Baseballs Winter Meetings used to be the highlight of the off season. They still are, to a certain degree, but not nearly what they once were. Last year at Nashville, for instance, things were pretty quiet. You might say what turned out to be the biggest story was Boston signing outfielder/DH Jonny Gomes to a two-year deal worth $10 million. The biggest trade, if you can believe it, was probably Miami dealing former Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar to Tampa Bay for shortstop prospect Derek Dietrich. Alex Anthopoulos has presided over four Winter Meetings and has made just two trades of note over that span. In 2010, he dealt right-hander Shaun Marcum to Milwaukee and in 2011 he shipped pitching prospect Nestor Molina to the Chicago White Sox for reliever, maybe future closer, Sergio Santos. To be fair to Alex, he did most of his heavy lifting last year before the meetings; including that mammoth 12-player deal with the Marlins. If you dig a little deeper over the past four years, some of the biggest moves have backfired on the teams that appeared at the time to be striking gold. In 2010, the Red Sox pulled off a four-player deal with San Diego to get Adrian Gonzalez and then signed Carl Crawford to the largest deal ever given to a position player who had never hit 20 home runs in a season; Crawford leaving Tampa Bay to sign a seven-year, $142 million deal with the Bosox. Less than two years later, on August 25, 2012, Boston packaged Gonzalez and Crawford into an eight-player deal with the Dodgers that in the long run helped change the fortunes of both clubs. In 2011 at Dallas, the Angels stole the show with a couple of major free agent signings, getting Albert Pujols on a 10-year, $240 million deal and left-handed starter C. J Wilson on a five-year pact worth $77.5 million. Pujols had a decent first years with the Angels but then had his second year cut short by a foot injury and only hit 17 homers in 99 games. Some questioned whether he will ever return to the "superstar" form of his St. Louis days; especially when he will be 34 next season. Wilson has pitching pretty well for the Angels, racking up a 30-17 record with a 3.60 ERA, but the Angels havent come close to making the playoffs since these two arrived on the scene. The Halos only compounded their troubles by signing Rangers free agent left fielder Josh Hamilton to a five year, $125 million deal on December 13 of last year. Hamilton only hit .250 with 21 homers and 79 runs batted in. So in the last four Winter Meetings, there seems to have been more questionable moves than good. In 2009 at Indianapolis, the biggest news might have involved the media. Baseball print and broadcast legend Peter Gammons left ESPN to join MLB.com, the MLB Network and NESN. Oddly enough on the eve of these Winter Meetings in Orlando, ESPN announced Curt Schilling would be moving into the both on Sunday Night Baseball with Dan Shulman and John Kruk; Schilling replacing Orel Hershiser, who is heading for the Dodgers new network. After all that happened last week, including Robby Cano signing with Seattle and Carlos Beltran joining the Yankees, you have to wonder if this is going to be a relatively quiet week in Orlando. For the fans sake, I hope it isnt. I mentioned in my last article that the new executive director of the Players Association, Tony Clark, once hit three homers in a game against the Blue Jays. Well, I researched it a little further. The game was at Rogers Centre on August 28, 2004. Clark had started the game going 0-for-2, and then in the 6th inning he slugged a three-run homer off lefty Ted Lilly. In the 8th inning, he added a solo shot off Jason Frasor and in the 9th another bases empty blast off Kerry Ligtenberg. So Clark wound up going 3-for-5 with five runs batted in, in an 18-6 Yankees blowout win. That, however, wasnt the most unusual aspect of that game. The Blue Jays scored two runs in the bottom of the 8th and actually shaved the Yanks lead to 9-6. Things were getting dicey, so skipper Joe Torre brought in Mariano Rivera with two out in the 8th. Rivera did his job retiring all four men he faced. The Yankees, though, scored nine runs in the top of the 9th to turn it into a laugher. Nevertheless, Rivera got his 45th save in a 12-run victory. I would doubt that ever happened before or since. Its amazing the stuff you can discover on Baseball Almanac. Roy Halladay, whos battled through shoulder issues the last two years, is going to retire. In fact, he is going to call it a career as a Blue Jay. He will sign a one-day contract with the Jays before officially retiring. That would lead you to believe that if Roy makes it to the Hall of Fame one day he will go in as a Blue Jay. Also quite the coincidence that Halladay would retire in the same off-season as his good friend and former Jays teammate Chris Carpenter. The game will miss them both. Jeff Hoffman Jersey . - For a general manager who preaches building through the draft, Reggie McKenzie has struggled to find impact players his first two years in Oakland. Rockies Jerseys China . Rockhold." Known as an aggressive striker, Belfort (23-10) instead paced himself as the engaged in the early going and showed restraint by not overcommitting against the larger Rockhold (10-2). But when the opportunity presented itself, Belfort delivered an incredible spinning heel kick that landed flush on Rockholds chin and sent him toppling to the floor. https://www.cheaprockiesjerseys.us/. Josh Mazzola drove in five runs to lead the Goldeyes (20-12) past the Capitales 11-5 Friday night at Le Stade Municipal in Quebec City. Custom Colorado Rockies Jerseys . -- Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer will be out three to six weeks with a stress fracture of the third finger of his right hand. German Marquez Jersey . No such luck. Wiggins owned the end of Parkers impressive homecoming. The Kansas star scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half, outplaying Parker down the stretch and helping the fifth-ranked Jayhawks knock off No.ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making. "About time, eh?" he said. "Ive been waiting for this one for a while." Anaheims consummate playmaker finally had a hat trick of his own in the latest overwhelming victory for the league-leading Ducks. Getzlaf had three goals and an assist in the first period, linemate Dustin Penner also scored four points, and the Ducks remained the NHLs only unbeaten home team with a 6-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night. Getzlaf nearly didnt play after taking a tumble in the morning skate. Instead, he got his first career hat trick before the first intermission as the league-leading Ducks (14-3-1) trounced the league-worst Sabres (3-15-1) for their seventh win in eight games overall. While improving to 7-0 at home, the Ducks got a landmark performance from their captain, who usually makes his living setting up longtime teammate Corey Perry for the bulk of the former Richard Trophy winners goals. With big assists from Penner and Perry, Getzlaf finally got his first hat trick in his 574th regular-season game. "They were really dominant tonight," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said of his top line. "There was no doubt. You could tell, as soon as he started his skating, that Ryan was great. When we got the power-play goal early, it was because he did something he doesnt normally do, which is jump right into the play after a shot. As soon as he did that, I said OK, hes going to have a good game." The veteran centre tied the franchise record for points in a period while picking up just the second first-period hat trick in Ducks history. Teemu Selanne also did it in November 1997. "Thats why hes got the C," said Penner, who had three first-period assists and a second-period goal in his first four-point game since December 2009. "He shows what a great leader he is by getting timely goals." Getzlaf finished the first period with nine points in his last nine periods, including three multipoint performances in Anaheims last four outings to move up to second place among the leagues overall scoring leaders. He has 13 points in the Ducks last eight games while playing with Perry and Penner, reassembling their line from the Ducks Stanley Cup-winning team in 2007. "The way we used to play together and work around each other, it feels like its the same," Getzlaf said. Frederik Andersen made 25 saves and improved to 5-0 in his NHL career as Anaheim won its seventh straight at Honda Center. Cam Fowler also scored in the first period for the Ducks, and Richard Rakell earned his first NHL point on a slick backhand assist for Andrew Coglianos second-period goal.dddddddddddd Mikhail Grigorenko scored his first two goals of the season for the Sabres, who finished their three-game California road swing with back-to-back losses. Ryan Miller stopped 28 shots in the first two periods while dropping to 2-11. "It was a disaster to be part of," Miller said. "Ive been a part of many disasters in my career. You just have to turn the page and move on." The Sabres struggled defensively without key defenceman Christian Ehrhoff, who sat out with a lower-body injury. Jhonas Enroth replaced Miller in the third period for the Sabres, who have lost six of seven overall. Anaheim also won 6-3 in Buffalo last Saturday. "Theyre a great team, (but) that line especially is the top one in the NHL," Buffalo centre Cody Hodgson said. "We didnt have a good start, and they capitalized on it. Its not the ending you want to a road trip, but we had a good win against the Sharks, and well take that from it. But there were not a lot of positives to build off of from this game." The Ducks were sizzling in their second game since returning from an eight-game East Coast trip. Anaheim is off to the best home start in the franchises two decades of existence, outscoring its opponents 33-12. The Ducks scored just four power play goals in their first 16 1/2 games this season, dropping to last overall in the NHL, before scoring four more in a 35-minute stretch that began Wednesday against Phoenix and extended into the lopsided first period against Buffalo. After Getzlaf batted home a rebound in the slot just 2:11 in, Fowler scored Anaheims second power-play goal midway through the period. Grigorenko answered with a goal on a nifty behind-the-net pass from Cody McCormick, but Getzlaf jumped on a Buffalo turnover and fired a wrist shot for an unassisted goal. Getzlaf completed the hat trick with 20 seconds left in the period, scoring on a backhand all alone in front after a pass from Perry. The traditional hat shower from the Anaheim crowd only began gradually, with many fans stunned by Getzlafs feat. NOTES: Ehrhoff was hurt in the third period Thursday night in Los Angeles. LW Ville Leino was a healthy scratch. ... ... Selanne played in his 1,400th NHL game. The 43-year-old Finnish Flash is just the third European player to reach the mark, joining Nicklas Lidstrom and Jaromir Jagr. ... The Ducks are 10-0-1 when Penner is in the lineup. ... Ducks C Saku Koivu (upper body) and F Jakob Silfverberg (broken right hand) sat out their seventh straight games. G Viktor Fasth missed his 12th straight game with a lower-body injury, but could return to practice soon. ' ' '