday, and in assists (17-13). Ricky Rubio could go a long way toward erasing that deficit by himself, but the Wolves aren't playing tonight so George Hill will be my point guard. Similarly, Chris Bosh won't be playing, so Anderson Varejao will be my starting center, probably with considerably fewer points than Bosh could provide.
This week's opponent beat me 8-0 retroactively after we drafted during the season's third week.
I entered this week 2 1/2 games out of second place (overall and in my division), and 9 games behind the leader.

Fantasy spectrum

Even when most of the news is from other sports, my posts will be primarily about baseball. I'm kind of easing into that mode; I haven't really allowed myself to follow baseball much since the World Series and my fantasy leagues ended. I still have to send out some hard-copy reports to the computer-challenged and those without sufficient equipment, and some checks to the winners. A couple of interesting player moves. A year ago at this time, OF Marlon Byrd had to go play winter ball in the Mexican Pacific League to prove himself worthy of a major league contract. He was coming off a year that included a drug suspension. He was a valuable addition to the Pirates' lineup down the stretch and in the postseason. Now he's a valuable addition back with his original team, the Phillies, who signed him for 2 years and $16 million. The Blue Jays signed 1B Dan Johnson. He has had some really ugly statistical seasons, but has elevated his game in September/October crunch time for just about every team that has employed him. After some false alarms, is Toronto really ready to make a run for the postseason. I'd like to see that for John Gibbons' sake if nothing else. * * * After this week's first NFL game, I'm leading 15-0 in one league and trailing 15-0 in the other. I seriously doubt that the leader will stay the same in both leagues, and maybe not in either. The league where I'm ahead is points-only. I scored 9 with Rob Bironas and 6 with Delanie Walker. But now I have just six players remaining, and my opponent has all eight of his. In the other league, a points/yardage/bonus setup, my opponent's points came from Adam Vinatieri -- 3 PATs and 3 field goals with some bonus points for distance. She has eight players remaining, but I have all nine of mine. * * * Remember how one of my tips for fantasy hockey was to make sure you make your daily lineup revisions early so you don't forget them? As I was driving to Fort Worth this afternoon, I thought I'd forgotten to make mine. Then as I began writing this, I made some moves late last night, late enough that it was after midnight and the moves would register for Friday. Perhaps I should have made all the moves. I put Torey Krug in the lineup to replace Milan Michalek. Krug was -2 and Michalek +2. My goalie woes continued, but to a lesser degree. I'm still having trouble gaining wins. Steve Mason played very well, stopping 36 of 38 shots, but the Flyers lost to Washington in a shootout. Mason did help considerably with his 1.85 GAA and .947 save percentage. I stayed at 61 points, but dropped into fourth place, half a point out of third. My team's plus/minus, driven by the 4-point swing between Krug and Michalek, now is only one ahead of my league's fifth-best team in plus-minus. My goalies are within 4 percentage points of ninth place, and within 5 points in save percentage but the 3.02 team GAA is 17 percentage points out of ninth place.