Rays' Hellickson to miss 6-8 weeks this season

One starting pitcher has had the start of his season moved back. Another appears to have a chance to return to a somewhat improved major league rotation in 2014.
Rays RHP Jeremy Hellickson underwent elbow surgery -- not Tommy John surgery, but an arthroscopic procedure to remove loose bodies. Hellickson is expected to miss the first 6-8 weeks of the season, meaning he wouldn't return until well into May.
RHP Jerome Williams was no more than an innings-eater for the Angels last season, but even that level of effectiveness would be an improvement in the Astros rotation. He said he has agreed to a 1-year major league contract, pending a physical exam Wednesday. Houston has not confirmed the assignment. There is no guarantee that Williams would become a starter with the new team; he could have a long-relief role. But there isn't much experienced talent vying for rotation spots.
The Mets signed RHP Kyle Farnsworth, who is beginning to approach the career life span of a left-handed reliever, to a minor league contract. And, no, the Mets themselves are not included among the teams in the minors.
The Rangers have signed RHP Armando Galarraga, who began his major league career with Texas, to a minor league contract. But even with a spring-training invitation to 2B prospect Rougned Odor, bringing the list of invitees to 18, Galarraga won't be among them. Texas also is trying an experiment that has worked with some strong-armed minor leaguers, most notably RHP Alexi Ogando. The Rangers signed former Red Sox OF Che-Hsuan Lin to a minor league contact, with the intetnion of converting him to a pitcher.
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Basketball. I won Week 14 6-2, extending my lead slightly to 9 1/2 games with five weeks to play. I couldn't catch up in rebounds and remained behind in field goal percentage, primarily because Orlando's Victor Oladipo was just 3 for 16 (19%). I did not add a rebounder because the Magic and Celtics were the only teams playing Sunday. My opponent happened to have two front-court players in action, which enabled him to add slightly to his lead in rebounds.
Nine players on my team are active tonight, compared to seven for this week's opponent.
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Hockey. I remained at 66 points, but moved within eight points of second place. The team ahead of me lost a point.
I have made some adjustments in my lineup for each day this week to try to remain on pace to avoid running out of games played before I reach the league limits. Wasn't easy. With just four skating bench spots, and teams squeezing in a lot of games before the Olympics break begins Sunday, I've had to have a couple of games extra for both forwards and defensemen.
There will be some help late in the week because D Zdeno Chara will miss the Bruins' games Thurday and Saturday so he can carry the Slovakian flag at the Olympic opening ceremonies. Keep that in mind if you have him on your roster, and check other Olympians who could miss a game or two.
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Football. My pick of Denver in the "bet a thousand" pool proved to be disastrous. Along with the 13 other people who took the Broncos minus-2, I ended up with $0. Each of us bet everything s/he had. Most of the 20 who went with Seattle also bet everything, but the Seahawks won. No matter how much hypothetical money I wagered, I couldn't have finished in the money with The Broncos failing to cover the spread.
With Seattle as my big game 48 pick in the Pittsburgh pick-'em pool, I placed first. Not sure how much I won, or how much will go to pay for donuts at the company where the pool was hosted.
Bring on the baseball season.
I intend to do just that, with increased attention to fantasy stats and other features leading up to draft day/opening day.
By the way, do the games being played early in Australia make it so you hold your draft earlier. Just wondering. If you're reading this, please let me know about your draft plans. The Inner League Baseball drafts will be a week earlier than usual, on March 16, Sandy Duncan's birthday.

Could more replay make Yankees-Red Sox games even longer?

The news in baseball is that instant replay.
I would be in favor of that development if
1) We're not just substituting possibly wrong umpires' decisions for possibly wrong replay rulings.
2) Umpires don't use replay as a crutch by making a safe ruling they know could be overturned.
Both of those problems have occurred to some degree with football replays.
But the really big one, which has slowed NFL games and made some college football games interminable:
3) The average game time for all major league games doesn't move to more than 3 hours, and the average game time of Yankees-Red Sox games still allow them to play the whole game in one day.
Other than that, no real movement in baseball
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Hockey. Got to see Zdeno Chara and Jarome Inginla play Thursday night for the Bruins. Chara made his presence felt on defense and in a fight with Dallas' Vernon Fiddler. They received penalties just for roughing. My team could have used the three extra minutes for a fighting major. As it was, Chara had the only two penalty minutes from my roster.
Speaking of Chara, he's going to be leaving early for the Olympics because he has been chosen to carry Slovakia's flag in the opening ceremonies. He's likely to miss Boston's games Feb. 6 and 8.
Inginla, one of my favorite players, is not -- or at least hasn't been lately -- the same player he was just a couple of years ago. I barely noticed him on the ice.
My team had plenty of shots on goal (34), but just three goals.
I did regain the point I'd lost in save percentage. Neither Steve Mason, who lost in a shootout, nor Tim Thomas, won, but they each had save percentages above .900 and goals against averages under 3.00. I sent Vancouver's Eddie Lack packing and replaced him with Chicagos' Antti Raanta. He won't play a lot, but his team should help him do well. Like a few NHL teams Thursday, I may be making another change to my goalie configuration.
Well, maybe not. I just noticed that new Nashville Predator Devan Dubnyk already was owned in our league before Edmonton traded him.
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Basketball. I'm leading 7-1 this week, and trail only by one 3-pointer. Both my opponent and I have full 10-man active rosters Friday. To try to overcome the lead in 3-pointers, I have four players listed as shooting guards in my lineup, plus 3-point-shooting forward Carmelo Anthony. Unfortunately, Joe Johnson's Brooklyn Nets are not playing so he'll be on my bench.