Hot Stove Players of the Week: CC Sabathia & Francisco Rodriguez

The baseball hot stove was off to a slow start, but with the winter meetings this week, things finally started to happen. Almost everybody, including the world of baseball (but not the Yankees, of course), is feeling the pinch of the bad economy, though.

I even had to lay off my four-year-old daughter. I just couldn’t afford to keep her on. I did give her a nice severance package of two months’ worth of juice boxes and Happy Meals and told her she can stay in the shed in the backyard until she gets herself together.

I don’t have any doubt that she’ll catch on with a nice rich family. She’s a real go-getter.

This week’s prize for the Hot Stove Players of the Week is a brand-new job. Though it’s hard for them to survive on a paltry multimillion dollars a year in these tough times, it’ll have to do. Apparently my government bailout is a van down by the river.

Winners

CC Sabathia/Francisco Rodriguez: There really weren’t any outstanding performances by any of the locals this week, so we’ll give the award to the new New York pitchers. After not having a closer the last two months of the season, the Mets sure can use K-Rod. And by this picture, you can tell

he gets awfully excited at times. This shot was taken before he had even thrown a pitch. He had just gotten a text from his wife that she was making steak for dinner that night.

And the Yankees’ new hefty lefty becomes the ace of a staff that sorely needs one (even though he only kind of, sort of wants to be here; $140 million reasons weren’t enough, but $161 million did the trick).

And in the picture above, you can see that he just finished eating all the Brewers relievers, so had to pitch another complete game.

Runners Up

J.J. Putz: Trade Aaron Heilman and some scraps and debris from old Shea Stadium for one of the best closers in the game? Umm, ok, thanks Seattle.

Devin Harris: The Nets point guard will probably be showing up on this list every Friday. In the three games this past week (two wins and a loss), he scored 16, 27 and 32 points, and dished out five, eight and seven assists.

Al Harrington: The new Knick had a brain lock at the end of Friday’s loss to Atlanta, but in the four games this week (two wins, two losses), he poured in 27, 18, 28 and 39 points, and pulled in 13 rebounds in Wednesday’s victory over the Nets.

Chris Duhon: The floor general for the Knicks is coming into his own. He had 13 points and eight assist on Friday, and 25/9 in Sunday’s win, 15/14 (and nine rebounds) on Tuesday and 10/10 in Wednesday’s win.

Scott Clemmensen: Filling in for Martin Brodeur, Clemmensen led the Devils to two wins in their two games this week, only allowing one goal in each victory, against Montreal and Pittsburgh. And he’s from that hotbed of NHL goalies - Des Moines, IA.

Anti-Players of the Week: Out of 32 teams in the league, the 49ers’ pass defense is ranked 51st, and Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery each had one reception. Dustin Keller had two. Domenik Hixon had a bomb thrown to him that was right in his hands, right in stride and he just plain dropped it. He could have run right to the end zone for a TD, and it would have been a completely different ball game.

And, of course, it happened right when the spotlight was on him, with all the questions about the Giants missing Plaxico Burress. Good timing. Steve Smith pitched in by dropping a fourth-down pass when he was wide open.